An Update On Us...

I can't believe she's 3! Last tuesday we celebrated this adorable little girls' third birthday. We made cake (that turned out this time), took her to the "Sylvi-ann" (Children's Museum), had pancakes for lunch, PBJ's for supper, and opened three gifts...
1. From us
2. From grandma & grandpa in Florida
3. From her best friend

We drove by the "broken restaraunt" at least four times for her and just tried to make it as special as we could.
This kind of took us by surprise. See, we had thought we probably wouldn't celebrate birthdays but as the day approached and she understood "party" more and more...we just couldn't resist. We agreed we'd make it intentional and low key though. A family affair. I liked it. It was perfect. Papa's side of the family does clump-style birthdays (spring, summer, fall, winter) so she'll have that type of party her whole life with them, which is always a hoot!
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This little one is 16 months already! She's walking, babbling, cutting a million teeth, and making us laugh everyday! She loves to tackle her sister, share with her sister, and generally do anything her sister is doing. She's her own cookie though, too.
She's such a joy to be around. Like her big sister, she steals the show when she enters a room. Her bright eyes, goofy demeanor, and infectious laughter, general passerby is sure to stop me and tell me how beautiful she is.
People do that all the time no matter which girl I have with me. If I have both they say, "Wow, you have gorgeous girls." I'm mostly flattered when they say that, because I know they mean well. But, honestly, sometimes I wish they'd just admire and keep their comments to themselves. Not because it's mean to say someone's got a cute kid. Because it makes me flash forward 10+ years to when it's not going to be so pleasant thinking about how beautiful my daughters are and having nightmares about the boys they may want us to meet...or not!
I digress...
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And me...I'm approximately 37 weeks preggo with our third baby. I'm feeling good for the most part, but I'm definately sportin' the preggo waddle. I walk slower than my toddlers, for real. I'm mentally prepared for this delivery and excited to do all the newborn stuff...one...more...time.
Christian and I talk all the time about what it's going to be like to be a family with three kids, what we should name the baby should it be a girl or boy, should we stay put or move into a bigger place...all those things.
My contractions have started, although nothing regular yet...kinda like it was with Gretta three days before true labor began. Baby's head is engaged and my cervix is beginning to do it's thang...so only time will tell.
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And now the chix:
This is a picture of a ISA brown hen.
Which we have one of.
She looks alot like this one.
Beautiful reddish brown feathers, bright red combs and they lay over 300 brown eggs a year.
We haven't come up with names for them yet.
Maybe Brown eyed girl...
Maybe not.
Time will tell.
We love her nonetheless...
Even though she has no name.
She, I think, was our first one to start laying.
Our "early bloomer"...if you will.
When she skips a day of laying, we get a HUGE egg the next day and it's a double yolker!
Mo loves to collect her eggs.

This is our Rhoad Island Red Hen.
As chicks these two looked identical.
As they got older,
this one got a longer neck than the ISA.
We named this one Big Bird because of her long neck.
She's supposed to lay 300 some eggs too.
Her comb is starting to turn red.
We don't think she's laying yet though.
Hard to tell unless you catch them in the box.
Well, that's not totally true.
Christian said he read that hens start laying down in submission when they are "mature".
This one does but there's only been one egg a day in there so we don't think it's happening quite yet.
She's pretty though too.
Smoothe reddish brown feathers on top.
Pale light brown underneath.

This is a picture of a Barred Rock Hen.
We have one of her also.
I like her because she's fiesty.
I think we named her Janice.
She's the hardest to catch when we let to roam.
She just started laying down when we approach too.
Not sure if it's her or the Big Bird...
She's black and white speckled witha bright red comb.
Very pretty.
Mo always wants to hold this one.
But, like I said, she's the toughest to catch.
Maybe that's why she's the most desireable.
Who knows...
She's usually the first to roost though.
I'm telling you,
she's the smartest bird of the family.

And finally,
A photo of the Americana Hens.
We have two of these interesting hens.
These are our easter ladies.
We call them Mary & Martha.
Get it?
Not really.
We don't have names for them either.
They are our easter egg layers though.
Blue, green, purple...
something like that.
They cool part is...
We don't know what color they'll be,
but what ever color they start with is what they'll always lay.
These two are laying down for us too...
But we're just not sure which ones are laying!
We found three little "starter" eggs on our side porch the other day though.
That was really exciting.
So...
it total we have Five Hens of which at least two are laying.
One is laying on a regular basis.
Soon we'll be having almost a dozen every other day.
I like to give away our eggs. It's really fun. They taste so much better than the factory hens too.
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And Christian? Well, he's beautiful but I don't have a picture of him right now.
He just started a new job working with teenage refugee boys through Bethany Christian Services. He loves it. He works for our friend, Luke, who just had a baby girl, Cora...congratulations man. The boys are from Burma and Iraq... so far.
Ask him about the details here.
Well, that's that for now.
Hope you all are well.