Broody Hens

Rainbow and Dotty when we first got them over a year ago, aren't they cute?!

Two of our dear hens (Rainbow and Dot) have gone "broody" -that means they just sit on their little nest spot and stare all day long because they imagine they are hatching an egg, apparently it is fairly common. So I did a little bit of research and there were several ideas on how to snap them out of it ranging from picking them up by the feet and shaking them (but I don't think it was a serious suggestion, right?) to cooping them up and not letting them get to their nesting area for like a week so the spell would be broken. Well, I felt kind of sad for them, they just want to be mothers, the poor dears. So I called my great uncle Keith who has lots of hens, peafowl, quail, etc, and he suggested I get some fertilized eggs, slip them under our girls and let them hatch them. He then got me 10 fertilized eggs from a friend and Mom brought them to me on Tuesday. We slipped them under Dotty and Rainbow and they didn't mind a bit (Dotty was sitting on four of FishBlob's eggs and didn't mind when I took those and replaced them with the real thing). Ever since then they've been dutifully sitting on the eggs and taking good care of them. It takes 21 days to hatch a chicken egg and they were laid around the 15th so we've got a couple of weeks before we'll know if we'll have any babies.

The kids are ever so excited, they've already divvied up the chicks (Jeff gets 3, Leah gets 3, Tess 2 and Alana 2 - I guess Pete is out of luck). We've had discussions about how they aren't supposed to touch the eggs or go near them when they hatch so hopefully we won't have any disasters. The kids even made a sign to warn any potential egg molesters. I'm pretty excited about having babies too, it will be an exciting summer!

*Ples (Please) don't touch the eggs. Thar (there) are relle (really) chicse (chicks) in them. No gathring (gathering) eggs! No eggs

It isn't notarized so I'm not sure how binding this document is. . .

Snippets

Driving home from Grandma Livingstones:

Jeff: Can't we stay up late tonight? It's Friday.
Mom: It is 7:30, by the time we get home and you get your pj's on, brush your teeth, fight with your sisters, and get a drink it will be way past your bed time and you will have stayed up late.
Jeff: Is it okay if I spend time reading a book instead of fighting with my sisters?

*He does take his responsibilities as an older brother very seriously and I know would feel he had shirked his duty if he missed any prime fighting time.

Another One

We are thinking of taking the kids to the Grand Canyon in a couple of weeks and at dinner we were dropping hints about summer time plans, I said, "We might go see a big hole." Tessa caught on quickly and said, "Oh, I know, we're going to the Turley's." (Friends of ours who had to replace their main plumbing line and had to dig a huge trench in their backyard.)

*I'm grateful that they haven't got big expectations for family trips and fun yet :)

Mother's Day

I had a great Mother's Day, I got breakfast in bed (waffles and pink milk with cherries and apple slices, yum!), my dear children sang for me at church, Terry (FIL) took Peter the whole time at church so I got to go to and stay in my classes the whole time, they gave us Mother's Day candy bars (woo-hoo!), then we ate at Livingstones and had a lovely time, then we went to see my Grandmother and my parents and aunt and uncle and sister's at GG's and it was so fun with 12 of the grandkids there, we were missing three but it seemed like we had gained 10 or so, they are noisey, then we went back to Livingstones so we could get in on the Mother's Day Phone Call from Washington from Elder Justin Livingstone. I got to say, "Hello, Squiddy, I love you!" before the phone was taken from me by his father who wanted to talk to him for some reason, rude! Just kidding :) And that was about that, it was a lovely day.

I'm coming down with something so my voice is going away and I told Ryan last night that he is so lucky and he is going to have the best Anniversary date tomorrow (our 11th Anniversary) because his date will finally be nice and quiet!

Make sure you look at the two posts below this as they are new and you'll like the video of the kids!

So this is a seminary spoof from the ward Spring Sing on Saturday. Sister Born is a real live seminary teacher and she hung signs with the kids in her class' names around their parents necks and they got to act like their kids.

Suzanne Boon - Lindsey (her daughter)
Merriam Conte - Lynn (just got baptized last week and is awesome, I guess she beats the boys at Scripture Chase :) )
Kelly McDowell - Brooke (her daughter)
Caroline Cathcart - Alexa Bryant (I love that she's eating cereal)
Bro Boon - David (his son)
AJ Urich - Ashlee (her daughter, she kept asking which book they are studying this year, funny!)
Bishop McDowell - Cory (I never noticed that Cory's hair is two different colors and it falls out if not properly tucked into his hat, oh well)
Pres. Cathcart - Tanner (his son, Tanner drums and is silly)
Bro. Conte - Adam (his son, so funny, it's too bad Adam wasn't there to see this. . .)
Bro. Born - Steven (his son, he is late to Seminary a lot and his Mom is the real live teacher, and what he says at the end is funny because he missed the Scripture Mastery which is what they did at the beginning - that's what they were shouting about and waving their scriptures around for - ha-ha!)

There's a Boy . . .

This is the song the kids did. It was too cute.

Messy

Isn't it amazing the messes we can get ourselves into? Pete is at that stage where he wants to feed himself so it can get pretty ugly pretty fast around here. It made me think about how as parents we get to watch our kids figure stuff out and get all messy in the process. It kind of makes me crazy a little, I just want to do it for them and avoid the clean up - but they have to learn sometime right? Besides, this is more fun, eh?

Deep Thoughts, by. . .

Yesterday my wedding dress came home after being borrowed by the girls in our Stake for a modesty fashion show and even though I was in the middle of getting dinner ready and helping the kids with homework and entertaining my sister Amanda - I still HAD to try it on again. I mean seriously, it was right there. I don't know what I was thinking, it hasn't fit me since before I had Jeffey but I thought to myself, "I can't be that much bigger than I was when I got married, I feel kind of thin now. . . maybe it will fit!?" I was so very wrong. Amanda tried to stuff me in it and I think I dislodged my spleen or liver or something because my guts felt sad at me after I tried to smash them.

Why, you ask, am I telling you all this? Who knows. I've just been thinking about how I've changed in the past almost 11 years (our anniversary is May 12th). I've had five babies, one at a time. I feel pretty okay that I'm not as slender as I used to be because what I've "traded" for my young lithe body are five wonderful children who thought I was crazy for prancing around in my wedding dress while they were trying to watch Sponge Bob, but they did enjoy carrying my train. I'm sure that there are many other changes I've experienced too. I surely love my Ryan more than I did 11 years ago and I didn't even think that could be possible!

Anyways, I'm just saying, it was a good trade. I wouldn't change a thing.

Except for maybe that Amanda tried the dress on and it fit her. Brat.