Sing it With Me!!!

(To the tune of What Do You Do with a Drunken Sailor)

What do you do with a noisy chicken,
What do you do with a noisy chicken,
What do you do with a noisy chicken,
Early in the morning!!!

Put 'er in the bathtub, close the curtain
Put 'er in the bathtub, close the curtain
Put 'er in the bathtub, close the curtain
EARLY IN THE MORNING!!!

Our speckled hen, Margaret, has taken to squawking. Apparently she doesn't realize that her happy home only lasts as long as she is not a nuisance. If she doesn't figure out how to keep it down, she's going to find herself in a different living situation; either as dinner, or in someone else's yard. Twice now I've put her in chicken solitary in the bathtub. Once when the girls and I had a full morning AWAY from home (usually I send the girls out to ruffle her feathers when she starts getting noisy) and again this morning. It seems to do the trick for a little while, but I don't really want to make this a habit. She's really very pretty and friendly, but she's not laying yet (only our reds are so far) so she wouldn't be too big a loss. sigh. Guess we'll give it another week or so and see what happens.

Easter Egg Hunt! (...finally...)

For Easter this year we were invited to a new friend's house for a big Easter Egg Hunt! It was very fun. :) It was really organized for a backyard event, and all the kids had a great time. Everybody came home with goodies, and there were easy eggs for the little bitties, and harder ones for the older kids too. Good times!

The line up...
Ready...Set...

GO!

I think some are hiding over here...

I found it! Here! ME!!

***SOUND WARNING***

The only sound is background noise until I speak to Kennedy, which comes out VERY loud

Kennedy!

Here are a couple of random Kennedy pics:

Crazy Baby!!

Poking Auntie Pam

Chillin' with cousin Dylan while waiting for Cadence to get her hair cut

Pretty Posing

Awhile back (when we still lived in the apartment) Cadence dressed up and asked for me to take her picture. So, I did. Of course Kennedy wanted her picture taken too, even though she was sick that day and wasn't in a mood to do anything else. These are fun to look at because it's back when Cadence had long hair. ;)

Not off to a very good start...

After a major setback that included losing the picture card from our camera (seriously, we've been looking for it EVERYWHERE and still haven't found it) I have decided to just start updating everyone with pictures from my phone. I mean, this blog is made up mostly of pictures, so losing all my pictures really didn't give me much incentive to keep up with my goal. Sorry about that. But I do have several pictures from my phone that (finally!) transferred, so I'll be able to share those at least. Then I'll just have to go back and update when we do find the other pics. So, thank you for your patience, and enjoy what we do have!

Yes, I do Realize...

...that my last post was in MARCH and we are now closing in on JUNE. Negligent? Nope. Just lazy. It's time consuming loading all those pictures from the various recording devices we own and then plugging them into the blog with witty captions! BUT - I promise that I'm turnng over a new leaf. Which is good news for you all, I hope. I'm going to make the monumental effort to post on this blog every Tuesday and Thursday whether I have something exciting to say or not. Starting today. With this very post. After I finish forcing my children to stop playing in the water and pick up their art room, that is. I thought popscicles would be good incentive, but apparently it's just not enough for today. The excitement of a popscicle reward really wasn't enough to get me to clean my room either, so....

So, after a lengthy hiadus, I'm back and determined to do better. With some faith, trust, and pixie dust, I just might be able to pull it off. :)

Cadence's New Do!

So, we've been telling Cadence for months that if she is going to scream and cry and run away whenever we try to brush her hair, then we're going to cut it off. I didn't want to - it took so long for it to grow in in the first place! But last night Cadence decided all the snarlies aren't worth the long hair, so she decided she wanted it cut. Then she decided she wanted it cut RIGHT NOW - THIS MORNING. So, we did. We cut off probably 7 or 8 inches. She had decided she wanted it SHORT, not just sort of short. And she wanted bangs. So, that's what we did. And here's the result: One happy girl, one happy mom, and NO MORE SNARLIES!!! I think what finally sealed the deal was that I told her she could grow it out long again; it didn't have to stay short forever.

Out of the Mouths of Babes (or, Conversations Overheard)

(In the middle of a pillow fight/wrestling match between Jeremy and Cadence):
Cadence: I'm Princess Nasty!
Jeremy: WHAT?!?
Robin: What did you say?
Cadence: I'm Princess Nasty! You're not going to like me very much - wha-CHA!
(The wha-CHA part was stated as Cadence scissor-kicked Jeremy in the head - Princess Nasty indeed!)


(Between Cadence and Kennedy):
Cadence: You can't do that! KENNEDY! YOU-CAN'T-DO-THAT!!!
Kennedy: pischoo-pischoo!! (exclaimed with arm and pointer finger extended, gun-like, at Cadence)
Cadence: HEY! You can't shoot me! You can't just - pischoo-pischoo!! (again, exclaimed with arm and pointer finger extended, gun-like, at Kennedy)

This was followed by much more shooting and chasing around, followed by lots of laughing.


Between Kennedy and Cadence, Cadence has by far won for the most interesting vocabulary. Kennedy wants to make sure she's got the word down before she tries to use it, but Cadence just wants to verbalize everything, so she just spits it out regardless. Here are some of my favorite Cadence-isms (before I forget them all...) even though she doesn't use them all anymore. I plan to add more as I remember them.

fowlers (flowers)
pa-cue-ter (computer)
ai-yais (outside)
blacewret (bracelet)
bloccori - (broccoli)
crisms (Christmas)
armpit glue (deodorant)
hangaburger (hamburger)
ginastic (I think this is a cross between ginormous and gigantic - anyway, it means REALLY BIG)
plobrem (problem)
chum (munch)
catherator... no, i mean, cavitator... (cultivator)
tater-tot (teeter-totter)

A Day for Snow!

Last week we took advantage of the weather and headed up to the elk feeding station and gawked at the elk, then drove up a little higher on the pass into a nice little spot where we could enjoy the softly falling snow and get out and make snow angels too! We took sandwiches and chips to snack on and enjoyed the scenery! Jeremy took some really great pictures, so I wanted to share; enjoy!

Taking in the beautiful scenery!

Cozy in the car!

Kennedy, make a snow angel!

Okay, see, you do like THIS!

Yeah...okay...well, good effort! We'll take a picture anyway!

Can you find the snow fairy?

There she is!

Little snow gnomie!

(For any of you in the area wondering, we went up HWY 12 towards White Pass, past the Elk Feeding Station, and found a little spot off the road to park and tromp and take pictures)

Happy 4th Birthday Cadence!!

Cadence turned 4 this year! I can't believe it. We had our first 'real' birthday party with friends and everything. (Up until now we've just had family parties to celebrate, so this was a pretty big deal, inviting friends). We had a fairy princess tea party theme and all of the girls who came dressed up in their finest princess attire. Although the pinata wasn't a huge success, getting the stuff that fell out of it was, and the tea party that followed was lots of fun. We got out all of our tea party things and the girls got to serve themselves 'tea' (it was punch) and had sandwiches and fruit. Jeremy put together an awesome BBQ for the adults, and it was certainly a day for much rejoicing.

"The Cake"
It didn't quite turn out as I had originally envisioned it, but Cadence liked it and it tasted good. Yes, I ran the rolling pin into the front of it as I was moving it from the decorating station to the presentation table, so there's a major flaw right in the front, but Cadence didn't notice, so I didn't say anything.

Singing Happy Birthday
(notice Kennedy wants to make sure she doesn't miss out on cake...)

Opening presents...

More presents...

the end of the presents...

Kennedy wanted her picture taken too

It was a very fun day, and now that I know that I can survive a party of 8 little girls under the age of 5, we might try it again sometime! Although, Cadence was a little disappointed because she got a Cootie game and we already have one (Kennedy got it for Christmas), but we talked about how now we have enough Cootie parts for LOTS of friends to play at the same time, so that made it better. Being grateful, no matter what it is you get, is a difficult concept to master. :)

Happy Birthday Cadence!!! LOVE YOU!!!