Abundant Recompense Copy

Throughout our married life, Michelle and I have pointed out things that show we are "established." The day we got a bed frame, instead of just having a mattress on the floor, was a big one. And the day we bought our first shovel. The last major one was probably at Christmas, when we finally strung lights from the top of the house instead of just in the windows. Well, it's time to put a big, fat check in another "established" box - the one labeled Chickens. Yes, we are now the proud and clueless owners of a chicken coop, chicken run, and six chicks. From the way we latch onto nostalgic back-to-the-farm ways, you can tell that Michelle and I are both several generations removed from actually having to survive off the family farm. But we are excited to teach our kids more about where their food comes from and to give them a chance to take some responsibility for other living things. (Yes, I realize they are 4 and 2, and we're undoubtedly setting ourselves up ...

Disclaimer: I hit the big 3-0 weeks in the pregnancy today. The associated hormones are very apparent in the following post. Read at your own risk. This morning after Joy School I plopped the kids in front of Sesame Street so I could plan a menu and make a detailed and organized grocery list for the next two weeks. I contemplated trying to squeeze in a trip to the store before lunch and then thought better of it. Then Bryn fell down a full flight of stairs trying to carry a giant yellow beanbag chair from the 2 nd floor to the first. No idea how she got it from the 3 rd to the 2 nd without incident. And I tried not to think of the giant basket of clean laundry and the two gross bathrooms calling for my attention upstairs. And then Bryn took them off my mind by throwing a 3-pound hard plastic singing Bingo dog and hitting Addison with it. I sent her to time out, saw about Addison, and turned to the computer for some contact with the outside world. There to greet me was an email from on...

Yesterday Grandma and Grandpa were in town and wanted to take the kids to lunch at McDonalds for a special treat. So we went. The kids actually ate some of the food, which is miraculous, and then went to play on the playplace, which is always heartwarming because Addison makes sure Bryn stays right with him the whole time. So Nate and I were sitting at our table eating at a leisurely place and talking about remodeling our kitchen, when we suddenly heard a piercing scream that belonged to Bryn and said "PAIN!" to our trained ears. Nate ran over and scooped her up and brought her to me and we discovered this beauty.  This is day 2 and it looks much worse in person.  Yeah. Some snot-nosed little punk BIT her! And the picture doesn't show it but there are at least 6 teeth marks on each side. And it broke the skin. And I'm pretty sure it was through her shirt. Thank goodness it's winter and she was wearing long sleeves or she'd be missing half her arm. I was (and f...

Christmas was so fun this time around. Addison and Bryn are at the perfect age for it to be especially magical and exciting.  We went to our town's lights display, which I must say rivals Temple Square's for quality, but not quite quantity. Addison was insane that night, as I recall.  Random shot of Addison's coping mechanism to get peas down without gagging. Birthday cheesecake for Mom on Christmas Eve. The kids were so excited! Christmas dinner-ing it up. We took turns being sick as dogs starting on Christmas day, with Nate being the first. We ended up having mac and cheese with hotdogs for actual Christmas day dinner. I think we finally had Christmas dinner like 4 days after the fact, but man was it good. We decided to just live it on Christmas morning rather than try to document every person's reaction to every gift, which made for a really good time and zero pictures. The highlight for me was seeing the kids' faces when they came down the stairs on Christmas mo...

(I feel like if I read that title out loud everyone would snap because it's so poetic.) Welp, hello trimester #3! Woohoo! We are currently 27 weeks and a day, to be exact. Baby update: Apparently if le bebe was born today it'd have a 90% chance of survival, weigh about 2 lbs 3 oz, and be 9ish inches long from crown to rump. I'm thinking that's pretty impressive. The baby is very active. It's amazing to just sit and stare at my stomach when it's in there swimming around and to not only feel but watch the movement. Names, you ask? Yeah, pretty much no clue. We have a lot of options that we agree on in the girl department, but if this little guy is a boy, who knows. Nate's really digging names that sound like they belong to wizards, such as Phineas and Artemis (no offense if that's your name). As for me, my most recent suggestion has been Mark. AKA, we're getting nowhere fast. Mommy update: Between pregnancy, winter, and my inability to lay off the nute...

Last Saturday we all had the major need to get out into the great outdoors, so Daddy masterminded a walk/bike ride at a close-by trail that runs by a river. The kids were totally thrilled to have some bike and trike time. It was definitely nice to get some fresh air, but about five minutes into the walk, Nate looked over at me and put my thoughts into words when he said, "Is it summer yet?" We've got lots of fond summertime memories of picnicking and biking and running on that trail and it's just not the same when the ground is covered in snow. Here are some photos from our little adventure. Crazy ducks. Don't they know they belong in Panama or something this time of year?  Nate and the kids climbed up the wall of the tunnel we went through. Great art. They're dolphins carved out of trees, although Addison thinks they look like pickles. Not long before we got back to the car, Addison came running toward me at full throttle and tripped and had a pretty bad land...