New Chicks!

These are the first two little chicks that hatched today.

Our Buff Orphington chicken has been faithfully sitting on her 7-8 eggs for the past 21 days.

I'm sure there will be more arriving later today,

but it's so exciting to see these little chicks!

The mommy hen is very protective and treating her babies nicely.

The white chicken in the box next to her should be

having her babies hatch within the next week or so.

Leah Won a NEW Bike!

The school called me today to inform me that Leah had won a new bike! They had done a drawing at the end of the school year for a new bike (they are entered by reading a certain number of minutes). Another little girl had won it originally, and it took them forever to finally get a hold of the family. When they finally reached this little girl's parents they said she had just got a brand new bike and didn't need one.

So, they drew another name...

Leah Lanier!

I told Leah to come sit on the front porch with me.

She knew she had won the bike, but I told her we couldn't pick it up until Monday.

Jon had decided to get it on his way home from work,

and she was SO surprised to see Daddy come home with her new bike!

Congratulations Leah!!

Fishing at Vivian Park

Caleb always gets a little bored while fishing.

You can see it on his face.

A ferret in the middle of the pond

Leah out-fished EVERYONE at the pond

She was catching fish left and right!

The dad's that were sitting next to us were very jealous of her!

She had the lucky spot!

When it was almost time to go, Caleb and Alex finally caught a fish!

I'm glad the kids love going fishing with dad. They always have such a fun time.

It's just sad that it's already July and we've only been able to go once so far this summer!

We'll be making more time for fishing throughout the next few weeks.

Swimming Lessons

Alex, Caleb and Leah love doing swimming lessons every summer. I've signed them up for two sessions this summer. I love seeing them improve on their swimming skills. Alex and Caleb are SEALS and are in the same class. Leah is a TURTLE and is doing a great job at swimming.

Alex's "broken" foot

We were at the park at a BBQ party and Alex was playing in the field with Caleb. Alex jumped really high off the ground, and landed really wrong on his foot. He twisted his ankle and heard it pop. Jon ran to him, got his shoes and socks off and took him down to the river to put his foot in the ice cold water.

After a little while of cooling it down to try to stop the swelling I took him to InstaCare to get it x-rayed. Our poor little guy was in a lot of pain. So, the Dr. looked at the x-ray and couldn't tell if it was just a bad sprain, or if it had a small fracture on the bone (one of the x-rays was inconclusive).

So, he put Alex's foot in a splint and gave him crutches. Alex sure cheered right up when he saw the crutches! He was excited to use crutches! (That excitement wore off a bit after his armpits started hurting though)

One week later we went back to our regular doctor for a check-up for Alex's foot.

He didn't seem to think the x-ray showed any sign of a fracture.

So, Alex was upgraded to a walking boot.

He stayed in his walking boot for another week, and then he was able to walk on it just fine without anything. It's still pretty bruised, but at least it's healing and doesn't hurt to walk anymore.

4th of July

We always volunteer to help with the parade every year. This year we signed up the kids as volunteers too. Don't we look great in our matching neon green shirts?? It was fun. We had to be in our spot by 6am. We sat on the shady side of the street, and I never warmed up! My feet were freezing the entire time (while everyone else on the opposite side were fanning themselves because they were so hot!)

My kids thought the pre-parade was more exciting than the actual parade because they got to see Star Wars characters!

Caleb even said to me at one point,

"Mom, is this all a parade is? Bands and floats?"

My respons, "Yes! Isn't that exciting!?"

Caleb looks at me with a blank stare....

Here are some pictures of our whole crew that we sat with.

The Hursts (and Josie Tribe), and the Parkers were there with us.

Jayson and Ben were both helping Jon out with the radio communications.

Lowe's Kid's Club

Building Race Cars with Dad