Happy Father's Day and Happy 4th of July!

We hope you all had a good Father’s Day. I tried to get the kids to hold up letters that say “We love Dad” and then make a collage. They were fighting over which letters they got to hold so the picture below is the best we got and they both decided to hold the heart. I of course had to threaten them with no computer if they didn’t stand there and smile. Whatever works, right?

We also hope you had a great 4^th of July.  The day before, we went to see fireworks in Independence. We got there a few hours early so the kids could play with their cousins. By the time the fireworks started, Reagan was ready to go home. She wasn’t a fan of the noise either. The next morning, Avery and I went to the Parma parade. Tim and Reagan decided to sleep in. We got there about 35 minutes early and it was soooo hot. She kept hiding her head in a reusable bag. I thought I was going to get arrested for child endangering. The parade started and a fire truck drove by and rang the sirens and beeped their horn and Avery complained it was too loud. Even though all of the participants threw out tons of candy, we only lasted like 10 minutes and Avery wanted to leave. It was very hot and I didn’t put sunscreen on her so we left. Later that day we went to a cookout at Tim’s parents and then went to the annual party at my sister’s house. We missed it last year because we were on vacation in Michigan. We didn’t stay long. It was hot and we were kind of beat so we left.

Tim’s friend was moving out of state and they gave us their pool so now the kids love to go swimming almost every day. It took a few days to fill it. I can’t wait to see what our water bill is going to be. Both kids can touch the bottom of the pool, but we had a close call with Reagan the one day. I believe her foot slipped and she went under and had trouble getting her head above the water again. I had to jump in and pull her out of the water. It was definitely scary and I was happy we were watching them closely. I can’t imagine what would have happened if I turned away, even for a minute. She now knows she has to wear her puddle jumper every time she goes in the pool.

We ended up getting rid of our rooster, Frank the Tank. I liked him, I just didn’t like him attacking all of us every time we entered the coop. We listed him on craigslist and someone wanted him. They said they wanted a mean rooster to protect their flock. I feel bad because he is the first pet I have ever given away. I have had issues with pets before but I have never given one away before. I hope he is actually having a good time and that he didn’t become someone’s dinner.

We had quite a few chicks hatch recently. One hen takes care of 6 babies and two other hens take care of 4 additional chicks. That is in addition to the 4 that we hatched around Easter and two additional ones that hatched about 5 weeks ago (one of which that Avery named Eddie). We know there are at least two roosters in the batch that hatched around Easter. Tater and Cheeseburger are roosters. I am scared to know how many of the babies are roosters too. I wouldn’t care about keeping all the roosters as long as they don’t fight each other or try attacking us. We had three additional babies that ended up dying…either they were pecked at/trampled or something may have been wrong with them and they died. We don’t really know for sure what happened.

I finally got a new laptop 2 months ago and just took it out of the box last week. I am having issues with it recognizing my cell phone when I plug it in. I know I have to download iOS drivers but so far its not working. That is one of the reasons why its taken me so long to update this blog. The other reason is that we seem to be so busy even though we haven’t even started the kitchen remodeling yet.

I was yelling at Reagan in this picture to not eat the Cheerios. Those were to feed the animals!

Cheese

at the farm

RayRay and I loved to feed the ducks the best

Reagan is my best friend!

We made this for Daddy at daycare

Here are the pics Momma took of us

Watching fireworks with Daddy

Sparklers! Reagan was braver than I was. I didn't hold any sparklers

fooling around

Yum snow cones!

Buddy is so cute in this pic

Joe is a big boy and could jump over this fence if he really wanted to. He has already figured out how to get out of the backyard like 3 different ways. 

Goodbye Frank the Tank

A hen and her babies

More babies

One of those under the hen is Eddie

How cute!

they are so cute!

Some of our flock. We have too many and are going to give some chickens to our friend

We are ready to swim!

Snapchat fun

This is going to be the new picture mommy is going to paint

Now Reagan doesnt like to wear shirts. Maybe some day she will wear an entire outfit

We got matching bathing suits. 

Swimming with my cousins and Reagan

Aunt Laura, Medes loves to sleep with (or on) Reagan 

Reading some books, Reagan is hiding behind me.

Happy Birthday Grandma B!

We finally got a pic of all the cousins! Too bad Reagan's eye is messed up. She is going to the eye doctor in October to discuss surgery for her lazy eye.

Throwback to when my hair matched my underwear! And a pic of Chewie because he is so cute

Snow, freezing weather and a new type of hearing aid

Not much has been going on except we got a ton of snow one day and then really really cold weather. Thank you to our neighbors for letting us borrow their snow blower because of course ours was not working when we needed it. We are going to have to buy a new one because it wouldn’t start and we think mice have chewed parts of the lines inside of it. We got some much snow the drifts at the front door were up to my waist. It was nuts. Tim was able to make a snow chute for the girls to sled down. Reagan was too scared to try it but Avery had a blast. It took my 20 minutes to get Reagan dressed in two pairs of socks, two pairs of pants, two shirts, snow pants, gloves, a hat and coat. She was outside for 3 minutes and wanted to come back inside ..lol.

Then came the cold. One day the high for the day was in the negatives and the wind chill was negative 30. Every time it gets cold or we get a lot of snow, I wonder why we live here in Ohio. Luckily the chickens seemed to be ok. We took the chickens that hung out in the small coop and combined them with the ones in the big coop. We had a small heat lamp in the little coop and moved it to the big coop. We also ordered a heat panel that is made for chicken coops. It’s not meant to heat the coop, just take the edge off. We also gave them cracked corn and meal worms. Our two older chickens we got from craigslist finally started laying a few weeks ago and just this week we started getting a really small egg some days so one of the new chicks we got in September is starting to lay. We also realized we have a rooster in our mix. Tim noticed that the chicken’s tail is like a plume and I put a picture on a chicken group on facebook (yes, there are backyard chicken groups on facebook) and everyone confirmed it was a rooster. The same day Tim heard him crow for the first time. We paid extra to have all female chickens but we will see how it goes with the rooster. I am actually a little excited to have a rooster. Hopefully he wont be mean like some roosters are. He seems pretty timid so far so hopefully he will continue to be nice.

Avery had an appointment with an audiologist to discuss bone conduction hearing aids. Instead of the hearing aid sitting inside her ear, the bone conduction hearing aid attaches to a headband and sits behind the ear on the bone. When sound comes in, it vibrates the bone and alerts the nerve. The sound doesn’t have to travel through the ear drum which is a good thing for Avery because there is something that is preventing the sound from traveling through her ear canal to the nerve. They don’t know if its fluid or if her ear is formed incorrectly. That is why this type of hearing aid is a great option for Avery. They put the new hearing aid on Avery and performed some testing. They gave Avery a book with pictures in it and they sat in a different room. They then called out instructions through the speakers in the room such as “Point to the duck, where is the boat, etc”. When Avery got a command when wearing the headband device, she responded immediately. Then they tested her without the band/device and the difference in the results was outstanding. They said “Avery, show me the dog” and she just sat there. They then gave out another command and the same thing happened. She either didn’t hear what they were saying or she was being stubborn and not responding. If she really didn’t hear, it is amazing how much the headband device helped. We let Avery choose which color headband and which color device she would want. She surprised us and choose a red headband and white device. The audiologist wanted us to speak with Avery’s ENT doctor before ordering to get his opinion. He said that he agrees that it would be good for her so we are going to go ahead and order it. The audiologist did warn us that many times my insurance will only pay for half of the cost. I asked how much it is if we didn’t have insurance and she said its around $6000. Typically Avery’s secondary insurance covers whatever the primary insurance doesn’t and I am hoping that will also be the case for this. Either way, I think this would really help her and if we have to pay $6000 to help Avery with her speech, we will. I am excited that this can really help her, I just hope she actually wears it.

We finally took Avery to get her hair cut a few weeks ago. She really needed it. We ended up getting 5 inches cut off. She had to stand while they cut her hair because she is so little.

Mommy came upstairs from the basement and saw that Joe had been in the garbage. Joe knew he did something bad and walked right into his cage

Buddy didn't want to let Momma read her book

Look at all of the snow we got!

Dr Reagan makes house calls

Reagan is finally ready to go outside..after getting dressed for twenty minutes. I think she spent a total of 3 minutes outside.

I had fun outside with Daddy. He built a snow chute down our back steps.

Reagan always wants to sleep in my bed. Mommy would let her if she actually slept but she just likes to play.

Reagan may or may not have gotten the potty seat stuck around her waist

After the hair cut and before

I was having fun dancing

Reagan hanging out with the pups

This is a pic of Aunt Janet and Mommy, and Grandma and Grandpa B's 1970's couch. Mommy thinks she looks like Reagan

Me trying out my new hearing aid. I am going to order a red band and white device.

Can't believe how little Joe used to be. And i love this video of Chewie running around and having fun.