It’s definitely spring time!

We had some chicks hatch the other day! One hatched early Saturday morning and two more hatched early Sunday morning. We think we have one more that is still going to hatch. I looked at the remaining six eggs and picked one up and it started peeping!

It was definitely a cool thing to experience. I woke up early Sunday morning (at two am) and walked into the kitchen and I saw one of the chicks had hatched and it couldn’t walk. I thought it had splayed legs. I went back to bed and woke up a few hours later and another chick had hatched and they were both walking around ok. I must have seen that other one right when it came out of the egg. I was relieved to see it walking around normally in the incubator.

When the first chick hatched, Avery was soooo excited. She couldn’t stop watching it. We asked what she wanted to name it and she said cheeseburger! So on Sunday when the other two hatched, I asked Reagan what she wanted to name one of them and she said she didn’t know. I told her Avery named hers after a food she liked and I asked Reagan what food she likes..so now we have Bacon. Lol. I decided to go with the food theme and named the third chicken Tater. Not sure what we will name the 4th if it hatches. I looked in the incubator and picked up all the eggs to see if any had cracks. One had a crack and I picked it up and it started peeping! Fingers crossed it hatches.

We were worried they weren’t going to hatch because at first, we had issues verifying the humidity of the incubator. We decided to buy a cheap $9 hygrometer (humidity monitor) from Amazon and it has helped tremendously.

I am still amazed we hatched three chicks! So far all the chicks are black and one of them has feathers on their legs/feet (cheeseburger).

****I wrote the draft of this blog on Sunday and woke up Monday to a new little chick peeping loudly. This one looks much different than the others. She (hopefully she’s a she) is much lighter and almost a grayish color. Yet to be named ***

Our first chick that hatched. The peeping was so loud!

Cheeseburger when she first hatched. You let them sit in the incubator until they dry off and fluff up

Here she is all dry and in the plastic tote. She has a black beak with a little orange.

This is Tater. She has an orange beak.

Here are Cheeseburger's feathered legs/feet

This is the newest chick that has grey feathers.

Eggs, Eggs and more Eggs

Our new chickens are finally laying. We get about 18 eggs/day. Also, we noticed most of are eggs are fertilized. You can tell because there is a "bullseye" spot on the egg. We bought an incubator and we are hoping to hatch some chickens. Its not that we need more chickens but I think it would be really cool to experience. It takes 21 days for the chickens to hatch. You have to keep the temp at 99.5 degrees and the humidity at 40-50% for the first 18 days and then the last 3 days you change the humidity to 65-70%. We starting incubating and  itss amazing that chickens can hatch by hens sitting on the eggs. Its crazy that they keep the eggs warm and humid enough. We dont have any chickens that are broody (sitting on eggs) so that is why we bought an incubator. 

Avery is so excited for the Easter Bunny. Everyday she says Easter Bunny and everyday we have to tell her she still has to wait a few weeks. We decided to color some eggs. We bought something called "Egg Mazing". It spins the egg and you hold a marker there and it makes a design. It is actually really cool. Avery and Reagan also wanted to hand draw on some of them. 

Avery walked up to Tim one day and handed him the ear tube that fell out of her ear..lol. She had an infection. Not sure if it was infected because it fell out of her ear or not. I have never seen one before. They are so small (see pic below). Reagan also had her first ear infection. We have an appointment with ENT next month to determine if she will need to have surgery to have another round of tubes put in.

We just got a denial for Avery's new hearing aid. I originally signed a form saying that Cleveland Clinic insurance will pay $3000 towards it and we would have to pay the remaining $3000 if her secondary didnt cover it. Normally if her primary pays anything, her secondary will cover the balance. We are going to send in an appeal but I emailed her two audiologists for help. It sucks because if she finally does end up getting her new hearing aid, it will be after school lets out for the summer. 

Reagan has been doing so well with potty training. She wears underwear all day (except for when she is napping and also wears a pull up at night). She moved up to a new class at daycare because she is doing so well. 

Here is the bullseye of an egg that is fertilized.

Here is Frank the Tank. He is the black one with the curved tail.

This is the tube that fell out of Avery's ear

Party in Momma's bed

Decorating eggs

Reagan's hair is awesome when she wakes up from a nap

Here are the eggs we are incubating. We candled them and it looks like 4 of them have something growing inside.

I told Reagan we were going to the mall and this is how she dressed

Everytime we drop Avery off at the Play place at the mall, she plays dress up. Last time she was a chef. This time a princess/fairy. 

I came home from work the other day and thought one of our chickens got out. Nope, just a wild turkey

Trying on their new nightgowns

Me and Aves

Happy Easter!

We hope you all had a great Easter. It was a beautiful day here, around 70 degrees. It was also my birthday and all I ever want on my birthday is for it to be nice outside. Looks like I got my wish.

We had a really nice Easter. We decorated eggs, though it was very weird buying eggs at the store. I felt like I was cheating on my girls. I had to go buy eggs because we only have brown egg laying chickens so it would be difficult to dye their eggs.

Easter morning, Avery woke up and searched around the house for plastic eggs filled with change, stickers and candy. She then got an Easter basket filled with some new play-doh(she needed it!), a bubble gun and some candy.

Grandma B, my sister and the kids came over to visit. Grandpa B stayed at home because he wasn’t feeling well. We don’t want Avery to get sick before we leave for vacation. We then went to Tim’s parents for dinner and got to visit with his side of the family.

For my birthday, Tim bought me tickets to see one of our favorite comedians and then he got me three pictures of Avery printed on glass. They are pretty cool. I took one to work, put one up at home and gave Tim one. He loves the picture of Avery with the wild hair when she was younger. Probably reminds him of his own hair back in the day.

Avery worked for days on her present for me. She made me a paper mache heart with our picture on it and she even painted it J

 

Our Disney vacation is coming up. I am trying not to annoy Tim by counting down everyday but its not working very well. He doesn’t like crowds or lines so I am really hoping seeing Avery’s face and reaction to things will make him change his mind. We will find out in less than a week!

 

My many faces....

 

Let me guess, Scarlett is under my high chair, isn't she?

Mommy likes this picture of me for some reason.



 

Playing on Mommy and Daddy's bed

 

I have the dye to color the Easter eggs

 

Coloring eggs with Daddy

Oooooh!

 

I'm coloring eggs!





 

Chewie,Scarlett and Mommy wanted to help too

 

Finding Easter eggs around the house

Medes is trying to eat my Easter basket I made at preschool from a milk jug.

My Easter basket from the Easter bunny

Putting change from my Easter eggs into my piggy bank

Daddy helped me make this heart for Mommy. I painted it!

Hi Medes

Do you think I am close enough to this screen?

Hugs for my best friend

Easter basket from Grandma and Grandpa B. I also got a bunch of candy from Grandma and Grandpa S and a cool Minnie watering can filled with sand tools and candy from Aunt Lauren and Uncle Greg but Mommy forgot to take a pic of it.

I clean up pretty well, don't I?

Changed clothes and then went outside to play on the swingset

I like to swing this year, last year I didn't.

And you people thought Mommy was a weird eater. Here I am dipping my fruit snacks in cheese from Auntie Anne's (that you would normally dip a pretzel in)