My little flock

We got our chicks! 2 Rhode Island Reds, and a Plymouth Barred Rock. We got them today and now they're nice and cozy in thier new home. The kids love them, and keep trying to share thier toys with them...Here's our 3 little ladies.


the preschooler thought he needed to take some photos of them as well.








They are really sweet and so the journey begins!

ps...Nate K...here's some motivation to check Traci's email. I got some nice shots of her at the shower, and they're in her email!

I'm a Winner!!

Well, on Ebay, anyway! I just "won" the auction for the plans for my Chicken Tractor (Coop). It's cool, because all the wood comes from recycled wood pallets, which we will get for FREE. Yahoo! We have a connection for free pallets (which we've never needed before, but now will come in handy). We get our baby chicks on Thursday!

My first haircut...

I couldn't take in anymore...the preschooler was looking like helmet head! Usually my sister in law (a professional) gives the cuts around here, but we've both been super busy...So...I got out the scissors and clippers.

Before



After

this after pic was taken with my new 50mm 1.4 lens...yay!!

So was this one...love those eyes!And Jack's favorite red "shhhhoooo" (said with lots of spit!)




In other news, our neighbor kids seemed to have taught the toddler the lovely "pow pow" and he's attached himself to this play pistol...great. At least when we were at a friends house yesterday, I overheard the preschooler say "Hey, we don't shoot people, we shoot deer and elk!"

Red Therapy...

I went to Target tonight. ALONE. It was so nice (thanks Jamie!!). There is something wonderful about wandering the aisles, pushing my red cart around, wherever I wanted to go...no pleading with my children to "stop touching that" or "please don't bite your brothers fingers". Just me and the aisles full of fun, pretty, fashionable things. It is totally "retail therapy" for me.

Check out this gals blog about her love for Target....Slavetotarget

Check It

Ok, these are HILAR-I-OUS webisodes on mommyhood.

Go to In the Motherhood

yah, baby!

I'm back! Matt and I have been mooching internet off a random wireless signal we've picked up at our house (hey, I'm cheap, what can I say?). Well, it disappeared. So, after some creative budgeting, and a great comcast promo deal, I finally coughed up the moolah to get our own internet (and because of the great deal...cable tv too! FOOD NETWORK, HERE I COME!)

So, in other news, I've kept up with my Couch to 5K plan. I ran 1.5 miles yesterday! yahoo!! It was 1.5 straight miles, but broken up. still...this is quite an accomplishment for me, who's not "run", except to chase my toddler away from splashing in the toilet, in a very VERY long time. I'm on week 4 of the schedule, and it has by far...been the hardest. Mostly hard in my head. I was thinking, there is NO WAY I'm going to be able to run for 5 straight minutes. But, turns out...I can! I was totally sabbotaging myself, and when I decided, I should just go for it and see if I fail, instead of deciding before I even tried. And, it wasn't THAT bad. It wasn't that GOOD either...but I lived and will do it again tomorrow.

The sun is good...my kiddos are LOVING being outside, and I love it too! I'm back on my chicken kick. I really want to get a few chickens! Maybe 3. i think it would be so fun for my boys to get the little chicks and see them get big. Then, we could get fresh eggs! How fun would that be? And they eat your kitchen scraps...since I don't have a garbage disposal...perfect!

Well, you'll be hearing more from me. :)

brain overload

Edited again to show another link on BPA at the end
Edited to fix the link on bottles!

So, on our little getaway this weekend (see below) we talked about wanting to change some eating habits, and we're going to try for the month of March to eat only real or "whole" foods. Meaning, no processed food, and possibly more organic ingredients. So, I've set out on the world wide web, to check things out. WHOA. My brain aches.

I went window shopping at Trader Joes (love that place), which has fairly reasonable prices, but a limited selection. Then I went to Wild Oats, which I loved, but...seriously, 1.99 per lb for "organic" head of iceberg lettuce! Ouch.
The more I learn about foods and products, the more I want to go organic and green. My couponing self and my tree huggin self are in conflict.

So, a few major things I've learned this week:

Most baby bottles and many sippy cups (and...ugh, Nalgenes)are made from polycarbonate plastic (playtex,avent, most of the big brand ones). In that plastic is an ingredient called BPA (Bisphenol-A)can act like estrogen, and has been linked to a variety of things like early onset of puberty, childhood obesity, others and possibly prostate/breast cancer (in lab animals). Ok, Ok, I won't go crazy trying to describe it here, since I wont' do it justice. If you want more info go here to zrecs, I found a great blog that was really helpful. I am not freaking out, thinking I've poisoned my kids, but I am getting rid of my bottles with this stuff in them, and I'll be buying these kind next time.

If you want to learn about what ingredients are in your costmetics, oral care, nail care and baby care items and what ingredients are important to avoid, go here to the cosmetics database. Warning: it can be a little disturbing to learn about the junk in things we put on our skin everyday (and our babies behinds!)

On a happy note, since last week at moms, there has been a chain reaction of cloth diapering tree huggers! Yahoo! I'm not really turning into a freak, you guys, but I am super happy to see my friends saving $$ and putting less junk into the local landfills!(Props Mere!)

Ok, now I'm getting off my soapbox and going to watch american idol.Good Night!

Link on what BPA is