Chickens and The Littlest Angel

Chickens!!!
Yes, we got chickens! We actually got 4 chickens in the beginning of the month. Kent and I had been considering it for a long time, especially after seeing how my friend, Jennie's, family enjoyed having a chicken. Free eggs and a ready supply of protein (I'm still talking about the eggs, not the chickens.) So when we found out our bishop and his family were trying to get rid of chickens, we said we'd take some off their hands.

They brought the 4 chickens over along with a coop on a Tuesday morning. Our 2 oldest children were so excited that they wanted to interact with the chickens. I let them out of the coop (the chickens, not the girls) and they wandered around our backyard. Our dog, Remy, was going crazy inside the house watching those chickens run around. I decided it was time to round up the chickens and get them back in their coop, so I started herding them. One of the chickens got scared and jumped onto our roof. How in the world does one get a chicken off one's roof? I tried to coax her down with a broom, but she went in the opposite direction (duh!) When I walked to the front of our house in my robe trying to scope out the roof for the chicken, I couldn't see her anywhere. I figured she had jumped down and was wandering the neighborhood.

I called Kent at work and told him what was happening, and he got a good laugh out of it. When he got home that night, he opened the garage door for a few minutes and low and behold the chicken wandered into the garage from a bush in front of the house. That poor hen sat in the bush all day in the blazing 100+ degree weather. I got her back in the coop, but unfortunately my husband decided to let the chickens out of the coop again, and this time the chicken jumped onto the neighbor's roof!!! I'm not kidding. After a few seconds, she jumped down into the neighbor's front yard where Kent proceeded to chase her over to our yard until he could herd her into our garage.

After all of this we decided that maybe the chickens just needed to stay in the coop. Two days later I was putting some dirt into the coop, and one of the chickens freaked out and jumped right over my arm and out of the coop. Then she jumped over the fence into the neighbor's dog run (same neighbor, by the way.) Their very large dog had a nice chicken lunch that day. I felt terrible for everyone involved...the chicken, the neighbors, us... Now we have 3 chickens who stay in the coop and lay 3 eggs a day. Jury's still out on how I feel about having chickens.

The Littlest Angel
On Sunday the 26th the girls and I sat down together to watch a cartoon version of the book, The Littlest Angel, by Charles Tazewell. Maija was especially interested in it because she is all about fairies these days and she thinks fairies and angels are pretty much the same thing. The beginning of the narration tells of a little angel who was very dejected. He was 4 years 6 months 5 days 7 hours and 42 minutes old. I thought, "Oh, how funny! Maija is 4 years and 6 months old." Then I calculated, she was born January 21st so that means she is..... 4 years 6 months 5 DAYS and... how many hours? 1 hour and 45 minutes (give or take a few minutes) old!!!! I still can't get over how uncanny it is that the first time she ever watched the movie was when she was exactly, to the day and almost to the hour, as old as the main character. Needless to say, Maija was very intent on watching the whole movie. She is my little angel, although not the littlest angel in our family.

The littlest angel in our family, Forest, is almost 5 months old already! We are getting excited to finalize the adoption in just over a month. We're hoping to find out the court date in the next couple of weeks. I'm so grateful for all 3 of my little angels.

Four Months Old

Forest is 4 months old now and just had his check-up and shots yesterday. He was a little on the grumpy and sleepy side today, but he is such a sweet baby that even on a bad day he is easy. He's already 15 1/2 pounds and is in that adorable baby phase. The newborn days are over, and he's smiling and laughing a lot and is generally happier. He loves being in his own crib and rolls around in it or stares at the animals on his bumper and his walls. I can't say enough about what a sweet little guy he is and how much he has blessed our family.

The other update is that my parents, Frosty and Liisa, finally got their visas to Norway and are flying there on Thursday. They have been in Utah since June 1st waiting for their visas to come through, so now they will finally be able to go to their mission. We've heard from the other grandparents, Linda and Woody, in South Africa, and they are loving their mission. It's been fun to see how much our children love to talk about these places where their grandparents are serving as missionaries, and also to see how proud they are of them. We miss them, but we know what they're doing is a great thing.

We all enjoyed a fun fourth of July weekend up in the Arizona mountains in Pine. We went with friends from our ward and had such a great time hanging out, playing board games and letting our kids run up the stairs, down the stairs, outside, back up the stairs, back down the stairs, back outside.... Our friends have 2 girls the same ages as Maija and Rebekah as well as a 1 year-old daughter. They all loved playing together and Forest loved watching them run back and forth past him. It was great to get out of the heat and to see the greenery.

Here are some pictures of our trip to Pine: