Melissa's New Chicks

Melissa had chickens when they lived in Texas and she sold them when they moved to Colorado. She has been looking forward to getting some again and a couple of weeks ago she placed an order. And now they're here! Delwyn, Ryan, and I went to go see them.

She has 7 chicks (that is going to be a TON of eggs in about 6 months!) and they live in a Rubbermaid tub in the basement in a closet under the stairs. Babies chicks have to be kept quite warm, so she has a heat lamp on them.

The girls love to hold them and love on them. They have named them and treat them like pets. Dark Chocolate, Milk Chocolate, Rosie, Goldie, and Pengu (short for Penguin, don't ask me how that came about, it was Camille's idea) are some of the names. Cute and clever!

Claire even likes to cuddle them up under her chin. She is so gentle with them.

I bet these are the most loved chicks in the world!

Delwyn and Melissa talked chicken talk the whole time we were there, coop plans, where to put the coop, and on and on. Austin and I tolerate chickens for our beloved spouses, but that's about our extent of chicken love, so I guess it's a good thing that Delwyn and Melissa can talk to each other about all things chicken related.

Happy Melissa with three of her new babies.

In the meantime, Austin was outside shooting. If chickens are Melissa's hobby, then guns are Austin's hobby. One advantage of country living in Elizabeth, you are allowed to have a target in your backyard.

Austin has an air gun that he uses in the yard. Ryan was thought it was pretty cool.

Fun times in Elizabeth. I know I say it all the time, but I love having my kids live close by and getting to be part of their lives!

A Day at the Museum with Denya

Denya is here for President's Day weekend! Yay! Saturday morning was our Stake Women's Conference, so we went to that. The theme was "Abide in my Love", with Paul Woodbury from Parker as the main speaker. Janae Coy is the Stake Relief Society President and she also spoke.  A few notes I took: Our Savior knows our needs because He felt them. Write down our experiences when we felt the Savior's love. I want to do this.  We are worth everything to our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Hope (wishful thinking) versus hope in Christ that God will fulfill His promises to us. They served a baked potato bar and salad for lunch with bit sized cheesecake for dessert. It was an enjoyable morning.

Denya played the game "Walk the Dogs" with the little girls at Sunday night family dinner. They were a little bit too young to play by the rules, but they sure had fun lining the dogs up!  Denya is such a fun aunt!

Denya wanted to do something fun on Monday. The weather was cold and a tad snowy, so being outside was not an option. We decided on the Denver Museum since we haven't been for quite awhile. Kimberlea had the day off, so she came too. There is a big dinosaur right inside the entrance, so the kids all looked at it while I bought some tickets. Dagny was quite worried, "A scary dinosaur--run fast!" she kept saying.

The kids really liked all of the animal exhibits. They were quite observant at looking at all the little details. There are lots of flowers, little animals like squirrels, birds, and other nature things in each exhibit besides the big animals. Dangy would get so excited about things, like a little butterfly in the exhibit and say, "Oh, it's adorable!" It was a little dark and hard to take pictures.

Fun rocks to climb on and a seal to love and pet! The museum has all kinds of fun things!

I don't remember this Discovery Zone, but maybe its because I didn't have kids this young when we went years ago. Or maybe it is new. Dinosaur bones were hidden in sand and there were shovels and brushes to use to uncover bones. I think the kids could have stayed here all afternoon!

Lincoln is getting so grown up, he wants to do everything the girls do! He loved the brushes.

This is a water station. There were plastic smocks for the kids to wear so they wouldn't get their clothes all wet. They had buckets and cups to pour water back and forth and animals to swim with in little mock river. Millie played with a dinosaur,

and Dagny had a dolphin and a whale.

Who said this is just for kids? Aunt Denya had fun with a fish.

This was in the space exhibit, I think it was a simulation of sand and mud from Mars. It was grainy, but not super sticky.

Ryan, Denya, and I played games every night. Ryan got two Yahtzees in both games we played tonight! No fair!! Of course he won both times!

Thanks for coming to visit us Denya!! We loved having you!

Landon's Birthday

Last Friday, February 16 was Landon's birthday. I watched the kids while he and Megan went out to dinner. They went to Red Lobster, one of their favorite places. We are having a little celebration today. We grilled some chicken, had scalloped potatoes, broccoli, and rolls. Landon picked applesauce cake with brown sugar frosting. Dagny and Lincoln were very interested in the candles!

Twenty-nine candles in the numeral version on that cake!

A couple of years ago Landon wanted to find a new hobby, so he started making bread! How fun and tasty as well! He borrows my bread slicer quite often and now he will have his own.

As soon as Landon took it out of the box, Dagny said, "It's adorable!"  Haha! I don't think that's how I would describe a bread slicer, but children can teach us to look for the best in everything. She's "adorable"!

Happy Birthday Landon! I love your sense of humor, outgoing personality, and cheerfulness. 

Denya and Britta at the MTC

I love, love, love this picture!! My wonderful, beautiful girls!!

This first Tuesday of each month, Denya goes to the MTC to teach senior humanitarian missionaries about media. Denya was doing a training in February while Britta was there, and through emailing, they hatched a plan to meet up for just a couple of minutes. One of Britta's classes was ending just about the time Denya's training was finishing up, and Britta was able to come to the building where Denya was working. It was a joyous 10 minute reunion. Denya had someone take a picture and here they are! Britta was a little homesick and it helped a lot to see her sister, even for just a few minutes. A sister is the best thing ever!!!

Superbowl Party 2018

This year's Super Bowl is between the Philadelphia Eagles and the New England Patriots. Some of us in this family like football more than others, but we all like a reason to get together and eat good food! I'm not much of a Super Bowl fan unless the Broncos are playing, and even then I'm only semi interested.

The game was good and some people ate and watched the game. We had hoagie sandwiches, shrimp, mozarella sticks,

and Kimberlea brought 2 kinds of dip and chips. Wade came after work and brought chicken tenders, wings, and onion rings.

For dessert, Wade brought Lemon Supreme and Apple pies,

and I made chocolate chip cookie dip and sweet Chex mix. No shortage of good food at this party!

Claire liked the  party food,

but Camille had more fun playing than eating. She has a pink elephant that she calls "kawoot" because that's the noise elephants make when they raise their trunks. Did you 

know that? She has had it since she was born (I think), and she takes it practically everywhere. The gray elephant is Dagny's, and Camille had fun letting the elephants play together.

And this sweet baby girl was just happy to sit on her Dad's lap.

The Eagles won the Patriots, 41-33. This was the first time the Eagles have ever won the Super Bowl, so that was exciting!