Pictures for Auntie Jen!

A few pictures for Auntie Jen of the menagerie!

 This is the new chick and duck set up! We've got chicken wire as a lid so the cats don't try to take any off as a snack. So far we've got 5 chicks and 2 duckies. We've got a new batch in the incubator that is much more promising than the first - that ended up with none hatching out. BUT, we did figure out why several didn't hatch (we accidentally cooked them) and why probably several others didn't (they appear to not have been fertile when we put them in) and then figured out that flipping them with dirty hands may have introduced bacteria into some of the others.. SO. While the first batch *failed* like any experiment - it was not a true failure.

 This is Oreo. Or Domino. Or Ol' Smitty. Or well. Whatever the kids happen to be calling him that day. He is the shy-er of the 2 boy bunnies we have. We are going to be adding to the herd whenever we can (as in we already know where we plan on getting it from, it just has to be old enough) to get a girl so we can start a small rabbit hatchery. (Yes, I know it's Rabbitry.. or something similar but spell check REALLY hates that word.)

 The boy really likes helping with the animals. They both do. If they didn't we would not have as many as we do.

 This is Black Foot. The Boy has claimed this one as his.

This is Goldie - the Ducky. The Girl has claimed it as hers.

 Both bunnies getting raisins. That's their favorite treat. 

This is Thumper. He's much more friendly and out going, but since we got the bunnies from didn't treat them well at all, they don't like to be snuggled. We are going to snuggly the new one so it will tolerate it better. 

This is the frog tank and frogs. Yes, there are frogs in this picture. I just poured a ton of fruit flies into the tank so there are a bunch of flies and frogs - can you find them?

 Black Foot and Goldie close up. 

Peek-A-Boo Ducky. 

Girl was being a super helper with all the cages.

A feisty boy!

Still to come are the Rupert (the Biggest Puppy Ever), Bear (Deaf dog), and Kitty Galore. Oh the Hamster! I always forget the hamster.

Our New House

Sooooo we moved! The new house is so pretty. Sooo here are some pictures!!

This is the Master Closet. I was standing in the middle of it. So yeah. It's the size of a room all in itself. 

This would be the fancy bathtub.

The laundry/bunny room. Oreo and Ol' Smitty say Hi.

 Gigi's room.

The Toy Closet. Every single toy in the house fits in this closet. It's awesome! There are no toy bins anywhere except IN HERE. Now. In here - it's hideous. But it ALL goes back. 

The Girl's side. 

 The Boy's side and the Closet of Doom.

The bar and a reading girl.

A 13 week old Rupert (who weighs 41 pounds).

This goes back 2 acres.

And this..

Fuzzy and Merlin sitting.. 

The living room.

The sun room makes a a fantastic school.

Christmas!

Christmas here was a very low key and calm-ish event. We were gotten up by a very excited pair of kids and threw some cinnamon rolls (that I made the night before and had rising) in the oven. After getting the animals fed and put outside and whatnot, it was Time.(Yes, Time with a capital "T" because in our house for certain people it is just that big of an event.)

Santa came and was very generous. There were also present from Mom and Dad, Gigi, and the kids favorite Auntie Jen.


They started on the stockings first - which I have no pictures of this year because I hadn't had caffeine yet and the brain was still trying to wake up and figure out what I was supposed to be doing.


Then, they started in on The Event.

 The girl got her very first (and probably only ever) American Girl doll. She had been wanting one for a while and the dolly hasn't left her arms since she got it. She also got some clothes for it so she could make it sparkle.

 The boy got a Nerf gun that's taller than he is. Oddly, he finds it hard to shoot. Go figure. It likes it so much he keeps trying to bring it with us in the car when we go places. No, no you can't bring that in the car and shoot me in the back of the head, but thanks for trying.

 Girl also go a real bow and arrow set. With our new house (if it ever closes - which is another story all together) there's plenty of wooded space that we own to set up a little archery area for her. She is giddy behind the expressionless facade.

Some of out close friends got each of the kids a gift as well. They got The Boy a Star Wars blaster - which is also used to shoot the bad guys on Power Rangers and the Girl a sparkly pink Barbie type doll that's not Barbie.


We put out the traditional cookies for Santa. They LOVE decorating cookies almost as much as eating them.

Santa found them delicious and ate them ALL up.


We even did gingerbread houses that ended up more as a mini village that just one house.

The icing may have been a little bit... Overdone.. But they had a great time doing it!

Picture Day Has Cometh.

I'm behind on posting pictures.

 We've gone to the zoo with friends.

The Boy learned how to ride a bike (well, with training wheels at least).

We took a trip to the Legoland in Kansas City.

We took a trip to see Grandad and went fishing at his pond.

We saw a kangaroo hopping around free and unfenced at the zoo.

We saw some baby pigs at the Pumpkin Patch.

And a baby cow..

 Here the two look innocent sit nicely with their friend. 

 Then, the Boy tries to eat the Girl's brains. 

 I don't even know what they're doing here.

Here, the girls sleep and the Boy becomes possessed. 

But best of all, we saw our friend at the Pumpkin Patch!

Since posing for picture clearly went so well, we took them to get lost in the corn maize! 

Which leads us to:

HALLOWEEN!

Wheew!


And that catches most of the way back up!