More of the chick chickies.

We are having lots of fun with our chicks! They all have names and yes, I can tell the difference. :)
They are growing fast and even some different characteristics are emerging.
Here's some cuties from the last few days.

Here's Marty McFly, one of our Gold Stars, exhausted from time traveling.

Bert, one of our Silver Laced, and Rocky, our Americana, coming to say hi to Reagan. (yes, I'm aware that our chicks are girls. We really don't care that some of them have boy names.)

Princess Chick, our Buff Orpington, likes Toms too. Probably cause they smell like Payton's VERY stinky feet.

She LOVES to sit in the tulle on Reagan's ballerina dress.  Very fitting.

Mary Poppins, our other Silver Laced, practically perfect in every way.

Making my own Chicken Soup for the Soul. These gals do way more for me then reading someones fuzzy story.

I don't have any pictures of our Rhode Island Reds, Miss Hannigan and Annie. Oh, and my favorite, Doc Brown, the other Gold Star. Next time.:)

Baby chicks!!!

On Tuesday we got our baby chicks. We picked up our 8 and Eric's 15 (brave boy!) at once. The hatchery gave us two extra. It was a TON of excitement for one day...just a few days after the big move. Crazy week!
A few hours after we got them the power went out and I couldn't use the heat lamp. Fortunately the temp outside was just perfect for our little ladies and they got fresh air the rest of the day! 
Eric picked up his 15 when he got off work that night.
The next day we had a chick die from what I believe to be "pasting." That's what one of my books calls it at least. It's when their poop accumulates on their butts instead of shooting out. Sorry, that's the best way to describe it. It was also the runt of the bunch. About a third of the size of the rest. I tried very carefully to clean it and then held it for a long time to keep it warm but it just didn't get well. It was sad, but that's part of living on the "farm." :/
So since the hatchery had given us two extra, Eric then gave us his extra to replace the runt. So now we're back to 8 again! There is actually one other chick with "pasting" but she seems to still be growing and will occasionally try to clean herself. I'm not to worried but we are keeping an eye on her.

We have two Silver Laced, two Rhode Island Reds, two Gold Stars, one Buff Orpington, and One Americana. Eric got the same and more! 

From our first day...

The move.

So we've been in our new house for a week. The move went well...for people who hate the process of moving. It's exhausting, but we are SO glad to be in this house. We feel completely spoiled with what God has given us! Everyday I put things away and enjoy the space and just think how perfect this house is for us! Praise God!

A few from the night before the move and a few days after.

All the kids beds were taken apart and so on the last night at our first house we made a mattress room for the kids. They were excited!

Have I said that moving is exhausting? I'll say it again. MOVING IS EXHAUSTING!

Hopefully in the next few weeks I will post pictures of the new house after I've gotten things where I want them.

May in pictures

May totally flew by and I haven't kept up with blogging. Big surprise. So here's May in pictures.

the fart gallery. I mean the ART gallery.

More masterpieces from Payton this week.

This is Mom in a dress. Payton says that this dress has a picture on it of a sad person in a cage. Huh. Interesting. I DO so love to carry around small angry men in cages on my skirt. She nailed it!

This next one is Jason driving a truck. Payton says that he's honking the horn. BEEP BEEP.  In reality he is on a BEER run. One little line makes a pretty big difference sissy. Makes me think of the song, B double E, double R U N BEER RUN! I think I'm probably in the back seat with my $10 and my $5 and my fake id and SO happy to be on a beer run!

Adoption Update

Some have been asking about where we're at with our adoption. I know I haven't talked much about it for a while. There hasn't been a whole lot to update. We've been waiting to hear back on some things, which I did today. Yay!
So our next payment to our agency is the biggie. It's the one that is extremely large. Looking back, I'm so grateful that this payment was not at the very beginning of the process because if would have made me very discouraged. However, now into this process for a year and a half, I can find myself discouraged with the cost of adoption, BUT because I've seen God provided so much so far it's been easier to pull myself out of that discouragement. God has done and still is doing great things whether He decides to provide it all at once or spread it out. It's still His timing and He knows much more then we do. I'm grateful for that and it's becoming easier to be to not fret.
We applied for an interest free adoption loan through Lifesong for Orphans a while ago. They called and said that currently they did not have any funds to help us out but they felt we were perfect canidates and still wanted to help. They asked for permission to send our information on to Pathways for Little Feet. Well, after a few weeks of emails and more paperwork, Pathways called today and said that we have been approved for an interest free loan! It's a good chunk of money which will help incredibly, but there will still be a lot more needed to meet our current goal.
Once we pay our current payment to our agency it sounds like we will get our referrals!!! We are so anxious to get pictures of our kiddos! Once we do, I have no idea how much longer it will be. We work on one stage at a time. :)

Maybe you've also heard that we are moving! Jason's parents are moving into a new home and we are buying their current house. We are VERY excited for the extra space, which will help so much for  when we have five kiddos. Not to mention that there isn't any updating to do and no house projects to work on. We'll be able to move in and then work on projects that we WANT to work on like gardening and chicken coops! This move is such a blessing and we are so grateful that God has lined everything up! And Jason's brother is buying our current house so we are not having the stress of finding a buyer! Praise God! We close on the house June 15th and will move in the few weeks after that depending on timing for John and Becky.  So excited!

Please pray that God would continue to provide for the adoption and give us patience as we wait.

you don't see that in public school

I'm back. Well, at least for today.

Another post of "you don't see that in public school." Well, okay so a student in public school might be able to eventually take a cooking class in junior high or high school but not in 2nd grade. Last week Caedmon learned how to make an Egg in a Toast Hole. He made them for all of us the morning he learned (with a little supervision). He still has that "I'm afraid I might get burned" thing going on with his hands, but he did great! He will eventually learn to cook like a fearless mom who is more concerned with ruining the food then burning the tips of fingers.

Tonight we will be planting the garden at the new house. We're doing The Family Crawford Garden, which mostly consist of Uncle Eric and myself caring for the garden and everyone else helping by eating what comes out of the garden. Which seems to be working out so far. I told Eric that I'm not picky about how it gets planted as long as it doesn't look butt ugly.
I do want the kids to help out so they can learn about gardening. It will greatly benefit them into adulthood. I would just LOVE it if all three of our kids ended up having bright green thumbs. We shall see.... I'm pretty excited for them to help pick the produce. It is both a chance to appreciate hard work and and see what God can do with a seed, dirt, water, and some sunshine.