We had a surprise visit from Grandpa Tim. We were all so happy to see him. The children enjoyed having him around - we don't get to see our family enough! We hope to see you again soon!

Reading

With the girls

The children keep finding caterpillars and bringing them into the house! The kids and Uncle John were cracking up at the caterpillar traveling the world!

The kids made a home for the caterpillar

But later in the day we realized they had escaped! One was on the floor and the other we eventually found...

We did look up what this caterpillar would become and it is a Tiger Moth.  We let the caterpillars back outside so they could hibernate for the winter.

We had a burn pile going this morning, mostly our leftovers from making the coop.

David explaining about the fire, steam, smoke, etc.

The boys intently watching

C3 not wanting to be near the fire!

The children were excited to go see if we had eggs, here is a picture before we went to look for eggs in the nesting boxes.

At the nesting boxes

Eggs!

New hens

Surprise attack!

Tonia and Baby C

Swinging on the gate

C2 lost another tooth!

Uncle John

Blowing grass

Eating grass!?

Awwww

Blowing dandelions

We planted one bagof  our bulbs today.  

Here are some pictures from today!

Team work!

C3 with a bounty of tomatoes and snow peas from our garden. I couldn't decide which picture I liked best so I put both!  We want our girls to know how to garden and grow food for their families when they have them. C3 helps me with the harvesting. I am going to have her help me with the planning for next year of what we are going to plant.

Dahlias - aren't they pretty?

Caitlin is learning the art of flower arranging. This girl loves flowers. I want to have a cutting garden next year, I love fresh flower bouquets too!

C3 turned 4 today! I can't believe my baby girl is 4. She is such a delight and brings a bubbly happiness to our home!

Opening presents this morning. The boys got her some new crayons. One of her favorite things to do is color.

 C3 loves flowers, so we bought her a couple packs of bulbs that her and I will plant together.

Uncle John got her some My Little Pony's. she is in her ballet clothes...

She wanted a purple cake! You can't really tell by the picture but the cake is purple.

There were some magic relighting candles on the cake so she had to keep blowing them out. C2 was looking at all the smoke!

Baby C will be 6 months in less than a week - where does the time go?? She is such a delight. She always has a big smile on her face, and her hair is just so cute it sticks up everywhere! I got these cute headbands and bows to help control her wild hair!

C3 and C4 just love their little sister, they always want to hold her.

Trying rice cereal for the first time. Baby C is eating like a champ!

Our six "chicks" were getting big and in desperate need of a proper coop, well they not only got a coop but a palace! Our friend from church, Pozun, designed and did most of the building of the palace.  Here are some pictures of our "poultry palace".

Here we go!

Fencing

Starting to look like a coop

My workers!

A cute little chick

Getting there

nesting boxes

roosts

Filling the nesting boxes

I have a weather vane!

Bringing the chickens to their new home

Mr. Pozun

The chickens are loving their new home. We should start getting eggs in October. We will probably get about a dozen or so chicks next sping, our neighbors are all wanting eggs!

This was a whole family project, it was nice to do it as a family and work together, I am so glad it is done though! It was every weekend for a month!

Thank you Mr. Pozun we couldn't have done it without you!

I have so many things I want to share and so many pictures to share but I can't find my card reader to get the pictures onto the computer! Ugh! I will do a search this weekend!

The chicken coop is completed! Yay! Our hens should start laying eggs in October.

Baby C is rolling all over the place and laughing up a storm. She has such the sweetest smile.

David started his new job within Microsoft and is loving the challenge.

C1, 2, and 3 went to VBS this week and had a great time.

I will look for the card reader and hopefully have some pictures up soon!

Things have sure been busy around here! Life is sure busy with 5 little ones and still moving into a house! We are mostly moved in, there are so many projects - now just to priortize them! I did an impromptu photo shoot with the kids last weekend, I needed updated pictures of the children for our mantle.

This boy did not want to smile for me - we had to tell him not to smile and not to laugh and that got him to smile - stinker!

C2 was my little model, he let me take tons of him. He lost his first tooth (bottom).

Here is another one that didn't want her picture taken! I caught her as she came around the post...ha ha!

This little one is so serious, I could not get her to smile or sit still!

Baby C is getting so big, I can't believe she will be 4 months on the 28th! Time sure flies.

We now have some chickens (6 to be exact)! It will be nice to have fresh eggs, I have heard once you have fresh eggs it is hard to have store bought eggs.

We are starting to build them their proper coop this weekend.

Our garden is coming along, here are some pictures of our garden.

Snowpeas

Tomatoes

Apples- we have about 5 trees on our property, I can't wait to plant more fruit trees.

Well we hope you all have a wonderful week, I will catch you up again next weekend. Hopefully there will be pictures of a completed chicken coop!

I am getting rid of one of the biggest idols in our house, the computer!

We have not hooked up our PC and are planning not to. You have probably noticed a lack of blogging...

I am planning to do a blog entry once a week in the evening on either Friday or Saturday - after the kids are in bed. The computer has just done bad things in this house and it just can't be available to us.

We love you all! Thanks for understanding!

We had a great 4th. David got to help set up the city's fireworks again and had a good time doing that. After set up the whole family joined him and the rest of the crew and their families for a BBQ and front row seating for the fireworks show. The kids did a lot better this year and weren't as scared of the fireworks.

Here are some pictures from the day courtesy of Kei.

Mommy and C3

C3

Me and The Wharton Girls

Aren't they sweet?

This is the look I got when I asked if I could switch places with them.

Piggy back ride with big brother

C4 being dramatic

My five year old!

C2 wanted to go for a hike. Here is some of the group before the hike.

Me and baby C enjoying the hike.

David and C4, she kept up pretty well.

Snack time!

The Mills Fam

 We came home and had pizza and cupcakes.

We went to Red Robin the night before his birthday. Red was there and came to visit our table. 

Waiting for them to be done singing so he can eat his ice cream sundae!

 One of C2's birthday gifts was a slip-n-slide. Here he is being very cautious and sloooow!

 C1 going as fast as he could!

Our friend Tonia was over she was enjoying it as much asthe little kids were!

C1 and Tonia racing

We have had visitors in our new house already! Grandpa T and Uncle J came for a visit and to help the first two days we were in our house.

Grandpa T and C2 read for awhile on the couch. Grandpa T's visit was way too short, we need you for longer next time around!

Uncle J came and helped with the move - he was such a  BIG help! Here he is spending some special time with Baby C.

Grandmom came for a nice visit. We all got to spend some quality time with Grandmom!

Sorry for the lack of blogging! It has been a busy month! We are IN OUR HOUSE!!! Yay! We moved  one month ago today - and it has been busy ever since. I am so happy to be be in OUR house.  A lot has happened in the last month and I will be posting a lot of pictures...

For now here are some pictures of our new house.

Our house

Our barn

Pasture

Here are some of the kids enjoying time on our back deck.