Gotta love baby chicks

I forgot to mention in my last few posts we have some new members of the family.....Baby chicks. Ok they are not really BABIES anymore, more like teenagers. Just what I need 12 more teenagers. Seriously tho they can be moody and a little snappy sometimes.
Early this year we decided we wanted to get some chickens. Not boiler chickens as we dont plan on eating them, just the eggs. We purchased 6 white leghorns and 6 brown sexlinks. The names of the chickens available "cracked" me up. But it is what it is. They are just a few weeks away from laying their first eggs.
Ron built the chicken coop and my gosh it turned out nice. The girls wanted him to just build them another coop cuz they had settled in while the babies were still in the brooding box and wanted to use it as a playhouse.

Here comes the bride and a bit of sadness

Well its official, my sister is a married woman. She and Rickie have been together for nearly 8 years, and have 2 sons together. I would say its about time, huh? It was a quiet (relatively speaking considering there was Holli and Rickies 7 , Erics 2 and my 2 kids involved) The day was beatiful and so was my sister. I didnt get pics of anything but us at the courthouse but they still turned out cute.
The same week my uncle Gus Hoover died. He was my mothers oldest brother. He had survived a long battle with brain cancer and was a year clear, when they found the cancer had spread to his bones. He will be missed greatly by his family and friends.

Summer starts early around here

The girls (and admittedly myself) have a serious case of SUMMER FEVER! The weather has been more than great! School is almost over, in fact Amaris graduates from kindergarten this week. Her offical last day is Wednesday. She will go to school Thursday but only for the award ceremony and a little reception afterwards. She has asked Dad to make her favotire chocolate chip banana muffins to share with everyone at the reception. He of course said yes.
We have the garden completely planted and all the starts and seeds are thriving. This year we have 2 kinds of cucumber, broccoli, califlower, early and late green cabbage, brussel sprouts, 6 varieties of tomato, radish, pole and bush beans, corn, potatoes, pumpkins and a sunflower garden.
We wanted to be able to afford a pool this year, since we bought the trampoline last summer there is a new toy needed to keep the girls busy durning the summer. Because Ron has been out of work since his leg injury we just knew the money would be tight so thought a $400 investment on a outdoor toy would be out of the question. Well I am a loyal craigslist reader and just happen to stumble across an older couple in Sedro Woolley who were selling everything needed for a summer of pool fun for only $60 bucks. This included everything from a 18x42 pool, ground cover, security cover, ladder, 4 huge blow up floats, and about $80 dollars worth of chemicals and filters to keep the pool in perfect running order all summer. Seems their teenage kids decided after just one summer a full size in ground pool was in order so their trash was our families treasure! We have it set up and oh my it has gotten so much use in just this week than I thought it would. The girls came home from school everyday last week and jumped in their swim suits! We had out of town guests this weekend and at one point we had 5 teenage girls and 3 kids under 7 in there at one time. Enjoy some of the first pics I took of the girls enjoying themselves

spring sports 09

Well spring soccer season has quickly come to an end. Amaris did very well her 2nd season she is quickly becoming an all star player. The team is young enough that the goals don't really matter much, unless of course you ask the kids. They know exactly how many goals they made. Madeliene seemed to enjoy herself as well. She ended up getting mono in the middle of the season so she missed 4 practices and 2 games. She is considering trying out for volleyball this fall and maybe taking a break from soccer. She was actively involved in her schools drill team and really enjoyed herself. They took 1st place in the Ski to Sea parade.