What came first the chicken or the orange??

So, our chickens have started laying eggs. We consistently get 18 or more a day! This is a very exciting event at our house. We got the chicks, gave them food and water and tried to keep them away from Homer (he got a few -8- OOPS!). Now, they lay eggs!!! We have about 23 chickens so they aren't all laying, but they will be.

Today, was possibly the funniest chicken conversation ever...

Let me first say that our chickens (I don't know about others) will eat anything. We give them left over  lettuce, celery, watermelon, just about anything. That being said, this morning Neno gave them watermelon, oranges and celery.

When we ventured out to gather eggs this afternoon, Annabelle got really excited and yelled inside the coup to Ava Grace -

"LOOK, Ava Grace, the chickens layed ORANGES, too!!!"

Oh, that girl!!

Turns out, the chickens won't eat oranges!!

And if anyone can tell me why my pictures are loading onto Blogger like this, I would appreciate it. It is making me crazy! I promise they don't look like this on my camera or computer - UGH!!

2 months ago

10 weeks ago today, I gave birth to this precious boy. I seem to always take his picture on the go so instead of a cute sign or onesie, I guess his monthly markers will be taken in the carseat. All creativity is lost with #4 (I truly hope not, but it seems to be this way).

I took this picture on his two month birthday, April 3rd, right before Neno and I walked out the door to take him to Midland. Poor baby was circumsized that day. Since he was born at home, this was the best option  - in Midland with a Mohel. I would ellaborate, but it is not a fun topic and it could be its own blog.

At Landis' two month Dr. appointment...

Height: 24 3/4 inches

Weight: 12 lbs 5 oz

He is off the charts on height (97+%) and pushing it in the weight department (90%). He is definitely a health boy!!

I don't want to forget...

This happened back in February, but I have been telling myself for weeks to blog it or I will forget it...

On Thursday mornings, Annabelle, Adalyn, Landis and I go to Community Bible Study (CBS) in Lubbock. It starts at 9:15 so I try to walk out the door by 8:30. On this particular Thursday in February, I went out to my car to load up the ridiculous amount of bags/diaper bag/purse I have to take with me. I got to the car and was surprised to find it locked. We live out in the boonies and I rarely, if ever, lock my car. Anyway, I came back inside and instantly went on a search for my keys. Neno had been the last to have them so I started texting and calling him to ask where he put them. Of course, I had already checked the places that he thought they might be. I am starting to panic, because they are no where to be found and they are the only set that we own.

As I was texting my core leader at CBS to tell her that I might be late or that we might not make it at all, the house phone rings and I recognize it as Ropes Elementary School. I answer the phone to a sweet, yet very confused voice on the other end that says, "Mommy, your keys were in my backpack." How in the world???

Seeing as I am stuck at the house and Neno is 30 minutes away at work, I call Jeremy. He was just down the road at the cattle pens and of course, being the hero that he has often been, he went to the school to get them for me. He even had them back at the house in time for us to get on the road to CBS and still be on time.

I have yet to ever figure out how that happened, but at least they were found. Who knows, I was probably putting AG's lunch, notebook and my keys in her bag thinking that was normal. I just chalk it up to another one of my mom-of-four moments. I am sure it is only the first of many.

Tooth Fairy Fun

Two weeks ago, Ava Grace came to me complaining of her gums hurting and though I had no idea what it could be, I said, "maybe you are going to have a loose tooth." Low and behold, when I picked her up from school that day, she was wiggling her bottom tooth (right where she was complaining about the sore gums).

We shipped her off to Ruidoso, with Uncle Mimi and Aunt Bess for a snow skiing weekend (more on that later) and she proceded to wiggle away at that tooth. Uncle Mimi didn't think the tooth would be in much longer and he was right. One week later, right before dinner, we convinced her to push the tooth back with her tongue and her daddy messed with it a little. We got her a kleenex and told her just to pull it. I really didn't think she would just grab it and pull but I was proven wrong. The next thing I knew, she was freaking out from it bleeding (which was all of 2 seconds) and then she was ready to show off her new smile for all to see.

As soon as it was out, we started discussing the tooth fairy and what she thought she would get for the tooth. She quickly let us know that the tooth fairy should bring $5 or $20 so that she can pay to fix her Itouch faster, but that $1 would also be okay. I tried to stear her toward the $1 amount so that she wouldn't be disappointed.

I am pretty sure she ended up with $2 for this first tooth. That is a pretty generous tooth fairy!

We were starting to think she may never lose any teeth, but now that she has, she looks so old and it makes this mommy a little sad. Though I have enjoyed every stage of their lives, I am pretty sure I would keep them babies forever.

Announcing Landis Doc

 This gorgeous boy turned one month old over the weekend and I actually got his announcements out so that they hit mailboxes as he turned one month! How is that for planning (ha, I wish)? It really was pure coincidence. Either way, I can't believe Landis has been in our lives for a month!!

At one week old, my amazingly talented friend, Monica took his new born pictures and then went on to create the following masterpiece!!! I love them!!

 I have to admit, I was a little torn on who these should go to. I mainly sent them to family and some friends, but I hesitated in sending them to some friends as they had already seen him 2, 3, 4 times in the last month. I figured they were a little over the fact that we had a new baby. I didn't want it to be over kill. Is that weird? So if you are one of those friends who didn't get one, it doesn't mean I don't love you. In fact, if you really want one, I have extra.

Thanks again, Monica! I love all his pictures and adore these announcements.

A Little Love

Here are our Valentines that the girls had for school...



We attached pop rocks to AG's

Unfortunately, the Monday that Annabelle and Adalyn were supposed to go to school, it snowed and school was cancelled. We took them to our friends at Bible study and gymnastics instead.

AB wanted suckers with hers

Can you guess what AM had with hers???

Boy, Oh Boy!

So we have been a little busy the last 3 weeks, but...

We finally did it! The 4th time is a charm!! It's a BOY!!

Landis Doc Falls was born Friday, February 3rd at 5:39 p.m.

He weighed 9 lbs. 4 oz and measured 21 3/4 inches

He is pure perfection!!!

This go around was a little less crazy than the birth of his sister, Adalyn Mae. First of all, the midwives made it!! They were actually in Lubbock doing appointments with other mommies on Friday. Convenient!! I myself saw them at 11 a.m. and they said that I was super close to having a baby - I was a day past my due date, so I would hope I was close. Anyway, they wanted me to do a few things that might help progress things and though I was open to it, I was still a little apprehensive. The list included: castor oil, pumping and walking, two of which didn't sound terrible. Hesitantly, I took one dose of castor oil (they wanted me to do a possible 4 - no way!!) at 1 p.m., finished my errands in Lubbock and headed home about 2.

When I arrived home, I just kept feeling like this is happening soon... I called Neno! I was having pretty regular contractions, but was second guessing myself to some extent. Even after 3 kids, I thought the initial contractions would be more intense, but anyway, I texted the midwives and told them I was having a lot of activity and be ready to head my way. Their response was "Cool".

I proceded to do a few things around the house and then sat down to start watching Grey's Anatomy when I felt the urge to pee - again. I knew I had just gone and reluctantly got up and headed to the girls bathroom... good thing! My water broke!! It was about 3:30. My first call was to the midwives so that they would get on the road from Lubbock to our house. The next was to Neno to see where he was. He was about to turn on our road. With that, I breathed a sigh of relief.

Here is where this pregnancy/labor was different than the other, yet again, I didn't feel like this baby was about to drop out. I was walking around, still talking to my parents and picking up stuff around the house. Neno arrived home expecting to catch another baby. He was definitely surprised to see me standing up in the living room like it was any other day.

We got Annabelle and Adalyn up from their naps and waited for Ava Grace to get home from school, on the bus, so that my dad could take them all to Jeremy and Beth's to hang out until the arrival of this baby. All of that is a blur to me - Mom and Dad had that covered!! Thank goodness for them.

The midwives arrived a little after 4. They did give Neno a scare when he read a text from them that said something about forgetting my chart at the hotel in Lubbock. He was convinced that they went back and he was starting to sweat. He even called them right before they got here just to make sure they weren't lost.

Once they arrived, they checked the babies heart rate and had me get up and walk around. At that point, my contractions became more intense and more frequent. Neno and the midwives joked that this could go on for hours, they were watching TV and we even said I could've had a water birth. They acted like we had all the time in the world. I on the other hand announced that we were having this baby by 5:30 (I think it was 4:30/4:45 at that point). I stood in the living room having contractions, my mom took one last picture of Neno and I and about 5, we made our way to our room to have a baby.

I was sure I was ready to push, but for some reason this kid wasn't just zipping right out like all of the others. I was getting a little tired and the midwives had me role to my side to rest. I was much happier the way I was since the pain intensified. Little did I know that this kid was crowning along with an elbow. Yikes! The midwives worked to get the arm down so that the head would come out on its own. We are so thankful they were delivering and not Neno!! Adalyn was nothing compared to this.

Anyway, at 5:39 (I was 9 minutes off) we had a baby!!! Shana filled him over on my stomach and covered him in a towel. At that point, she told Neno, "I am not going to look, Daddy. You come do it."

He walked around the bed and lifted up the towel. He got a totally shocked look on his face and my mind instantly thought, he is shocked that it is another girl. I was wrong. He took a step back and his eyes lit up as he told me, "We got our boy." In total boy, celebratory fashion, he gave me a high five!! Then he came and gave me a kiss. I was still in shock and I actually asked if he was joking. He couldn't believe I thought he would joke about that. You never know with my husband.

I finally had the chance to turn him over and look for myself. But really for the first week, I still couldn't believe it really happened. We have a boy!

Nana meeting our little man. That is one proud papa!

The morning after and he is already wide-eyed!

Cuddling with daddy!

Showered with love by Ava Grace. The girls can't get enough!

Obviously, neither can we!

A lot has happened in 3 weeks and hopefully, I can get caught up, but I had to introduce you first.

A Brydson Family New Year

I adore my family and was so excited when they decided to come spend New Year's weekend with us so that I didn't have to travel and we could be together to complete the holiday season. Unfortunately, we weren't all together as we were missing Wayne, Melissa, Keelie and Westin.

Mom and Dad arrived on Wednesday, while B, Molly and crew came on Friday. It was a short weekend but so worth it and the kids went non-stop the entire time.

 Bubba and Neno bonded over beer, fire, cooking out and shooting at stuff. B shot a prarie dog and Wills shot a crane. He was one happy kid as it was the first thing he ever shot! It is being mounted - who knows where it will go, but it is getting done.

 I am continually in awe of these two people. They are Godly, amazing parents and so generous with their time, love, friendship, etc. Thanks B and Molly for making the trip. I know it was a long drive, but we loved every minute of you being here. I just wish we could do it more!!!

 Have I mentioned in previous blogs that we love smores? It seems like they have become a staple when we are all together. I also think we all just love to sit and talk by a good fire.

 The kids all rode Jose and Cadillac and had a ball until Jose got a little excited and decided to trot with AG and Marlee on him. AG quickly jerked the reigns and when Jose crow hopped (a little)...they quickly jumped off. It was a little more than they could handle.

Molly snapped this picture of me and my dad. Pretty cute and...look at the belly!!!

Of course, the weekend flew, but we made great memories, got to share a little of our world with our family and loved every minute of it!!!!

Pictures to go with Christmas 2011

So I should have included these in the previous post, but after writing it, sitting on it of a few days and then thinking about what a pain it is to add pictures after the blog is written, I chose to go this route.

Reading with Granna

Adalyn's new ride

Loving presents

Reindeer food is a must

Snowball fight with daddy's new snowball throwers

Uncle MiMi and Aunt Bess gave AG this gear since they are taking her skiing in Feb.

Brothers with Brother-In-Laws. What a crew!!!

One of three trees. I loved all of them

AG helping with cheese balls

Pillow pet from Granna - love it!

2/3 of the Barron Family. So fun to have them in our home

Blessing the food and our home. Good thing I had that wall knocked out!!

Sweet Cousins and look how well they share

One final note to Santa. They were working so hard

Cousins putting on a play. They were all so cute and creative

Jerry reading the story of Jesus' birth. Wouldn't be Christmas without it, in more ways than one!

Christmas 2011

I don't know if I have felt overwhelmed about all the things that I could write about from Christmas or if I have already shifted gears to January - birthdays, new baby, back to school, etc., either way, this post is way overdue and I am still not sure where to start. I haven't even gone through all the pictures and I know there are tons. We had at least 3 good cameras going the whole time which for the Falls family means hundreds of pictures. I am pretty sure I only ended up with mine on my computer so one day I will get to the rest.

No matter how you slice it, Christmas/New Years 2011 was amazing!!

I started saying in August that we would host the Falls family for Christmas. By the time the holidays rolled around, I would be well into this pregnancy (not fun to travel), we have a new house that we wanted to host everyone in and I wanted my kids to be home on Christmas day to play with their stuff. Plus, there are technically more Falls peeps in Ropesville/Meadow than there are in Sherman/Howe.

I never waivered on wanting everyone here and as it got closer, I got more and more excited. We finished projects, bought food, planned meals between Jeremy and Beth's and our house and even planned a day to spend with extended family that would also be in the area from Michigan.

After a record trip to the grocery store, Beth and I were ready to cook and host the whole crew!!

On the Thursday before Christmas, family started arriving and by Friday afternoon, everyone was here. PARTY!!! We cooked, played games, did crafts, played in the snow - pretty much whatever we wanted to do.

On Saturday, the Henson's and Noordyk's decended on our home. Here is the really fun part, Delinda and Mike (brother & sister), along with my mother-in-law, Carol, are grandkids of the original owners of the home Neno and I now live in... so fun to have them back in the house. I got to here more stories of time spent here and they helped us officially dedicate our home. Thank you for the blessings on our home and for your compliments on changes made. Pregnant or not, I am sure I would have cried either way from their words - and I did!! Oh, did I mention we all totalled 39. 39 people in my house is a lot!! But it was wonderful.

We ended the day by getting ready for Santa, sprinkling reindeer food and settling in with books read by Granna. It was a full day!

Sunday brought Santa and so many wonderful goodies. In Neno's family they love to stuff stockings (nothing actually fits in the stocking, but it is so fun!)! So we all spent a good hour going through our loot. Then it was on to a yummy breakfast, showers and getting ready for the day.

Here is where our day took an interesting and nasty turn... we have had some trouble in the last few months with plumbing on the living side of our house - 2 bathrooms. We had a plumber get his snake caught in our pipes trying to work out the issues, we had the waste pumped out and still on Christmas day, we have issues. Jeremy and Neno decided to tackle it so that we had use of toilets and showers. Really, on Christmas day???? They got the back-hoe, took the top off the tank (which was pretty much empty due to pumping the week before) and Neno climbed down in to see if he could see what the problem was. He found the end of the snake that the plumber had stuck 2 months before. He grabbed the end and started pulling. Once he got the snake out, here came the rest - YUCK!! Needless to say, drains started draining and we were back in business. Thanks babe for taking on that disgusting job, I am pretty sure I am burning those coveralls that are still in a heep on the garage floor.

After showers, we were back to celebrating Christmas!! As is tradition (and it should be), we read the Christmas story and were gladly reminded of what Christmas is about. We took time to go around the family and say one word that described our relationship with Jesus. Lots of amazing things were said and again, I cried. My word was "Plan", God has a plan for me, for my family and as long as I let him remain in control, it reveals itself in the most amazing ways. This year and this house have been proof positive of that!!

We continued with lots of great presents and a new trial of Chinese Christmas amongst the family. Neno and I got some great stuff and despite not being really sure how to run it with each of us bringing two presents, it worked out well.

It was another great day, full of fun, food and family. It doesn't get much better!!! I wasn't even worn out beyond belief. This baby cooperated and let me get some sleep and was rather kind to my feet and back since I did a lot of standing in the kitchen.

Sadly, it all came to an end on Monday when everyone headed back home, but I am already to host the next go around again in 2 years!!