Barefoot outside

Zoo day!

2012-02-07T15:54:00.000-06:00

Last Thursday we went to the Kansas City Zoo. We have a membership and almost never get to go in the Winter time. However this year we have had unseasonably warm weather. This last week on Feb. 2nd we had 60's so we went to the Zoo with my Mom. She hadn't been since I was a kid. She really enjoyed it. The KC Zoo was very run down in the 80's and very depressing. They have made it so nice now with most animals having a natural type of habitat. The weather was so great. All the animals were out lounging around. Here are a few pictures.

Giovanni! 4 months old!

2012-02-06T15:43:00.000-06:00

My sweet funny face is 4 months. I can't believe it! He is rolling over and scooting around. He has tried out the Johnny Jumper seat and loves it. He is starting to drool and chew, teeth are just around the bend. I love this little guy so much! He is really a joy of a baby.

Locks of Love

2012-01-02T08:00:00.000-06:00

Several weeks ago Gioia and I went to get our hair done. I was getting some color and she wanted to go shorter. Luckily she had enough to give to Locks of Love. They require 10 inches. Wow! So here are the before and after pictures. She is loving her short do. She says its easier to brush with no tangles.

Baby update.

2011-12-31T08:00:00.000-06:00

I thought I would do a catch up post for baby Giovanni. He is growing like a weed. He is starting to wear 6-9 month clothes and he is just 3 months old. He smiles and laughs at us. He loves his daddy and will grin and cry for Daddy to hold him. He is a pretty good baby and sleeps well at night, waking up just to eat.

Christmas Fun!

2011-12-30T15:40:00.000-06:00

We had a great Christmas! Gioia, Dominic, and Luca all got new bikes. Giovanni got new clothes and a soft rocking horse. The big kids also got G: Generation girl doll and horse, D: Woody Doll, L: Buzzlightyear. They have been having a blast with all their new things. The best part is that this week the weather has been in the 50's and sunny! So the kids have actually got to enjoy their bikes.

I bought Massimo lots of music stuff for his Man Cave. He got me a Mothers Ring and a Shark Steam Mop that I had been wanting. It was great! We had Christmas with my Mom and all the family. The kids were in a Christmas Program at Church. Gioia also sang in the Kids Choir at Christmas Eve Mass. So we have been busy and really enjoying the Holiday season and the birth of Jesus to its fullest!

November update.

2011-11-17T20:22:00.001-06:00

Here is my sweet boy at 6 weeks. He was 12 1/2 pounds! We are having his baptism in a few weeks. That will be nice.

We are getting ready for the Holidays. I have the Christmas cards printed and will mail them in December. We are starting our shopping for the kids. We even got a new Espresso maker for us on sale with a mail in rebate. $70 for a $200 machine. :) It makes awesome coffee. The big kids are in classes with our Homeschool group. They have taken classes like: gift making, play writing, wood working and art. They do Gymnastics, Sunday School and 4H. So we are really busy!

Our chickens are laying pretty well. We have whittled down the raccoon population for now and haven't lost any more birds.

Baby Bathtime!

2011-11-13T14:54:00.001-06:00

Baby Giovanni taking his first tub bath.

Giovanni is one month old.

2011-11-04T14:05:00.002-05:00

Today my sweet Giovanni is one month old! How did this happen? It must have happened in my sleep deprived hazy. LOL! Anyway, here he is in his over 10 lb goodness. :)

We also tried to take a holiday photo today. I should use this for my cards. I really should. It's pretty hilarious after I got done being mad that they couldn't act right for 10 minutes. The photo was perfect except for Gioia acting the idiot.

3 weeks old

2011-10-25T17:59:00.000-05:00

Last week when Giovanni had his two week appointment he was 9 lbs and 12oz. Today he is 3 weeks old.Here are a couple pictures of his royal cuteness.

Stationery card

2011-10-10T12:45:00.001-05:00

Double Take Blue Birth Announcement

Shutterfly cards for Valentine's Day, Easter & Father's Day.

View the entire collection of cards.

Baby is here!

2011-10-05T12:37:00.002-05:00

Baby is here! Giovanni Lee Perreca was born on October 4th at 2:14am. He is 8lbs 2oz and 21 inches long.

This picture was taken with my camera phone. So not the best, but I will get some more in the next few days.

38 weeks pregnant!

2011-09-17T08:50:00.001-05:00

Luca turns 3!

2011-09-07T08:00:00.000-05:00

Luca turned 3 this week! I can't believe it, the time has flew! It is hard to buy gifts for the third child. We have so many toys. He is also not much help because as I would ask what he wanted, he kept saying "BIG cupcake!" Ok! I can handle big cupcakes but what else. So we went with this awesome pirate ship sand box. It is really for all the kids of course. He also got some legos, rain boots and bucket and shovel. He was really happy with all his gifts and they have been playing a lot in the sand box.

These ships don't move themselves people! I put it all together and got the men to move it to the final resting spot by the clubhouse/swing area.

Renassiance Festival

2011-09-06T08:00:00.002-05:00

We went to the Ren Fest over the weekend with my BIL and his girlfriend. It was really fun. The kids had a blast. We bought them swords and hats. We watched the Jousting Match, some singing and a Fire Guy who was really cool. We also ate yummy food and walked around in the beautiful 70 degree weather. It was a great day.

Finishing things up. King quilt.

2011-09-05T17:20:00.003-05:00

I have been working on finishing up projects before the baby comes. It feels really good to be doing craft projects again and especially finishing up ones that have been started for a while. This weekend I got my King size quilt done for my room. So in this first picture I have made the two cedar nightstands, the headboard and the quilt. :) The only thing left for this room is to order two chocolate brown roller shades and make the window curtains. Then the room will be totally done.

The quilt I have been working on for a year. I took a long time off from it but finished it this weekend. The back side (2nd picture) is strawberry fabric and pink with brown dots for the binding.

Dominic turns 6!

2011-08-31T12:47:00.002-05:00

My big guy turned 6 yesterday! We had a park playdate and cupcakes for his birthday. Then at home later he got to open presents. He got new shirts, a pillow pet and his skateboard and gear. So far he is a little afraid of falling, which is fine with me because he goes slowly. :)

Baby bump - 35 weeks.

2011-08-28T08:00:00.000-05:00

Not the most glamorous picture in the world but here it is. 35 weeks preggo. Feeling pretty great. I spent over a month this summer with major back pain. I finally got a chiro to work it out for me. Anyway, we are all getting very excited for baby to make his/her arrival. We are also excited to see what we get girl or boy. :)

First dress I ever made.

2011-08-27T16:06:00.002-05:00

I had some awesome corduroy fabric that I wanted to make something with, so I attempted a dress. Other than having a small problem with the pattern, it turned out pretty well. Its just a simple over the head dress. It fits her pretty well. I can see a few things that I would make differently next time. I am planning on making a matching one for me baby niece. I think it will be so cute to get the two girls in a picture together. The dress is a very bright navy blue with the green and white paisley which looks awesome on my brunette who has blue eyes.

Gioia turns 8!

2011-08-17T12:51:00.004-05:00

My sweet girl turned 8 last month! She is getting so big. She is so smart and really fun to be around. She had a slumber party for her birthday. They had a great time.

120th Annual Jameson Picnic

2011-08-16T15:39:00.004-05:00

This past weekend Aug.11-13th was the Jameson Picnic. It is our little hometown fair. Its been going on for 120 years and though it has gotten much smaller, it is still really fun. The weather was GREAT for once.

The kids were in the Talent show on Thursday night.
Gioia sang "When you say nothing at all" by Allison Krauss. She won 2nd place in the 7-12 age group. Dominic got up there last minute and sang one verse of "You are my Sunshine." He also got 2nd place. Of course there were only 2 kids in Dominics age group 0-6.

Then on Friday night Luca was in the baby show. He didn't win but thats ok. Zoey (my sisters baby) won the 0-6 month girls group. She is super adorable.

Saturday was a parade and kid games. Dominic got 1st place in the Watermelon eating contest. Gioia won the sack race. Luca won 2nd in pennies in the sand game. So they all won in some game. Dominic won a few more things that I am forgetting right now. I think he won a place in the sack race too.

Farm improvements.

2011-07-08T13:59:00.004-05:00

We have been trying to finish up projects around the farm. One major project is extending our pole barn. We are planning to have room to store the cars and also our wood for winter. You can see in this picture that they have the sides up and one bay has the roof finished. M has to put the tin on the last two bays and then he wants to make rolling doors for the fronts.

We also have the chicken pen up. My brother and my husband got the poles in and fence up. We may later add a roof on it but we are seeing how it goes first.

Our neighbors came down and baled the hay in our first field. They got about 12 small round bales. We were just glad to have someone come and cut it for us.

Sling Chair

2011-06-30T09:52:00.003-05:00

We have been in need of some more outdoor chairs. So when I found these plans:
http://ana-white.com/2011/06/wood-folding-sling-chair-deck-chair-or-beach-chair-adult-size
I knew I wanted to make these. I ordered the fabric and last weekend got the wood. It is pretty comfortable I must say. The kids love it. This is the adult size. They are already hounding me that I have to make 3 kid chairs. :) It still needs some work. I have to sand and stain it. Building it only took about 1 hour and sewing the fabric pieces about 30 minutes.

It is adjustable so you can recline to an almost flat position. It also folds up flat for storage. The fabric is woven through the slats with dowels (like a curtain) so you can take it off and throw it in the washer. Nice!

ZOO!

2011-06-17T10:25:00.003-05:00

This week my big kids are at Zoo Camp. It is all week day camp at the KC Zoo. They have been having a blast. The teachers said Dominic did excellent. We made it there on time, I picked them up on time and we didn't forget lunchs or anything. Success!! One morning my sister and her baby met us there to see the Zoo. It was fun. Zoey stayed awake the whole time and might have even noticed some of the animals. She will be more into it next year. :)

Me, Zoey (niece) and Luca on the tram.

Mommy and Luca

Luca on the Carousel.

Retro Fabric diaper bag.

2011-06-02T11:04:00.003-05:00

I found this link to make your own tote bag. It was a little different than bags I had made before but overall I really liked it. I made it in one evening. I totally love this mushroom fabric. I have had it for a while now and looking for a great project to use it on. So this will be my new diaper bag. The inside fabric is some espresso upholstery fabric I had left over from my headboard project for my bed. It is nice and thick and washable. I think it turned out great. Notice how all the fabric lines up and everything. YEAH! I love it when it works out the first time.

It has a brown courdory pocket on the outside of the front.

It has three pockets across on the inside.

http://sewprimkhris.blogspot.com/2010/04/tote-bag-tutorialfree-pdf-pattern.html

All around the Farm.

2011-05-25T19:24:00.004-05:00

Here are some great flowers we planted this year. Mom! They don't look like thistles now! HA HA!

Our garden is getting off to a great start. You can see our chicken coop in the background. The wooden poles next to the coop will be a finished enclosed run for the chickens. Right now they are free ranging a bit but there are problems with that of course. So the enclosed run will be nice.

Dominic helped me pick some fresh strawberries out of our garden! They taste awesome.

We planted over 10 blueberry plants. DH dug out the grass, put pine logs around the area and cedar mulch to keep the weeds out. I think it looks good. On the left is the strawberry patch. I hope to double the strawberries by next year. I need to plant some more.

The last thing of the day. My hen laid this shell-less egg. Actually what happened is she didn't lay yesterday and today I went out to find she had laid two eggs, one regular and this shell-less one. See how my thumb pushes into the egg. It is like a rubbery egg. Weird!!!

Bubbles.

2011-05-24T16:15:00.003-05:00

My mom came to visit a while back and she brought bubbles for the kids. Its a sure way to get them to use up some energy. For days we would blow bubbles and chase them around the yard. Oh its the simple pleasures in life that makes having kids so much fun.

1st communion

2011-05-09T10:22:00.002-05:00

My sweet girl Gioia took her 1st Communion at Mass this weekend. My mom and my dad and stepmom all got to be there for it. It was pretty great. She looked so beautiful.

Gardening!

2011-05-05T19:17:00.002-05:00

So far this year I can report that our gardening is going better than last year. To this point I have planted:
Radishes
Lettuce
Kale
Spinach
Broccoli
Cabbage
Green Beans
Sweet Potatoes
Bell Peppers
Tomatoes
Carrots

DH also bought and planted 10 more Blueberry bushes and 5 more Raspberry plants. 6 apples trees, 2 pear trees, 2 peach trees and 2 plum trees.

The radishes are doing great we have picked 3 small batches so far.

Busch Gardens - Tampa

2011-04-21T08:08:00.005-05:00

So the last leg of our trip was to go up to Tampa and stay for 3 days. While there we visited Busch Gardens twice. It was AMAZING! I totally recommend it for small kids. Their kids area was Sesame Street theme, which was perfect for my kids. We saw "the real" Big Bird, Grover and Zoey. They kids had there pictures taken with them. They were SOO excited. I have to admit I was pretty excited they had Big Bird there. He is one of my favorites. My big kids could ride two of the adult water rides which I rode with them. All the kids could ride the rides in the kid section, they required an adult with Luca sometimes.

We watched a couple shows. One was with animals who could do all these tricks. It was made to look like the animals and humans were together on a deserted island and working together. Then we saw a Pirates 4D show. The back of the seats sprayed water and air at us and the movie itself was 3D.

They also have spray park for the kids and you can bring in bathing suits and towels.

Finally, a huge section is a Zoo. They have a train that runs through the whole park. It also goes through the African animal habitat. Here is a cool interactive map of the park so you can see what it looks like: http://buschgardens.com/Bgt/Explore/ParkMap.aspx

All kids with Big Bird.

Grover and Zoey monster with the big kids.

Luca at Spray Park inside Busch Gardens.

More vacation pictures - Fort Myers

2011-04-20T19:19:00.002-05:00

So we flew into Fort Myers and stayed for 3 days. The first day we visited Sanibel. The second day we drove down to Naples area and took a boat tour. We saw Manatee, many kinds of birds and a Dolphin. It was pretty cool. I think the kids favorite part was helping drive the boat. Luca didn't make it through the whole ride. He fell asleep the last 1/2 hour or so.

The third day we went to Fort Myers beach. It was super fun. We went back on our last day as well.

Sanibel Island

2011-04-18T08:00:00.003-05:00

Our first full day in Florida we went across to Sanibel Island. It is beautiful, clean and very unique. We took our lunch and stayed all day. We went to the beach and then ate our lunch. After that we went and rented a double 4 seat bike. It fit all 5 of us, since 3 are kids. Massimo pedaled us all around the island and we stopped and got the most amazing ice cream. We had flavors like Blueberry Buttercream Cookie and Carmel Marscapone Pistachio.

Luca preferred to play in the sand. He was a little intimidated by the waves, even though they were pretty small and mild.

Gioia found a hole someone else had started in the sand and really went to work making it bigger.

Florida Vacation

2011-04-17T19:03:00.003-05:00

This week we took a family vacation to Florida. It was awesome and amazing. The weather was upper 80's all week, no rain and just perfect. I am going to post about it in a couple different posts so it doesn't get too picture heavy. The kids did great on the airplane and really enjoyed it. It was Luca's first plane ride. We flew into Fort Myers and stayed for a few days then went to Tampa for a few days.

Here is the view from our hotel in Fort Myers. There is a great little restaurant in the mall area next to our hotel. It is called Gator Bites and they have Alligator on the menu. We went there and ate. It was really good. The waiter said he had never seen kids willingly eat Alligator like that (and like it so well). I thought that was weird and funny. My kids thought it was cool to try Alligator.

Looking out the hotel the other way is a Nature Preserve. You couldn't go on the land but it looks cool.

Spring, for real this time, right??

2011-04-03T21:33:00.002-05:00

I should have awesome pictures to post but I don't. So here is just a list of all the fun things we did this weekend!

1: The boys and I went to my moms for the weekend.
2: We watched the musical Oklahoma! and it was great!
3: Luca got to stay with his Great Grandma and had a blast.
4: The boys got to play in the hay, see cows and spend time on Papaw and Grandma's farm.
5: My hubby bought 4 apples trees and 2 plum trees AND GOT THEM PLANTED!! WOO HOO!!
6: He also bought 10 blueberry bushes and 3 raspberries. He got most of them planted.
7: I planted cabbage, broccoli and flowers.
8: Hubby got the whole garden tilled.
9: Hubby got the whole yard mowed (2 acres).
10: We watched Tangled, the new Disney movie about Rapunzel.

All in all it was a super great weekend. I will try to post some pictures soon.

Spring is here!

2011-03-24T17:14:00.003-05:00

Why is it that 45 degrees in the spring feels so much nicer than 45 in the winter? One of lifes mysteries I guess. I am sure it is because of more sun, less wind and all that.

I am starting to feel much better with the pregnancy. I got a little baby bump already. Heck, its number 4 the tummy just plops right out there after you pee on the stick. HA HA!! I am going to get my hair done this weekend and I guess I will be going back to my normal brown hair. I figure dyeing it once back to normal is better for baby than dyeing it every 2 months to keep it red.

We killed our meat chickens last weekend. We only ended up with 3 of them. 2 met there end with the dog and 2 got sick and died. We still have some more Roosters babies growing out in the coop. They were question marks (hen or rooster?) when we got them. I sure hope one at least is a girl I think 1 is for sure a boy at this phase. All roosters will be dinner.

Not much else to report. I started the garden. Put in Radish and Kale so far. I want to get some lettuce in but it says it might snow this weekend? PLEASE NO! So I will wait a bit longer.

Baby #4.

2011-03-16T08:49:00.002-05:00

Well I haven't blogged for over a month and I have a good excuse. I am pregnant! For the last month I have been feeling so crappy and just didn't have the energy to blog. I am feeling better now and so hoping to get back into it. Baby #4 is due end of Sept or 1st of October. So yeah us! Monday we heard the little heartbeat pitter pattering, so that is a relieve. :)

I hope to get some new pictures of the kids and our adventures up soon.

New neice!

2011-02-06T08:17:00.002-06:00

I finally have some good pictures of her! Zoey Ellyn Born Jan. 21st! She is sweet as pie. The kids love her!

Maran Chicks.

2011-02-02T08:46:00.002-06:00

I can't believe I forgot to post more about my chicken obsession. I got some Black Copper Maran chicks to go with my big Rooster I already have. I have had these guys about a week now. They are in the house again because they don't have all their feathers. I have 5 of these guys. Hope most are girls. Boys will be sold or dinner.

New King Sized Headboard

2011-02-01T08:26:00.002-06:00

We have never had bedroom furniture. My dresser is an antique from my Granny. Massimo has his clothes in closet shelving. So you might have seen a few posts back that I made Cedar Nightstands for our room. They are pictured here in use. We got Espresso colored wicker baskets to hold things on the shelves. Then this week I made this fabric covered headboard. As always I got my plans from Ana White (aka Knock off wood). I covered it with Espresso colored suede fabric. It also has Espresso colored wood trim around that and finally the outside edges I painted a complimentary off white. You can click the picture to get a closer look.

Credit where credit is due: http://ana-white.com/2010/02/plans-king-size-framed-upholstered-headboard.html

Ice Skating

2011-01-25T20:11:00.003-06:00

We got invited up to our neighbors house a couple weeks ago to go ice skating. It was super fun. We also stayed, had dinner and great conversation. They have lots of skates in different sizes so we just borrowed for the day. Luca stayed in his boots. By the end of the time Dominic and Gioia were playing ice Hockey. :)

Facebook in Real life.

2011-01-21T19:24:00.003-06:00

This is funny as heck because its so true!!

Roosters

2011-01-16T21:37:00.002-06:00

Hi everyone! Tired of looking at my chickens yet. LOL! Well I just had to share a couple more of my handsome Roosters. We FINALLY got the new red coop finished and the birds are in! They seem to be really loving the room to move around in there. Its only been one day but I could tell they had been up on the roost I made and also in the nesting boxes. So that is good news.

Here is Francoise, our Maran rooster.

Here is Bunny our Easter Egger/Ameruacana Rooster.

Easter Egger Chicks

2011-01-14T13:56:00.002-06:00

Easter Egger birds are basically Ameraucana birds that are mixed with something else. Most times they are almost identical to Ameraucana birds except they have some trait differences. Examples would be wrong leg color, wrong feather color etc. Of course this is all to "breed standard" so it doesn't really matter unless you want to breed your birds or show them. I just want the pretty blue and green eggs. :)

Easter Egger Pullets (females). We actually have two of the yellow/white color and then their is Brownie.

Easter Egger boys. The sent males for warmth during shipping. Its just how Hatcheries get rid of extra boys. :) These are free to a good home if you are needing a Rooster.

Chip and Dale.

Chicks 2011.

2011-01-13T13:27:00.006-06:00

Our first batch of chicks for the year. We got 7 meaties, 5 Amerucanas. 3 of the A chicks are girls. Amerucanas will lay blue or green colored eggs.

One day old chicks.

One week old chicks compared side by side. Meat chick on the left (yellow) and Amerucana chick on the right (brown).

Look at that fat belly!

One week old chicks.

Happy 2011!

2011-01-06T17:59:00.002-06:00

Yeah. I am a few days late with the greeting but what can I say? We have been pretty busy. We traveled to Iowa to see family. Then we have been busy homeschooling and organizing our house.

My office = Turned Homeschool room. I reclaimed my dining room table and put in shelving. Those are the orange shelves I built.

We had some much fun in Iowa that Dominic fell asleep on his cousin Aaron.

60 degree day in winter!

2010-12-30T22:51:00.003-06:00

So we had another of those stellar warm winter days. I think we got up to 67 here today! SWEET!! Can you tell I was really excited? They had been calling for this weather so DH took the day off work so we could get the chicken house closer to finished. He got the tin on the roof finished. Then we got two windows installed. We may do more later but two will work great for now. We put one on the East wall and one on the west wall. We will definitely put a South facing window in later (probably Spring). These are the storm windows from our house. We saved them when we replaced our windows this fall.

Now all we have to do is frame in the top of the wall where the roof meets it and it will be ready for winter chickens. This spring we will do the run and pop doors.

Christmas Day!

2010-12-28T08:00:00.000-06:00

Christmas was very nice this year. On Christmas Eve, we went to church and Gioia sang in the childrens choir. Later we came home had dinner and watched The Grinch. Christmas Day we opened presents and played all day. It was very relaxing. Here are some highlights.

Dominic loves to dress up and is sometimes sad when his dad won't let him wear a dress to the hardware store. Our solution, a Kilt. He loves it. He really does, he was just making a silly face.

Gioia got this giant dollhouse. It is big enough for Barbies but she doesn't really play with them. It is also big enough for all her stuffed animals which she plays with constantly. It was a hit!

I made several pairs of pants for the kids. Luca and Dominic got matching brown corduroy pants with Owl print cuffs on them. They are adorable.

Dominic also got these Reindeer Flannel pants. I added a red ric rac to the bottom.

Dominics last pair are the frog and lizards print flannel.

1st Reconciliation

2010-12-27T10:06:00.003-06:00

A few weeks ago my daughter had her 1st Reconciliation (aka 1st confession). She and her Catholic friends were all so nervous. She even cried one night all worried about it. She felt much better after we talked in depth and I explained that she would not get in trouble, it was just like talking to someone and feeling better afterward. Her wonderful 2nd grade (school of religion) teacher was so great. They did a fabulous job helping the kids understand and be comfortable.

Afterword she said it went great. She said, I know Father gave my sins to God and God throws them in the trashcan. :) I think thats a great analogy.

New pictures.

2010-12-21T08:00:00.003-06:00

I am lame and my scanner is broken right now. So instead of posting the actual picture I will post the link and everyone can see all the pictures we had taken of the kids.

#10 was the one I ordered, of all three kids.

SORRY. the other link didn't work. Try this one. click on the word

PICTURES

Christmas Crafts

2010-12-20T21:39:00.004-06:00

The kids have been doing some really fun Christmas crafts lately. One thing we did was make paper Gingerbread Men. We tried making really cookie ones and it was a miserable flop. So paper ones we are better at. On thing that really impressed me was Dominic got into it and even would trace new men on the paper and bring them to me to cut out. That would be why we have diversity in our Gingerbread Men body types. They turned out cute. I will go ahead and mention that they also have butts drawn on the backs of them. Lets face it when you are 5 and 7 butts are super funny.

This craft was really cute and fun. The Reindeer body is made from tracing your foot. The antlers are made from tracing your hands. We even did finger print eyes and thumb print nose on Dominics deer.

Goodbye Oscar.

2010-12-12T18:13:00.003-06:00

Last night we lost our old dog. He was the best dog ever. He was almost 11 years old. That is pretty old for a overweight Golden Retriever.

His name was Oscar because I rescued him from a dumpster (oscar the grouch) when he was only only a few weeks old. I bottle fed him and raised him. He was a inside dog for many years. One year DH was working from home and he would take a nap with Oscar every day. One day DH didn't do it and the silly dog was on our bed howling for DH to come up. We affectionately called him Oscar Meier Weiner, The Fat Man and Fatty Maggey. If he wanted you to pet him, he would put his paw on you. Once we took a obedience class and he got certified as a pet therapy dog. It didn't really pan out because he was so big it was hard to bring him in to small nursing home rooms and such.

He was the worlds best dog and will be sadly missed.

I have some really great pictures of him as a baby but my scanner is broken. In fact I can only find a couple pictures on my computer right now.

50 degrees in December!

2010-12-10T19:20:00.005-06:00

50 degrees in December is something to celebrate. In honor of this we spent the afternoon outside.

We let the chickens out.

This guy has sure gotten bigger since the summer.

We went out in the woods and cut some wood to fill our pile up before the cold hits tomorrow. The kids had fun.

We also found this small tree has been cut down by a beaver.

Work in Progress.

2010-12-10T08:42:00.003-06:00

Every winter I am cooped up inside and get this urge to finish up old projects. So here is a list of what is going on that we are trying to work on finishing.

1. Chocolate Stars quilt - I am 3/4 done with this. Hoping to have it done before the new year.
2. Vintage quilt - This is a quilt top my Great Aunt started. She passed away recently and I am finishing it. The top is done. I need to quilt it now.
3. 2 Pairs pants for the kids for Christmas.
4. Headbands promised to two people. (cut out, almost done)
5. Sort out fabric by color and size so I know what I got.

Non sewing related:
6. Make cedar night stand for hubby side of the bed. (half the wood is bought and cut).
7. Make shelves for kitchen. (wood is already bought).

I also have various projects that I started, didn't get very far and decided I would quit. I would like to go through those and see if I could do something to finish or use it up. I have Major amounts of quilt fabric/scraps and other stuff I need to do some cleaning out.

Things I have gotten done:

1. Photo calendars made for christmas gifts.
2. Christmas cards made and sent out.

And I got a $20 gift card from my Dad and stepmom for Christmas so it will almost buy enough wood to finish the night stand. The wood working is on hold until after Christmas because I think Santa might be bringing me some tools! Yeah!

Christmas Tree is up!

2010-11-29T21:12:00.003-06:00

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend. DH's brother came to visit and we had the standard Turkey Dinner. Then the kids and I got the tree out. Always a highlight! Yes, the bottom of the tree has very few ornaments on it. That's because I have small children.

Luca

2010-11-25T08:00:00.000-06:00

The other night Luca had this cute stocking hat on. I took a picture of him and he started posing for me. So i kept snapping pictures. Here are a couple super cute ones.

Baby shower.

2010-11-24T10:12:00.002-06:00

My sister had the first of her baby showers recently. I thought I would post a couple cute pictures from that day.

Diaper cake with super cute pink boots.

Rory (with vampire teeth) and Gioia (with Rosa the stuffed guinea pig).

Elaine, Melaine and Jaime

Max the rodent hunter.

2010-11-23T09:47:00.004-06:00

This is our dog Max. He was born in April and we got him in June. He is seven months old. He is a super dog and recently he has been killing our rodents. At first we thought it was the cat bringing the mice up. Then I actually saw Max catch and kill a mouse. Another day I saw him digging in the mole hill and he came up with a mole. So i wasn't shocked to find a mole on our front porch this morning. This dog is earning his keep.

Our deceased critter, the mole.

Christmas deals!

2010-11-16T17:28:00.002-06:00

When I was a kid I never had any money. As soon as I had spending money that amounted to anything I would blow it on candy or other junk. I would occasionally save enough to buy books. Books were the only thing I loved equal to candy. This would be why my Mom wisely stuffed away all our birthday and Christmas money into a savings account. We never asked to get that money out ever. At least I don't remember it. We knew it was off limits for frivolous things. I am carrying that tradition on with my own kids.

Anyway, all that to say that in my wiser older days I am now good with money. I am good at saving, but what really makes me excited is getting deals and using coupons. So i thought I would talk about some of the great deals I have gotten lately.

A totally "me" thing I bought recently is a Roomba. A Robotic vacuum that you turn on and it goes back and forth and all over the room to sweep the carpet and hardwoods/tile too! They are awesome. It even goes under my bed in the bedroom. I got it off Woot.com for half price. It was a refurbished item but it works perfect.

For the kids Christmas, so far I got 3 board games on sale. I got Dominic Hi HO Cherry O game for $1.00 after rebate. I got Gioia Monopoly and Scrabble for $7.00 each after rebate. I ordered the Christmas Calendars for my family and I got Buy One regular price, get all the rest 50% off. Then I used $10 off coupon and got free shipping on top of that. WOO HOO! I got the boys matching Organic Cotton Hoodies and socks for $7.00 each on the Hoodies. I split the shipping with a couple other Moms and only had to pay $5.00 shipping for my order. I also got some other things for gifts for other people.

I have a couple other things on my "to get" list. I am checking out the Black Friday stuff and watching online sales to see what else I can score on.

So things I save on regularly is I do the Frontier brand coop and I plan to start the Azure Standard group soon too. It saves tons on the food I already buy.

My big guy is feeling much better.

2010-11-12T14:56:00.003-06:00

I just wanted to update on here about a success we have had. I know I had talked to many of you about Dominic not sleeping well and waking up crying 3-4 nights a week.

Background: He sees an ENT for his hole in his ear drum. We monitor it every 6 months and he has seen her other times for drainage and infection. We are unsure why he gets more drainage. He also makes a funny noise in his throat. We ruled out tonsils and adenoids. We also had him food intolerance tested with a Naturopath.

So we were trying all kinds of things, but he is 5 and still waking up crying and not consolable.

Anyway, after finally talking again with the Nurse Practitioner at the ENT she suggested we "try" Prevacid or something to rule out Reflux. We did that and did a 14 day treatment, then I stopped because it didn't seem any better. BUT he did have poison Ivy on his poor face during that time. So now the poison ivy is gone and we stopped the Prevacid.

It has been 2 weeks and he has slept through the night, no crying or anything every single night. I am so happy!!!

The general consensus is that he must have had something going on that the Prevacid helped heal. Time will tell if this sticks. We also notice him doing the throat noise thing less to none at all. It is also helping his daytime meltdowns and other things. One huge improvement is that he can now take a nap and wake up and be pleasant. Before he would wake up and be a raging bear! I guess he is getting better sleep at all times of the day.

My sisters Maternity pictures.

2010-11-06T20:26:00.003-05:00

I took some great pictures of my sister and her husband this weekend. They are both very photogenic so I can only take partial credit. I think they turned out very nice for a quick 15 minute photo shoot.

Halloween Weekend

2010-11-06T20:17:00.002-05:00

Halloween weekend we got out to Trick or Treat. Luca decided he didn't like the Giraffe outfit so he went as a Scarecrow. He was the cutest little thing out there. He wouldn't let go off his candy until he was at the next house. Then he would put it in the bag and say to the person, "Trick, Treat, Halloween!"
We also got more work done on the Perreca Deluxe Chicken House. We got the 2nd coat of paint done and the human door installed. We also got about 1/2 the inside walls painted.

New chicken house progress.

2010-10-30T19:41:00.007-05:00

We have been working on building a permanent big chicken coop. We are building it extra big to encompass future growth and also those times when we have a batch of meat chickens. Right now we only have 7 chickens so people may think we are kind of crazy. However, i already know it is better to go too big than to try to talk a husband into building on. HA HA! So this weekend it is really coming together. 12 x 12 building, 8 feet tall.

Studs for the walls up and part of the floor down. We are putting the floor down after the walls are up. This is for easy replacement of the floor if it gets really poopy or nasty after a year or two.
The walls are going up!

First coat of Barn Red paint. The weather TOTALLY cooperated with us. It was 70 today! October 30th! I couldn't believe it. So we were painting it as fast as we could get it up. It still needs front human door, chicken doors cut out, windows and roof. But I think we have a stellar start. The human door and roof are getting put on and started tomorrow.

I had a couple helpers. Luca.
Gioia. She painted up about 4 feet. As high as she could reach. So basically she did half of each wall, first coat for me. It really did help!
Dominic!

Halloween Fun!

2010-10-29T21:00:00.005-05:00

We attending a Halloween Pumpkin Carving party today at our friends house. My kids are Luca as the dog on the end, Gioia as the hot pink Unicorn in the middle and Dominic as the Fireman on the right.

Here are the Jack O Lanterns we carved.

Here are some fabric pumpkins Gioia and I made tonight. We are going to send this batch to my Grandma who has a birthday Sunday on Halloween. I think she will really like them. She collects all things Halloween. :)

New fireplace!

2010-10-15T08:39:00.002-05:00

We finally got a big project done around here. We got our fireplace insert installed and operational. We got this from some friends. We removed the 80's style gold brass trim, spray painted it black and dropped a chimney liner in. Actually, WE didn't do most of it. We hired a chimney guy. It was only a 200 dollar difference than ordering the parts ourselves. It was a hard job. It took professionals 4 hours to do the liner and get the insert to fit. A week before DH had to cut two rows of bricks out to get the insert to fit.

So the other day it was chilly outside but not really cold enough for the furnace. DH decided to fire this baby up. We had it up to 78 in the house (and probably 80 or so in the living room) with just a small fire. NICE! So I really think this can provided the majority of our heat this winter. I am super stoked about it.

In other news: I had a lasik like procedure done on my eyes. It was a rough recovery involving my mom having to come stay with us. Actually she stayed an initial 2 days and then came back to my rescue for 3 more days. THANKS AGAIN MOM! :) Stuff like this is much harder with a house full of little kids. You can't just go lay down and sleep it off all day. Anyway, my vision is continuing to improve and I think I will enjoy it a lot once everything is good.

More Eggs.

2010-09-27T20:47:00.002-05:00

Sunday I went out to gather eggs and there on the floor of the coop was the cutest little brown egg. In the box was a large light brown egg belonging to our hen Cinnamon. I was so excited to see the little egg. It was the first of my black sex-linked girls. The black girls looks exactly alike so we call them the twins. Later in the day I got a large brown egg know to be from our hen Ginger. Yesterdays count 3 eggs. WOO HOO!

The great thing about only having 4 female birds is that it is pretty easy to figure out who laid what with little effort. So today I go out in the early afternoon and check. TWO little eggs on the floor. WOO HOO! That means both of The Twins are laying! Later Cinnamon blessed us with her egg. Ginger skipped today but that is fine.

It takes chickens around 25-26 hours to make an egg. So that means most hens will not lay every day. For example Ginger is our best layer. She lays about 5-6 eggs a week. She will lay for about 3 days, each time later in the day by a few hours. Then skip the 4th day and start over in the morning on the 5th day. Chickens also do not lay eggs after dark. So if they haven't laid by evening then they usually wait until morning. Pretty interesting huh? Cinnamon will do the same, but sometimes skip after 2 days. Stress will also interrupt the laying cycle. Things like extreme heat, cold or wet, even moving to a new coop or home can be stress for them. For the most part they are pretty easy to care for an I am excited to be getting more eggs now.

Kids Picnic Table

2010-09-22T19:30:00.003-05:00

This week I made the kids a picnic table out of recycled pallets. We picked up lots of pallets for free and they are nice pallets. So I made this picnic table for the kids. The top is a whole pallet about 40x30 (roughly). Then for the benches I cut a same size pallet in half. Each half was enough to make one side of the bench. I did have to buy one 2x4 for the legs. So cost was about 3 dollars. I painted it with our giant 5 gallon bucket of barn red paint. I plan to make a grown up size table some time but its on hold for now.

Weaning.

2010-09-20T15:07:00.002-05:00

This last week we had a huge change at our house. I decided it was time to wean Luca. We have nursed for an amazing two years and I have enjoyed all of it. I really feel that we mamas know when it is right for us to wean our babies. Some kids may need to nurse longer than others. Nursing is a two way relationship involving two people. I was really feeling it was time for many reasons.

All that said, it was hard. It was much harder than with my other two. One reason was that Luca was still nursing at night, which was one reason I was ready to do this. I wanted sleep! :) About day 2 and 3 I had a major hormone shift. I was very sad, emotional and feeling really not myself. Of course it took several days for my boobs to get the message as well. Then finally by the fourth day I was feeling much better and so was Luca. He finally slept all night and has every night since. He wakes sometimes early in the morning and I snuggle him back to sleep.

Friday night I went to a Moms Night Out at a friends house. It was much needed after our tough week. My husband was able to put him to bed and he stayed asleep, not waking up and crying for me. I know that makes my husband much more able to help with Luca now.

We had a good run and it is very bittersweet. We are moving on with a new phase in our life.

Cedar Nightstand

2010-09-14T08:00:00.000-05:00

We had a Woodworking Moms Night In at my friends house a few weeks ago. I finally got it sanded and finished. I just finished it with a Satin clear coat. I think it looks great. I am excited to make a second one for DH's side of the bed. It will replace the wooden TV trays that I have been using for 10 years. HA HA!!

Happy 2nd Birthday Luca!!

2010-09-13T08:00:00.000-05:00

Last week this guy had a birthday! He is so sweet. We celebrated by getting ice cream at Braum's. It was amazing! I had Blackberry Almond, Luca had Rocky Road, D had Pistachio Almond and Gioia had Cookie Dough. Massimo had some of everyone's. HA HA!

Devil's Den Vaca - part 2

2010-09-12T08:00:00.001-05:00

So part two of my posts about the vacation are pictures of the cabin. It was a sweet cabin with a spa tub and Dish Network on the TV. We are not a huge tv family but it sure came in handy with all the rain we got. It also had a separate Master bedroom in the next room. Outside was also a picnic table, two wooden lawn chairs and a grill for cooking out.
http://www.arkansasstateparks.com/devilsden/

Cabin living room with futon couch bed.

A/C, dining room, fireplace and kitchen around the corner that I didn't get a picture of.

Spa tub! Amazing how a little bit of shampoo makes LOTS of bubbles in a spa tub.

Devil's Den Vacation

2010-09-11T16:54:00.006-05:00

We went to Lake of the Ozarks, then down to Arkansas to Devils Den State Park for our family vacation this year. We stayed in a really sweet cabin and did a lot of hiking. Then the last few days we got the tropical storm rains so we had to do inside stuff. We went to movies, mini golf and out to eat pizza.

Massimo and kids on a cool wooden bridge.

The kids on tree root "stairs".
Giant Bench! Look its me! In a picture!

Kids hiking on Lee Creek Trail.

So on day one it looked like this.

Then 3 days later it looked like this! Water rushing over the dam and filling the creek to the banks. All those rocks in the above picture where covered all the way to the tree line.

Happy 5th Dominic!

2010-09-02T09:26:00.004-05:00

My baby boy turned 5 this week! Can you believe it!?? He is such a joy and a challenge all wrapped up in one. It seems like just a few days ago he was my little fat toad all squishy and new. For his birthday we first went to Iowa for the weekend and had a little party there. Then on his actual day we went to my moms where we had more cake, ice cream and presents.

How to build a water table.

2010-08-21T13:21:00.004-05:00

My son is always making messes in the bathroom sink. The kid literally goes for the water everyday. I decided it was time for a water table. Both of our boys are having birthdays soon, so we thought it would be a great joint gift. Water tables run anywhere from 30 dollars to 100's of dollars for big fancy ones. I looked online and it seemed I could do it myself. So I did.

Go to your favorite lumber type store. And get the following:
1) All purpose square or rectangle tub with lips around the edges. *
2) 2x4 8feet to 10 feet long
3) 2x6 8feet to 10 feet long

* Word of caution. Make sure your tub is not very deep. This will discourage the kids from climbing in and such. My tub is 6 inches deep with fits perfect with the 2x6 wood. Also never leave kids unattended when playing with water.

The tube should tell you how big it is. For example, mine said 26x20. So i cut the long pieces 26" and then measured for the short side pieces. For the legs, just figure out how tall you want the table. I measured chest high on my smallest kid. It was 21 inches. So that is how tall I made my table. The just screw the legs to the sides of the table. Viola!

There is no bottom to the table. The four sides make a frame and the tub just sits in it. You can easily remove the tub for cleaning. If you really wanted to you could drill through the plastic tub and screw it in place on the table. We are planning to paint this to seal it. You could also use a varnish sealant if you had nice looking natural wood.

Costs: I spent 7.50 on the tub, 3.50 on the wood 2x6 and had free 2x4's from a salvaged pallet.

Jameson Picnic

2010-08-17T10:30:00.005-05:00

This past week was the 119th Annual Jameson Picnic. It is a small town festival that my hometown has every year. It is becoming a tradition with my kids as well.

Every year since 3 Gioia has performed in the talent show. This year she sang "In a world of my own" from Alice in Wonderland. The difference this year, was it was the first time she didn't win. This year she was in the 7-12 age group and she is 7. I sang also this year "You were meant for me" by Jewel. There were only two people in my class so I won second, $15 dollars.

Luca was also in the baby show contest and Dominic was in the Little Mister contest. Luca won, Dominic did not. I was super excited though. All my kids have now won the baby show once in there lives there. Gioia won when she was 13 months. Dominic won when he was 11 months. I don't have picture of Luca with his trophy because it was raining. In fact, the rain was pouring so hard they had to postpone the baby show for an hour. Then when it got started again it was under the food tent.

My mom was having some work done on their basement wall. So there was heavy machinery and construction going on. The boys found an awesome pile of gravel to have a great time in.

We took Max with us. He and Jackie (my parents dog) get along great. Jackie keeps him in line and loves to wrestle with him. Max was an awesome traveler in the car. He made no noise other than playing with his toy. He also didn't puke or potty in the car. So we were happy.

New Doghouse!

2010-08-09T08:49:00.004-05:00

Every since moving out here to the country, we have needed a doghouse. At our last house we had a dog door in the garage, but this garage is brick and concrete so there is no where to cut a dog door. Besides, we are in the country, they are dogs, GO OUTSIDE!!! HA HA!! Now that my husband has found a free supply of great pallets, (some pine, some even hardwoods) we have a large to-do construction list. First up was the Doghouse.

Basically, it is two solid pallets for the floor. Two for each side and back. Then the front was pallets cut into the appropriate size sections. A couple pallets for the roof (again cut to fit). Then some miscellaneous boards for the trim pieces. Finally tin and a tin roof cap for the roof. Every bit of this was free (pallets and tin). For paint we did purchase paint. We got a 5 gallon bucket of Red Barn paint. The trim paint was also free, leftover from our house trim paint. So total cost around $5-$10 for paint.

We will be doing something similar on a larger scale when we build the chicken coop.

TATTOO!!!!!

2010-07-31T15:55:00.003-05:00

Oh yeah. I finally got my tattoo! I have been contemplating and planning this for years. Years, I tell you. How long will it be before my next one? Years, I tell you! That mother hurt! HA HA!!! But really it was not that bad. It has quite a bit of detail and while I was there 1 1/2 hours. It only took about an hour or hour ten minutes of tattooing. So not bad at all.

I got it done by Alli at Irezumi on Wornall. She rocks. My sister helped me draw it. Alli cleaned it up and fixed it a little and then we were on our way. It has Dh and I's initials in the tree trunk. Then it has each of the kids initials worked into the leaves on the branches.

It hurts. I love it. I am super happy. The End.

My baby girl is seven!

2010-07-30T08:13:00.004-05:00

I can hardly believe I am the Mom of a seven year old. She is beautiful, smart and a joy to be around. Times like this make me so glad we are homeschooling. It is wonderful to get to spend every day with her. It goes by so quickly and I would be missing a huge chunk of her life if she went to school every day for the next 11 years. :) Which brings me to my next task that this year we will have to start our record keeping for her. That is ok because it actually helps me be more aware of what we are doing and keeps me on task.

For her birthday this year she wanted to have a sleepover. At first she had a big list of girls, but I asked her to narrow it down to 1-2 girls. So she did. We met my friend Jill and her family to swim. It was a blast. Then I took the two girls home for the sleep over. It went really well. Later in the day my kids were grumpy and tired from staying up so late. I told Gioia she was like her Aunt Mel. I remember my sister (who always needed her sleep) being a total crab anytime she went to a sleepover. That same sister is now pregnant, so watch out world when she is a sleep deprived new mom. HA HA!!! (Don't worry sis, I will be MORE than happy to come hold your baby while you nap!)

Nesting Boxes.

2010-07-19T12:47:00.003-05:00

We have been working on fixing up the chicken tractor. First we did the tin on top to keep the predators out and provide shade. Then we needed nesting boxes. These weren't in the original designs because meat chickens don't need them. This chicken tractor is already made out of 80% recycled materials, so it is appropriate that the nesting boxes be as well. We screwed two milk crates to the wall. I lined the bottom of the crates with a wire screen cut to fit. Then I screwed a kick board in front of the boxes. Finally, I filled them with fresh bedding.

When I went out to check on the chickens this morning someone had been in the boxes. We don't have any eggs yet today, but I expect some by evening. Yesterday the boxes weren't installed yet so they laid on the floor. As you can see in the picture there is enough clearance for the food bin to be under the boxes. The wire screen in the boxes prevents bedding and poop to fall through and get in the food.

Eggs!

2010-07-17T14:10:00.005-05:00

Well the chicken adventure has been quite exciting lately. Let me go back a week or so to tell the whole story.

4th of July weekend - We went to Mom's house. We had a great time at my Uncle Bobs cabin. The cousins took a collection and bought fireworks for a huge fireworks show. It was really great. Then Gioia and Dominic stayed all night for 3 extra days. Massimo and I came home on Sunday and the kids stayed till Wed.The chickens were fine while we were gone.

Then the next weekend of the 10th. MY BIRTHDAY! Happy birthday to me! Massimo's sister and family came to visit. We had a great time with them as well. We went swimming, ate good food, drank some beer and had some laughs.

Then Sunday morning Massimo went out to open the chicken house and a raccoon had gotten in and killed 5 of the 10 meat birds. CRAP!! So Sunday evening we butchered the remaining 5 birds. So meat birds done.

Monday I cleaned and fixed up the coop. Tuesday we put the new birds in there. Wed. morning I went out and all of my "girls" are now crowing! DANG IT!! I also noticed that Otis, my Polish Frizzle was gone. We later found a pile of feathers and a couple tiny bones. A fox (we think) pulled him through a 2-3 inch gap. To fix this problem, we took the wheels off the front of the chicken tractor. So far all seems well now. Darn predators.
We went Thursday night and picked up 4 girls (for sure!!). I will get better pictures when I can. But the first day they did not lay. Today 2 of the girls that are 1 year old laid eggs! WOO HOO!! The two black ones we are calling The Twins should start laying this summer but they are not quite yet. Cinnamon is a Cinnamon Queen and Ginger is an Easter Egger (or Barnyard mix). Ginger may not be a true EE because she laid a brown egg instead of Green but thats ok.

Things I have made.

2010-06-30T22:03:00.002-05:00

I have finally gotten some projects finished around here and wanted to show them off. Please be gentle. This is my first major woodworking project. There are several blemishes, but I think it turned out pretty well. The drawer was a major Pain in the ass, so I opted to not do the second drawer and just leave it for large toy storage. See those cute fabric storage bins? I made those too! I plan to fill the whole storage unit with them. So it will look pretty awesome once I get those all done. I have a 4th cubby unit for the second side but it is currently being used for my fabric storage. These are modular and you can rearrange them however you like.
Got the plans from Ana White over at www.knock-offwood.com

Next is this bench. I already had the kids, the bench is the new item. Or should I say old item. The previous house owners left it here. It was a glider but was broken and very weathered. I took the glider part off and left it as a bench. Then I painted it with some left over white enamel in the garage. It was great because I wanted it distressed, and boy is it distressed. HA HA!! I left lots of wood grain and edges showing. It turned out great!!

Here is a side view where you can see the "distressed" parts on the sides and bottom pieces.

Crappy garden soil.

2010-06-28T08:51:00.002-05:00

Well I guess I got my answer.

Massimo bought a soil testing kit and we tried it this weekend. The PH came back normal. Everything else is low to very low. Nice. So i went out with the store bought chemical fertilizer and gave all the veggies a dose. For long term we need to treat the whole garden. My parents have cattle so I am going to get lots of fertilizer from them. We are also working on a compost pile that hopefully we can spread all over the garden this fall/winter to mix in.

So this explains why my peppers are struggling for life. It explains why half my seeds never came up and why those that did are growing so slowly.

On a happy garden note, i got 25 lbs of organic tomatoes for $20 last weekend. I was super excited. I canned 7 jars of whole tomatoes. I also had a few left for eating and one jar that I just put in the fridge because my canner only holds 7. :)

Next on my list is to try to make some Fridge pickles. It is a great idea to use those extra cucumbers when you only have 3-4 at a time. When I get a large amount I might can some dill pickles, but for now we are only getting one or two a week.

Grilled Pizza and Blueberry Jam.

2010-06-23T14:51:00.002-05:00

Where have you been all my life Grilled Pizza? It was possibly the most fabulous pizza I have ever made. SO easy as well. You make the crust just like you would any pizza, only you cooked it on the BBQ Grill. I found it easiest to handle to make individual size crusts. You cook the dough browning it on each side. Then add toppings and put back on for about 10 mins until hot with the cheese melted. The results were a super crispy thin crust. How awesome! Homemade pizza without turning the oven on. Nice!!

We went and picked 6 lbs of blueberries last week. I made blueberry muffins, Blueberry Lemon Yogurt cake and Jelly. We also ate quite a bit fresh. I ended up with 3 pints of jelly. Now i am out of blueberries so I think we will go Sat. morning and pick more.

PUPPY!!

2010-06-14T20:05:00.002-05:00

SO yeah. We got a new puppy today. We lost our dog Wickett a couple months ago and Gioia has been really wishing she had a dog to run and play with. After our second poop clean up of the day we were wondering if we made the right decision. Good thing God makes them cute, you fall in love with the darn things right away. No name yet. He is a boy, 8 weeks old. His mom is a Red Heeler mix. He has some sort of sheperd mix in him too I think. He is an animal shelter dog so who knows his fathers background? He is currently 9.5 lbs. For some reason he looks big in the face picture. He has some beautiful markings including his white strip on the forehead and a cream colored butt.

Zoo day!

2010-06-10T20:16:00.003-05:00

Today we decided to go to the Zoo. It turned out to be perfect weather. Cloudy but warm, breezy and not too hot. We have a friends of the Zoo pass, so we can go as often as we want. Today was really great. The kids were great. We had a lot of fun.

Our favorite thing this time was the Lorekeet exhibit. They are these super friendly and colorful birds. They feed them every hour on the hour. So we actually did this twice. The birds land all over everyone and drink nectar out of the cup.

Gioia has her eyes closed, but I thought it was still an ok picture.

Dominic looks really serious, but he did love it. He had two birds on him at one point.

And of course we had to ride the carousel about 3 or 4 times.

Chickens are growing and one new guy/gal.

2010-06-09T22:03:00.006-05:00

Our littlest chickens are growing. Its been 2.5 weeks since we got them. I think they were really only about 6 weeks old when we got them, so they would now be 8. It makes more sense with their size.

We got a new guy or gal. His is a suspected Rooster, but could still be a hen. So for now his name is Otis (Barnyard movie reference) . If he turns out a girl the name will be Mama Oty (Princess and the Frog movie reference). The kids said we could then sing "Don't matter what you look like, Don't matter you got crazy hair." Otis is a frizzled Polish. If it isn't obvious, the frizzle gene is what makes his hair curl up and look all crazy. We think he is cool. He is still real skittish and runs from us. Hopefully he will chill out and be friendly.

Here is Mary or Francois. Marans are a French breed, so if he is a boy it is Francois. Mary will either be a Rooster or the Head Hen. She is Bossy! You can't tell in this picture, but she has a really fluffy butt. She has some sister on her!

Bunny - 8 Weeks. Bunny is the most adorable. Very gentle and calm. She is starting to get her cheek tufts. Look how much she has grown from the last time.

Foofy has changed the most for the good. She was kind of scraggly and dirty when we brought her home. She has fluffed up and grown a lot. Yes, there is purple dye on her hair. The others were pecking her (MARY!). So you are supposed to put coloring on the red pecked part so they don't keep pecking. I also used Tea Tree Oil on the other head feathers so they would be detered by both smell and taste if they tried it.

New quilt for me! Chocolate Stars

2010-06-02T08:00:00.000-05:00

I am finally making a quilt for myself. I bought this fabric a while back and have been in love with it. I like it so much in fact that I couldn't make a quilt out of it until I found the perfect pattern. This is called Chocolate Stars. The top is finished now I just have to quilt it together. i hope to have it done some time this summer. It will look awesome on my bed. It displays the large patterns of my fabrics and it has lots of browns and pinks.

Memorial Day weekend

2010-06-01T08:51:00.005-05:00

It was a huge success! We got some much stuff done. I can hardly believe it.

I am fighting the battle with the animals for my garden. I am determined to win. I will do even better next year, because our fence is up and I can take advantage of planting the first time around instead of the all replanting.

DH worked all day Saturday to get our fence up. We may have to add some chicken wire around the gate and the bottom of the fence to keep the rabbits out, but the main structure is up and will be for years to come. The garden plot is approximately 40x60. WHEW!! The big steel gate was laying down by the creek. It was not being used so we put it to good use. Its about an $80-100 dollar gate. That is reuse/recycle!

I got a trailer full of mulch for $35. I have re-mulched the yard landscaping beds. I mulched around the clubhouse and tree swing, they were both bare of grass and muddy. Under the clubhouse we plan to build a sand box.

Then Gioia and I pulled all the weeds around the Roses. I also was trimming some grass and cut through our internet line. So i didn't have internet until Monday. Good way to unplug and get some work done, huh? HA HA!! We got it all mulched there too.

Then last be certainly not least. We were going to kill some of our chickens. This has been the plan all along but I hadn't help do it since I was a kid. My mom came down and we got started. We did one of the biggest roosters, only to find out that he isn't that big after all. So they need to wait several more weeks. We also determined that they are eating too much grass and need to eat more feed. SO they are now not mobile in their coop any more. They are going to be stationary for the next few weeks for fattening up. On the up side, DH and I learned how to kill dress and clean them. It was really quite simple.

New chicks!

2010-05-17T19:37:00.005-05:00

We got a few new chicks today. I needed more right? LOL!! Well these should be our layers assuming they are girls. We have a 50/50 chance right? We only got three and they are very sweet. They let us hold them without much fuss. They even have names.

This first one is an Easter Egger, so her name is Bunny. She should lay green and blue eggs. She also has green colored legs and feet.

Second is a Maran. Her name is Mary. She has black fuzzy feet. She will lay very dark reddish brown eggs.

Last is a Polish. She has a funny fuzzy head. The lady said she will probably turn out to be a Khaki color. Of all the three, this is the one we are least sure about the sex. Polish don't have much of a identifiable comb or waddle. They said if the head feathers were more round it had a better chance of being a female, so that is what we went with. This ones name is Foofy. If Foofy is a girl she will lay smaller white eggs. Polish are not super producers and they quit laying in the cold weather totally but they are neat looking.

Chicken breeds.

2010-05-14T12:32:00.004-05:00

So apparently the chickens we got from the store were not the quick growing kind. Oh we can still eat them, its just taking way longer than 6 weeks for them to get big enough. The lady at the store assured me they would be ready in 6 weeks. Not. Anyway, I was getting curious to what kinds we do have. It appears to be Miscellaneous is the answer. From what I can tell this is what we have.

A black and white Barred Rock (we have 4 or 5 of these). They are supposed to be good egg layers so they may have been saved from an untimely death.
http://www.backyardchickens.com/breeds/plymouth_rock/8269

Then we have about 3 black chickens with black feet. I think these look like the Ameraucana's. They are the only ones I can find that have the black feet that look like this. Also I think our yellow chickens might be this breed too.
http://www.backyardchickens.com/breeds/ameraucana/5845

Then we have some red chickens (Roosters mostly)and I think they are Buckeyes. They are starting to get the green tails.
http://www.backyardchickens.com/breeds/buckeye/32682

It is all very interesting and a learning process for sure. Hopefully soon we will have chickens in the freezer and egg layers>

New look for the living room.

2010-05-14T08:01:00.002-05:00

My sister and I painted my living room yesterday. It turned out wonderful. I wanted just a fresh sage green to match my curtains and compliment the rest of the room. I love it! My husband even commented that we did a great job with it. Whipped it out in one day even with the kids underfoot. :)

Phone photos

2010-05-12T16:12:00.002-05:00

Here are a couple cute pictures I have taken of the kids lately with my phone. I finally got them on my computer so I thought I would share. Luca looking fresh in his stocking hat.

Gioia in her curlers. My sister passed these on to her and she loves them. She has done them twice now and it looks so cute on her.

Cedar Cove Big Cats Sanctuary

2010-05-07T08:00:00.004-05:00

This week we visited Cedar Cove and saw the big cats. It was very cool and the volunteer guide was very knowledgeable.

http://www.saveoursiberians.org/

They had Siberian and Bengal Tigers, Cougars, Leopards, Bobcats, Servals, Carcals, Kuwatis and Wolves.

This Leopard is growling at us. Look at those teeth!

They have 3 Timberwolves and they are very domesticated. This man is probably 6 foot tall. Look at how tall the wolf is next to him. Amazing!

T-ball kids.

2010-05-06T20:39:00.003-05:00

The kids are on a T-ball team this summer. It is pretty fun and funny to watch them play. One kid on their team ran to the pitchers mound plate instead of first base. They all did great. No one cried and they stayed on the field for the whole game. They don't count outs or keep score. Everyone gets to bat and they played 4 innings. It was over in an hour. Perfect!

The pictures are: 1: Gioia batting, 2: Dominic batting, 3: Dominic running home.

Pecan trees and a new chicken house.

2010-05-05T15:16:00.004-05:00

Did you mother every tell you your Eyes were bigger than your Stomach? or some variation of that. It is supposed to mean that you thought you were hungry and all the food looks so good, but you just couldn't eat it all. I think that applies to farming/gardening as well.

Hence the arrival of our 40 pecan trees today. We ordered the Pecan Tree Bundle from the MO Dept of Conservation. I am super happy with the look of these trees. They are a good size. 1-3 feet and have at least 12 inch root systems on them. I think these might actually live.
We always have some project on our plate that needs done NOW! Like the chicken house, or
planting these trees. We just get so excited and want to have all this cool stuff going on NOW! LOL.

Well the Chicken Coop is mostly done. It only needs the wheels put on and tin on the door. As you can see the coop is just a frame with chicken wire on the pen part and tin covering the house part. This makes it pretty lightweight. DH and I can move it with a little effort to new spots. With the wheels on it will be a cinch to move. The door in the back opens all the way up which gives great access. Also I don't get poop on my shirt leaning in like I did on the other house. Thirdly, when I want to clean this, I can literally get a broom and sweep it out.

Last but not least for today is this guy. A few days ago I saw a Hummingbird was back so we got the feeder out and before I even made it back to the house he was over eating. We saw a total of 3 at once today. I snapped this good picture of him. They are SOO tiny!

Catch up post

2010-04-29T20:17:00.005-05:00

You know how it goes. I get on a roll of posting and then life happens and I slack off. So here is the obligatory catch up post of the week. The picture above is some of the tie-dye shirts we did a couple weeks ago. They turned out great. Those two are mine. The kids made some as well and they look just as great.

The kids had the Charlottes Web performance and dance recital. It was awesome.

I got the rest of my garden planted today. I bought about 8 more tomato plants, more peppers, replacement broccoli and cauliflower (since the dang rabbits ate it). The stupid chickens are about to stress me out. They don't just eat the grass, they mow the damn stuff down. We have to move them every day or they kill the grass. The problem? Well our coop doesn't move and when we did move it, the legs broke. We are trying to build a new coop that is lighter for the mobile one, but the rain has been holding us up. Ugh.

We are finished with most of the kids classes for the summer (gymnastics, theatre, dance and sunday school) so things should slow down a bit. However, now our weekends get busier with activites. So far this month we have something every weekend. But hey, its fun stuff so no biggie right? :)

What a busy weekend looks like.

2010-04-18T20:45:00.006-05:00

Sorry I haven't posted for a while. We have been super busy. I was tooting my own horn yesterday about the amount of stuff i got done. We had a super productive weekend. So much so that next weekend we can actually move on to some other stuff. So here is some of what our weekend looked like.

So saturday I needed to plant some more in the garden. As I got started I realized it was getting weedy and wouldn't it be easier to plant freshly tilled? So I got out our new tiller. WORTH EVERY PENNY! Self propelled! Nice. The baby is scared of it and DH had to go to the hardware store, so I did what any mom would do, I put the baby on my back and did it!

Then of course, after that there is nothing to be done but run in it barefoot. You know i named my blog Barefoot Outside for a reason. My kids do get it from me! Oh but I didn't mention that first I shoveled two buckets of cow manure on there.

Then I planted about 3 rows in the garden. Later in the day, I scooped the poo out of the chicken house and into the compost pile. The chickens are really growing and getting fat. We also tried letting them out. They did well and didn't wander far from the coop. DH and I spent most of Sunday afternoon building a new pen that will have wheels and be part of our portable "chicken Tractor" aka a mobile coop and pen. Should have pictures of that in a day or two.

The chickens, eggs and garden won't be producing until later in the summer, but in the meantime if you need any Dandelions come on by. We have lots. Boo!

After Saturday working hard outside. I came in and made homemade pizza and yellow cake chocolate chip cupcakes (from scratch). Sunday we also squeezed in church, sunday school and I made Italian Sausage Pasta for dinner. Now we are just going to relax and be happy. Like this.

18 months old!

2010-04-08T21:38:00.003-05:00

Man how time flies. That is exactly why I don't post on this blog as much as I would like, busy busy busy. We are planting the garden, raising the chickens, doing homeschool stuff and our own projects of course.

Luca is 18 months old as well. He is talking up a storm. He is also doing hilarious toddler stuff. Today i was singing and he put his hand on my mouth and said "stop". My husband said he did this to him several days ago as well. Funny! He loves to play outside and will bring his shoes to me. He loves to jump. He will jump off the couch, bed and on anything bouncy. He was getting ready to nurse the other day and he said "Nom Nom!" in this growly voice. So far he is pretty fearless and will climb up the stairs and go down the slide without help. He is very sweet. Tonight he was blowing his sister kisses at bedtime and saying Bye to her. :)

Bike Riding.

2010-03-29T08:00:00.001-05:00

This past week Gioia learned how to ride her bike without training wheels. She is super excited and took to it right away. She had been asking on her own about taking off the training wheels. So Friday we did it and she was riding on her own right away. Now I have a promise to her to take her to the park so we can ride on a long stretch of pavement. However, she is doing quite well on the grass.

Cubby storage unit project!

2010-03-28T19:31:00.006-05:00

This weekend has been really exciting. We got the chickens out of the garage and into their house for one thing. Thank goodness.

The really fun part is this: I have been playing with power tools. GRRR!!

We spent WAY TOO LONG at Home Depot on Saturday but came home with a table saw and a huge stack of wood. The guy at Home Depot cut the majority of my pieces for me which was a huge help.

Then I turned this:
Into this:

It isn't done of course. I have quite a bit left to do but I am super proud of myself for getting all this done. I need DH to cut some more pieces out for me and then I can start working on the next part.

Curtains

2010-03-24T13:11:00.002-05:00

Here are some photos of the living room curtains I made. They are the print on one side and brown on the outside. Now I think i need to paint! I am thinking of painting it the light green color that is in the curtains.

New projects for Spring.

2010-03-22T20:18:00.002-05:00

We are in full on project mode around here. Here is the run-down.

1) Chickens growing in the garage. Tomorrow my husbands coworker and son are coming to help set up the chicken coop we got. Hopefully those chickens will soon be outside.

2) Seedlings started. Hmmm. Lots of seeds sprouted, lots have died so far. I am not pleased. We got more grow lights and I got out the plant food to mix with the water. Hopefully the weather will turn and I can have them outside during the day.

3) Curtains for the living room. They are made and tonight we purchased the decorative rod. I hope to get hubby to hang it this week.

4) Storage unit for the basement. This is a new project. It is a building project and I am going to do it. I am recruiting DH to help with the cutting. Sutherlands cut half of it tonight and hopefully DH can cut the rest this week. Then I can get started on it. I am building this:
http://www.potterybarnkids.com/products/cameron-creativity-storage-system-with-art-cubbies/popup/more-views.html

Well actually you can customize it how you want. I plan to do the top row all 4 hole cubby units. the middle will be the doors like in the picture. I will probably even paint the chalkboard paint on the doors. Then the bottom will be the bases but with drawers in them.

I am getting my plans from Ana over at Knock-Off Wood. www.knockoffwood.blogspot.com
Amazing stuff. I got the wood for the bases tonight. I hope to have them done this week. I will keep you posted.

This wonderful setup is going to go in the basement. Toy storage, book storage, homeschool stuff storage. Whatever! I can't wait. My husband is so excited that I am taking on this building project.