our newest peeps

Tre and I have begun our foray into urban chicken farming with the addition of our new chicks born on April 2nd!

Meet Ophelia, the Australorp:

Ophelia will be our mid-sized bird and layer of brown eggs

Ginger, the Aracauna:

Ginger will be our smallest bird and 'Easter egg' layer of olive green - blue eggs

and Dharma the Brahma:

Dharma will be our biggest bird, weighing in at around 10 lbs and layer of brown eggs!

We finished the coop and run a couple days ago and the ladies are loving their space. The dogs are curious but haven't tried to cause too much trouble. We're looking forward to getting our first eggs by the end of summer but right now we're enjoying their curiosity and table scrap disposal abilities!

Coop under construction

Finished! The coop and the run.

Our ladies...happy in their coop!

is it really June already?

WOW!

I honestly hadn't realized that an entire month had gone by since I blogged last! Phew!

The last month has been quite busy. It's not that we've been going on any crazy trips or doing anything riotously fun, we've been hunkered down at home trying to work on projects in between the torrential downpours of rain we've been having. Super fun and also super depressing!

The weather has been a constant source of conversation here in Oregon...it's been unseasonably cold and rainy. It definitely feels more like October than early June. Meh. Hopefully summer will come to Oregon at some point! (finger's crossed)

In other news, the chicken coop is complete and we just have a few finishing touches to add to the run and we'll be done with this project! The ladies have been in their new home for several days and have adjusted wonderfully. With all the rain we've had, it's also been a good opportunity to test the waterproofing of the coop...so far, so good! I should have pics of the coop and our ladies soon...once we get a break in the rain! :)

Other than that we've both been working lots and enjoying Lelia's constant entertainment! She's almost 11 months now. Never has time gone by so quickly! She's still a very happy little girl. She crawls at lightening speed, has been experimenting with free standing and will "walk" if you hold her hands. She dances whenever music is on (hilarious). Is in a phase of head-butting things (people, cats, dogs) which we're thinking she learned by watching the pets interact with each other. She gives hugs and kisses (albeit open mouth drooly ones...but we still love them). She's got two bottom teeth in, two top teeth in and is working on two more top teeth...holy moley! With the addition of teeth has come new adventures in food. She's a little foodie and we haven't found anything she's not fond of yet. She chatters all day long in her little voice...sure wish we knew what she was saying, I'm sure it's hilarious! ;) Tre and I are enjoying parenthood thoroughly. Sure it's exhausting and frustrating, challenging and tear inducing but it's also the most rewarding, blessing filled adventure.

And now some pics from the last month...

On Mother's Day

The girlies on Mother's Day

Lelia and Koko goofing off

My happy girl

Screaming Leelee

Hangin' with Papa

My favorite people

Leelee lining up her bath toys

Playing in the bath

Snacktime at Koko's

Taking a ride

Hippie Chick 1/4

Back in the fall of '08 I decided I needed some motivation to step up my physical exercise. So, I signed up for a 1/2 marathon...the Hippie Chick 1/2 marathon in May of '09. I started training but by mid-November, was having terrible abdominal cramps that had me doubled over for several minutes and then was only able to keep them at bay by walking instead of jogging. Grrr. Well, come to find out a few short days later, I was pregnant.

And by May of '09, I was 7 months pregnant and in no state to run a half marathon.

So, in fall of '09, I talked my friends into doing the Hippie Chick with me. My thinking at the time was..."we can train together" and "it'll be something we can do to spend time together". So, we agreed to sign up for and train for the 1/4 marathon. I mean, what's a 10K anyway?

Well, I underestimated how busy I would be with Lelia and how difficult it would be to get all 3 of us ladies together when we all have polar opposite work schedules. So, we've kinda trained individually. And today was our big day.

The weather was beautiful, not too sunny or too cloudy. And we all finished our 1/4 marathon and feel like the biggest winners of all time! Yeah for us!

Maybe next year we'll try for the 1/2 marathon?!?

Or maybe we'll stick to the 1/4 marathon...let's not get ahead of ourselves, here!

Michelle and I close to the finish

Hippie Chick finishers!!

Auntie M'Elle and Lelia

Post race family photo

les dents

Lelia has gotten her first tooth...her upper right tooth. I can see the left one on its way down and her bottom gums have started to get puffy which seems to precede actual eruption.

I'm sad she's losing her gummy smile but it's exciting to see her growing up and experience this 'first' with her.

Welcome scrunchy-nosed toothy smile!

Vegas, baby!

We spent 4 lovely days in Las Vegas with our friends, Ben and Jen, and their new little girl Madalynn (4 months). It was our first time meeting sweet Madalynn and their first time meeting our little Monkeygirl. Lelia was completely enthralled with Madalynn and shrieked with glee whenever they were in close proximity!

Lelia did great on the flight. No problems taking off or landing. She did get a bit fussy from being tired but went down very easily and napped for the majority of both flights. Phew. I'm glad that went well. I'd been stressing about it for weeks. I do have to say that going through security does require a few more steps and is a little more chaotic than without kiddo, but overall, once we got a system established it was fairly breezy.

The highlights of our Vegas trip:

* supper at Lawry's....without a doubt Tre's favorite place!

* two trips to In n Out burger...without a doubt Tre's favorite burger joint!

* a picnic and hiking in Red Rock

* some much needed down time to relax

* sunny warm shorts wearin' weather

On Friday we went out to Red Rock to do some hiking/geocaching and have a picnic. The weather was amazing and it was fun to hike in the desert...so very different than the forests of Oregon/Washington. We had a couple run-ins with catci (man, are they nasty) but also reveled in the beauty of the landscape. It had rained about a week prior to our arrival, so the desert was alive with colorful little flowers and lots of green! Beautiful!

It was so nice to be with friends and enjoy the beautiful 80 degree desert weather. It was quite a shock to come back to lush/green/rainy Oregon! Some picture highlights of our Vegas trip:

Red Rock

Madalynn, Jen, Lelia and me

Sweet little Madalynn

Lelia hammin' it up

Madalynn, Jen, Lelia and a sun-stroked me

the crawler, 33 and Easter

Lelia hit a milestone about 10 days ago when she started crawling. She's been on the verge of crawling for quite some time but has never actually committed to mobilizing in that way. I was eating a popsicle (by far her favorite thing) and I guess she decided it was time to take what she wanted...she crawled right over to me chirping like a little bird for some of my popsicle. And she hasn't stopped crawling since. She's definitely a gal on the move...

Some of my favorite pics of the past couple weeks:

Happy girl!

Assuming the crawling position...

I was cleaning around the house and found the two girls sitting like this...

So this is where she gets her scrunchy nose!!!

My birthday was on Easter Sunday this year. I think the last time it happened like that was about 11 years ago when I was living in Tennessee. Seems like just yesterday...

Saturday night, Tre and I went out to one of my favorite little restaurants Echo for happy hour and some retro cocktails to celebrate my birthday. Our friends Andy, Paige and Carrie joined us. It was intimate, fun and a really special memory for me! Some pics from the night:

Andy & Paige

Carrie, Lelia, Tre and me

Andy and his cheeseburger...I just thought this shot was funny!

Auntie Paige and Lelia

On Easter Sunday, Lelia and I headed over to my parent's house to celebrate (Tre had to work)! My Grandparents, my Aunt and Uncle, Cousins and my friend Jen joined us. We ate lots of good food, watched Lelia's antics and shared stories. Unfortunately, I didn't pull my camera out until everyone had already left so the pictures I have are from the house after our actual celebration. Lelia is wearing her new Easter dress my Mom made. So cute!

Lelia clapping...her newest "skill"

With Koko

Scrunchy-nosed smile for Koko

Happy girl in her Easter dress

We're off to Vegas tomorrow to visit friends! More stories to follow!