First time out

Doesn't she look all cute and innocent??Well... although you cannot see it really well

she flat out bit Blake.

She sat in time out for the first time

and surprisingly she did really well.

Her little lip was sticking out

and she pouted quite a bit

but stayed put for her minute.

Then she said sorry

and was happy to get out of time out.

She has since been in two more times
but is learning very quickly what behavior is acceptable.

Kitty

Our neighbor's below us have two kitties.

The male likes to sneak out of their door,

run upstairs and cry at our door.

I usually just pick him up and return him

but this day, I decided to let him in.

The kids had soooo much fun playing with him!!

You see... they don't have experience with kitties

except for their cousins occasionally so this was a big treat.

They picked him up, loved on him

and thought it was funny when they realized

Taffy was smaller than him.

The kids really enjoy seeing these kitties

and mommies allergies can stand it for a short period of time

so I allow them to play every once in a while.

Weekend

What a fun weekend we had!!

The battery died in my camera

so I don't have anything to show you

but it was a lot of fun anyways.

Started off on Friday after Chuck got home from school.

I took my little shopper out and we started Mother's Day shopping

and oh boy... what a little shopper she is!!!

We had to go up and down every escalator or alligator as Blake calls it,

use every price scanner,

try on every shoe she could find,

carry every purse I'd let her touch

and touch every piece of clothes I touched, lol

Girls are so different than boys!

Although I had to carry her the entire time

we really did have a great time!!

Then Saturday morning came,

we all got ready,

packed snacks and such and headed to PA.

Ran into the worse traffic jam we have ever seen, seriously.

We were headed to Mark's house to meet his parents.

Wow, their house is BEAUTIFUL and they were very nice!

Then we headed to dinner with Mark, Alli (his girlfriend)

Dan, Sara (his fiance) and us.

We really had a nice time and the food was great.

Chuck had ribs that just fell off the bone

and I had huge shrimp that were really good.

Then... we headed to Bullride Mania.

Wasn't the best show we've ever seen but

it was really nice to be out and talk with other adults.

Abigayle flirted with Dan almost the entire show.

She kept handing him her phone,

convincing him to give her cinnamon roasted cashews (oh yum),

she kept pulling his shirt over his tattoo,

and she even let him hold her!

She was too cute!

We got back home about 1:00 in the morning

and thankfully the boys slept in until 8:30-9:00.

This NEVER happens and we were soooo thankful it did!

We were exhausted!

Sunday was filled with rest and relaxation.

All in all, we had a great weekend!!

Now... onto cleaning the apartment and school today!

Blake's getting it!!

Blake just did the funniest thing yesterday so I thought I'd share.

Let me back up,

we created chore charts the other day.

Both boys did really great

and are looking forward to receiving their stickers.

Blake apparently is starting to understand

already how hard it is to keep things clean around here.

One of his chores is to keep the clothes out of the bathroom floor.

Well... I was taking my shower

Ab's of course was joining me,

so our clothes were on the floor.

Blake heard the water turn on

and came running.

He wanted to take a shower/bath too.

I told him no and reminded him that he took a bath last night.

He then looked down and saw our clothes.

Oh boy...

he said, "Oh my... look at all these clothes.

I just cleaned all these clothes yesterday."

He started to get mad now

while picking up the clothes I hear him saying,

"How come there is another mess?

Am I supposed to just keep cleaning and cleaning?"

Then he peaks his head in the shower

and tells me quite sternly not to make another mess.

He's tired!!

I'm still giggling!!

Yesterday was really productive.

I made it everywhere I needed to go

except the post office.

Chuck is headed today.

Went to the gym again this morning.

Definitely sore all over!!

That's good right?

Looking forward to the rodeo this weekend!

Not sure why when I type, it keeps skipping lines.

Hopefully it is just a glitch and it'll be fixed by tomorrow.

Sorry.

Not much time today

I have the truck today

so my plate will be full.

Headed to the grocery store this morning

Brayden eats me out of house and home these days.

He had leftovers for breakfast, 2 hot dogs for snack,

1 sandwich and peaches for lunch, a yogurt for snack

and 2 1/2 huge tacos for dinner and

a frozen Yogurt for dessert.

Blake is still not feeling well so he barely ate.

I'm going to have to get a job just to feed these two boys

when they are teenagers!!

The kiddos want to go to the library

but I'm hoping to convince them to go to the park instead.

I'd also like to go Costco,

JC Penny's should have our pictures ready plus,

I received a free $10.00 coupon that is begging to be spent!!

Then the apartment needs to be cleaned.

So... my day should be busy

and hopefully productive.

Second morning in a row for sucessful workouts

at out litle gym!

Hope everyone has a great day!

Baseball

Look at that lip!

Abigayle is obviously upset,

she is learning a hard lesson.

Even though something is super fun,

you still have to take turns.

She was having so much fun playing baseball

she had a hard time sharing the bat.

Popi is showing everyone how to do it!

Even Mimi can hit this ball!

Ab's is getting one of her first lessons in baseball.

She needed a little more help

but after this she took over and started hitting by herself.

She didn't want to share

she decided this was REALLY fun!!

Do you see Blake's hand in the corner?

He is ready to catch that ball!!

Brayden was a great hitter!!

Blake was a wild hitter, but got the job done.

Our Easter picture.

Adventure Aquarium

Adventure Aquarium is AWESOME!!!

We happen to go when they were celebrating

Button's (the hippo) birthday and it was so much fun!!

She had just woken from her afternoon nap and was waiting

for her yummy watermelon birthday cake.

Notice the big yawn.

We stopped by to see the hippos first

and boy am I glad we did.

They were showing off big time for us!

They call Jenny, Jumping Jenny since she

jumps up and down. She is the bigger one

and Button is the smaller one since she

swims laps around and around.

It was so much fun watching these hippos interact.

We were able to talk to one of the workers and she gave us

a lot of in site into these two hippos.

Abigayle, had so much fun watching the hippos.

She kept pointing and waving at them.

There were a lot of fun things to do at this aquarium.

All the kids (big and little) enjoyed playing in this sharks mouth.



Isn't he cute??!!

Blake was so brave and touched everything he could touch.

This is a baby shark!!

You should have seen the excitement in his eyes!

He touched jellyfish, shrimp, sharks, rays, crabs,

star fish, enemies and sea cucumbers.

Abigayle loved to splash in the water

and try to pick up the animals.

Brayden decided he was afraid and only wanted to look.

We got to see the handlers feed and talk about the penguins

and we were able to watch a few of them swim around.

The rest were napping since their bellies were full.

Abigayle was in awe of anything swimming.

I must say, she REALLY enjoyed the aquarium!

Thanks Mom and Curt for a super duper fun day!!

Scattered Chickens

Welcome to our new family blog.

I'm sure you've noticed a few changes over here.

I decided things needed to change

and instead of changing our http: address

and loosing all the blogs I have already posted

I decided to give this blog a good face lift

and just start over.

So... welcome to Scattered Chickens!!

I look forward to getting to know you

as you get to know us.

Hope you enjoy your visit.

Anyone there?

So... I'm trying to decide if I should continue to blog anymore.

When we moved to New Jersey,

I wanted a way to keep in touch with family and friends

and thought that blogging would be the easiest way.

Although now, I'm not really sure if anyone

actually enjoys this blog anymore

and to be quite honest,

I don't have the time or energy

to continue if I'm just doing this for us.

Although I do enjoy blogging

and would be happy to continue

if there is still interest.

These are the people I know who continue to read this:

Mom and Curt - I know you are reading, you have to read it,

after all you are my mom and I told you too, lol.

Jamie - a fellow blogger, who inspired me to start blogging and has a great blog herself.

Uncle Ya and Aunt Bob - who tell me how they enjoy staying up to date.

Umble Bob lol - all the way from Texas!!

And someone from Kerman - is this Andrea or Aunt Shelly?

So, what I am proposing is this,

if anyone wants me to continue with this blog

please either post a comment or send me an email.

If you are tired of this but still want to stay up to date,

I'll gladly create a once a month email and send it to everyone who is interested.

Although I do enjoy blogging

I don't want this to be a frustrating site for family and friends.

So... please let me know what everyone thinks.

It is gone forever

Well... Ab's tooth had to be taken out.

I'm definitely taking it harder than she is.

She cried but did great.

There really wasn't enough tooth left to fill it.

If I had chosen to fill it,

it would have only lasted 1 week to 3 months.

It would have cost us $300 for a temporary fix.

The next time it fell out,

we more than likely would have to pull it then.

It was too sharp to leave

and if any food got caught in it

(it had a big pocket in it)

it could get infected and then...

we'd have to pull it.

So... all roads led to extraction.

The decision was just now or later.

I just didn't want my pretty little girl to not have her front tooth.

Selfish, I know

but... that's how I feel.

On a side note,

I LOVED the dentist.

Couldn't have asked for a nicer man.

Seriously, after the procedure

the nurse came and got me

and I found him,

holding her bouncing in the hallway,

telling her that she was so brave

and that mommy was coming.

I'll try to post pictures soon.

No promises though.

Broken Teeth and Migraine's

Well... today's blog is going to have to be short and sweet.

Abigayle's tooth broke yesterday

and we are headed to the dentist this morning.

I'll give everyone an update when we get home.

Chuck stayed home from school today.

He has a really bad migraine.

HOPEFULLY he feels better soon!!

Easter Morning

Well, Easter morning was a lot of fun!

Mom and Curt were here so the kids

were spoiled more than usual.Abigayle was given this Minnie Mouse dress

and she thought she was very pretty prancing around in it!
Blake LOVED the sword the Easter bunny left for him!!

Brayden loved looking for the hidden eggs!

They were filled with jelly beans so there was an

added bonus this year!

Abigayle finally found her basket

and only then did she became distracted from all the eggs.

I think her favorite part was taking all the

jelly beans out and putting them into Mimi's hands.

She didn't even try to taste one until we were almost done, lol.

Blake immediately started playing with the new Lego set

they were given.

He is such a little builder!

This is a tooth brush holder that sucks to the mirror.

I thought he was so cute, posing with this silly toy!

What a fun morning we had!

After we found all that the Easter Bunny had left

we headed over to Adventure Aquarium.

I'll post pictures of our fun times over there tomorrow.

Easter

So many things happened on Easter.

I'll have to do several posts to fit it all in, lol.

Our Easter egg hunt finished out our day and was so fun!

We have a VERY serious hunter on our hands.

Abigayle LOVES hunting for Easter eggs!!!

She also became VERY upset when someone

got to her egg before she is able to get to it, lol.

Blake was so excited he forgot to put his eggs in his bag.

Brayden, somehow cannot find anything in the house
but is the best Easter egg finder ever!!
He even got to hide eggs this year for the first time.

The excitement of finding another egg!!

She found the mother load of eggs

right here in her brothers bag!!

Smart little thing!

She was not too happy when her daddy

put her basket on his head!

How was she supposed to collect her eggs?

We had so much fun this Easter Sunday.

Surprise

I opened my make up bag yesterday

and found a WONDERFUL surprise!!!

My mom left her Kabuki brush for me!!

THANK YOU SOOOO VERY MUCH!!!

Lady Liberty

Our first real outing this week was to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

While driving, this was our first real view.

We were so excited!! The boat ride over was fun and Ellis Island was very

interesting but the children became board really quickly.

We could have spent a lot more time listening and learning

but time and patients were quickly fading.

There was even a place where you could find

your own ancestors and see when they entered into the

United States.

The tour starts at our majestic flag

waving to all who enters.

My family sitting in front of New York.

The view was absolutely beautiful,

but I have no desire to live in such cramped quarters!!

Notice Brayden,

sneaking into this picture!

For a little boy who wouldn't take professional pictures

he sure like to take pictures with Mimi and Popi.

Our Lady Liberty.

There are too many amazing facts about her

but here are just a few I found interesting.
She stands moving,

she faces all who enter from the sea, welcoming each and every one of them,

Her index finger is 8 feet long,

She stands 22 stories tall

and even though that doesn't sound so tall for us

imagine a world where the tallest building was 5 stories.

The seven spikes on her crown represent the seven continents.

The bronze that covers her is only as thick as 2 pennies put together.

The symbolism is so amazing.

Definitely a trip worth taking!!

The yellow people on the grass is Brayden, Blake, Ab's and Daddy.

I thought this picture was cool since you can see how big she really is.

Such a fun day!

Great company and

a great learning experience

as we stood in awe of our Statue of Liberty.

A Very Sad Day

Today is a very sad day...

We have had soo much fun this past week

but we had to say goodbye this morning.

Mom and Curt had to leave.

The kids played T-ball on the grass this morning,

dug for worms and then we had to say our goodbyes.

The boys did well

but when Abigayle figured out what was happening

it was all over from there.

Although she was really cute it was really sad.

She waved goodbye

then realized that meant they were leaving.

She reached out for them and sat on her Mimi's lap.

Happy as pie.

When I grabbed her to go she started screaming

and trying to desperately climb back into the window.

I let her go one more time and she stopped crying,

waved at me and told me goodbye.

HELLO... she wanted to go and leave me behind!!!

It'll only be a few more months till they get to come back.

It sure was nice having them over.

I'll start posting pictures tomorrow!

Sooo many fun memories to share

and lots of cute pictures to post!

But today, we need to rest.

Fun... fun... fun...

We are having so much fun!!

LOTS of pictures in a few days.

We have been to the Statue of Liberty,

and to the most awesome aquarium.

The kids have really been enjoying

spending time with their mimi and popi.

Well we have too.

Hope everyone has a great day!

Will post pictures soon!

Just a Smile

Just a quick smile today.

Hoping your day is overflowing with blessings!!