Mother's Day and a May Long Weekend

Our Mother's day weekend got a early start with a family outing to pick up a little table and chairs set for our patio, as it will suit our needs much better then our current couch and chairs set.

On our way home from the store we stopped for a little treat, which is likely Hazel's first ice-cream cone as she was much more sensitive to dairy when she was younger.

I hear all the time that Hazel looks like me, and I'm starting to see it more and more as well. 

The transition from 1 to 2 has gone decently well and we are starting to find a good rhythm. Not sure what I would do without my two girls😍.

Matching PJ's from the firehall. Very glad Hazel's 3T PJ's didn't have feet on them as they pretty quickly fit as capris!

The kittens are starting to venter from their nest, Hazel has been trilled and enjoys spending time with them when Pirate lets her.

Chickens have been doing very well! Jared has spent many hours automating the barn and has successfully automated a vent to open and close, and have the brooder or heat lamps turn on or off based on temperature. 

Sunday afternoon naps. When ever Jared takes a nap on the couch Hazel will give him a stuffy for him to discover when he wakes up. Hazel is just snuggling in this picture, and I happened to catch her with her eyes closed. 

Sweet as a peach!

Planting the garden! We planted potatoes and onions in this one, and some lettuce, kale, spinach and carrots in the other. I hope to add some tomatoes plants and beans in June when we are hopefully well past the frost. 

"Happy Mother's Day" from Hazel as she presented these flowers. Well past mothers day...but just a sweet none the less!!!

 

Hazel's Birthday Party

Cupcakes, candles and party hats was a happy combination for Hazel's birthday party. I made a special note to get the party hats as at one of my friends birthday parties that we went to Hazel was disappointed at the lack of party hats. The candles and cupcakes went over pretty well to, and every time she got a cupcake it needed a candle.

It was a lovely warm spring day so some of the party actives were able to be held outside, we just had one friend over as Hazel does much better in small groups.

Some Mommy snuggles after a morning full of fun.

I was planning to wait till Jared got home before we started to open presents, but it was such a nice day and one of her presents was a outside pots and pans set, so Hazel got to open that one early and played with it for the rest of the afternoon.

After Jared came home then Hazel got to open her inside toys presents of some play food and dishes.

Daddy inspired goofiness! 

3 Years, 3 Months!

 Hazel turns 3 years old and Jade turns 3 months old one day apart!

I don't quite feel ready to have a 3 year old, but Hazel is 3 whether I like it or not. Hazel is a still a sweet child, especially when she gets enough sleep. Lately she has been taking up afternoon naps again which has helped a lot in getting our "normal" Hazel back. 

Hazel is still our little helper and always eager to learn. She is fond of running around outside and enjoys having Nova run around with her, if Nova happens to cooperate with Hazels imaginative games. Hazel has a great imagination and has a knack for using items for many other purposes then what they were made for.  

Hazel is about 31 pounds and 39 inches tall and often gets comments on her height.

Hazel is getting more and more excited about her little sister. When Mommy and Jade were gone for a day Hazel was more excited to see Jade then Mommy.

Jade has happily reached the 3 month mark (I remembered once Jade was about 2 and half months that newborn babies are not favorite stage). Jade is a very content baby, she is napping well and mostly sleeping through the night. She is pretty quick to give a smile and is often content to lay on her play mat for a while. 

Jade also just rolled from her front to her back after her nap today. So far she still fits in her bassinet and hopefully will for the next month or two as it has been rather handy. Jade has switched from swaddling to sleep sacs, and happily sleeps on her tummy and will rarely fall asleep on her back. Jade is somewhere in the 12-13 pound range, and right in-between 0-3 and 3-6 in clothing sizes. 

Yup, they are sisters! Hazel at 2 months (top) and 3 months (bottom).

Early Spring

 New chicks showed up Wednesday morning and kittens showed up Friday night! Pirate the Mama cat (second picture) choose to have them under the BBQ table on the deck, so we get to take a little peek at them every once and a while. Very glad the kittens are hands off and have their own mama as I'm not sure how many more babies we can handle. 

Working on filling up my new box garden, hopefully we will have a bit more produce this year to store away for over the winter. 

Jade is a pretty content girl in her buggy.

Hazel either helps or plays on her owns and runs around with Nova. And as long as she has her hair out of her face she's pretty happy too.

We got some soil delivered that afternoon to fill the remainder of the box gardens.

Hazel helped check up on the chicks that afternoon and offered to hold Jade. 

Chicks are doing well, we are still having lots of fun watching them, especially noting the size difference from one week old's to two week old's. We also received the news that the chicks that died were sick before we got them, so we didn't do anything wrong and couldn't have prevented it, which was really nice to know.

Naptime and Smiles

All the excitement must have been tiring! Three times in two weeks I had Hazel and Jade taking afternoon naps at the same time. This is quite unexpected as Hazel stopped napping just under a year ago.

Even managed to get both of them into bed after they both feel asleep in me. 

Can't get over how Hazel still curls up in her sleep 😍 

They both had a couch nap that afternoon.

Someone was a bit to tearful one afternoon, so I laid her on the couch for some downtime and she was soon asleep, and Jade went down for her afternoon nap as well.

Jade has been showing some more personality lately which has been so fun, especially when it's mostly smiles and the occasional attempt at a laugh. 

Hazel has been asking to hold Jade more, and acknowledging Jade more. It has been good to see her slowly warming up to the new normal.

On Sunday she even wanted to take pictures with Jade! Considering Hazel doesn't really like pictures this is a pretty big win. And they even both smiled at the same time, at each other! 😍

 

Setback or Jumpstart?

 

As exciting as it was to have new chicks, the excitement soon had a bit of a damper on it when on day two we lost a whole bunch of them😭, still not sure why. I unfortunately discovered it late Thursday afternoon and it made me feel awful and I was quite somber for the remainder of the evening. Jared on the other hand was confused but was already considering the idea of getting more chicks now instead of getting another batch in the fall like originally planned .

After considering the idea of more chicks over the weekend, Jared called the hatchery and they offered to replace the chicks that died and Jared placed an order for a "few" more. 

Soooo on Wednesday morning, a week and a day after our first batch, 100 more chicks arrived!

It has been neat to see Jared so excited about the chickens! He has a lot of energy and drive when you put chickens and business in the same project 😊

It is amazing what a difference a week of growth makes! 

Had a good chuckle at these three warming their tail feathers! 😆

Our "date nights" for the last two and a bit weeks has been going out to the barn just to sit a watch the chicks run around! (video below)😍 Trying to get as much chick watching time in as we can, as I'm sure it will be just a matter of days before they are sitting on our lawn chairs...

Very curious to see where this jumpstart takes us and excited to learn how to run a small egg business together!