We got baby chickens!

Russ and I have dreamed of this moment for a while now.  We have wanted to have chickens for quite some time.  That was one of the reasons why we bought this house, because it came with plenty of land so that we could have room to raise chickens.

The first batch of chickens we got about a week ago.  The kids had fun helping us set up their area under the heat lamp.  These chicks were about a week old when we got them.

Today we got a batch of 8 more chicks that are only a few days old.

Let's hope that all of these baby chicks continue to do well and thrive so that we can get them in the coop and start collecting eggs!

Peace and love.....

Where's Marshall???

So today during nap time I went upstairs to change Sawyer's diaper.  I walked by Marshall's room and peeked in, but he wasn't in his bed.  He wasn't in Jaylee's room or in Sawyer's room.  He wasn't in our bed or in our closet.  He wasn't in the basement.... he wasn't in the play area.  He wasn't in any of the bathrooms.  He wasn't in the kitchen or behind the couch.  So I started to panic.  I looked for him for over 15 minutes!!!

Then I noticed our cat stareing at the linen closet in the upstairs hallway.  I opened the closet door and this is what I saw....

Peace and love......

Marshall Turns 4!

I can't even believe that he is 4 years old already!

It doesn't seem possible.

When I first started this blog Marshall was 7 months old and just learning to crawl, now look at him....

Russ, Jaylee and I snuck into his room this morning and woke him up singing happy birthday this morning.  The first words out of his mouth were "When do we get to go to my birthday dinner??"  

We came down for breakfast and let him open his gift from us and his Grammy.

I told him yesterday that it was going to be the VERY last day of him ever being 3 years old.  I told him that he will never be 3 again.  I asked him how he felt about that, and this was his reply

"Mommy I'm tired of being 3 anyways"

I asked him if he felt any different being 4 years old now and he said

"I think my voice is starting to change"

This child cracks me up every single day.....

Marshall is a bit of a handful... but in a good way.  He is such a unique and amazing child.  He is full of life, and mischief.  He is also sensitive and is full of imagination and ideas.  He is hilarious and loves to make people laugh.

He tells me that he will be my "snuggle buddy" forever.....

He melts my heart on a daily basis.  

He will do anything to make his sister happy and to stop her tears.

He loves his baby brother.  I was so worried that he would be jealous and upset about the new baby, but he has done amazing with such a big change.  Although he can be a little rough with him at times, I think it's because he just wants to play with him so badly.

I feel honored to be Marshall's Mommy.  God gave me an amazing gift when he brought Marshall into our lives 4 years ago, and for that I will be forever grateful.

Peace and love....

Story Time

Our little girl has become an expert reader.  She took over story time tonight.

She is doing a wonderful job and we couldn't be more proud of her!!

I just can't get over how big she is getting.  It amazes me.  

I love how these pictures capture Marshall and Sawyer listening to her story, even Paolo our dog was in on the action of the book "Go Dog Go"

These are the moments that I treasure....

Peace and love.....

BACON!

Can you imagine if adults acted and got excited the same way that children do?

Life would be much more interesting that is for sure!

In the mornings Russ gets the kids up for breakfast and gets Jaylee off to school.  Since I am up with the baby during the night it gives me a little bit longer to catch up on my sleep.

This is how I woke up this morning.  

Jaylee screaming

"BACON!!  Daddy is making us BACON Mawshall"

I heard stomping around and jumping and yelling.

My goodness.  Can you imagine if us adults acted that way if someone was kind enough to make you some bacon for breakfast.  

Actually Russ and I kind of act like that sometimes....

maybe that's where they get it from....

My first thought was "Ugh" I was up until 3 a.m. between feeding a hungry baby and letting the dog out every 1/2 hour because he was having "potty" issues.  I admit the ruckus made me a little grumpy at first, but as I thought about it, it made me laugh.

These 2 pictures make me laugh.  Jaylee and Marshall play this trick on us quite a bit.

They will come down and show us that they switched clothes.  

This picture was actually taken a few months ago.

Let's just hope that the pattern doesn't continue into their teenage years....

but we will love them no matter what!

Marshall actually has perfect form in the picture below!

Sawyer just sits back and takes it all in.

I bet he can't wait to join us in the craziness.

Peace and love......

The Big Brother And The Toothless Sister.......

Marshall has handled having a baby brother so incredibly well.  I am so proud of him.

Yesterday Marshall was so proud of being such an amazing big brother to Sawyer.  All day he was singing to him, and playing peek a boo with him to make him laugh.

Then he decided he was going to teach Sawyer all about the game Operation so that when he's big enough they can play the game together.

I thought that this was the cutest thing ever!

Thursday nights Jaylee has her cheer/dance class.  On the way home she was snacking on an apple, when she realized that her second loose tooth, just fell out!  But.... we think that she ate her tooth with her apple.  It was dark when we got home, so I searched the truck with a flash light just to make sure it didn't fall onto the floor, but we didn't find it.

So Jaylee wrote a note to the tooth fairy all by herself explaining our predicament.

We left the window in the truck cracked open so that if the tooth was lost somewhere in there, she could fly in and retrieve it.  If anyone knew what happened to that tooth the tooth fairy would.

How adorable is that?!

Jaylee was talking a little funny after losing her tooth, you would too if you had a gaping hole in the front of your mouth!  She interrupted herself and she said "Mommy, am I talking funny?" 

I couldn't help but laugh, I told her that she would get used to it in a day or so, and she would be talking normal again in no time!

Another day in the Lederhouse house.... never a dull moment, or a quiet one either.

But we wouldn't have it any other way.

Peace and love....

Girl's Day Out

Today Jaylee and I left the boys at home and we had a much needed girls day out.

It's so stressful living with all of those boys!!

First stop..... Subway for lunch.

Jaylee's favorite place to eat lunch!

Although it's difficult to eat a sub with a loose tooth!

Next stop.... nail salon.

We had a mani and pedi done together.

Jaylee loved getting her nails done at the salon.  

All of the ladies fussed over how cute she was sitting there.

She picked out her own colors and chose a design to have painted on her nails.

She looked so cute in that big chair!

Pink sparkles for her fingernails.

And blue sparkles for her toes!

Then we stopped at the mall so she could pick our an outfit.

Our very last stop was Petsmart to replace a couple of her fish that died last week.

Rest in peace Sunshine and Flower.

We had so much fun spending time together.

Jaylee is such an amazing little girl and I feel so blessed to have her as my daughter.  She so deserved this day.  Life is so busy taking care of her and her little brother's that it's sometimes hard to give them the one on one time that they all need.  It's so important to take them aside and spend quality alone time with each of them.  

Oh the things kids say.....

I've kept a collection of funny quotes from Jaylee and Marshall.

I thought I would share...

Marshall says to Russ:

"Daddy, you smell bad, you smell like a hot shower"

Russ replies:

"How does a shower smell bad?"

Jaylee then says:

"Actually you smell like a dead chicken"

I laughed so hard that I cried!

After Marshall did something wrong he looked up at me with the most sincere look and said.....

"Sorry Mommy, I accidentally did it on purpose."

Genius!!

Jaylee:

"Mommy, I want to wear high heel ups when I grow up"

We were driving around when Russ mentioned that he ran over a soda bottle, Marshall then said:

"It's ok to run over soda bottles Daddy, just don't run over people"

He was dead serious when he said it too.  He had this look like he was giving Russ some life altering advice.

Last but not least are a couple examples of Marshall's random questions.  I love these because I can get a perfect idea on the way he thinks.

On a rainy day he asked me why the clouds were crying.

I think that brought tears to my eyes it was so cute.

The other one that sticks out in my mind is when he asked me how people put light bulbs in fire flies.

I live for these moments.

Like when Jaylee talks about herself in the third person as she spritzed herself with body spray she said:

"Jay Jay smells like lemons"

Everyday for the first month after Sawyer was born Marshall asked us if we could keep him.  

It's like we brought home a stray dog or something....Mommy can we keep him, can we? 

I am so glad that I write these down, because I know I would forget most of them.

 As hard as it is to be a Mom sometimes I am trying to treasure every moment.

Peace and love.......

The New Addition to Our Family..... Baby Sawyer

We have a new addition to our family!  

Sawyer Jackson was born on October 5th

at 2:21 in the afternoon.

He was 7 lbs 4ozs and 20 inches long.

He is absolutely perfect in every way.....

The proud Mom and Dad

I still can't believe that I am the mother to 3 children!  It is such a wonderful feeling.

Baby feet are the best.....

Jaylee meeting her new baby brother for the very first time.

Marshall meeting Baby Sawyer

The proud Daddy for the third time.

Coming home!

Sawyer's first car ride.

Even Maddie Dog was excited about the new baby.....

"Yo give me some milk!"

I can't wait to see what you are going to grow into Sawyer.  I can't wait to see what kind of person you are going to be, and the good things that you will do in this world.

Peace and love.....