It's Like Black Friday @ Wal-Mart

I am quoting Doug in the above title because yet again, the man has gone cah-razy!  He made a trip to Knisely's today.  Yep, to Knisely's.  Apparently many people made a trip to that farm store today.  Sooo many people that doug texted me saying that it looked like black friday at wal-mart in that place.  He made a similar trip to Knisely's around this same time last year and it resulted in this...

our first chickens...they didn't last long cuz of a neighborhood fox

  Soooooo, the trip this year resulted in this...

We've got 5 brand new baby chicks and they are adorable.  The very first batch of chickens we bought last year had got eaten by a fox so Doug replaced them immediately with 10 new ones.  Well, one of them got drug away by a fox this past summer so we presently have 9 chickens hanging out in our back yard.  Seems like a rough place to live if you're a chicken.  These poor little guys don't know what they are in for! 

The kids are beyond excited!  Chicks have been claimed by children, names have been given, and said children have been pooped on!  Its a good day in the Thomas house.

first pooped on hand

Yoga anyone???

Today I decided to try my hand at yoga.  Fortunately, when I did this I was all alone since all the kids were downstairs.  No one to laugh at me, no one to ask me questions, and no one to get in the way of my downward facing dog. 

Fahnta, Jaida, and Ezeekai were not so lucky.  With camera in hand, I captured all the graceful moments of their first attempts at yoga.    (Scroll through all the pics cuz at the end there is a video worth watching!)



Jaida is a natural







Fahnta took this pretty serious and as a result, she did great!



Ez is goin....



DOWN!!!







And now, what you have all been waiting for.....

Just one perk

 Just one of the many perks of being the oldest boys (corey and nate) in the family is that you can get the youngest boy(ezeekai) in the family to do something like this over and over again.

HaPpY 12th BiRtHdAy NaTe!!!

Today is Nate's big 1-2 birthday!!! 

Well, actually, Feb. 17th was the big day but it took me two days to post this post. Agh!
I love our kids birthdays.  I love being able to make a big deal about them throughout the day without feeling guilty about NOT making a big deal about someone else.  I've had to make these comments in the past, "Hey, it's (insert child's name) birthday today.  It is all about (insert child's name).  It's not about you.  When it's your birthday it can be all about YOU, but for today it is all about (insert child's name).  Everybody doesn't get a ribbon today people!"
So for today, we celebrate (NATE)!!!!!!!!  Our nature-lovin, outside-explorin, football and basketball playin kid just lookin for a great time!!!

Nothin like a little KFC to celebrate!

Obligatory kid picture

(pretty girl in top left corner is Corey's girlfriend)

yeppers...that's a whole other blog post :-)

something went very wrong w/this picture

Nate does such a great job when he opens the "regifted" gifts

from his sisters!

prime example of "regifted" gift

some awesome headphones!

the unveiling of the 30-06

one proud poppa!

Ralphie and the Red Rider b.b. gun come to mind

"You'll get yours Black Bart"~ralphie

nothing good can come from this!!!

Happy 12th Nate!  We love you!!!





What Nate Showed Me...

After church last night, Nate asked if he could show me a video they watched in their cluster group.  Of course, I thought it went something like this...

But it was really this...

Cool.



February 14th

Happy Valentine's Day!!!!! 

Yeppers, he did it again!!!  Doug surprised me with some totally awesome (yep, i grew up in the 80's) flowers today!  He went the extra mile to do it, too!  You see, I now work at the place where he "preordered" my flowers last year, so he had to be a little sneaky about it. 

I started working at Hoy's Greenhouse when the kids started school this year.  I absolutely loooooove it!!!  I get to work with my friend Lori and her daughter, Emma.  Lori took over the family business almost 2 years ago and Emma has been working with her ever since, well ever since, she was kneehigh to a grasshopper.  Like I said, it is a family run business so being around the greenhouse has just been part of their lives.  Lori and I have been friends since our boys were babies and I had told her long ago how much I would love to work there.  I had worked a little bit last spring and Lori asked if I wanted to come back once the school year started.  Heck ya I did!!!!  

Okay, back to Doug, flowers, and his sneakiness.   We were pretty busy yesterday and today and there was no way we were going to be taking a long break for lunch.  Around 11:30 Doug just happened to text me and ask if he could bring us some food and said he could run some deliveries for us if we needed him to.   How sweet! Little did I know that he had another agenda.  He had already ordered flowers for me, Emma had already arranged them, and Lori had already had them tagged, ready to go, and in the fridge.  He dropped off our lunches and Lori told him he wasn't needed to run the deliveries.  Since I was busy when he left, I didn't even notice that Lori walked out with him and got the flowers for him to take home.  

When I came home from a long day of work, this is what I found waiting for me....      

Absolutely beautiful!!!!The picture does not do this arrangement justice!

Thank you to my wonderful husband for going the extra mile for me in so many other ways than just on Valentine's Day.  I really don't deserve such a great guy! 

HaPpY 11th BiRtHdAy FaHnTa!!!

We got to celebrate Fahnta on February 6th.  I know, according to this blog, her 10th birthday was not really that long ago but we did have the obligatory 365 days since her last birthday.  Honestly, we did. 

She loved all of her gifts.  She is becoming quite the fashion queen so her birthday list consisted mostly of clothes and accessories.  :-)  Thankfully, Kohl's was having a major sale, I had Kohl's cash and an additional 20% off coupon.  Can anyone say, "Cha-ching?"  I am thinking she enjoyed all of her gifts and the day carved out just to celebrate her!!  We love you Fahnta!!!

Our 11 year old:-)



traditional kid picture taken on everyone's bday. 
something apparently went very wrong with Ezeekai.




a little bit better but still pretty scruffy lookin bunch




need i say more?



princess

another traditional picture.  yet again, something is
up with ezeekai.  i think i am seeing a pattern!