Chickens and Toddlers

I really don't know who is more entertaining to watch. Emily talking and playing with the chickens or the chickens following and playing with Emily.

I know I just posted about Emmy and the chickens not too long ago but they are just fun to watch. They equally enjoy each others company. She's trying to get them to come to her by offering them mulch.Apparently it works. She isn't afraid when they take it out of her hands. She just smiles.Here is a picture of one of my Buffs. She is one of my favorites. So sweet and she will let you pick her up anytime. We may get a few more of these kind this Spring, that is if I can talk Will into it.

Just Another Day in the Figgins House

So yesterday went a little like this...

9am dropped the younger 3 children off with my Dad and step-mom. Brodie was kept home from school due to be diagnosed with strep the day before. I headed to my 9:30 dentist apt. Got good news there, no cavities, yeah! From there I headed to my primary care office to get my blood drawn for my abnormal thyroid and cholesterol. After getting my blood drawn, which by the way was extremely painful this time, don't think the alcohol dried quick enough, I went to my 11:30 Podiatry apt. After waiting 40 minutes to be seen I was finally roomed and greeted by the doctor.

They took another x-ray and found that my large toe is still not healed. As a result I am now experiencing pain in the second toe joint. If this doesn't heal then it can become a permanent thing and we will need to go in and do some repairs (if I understand him correctly). Also I am having alot of pain on the outside of the foot. My previous doctor shaved some of the bone off there but this new doctor doesn't agree with what he did. He thinks since there is still a large bump there that I will keep having pain unless we go in surgically and actually cut the toe and realign it. Swell.

So, I really didn't get the good news I was hoping for. The plan for now is to wait 4 more weeks, keep using my fancy bone stimulator and I have an apt for early March. At that time we will see if I have healed anymore and talk about future corrections. He did say that it is rare, but sometimes it can take up to 6 months for the bone to completely heal. I guess I am that rare percentage. Oh joy.

I really did like this Dr and I feel comfortable with what he told me. Now it's just a waiting game. Plus he's easy on the eyes, so that helps...just kidding hon!! You know I only have eyes for you.

So after that apt. I was headed back to pick up the kids from my Dad's when my cell phone rang and it was Tony's school telling me that Tony had been injured during PE and they wanted me to come take a look at his wrist. It had been bent backwards while playing dodgeball and it was swollen and purple. Are you kidding me?

I headed to school and it didn't look near as bad as I had expected. The nurse thought it be a good idea to be seen to rule out a fracture. So, we headed back to the doctor at 2:30, did an xray and thankfully it was just a sprain. Kinda what I figured but it gave us peace of mind, especially Tony who was pretty distraught over the ordeal.

After leaving Tony's apt I headed to pick up Drew from pre-school. When I asked him how his day went he said "horrible, I have the worst headache ever." When we got home I took his temp and it was 103. He had a tummy ache as well. Great, he is the next one to be plagued with strep.

So here we are, another day. Brodie did feel better and went to school, Drew is staying home today to rest and hopefully get some antibiotics. Good times. Just another day in the Figgins house.

Yikes, today was stressful and long. I am too tired to even type about it. I will post an update on my foot and all the other craziness that happened today, tomorrow. Until then...

This will be a better week.

It's the start of a new week. I can't believe it is almost February. January went very fast and we had many, many unexpected expenses and frankly it has been a stressful month. I just want it to be over with!!

Last week was a bummer. Jake broke his hand on Tuesday, our van broke down on Thursday and cost us $1430 to repair draining any money we had saved from our 31 days of nothing challenge. Over the weekend Brodie was sick and on Sunday was diagnosed with strep. Sigh....this week has to be better right?

I see my new Podiatrist today. I am anxious to hear what he has to say. My bunionectomy was on October 4, and almost 4 months later I am still have lots of problems and pain in that foot. I was upset with my previous Doctor who did the surgery and kept blowing me off so I transferred my care to this Doctor. Hoping for some positive results.

Well I better get the older kids off and get myself cleaned up. I have a good feeling this will be a better week.

A Little Taste of Spring

The weather has turned back cold but before that we have had some awesome weather this season. We have been able to spend almost everyday outside. The hens as well have been able to spend lots of time outside the chicken house and coop. I found an egg in a pretty unusual spot the other day. Can you see it?Tucked in an empty flower bed.
I am down to just one of the White Brahma chickens. I found the other one in the woods behind our house. Something had killed her. That was pretty sad. They are great layers.

Here is Drew showing off his climbing skills. He is trying to catch up to Tony who has always been a tree climber.
This is a crazy picture. The reason being that it is the middle of January, we are on the deck grilling, and no one has a coat on. Like I said, it has been unseasonable warm!
I like this picture too. Emily discovered the pine cones in the front yard and Brodie is dashing to grab the pine cone out of her mouth. Good thing she has so many brothers watching out for her.

Making Our Own Snowman

We haven't gotten a good snow yet this Winter. We have snow on the ground now, but not much. The other day the weather people said we were going to get around 4 inches. We got ourselves pumped up to spend the day watching the snow fall outside. I love the snow, as long as I don't have to go anywhere. Anyway, over the course of 24 hours that changed from 4 inches to 1/2 inch. We ended up getting just a dusting.

So since we didn't get a chance to watch it snow outside we decided to make it snow inside. Drew and I spent the morning making a winter scene on our living room wall. We spent lots of time cutting out snowflakes. And to make our winter scene complete, we built a giant snowman.

Emmy and the Chickens

The cold weather finally hit. I can't complain I guess. It has been a beautiful winter so far. Usually by now I am starting to get a little stir crazy from being stuck inside with the kids because of the weather. We have been lucky and the kids have been able to spend almost everyday with some outside time.

Here are some pictures I snapped of Emily just a couple days ago on our afternoon walk. She is totally fascinated by the chickens. She definitely doesn't have any fear of them. She will walk right up to the run and poke her chubby fingers through the fence. One even pecked her finger and she just looked at me like "did you see that?" and then she put her hand back in. I held one of the birds so that she could pet it. She really liked her beak. The bird was very tolerant and let Emmy just pet and poke at her. When I finally let the bird down Emily decided she wasn't finished playing and continued to follow the bird around the yard for a bit.Finally the play set caught her eye and she left the birds alone to climb on the slide. Her new thing is climbing and she is really good at it.After climbing we walked a bit and ended up swinging for awhile until Daddy came home and we went inside.

My Drewbug

This was taken this morning. Drew, Emily and I got all the play food and kitchen equipment out and played "restaurant". Drew has the best imagination. I made him pause from cooking for a moment just to snap a picture of us. These are the moments I want to remember for a lifetime.

Update

Things are going better around home again. Knock on wood, I think everyone is over their illnesses. We went through gastro bugs and then head colds, the baby went to the ER, I was put on steroids and antibiotic, the list goes on and on. We have had our fair share for the winter.

We survived Christmas break. It was boring for the kids, or maybe not. Someone if not multiple someones was sick the entire break so we didn't do a whole lot. There was lots of game time which always makes the boys happy and content. We did spend a couple days in Colo with Will's parents so that was nice to get away.

New Years was good and we spent it with some friends of ours. We had a good night playing games on the Wii. I always love the start of a new year.

I am trying to get back in the swing of things and get some sort of routine around here. Right now I have been obsessed with cleaning, decluttering and purging. I feel sorta ADD about it and seem to bounce from one thing to another. I really need to focus on cutting back and just trying to take one thing at a time. If I could be content with just doing one or two things each day instead of trying to tackle an entire project and then getting stressed about it would be a good start. I can write it, I just need to do it. Things are always easier said than done.

All the kids are doing great. I need to do an updated photo and post on all of them. They are changing so much it's amazing. This is my last year home with Drew. He starts kindergarten in the fall and that breaks my heart. Then it will be just me and Emily. Ok, stopping here before I get emotional.

Lost Tooth

Brodie lost his first tooth a week ago. It had been loose for quite some. After being tucked into bed one night he came out and said his tooth was just hanging there. Sure enough, it really was just hanging there. Dad offered to pull it for him, but he wanted to do it all by himself.

With a quick tug it was out. It was pretty exciting. Now his tooth next to it is loose. I am sure it won't be long before that one is out too.

Exhausted

Yes, I love sleeping pictures. This picture was taken of Emily late Christmas morning. Poor girl was so exhausted. She played really hard with her new spoon!

Christmas Morning 2011

The kids did really well letting us sleep in Christmas morning. We told them they couldn't wake us up before 6 am. So when 6 am rolled around Will and I both woke up on our own. Thinking the boys would be in any moment, we stayed awake. It was almost 7 before Jake and Tony finally entered our room.

After they woke us up, they went and woke up Brodie and Drew. All the boys then went in and got Emily. Santa had come. There was gifts under the tree and the stockings were full.Besides all our presents, here was our other proof Santa was here.
We opened stockings first. Drew was excited to get a Christmas story plate in his stocking. That is his favorite movie not only at Christmastime but all the time. Tony is really into puzzles. This 3D puzzle will really prove his skills.
This picture was suppose to be focusing on Brodie and his new Detroit Lions football. However, as you can see it also captured Drew opening his Joker action figure. He was slightly excited!
Daddy helped Emily with her stocking. Inside she found a spoon and fork. She was completely happy with that and didn't need any other gifts after that. She walked around all day with that spoon. She had no interest in any of her gifts so mom and dad ended up opening them for her.

Here is Jake opening his magazine subscription to Men's Fitness. He is really into working out and taking care of his body right now so this should be good for him.
Everyone was very happy with all their gifts. We cut back on gift giving this year and tried to really focus on what the kids interests were. I think it worked out well and everyone was grateful.

I made homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast and after the kids all played for couple hours we headed next door to my mothers house and celebrated with my siblings and their families. Unfortunatly Will was sick so he stayed home and I ended up joining him later because I had a terrible migraine. We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening either in the chair or sleeping. Thankfully the boys were all well and they spent time at my mother's house playing with their cousins. It didn't work out the way we had planned but we don't always have control. It was still Christmas and we were all able to be together.

Gingerbread Houses

Since I am a little behind on updating we are going to back track a little. Here are the pictures of our gingerbread house making on Christmas Eve. We have made this a tradition every year. The kids love making creations and then snacking on them later. It's always fun to see what everyone creates. Here is Drew's. Not sure how he managed to get all that licorice on the top without it caving in but he did.
Jake went for the camping look. Here is Dad's. He is always the last one at the table whenever it comes to family projects. I must admit, his does look really nice.
Here is Tony's. I thought the gummy bears sitting around the camp fire on the left side were really clever.
This was mine. I was most proud of the snowman and the Christmas tree.
And here is Brodie's.
Emily didn't make a gingerbread house but she had just as much fun sitting with us at the table munching on graham crackers.
Hard to believe they are all mine. I love them all so much and I love that we can spend time like this bonding as a family.

2012 New Years Goals

Happy New Year! I love the new year. A fresh start, a new beginning, time to pause and reflect on the previous year and think about whats yet to come. I have spent a lot of time thinking about my goals for 2012. Things I would like to work on or improve.

It's kinda cliche but here are my 2012 New Years goals, resolutions, inspirations, what ever you want to call them.

Personal
*Drink more water.
*Exercise 3 times per week. It may be nothing too exciting, just a walk around a park would be nice.
*Cut back on coffee. This isn't something I necessarily want to do but I figured if I drink more water maybe my coffee intake will become less. Right now, I drink way.too.much.coffee.
*Read more. I have some awesome magazines and books begging to be read but finding "me time" is difficult.
*Continue to have a large garden and put up enough produce to feed my family for the non-gardening months.
*Keep growing my blogs. I truly enjoy blogging and it is a hobby I want to continue.

Financial
*Successfully complete our 31 Days of Nothing Challenge. Would love to have a chunk of money saved up to go towards our medical bills that we accumulated in 2011.
*To go along with the above...pay off all our medical bills. Right now we owe almost $2000. And unfortunately, since it is the new year, our deductibles will start over.
*Start tracking coupon savings each month. I have always been curious how much money I am saving with coupons. I may do this for a few months just to get an idea.
*Stay on track with our budget and go back to using the envelope system. This system really works for me and I don't spend near as much money when I am using cash instead of swiping my debit card.
*Increase our savings account by $5000. This may be difficult, but if we work really hard I think we can do it.

Family
*Read more books together. All my kids love to read and this would be a good thing to do
as a family.
*Spend more one on one time with my husband. With the business of life, sometimes we don't get a chance to really connect just the two of us.
*Establish a good morning routine with the two youngest children. Once the 3 older kids are off to school sometimes I feel lost with what to do with my little ones that are still at home. I want to get some sort of schedule in place.
*In general just spend more time with my kids and husband. I am always so busy and feel like there is so much to get done in the day that I need to just sit back and truly enjoy life.

Greener, Healthier Living
While my family has made huge leaps this last couple years in being more earth friendly there is always room for improvement. I want to step up a few things this year.
*Step up the composting and actually move it around so that is composts!
*Continue to recycle. I need to get a larger recycle bin for our kitchen.
*Completely switch over all cleaning products to homemade. Right now about 80% is made by myself.
*Buy less packaged and processed foods. Cook more from scratch.
*Continue to garden, shop local, attend produce auctions and support our local farmers.