Luken Turns 3!!

I know most people feel this way, but I cannot believe how quickly our children are growing.  Our youngest, Luken, turned three last Monday.

These pictures are from his birthday party the Sunday before.

There is a great store behind the gift that Luken is holding in the above picture.  It was given to him by Judah, the other little boy.  His dad took him to get a toy for Luken and he was having a very hard time deciding what to get Luken.  His dad said, "what would you like?"  It took just a second and he grabbed the car.  His dad then said something like, "Great.  This is what we will get Luken."

This is Luken with his new bike.  This is another bike without petals that allows the child to get use to balancing before you move him on to a bike with petals.  This one actually has a place for his feet once he learns to balance.

Birthday breakfast - pancakes with chocolate chips

He is very excited about presents.

He had been saying to me for the past few weeks - "Mom, you need to get me a gun, so I can shoot things." So we got him a Nerf gun.  He is not quite strong enough to cock it on his own, so we are still safe.

After dinner, we roasted marshmallows and made s'mores.  Luken loves marshmallows.

Then we had some badminton fun using that power line as our net.

I think Luken had a great birthday.  He is being to have quite the personality.  For those of you far away, I hope you get a chance to see our little man and experience a dose of his entertaining before he moves on to the next stage of life.

Book Review: Beneath the Shadows by Sara Foster

Beneath the Shadows by Sara Foster is a heartbreaking story about a woman whose husband goes missing.  Grace and Adam have moved to the English moors to get away from London life and enjoy their infant daughter.  After being there a week, Adam disappears.  Chapter 1.

After the disappearance, Grace and infant Millie leave to live with her parents.  The remainder of the book is a year later and Grace is trying to leave the past and move on. She feels to do this she must return to the moors and the little house they had lived in. She thinks by doing this she will be able to let her husband's ghost rest.

Sadly, what she finds are more questions than answers.  The small village they lived in is full of superstitious, odd people.  Scary things are happening that are causing Grace to believe she might be loosing her mind.  After many stops and starts, they truth is revealed and it is necessary what you think it will be.

This is a good read.  I will not give it great status, because it was too predictable.  I knew several of the "oh my" revelations before they were revealed.  It also had a whole lot of selfish, yucky people in it.  I like a story where the majority of the cast are good people, who are are just doing there best.  This story had way too many people who were just looking out for their own interests.  So my final thought is this story is only a three star story.

Raising Chickens

We have had several family members start raising chickens over the last few years and we decided it was our turn.  We live "on a farm" to a degree and we have plenty of room.  I also like the idea of fresh.  Bailee thinks we need a cow, but I am not there yet.  Sam and Makayla think we need a horse.  I would love a horse, but sadly, no.  Jeremy thinks we need a goat and all I can think about is the demon nanny goat we had when we were growing up.  Scary!  So no.  Chickens it is.  Here they are when they were little.  They are not so little anymore.  In fact, they are just a few short weeks away from being kicked out of their nice inside home to the own house.

This is Drumstick and probably the last time Luken held one of the chicks.  When he saw them poop on his sisters a few times, he was done.

Bailee named this one Pablo.

Pablo, Drumstick, and poop.

This is Makayla's and her name is either Flower, Rose, or Daisy.  Actually, I think she finally settled on Daisy.

Sammy with Betty

And this is Emma Rae on the left and Omelet on the right. 

We ended up buying a couple more to add to our flock.  We now have eight total.  I am excited.  They have been very fun to have.  The girls are helping with the responsibility of them which is a definite bonus.