Well, Life continues to be busy and full of the good, the bad and the ugly(or stinky)!

The Good:

All and all our family is doing great! Getting ready for spring and summer arrive so we can enjoy the outdoors, our yard and finish/continue all our projects. On the list for this year: Finish the chicken coop and run (this has to do with the ugly/stinky part, but I will get to that in a bit), buy/build a shed, and grow some veggies. I have my starter plants planted and the makeshift green house was up, but has since been blown over by the wind. Repairing that will be added to our list.

My little conductor! He loves his trains.

Talan is doing great and is the light of our lives. He is still not talking much...the strong silent type I guess, but he is so smart and aware of everything that is around him. He even yells "Daddy" when he sees a Jeep Wrangler on the road. He is so very active and loves anything that has to do with sports, especially balls and boy does he have am arm!

The Bad:

For those of you that know we still have our house in San Diego...that will no longer be the case after this year. We are in the short sale process as we speak. This was an incredibly hard and long overdue decision that we had to make. We are so sad that we are officially closing the chapter of our San Diego life. We will miss having that tie, but the stress that we will relieve will be worth it in the end. You never know someday when our finances turn around maybe we can afford a little vacation rental! Sigh...

The Ugly (stinky):

We decided to get some baby chicks this year and raise them for the fresh eggs. We are still really excited for the eggs and Talan has loved every minute of raising these chicks. Me on the other hand...NOT SO MUCH! They were cute little fuzzy chicks for about a week. Then they became half fuzzy, half feathered, very stinky, kinda awkward looking, dirty, chick/chickens! They need to be in 90-95 degrees for the first week and then the temp can lower about 5 degrees each week. With the lovely Central Oregon weather that we have they have a very slim chance of surving out side before they are 45-60 days old. Really? This is way too long to keep them in the house, we came home the other night and could smell them the moment we walked in the door (they are in the bathroom). I could not take it anymore and decided there was no other option than to put them in our uninsulated garage. We did that and thankfully with the heating lamp they are still staying warm enough and doing well. We can not wait to get them in their coop. The next day I spent 2 hours cleaning my bathroom from floor to ceiling. Ahh so nice to have them out of the house.

One of my "pretty"?! ladies

On another note, this could have been in the bad section but is now under the "So far So Good" category. One of my closest and longest friends Gina went into pre-term labor last week and had to spend 8 days in the hospital. She is now at home on bed rest, but has not had the baby...Thank you Lord. So during her stay in the hospital we took Lucas (her 2 year old son) for part of the time. The boy are best buddies and had a great time.

The boy on the see saw

Enjoying a good breakfast

Bath time for best buddies!