Beach day!

We had a great time a the beach on Wednesday! Olena loved the ocean and is floating with her swimmers like a champ! I have three goals for her this year . 1. Swimming with no floaties 2. Potty trained 3. Into a toddler bed
We are doing great on all three!

O'lena sining her ABC's and dancing

This is such a cute video. She was just singing and dancing. My favorite part is when she goes into scream mode. :) When daddy comes home is another good part too! She is getting so stinking smart! She is even counting in Spanish now. Thank you Dora the Explorer!!

Snakes!

So who would she think my life would turn all snakes these last few weeks. First there was a big long black indigo in our backyard. The chickens seem to mind much. They just looked at him and kind of pecked at him a bit. He really didn't do much until d shot him with a air rifle.
Then there was our mothers day performance for the the mother daughter banquet. I was given the part of eve and of course I couldn't pass up the opportunity to play with a snake! I borrowed a snake from a coworker, who happens to have worker there when I went to school at Fmma. He was a beautiful corn snake. Very friendly. He was great. There is a pic of me holding him at work. More pictures to come of the costumes but I thought he was fun.

We have what?! Chickens?!

As most of you know, we have chickens. Crazy things happen when you are bored and not getting pregnant. You kind of end up with more animals. Well I have always wanted chickens and D wasn't opposed, so when my friends was like, "hey I have some chicks, do you know of anyone who wants some?" I was like "um, yes."

The three originals-

Sebastian checking them out. He left them alone...most of the time

Look Daddy! I got chicken!. I want chiiiiiiiiiikin.

Wait! I thought there were three!?!

The conversation went
Derick: "What do you mean I cant eat them?"
Whitney: "They are miniatures, there wont be enough meat."
D: "Will they lay eggs."
W: "Yes, but they will be mini too."
D: "Whitney, go to the store and get some chickens I can do something with."
W: "How many more do you think?"
D: "Three more should be fine. That would give us a half dozen."
CUT TO
D: "What do you mean they only sold them in groups of six?"
W: "Well, we have 9 now. We are going to need a chicken coupe."
D: "So now you need a coupe too!?!"
---I kind of paraphrased some :)

Weren't they so stinking cute!!! They dont look like that now.

The missionaries got a big kick out of them. Elder Armani keeps coming back to play with them.

So, it was right around Easter time when we got them so I HAD to bring them in and show O'lena's friends. I still get asked where are the chickens.

Their ugly pre-teen stage. They were getting too big for the cage.

Construction of the coupe.

Paint job to match the house

Free missionary labor

Doesn't it look awesome?!?!

So O'lena's favorite thing to do is chase the chickens around and catch them. You can see how big they got. They were about two months old there. They are big already. This was about a month ago.

She really likes being in there.

The whole set up.

I will have to post a more recipient picture of them for you. They look like real chickens now. We dont have eggs yet, but probably in a couple of months. I just started letting them run free (outside of the pinned in area, they get out of the coupe part in the morning) in the back yard. I let them out a couple of hours before their bed time, and by sun down they have waddled themselves all the way back into the coupe part all by themselves. And out of my 9 it looks like I only have one roster. That is really good since I had about 50/50 on 6 of the 9. He is funny. He is just now getting his crowing down. Derick is helping him practice. D gets up close to the cage and start clucking like a female and he gets all big and crows at him. It is quite funny. As of now, no neighbors have complained too. So we may not have to give him away after all.

The Cutest Video EVER!!

This is a video of O'lena talking about her booboo she got while were taking a walk, back on February. It just show how mature she was and how much talking she was doing back then. She has gotten so much more lingual now!!! I have been trying to get this to post for a while but I could get it to work. I decided to true a different way. Thank you YouTube!

My favorite is when she says love you! She even held a conversation with daddy that night on the phone!!! She is getting so big!!

Parent teacher conference

I had olena's parent teacher conference today. This is what she was doing when I came in. I can't believe that they can get all of them kids down at the same time! The conference went okay. We have some behaviors we need to improve on like whining and screaming to get attention but other that she is doing well. Mommy needs to play with her more and follow through when she is disciplining. Daddy and mommy have conferenced too and will be on it! We stopped the head banging for attention we can stop this too! :)

Easter 2012

It felt like Easter was like a week long this year! So many activities and good fun stuff happening. Of course it was all about O'lena and she had a blast. Naturally all the pictures are out of orders so hang with them.

Ea

This is O'lena dyeing eggs with Oma. She loved it! I think her hands were colored for several days afterward, but it was all in good fun. oh and ps: I dont know why that Ea is there above this caption. I can not get it to go away. Blogger has changed its formatting and I cant figure it out.

Her with her colored hands!

One of my new favorite pictures.

We went over and ate dinner with Cookie and Al on Easter Sunday. Before dinner we went egg hunting. I think there were over 30 something eggs and one little girl looking for them. I have a video of her going around and all of us are like "over here Lena," "no, over here" "oooo, there is one here" "I think there are some in the grass!" All at the same time. It was pretty pathetic. 

Derick's dutch oven Easter apple pie. Isn't it the most beautiful thing you ever did see!? It was quite tasty too!

Daddy giving expert advice on the advanced systematic procedure of egg pursuits.

Pretty Leney with her basket.

Granddaddy was letting her feed the birds.

She was trying to figure out how to get up the tree. Yes, she wanted to climb it. She is her father's child!

O'lena dyeing her eggs before we got the ingenuous insight to take off the dress!

O'lena's Easter basket. She is on a Dora kick so the bunny brought her Dora PJs and stickers!

Leeny girl with her new headbands from her basket and eating her gummies that were stuffed in the eggs.

Annual Easter family portrait time!!

The Lees

The Bryants

Olena smelling the lilies, and the group shot of everyone. 

At the LDS church they had their annual Primary Easter Egg hunt. She had a blast! There were so many eggs and her and daddy had as much opening them as finding them!

He was "holding" them for her...right....

Listening in on the rules of play for the hunt.

At O'lena school they did a spring party and had an egg hunt for everyone. Daddy and I took the day and went to play too. It was alot of fun!

Group shot.

Daddy sitting with O'lena while Ms. Stephanie made the fruit salad.

Eating all the yummy goodies.

Egg hunt time!

Phew! This hunting stuff is tiring!!!

I got one daddy!!

D was helping everyone!

We did have a very nice Easter season. Cant complain too much with great food and company can you? :)