The Chicken Saga

If you have been reading this blog pretty regularly, you will remember that we have pet chickens, right? We still do, but it has been a long, hard, road. You will also remember that the racoons ate our two ducks previous to the chickens, right?

Well the raccoons struck again!

Last week, on Gabriela's first day of school, I went out to get my stroller from the garage for when we were going to walk Gabriela to school, and found that there was only one baby chick in the cage. I freaked out and then went out into the backyard and they were gone. Five out of six of our baby chicks had been eaten again. I sat on the back steps and cried. I found feathers from a few of the birds in clumps in the grass and knew our babies were gone. I think they flew out of the cage and made there way outside in the night. When I told Gabriela when she woke up, she started crying and then I cried some more. It was so sad people. The smallest of our chicks, named Squirt, was left and kept yelling from the box because chicken hate being by themselves.

Gabriela insisted she wanted another one just like Sassy, so I went to work on the computer to find us some more. I also had to run over to my sister in law's to borrow one of her birds to keep Squirt company. We took another trip back to SLC to get three more chickens the next day. I now know that each bird has his or her own personality. These birds are a lot more docile than our previous birdies.

Things were going great, but our little flock was not complete. We only had four and we are allowed up to six in the city. It's better if they all grow up together to help them get along better, so two days ago, I found a guy selling some here in town. We went and picked up two from him and decided to get some lunch and eat it at the park. Our other chickens are really good about not running off when we put them outside. It's easy to keep and eye on them and not to bad to catch. That being said, we thought it would be a good idea to let the little chickens play in the grass while we ate our lunch.

WRONG...BAD IDEA!!! One of those chickens must have been part road runner, because he took off like a bat out of (well, you know where) and would runner underneath about ten rows of picnic tables going the opposite direction you are. I looked like an idiot out there chasing this bird and long story short, he ran up into the woods, behind a chain linked fence, never to be seen again.

He didn't even make to our house! So lets do the math. I've purchased eleven birds and I only have five. Can we say that I'm definately an amateur farmer. Good grief.

On a more happier note, we got the chicken coop finished and the birds are sleeping outside now. Wahoo!!! Pictures soon to follow.

So stay tuned, I'm sure the chicken saga is far from over.

The Morning Rush

This past week has been crazy trying to adjust to a new schedule. Gabriela is not used to being woken up to then get thrown into the shower all before breakfast, and for the record, neither am I. But once dressed, I look at that kid and think WOW, you look great! I seriously love the uniforms. She looks so good every morning. Sharp. Not the usual rugrat I'm used to seeing with her hair in her face and wearing whatever she thinks looks good at the moment.

But then again, she's the only that has to be dressed and out the door by 8a.m.

Julianne represents what the rest of us look like at the breakfast table.

Our Little Gymnast

Sophia had her very first gymnastics exhibition today. She loves it so much. I ask her all the time what she loves more? Dance or Gymnastics. From day one, she has said gymnastics. She has a great teacher and it's a great outlet for all of her physical energy. These pictures were taken during her class this week. I chose to video her today instead of taking pictures during her show. But it was generally the same thing.

This is her class warming up.

Julianne is always a good supporter. She keeps me company. Don't worry her time will come.

Doing front rolls.

And doing "flamingos" and "kicking soccer balls" on the beam.

(Mrs. Nola is very creative in her teaching methods.)

And here she is today, after the meet, with the ribbon she got for participating.

And even Grandma and Grandpa came to support her.

First Day of School!!!

 She did it ladies and gentlemen! She went to Kindergarten today. Did Mom cry? Nope. Not one little tear. This girly is ready. I didn't worry about her making friends, or missing me, or misbehaving. Not at all. She is so independant and mature for her age, that I sent her off this morning full of confidence that my baby will succeed and love school. She gets to wear snazzy uniforms which makes getting ready a cinch. I got up and made her favorite breakfast...pancakes with strawberries on top. She was sporting her backpack that she picked out and out the door we went walking to school.

This is her teacher, Mrs. Felhberg

And off to class she goes. See that big smile. That's my girl!

Sisters

Man, I love these three! But more than that, I love when they love each other. It's probably because these moments are so rare in our home. Usually Julianne is following me around and the other two go from best friends to worst enemies every five minutes. But when I see them getting along I feel an urge to run get my camera to capture the moment. Those are the moments I want to remember, not the screaming ones. 

As a good friend told me not to long ago, we all have sweets and sours in our days. Let's all try to focus and remember the sweets a little more.

Oh and that is also in the Ten Virtues by Pres. Hinckley under Optimism.

These girls just can't get enough of the chickens. In fact, I'm starting to feel sorry for the poor birds.  At first, Gabriela was the only one who would handle them and that wasn't so bad, but now the other two have gotten the nerve and are genuine chicken chasers. We got two other little chickens that weren't in any of the previous pictures, but one is distinctly smaller than the rest and bless his heart, spends most of her time being toted around like a baby doll.

Gabriela's new name is the "chicken whisperer," because she can catch them better than anyone else we know and she has a way of getting them to fall asleep in her lap.  This is her with her chicken we've named Sassy. This bird is FAST!!! It takes us twenty minutes just to catch her and she's always the last to go in to the box at night. Miguel did a full blown dive into the grass trying to catch her last night. I resorted to trying to throw a coat on her, with no luck. Miguel finally caught her with his lightning fast moves. Her name is very fitting.

My mom used to tell me that when she was little she had chickens and that she used to teach school to the chickens. I always wondered how she did that, but now I'm getting a clearer picture. My girls tote these birds around like babies. The other day I went out and they had them wrapped up in blankets in the yards and they birds would actually stay put and even go to sleep. That's one thing I've learned in this process. Chickens can go to sleep at the drop of a hat. They love the fact that we've been letting them run around the yard when we're outside.

Miguel and I have been busy building a nice coop for these little birds. We can't wait to get them out of the garage. I'm sure they will be just as happy as we will be to get out of the blue box too.

Here's my handy man using his engineering skills.

And one last chicken picture for good measure.

It's always fun when (Great)Grandma comes!

Some of my family came out to Utah from Georgia this week. We've got our first and only missionary going out on his mission. My family is pretty small. There are only 4 grandkids on my dad's side and only one of them is a boy, so it's kind of a big deal for us. He's going to serve here in the great state of Utah too. I think his mom is secretly scared he's going to stay out here like I did, and never come home.

But it was really fun to see family. We met up with them at temple square one evening. Don't really have any good pictures of everyone. I was too busy chasing kids to pull out the camera, but the kids had a good time exploring the visitors center and seeing the temple up close.

We did  get to steal my grandmother away for a day and a half and the girls just loved her to death. They just left out the Great part of her name and simply called her Grandma Dorothy. She got to play puzzles, make pb&j sandwiches, go to dance class and gymnastics with us. She got a good dose of "a day in the life of the Ruizes." They kiddos (and myself) were all sad when we dropped her off in SLC. We love you GreatGrandma Dorothy!!!