I Took a Lot of Pictures Part II

 

When you're this cute and you like hanging out with your mom, you get two turns with the camera!

Josh looks a little brooding in these pictures, but he is rather boisterous on the whole and a pretty handsome 11 year old kid. 

These are all very Joseph. Every one of them.

Anya's my little nature fairy, and I think she looks lovely here among the grasses and trees. 

Suzy's into cutesy poses, but I think that they fit her a bit. 

Ruth hates her picture taken anytime ever. But she is a good sport. I may not let my mom have this many photos of me that the same age. 

Rachel does look about 10 in these pictures. I hope she keeps this for the rest of her life. If she always looks 6 years too young, she'll be happy at 50! 

This is Kate in her natural environment with a milkshake. 

I Took a Lot of Pictures, Part I

 I took a lot of pictures and the kids all condescended to let me take pictures after I briefly described the pains of birth. 

This is Susan and Gideon in the same tree. Susan is on a branch that stretches far across the ground.

Eliza loves to play outside and was very happy to have me take her pictures among the trees and grasses. 

I quite like these pictures of Adam. He's been growing his hair for a while. I recently cut the back of it, and that has made a difference. I think it is starting to look like decent long guy hair.

Johnny is a hard one to get pictures of. These are definitely better than my last attempt. 

Overload of Sam, but these pictures are sooooo cute. It was hard to choose the 8 that I did. 

Okay, these are adorable, and I am loving how Gideon's hair looks now. It took a few months, but now it is oh, soooooo cute!

Arwen has always frozen up when the camera comes out, even when she was a baby, but these aren't too bad. 

And here is my extra large crew, and of course, none of these pictures are any good. I just can't seem to get one without someone make some sort of strange face or pose. 

Gideon Tales

 

Gideon described a snake as a tail with a mouth and eyes.

Gideon told me that he was growing big. I agreed and asked if that meant that he could pick up the floors. He said, "NO WAY!" I asked if he could make dinners. He said, "NO WAY!" I asked him if he could wash dishes or do laundry and he said, "Mom that's disgusting to me!"

The Incubator Works!!!

It has taken me a few tries, but I have finally figured out how to make our cheap-o and not very good incubator to work. On Tuesday, we had 4 ducklings hatch. Early morning Wednesday, two more hatched, and then Wednesday night, we assisted the hatching of one duckling that seemed to be stuck. The assistance was definitely needed. The little duckling had no more yolk sack, the membrane was too hard to get out of and there was an injury that was bleeding near the leg, I think from not having enough room to turn. That leg was over the ducklings head, so something was off. We thought that duckling would die, but by midmorning on Thursday, that duckling was running around and drinking and playing will all the other ducklings. 

This is Kate with the first and biggest duckling to hatch: Jack.

Then came Kack, the one with yellow spots on its head by the yellow water dish, then lack who hatched moments later. Lack is black. Next came Mack, whose feet are in the water dish. The next morning Nack and Pack were born. Nack is the darkest gray one and Pack is the yellow duckling standing up. Quack came last of all with assisted. He's yellow and curled up in this picture. 

In this picture Quack is sitting up. He still has a splayed leg, but can walk fine. We will give that leg some support for about a day, so he won't be so hobbley. 

This is Pack.
 

Rachel on Current Events

 
When I said Rachel was going to sign up on a website for current events, she said:

I don't need current events. Wait, I already know current events. 'Blah, blah, blah. People are bad. I don't care. 

Sam, blocks, and Gideon

 

Gideon knocked down Sam's block tower. Sam immediately grabbed Gideon by the head and was about to bite him at the same time we were stopping Sam. John called Sam over to him and said that blocks are not as important as his brother and that he needed to be nice to Gideon. Sam turned to Gideon and in a sweet voice said, "Hey Gideon, do you want to fight?" Everyone laughed but John called Sam over and had a long conversation about loving your brother more than your blocks in which Sam was not very convinced and the conversation ended in Sam having to pick up all of the blocks.