Baby Cole

Welcome to the family sweet baby!

Cole William Bates

24 August 2014

10:28 p.m.

10 lbs. 5 oz.

20.5" long

Perfect in every way. The biggest, most edible cheeks you've ever seen. 

4th of July

We celebrated the 4th of July by saying bye-bye to Alfredo!

George did the dirty work...

While the boys and I watched... We were hesitant to include the boys on the whole process, but after we explained it to Sawyer he said he wanted to watch.

Sawyer paid close attention to everything while Jack phased in and out. 

It was so bloody hot outside this is where they ended up. 

And this is where Alfredo the Chicken ended up...stuffed with lemon, garlic, and parsley; then roasted over a bed of rock salt. Turned out juicy and delicious. Admittedly I had some trepidation about the whole process, but it was a good experience overall. This is about as 'real food' as you can get and we're ready for our farm :) Sawyer and Jack were very matter-of-fact about it. "Alfredo's dead. Let's eat!" Alfredo (4 months old) weighed in at a whopping 8 lbs. 9 oz! This was after he was all plucked and gutted. 

The rest of the 4th of July we enjoyed our freedom by cooling off in the pool!

Jack and Papa!

Smiley Sawyer! We love getting to spend time with papa.

And then we stayed up late to watch the fireworks.

The boys lasted all of 15 minutes. Then Sawyer decided it was time to go home and go to sleep. I hope his good sleeping habits rub off on his little brother soon! We're so thankful for our country and the freedom we enjoy. I hope we never take our freedom for granted and can teach our boys all about it. God bless America!

Speedster Sawyer

Here is some pre-bed Sunday evening entertainment. Sometimes I feel like this is real-time speed with how much energy these two cute boys have!

The boys were in hysterics watching this over and over.

Potty Party!

Chugga chugga POO POO - Jack officially hopped on the potty train this week! He's done great and we're so proud of him. We used the same technique as we did with Sawyer and it's going great. Being pregnant while potty training is tough though. My patience threshold isn't high and it's hard on my 'relaxed' joints to sit in one spot for so long! But we made it through and had some fun while at it. It is now the end of day 3, with only one accident all day. He always made the important ones in the pot, for which I'm thankful. By Day 2 at noon I was thinking I may have started him too early because he was only getting in about 25% of the pees and I was getting frustrated, but we pushed through and he (mostly) gets it now. Yay!! He hasn't had any problems waking up dry from naps/nights so that's been a blessing as well. Now we'll be a diaper-free home at least for a couple months ;) I'm hoping this is enough in advance before the next baby comes so that Jack won't revert since I've heard that's a common problem with new babies around. Time will tell. I'm sure he'll do great :)

He is SO adorable. Even on the potty :)

The morning of Day 1 - salty snacks and a variety of drinks to get the process started!

This photo is hilarious...he's not grunting, this is his smile for the camera. Hahaha! Oh yes, and sometimes he prefers the turkish squat (that's what it's called in Albania).

First stop in the morning - potty. Such a good papa.

Nap time - I was semi worried about getting peed on...I had nothing to worry about!

We went through a LOT of books - very entertaining!

Big time reward - watching a show!

M&M reward!

Sawyer the sidekick always cheering him on. Every time he went in the potty Sawyer asked if we were going to celebrate...OF COURSE!!

Jack - the potty hero! Getting to be such a big boy!

Best Saturday

We had a perfect Saturday (April 12th). The weather was great for playing outside.

It started early, like every other day. Sawyer wanted to learn to ride his pedal bike. That took 5 minutes, and he was so proud of himself. It was awesome. He is awesome. I blogged about it here.

Then we decided to go buy chicks! There is a strange Florida law that you have to buy at least 6, so now we own 6 cute little chickees! It was kind of on a whim, so for now during the day they are living in a turtle sandbox in our backyard and in a cardboard box with heat lamp on our porch at night.

We then worked on projects. I sanded and painted a cute little table for the boys. And George worked on a chair we've been upcycling. When I'm brave enough to try upholstering, it might get finished :)  I loved spending time with my family. They are the best.

Here are some photos of the chickens. They are HUGE now. We got two each of the following: Silver Campine, Cornish Rocks, Pullets.

There they are!!

Sawyer holding Alfredo

Meet Nugget

And the rest of their names are Little, Giblet, and Pedro (we almost stuck to a theme, but Pedro slipped in there somehow). And you'll notice there are only 5 names. We think a hawk may have gotten one of the little yellow ones, after only having them for a day :(

Dido came to Florida for a couple weeks - he helped George build a coop. They built it out of pallets. Handy and thrifty!

The boys testing out the coop.

Every morning the boys help me let the chicks out and feed and water them. It's fun and helping them learn. Win-win.