Happy Eight Month Birthday, Jackson!

My sweet baby Jackson,

Happy Eight Month Birthday! I have to wait until you go to bed to write this post because you are so active and busy that we have to chase you around all the time! You are curious, into everything, a super fast crawler, and you fall and bump your head numerous times each day…you are definitely all boy! Here are my guessing for your size this month:

Weight: 20 pounds or so

Height: 28 inches

Diaper Size: 3 during the day, 4 overnight

Clothes: 9 months and 6-12 months

You now have 6 teeth, four on top and two on the bottom. Over the last few days you have been trying to cut a third tooth on the bottom as well. I’m not certain, but I’m pretty sure you have more teeth than some 18 month olds! You look adorable when you smile, and we have also started brushing your teeth while in the bath at night.

 

This month you took off with crawling and can be on the other side of the room in a blink of an eye! You are so fast that we cannot turn our backs without a) having you caged in with pieces of furniture, b) strapping you into the high chair, or c) plopping you in the Jumperoo. If we by chance do not do those things and we look away from you, you immediately go one of two places: towards the stairs into the new dining room (thank goodness Daddy put up your gate a few days ago), or towards the step down into the new mudroom. Seems to me like you’re looking for trouble and trying to get yourself into accidents, my boy. As for me…I’m chugging Diet Pepsi and just trying to keep up with you!

Speaking of accidents…now that you can pull up on your own this month (yes, ALL BY YOURSELF!), you fall backwards or fall forward and bonk your head or face at least 10 times each day. Sometimes you cry and sometimes you just roll out and act like nothing happened. You pull up on everything: the activity table, the front of your walker, the couch, the ottoman, our legs…you name it. It’s funny watching you try to figure out how to sit back down once you’ve stood up, and is probably the source of most of your falls. I know you’ll figure it out on your own soon, but I still hate seeing you get hurt so much. I know that this is only the beginning…

You also have started eating quite a bit more soft table foods, and you have mastered the pincher grasp, so you put pieces in your mouth all by yourself. You’ve had macaroni, shredded cheese (your favorite), steamed carrots, steamed broccoli, and you inhale puffs and yogurt melts. I’ve started trying to teach you a few signs while your eating like “more” and “all done.” You mostly just look at me like, “Woman, quit waving your hands and just give me my food!”

Probably our favorite development this month is you actually saying  “Dada.” I really pushed for “Mama” first, but I was thrilled when you started rattling off “Dadadadada” all the time. It’s so cute and is definitely your favorite sound to make now that you’ve started saying it. We are trying to get you to realize that that word is actually a person, but you haven’t figured that out yet.

We are having so much fun watching you grow, Jax, and I know I say this to you all the time…but it is only because I mean it so much: We love you forever!

How We Became "Chicken Farmers"

If you would have told me 5 years ago...no, a year and a half ago even, that Matt and I were going to have chickens in a coop in our backyard and that we would not only care for them and enjoy them, but that insane-crazy-germaphobe me would be willing to clean off and actually EAT their eggs...yeah, I definitely would have laughed in your face.

So here I am, quoting J.Beibs and saying, "Never say never."

Last April I was rounding up my first year of teaching, counting down the days left until summer, and maneuvering my huge pregnant belly around my classroom. The summer fever was present in both the students and, ahem, the teachers, so I readily welcomed the activity of hatching chicks in our classroom.

My firsties and I had the joy and responsibility of hatching 12 eggs, and we had so much fun! It was such a wonderful learning experience, and I have never seen anything like it. There is just something about the look of wonder on a child's face that is touching and special...and once you see that look you want to see it over and over again. That was the look I got to see when the chicks pecked and pushed their way out of the tiny shells and flopped, wet and tired onto the floor of the incubator while my students watched with awe.

Hello, World!

Honestly, I watched with awe too. It was amazing, and I probably took up half the storage space on my iPhone with pictures and videos as the chicks hatched. That experience was one that really reinforces in my mind and heart the fact that we do have an all-powerful Creator. When you think about how quickly the chicks grow from a tiny embryo in the egg to a full-sized chick (about 3 weeks), or how the chick is squished and positioned perfectly inside the egg so that there is little room left before they hatch. And my favorite part: how the chicks have a tiny "egg tooth" on their beak that allows them to peck out of the shell and then disappears a few days after birth...wow. How perfectly fashioned and developed by our God. If you get the chance to do this activity with your kids...don't hesitate. Do. It takes some work, but I promise you won't regret it and they will learn so much!

We ended up having 7 out of the 12 eggs hatch, and I discretely threw away the eggs with chicks that didn't make it. At first the chicks were so frail and floppy, but after a few hours they gained strength and fluffed up into little balls of cuteness. Most of the chicks hatched on Wednesday afternoon and Thursday so we only had them for a few days to play with. I rolled out large strips of paper on my carpet and let the students sit in a circle while the chicks ran around in the middle. The kids loved it and were so respectful of the chicks (even my very energetic students). When Friday rolled around, the teachers had the option of sending the chicks back with the company we got them from, or we could take them home with us.

Thanks to the title of my post, I'm sure you can figure out what I chose to do...

When I brought the chicks home in an empty fish tank in the floor of my car, I kept saying to myself, "This is only for the weekend...just to share the chicks with the little boys." Our neighbors and co-workers had three toddler boys and two infant boys, and we are very close with all of them. I thought that it would be so fun for them to have the opportunity to play with the chicks over the weekend, and then my co-worker was going to take the chicks to her dad's house for me on Monday. Once I was home...one thing led to another and Matt looks at me after we had set up their little "home" in the garage and says, "What if we kept them?"

Next thing I knew we spent our Friday night googling and learning all we could about raising chickens. I remember thinking multiple times, "Are we really, seriously considering this??" We went into town and purchased more feed, bedding, a waterer, feeder, and Matt began plans for constructing a chicken coop in our backyard...the rest is history.

I had brought home eight chicks (7 of mine, and one from another teacher), but within the first week we lost one of the babies. Thankfully Matt was the one who found my little gray chick dead-as-a-doornail on the floor of the pen, and he called me to break the news. I blame my preggo hormones, but I definitely cried. Other than that one, the other chicks grew quickly and within a few weeks entered what we liked to call the "ugly-awkward-teenager-stage." The chickens are starting to get their feathers and are shedding lots of their fluffy down, so their coats are all patchy and just ick. Their eyes look super beady too...not cute AT ALL.

The Ugly-Awkward-Teenager-Stage

Finally, after a few months, they actually looked like, well, chickens! We could now tell which were hens and roosters (it's nearly impossible to tell when they are babies), and we had three roosters and four hens. The roosters were big and so beautiful. We had one that we called Thor because he was always bigger than the rest. He was tall, white with black speckles, and he was so proud and fun to watch. Then we had two other roosters that were a reddish brown with pretty blue and black tail feathers. Our hens were all reddish-brown. We had not planned on keeping the roosters because they are not needed for the hens to lay eggs (you won't believe how many people don't know that!), and roosters can tend to get mean and aggressive. We also didn't want to worry about them fertilizing the hens eggs and wondering if our eggs were actually...chicks. Yuck. But the roosters stayed around for most of the summer, and we kept putting off getting rid of them. It's hard to give them away because most people don't want roosters for the aforementioned reasons, so we planned on butchering them.

I hated the thought of butchering them! I had raised them from chicks, seen them hatch...I was like their mother! Yes, I was being overdramatic, thank you. That is until something changed my mind.

The crowing.

Yes, did you know that roosters do not only grow at the rising of the sun? Oh, no, no, no. They crow ALL. DAY. LONG. All day, every day when we let the chickens out the roosters would strut around our house crowing their little hearts out. They crowed at the hens, they crowed at each other, they crowed at the grass, flowers, dirt, whatever. Once again, blame it on the hormones, but I was nine months pregnant and I couldn't take the crowing any longer! So, our dear friend and co-worker Jimmy came and "took care" of the roosters for us. I was a little sad, and I didn't eat their meat, but when I remembered the incessant cock-a-doodle-dooooooo, I didn't feel so sad anymore.

Now days we only have two hens left in our coop. Unfortunately we lost one to a raccoon last summer and one to a chicken hawk this last week. I realize how attached I am to them when things like that happen. It is pretty common when you have chickens to lose a few each season to things like that, but it doesn't make it any easier. The chicks that I mentioned in this post are still in our garage in the brooder (a pen with a heat lamp to keep them warm), but this weekend we will be adding them to our flock outside in the coop. It looks like they will all be white, but I have asked Matt if we can go to the farm supply store and pick out a couple more colorful chicks in a few weeks.

So fluffy and CUTE!

As I said at the beginning, I would have never thought I would be where I am today, but isn't that part of the beauty of seeing God's provision for our lives? I thought chickens were gross (I actually still think that), and I would have never dreamed of collecting and eating fresh eggs that had not been inspected and cleaned by a factory. But now I can see how fun the chickens are to watch, how yummy and pretty the eggs are that they lay, and what a wonderful responsibility this is going to be for my son as he grows up. He will remember having chickens, collecting their eggs in the morning, and seeing God's creation and love through those simple acts. What a blessing.

"For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse." 
Romans 1:20

Who would have thought you could learn that from chickens?

"He is Risen" FREE Chalkboard Print Download!

It's free download time!

To celebrate the opening of my Etsy shop, Prints By Erica, I am offering another free Easter download this week! I am in love with chalkboard prints (didn't I just say I was in love with chevron? haha), so I decided to watch some tutorials on how to make my own.

I hope you enjoy this 5x7 printable, and most of all, I hope it is a reminder of how our Savior, Jesus Christ, DID rise from the grave. We serve a living Savior! 

Click on the image above to download! Also, if the print appears strange and grainy in Google Drive, it should still download and print normally. It also might say "this type of file will harm your computer, download anyway?" It should NOT harm anything. I am still working out a few kinks. Sorry! I'm not sure why that is happening. :)

 Enjoy!

Hop to It :: Jackson's {Chick-Less} Easter Photo Shoot!

You know that quote that says, "the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry?"

True. True. So very, very true.

Matt and I have recently acquired 15 more chicks to raise and eventually add to our flock of backyard chickens. Before you flip out and wonder where we are going to keep all of them, we are giving seven of the sweet little babies to our neighbors Jimmy and Ashley and their three little boys. I was so excited when our friends Isaac and Crystal brought us the chicks from Crystal's school on Saturday, because I was already thinking about how adorable the pictures I would pose with Jackson and the chicks would be. I mean, hello! How many people actually have access to baby chickens for an Easter photo shoot?? Not many, and I was certain the pictures would be perfect.

Famous last words...

On Tuesday morning I set up my cute little, amateur backdrop and props in our new dining room. The natural light spilled in through the windows and my Happy Easter banner added the perfect touch. I enlisted the help of my hubby to help me wrangle and pose both the chicks and Jackson when Jackson woke up from his morning nap. As we were picking up Jackson from his bed, Matt says, "Aren't you worried about Jackson touching the chicks and getting 'chicken germs?'" * I had thought of this, but I just assumed that I would have antibacterial hand wipes ready. "But he puts his hands in his mouth all the time." Hubby adds again. Well, now he had my germaphobe, irrational, crazy momma coming out. 

I readily admit my insanity. Sorry not sorry. :)

I didn't want to give up my idea of Jackson adoringly staring at the chicks as they snuggled up against his legs and I snapped photo after photo of picture-perfectness, so we agreed to only bring in two chicks and to have Matt snatch Jackson up the instant he reached to squeeze the love out of them. I set up the table next to the backdrop with hand sanitizer and hand wipes and went outside and picked up two chicks and placed them in a container. 

I should have known the instant the chicks started peeping louder than I had ever heard that this was going to be a disaster. We set the three down together on the sheet, and everything went downhill from there. The chicks peeped so loudly that I swear I couldn't hear anything. They pooped three times (and there were only two of them!) Jackson crawled away from the chicks, not toward the chicks and almost ripped down the sheet every time he moved. Matt and I moved between putting the chicks back, wiping up poop, sanitizing our hands, moving Jackson, sanitizing our hands more, adjusting the falling sheet, putting broken plastic eggs back together, wiping up more poop... {sigh}

Finally, I threw my hands up and said, "This is not going how I had planned!" I took the chicks back outside and threw in the towel. I was sad that it hadn't worked out, but I fed Jackson lunch and was determined to try again without the peeping chicks.

Thankfully, a new arrangement of the props and backdrop, and just Jackson as my subject made for some of my favorite photos of him ever. I will let the pictures speak for themselves...

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I'm linking up with some other great blogs this week in the "Hop To It Challenge!"

*Chickens do carry bacteria and diseases like salmonella, so if you are considering having chickens, especially around children under five, proper hand washing and sanitizing is necessary.*

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Matt's Got It! :: Remodeling Our House on the Hill

Saturday morning usually involves a little HGTV action going on in our house (who am I kidding? HGTV and DIY are on almost every day here!), so I think that Saturdays on Life and Love on the Hill shall be deemed: Home Remodel Post days. I by no means think that I am the first blogger to think of this, but for now I'll pretend that I have a completely unique idea. ;)

Ever since we moved into our house a little over two years ago, it has been what you call a "work in progress." Matt actually lived in our house for two years before I moved in, so he has been living here since the fall of 2008. The house is owned by Turkey Hill and it was given to Matt as a place to live after he started working on full-time staff at the camp.  He did a lot of painting and freshening up the house, but it was definitely a bachelor pad before I moved in.

Pictures of the house when Matt moved in in 2008

We knew we wanted to change a lot of cosmetic and structural things about the older home, and the list seemed a mile long. The walls were covered with paneling (it had been brown before Matt painted it), the carpeted floors were old, outdated, and always seemed dirty no matter how much vacuuming we did, there were leaky pipes, broken mirrors, and old windows that air readily came through. Please don't misunderstand...the house was safe and was clean for the most part. I felt safe living there, and I was very thankful because what we had was more than some. I was aware that many newlyweds, including ourselves, learn the meaning of the phrase "meager beginnings." We are extremely blessed by our home here at camp and take all that it is as from the Lord. However, we wanted to update, change, clean up, and mostly make it our own. 

After Matt did some painting. This is mostly how it looked when I moved in in December 2010.

Thus began our journey into remodeling our home, and we have been on that same journey ever since. 

My hubby is a handy-man of sorts and can build pretty much anything I show him. After we were married I was shocked at what he knew how to do and what he could do. I mean, I knew that while we were dating that he was able to build and create, but I didn't know exactly how far his skill set stretched until we moved in to our house after our wedding.

Leaky pipe? Don't call a plumber, Matt's got it. 

Put in a new ceiling fan? Don't call an electrician, Matt's got it. 

Build a Pottery Barn worthy farmhouse bed? Don't order one for $1,200, Matt's got it. 

Seriously. 

As if I didn't love him enough already! And yes, he is all mine. ;) 

A note to all the single ladies ("put your hands up!"), pray for a man who loves Jesus, a man who will be a loving leader, and who loves you so much that he will do all the tasks that you ask him to like my hubby does. You deserve it. 

Because of this, most of the remodeling can be attributed to my husband Matt. I love the paint colors and design part of the remodeling--he does the hard work. The other men who work here at camp have also been vital in helping us with the house, as many things like drywalling and flooring require more than one person. For those of you reading this that have helped...thank you times a million! 

So far we have completely renovated the three bedrooms, two bathrooms, the living room, and are in the process of completing an addition to the back and side of our house. Our garage is becoming a mudroom/laundry room, and an additional room that will be a playroom and eventually a guest room. The addition involved a new garage on the back of the house, and a large dining room with beautiful windows that overlook our backyard. Our original dining space could only fit a small round table and four chairs as you can see from the pictures above. Now I will have room for a whole new table to seat all our family and friends. Love. Love. Love! 

The new dining room has proven to be quite the job, and that pretty much requires a post all its own. Basically...we have had some water issues and have had to rip up our *brand new* laminate wood floor THREE TIMES in the last month. Oy. 

One of my favorite things about remodeling our house has been seeing how the Lord has provided the funds for us to complete the different stages of the remodel. He is truly so good to us, and without the money He has given, we wouldn't be able to do half of what we have done. Praise Him. 

Each Saturday I hope to be back with pictures and description of the rooms we have remodeled thus far. I am so proud of our work, and even though it is a "work in progress," it is ours and we are loving each and every step of the journey.

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Happy Seven Month Birthday, Jackson!

Every month that you grow we are reminded even more of how blessed we are to have you in our lives, Jax. You are so silly and fun, and Daddy and I love seeing your personality develop each day. You won’t go to the doctor again until your nine month check-up, so I will just guess at your height and weight.

Weight: 19 pounds

Height: 27-28 inches

Diapers: Size 3 during the day, size 4 overnight

Clothes: 6-12, 6-9, and 9 month jammies, onesies, and pants

One day after you turned seven months old we were at the chapel for Monday Nighter’s and you were crawling up and down the aisle on your belly, when all of the sudden you pushed yourself up on your hands and knees and took off! You looked so proud of yourself to be crawling with your belly off of the ground, but you got so excited you would fall down every few “steps.” I looked over at your dad and told him that we had better get the gate up in front of our stairs soon before you race over and go toppling down them.

While you are crawling, you love to put your head down and race head first into everything! If we are on the couch or bed, you dive into Daddy and I without looking where you are going, and it is hilarious! I keep thinking you are going to get a rug burn on your face because you do this on the carpet too.  Thank you for keeping us laughing, Jackson!

Other milestones that you have reached this month include getting your third and fourth teeth (the two on the top), crawling and pushing yourself into a sitting position, pulling up to your knees, and standing with our help. Sometimes I look at you and wonder where my baby has gone! Your personality is also developing and showing daily. You are the silliest little boy ever and are always making noises with your mouth and tongue, laughing, and playing games with us. You also have gotten quite the attitude when you are told “no” or when you have to do things you don’t like (being fastened in the car seat or high chair, or made to sit still during church). I think you are going to be very strong-willed, but you also seem to want to please Daddy and I, so hopefully you will learn to obey quickly.

Your favorite foods are strawberry yogurt mixed with oatmeal, chicken and vegetables, mashed bananas, and anything that we will slip you from our plates. Daddy sneaked you a few bites of a curly fry at Arby’s and you of course loved it. You also loved eating small bites of his roast beef from his sandwich. To be honest, I am very excited to start you on table food because I think you will enjoy it so much, but I am nervous too because I get freaked out about you choking on something. As Daddy would say, “Calm down, Mommy!”

You still love your Jumperoo, and you really like playing with your toys in your high chair while I cook lunch or supper.  Now that you can crawl to your toys on the floor, you seem happier to just sit and play by yourself sometimes. You look so cute! Since you have started standing on your legs when we hold you up, you also love the Leap Frog activity table. Unfortunately we can’t figure out how to take the legs off, so we have to hold you up so you can play with it. I have a feeling that next month I will be saying that you are pulling yourself up to standing at the table!

Your hair is also starting to grow more and it is so fun to see it turning dark! I had wondered if your few dark hairs would turn blonde because Daddy was a blonde little boy, but it seems to be staying brown for now. That of course could change, but we will think you are the cutest baby on the planet no matter what!

What a sweet blessing you are to us, Jax. You make our family complete, and make every day better than the last. We love you to the moon and back. 

Free Spring Download!

I have been having so.much.fun "reteaching" myself the ins and outs of Photoshop over this last month! I keep seeing all of these beautiful prints and printables in blogland, and I was dying to try to make my own. I also love having God's Word displayed in different places in my house, but I couldn't always find the verses that I wanted or in the versions I preferred. So I started playing around and came up with some fun spring and Easter prints, as well as a few verses that I love. I hope to open an Etsy shop soon, so stay tuned! For now, here's a freebie to print and brighten up the spring decor in your house! I am loving chevron, and pastels just seem perfect for welcoming warmer weather, flowers, and the newness of the season! 

Click on the image to download the document in Google Docs. The document is a 5X7 and prints great on either card stock or regular printer paper. 

Jackson's Torticollis

I have been thinking about writing this post for a while, but never really had the chance to sit down and put all of my thoughts into words. I wanted to write these things out so that we can remember them, but also because I am hoping it will help another parent when they hear the words:

 “Your baby has something called congenital muscular torticollis.”

Let me back up to the beginning…

Before Jackson was born, he spent a lot of time in the birth canal during my labor, and had been head down for many weeks before I delivered him at 39 weeks. Sometime during that period of time when he was head down, or even another time in utero, his little body got cramped because of the lack of room and caused his right ear to touch his right shoulder. We aren’t sure how long he spent in this position, but it was long enough for the neck muscles on the side in which he was tilting to shorten and tighten up.

After he was born, we could immediately tell that he looked like he had had a little bit of a rough time coming out. Nothing serious, and I think it is very typical for babies’ faces to be swollen, especially their eyelids, after they go through the whole delivery process. My poor little boy was swollen and puffy, and when he opened his eyes it was barely a squint. After a few hours, the swelling started to subside, but he remained swollen for at least a week after birth. Because of all the swelling and just his newborn squishiness in general, we didn’t notice his head tilted to his right side much at all.

It wasn’t until the next week when I was home with him that I noticed he always turned his face to the left. When I was burping him on my shoulder, he turned his head to the left. When he was lying on his tummy sleeping on the couch, his head faced toward the left. As a new mom you are warned of the importance of turning your baby’s head from side to side so that they don’t develop flat spots on their soft impressionable skulls, so I tried to physically turn his head to the right a few times. I couldn’t. It felt like if I kept trying to turn it, I would pull his little muscle, or I would even break something. There was a resistance when I tried to move his head, and he started to fuss the more I tried. It really worried me, but I assumed that he just preferred the left side and that with time he would move to the right as well.

Here are some pictures of Jackson from a few days old through two months. Notice how his head is always tilted toward his right shoulder and when on his tummy or back, he faces to the left. It looked better or worse depending on how he was sitting and how much support we gave to him. 

At his two-week check-up at the pediatrician’s office, his doctor examined him and chatted with us for a while. She did most of the exam while Jax lied on Matt’s lap, but when she took him into her arms to look more closely, she pointed out that she noticed his head tilt. “Does he always tilt to his right?” she asked. We replied that yes, we felt like he did. She put him on his belly on the exam table, and he immediately put his head facing the left. She too tried to lift his head and turn it, but couldn’t get him to move. She smiled and gently suggested that this can be common and to try for the next few weeks to put toys on his right side, talk to him from that side, and even lie him in on the floor where he might try to look at the television on his right. She said that sometimes repositioning like this is all that babies need to stretch their neck muscles when they show a preference for one side or the other. She also told us that it was important that we worked with him because sometimes if an infant always tilts and faces to one side, it can cause some facial deformities in the muscles in their cheeks and face.  She also advised us that if he didn’t show improvement at two months, she wanted him to start seeing a physical therapist.

Physical therapy? For my newborn? I couldn’t imagine what that would be like or look like. I was determined to do all I could to keep Jackson out of physical therapy. 

I began working and repositioning Jackson everyday, but even after two months of us trying to reposition him, he wasn’t showing signs of improvement.

I then did what any 21^st century mom does: I googled {don’t you love that that is a verb?!} I started reading about a fairly common condition called congenital muscular torticollis, and the more I read, the more I realized that this was what Jackson had. I didn’t need his pediatrician diagnosing it. I just knew it. He fit all the symptoms and physical characteristics. Head tilt from birth, face to one side, refusal to turn to the other side, and a slowly developing flat spot on his skull where his head always tilted. I had never heard of this condition before, but it apparently was a common diagnosis and most babies needed physical therapy to correct it.

At Jackson’s two-month check-up, his pediatrician took one look at him trying to hold his head up and how it continued to tilt to the side and said that she was going to refer him to a pediatric physical therapist to correct his torticollis.

I knew it, I thought.

I immediately asked the pediatrician if she thought this was something serious or if we should be concerned. She said that no, we shouldn’t be too concerned, but the best thing was to get into physical therapy early and to be consistent with the stretches they would show us. She once again reminded us that there can be some facial deformities if his muscles on one side of his face were worked more than the other, so that’s why she was pushing us into therapy so early on. I was thankful for how proactive she was being and called the physical therapist’s number that she gave us the next day. 

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I'll be back soon with our physical therapy experience!