Portraits and chickens

I took the kiddos to the portrait studio today to get their summer group photo. Lets just say that it takes an act of huge proportions to get a GOOD picture. We pulled it off last year, this year though it looks as though we will be making another trip back in on Sunday to try again. There just weren't any good pictures to choose from today.

Ava was in for her solo shot, to add to the baby wall. Miss smiles all the time just was not having a photogenic kind of day. She kept making weird faces or had her hands up in the air. Alas not all was lost. When we got home I sat them all down on the front porch steps and took some photos. One turned out OK.

Funny thing is when I look at pictures of all my children together, it just doesn't seem like there are alot in the picture. But I catch myself looking at other family photos and saying "wow, they have a house full." Then I will count and go "oh, they have 1 less than me" Am I the only one who does that?

Stucker Brood

Miss Sunshine

We were elated to have our first egg yesterday! After 4 long months they have finally started laying. Maverick, the chickens keeper and eternal pesterer, brought it to us in his mouth. He didn't eat it or squish it. How he picked it up and carried into the house without breaking it, I don't know. It was really small, which after reading up on it the first few eggs from a chicken are small. Now things get interesting as I figure out if we should build a coop and house them at night, so that finding the eggs will be easier, or if we just continue to allow them to completely free range and then who knows where they will lay those eggs. The kids ran out first thing this morning to hunt for eggs. They had such fun. Seth made a "dew angel" and had to come in and take a shower. I sware sometimes that testosterone cracks me up. So far nothing on the egg front today though, we keep checking every few hours.
The chickens roost in a low lying branch of a tree. Is that not just the weirdest thing. Apparently this is what they do in the wild, sleep in trees. I'm not sure how conducive this is to laying eggs.