From the Mouths of Babes...

Yesterday we were all ready for church...it was unusual only in that we were actually ready on time rather than rushing around the house like we have the last several Sundays, barley making it in before the priest. I looked at the girls and Steve in the living room and the conversation proceeded something like this:

Me: Man you guys are a good looking bunch!
Steve: Lilly, isn't Mommy pretty?
Lilly: Nope.
Steve: Lilly! Is Lilly pretty?
Lilly: (As she begins to dance around the room) I AM pretty! (Notice the emphasis on AM!)

I won't take this personally since when I take her shopping with me she always makes me feel 'pretty' . When I'm trying clothes on, it doesn't matter what the item is, how it fits, or what it really looks like, she always says something like 'Oh Mommy...your a princess!' or 'That beautiful, Mommy!' At least she's not lacking the in the self-confidence department...maybe we'll work on humility next week! ;)

Kisses from Angels

So last night after the girls had their baths and were all ready

for bed I went in the bathroom to pick things up and take care of some of my own business, if ya know what I mean. Lilly followed me in there, of course. (There is no privacy in motherhood!) I took the opportunity to tell her for the millionth time about how big girls use the potty instead of wearing diapers and she can be a big girl now, too. This pretty much fell on deaf ears (there will be more on that to come in the future I'm sure). She did, however, notice a freckle on my leg. The conversation then went something like this:

Lilly: What that, Mommy?

Me: Its a freckle.

Lilly: Ohhhhh....a freckle. I have freckle too, Mommy. (As she pointed to a freckle on her knee.)

Me: You sure do. Our freckles are where the angels kissed us when we we little babies.

Lilly: They are?

Me: Yep

With that she bent over and kissed the freckle on my leg. Can life get any sweeter than this?!

These Boots are Made for Walkin'...

Here's a little background on my dear Clara... She decided to enter the world about five weeks early, and though she was considered premature, she was over 6 lbs, alert, and had no serious issues (a little jaundice, but nothing huge). She came home from the hospital the same day I did. The one thing that she has struggled with since birth has been anything involving gross motor skills (that's the big stuff like rolling over, holding her head up, and crawling). She will be 19 months old the end of the week and until early last week she had never taken any real independent steps...but there's nothing stopping her now! No more crawling for her! And very little 'cruising'! She's got a one track mind today and that is, "Where am I walking to next!" I seriously almost cried the first time I really saw her walk about 7 steps across the room...and she was soooo proud of herself...beamed from ear to ear. The last couple of weeks she has been especially frustrated that she couldn't walk...especially when at the playground, or when trying to keep up with Lilly. So to see her finally do it, just filled me up inside. This photo cracks me up...while she obviously isn't walking in THESE shoes, after seeing her big sister in Daddy's boots, she just had to try them on too! If I'm really good tomorrow I'll try to shoot a little video of her walking to post on here...no promises though. I'm soooo proud of you my Clara-belle!

What's in a name?

Alrighty...after much thought and some discussion with my hubby, I've decided to continue the blog using only our first names. Most of the folks on the site are family and friends anyway, and you know who we are and where we live. Others who happen across the site would have to do some investigating to find us...and lets face it...we're not that interesting! The other reason for the decision to use them is because I couldn't come up with any good nicknames for us. I tried to do something in line with the name of our site (those who know us should know where that came from) but the thought of calling myself a hen and my hubby a rooster just didn't jive. Then to try and find variations of 'chick' for the girls...chicklette? chickadee? chicka? I have a hard enough time some days calling them their given names without mixing them up (I know...there's only two of them...but they are a lot a like in many ways!). And how do you give a dog a chicken name??? So in case you don't know us personally...meet 'The Chicken Family'.

This is me (Christie) and my wonderful husband, Steve. Photo was taken by a friend at the Spring Formal that Steve's unit had this past weekend. We don't have many shots of us together...most photos are of the girls these days and that's fine with me! Usually I'm the one behind the camera. When we were getting ready to leave on Saturday I walked out of the bedroom and our oldest said "Mommy...you ready for the ball? You wear a beautiful dress!" Minutes later Steve appeared and she said, "Daddy...You look like a Princess!" We straightened that out pretty quickly and explained to her that Daddy is a Prince...like Prince Charming. Both of the girls are VERY into all things princess right now and most days Cinderella is their favorite.

This is our oldest chick, Lillian....age 29 months. She is recently very interested in dress ups, dancing, play jewelry and wearing my shoes...and it this photo, brushing her hair! Man are we gonna be in trouble for those teenage years! Lilly is definitely the older sister, and the mother hen. She loves to help take care of others around her...and boss them around (we're working on NOT doing that anymore!) Really she is a very loving child and is concerned about everyone she comes in contact with. This photo cracks me up because she was so excited to be doing her own hair that afternoon.

Here is the youngest chicklet...Clara...age 18 1/2 months. Clara is our little comedian...she loves to do things to make people around her crack up. At this point it usually involves wearing something unusual as a hat, or initiating a peek-a-boo game from under a blanket or behind a piece of furniture. Anything she can do to make her sister laugh is especially thrilling to her! She is also a very sweet child...will go out of her way to give you hugs and kisses. She is coming out of her shell now too...until recently she was suffering big time from separation anxiety if I left, or if anyone she wasn't used to on a daily basis came to the house. She is doing TONS better now though and that has made it easier and more fun on outings and to have folks over to visit. This shot was taken the day of our KY Derby party...all the little girls here made Derby hats to take home that day. I love Clara's dimply grin and how her big, blue eyes are shining.

And this is, Dunkel...our hairy kid! We got him while stationed in Germany in 2003. Its hard to believe that he'll be 5 in June. While he takes a backseat to the girls these days, he is as much a part of the family as any human is. He is BIG (110 lbs) and HAIRY (though we've taken to giving him a buzz cut in the summer months and to help with the shedding in the house), but he is the most loving, sweetest dog you'll ever meet. He has been fantastic with the girls and they just love him!

I guess that's it for now...time to clean the kitchen and get the girls down for a nap.

In the beginning...

Greetings visitors! I'm not really sure where I should begin with my initial attempt at blogging. A very good friend of mine suggested I start a blog after reading a long e-mail Family Update that I sent out with some photos. I was hesitant at first because I didn't want to feel obligated to write something everyday, and I didn't know how I felt about adding another thing to my 'things to do' list. The more I thought about it, I decided it will be fun to have another way to document the life that I love with my hubby and toddler girls and to capture the ins and outs of a sometimes (okay....usually) crazy life. We have been talking for awhile about starting a journal for each of our girls with all the funny things they do and say...now I can do it here and share it with the world. (Don't know how they'll feel about that when they're teenagers!)

One of the first things you'll notice about me is that I'm rarely a woman of few words. My family used to give me a hard time growing up about how I could never tell a 'short' story. I think that might serve me well here. I'll do my best on this first blog to give you a 'quick' background on me, and hopefully from there I'll build based on what is going on in our little piece of the world!

I was born and raised a Kentucky girl in Louisville...a fantastic place to live I must say. I have been blessed with a wonderful, loving family; the best parents, an awesome brother (and now sister-in-law and nephew) and a huge extended family, as well as amazing friends. I attended college at Bellarmine University...also in Louisville (though I did win the battle to live in the dorms rather than at home...which was only 20 minutes away). I was on track to graduate with a degree in Elementary and Special Education the summer after my junior year when I met my husband-to-be.

This KY chick had never left the state except for the occasional family vacation, and I had never been out of the country (does Canada count?)...okay out of the continent. Little did I know that this Military man would sweep me off my feet and life would never be the same again! We met the end of July, got engaged in April (April Fools weekend to be exact), graduated in May, moved to Oklahoma in July, and married the following April 13th. Since our wedding six years ago, I have acquired and amazing family in my in-laws, and through our life in the military I have another family that I never expected...Our Army Family. And when I say family I meant just that...they are not acquaintances that we have met along the way and forget about with the next assignment. They are part of our family and we will always be connected because of the special bond we have as Army Wives, Army Brats, and Soldiers/Officers. FT Sill, Oklahoma was the first stop on my new adventure as an Army Wife and since then we have lived in Bamberg, Germany; FT Knox, KY; and now we are stationed outside of Atlanta, GA at FT McPherson. As the saying goes...Home is where the Army sends us!

The next adventure I embarked on was motherhood...and what a ride it is! We have two beautiful girls...ages 28 months and 18 months. Yes, you read that right...they are ten months and ten days apart. Our second little chick was quite a surprise to us since her big sister was only four months old when I realized I was pregnant. She then decided to come into the world five weeks early, which is why they are even closer in age than they would have been. We wouldn't have it any other way though. I have loved having them so close together and though it has been rough at times, it wasn't nearly as hard as I had imagined. Talk about unconditional love...they have taught me the true meaning of that...what a blessing they are.

Okay...so that's a little about me. The other thing you should know is that I'm not very technologically savvy...you'll have to bear with me as I figure out the ins and outs of 'blog world'. I'm trying to determine the pros/cons of using our real names on the site or using nick-names. I've looked at lots of blogs over the weekend and have seen a little of both...I guess I need to decide how paranoid I need to be about someone stealing our identity or thinking we seem like fun and coming to see us. Any advice on that from professional bloggers out there?

I have some fun photos/stories from the weekend that I may try to post over the next couple of days to get a jump start on my new found means of communication, and then I hope to leave a message at least a couple of times a week. We'll see how it goes from there! Finally, if you happen across my little blog and have one of your own, I'd love to check it out. Leave the link here in the comments, or e-mail it to me!

Until next time...Ciao!