Happy Chick Days!

The chick Rhett picked out.

It is officially chick days at Murdoch's! They were expecting to get chicks last Sunday so we called both the Westminster and Littleton stores a lot during the day, but neither store ended up getting them. So Rhett woke up early Monday morning and called and they were both getting the chicks ready to sell! We woke up Lilly (bad idea, but she wanted to pick out chicks) and we headed down to the Littleton store. We should have verified that they got Araucanas (Easter Eggers) because when we got there we found out they hadn't got those ones yet! So we drove up to the Westminster store. They did have Araucanas! 

Lilly and the chick she picked out

Lilly picked out one, and Rhett picked out one. Lilly held the box and sang to them on the way home.

Chick Pen

Rhett built a pen for them. It's huge, but we plan on raising over two dozen chicks (they aren't all for us) so they will have plenty of room to grow! It is lined with pine shavings. 

Pine Shavings for the bottom
of the chick pen

The chicks need to be kept under a heat lamp kept between 95 and 100 degrees for the first week. You decrease the temperature by about 5 degrees every week until they grow their wings and can be kept outside. If they are panting, they are too hot and if they are chirping a lot and huddled together right under the heat lamp, they might be too cold. 

Several people have asked us if we heat our big girls (our grown chickens) coop in the winter. We do not. Chickens are cold weather hearty. If you do heat their coop they get used to the heat and if, for whatever reason, your heat fails, you could lose all of your chickens. 

Red Heat Lamp Bulbs

The little girls (chicks) do need the heat though. We hung their heat lamp, which we bought at Murdoch's, using chain that we bought at Walmart. There is a clamp on the lamp so you could just clamp it to the side of whatever box you keep the chicks in. The sides of our pen are taller than I wanted the lamp, so that is why I hung our lamp. We use a red heating bulb. The sad reasoning for this is, if a chick gets picked on and blood is drawn, the other chicks won't let up on it. The red bulb camouflages the blood, so if a chick gets picked on, they won't see the blood and they will leave it alone (hopefully). 

The chicks with the feeder and
waterer we are starting with.

The chickies need to have access to fresh water all the time. We used the waterer pictured right, which we bought at Murdoch's. The chicks will out grow it pretty fast though. When we get more chicks we will switch to a larger waterer. 

They also need to have access to a good chick food. The bag will tell you how long to feed them chick food. Ours says til 22 weeks but you can switch to egg layer feed in pellet form as soon as they start laying so they get the calcium and other essential nutrients necessary for making eggs. We will switch them to the big girls feed sooner because we are integrating them with the older chickens around 10-12 weeks. When they start living in the coop with the big girls, they would rather eat big girl food anyways (and the big girls would rather eat the chick food). The feeder we are using right now is fine for two chicks, but, like the waterer, we will switch to a larger one when we get more chicks. I put the waterer and feeder on a piece of particle board so they don't get as much pine shavings in them.




We love our chickens! If you have any questions or need any advice, we would love to share more of our knowledge with you!

Korbynn Ann's Birth Story

Since Korbynn Ann is 9 months old today, I thought it would be a good day to share her birth story. So here it is...

Thursday night (10.13.2011) we had spicy Mexican food and I went for a walk. I started having irregular, but painful contractions.

Friday morning (10.14.2011) I called the doctor’s office because I was still having painful contractions, but they were still irregular. They said to come in for my appointment at 1 unless the contractions were 5 minutes apart for 2 hours!

The contractions did not get regular so we went in at 1 for my appointment. I was only dilated to 2cm, which was only one more since the week before. I cried most of the way home because I was frustrated that the painful contractions weren’t doing a lot.

My mom asked if I wanted anything and I told her I wanted cherry 7 up. We took a nap and she came over a little after 5 with some cherry 7 up. As she was pulling into the driveway, I had a very painful contraction as I was walking down the hallway to let her in and after that they came at least every 5 minutes.

My mom left with Lilly a little before 7 and I waited until 7:30 (two hours after they started 5 minutes apart) to call the doctor. He asked me if they were getting more and more intense and I said, “I don’t know, I think so!” He said to go ahead and come into the hospital and they would check me.

After that, I was totally doubting myself so we decided to take a walk around the block before we went to the hospital. We but only got to the corner before a cop pulled over and told us to go back to the house because there was a man with a gun in the area! We found out later the Starbucks down the street was robbed and they were looking for the guy. We walked back to the house and I had to stop a few times as we were walking up the driveway because they contractions were SO painful.

We got our stuff ready and headed to the hospital. The ride was pretty uncomfortable. I think I asked Rhett to not go over any bumps! When we got to the hospital, I told Rhett to leave the bags in the car because I still was thinking they might send us home. HAHA! We walked inside and I had to stop a few times because the contractions were hurting so much. Then we went up the wrong elevator and couldn’t remember how to get to the birth center. We finally found our way there and they showed us to the birthing room and I changed into a gown and got in the bed.

The nurse came in and checked me around 8:45 and I was 4 ½ to 5 cm dilated! I was so surprised and happy that all the pain was doing something! She asked what my plan for was for dealing with the pain and I said I had dealt with enough, I wanted an epidural! She said the anesthesiologist was doing a c-section, but she would let them know I was ready as soon as they were done.  

The plan was for my mom to bring Lilly to the hospital and Grandma Chadlee and Aunt Rhaean would take her home and bring her back after the baby was born. My mom was planning on staying with Rhett and me for the birth. So since I was having very painful contractions really close together we called my mom and Rhett’s mom and told them to head over. When Lilly got there, I still had not had an epidural and I was in a lot of pain. She looked pretty concerned about me so I asked Grandma Chadlee and Aunt Rhaean  to take her out to the family waiting room until I got my epidural.

Once the anesthesiologist was done with the c-section he came in to do my epidural. When it was in place my right side felt good, but my left side hurt really bad. The nurse rolled me over to try to get the medicine to flow to my left side. When that didn’t help, she checked to see how dilated I was and I was 9 ½ cm and completely effaced! After that everything happened really quickly! She said I was progressing too fast for the epidural to take full effect. She put my feet up on the stirrups and let me push on my next contraction. She said the baby was right there and ready to come out so she got the doctor. When the doctor came in, the same doctor I had seen earlier that day for my appointment, it was the first time we had seen him since we got to the hospital. He said, “Wow! You really were serious about having this baby today!”

Once the doctor was ready, I only pushed through a few contractions and Korbynn Ann was born at 10:25PM! The cord was wrapped around her neck, just like Lilly’s was, but they unwrapped it and I got to hold her right away. After a few seconds she started to cry. She weighed 7 pounds 14.6 ounces (just .2 ounces more than Lilly) and was 21 inches long (just ½ inch longer than Lilly).

Rhett went to tell Grandma Chadlee and Aunt Rhaean not to go anywhere because the baby was already here! He brought Lilly back into the room to meet her baby sister. It was such a sweet moment and my mom got it on video. After Lilly had a chance to meet her, Grandma Chadlee and Aunt Rhaean came back to the room. As we were visiting, the anesthesiologist walked in and said, “Just seeing how you are doing in here… Oh! It’s a baby!!” He came in to see if my epidural needed to be adjusted and was shocked to see that the baby was already there!

I think after my 30 hour labor, 3 hours of pushing with Lilly, EVERYONE was shocked that after about only two hours at the hospital Korbynn was already born! I felt so much better after the delivery than I did after Lilly’s. I didn’t tear and since there wasn’t even time to get a catheter after the epidural I didn’t end up getting one at all. I was able to walk (with the nurse’s and Rhett’s help) to the bathroom shortly after she was born.

We are so blessed to have two sweet little girls! We love them both so much!

Pineapple Teriyaki Chicken

2-3 chicken breasts
1/2 bottle of Teriyaki Marinade
1 can crushed pineapple, undrained
1 orange bell pepper, sliced
1 yellow bell pepper, sliced
1/2 red onion, sliced
2 cloves of garlic, minced

Put teriyaki sauce, pineapple, and garlic into crockpot. Stir, add onion, peppers, stir. Add chicken and cover with sauce. Cook on low 6-8 hours. Shred chicken using two forks. Stir and serve with rice. We like Minute Rice it's cheap at Costco, and fast and easy to make!

You can also put all the ingredients into a gallon size freezer bag, shake and freeze. Set it out the night before and throw it in the crockpot in the morning! Buy enough ingredients to double the recipe and make a batch now and freeze a batch for later! Then you can use the rest of the bottle of marinade and the other half of the onion!

Our first visit to Ikea

Yesterday we finally made our first visit to Ikea! We started with lunch. Rhett and I both got the Swedish Meatballs. It was pretty good. Lilly got the Mac and Cheese with Veggies. She ate about two bites of carrot.

Then we started our journey through the showroom. We really liked some of the kitchens. I really loved some of the organization solutions in the kitchen cupboards! We are going to have to go back when we have a new house to remodel and decorate! Lilly told me, probably five times, "me want my mac-ee-roni cheese." Some day she will learn to eat her food when it is in front of her, instead of waiting 20 minutes then deciding she is hungry. The kid's section at the end was the most fun! We found some bowls, cups, plates, and utensils for Lilly. The bowls, cups, and plates all came in a set of 6 for $1.99 each! The utensils are a set of 18 for $1.99. We found the computers to sign up for the Ikea Family Card, so we signed up and got a coupon for a free frozen yogurt, yay! Then we did one more quick walk through and found a stool for $14.99. Lilly can use it to reach our sink better to wash her hands and brush her teeth. Rhett and I can use it to reach the top shelves of our kitchen cabinets.

After our second walk through we went downstairs and looked through the Market Hall. By this point, Lilly was bored to sleep. :-) We got a new pot to re-pot my Christmas Cactus, for $2.99 and a Watering Can, for $.99! We checked ourselves out, got our free frozen yogurt cone, and loaded up the car. Lilly woke up and scarfed down most of "i ceam cone." She did not wait 20 minutes to decide she wanted to eat that! If only getting her to eat real food was so easy! After the cone was long gone and we were almost home Lilly said, "Thanks, Daddy fo sharing i ceam cone wit me." Awww!



One more Lillyism for the day - After we got home I was cleaning up, putting away Lilly's bag she takes when she goes to stay with someone for the day or night. She saw me and thought I was packing it and asked, "who me going to huh?" LOL

Koupons

Yesterday, the girls and I made our rounds to the stores for the deals. First stop was King Soopers, where select Colgate toothpastes are on sale 10/$10. We used four $.50/1 coupons (which King's doubles to $1/1) to get 4 tubes of toothpaste free! Yoplait greek yogurt was on sale for $1 each. After a $1/2 coupon they were $.50 each.
Next stop was Target. Target is great because they will accept a Target coupon and a manufacturers coupon on each item. Activia Yogurt is on sale $4/2. Target has a $2/2 coupon and I had two $1/1 coupons so with the coupons they were free! As much as Rhett makes fun of the commercials, he will still eat it! Target has 3 packs of Up2U Mentos gum on sale $5/2. I had two target coupons and two manufacturers coupons for $1/1 which made each 3 pack only $.50! Wishbone salad dressing was on sale for $1.89, after a Target coupon $1.50/2 and two manufacturers coupons $.50/1, they were $.64 each! Target sells sample bags of Iams Dog Food for $3 and I have coupons for $3 off any bag of Iams, but every time I have looked they have been sold out. Except for yesterday. They had three bags. And my coupons were... at home. I was bummed! But Rhett and I went back later and still had three bags so we bought them and just paid tax. Well, they actually somehow only took off $8.71 for three $3 coupons so we paid $.29 plus tax - $1.10 for three 20 oz bags of dog food, not bad!
Safeway was the last stop, Poptarts were on sale for $1.99 for a box of 12. I had a coupon for $.70 off, which was rounded up to $1 off making the box $.99! Lilly found some Mickey Mouse Pillsbury Valentines Cookie Dough for $1.50. I had a coupon for $1/2 so they were $1 each. Some of the other good deals were, four boxes of cereal for $7, GoGurts for $1.50 a box, Rosarita Beans $.66 a can, a package of 2 Dole Fruit Crisp for $1, and package of 2 Yoplait Light Yogurt with Granola for $1.
$96.15 worth of groceries for $32.83 - Not including the dog food that would bring it to $105.15 worth for $33.85! Couponing is addicting! Especially when you get such great deals!

Welcome

Welcome to my blog! I decided to create a blog to share our day to day adventures with you. My kid's, "koupons", kitchen, "koops" (chicken and otherwise) and anything else that I think might interest you!