We're Dropping The "h" in Nylah

After 4 days of contemplation, just before leaving the hospital Scott and I decided to drop the "h" off of Nylah. So now, her official name is Nyla Nicole Seevers.  Here are some of our early favorite photos:

There's a 9 lb. baby in there!

Home At Last

Scott picked me up from the hospital on Saturday at about 1:30pm. He dropped me off at home and then rushed over to see Gracie and Gemma recieve their ribbons at Concordia University's "Gathering Of The Talents".  Both girls received very high marks on their artwork and piano solos.  What great preparation for today's piano recital!

5 Hours Old

Look at that chubby face!

Nylah Nicole Seevers

Nylah arrived safely at 7:44 this morning. She weighs 9 lbs and is 21.5 inches long. We feel blessed that she seems healthy and that Danna is also doing fine! --Scott

Ready to go!

Danna is in good spirits as she readies for arrival of baby.  It doesn't hurt that this maternity center is more like a posh hotel than a hospital!

Easter

Wow!! Lent seemed really long this year. Partly because I was counting down the days until my due date and partly because I gave up Facebook for 6 weeks!  (For those of you who kept emailing me about being on Facebook....my blog posts automaticaly cross-post over to my Facebook "notes", so even though it looked like I was posting, I never openened Facebook).  In the past I've given up TV, sweets, alcohol, etc.....but I think Facebook could rank as the toughest yet.  How scary is that?

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter.  I have so much to catch you up on from the last 6 weeks! I've decided to start with Easter and work my way backwards.  We had a wonderful weekend that was kicked off by the safe return of Grandma and Grandpa from their trip to Arizona, then the arrival of two new horses at the farm (to be introduced later), the arrival of our friend Maria Yoder who will be staying with us for a month (also to be introduced later) and finally, a full day of celebration of the RISEN CHRIST!! 

Now with just about 24 hours to go before checking into the hospital, I'm frantically tying up last minute loose ends, packing my bag and saying prayers for the safe of arrival of our new baby girl!  With my new DROID, I'm hoping to keep you updated every step of the way!  Here are some fun photos from Easter morning.....

Chicks-Day 11

Quick summary of our first week with the chicks:

1. We didn't read the instructions correctly on the "chick starter" and added way too much to the water! (You try reducing this fraction: 4oz/55 gallons!) Yeah....we know now, it's less than 1/2 t. per gallon!) We're not sure, but this may be why we lost 8 out of 56 chicks in the first 48 hours!

2. Had to travel to Lincoln to find chick feed without antibiotics. Can't get "organic" feed shipped in until March 11th!

3. Gracie and Gemma have done a fantastic job of keeping the area clean and providing fresh water and food every day.

4. The kids convinced me to buy 16 more chicks to replace the 8 that died. Not sure how that math works out but we now have a total of 64 chickens.

5. The kids have spent hours just sitting and watching the chicks. I sneak down there every now and then too and must admit, it is very relaxing.

6. We've had lots of visitors to see the chicks but they are growing fast so if you want to get a glimpse before they get ugly, come soon!

7. Overall things have gone very smoothly so far but the chicks will be able to fly over their 12 inch containment wall in just a fews days, so it's time to build the taller cardboard walls!

Seems like their little wings sprouted overnight!

That's "Longshot" on the right. She's one of the new girls.

She's a smaller breed of chicken but the kids fell in love with her.

Don't write her off just yet. These chicks were trying to intimidate her.....

....but Longshot stood tall and backed them up!

The Chicken Adventure Begins!

After nearly 10 years of buying eggs directly from farmers who raise all natural, free range, pastured laying hens in mobile chicken coops, we've decided to try it for ourselves! Not because we want to become farmers, but because we want to give our children an opportunity to own their own small business, learn responsiblity that comes from caring for the animals and to teach them the connection between our soil, the animals and our health. We are excited to raise these laying hens with no antibiotics and no hormones in the most natural environment we can possibly offer them. If you've never tasted an egg from this kind of chicken, get in touch with us in July! You're in for a real treat!

We will brood the chicks in our basement (then garage) until construction on our new mobile coop is complete and it becomes warm enough to move them outside. The mobile coop is being built on a flatbed trailer which we will move around Grandma and Grandpa's farm every week with a 4 wheeler. It will look something like this (ours will be a little cuter of course!):

To see all the photos from our morning click HERE!

With chicks on the way, the children were very eager to get started on the brooder pen!

Gracie, in her jammies, is speading wood chips over the plastic.

We got a call at 6:30am this morning from the post office to inform us that our 50 baby chicks had arrived by mail from the hatchery. I don't know if the children were this excited on Christmas morning! We piled into the van and headed straight over to pick them up! I warned the kids that one or two might not have survived the trip but they were all in excellent condition.

At the back door of the post office.

Our friendly US postal worker presents the chicks to the kids!

The adventure officially begins!

We can't believe there are 50 chicks in that little box!

Ready!!

Get set!

Open!! All 50 have made it safely!

Six different breeds and 3 different roosters. Should be a colorful bunch!

It's so hard not to handle them but they are very fragile this first day.

And so the chores begin!!

Kids are little late to school but chicks are happy and the principal says they had a "GREAT" excuse!

Marshall Turns 2

Yesterday was Marshall's 2nd birthday. Grandma and Grandpa were snowed in so we decided to move the party out to the farm. I thought we were going to have to park on HW15 and walk in but a couple hours before the party, Grandma called to say Mark Owens was there with his tractor working to open the lane. Marshall is still the happiest, most easy going member of the Seevers family. He's talking more and more every day and continues to love legos or anything he can make into a car, boat or train.

8 Weeks To Go!

In some ways I can't believe I only have 8 weeks to go, but in other ways it seems like a LONG way off! The official date has now been set for April 7th unless I go into labor sooner. They wanted to take the baby two weeks before the due date but I negotiated to just one week early instead. Now my goal is to grow an 8 lb. baby girl by 39 weeks-not an easy task! I was moving around pretty well until this past week when my low back pain suddenly increased several notches on the pain scale. So now the fun begins. The good news......baby is kicking like crazy, I'm still exercising and so far, no swelling in my legs and feet. Not bad for somebody "my age".