It finally happened...

Our chickens have FINALLY begun laying eggs!

We are so excited...❤︎

She can't get enough...

When you have chicks, you try to handle them so that they get used to you.  They also tend to be more friendly when they have been held.

Eden has taken this job very seriously, and honestly, she can't get enough...

She rotates who she holds so that no one feels left out...  

She is such a good little mama...❤︎

Chicks!

Over the weekend we got tiny baby chicks!

 They change so fast and so we are enjoying their fluffy sweetness...

Ryder is so good with them!

This will be our second round of raising chicks and we are really looking forward to it!❤︎

fresh eggs!

We now get about 4 eggs a day, which has been so much fun for our family!  And they just happen to be the most beautiful eggs we have ever seen:

 So we decided to make a sign for all the hard work our chicken do...

 It was my first time doing any type of free hand with paint:

Ryder is the biggest helper with the chickens and is a HUGE fan of gathering our eggs...

Green Eggs!

Last week, one of chickens started laying eggs that were GREEN!  When Ryder and I saw them, we were unglued with excitement!  That told us two things:

1. All four chickens are now laying eggs which means that

2. We for SURE do not have any roosters!

I really had no idea how fun it would be to have fresh eggs!

The other day, Ryder and I happened to see one of the chickens actually LAYING the egg because of how she was perched in the roost...  It was fascinating!

EGGS!!!

While we were in Arrowhead, our chickens finally started to lay eggs!  We are considering it a Christmas miracle!

The kids and I might have screamed when we saw the eggs... I am not going to lie...❤︎

It just never gets old...

The fish have moved in!

The fish are in their new home...

fish tank finishes

This week Kit added trim to the top and bottom of the tank and stained it a dark brown. It is really looking nice. I am excited to get all the fish in one tank and to see it all come together... Kit is really doing a great job with it.

fish tank base...

So, it takes a very special, reinforced base to hold close to 250 gallons of water, so Kit has been working on his new tank's base. Here is what he has come up with so far...

What we started with:

I am excited to see what the garage with look like.

(Hopefully NOT the Long Beach Aquarium...)

gallons of bliss...

Yep, that would be a fish tank and yep, it will be living at our house. The sucker is 24 inches deep and wide and 8 feet in length. Kit plans to re-do the garage and combine his three "smaller" tanks into this one. I have to say that I just laugh... so if anyone wanst to go snorkeling at any point, I have close to 250 gallons in my garage for you to use. As far as Ryder is concerned, he thinks he just got a pool...

Kit Rae, I love watching you get excited about your hobby and so I am in full support of you and your love of fish. Thank you for your commitment that this is the biggest tank you are going to ever own. (Otherwise we will have to turn the jacuzzi into a tank/pond.)

An intervention might be needed...

So I came home from work the other day and Kit was outside looking at his Joe Rogan fish tank in the garage. When I came inside, he proceeded to tell me about how they are swimming as a "school" and how they are digging and how fascinating it is to watch. Then as I was putting my stuff away from work, he made his way to our indoor tank and was lying on the floor looking at our new fish (which are beautiful and very friendly). When I came in, he looked at me and said, "I just love these fish! The tank looks amazing!" He stayed there for the next 20 minutes. Then I found his laptop and this was the website that was up.

(Cichlids are the African type of fish that we have.)

Then he told me that one of the fish sellers that he had traded fish with had invited him to a cichlid seminar in Costa Mesa (because HIS wife thinks that collecting fish is a nerdy hobby, that fish collectors are weird and she wouldn't go with him...)

So needless to say, if you ask Kit if he has any hobbies or specific interests and he DOESN'T say

that fish is on his list, he would not be giving you accurate information.

(Backpacking and traveling are on there but fish definitely makes it to the top 5...)

So that's why we have a truck!

Note: This entry is specifically for those who know (and love) my sometimes quirky husband.

I think I have found that once you get married or after you get your first house, inevitably, there is a conversation about a family pet, usually of the mammal species. Kit and I have had many, most of the time comical, conversations about what type of pet would be right for us.

In the Rae household, we don't discuss typical breeds of dogs and cats. No, we discuss zoning in our yard for a chicken (Fullerton allows one chicken, no rooster and it has to be 10 feet from our neighbors houses), how we could get a mini pig (not pot belly, but mini) here from Australia or England, even though they are illegal in the States, and we've talked about getting a bunny. (Probably our most normal and logical conversation of all three.) Apparently when you marry someone who did 4H as a kid, no animal is off limits.

So we always come back to fish. We have always had a fish tank in our apartment or house. Our first one was 15 gallons. When Kit was growing up, he had a goldfish named Goldie that survived 16 years. I was the kid who couldn't keep a fish alive for more than 24 hours. Kit LOVES going online and researching fish (all fresh water) and then trying different breeds to see how well they get along. I've noticed in our almost 11 years together that I married a little bit of a nerd. I guess Kit did too. If you ever want information on fresh water fish, Kit's your man.

So, all that to say, last night, Kit came home with a new purchase from craigslist. We have a 55 gallon tank and it's inside and has beautiful blue and yellow fish. So Kit decided to "upgrade" and found a great deal on a 125 gallon tank and has decided that that will be his new project. The sucker is 6 feet long and 2 feet high. Kit has plans to have an area in our garage for it, because Lord knows it won't fit in our little house. It's the size of a tank that Joe Rogan would put you in when you are a contestant on Fear Factor and then would add something like snakes or hissing cockroaches... It's that big!

I will keep updated pictures of his project, which I am sure will turn out amazing, because any project that Kit touches always does. If you know my husband, you know it was no surprise when our truck pulled up with his new tank in the bed.

So here are photos of our current tank and fish and the the monstrosity that kit is calling his "fun after work project."