June

As our five little chicks got bigger, we started to realize that one of the chickens was not like the others. (I thought I would word it that way so you would start singing the Sesame Street song in your head.) And, it started to make loud half-crowing noises at 5:00 in the morning. It was William's chicken... er, rooster, Pippin. Can you tell which one? Oops. We donated him to BYU-I. It was kind of sad, but we didn't want to wake up in the middle of the night and we figured our neighbors didn't either, so we decided it would be for the best. Marianne's chicken, Ginger, is on the right. These were the two original Bantams, and they were pretty good buds.

We took a few pictures of Pippin before saying goodbye.

Turns out Peter gets along great with the chickens. He even lived with them in the coop for a while before we got him a new bunny house to live in.

We replaced Pippin with two bantams that a lady in Rigby was selling. Perfect! William is holding Poppy, and James is holding Nutmeg. (We named our bantams after spices, apparently.) 

Our other three chickens - Cookies, Creamy, and Rocky - are like this one (Creamy) in the bottom, right corner of the picture below. That makes six chickens total, and seven animals total for this family who started out as a family who was NOT EVER going to own any pets!
Not-so-interesting Fact: We were told they were Rhode Island Reds when we bought them, but based on pictures I've seen on the internet, I have concluded that they are a mix of Rhode Island Red and Rhode Island White.

Thomas and Marianne cleaning out the coop. It's Thomas' job, but he usually manages to con someone into helping him. 

James squeezing Poppy to death holding Poppy.

Father's Day. Marianne and I bought the candy, and then she pretty much made this poster herself, with maybe a little help from the other kids.  

Getting a "Father's day" massage. Spoiled, or what?

We took the kids to my grandparent's home to play some music for them. Now here are two of the greatest people I know!

My brother's son, Cameron, came to visit for a week and a half in June. Thomas and William were invited to stay at my parent's with Cameron and another cousin, Adam. My parent's put them to work, but they also got to do some fun things together, as would be expected. Marianne drew a little comparison chart that I thought was quite humorous. 

She may have been slightly jealous, but she decided to keep a list of all the fun things she did over the summer, and I am happy to announce that she counted 300 by summer's end. 
So, you can quit feeling sorry for her now.