The Jones' Journey

A Poem

2011-11-25T17:51:00.001-06:00

Dusting and cleaning can wait til tomorrow,

For babies grow up

(we've learned to our sorrow)

So quiet down cobwebs, dust go to sleep

Cause I'm rocking my baby, and babies don't keep.

~Autor Unknown to me.

Family Pictures

2011-11-25T14:40:00.001-06:00

Yesterday I took advantage of dressing up my family for Thanksgiving to snap some family pictures. I started the day out with a brown skirt on, and Dakota had on brown pants so we matched a little better, but before we took pictures Dakota threw up all over both of us. So we changed.

My friend Paula took the pictures of all of us. I took the one of just Stephen and the kids, and Stephen took the one of the kids and I.

I also made the mistake of waiting til after we ate to take pictures. If you look closely you can see food on the kids clothes, and maybe a little on their faces.

I got the idea for this last picture off of Pinterest. I really like how it turned out. He's such a good Daddy. I'll bet my Grandma will ask for a 8X10 glossy. :)

I've got Thanksgiving pictures to post also. I just don't feel like making another post at the moment. So you can wait. :)

Dakota's Birth

2011-11-22T19:40:00.001-06:00

So I think I am actually going to post the whole birth story. I have never done that before because, well even though I enjoy reading other people's birth stories I don't like writing about myself all that much. That's why I post pictures and say so little. So if you are opposed to reading about waters breaking and cervix's and such, you may want to skip this post. :) Just fair warning.

Sitting by the stove enjoying the sunrise.

So this story would not be complete if I didn't tell you that on the evening of November 10th I got my first deer of the year. Sorry we didn't get any pictures of big ol' pregnant me with the deer. Stephen did most of the gutting of it for me, and then we let it hang all night since it was a cold night. Since I was in labor the next morning my brothers in law skinned it and put it in the fridge for us to process later.

Daddy fixing breakfast

So I pretty much 'knew' I would have the baby on the 11th. (but I don't put a whole lot of store in what I 'know' about my pregnancies anymore. Because I KNEW I was going to have a boy. Really. I was very surprised (and certainly happy. Yay, my girls with both have a sister.) that Miss Dakota was a girl. But the reason I was so sure of the 11th is because God seems to answer even silly prayers sometimes. See I keep hoping that one of these years I will get to go with the folks at our church who go on Trek each summer. Where they go backpacking in the mountains for a week. So at the beginning of the year I more just said than 'prayed' that if I was going to get pregnant this year and miss Trek that I hoped the baby would at least have a 'cool' birthday like 11-11-11 or maybe 9-10-11. So when I found out I was pregnant and the baby would be due Novemberish, I kinda thought it would be then.

So yes. On with the story. I woke up about 2 AM pretty sure that I was in labor. I knew it could be a long day so I laid back down and tried to get some sleep. I couldn't sleep through the contractions, but I slept between them pretty well. When one would start I would look at the clock to see how close together they were. They were between 2 and 5 minutes apart for quite a while. Once when Stephen kinda woke up, I let him know that things had started. Then I texted my Mom to let her know when she woke up. At exactly 4 AM I called my midwife to let her know things were happening. She sounded wide awake. I figured she was just good at sounding awake so people wouldn't feel they were bothering her. Yeah. She had walked in her door and sat on her bed at 3:55 from another birth I found out later. She lives an hour and a half from us, so she said she'd get her stuff together and see us about 6.

When she got there I had given up on trying to get any sleep and was sitting by the wood burning stove in the rocking chair. The contractions were closer together, but still very tolerable. Soon after she got there the kids and Stephen came out and Stephen fixed them some breakfast. I didn't feel like eating so I set about making beds and getting the kids clothes out for the day. After that we just kind of hung out for a while with the kids bouncing around and being excited because someone was at our house. We told them why Miss Carol was there but I don't think they really understood that the baby would be there that day. For them to see. Since we seemed to be doing fine, Carol asked if we would mind if she went to take a nap. This was when she told us that she'd been up all night at another birth. We called my MIL next door and she came and got the kids so the house would be quiet enough for Carol to sleep.

While Carol napped Stephen and I stood in the living room and watched birds fly around in the wheat field. We joked alot, and I kept saying this was the most tolerable labor I'd had so far. Not fun by any means, but certainly not hard. About 10:45 after Carol got up, she said she wanted to 'check' me. I was not as far along as we had expected. I was dilated to a 5 and the baby was 'right there'. The problem was that my cervix was tilted way to the back and was no longer dilating because the baby wasn't 'on' it. Sooo. Carol had to pull it forward, which wasn't pleasant. The very next contraction...wow. It was no longer the most tolerable labor ever. It may have been my hardest one from that point. All day Stephen and I had been texting back and forth with my brothers, my mom and some friends. Not long after this I sent out a text asking them to pray for me because it was getting HARD. Like, if I had been in a hospital I probably would have asked for drugs.

First family picture with Dakota

So yeah, it stayed like that...and got more intense up until a little before 1:20 when I was finally complete and could push. With Tyrel and Kimber the pushing was a relief and didn't seem all that bad compared to right beforehand. This time it was just as bad as the contractions. Dakota was not in the most optimal position to come out. She was turned funny. She shoulders were actually harder to get out than the head because she wouldn't turn like she was supposed to. So then she was born and all was well. Only we didn't have a girl name picked out. We had narrowed it down to 'my pick' and Stephen's pick. I told Stephen I liked 'his' name and wrote out several middle names and asked him which he liked. He barely glanced at it and said 'Dakota Rose'. So then we had a name (this was a few hours later). Tyrel and Kimber adore her.

Fresh Baby!

Oh and Stephen has been 'Super-Dad and Husband' ever since then. With Tyrel and Kimber my Mom was here and so afterwards there wasn't a whole lot for him to have to do. This time he has been dressing, feeding, bathing kids. A lot of times with Dakota on his arm or in the sling. He has been doing dishes and laundry and general clean up like a pro. I am glad I am getting to where I can help out SOME and will soon be able to take back over MY work. I feel bad with him going to work and doing all the house stuff, but he keeps telling me he doesn't mind and to just get better and not to push it getting back into the swing of things.

*Carol took all the pictures except for the family picture, which my MIL took.

It's a Girl!!

2011-11-12T17:21:00.001-06:00

Sorry I can't get pictures to load!! I will keep trying. But her name is Dakota Rose. She was 8lbs. 5.5oz. 20 1/2 inches.
Yes she was born on 11-11-11, at 1:20PM. Mama and Baby are both doing well. I'll post more with pictures when I can.

What Country Folk Do For Fun

2011-11-07T19:48:00.000-06:00

So what is something our little family likes to do for fun in the evenings when Daddy gets home?

Rope kiddos of course! Good clean fun for the whole family.

See the rope closing around her waist?

Don't worry, Daddy's really gentle with them.

And the kids have lots of fun.

Daddy's a fair hand at roping.

But even sometimes Tyrel has to ask 'What was that?'

Run Kimber Run!

On the baby front, my due date has come and gone (November 4th) with no signs of labor. So I'm hoping we hold out for 11-11-11.

Early Summer

2011-09-23T15:43:00.000-05:00

So since I still can't get pictures to come off of my card (I think something might be wrong with my memory card) I will do some catch up posting from earlier in the year.

Tommy said this was the 'you must be this tall to enter' sign.

Back in June my nephew and niece came to visit for two weeks. It was lots of fun having them. I haven't seen them real regularly since they were pretty little, so it was nice to get to know them a little better.

We actually rented a stroller thing for the kiddos. It being hot and me being pregnant, I didn't want to have to carry anyone.

While they were here we went to the Abilene Zoo, which is very small and if you walk really really slow, it might take two hours to get through the whole thing, but it is fun to visit.

Tommy joined us for the day, which was nice, I always like getting to spend time with my brothers.

It was pretty hot that day, and we couldn't go til after my midwife appointment, so it was really hot by the time we got there at 10ish.

Cousins! They all wore their tie dyed shirts that they made at Granola's house.

Connor and Alana were a lot of help while they were here, and can be really funny. They bickered between themselves some, but got along with all the other kids really well. :)

Hey, you can't even tell I'm prego here! If I was sideways you sure could though!

Tommy said he took this picture special for me. Gee thanks. :)

It is really neat getting to walk up over the giraffes. We didn't buy any crackers to feed them though.

We thought this was funny. No animals in the zoo? Doesn't that defeat the purpose?

That Stranger

2011-08-31T09:48:00.000-05:00

Hi. Remember me? I write on this blog, supposedly. But lack of posting over the past several months may make you wonder.

We have not been up to a lot, yet have been fairly busy, if that makes any sense. We haven't done a lot to tell about, yet life is full of work and fun.

Stephen and his dad and some of his brothers re plumbed our house a few months ago. It is so neat. I can turn on any faucet in my house, and be reasonably sure that I will have running water when I do so! What a novelty!

After a record breaking hot summer (WAAAY over the previous record of number of days in a year over 100*) so far it looks like September may bring some relief. I don't even mind missing out on some dove hunting if we'll get some rain!

The kiddoes are doing well. Tyrel has sort of started 'school'. He knows most of his colors now and can count a little. He knows that a T is the first letter of his name. And he can quote Psalms 1:1-3. We are working on memorizing all of Psalm 1. I am amazed at how fast he can memorize each verse. I just have to work with him on not saying it so fast that he skips words, or where no one can understand him.
He has really taken an interest in dinosaurs lately. So we got some books from the library on dinosaurs. Most of them I can't even read to him really, because I can't edit that much as I read. They are so full of evolutionary gobbledy gook. I was SO glad to find one called "Dinosaurs by Design". I don't even have to try to edit it, because they know God created everything!

Kimber is talking up a storm here lately. She doesn't speak everything real clearly, but I can usually guess what she means. She calls Tyrel "Dy-da" but most other names she says fairly clear. I don't know if it is because she can't say Tyrel or if it's because Daddy call's him Cowboy, but a few days ago, Kimber started just calling him Cowboy.
Yesterday we started potty training Kimber. She has been showing interest in learning, and we are almost out of diapers, so it seemed like a good time to start. She always wants to sit on the potty, but doesn't necessarily USE it. We had quite a few accidents yesterday. I'm not sure if I'll wait to really get her started, or just keep it up since we did start.

Baby is growing and moving and doing well. Only two more months to go! I am getting a little apprehensive of labor. It is so worth it for a sweet little baby, but I don't look forward to labor itself. Right now (as of when I previously saw my midwife) the baby is 'posterior'. Meaning that he/she is head down, but back to back with me. So pray that changes, because that makes for extra painful labor.

Well I can't think of a whole lot else going on here right now. I can't get my computer to upload any pictures, so I won't be posting any til I can get that fixed.

A Blue Jean Quilt.

2011-07-15T12:52:00.001-05:00

I have been wanting to make some blue jean quilts for the kids since about....well before they were born. :)

The stack of cut out blue jean squares. I thought I had all I needed cut out, I laid them out on the floor and needed 1 more! So I cut out a pocket square.

I couple of weeks ago I decided to go ahead and start one, or I'd never really get around to it. I am trying to get rid of a lot of 'stuff'in our house, and couldn't rationalize keeping tubs of old blue jeans if I was never going to actually make the quilts.

Kimber's bed before I started sewing the quilt. The one on there is one my mom got at a garage sale.

I decided to start with a small one that would fit on Kimber's toddler bed. That way I would be more likely to finish the task without getting discouraged that it was taking too long, and never finish.

all laid out and ready to gather back up and start sewing. You can actually feel the difference in the Wrangler or Rustler material. Even though they are made by the same company, Wrangler definitely has better denim.

I didn't get any pictures of me actually working on the quilt. I started it about 9 in the morning with cutting out all the pieces. I was finished with it before bedtime. Which isn't bad considering I had to stop to take care of children and feed them and myself, etc.

I used a flannel sheet that I cut up for the backing.

I was wondering what I should use for the batting. Because I didn't want to wait til I went to town to buy some batting to put in it. I know me. If I quit working on it, it could literally be years before I started working on it again. So Stephen suggested using some of the blankets I had put in the living room to give away. It worked great! As I was sewing it all together though, I was thinking to myself. "If I am getting rid of all these other blankets because we have too many, WHY am I making a new one?" :)

Here is her bed all made up with the new quilt. She sleeps on top of it and under the other one for now, as it is too hot to sleep under it right now. And yes, she sleeps with her Annie doll every night. I keep meaning to take a picture of her cuddling it in her sleep to show Sarah. :)

My MIL had the string for me to use to tie it together. So I got it all finished from cutting to making the bed in one day! I plan on making two twin sized blue jean quilts for the bunk beds Stephen is going to make before the baby is big enough to take over Kimber's bed. (Stephen and my brother Tommy made the toddler bed you see here. :)

6 Years

2011-05-31T16:05:00.001-05:00

Stephen checking to see why my brother Ben is back there looking suspicious.

Cake cutting time! My Grandma Rose made the cakes, and Grandma Kathy made my dress!

Stephen doesn't like this picture because he's making a goofy face, but I like it. :)

So on May 28th Stephen and I celebrated 6 years of marriage. It has been a wonderful, fun, love filled 6 years too! We're pretty much still like newlyweds, in fact I consider 6 years still newly wed... I mean really, 6 years isn't THAT long, it has gone by in a flash. We were but wee babes at a mere 18 and 19 years old. Now here we are 6 years older with 2.4 children and just as in love as ever. I love you Stephen and look forward to the next 6 years and beyond!

God's Grace and Mother's Day

2011-05-11T17:57:00.000-05:00

A little after midnight I believe it was, so a little after mother's day, my brother Tommy fell asleep at the wheel a half a mile from WalMart where he works the night shift and rolled his pickup. He called Stephen to see if it was okay to leave his pickup at the office in town, and then he went to stay the night with a friend in town. I am SO glad that he is okay.

As far as I know other than being sore he was not hurt at all, Praise God!

I just saw his pickup for the first time today, when I went into town. I almost cried when I saw it. His pickup was much prayed and saved and waited for. Tommy always said that God gave him a purple pickup, so he would be clothed in purple. :)

Aren't you glad he didn't have a passenger?

He also used to sing a song I've heard on K-Love before TO his pickup. Something along the lines of. "God gave me you for the ups and downs, God gave me you for the days of doubt" So when I saw it, that was all I thought of.

So yeah, his pickup is now totalled, but I am SO thankful that he is fine, and nobody else was even involved in the wreck. My brothers all have a saying they always say to each other which is "Do a barrel roll", just because they do I guess. Tommy now says he has DONE a barrel roll and it's not all it's cracked up to be.

In the picture below, I noticed that the cups are still in the cupholder, which I thought was kinda neat.

On a completely different note, today my SIL and I went and had a pedicure for Mother's Day. I had never done anything like that before. It was fun. Thanks Crystal!

Happenings

2011-05-10T19:22:00.000-05:00

We have the first fruits of our labors! After THREE years of trying to grow a garden, and one thing or another killing it. Be it cows, peacocks, chickens, etc... anyways, this year, a few days ago, we got our first food from our garden! Three cherry tomatoes. Stephen and the kids said they were good. (Shh, I don't like tomatoes....I like many things you can make with tomatoes, but I don't like to just eat them plain.) But so far our tomato plants, corn and onions are all coming along fine! I still need to plant okra, green beans, watermelon and cantaloupe. I hope to grow some greens when it cools off in the fall. It gets too hot for them to do well here in the summer.

Lets see what else. Oh yes. A few weeks ago a friend of ours gave Tyrel a 6 months old miniature donkey. An albino miniature donkey no less. He was rather stand offish at first, but in the past few days he has warmed up to us. You can often find Tyrel hanging off his back out in the yard. Yesterday Tyrel asked if he could ride Ice (he named him himself!) I told him that he might get bucked off and he was okay with that. I set him on Ice's back and Ice just stood there for about 2 minutes. I went to get a handful of feed and he started to follow. He took one step, went hop hop, and Tyrel went splat! He got the wind knocked out of him, but he was fine. He cried a little, but mostly he was proud of being 'bucked off' and that he is a REAL cowboy now because of it. :)

Kimber has been going to the potty a few times a day. I am not even really potty training yet, but if she's interested then hey, go for it! She has also started saying quite a few words. DADDY being her favorite. She will sometimes say Mama. She says apple, happy, please, hi, bye, donkey, cow, goat, up. water bottle, chickies, drink and NO. Most things she says, she says with great enthusiasm. NO! DONKEY! APPLE! BYE! Oh and she calls the swing in our tree a "wheee" because that's what you say when you swing right?

shhhhhhh

I have been feeling a lot better most days. I still get kinda sickish or tired some days, but mostly a lot better. My first prenatal appt. is on the 21st. I accidentally said I was at the beginning of my third trimester in my last post. I meant the beginning of the second! I am due early Novemberish.

Tyrel's picture of Kimber and I.

So.....

2011-04-22T18:15:00.001-05:00

I know. It IS possible to post without pictures. Or I could take the time to actually get to where I CAN post pictures. But really I just have not been online a lot lately. After having two blissful, pretty much nothing even uncomfortable pregnancies (okay, so as I think about it there WERE times of discomfort in the previous ones, but not much at all), this one has caught me by surprise. It is really not bad at all compared to people I have heard about, but it's not overly pleasant so far. Don't get me wrong, I would put up with MUCH worse for my sweet baby, and am quite thankful that I do not have to endure more, but this isn't what I'm used to! Sleepy. VERY sleepy. Pretty much all day. I avoid going to town as much as possible, because I always want to nap while in town, or maybe while driving. We usually don't go to town more than once every week at the most, and right now about twice a month if I have to. I pretty much wake up tired, about 30 minutes later the on and off all day queasies start. The smell of my house has come really close to making me puke. (We live in an old trailer house, and it stinks horribly of mildew or something anymore.) I don't feel like eating most of the day, but if I DON'T eat, then I feel worse. Plus I need to feed baby. Not wanting to eat has never been a problem for me before. :) I like food. Sweets are my weakness. Which they seem to be what I most have to avoid.

Hey look, a picture! Maybe I fixed it. :)

So yeah, I don't like whining on my blog, I'm just kinda letting ya'll know how things are going, and why I haven't been posting much. Since I finally got smart enough to find a due date guesstimator today, I found out that today should be the first day of my second trimester! So hopefully things will take a swing for the better!

Ho Hum

2011-03-22T18:30:00.001-05:00

I was sitting here waiting for pictures to upload onto Shutterfly to make my Ma happy, having caught up on reading blogs after not being online for weeks, thinking..."Well now what? I would post on my blog, but all my recent pictures are on Stephen's computer at work. Then I remembered. I have something to blog about that doesn't need pictures. :)

Wanna guess?

Yep, Jones Baby #3 is on the way! Due in about November I am thinking. 11-11-11 would be really cool.

I didn't post right away when I found out because I was wanting to tell my brother Chris first. (after Stephen and kiddos) But I can only reach him by snail mail. So by the time I had decided he might have got the letter, told friends and family here, I had forgot to post about it. So now you know oh world of bloggyness.

I didn't even know I could do that!

2011-03-02T13:45:00.000-06:00

Apparently I have reached my limit of how many pictures I can load on my blog. So now what do I do? start a new blog? I don't want to delete all the old pictures from my blog. I have thought about making some picture books from my old blog posts, I guess it is time to do that.....
If you have had this problem....what did you do?

A Day in the Park

2011-03-02T10:57:00.001-06:00

With all of the beautiful weather we have been having we have been spending lots of time outside!

Both at home, and in town. One of the towns near us has my favorite park ever! It is on the edge of town, right beside the river. Yet not set up where your kids will run over and fall in the river while your back is turned.
It has big old fashioned slides, and some very big teeter totters. I like playing here as much as the kids do.

Kimber climbed all the way up the slide by herself, with Uncle Ben just standing there to make sure she didn't fall backwards, or thru the rungs.

I forgot to post a picture of how tall the slide was. At least twice as tall as Ben. So about 12 or so feet.

Whheeeeee!

Come one sister! Lets play over here!

Ride em Benboy!

Could somebody please help me on this turtle?

I'll help ya sister!

Why isn't this as fun as Uncle Ben made it look?

I love this picture. Ben used to be the 'not baby person' in our family. As a teenager he would avoid holding babies as much as possible. Now he is a super sweet, playful and loving uncle!

Who me?

Walking some of the hiking trails.

They posed like this all by themselves. They are such photographers children. Now if only I could learn to be a photographer and take better advantage of that. :)

Kimber wanted to be put up there, then she looked at me like, "well, here I am, take my picture"

"I'm not so sure about this...."

You should head over to my family's food blog and see Tyrel's recipe...
http://cookingwiththecowcrew.blogspot.com/2011/03/spinach-salad-soup.html

Baby GIrl

2011-02-24T14:29:00.000-06:00

Haha, I thought she looked kinda homeless or something in these. :) Anywho, I just thought these were some cute pictures.

Eating a peanut...with the shell.

Mama, will you open this for me?

She saw me crouching there taking her pictures, so she wanted to do what Mama was doing.

looking lost and lonely. Or maybe not.

Mechanic-ing...is that even a word?

2011-02-24T14:02:00.000-06:00

So have you ever wondered how someone would go about taking a faring (I think?) off of one big truck, and put it onto another? Me neither. What is a faring? Well, until last week I had no idea either. You know on big trucks when the top is somewhat flat, but they have this 'up and over' thing to make it more aerodynamic by sending the air over the trailer? (see pictures below :)

Helping Daddy get the gates. Tyrel did too, but I didn't get him in the picture.

Well this past Saturday the kiddos and I decided to help Stephen do that, rather than not get to see him all weekend. We always like going to work with him anyways. :)

So yes, we took that thing right there, off of that truck ^......

To put it on THIS truck. ^ I think it was because the one it WAS on mostly hauls tankers, and the one we put it on mostly hauls livestock. And the livestock trailer is less aerodynamic...blah blah blah...

First you take all the bolts out.....

Hot chocolate all over her front. I try to dress them in things I don't mind getting even more filthy than usual when we will be working in the shop. :)

Then you cut off the bolt that are stuck and won't even come off with the 'impact'.

Then you hit things with a hammer... It's a rule or something.

Then you sit and think about what on earth you are going to do next.

Big helper boy!

This is the 'impact'.

Why did I take a picture of the impact laying there? So you can kind of see how heavyish it is. Not really heavy to pick up, but kind of heavy to have it dropped on your face. Yeah. Stephen was on top of the truck, lowering it down to me by the air hose, when I told him to go ahead and drop it. ( I AM pretty good at catching things) Well the air hose caught on something and threw it off course, so I missed it and it landed on my face. Thankfully I didn't even get a black eye, but it did hurt.

Anyways, then you call for more help because that thing is bigger, heavier, and more clumsy to move than it looked. It's a good thing too, There is no way Stephen and I could have done that alone. This is the only picture I got of moving it, because it took all three of us to get it off this truck and onto another one. So yeah, then you bolt it onto the other one and Wha- la! You're done. :)

When we got home there was a box in the mail for us. :) I opened it right away and was delighted to see that it was Kimber's Annie Doll! Kimber was so filthy though, that I didn't even let her play with her much til after a bath. :)

Thanks Sarah!

Selling Cow Critters

2011-02-19T20:13:00.000-06:00

So apparently the cow market is pretty good here right now. So we(Being Stephen and my MIL) decided to sell some of our bovines. Stephen had bought some for us a while back that we were going to use as beef, and I called them the beginning of our 'cattle empire'. :)

Tyrel was excited to be out helping Daddy. He loves to help. Of course his help isn't a terrible lot of help yet, but he is willing. :)

Kimber waited with Aunt T. at a safe distance.

Stephen backed the trailer up to the loading place while some of the bovine critters had a fight over some feed.

Since there was more than plenty of help loading for the few cows we were sending off, I just stayed back to take pictures. Daisy the milk cow is standing there helping too so it seems. :)

So yeah, thats about as exciting as our week has been. :)

Fathers and Sons

2011-02-14T15:52:00.000-06:00

I've had the Chris Ledoux song "Fathers and Sons" stuck in my head today, so I thought that I would post some pictures of my man and our little boy. I took these back in December, but I don't think I ever got around to posting them.

Is that a deer over there Daddy?

I love this one.

Sorry Mom and Grandma for the lack of posting lately, I just have not been on the computer much. I'm getting ready for spring! Yay for gardens and greenness!

A giveaway!

2011-02-07T10:46:00.002-06:00

http://asliliessewing.blogspot.com/2011/02/giveaway.html

I normally don't post these things, but I like this one too much to not. :)

An online friend of mine makes these beautiful dolls, and is giving away one 'Annie' doll on her blog. So click on the button above to visit her blog to see if you can win.

Silly Girl

2011-01-19T16:22:00.000-06:00

Granola got some cute pictures of Kimber today.

Sticking her tongue out at Granola.

Where's Kimber??

There she is!

Turning 2.

2011-01-14T12:59:00.000-06:00

December 29th was my cute little nephew, K's birthday.

Isn't that cake adorable?!?! A friend (and somehow related, I don't remember exactly how) of my SIL made the cake.

K got all kinds of cool boy like toys, such as dump trucks, trash trucks, truck trucks, ....and his favorite. A kitchen with all the accessories. This boy LOVES to cook. We made the mistake of letting him open presents before we had cake. He was no longer interested in cake once he saw that kitchen. His reaction to getting it was so sweet.

But to get the show to go on, we placed his beloved kitchen on the table next to the cake.

He didn't want to blow out the candle, so his Daddy helped him put it out with his spatula. :)
Happy Birthday K! I Love you!

My Hoss

2011-01-13T16:09:00.000-06:00

This is Riata. My horse. The End.

She is wearing the most uncomfortable saddle I have ever had my hiney sit upon. Stephen likes it though. And he can keep it. :)

I would much rather ride her like this.

The End. Again.

Gophers

2011-01-11T18:01:00.000-06:00

We seem to have gophers in our yard now. They really aren't that bad. Kinda cute even.

Cookie Face

2011-01-09T19:05:00.000-06:00

Wow, I can't think of anything to say....so enjoy the pictures.

Needs a Caption

2011-01-08T15:19:00.000-06:00

I would say that it could be a caption contest, but I don't really have anything to give away that anyone would want. So just let me know what this picture says to you. :)

Jezre-el's Daughter.

2011-01-07T19:01:00.000-06:00

When I was younger ~~I was weird...still am so that doesn't work~~ I used to dress up as different 'characters' just for the fun of it. Then I would go around the house with goofy clothes on and playing the part of these said characters. I called them my 'cousins'. You know, because they looked kinda like me, but they weren't.

There was my hillbilly cousin EmmyLou. My gangster cousin...I don't remember the name of....

and others. One of them was a gypsy. Her name was Jezre-el. My mom has pictures of some of these cousins but I don't, or maybe you could see them. Anyways I have a picture of what Jesre-el's daughter must look like.

I think I'll call her Izabel. :)

Cramming the rest of the vacation into one unorganized post

2011-01-04T16:54:00.000-06:00

Kimber sure likes Cowgranny's chicken spaghetti!

It was cooold in Arkansas.

When we left Arkansas, we went to my brother Ben's place, out near where we grew up. The top thing on our list of things to do was go hiking in the Wichita Mountains. When I was about 6 or 7 to about 9 we lived in Medicine Park, Oklahoma, which borders the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge. I love that place.

Mount Scott

From almost everywhere I ever lived in Oklahoma, you could see Mount Scott, with its flat top that you can drive to the top of.

The view from on top of Mount Scott.

We also went to see Bill and his wife and my niece Nickole who live near Ben.

Nickole

On my birthday we ate at the Old Plantation in Medicine Park. It was only the second time I have ever had food there, and we used to live about a mile away. Good Stuff.

My birthday!

Ben

Wearing Uncle Ben's hat.

Then we went hiking to the Valley of the Boulders. I didn't get to actually go boulder hopping, as that is not something safe to do with a 1 year old strapped to your back, and with some of the boulders having drop offs that are higher than the roof of my house, onto other boulders, we didn't let Ty go boulder hopping either. But the hike was fun.

Hiking in the Wichita Mountains.

Running to catch up with the big boys

The sunset from atop Mount Scott

Watching prarie dogs.

Daniel.

Sam and Ben.

So, yeah, then we came on home, and I still have Sam and Daniel here visiting me!

Oops, and hair and other misc. things.

2010-12-28T19:25:00.000-06:00

While visiting with the family Mom, Grandma, the kiddos and I went to a store called 'Oops'. It has imperfect candles and rugs and all kinds of ~~junk~~ nifty things to see. Tyrel slept in the basket the whole time we were in there. That boy will sleep anywhere.

Kisses!

cutie in an orange ~~funnel~~ hat.

At Oops they have a huge chair out front that I always want to get pictures of the kids on...but I think Tyrel is always asleep when we go there.

Sitting in the big chair with the ducky that Cowgranny got her.

Tasty toes.

Later that day I took some of the grey out of Grandma's hair. Just ripped it out...Oh wait, no, I put hair gunk on it. Here is a picture that I may or may not have told Grandma that may or may not end up on my blog.

Shhh, Grandma, you don't see this!

Boots go with everything.....right?

Just Hanging Out (Vacation Post)

2010-12-26T13:02:00.000-06:00

Kimber and Cowgranny right after we arrived.

Kimber wearing the dress Cowgranny made for her.

Tyrel getting a Cowgranny back ride. (and Dad playing the Wii.)

Tyrel playing with the 'jungle horse' from Umpa and Cowgranny

Dad piled with grandkids. (Connor, Tyrel, Kimber, Daddy, and Alana)

I thought this was waaay cute. Tyrel is such a ham and Kimber is less than impressed.

Sam.

We didn't DO a whole lot while I was there. Just hung out and visited. It was nice. Even if it was too cold to play outside much.

I'm Home

2010-12-22T19:19:00.000-06:00

What? You mean you didn't know I left? Well I did. I went to visit my parents in Arkansas. I was going to be there about 4 days, then go see my brothers in Oklahoma for a few days, stop in Ft. Worth to see my oldest brother and then come home. Well that's almost what happened. Except instead of about 4 days at my parent's house, it was almost 2 weeks. My pickup was acting up on the way up to Arkansas, so after my Dad looked at it, we decided to put it in the shop, and after several days, and lots of waiting on parts, Sam, Daniel, the kiddos and I headed out. (Thanks for travelling with me on the way up too Grandma! I enjoyed getting to visit with you.)

Sunrise on the road. I like to get up early and get on the road before daylight. This was taken about an hour and a half after we got on the road.

Posing in a rest area in Oklahoma.

Carseat hair.

MMMM, Braums. I sure miss having a Braums nearby.

So here I am home, with nearly 1000 pictures. I won't bore you with all of them, but I am planning on breaking it up into several posts so show you how our trip was.

Recipe Blog

2010-12-03T09:58:00.000-06:00

My family has just started our own recipe blog! Most all of my 6 brothers and I enjoy cooking. (Not so much cleaning up, but hey, that's part of it:) So my Mom started us a blog where we can all add our recipes. We all tend to use recipes more as a guideline than a rule. 3 of my brother, my grandma, my mom and I will be the main posters I am guessing. So head on over and meet the CowCrew!

http://cookingwiththecowcrew.blogspot.com/

Railroad Cliche

2010-11-27T13:35:00.000-06:00

I know, everyone takes railroad track pictures, but since we have tracks right across the road from Jones Brothers' office, I couldn't help myself :)

If you could see the back of his belt better, you'd know that is says New Mexico, whereas his has says Texas.

He was helping her get up, he's such a sweet brother....most of the time.

Watching over sister.

Handsome boy.

I think this is my favorite one. I have some more to post that I took of my brother Tommy earlier that same day in the same place.

Moon

2010-11-24T12:49:00.000-06:00

Pictures.....of course. :)

2010-11-24T09:48:00.000-06:00

Sweet Kimber coming to give Mama a hug.

My niece RM

MN and her cat Scraunch

Giving Daddy hugs as he walks in the door from work.

Look at the scraped up (and dirty) face! He fell out of Granola's Ranger (thankfully while it wasn't moving!) and broke the fall with his face.

Today I was preparing the frozen fruit salad for Thanksgiving, and as I told Tyrel what each ingredient was he would repeat it. When I was adding the whipped topping he said "Putting in the Whip Tommy". That was just a random funny I wanted to add to this!

It's Here!

2010-11-23T19:59:00.002-06:00

My camera came! I am surprised, after it being here for a little less than 3 hours, when I just put my memory card in the computer to upload pictures there were only 80! After I deleted the bad ones anyways.

So here is my very first picture taken with my new Canon Rebel T1i. It was taking the rest I was going to upload too long, so this is all I'm doing for tonight.

My Brother Ben

2010-11-19T16:23:00.000-06:00

http://coyote-squadron.blogspot.com/

He just started a blog. He is the one right under me in age order. He has recently turned 22 and is a great guy if I do say so myself. You should go check out his blog. I read his first post and was like "Wow, I didn't know Ben could write like that!"

My brother Tommy also has a blog that he has recently started posting on again. He's right after Ben in age order if you were wondering. He's pretty awesome too. But hey, I'm a little biased when it comes to my brothers. http://tommy-thewalker.blogspot.com/

So I ordered a camera.

2010-11-18T11:43:00.000-06:00

I was really hoping it would come today. I finally checked the tracking on it. I had been avoiding doing that because I was hoping it would surprise me and get here early. Yeah....It shipped this morning. But that's okay, at least it is bought and on its way! I keep trying to pretend like I'm still waiting to even order one, because the time didn't seem so slow then. So, be expecting to see more pictures than you probably want to in the near future!

A Day in the Park

2010-11-12T11:06:00.000-06:00

We have been spending a lot of time at the park while this beautiful weather lasts. (a lot being once every week or two, while we are in town).

Best friends sharing a swing. They only had one baby swing, so we let them share.

Sisters sliding.

Hmm, I don't think this was the same park day...same park though.

Jimmie and Amy riding a squirrel.

Joshua was giving the little kids rides down the hill on the skateboard.

Tyrel helping Joy swing Amy and Kimber.

The Wedding

2010-11-01T18:04:00.000-05:00

Hey KK, just posting a couple pictures to let you know that I think some of the pictures turned out pretty good! I hope ya'll like them.

Hanging Out With Daddy

2010-10-26T12:42:00.002-05:00

Sunday I was not feeling well, and didn't want to spread germs, so we stayed home from church. Part of the day I did feel well enough to go out with Stephen to get some target practice in.

Gotta love grubby faces and hands on little boys.

Apparently Tyrel likes long distance shooting. Stephen asked him to hold the tape measure and he started reeling out many feet of tape.

Kimber says "I'll wait over here out of the way, where it's not too loud..........just don't watch how far I go."

Mr. Tough Guy.

Look! A cute little monkey in the mesquite ~~tree.~~ (having not grown up here, I like to tease Stephen by not calling mesquite's 'trees'. Tree's are taller than that, but alas, I have gotten to where I do call them trees more often than not. What's funny is, the scrub oaks I grew up with are not a whole lot bigger.)

It's so nice to have a willing gate opener.

Fun things to do with a dog..................

~~drag~~ walk them on a leash.

Hug them.

Use them for a chair.

Since I don't know if I'll get around to posting about it, go check out this post over at my MIL's blog.

Mama's Dress

2010-10-22T08:26:00.000-05:00

Well here she is, one year old, wearing Mama's dress. She decided to go for a Statue of Liberty pose on the first one.

This one is a little blurry, but it was my favorite anyway. Oh she spot right under her nose is a scrape from doing a face plant in the yard the other day.

Tyrel picked out the dress for her to wear on her birthday. I asked him what we should dress her in for her birthday and he said "THAT ONE, and I want to DANCE with her!" So we put that one on her, turned on some Mozart and he danced with her until she fell in a heap on the floor crying because she wanted Mama.

Guess What Tomorrow Is?

2010-10-19T18:49:00.000-05:00

A year ago as of tomorrow, my sweet baby girl was born! Can you believe she is a year old already?!?!

So we will walk through a year of Kimber. I could not find any pictures from February or March. I don't know what happened to those files. Oh well. I think it is interesting that her hair was still dark in July, but by August it was blonde. I kinda hoped her hair would stay dark, but she is still a pretty little blonde.

October 2009

November 2009

December 2009

January 2010

April 2010

May 2010

June 2010

July 2010

August 2010

September 2010

October 2010

Tomorrow I will take her yearly pictures. You know the ones where I have Tyrel wear Daddy's boots, so we can watch him grow into them? Well I am going to do that with her, only with my camo wedding dress. (My Grandma made me a dress out of camo with the pattern for my wedding dress, sort of as a practice for the pattern, and because I'd always said I wanted a camo wedding dress. I did get married in white though.)

Caption Anyone?

2010-10-18T10:48:00.001-05:00

Life isn't all smiles and sunshine. Especially when you're a 3 year old that doesn't get his way for whining.

Punkin Patch Kids.

2010-10-17T09:48:00.000-05:00

Okay so it isn't really a pumpkin patch, but these two cuties did have lots of fun playing with the pumpkins. Kimber looks sleepy, and Amy looks bright eyed as ever!

Do you know how hard it is to get two not quite one year olds to look at a camera at the same time? It ain't easy, I'll tell ya.

The Birthday Girl

2010-10-16T08:38:00.001-05:00

As you can tell it is not hard to get good pictures of her. It would be about impossible to get a bad one.

Happy 13th Birthday MN!

2010-10-15T18:59:00.001-05:00

Yesterday was my sister in law's 13th birthday. We had a 'joke' party for her, that started as a joke and ended up actually happening. She doesn't really like pink and we kept joking that we were going to have a pink birthday party for her this year. So a friend made her a pink Barbie cake, we decorated in pink, and gave pink presents. We have real presents we will give her at her real party we have for family on Sunday.
After the party I was going riding at a friends house where we keep our horses, and since she LOVES horses I thought she might want to do something she actually liked on her birthday, ride horses. I did have to make it slightly less pleasant by taking pictures of her, but I like how they turned out, so she can get over that. :)

Tyrel and Kerrie running down to see the ducks, while we waited for ~~our victim~~ MN to show up.

We dressed in pink for the celebration.

Here is the Barbie cake waiting for her to arrive. The girls suggested we light the hair rather than the candles. We didn't.

There she is probably getting onto her friend Kerrie for doing this to her.

This was the look we got about most of the presents. "Pink furry slippers?!?!"

"At least this one has horses on it."

I'll get the pictures I took of her while we were at the Z's posted soon!

Playing

2010-10-08T17:48:00.000-05:00

I am getting to play (very carefully) with a friends camera! I will be taking pictures of her daughters wedding at the end of this month. Since I likely won't have my camera by then, she is letting me use her camera.

Tyrel running and playing with Katie, our new pup. She is out of Stephen's old hunting dog Freckles, that died while birthing the pups. She is kinda rough and likes to bite, but Ty has fun with her.

Hamming it up.

My two monkeys. Tyrel likes to climb on top of this, and Kimber tries to get up there with him. The way she climbs it won't be long til she's up there with him.

You can't really tell here, but she is walking. She walks more and more and crawls less and less every day.

Woooo!

2010-10-06T18:57:00.003-05:00

~Mark your calendar for~

H.O.M.E

Heart of Motherhood Enrichment

February 4th - 6th, 2011

Heart of Texas Bible Camp

Brownwood, Texas

$110.00

(This includes: Food, lodging, and much more)

Our theme this year is:

A Day in the Life of a Mother

There are about 17 weeks before retreat. If you can stash $6.50 per week in a H.O.M.E. retreat envelope you'll be paid in full.:)

We are looking forward to what the Lord has for all of us at this years retreat. See you there!!!

A Learning Day

2010-09-29T18:17:00.002-05:00

Today has been a very learning filled day for my kids. Tyrel has learned to make his own bed. He asked me if he could do it by himself today, instead of helping me do it. When the whining and I caaaaan'ts began, I decided he would definitely be doing it on his own, not only today but from now on. He should catch on any time now that telling me "I can't" is not the best thing to do. Asking for help is okay....whining, not trying and saying I can't are not acceptable.

He also learned to 'drive' (steer) the Ranger. My inlaws have a handy dandy Polaris Ranger that is useful for ~~taking joy rides~~ hauling of trash, getting the milk cows, checking the fences for goats heads that are stuck, etc.

Well anywho Tyrel, Kimber and I were driving it around earlier and Tyrel asked if he could drive. He 'drives' a lot, which usually just means he wants to ride in the drivers lap. Well today he actually grasped the concept of steering to some degree. I kept having to tell him "A little bit this way, a little big that way" and so on, but he steered us all the way around the front side with very little help. He'll be driving it before I know it.

Tyrel also learned to climb the mesquite ~~tree~~ in our front yard. He made it about a third of the way up, which isn't bad for a 3 year old. He didn't even want me to help him down, cause he's a big boy and can do it himself.

Kimber has learned to climb up on the rocking horse at Granola's all by herself. She is a very good climber. She can climb up onto Ty's bed, and from there onto Stephen and I's bed.

Today though she learned to climb up the slide (about my hip level) either by the ladder or up the slide part.

Well a few minutes ago I borrowed Granola's camera and took a few pictures of them. Nothing great, but their still cute and I know the Grandparents will appreciate them.

Ohhh, such serious faces

A little happier, but not looking.

As good as it got.

Rocking her horse.

Glancing up from his hard playing.

Have I Ever Mentioned..........

2010-09-28T18:48:00.000-05:00

I do NOT like posting without pictures. Posts seem so boring without something to look at. I don't know why. I mean, I like reading books without pictures.

So anyways, I guess I'll start with this weekend. We went skydiving. It was awesome! We went with some good friends of ours and just had a really fun day of hanging out together and jumping out of airplanes. (Why would anyone jump out of a perfectly good airplane? Because the door was open!) I didn't even get scared. I never had time to be.

Even more exciting than that is that Kimber is walking! She started really walking on the 24th, which also happened to be my brother in law's 14th birthday. She is also starting to talk a little. Her vocabulary consists of Dada, Mama, bubba, bye bye, and hi. She also waves at people and shakes her head no. I can hardly believe she will be 1 next month!

We've had some Tyrel funnies lately too. He is always funny. His favorite thing to ask right now is "why?" "well why not?" and such.
About a week ago Stephen and I ate lunch with my brother Tommy and his coworker Steven. Stephen mentioned that he would be helping his brother sort sheep when we were through with lunch. As we got ready to leave Steven asked Tyrel (who was looking at me at the time) if he was going to help sort sheep. Ty looked and him and said "That's not a short sheep, that's my MOM!" I am glad he doesn't think I am a short sheep, although after that he told Steven I was a goat. Better than a sheep I suppose.

We will be headed to a family reunion this coming up weekend. I can hardly wait. There will be lots of family I have never met, as I have never been to this particular family reunion. But there will also be lots that I DO know. And after this weekend I will know the other too, right?

So anyways, I can't think of a whole lot else going on right at the moment. It's hard to put so much life into one little post. Especially when I shorten it all up into sentences instead of telling all about something.

Well anyway, hopefully I can get a camera before too much longer and then will start posting more! I only have 1 day's worth of pictures of my children from this month.

Kimber

2010-08-30T18:15:00.000-05:00

Well I finally got the camera to talk to the computer! woo hoo! Here are some pictures of my sweet baby girl. She is 10 months old now! She is so very close to walking. But she has been for awhile. Probably the last 3 months I was just 'sure' she would be walking before the next month milestone.

Here she is with her best friend Amy. I know she is too young to have a best friend, but that's too bad, we decided for them that they get to be best friends. They are only 3 weeks apart.

I think Kimber kinda looks like me as a little girl in this one.

Mama and baby girl.

This one is from today. She can almost get herself onto that horse. Once I set her up there she figured out rocking really fast. She really liked it.

Well I don't really have much to say, I should be making bread, so just enjoy the pictures!

Friends.

2010-08-27T18:17:00.001-05:00

You see that cute little ...what 14? year old? Yeah, she doesn't have braces anymore. And she's not 14(but was about that in the picture), she's almost 18, and is engaged. I was just looking through old pictures and just had to post it. Time sure does fly. Hopefully we can go skydiving with her for her 18th birthday. That'll be fun.

This picture was taken the same day. Those babies are now all 3 year olds, and one is almost 4.

So yeah, not really much point to this post, just feeling like time is flying past too fast. Go kiss your babies, cause they'll be all grown up before you know it. Really.

A blog tag award type thingy.

2010-08-12T18:06:00.002-05:00

A friend of mine from Life and Love in the Country tagged me with this.

I am supposed to list seven things about me that nobody knows. Or something like that. Well. I don't really have much stuff about me that most people don't know. I'm pretty simple. But I'll give it a try!

1. I have six, wonderful, goofy, very close knit brothers. Ranging in age from 14 to 30. (I'm number 3 in the lineup)

2. I was born in Texas and live in Texas, but I consider myself an Okie. Because I grew up in Oklahoma. Boomer Sooners!

3. I am a walking contradiction. I think we should reasonably do what we can to take care of this world God put us in, but I despise and avoid anything labeled 'green' and all the propaganda that goes with it. I eat very healthy and like my food to be natural and not full of pesticides or be genetically modified...but just like with 'green', 'organic' drives me batty. All the hype and crud. There are several more things along those lines, but I can't think of them at the moment.

4. In my family 'blonde moments' are called 'Becky moments'.

5. I have a tendency to say things where they come across as rude, when I didn't mean it that way at all. I find it better if I keep my opinions to myself most of the time for this reason.

6. I love a clean house, and WANT mine to be, but I have a hard time keeping mine clean.

7. I don't make friends easily. I am very shy around people when I first meet them, but after awhile I am obnoxious and hyper around people I know.

So there ya go. Nothing phenomenal or exciting. But it was kinda fun. Thanks Jaime!

Landscapes

2010-08-12T16:56:00.000-05:00

I figured since I cannot upload more pictures right now, I will keep going back and posting some of my old favorites. Some I may have posted before, and some I may have never gotten around to. These are a few of my favorite landscape type pictures. I could have posted many, many more. These are all by me, I would have had an even harder time picking ones had I got into my mother in laws pictures.

Eggs. You know in case you couldn't tell. Guinea eggs no less.

A tree outside of our closest 'town'.

This is a house very near the above tree.

Sunset from somewhere on the frontside of the property.

We stopped to take this one on a foggy day one time, on our way to Menard Cowboy Church. It's been awhile since we've been there.

This is on the side of the road somewhere between Las Vegas, NM and Mora.

Looking southeastish from on our property.

Cows. On our neighbors land.

Also between Las Vegas and Mora.

Near Buffalo Gap.

Our windmill.

Looking across the river from a friend's house.

On the road somewhere between our house and Oklahoma.

Cactus blooming somewhere down the county road.

Sunset at the house.

A winter storm blowing in from the North. This is taken from my in laws side porch.

A pretty church somewhere in Ohio.

Conkles Hollow in Ohio. Those two people at the bottom are my youngest brothers. About 13 in the picture.

We are blessed with some gorgeous sunsets here.

Same sunset as above, only by the pond.

Sunset, looking south from the big house.

Sunrise from in front of our house.

Somewhere down one of the county road around here.

Sunset looking from our front porch.

I think this one is really neat. This is the sunrise. I took this picture from our kitchen window. It is not cloudy out. It was a wind/dirt storm.

My family

2010-08-11T17:44:00.000-05:00

I can't believe I didn't find more pictures of my dad and the twins and Bill. They are just as goofy as the rest of us.

Anywho, these are pictures from ohhh I'd say 2006 and before. The camera is not wanting to speak to the computer again, so I was looking back through older pictures. I noticed all the silly pictures we seem to have, and decided to post some of the older ones. This isn't even all of them I have. Some I didn't post because they make me too sad.

This Stephen, Me , Ben, Tommy, Sam, Daniel, and my cousin Luke. We played with facepaints, then went to walmart. Really.

Tommy is wearing a coonskin hat under Stephen's cowboy hat, and wearing Stephen's glasses.

Me wearing my oldest brothers sunglasses, hat and necklace.

Tommy with a hitler mustache.

Ben, the Christmas Tree.

My oldest brother Chris.

Ben. Looking like Chris.

Captain Tommy.

I don't know. It is Stephen, but I don't know what we were doing. lol.

Ben, me and Tommy with 'deer in the headlights looks'.

Another one of our facepaint pictures.

Tommy the elk.

MMM, Chicken fried steak. I think. It's been awhile.

Guess who?

Groucho Marx....errrr...Ben

I don't know.

Ben.

Redhots anyone?

Ben, Tommy and I.

All of us. Dad, Mom, Chris, Bill, Becky, Ben, Tommy, Daniel, and Sam.

I hope you enjoyed this.....interesting....... look into the past with my family.

We're in Business!

2010-07-31T15:28:00.000-05:00

My husband is now on his way to having his dream job! Go take a look at our website/blog.
http://sgj3030.blogspot.com/

I am so proud of both Stephen and his brother. James has had his own business since he was 16 or so. When Stephen was 19 or 20 they started their own trucking business. So with Stephen starting with his CHL classes and gun training they will each have their own business in addition to their trucking company! Yay Stephen and James. I love you guys!

Birthday Pictures!

2010-07-30T10:04:00.002-05:00

The day before Tyrel's birthday we had family over and had us some barbecue ribs! Yummy!

Granola kept trying to get a picture of Tyrel eating the rib. We kept telling him to look at Granola. Finally he put the rib down for a second and said in an exasperated voice. "I'm eatin"

Kyle also thoroughly enjoyed the ribs.

Even Kimber gnawed on a bone. She was quite upset when I took it so I could clean her up.

Then it was time for some birthday apple pie! It was my first time to make an apple pie. It was okay but a bit dry. I think I know what I did wrong though and will make it better next time. He looks SO much like his Daddy at this age. Especially in that picture.

Mr. Nonchalant

"His boots made a funny sound, cause they were his Daddy's size. His hat kept slippin down below his eyes."

If you know what song that is, or even who sings it, you're my new best friend. lol.

Happy 3rd Birthday Tyrel. We love you!

(click on the birthday boots label below to see his picture from the past two years)

No Pictures :(

2010-07-28T10:10:00.001-05:00

Well I was going to post pictures from Tyrel's birthday and such, but the camera and computer don't seem to be speaking to one another right now.

This month seems to be one full of happiness and tears.
On the happiness side, I got a see a friend proposed to. My sweet husband had a birthday. That same husband got his instructors certificate and is now able to give CHL classes. Anyone need a Texas CHL?
My brother Tommy went to Brazil and got to see some of God's AWESOME handiwork. He saw some amazing healings, and came home on fire for God.....even more than before.
Tyrel turned 3 on the 25th. I can hardly believe how big he is getting! Do parents ever stop being amazed at how big/ mature/ old their children are getting? We went to pick peaches on a friends farm on his birthday. That was fun. Oh yes, and yesterday I made some jelly from some of those peaches! My first time to make jam/jelly/preserves.(I'm not really sure what the difference in those are :) I will be canning the rest of them today.

On the tears side of it.
Stephen's hunting dog, Freckles, whom he has had longer than he's had me, died in puppybirth. My MIL is bottle feeding the two puppies that made it.
Then we found out that most of the last batch of puppies had worms, so we started giving them wormer. Including my BIL's 3 of them died. One of those three was Cedar. I cried. Alot. I am not normally one to cry when animals die. I miss them, and will be sad, I just don't cry. Cedar was exactly what Stephen and I wanted in a pup. He was friendly, but not obnoxious. He would stay with us rather than run off when we let him out of the yard with us. He learned very fast. And he was pretty. Poor Stephen though. I gave him the scare of a lifetime. I called him after I had quit crying to some degree, and told him that Cedar died. He said "What?" I repeated that Cedar had died and he told me he was sorry etc etc. When I finally quit my blubbering he said "You gave me the scare of a life time. You would not believe how bad I am shaking right now." I asked him why. He said "When you first called, I thought you said Kimber, not Cedar!" Poor Stephen. I still missed Cedar, but it made me thankful for our kids being healthy and fine! I hugged them and thanked God for the rest of the day! Stephen said it took him at least 30 minutes to quit shaking.

Later that day Ty and I were having a peach smoothie, and he said. "Cedar died Mama?" I told him yes, Cedar had died. He said, "We loved Cedar, and it's not funny." It's true.

When Stephen got home we were out burying Cedar. Tyrel watched as Stephen was filling in the hole. He asked me, "Is Daddy putting dirt on Cedar?" Yes Tyrel. "He doesn't love Cedar?" Stephen said it almost made HIM cry! and he is much less of a crier than me.

So anyways. I will see if I can get the camera and computer back on speaking terms soon. I still need to take Tyrel's 3 year old wearing Daddy's boots picture.

Misc.

2010-07-21T19:31:00.000-05:00

Stephen giving Tyrel a talking to about NOT kicking the cat off the porch.

I once read that photography is capturing with the camera what you see with your heart....Sometimes, just sometimes, I think I come close.

My BIG boy that will be 3 in LESS than a week.

Not quite walking.

This is my SIL MN and her cat Scraunch. He is named after one of the coyotes in Hank the Cowdog. It is kinda blurry, but I liked this picture.

The other day I was teasing Stephen by trying to get Kimber to say "Mama". He started saying "No, say Daddy". A while after we stopped Tyrel came up to her and said "Say Mama........NO, Say Ty RAIL."
I thought that it was cute that he caught on to our competition on getting her to say our name first.

Another Tyrel funny happened the other day when Ty was playing with Stephen. Ty held up one of his toy trucks and told Stephen it needed oil in it. Stephen asked him "What is the oil for?" Tyrel sat there looking at his truck for a minute, then looked up at Stephen and said in a very serious voice "I have NO idea". It was SO cute.

Some Sweet Pictures.

2010-07-11T16:18:00.001-05:00

I was just thinking the other day that with my camera being broken that I have not been getting many pictures of my kids lately. So I got my MIL's camera out yesterday and went to taking pictures.

The puppies were way too much help.

Look at that green grass. We have had an extremely blessed rainy, cool July so far.

"Let me tell you a secret?"

"Watch your mouth!"

I love how it looks like she is standing and twirling here, instead of sitting and ignoring me like was really happening.

My MIL said she wishes she could have got pictures of me taking pictures of Kimber. I was hopping around, chanting "Look Kimber! Kimber! Look at Mama!" Making silly noises, dancing. All the while, her sitting, eating grass, playing with puppies, and ignoring me.

"TYRELLLLL!"

And my little boy, also ignoring me, while playing in the dirt with his uncles.

Well I am off to help my sweet husband work on our pickup! Hope you enjoyed seeing my sweet babies.

Home, Potty Trained, Crawling/Cruising, Cricket.

2010-07-06T09:10:00.000-05:00

Well, the title says it all. Thanks for stopping by!

Ha! fooled you huh? Yes, I know, I'm lame. :)

Well, the chillin's and I are home! We have been a little over a week now. Since I am clumping so many things into one post I'm not going into much detail on any of them. If you want to read more on our trip you can check my mom's blog. PB4UGO. You will have to scroll down a ways, as she posts more oft than I. She will also have a link to pictures, so I'm really being lazy. :) I don't have any pictures anyways. I did take most of them on the trip, but with my Mom's camera.

The kids and I have gone with Stephen to work every other day since we've been home. I enjoy getting to go with him. I am glad he has a job where we can.

Tyrel did excellently at being potty trained while we were gone. He had very few accidents. He is not doing quite so well since we got home, but much better than when we left. I think he will be full potty trained very soon.

Kimber started crawling on all fours while we were gone. She liked eating the leaves on Grandma Arlene's deck. (Tyrel called Grandma Arlene "Ma" because he heard my Dad and uncle calling her that. I think she liked it. Tyrel adores her.) Anywho, she was after a leaf on Ma's deck when she started crawling and she's never turned back. She is also pulling up to standing and walking along the edges of furniture and such. She is 8 months old right now.

Yesterday I noticed Kimber had something in her mouth. Since she is still at an age where unless someone personally gives her something she probably shouldn't have it in her mouth, I went fishing. And pulled out a cricket. A WHOLE cricket. Yuck.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Independence Day. I know we did. I got to see a friend of mine proposed to! It was a good day.

I will try to get more stuff posted soon. I just haven't felt like being on the computer much since I got home.

We miss you Stephen!

2010-06-22T19:15:00.002-05:00

Click here to view these pictures larger

Just Thinking Out Loud.

2010-06-22T09:10:00.000-05:00

Since we got back to Mom and Dad's I have been catching up on my friends back home's blogs. Some friends of mine our expecting a baby and are using a 'new' midwife. We used to all use the same one, because there was only one anywhere even remotely close to us. She lives about an hour and a half from where I live. Anyways, my friends are using a different midwife this time which got me to thinking. See, Kelly was a student midwife while I was pregnant with Tyrel. She was working with 'my' midwife. I loved Kelly. I was instantly drawn to her. When I was laboring with Ty she was the person I wanted near me. I was more relaxed when she was around. I had thought of using her when I found out I was pregnant with Kimber, but I was told she had moved to Midland. Well, if she had, she is back in our town now.

Now, what I was thinking about I guess is, if Stephen and I get blessed with more babies, then do I use the closer, I know I like her alot Kelly. Or stay with Carol. I also love Carol. She is sweet, and Godly, and has lots of experience. If this were a Dr. I don't think it would be a problem to switch. But midwives are so much more than Dr.'s. They become friends. There are only two relatively unimportant "strikes against" Carol. She lives so far away, and during both labors, I didn't like her being close to me. I have absolutely no explainable reason for this. I LOVE her.........up until my labor starts. It is nothing she does or doesn't do, she just makes me feel uncomfortable while I am laboring. I have had her catch both my babies and this isn't a problem.

So what would you do? I really like both of them, and would kind of like to 'try' Kelly. But I feel like I would be betraying a friend if I did that.

PS, I am NOT pregnant. (that I know of :)

Gone Visiting

2010-06-10T07:40:00.003-05:00

I am at my parents house in Arkansas right now. Saturday we will be headed to Kentucky for a family reunion. I am excited, I have never been to Kentucky and I have not seen most of the people that will be there since Sam and Dan were 3. They will be 14 next week. Then we are going from there to Ohio for a longer visit with my Dad's side of the family. It will be the first time that Dad's side of the family will get to meet Kimber. So I will likely not be posting much if at all for a couple of weeks. When we get back from Ohio I will be at my parents house for another week, until Mom's day off and then she will take me back home. I love getting to visit, but I really don't like being away from Stephen. Being gone for nearly a month is going to not be fun at all.

A Boy and His Dog.

2010-06-03T19:29:00.001-05:00

Ever since we had to get rid of Tucker, Stephen has been wanting a dog for Tyrel. Not just because a boy should have a dog, but because where we live they can be very important. They are good at letting us know if there is a snake or anything in the yard that could be potentially dangerous to Tyrel. And we have a lot of rattlers around here.

Well my MIL's two female dogs both had a litter of puppies within a few weeks of each other. A total of 18 puppies. One litter was great pyranees and the other was great pyranees/mountain cur mix. We liked the mountain cur mix. We wanted to get one that would stay with Tyrel as he gets older and gets to explore more of the property out of the yard as well. Well MOST of them would follow him around and play with him very well, so we went with the one we thought was cutest out of those.

Tyrel didn't have a favorite or we would have let him pick. He just liked any that would play with him. We did narrow it down to 2 and let him choose out of those. So anyways, this is Cedar. Our new pup. We are really pleased with him so far.

5 wonderful years.

2010-06-01T14:52:00.000-05:00

On May 28th Stephen and I celebrated 5 years of marriage! It has been a wonderful 5 years of growing together. He was 18 years old and worked on windmills when we got married. I was 19 and lived with his parents because I moved down here once we got engaged. He got to live in the emu barn. My Grandma Rose made the cakes, and my Grandma Kathy made my dress. We were married on Stephen's parents front porch. It was going to be in the front yard,but it RAINED the night before the wedding. That made it fun because then everyone got to park by the highway and Stephen, his brother James,and his best man Rod got to take the 4 wheel drive pickups and shuttle everyone 3 miles down the muddy road.

I always joked that I was going to get married in a camo dress. So my Grandma made a 'practice dress' to fit me before making the 'real' dress.

Running from people pelting us with bird seed. How do you like my white boots. I think my friend Rachelle kept those. She loved them and I didn't figure I'd have any use for white boots after that.

Here is the wedding party. Those 3 little boys in checked shirts...well, 2 of them are taller than me now, and one is getting close to being taller.

I was wondering...where is a picture with the kids in it? I forget there was life before children.

This is Grandma Rose. She makes pretty cakes. Thanks Grandma I love you. I didn't find any good pictures to put of Grandma Kathy. Sorry.

Here my bridesmaids are giving Stephen a talking to on how to treat his wife or they'd come pound him. He's done a wonderful job. :)

The grooms cake and a real hat. Can you tell which is which? lol. I think Grandma did wonderful. Or did Ruth make that one Grandma? Sorry, I don't remember.

Tonight's Sunset

2010-05-24T21:21:00.000-05:00

Beautiful. I love Texas sunsets. And I'm rather fond of windmills as well. :)

Camping

2010-05-24T17:22:00.002-05:00

Our church group went camping together a few weeks ago. We went to a neat campground in the Hill Country. We got to do all kinds of fun things. I really enjoy camping like this even though I don't consider it 'real' camping. Real camping would be more like backpacking to me. Even though I have never got to do that. We do sometimes camp out in the back pasture of the land.
Anyways, back to this camping trip. We went rappelling down an 80 foot cliff. Went down into a hole in the ground cave, and from there the less claustrophobic of the group army crawled through a tunnel to another room in the cave. I waited outside while they did that. lol.
We went down a huge zipline, but I don't have pictures of that. You'll have to go to my MIL's blog and go back a few posts to see those.
We went kayaking, and swimming and down a huge waterslide into the river.
And other stuff I can't think of at the moment, in addition to all the goofing off, having fun and fellowshipping with friends. It was great.

Tommy playing lifeguard from the kayak.

Tommy standing on the suspension bridge. Some of the girls did some gymnastics on there. They said it was interesting to try that while the ground was moving.

Here is the view of the main part of our camping group from our tent.

Charlie.....Charlie......Charlie, We're on a bridge Charlie.

Tommy climbing into the cave. After most of the other people went in someone asked 3 year old Stella if she wanted to go in. At first she said no, but then they told her that Tommy was down at the bottom and would help her down she decided it would be okay. But when they started lowering her down they had to call Tommy up to the front because she was promised Tommy and she was gonna have Tommy or not go.

In the cave.

Stephen climbing out of the cave.

Sisters Patty and Joy playing ping pong.

Younger chillin's waiting and watching rappelling.

Zooming in on Stephen while he's rappelling.

Wisdom....I hope

2010-05-23T10:19:00.001-05:00

A few minutes ago I was over at my house fixing some chicken spaghetti for a homebirth party we will be going to in a little bit. As I was scurrying around the kitchen I see my 13 year old brother in law coming over escorting Tyrel. I asked what they were doing since everyone else was hanging out over at Granola's.

MJ told me that Tyrel had pooped in his underwear. I immediately felt myself giving way to being mad. Not at Tyrel, but at Stephen. I have to deal with this day in and day out all the time. And yet, when everyone is over visiting at Granola's and I'm already missing out on that, he sends him to me to deal with it, rather than dealing with it himself.

I grabbed Tyrel's arm and dragged him to the bathroom to deal with his mess. All the time seething at how inconsiderate, lazy and mean my husband was being. Now this is NOT my normal attitude. I adore my sweet husband. In our almost 5 years of marriage we have almost never had an argument and when we do they are short lived.

I finished dealing with Tyrel, sat him down in the rocker to think about NOT doing that again any time soon. He is nearly 3 and should NOT still be doing that.

I went back to fixing lunch, but this time with a dark cloud hanging over me. Telling myself all the things Stephen does wrong. Getting more mad as the time passed. Then I thought to myself. Great, I want to introduce Stephen to my friends I met at retreat today, and we're going to be mad at each other. Because I had every intention of telling him everything that was running through my head. Then I thought, Wait a second, we haven't fought. He doesn't even know I'm mad. What if I got happy, and never made a fight of it? Why does the day have to turn out bad? So I prayed and asked God to help me change my attitude. Not fake change it, but really get happy. Because really what is one more change of pants in the grand scheme of things. Within moments I was chatting happily with Tyrel, not upset at all.

Now here I sit with the spaghetti in the oven, waiting to leave. And so glad I didn't choose to ruin this day.

Gone Fishin'

2010-05-13T18:05:00.001-05:00

This past Friday Stephen, the kiddos and I headed to the Hill Country to go fishing, camping and we thought to see bluebonnets. But we were a little late for that. But that was okay because the bluebonnets had been replaced with indian blankets, my favorite wildflower. Bluebonnets are a close second though.

First we stopped in Brady to get some snacks and camping food. Brady is a somewhat special town to me. Brady reminds me of the time I didn't get to meet my future husband for the first time. My family and I went through Brady our way to meet my aunt who lived somewhere down in this general direction at the time. That was about the time my Mom started really talking to her friend Nola, and Mom and I hoped to make the 40 mile (one way) detour from Brady to meet our internet friends. But Dad said he was NOT driving 80 miles out of his way to meet some goofy people we knew over the internet. So it was I had to wait several more years to meet my beloved. God's timing is perfect I suppose.

How do you like our packing technique? We had the livestock cage in the back of the pickup, so we just put all our camping gear in there so we wouldn't have to worry with tying anything down.

Wildflowers and cactus outside a restaurant.

I tried to pick us out some semi-matching clothes for family pictures. I didn't have anywhere to set the camera for this one, so I wasn't in it.

Kimber decided it was nap time, so once again we missed the family photo.

Indian blankets and (blackeyed susans?)

Stephen was more than ready to get done looking at flowers and get on to fishing. Tyrel very much enjoyed fishing. He has been asking us when we can go again.

Big Guy fishin'.

Woohoo, I caught the first (and second) one! A small large mouth bass. lol.

Another try at a family picture. This one is okay. Kimber sure is happy.

Mama and little girl.

Stephen, Tyrel and the biggest catch of the day. Needless to say, we didn't feast on fish that night. Tyrel looks a little unsure of the fish.

And finally, the best family picture we got. Tyrel's face is dirty, he's drinking a soda, Kimber is distracted, and I'm getting hair out of my face. Perfect. :)

I was going to make this a post about camping and fishing, but had way too many pictures. So I'll split them up.

Oh yes, we never did camp this night. The state park was full, and the KOA was quite expensive, and we decided since we would be camping the rest of the weekend, for that price we'd go to a motel and sleep in a real bed. So we did.

Things We've Been Up To.

2010-05-11T17:41:00.002-05:00

One of these days I will get caught up enough on posting to be able to post about one subject at a time, instead of clumping everything together in one incoherent post each time.

Here Stephen is working with Tyrel on pedalling a bike. They had the back tire in a hole, so Ty could pedal, but not go anywhere.

Kimber right after waking up I believe. It is several weeks old. Way too hot to be wearing that sweater right now.

A couple weeks ago we had a play day at church. That is when we all get together for a day of fun at someones house. This time it was at the house we normally have church at anyways! In the picture, Stephen is coming back from playing paintball. I joined in the first round, but pulled a muscle and dropped out.

These next few pictures are of the Cactus Hotel. It is the 3rd Hilton Hotel ever built. As you can see, in it's day it must have been the utmost in luxury. Especially for a cowtown like San Angelo. It is no longer a hotel though. There is a couple restaurants in it now, and various other businesses.

Here I went up the steps to the second floor and took a picture of what used to be the lobby I assume.

I don't know what this room is, I just saw the door open and snapped a quick picture. It makes me want to dance. Like ballroom dancing or something.

Here is a picture of Kimber being cute! :)

My little dude who is never far from that cowboy hat. He runs through the house (or anywhere else for that matter) yelling "I AM A COWBOY" All. the. time. That is Daddy's nickname for him too. Either Cowboy, or Big Guy.

Here Bubba, let me try on that hat.

Kickin' back enjoying the shade on Granola's porch on a warm day.

Here is Uncle Charlie (Stephen's cousin) taking Tyrel and Stephen's two youngest brothers on a walk. They had lots of fun.

And here is Daddy holding Kimber on Granola's porch while we talk to Aunt R. Shhh, I had to be sneaky to get this picture. And now she is gonna git me!

Oh yes, and I will throw in a random Tyrel funny at the bottom.

After the aforementioned paintball game Stephen was showing me his battlewounds. He had several bruises and such. Well, that night I was changing Tyrel who had a diaper rash. As he winced while I cleaned, he told me "That's from paintball". LOL, he thought that any "owie" was from paintball for a little while after that.

Stay tuned for Mother's Day weekend camping pictures soon!

Surprise!

2010-04-30T11:09:00.000-05:00

April 22nd was my little brother Tommy's 20th birthday. We had a surprise party for him. He was kinda suspicious of it, but I did have one total surprise for him. 3 more of our brothers got to come for the party! Ben, Sam and Dan got here Thursday after Tommy left for work. Dad, Mom, and our other brothers were not able to make it, but we had fun anyhow. We had some friends from church and work there also. Happy Birthday Tommy, I hope you enjoyed it!

And because I don't feel like downloading them and editing etc right now you can go wade through the pictures from their visit here. Even though I can't explain all the goofyness in the pictures that way. Oh well, here is an overall caption...our family is weird. The end.

Pickups, Horses and Training

2010-04-18T12:03:00.001-05:00

Isn't it nice how one little thank you can make all your hard work pay off? Well that plus having relatively obedient children. The other day while Stephen and I were in town I was going to stay in the pickup and feed Kimber while he and Tyrel went into AutoZone. (Shhhh, don't tell Mom, she works at Oreilly's) Anyways since Tyrel was sitting behind me and Kimber behind Stephen he was going to her her out and hand her to me and I got Tyrel out so he could go with Daddy.

I got out and unfastened Tyrel from his carseat, set him on the ground, and told him to go stand at the front of the pickup on the sidewalk. Then I got back in the pickup and didn't think twice about it. Stephen handed me Kimber, glanced out the windshield at Ty and said "Thank You". I just looked at him and said it was no problem, he was on my side I didn't mind getting him out at all. He said "No, for training our kids so well."

I looked out at Tyrel and was indeed thankful myself. I mean, how many 2 1/2 year olds can you tell to go stand still on the sidewalk and then not even have to think they may run off across the parking lot. I told him what to do, and he obeyed.

This is certainly not because he is a compliant child by nature. Tyrel is about at stubborn as they come,(His name even means stubborn. Really) and has taken LOTS of HARD training. But it is paying off. I often just see the things that need work still and don't notice all that we have accomplished. So it was nice to have a perspective change also.

Anyways, on to other matters.

My brother Tommy purchased him a pickup. Yay Tommy! It is a Ford Ranger. He really wanted an F150 but this met all his other criteria and was a great deal. He wanted a Ford, 5 speed, under 150K miles, for under $4000 dollars. Well he got it with money to spare.

He even has some of that money to spare after purchasing a secondary form of transportation. Horses. Yes. 2 of them, with saddles. He is going to give/sell me the dun which is 12 years old and already a gentle riding horse. And he will keep the 3 year old green broke sorrell. They are both mares. The old cowboy we bought them from is going to help him train his horse also. He is a really good friend of ours, which is one reason we got such a good deal on 2 horses and saddles. I names "mine" Riata. Stephen and I have a funny story about that name. See a riata is a long, leather, mexican kind of rope. (I think, if I'm wrong Stephen will correct me and I'll change it.)

Well anyways, when we were going to one of the local cowboy churches one time not long after we were married, we were standing in the back row singing during praise and worship. In the middle of a song Stephen looked kind of excited as he tried to see someone/something at the front of the church. I asked him what he was looking at and he whispered "That's Arianna!" I had never seen him so excited to see a girl before and it raised my jealousy hackles a bit. I tried seeing if this Arianna was our age, pretty, etc. While asking him "So who is Arianna?" He said don't worry about it, I'll tell you later. That got the hackles up even more. "No, who is Arianna?" He laughed and said "Do you see that leather rope hanging from the cross at the front of the church?" "Well yes, but WHO is Arianna?" "Well that rope is a riata". OHHH okay. That's cool, you'll have to tell me about them later.

And all was well. The End.

A Title :)

2010-04-13T18:33:00.004-05:00

Not sure why some of the pictures are scrunched up and weird.

Not a lot really. I have some pictures from a week or so ago, but nothing recent. It has really greened up around here since then. Even the mesquites are greening up, and they are always the last thing. I love the spring, except for one thing. Storms. I have a love/dislike relationship with storms. They are awesome and beautiful to watch. But they can get pretty severe here in West Texas. I sit up at night when we have a chance of storms praying and reminding myself that God has not given us a spirit of fear but a sound mind. Then the wind starts blowing harder and I can just see tornadoes ripping everything apart. Then I move our babies into our bed where I can keep my arms and eyes on them. All the while my husband snores away. Until I wake him to say I am going over to his parents to check the radar. If it looks bad on there I can sometimes convince him to go with me to his parents house for the night. A real house, that doesn't shake in the wind. It doesn't help that a few years ago our roof blew off of our trailer. Twice. Within a month. Once while we were in bed asleep. Well, I wasn't asleep, but he was. It was rather scarey. And so I pray and pace and pray and listen to the radio and pray and check the radar and pray.And then feel silly in the morning when everything is fine. But really I do love to watch storms and would love to see a tornado from a safe distance. Hmmm, I hadn't gotten on here to ramble about storms.

So here are some somewhat recent pictures.

Sunset over the big house (Stephen's Parents)

Mud on her face from Mama watering the garden.

Towels blowing in the wind, and some already blown off.

Walking the Concho River. Our favorite way to waste time in town without spending money. That is not the river, but a drainage ditch or something near it.

Crossing the river.

Looking down at the ducks.

Bran.

Playing at the park by the river.

Peek a boo Kimber.

Wallowing on the bed before baths.

Pictures....Hmm. I think I have a lot of posts titled that.

2010-03-29T19:37:00.001-05:00

Why is it that I seem to get really cute pictures of one child, and not the other at any given camera happy moment? I don't have many (if any) good ones of Tyrel for this post.

Here is Kimber Ann sitting on her Papa' s lap.

Aww, She doesn't look so happy in this one. But cute nontheless.

And here will be several pictures of Kimber and I. Because I can. Hi Stephen. Is that a good orange?

Would ya look at those chunky legs?

Oh look, Kimber is looking! Hi sweet girl. Hmm. What is with me having my hair in pigtails everytime I take pictures of her and I together?

I have to post this one because Stephen took it. He hardly ever takes pictures. I did have to tease him about centering our heads in the very middle of the picture. So in the next one he cut our heads off.

Ever wondered what my kitchen looks like. That's it behind MN and Kimber.

Here she is helping me plant the garden. Or at least being cute watching.

Oh look, here is one with Tyrel. And he really did help with the garden. Hi Ty'ger.

Since I don't have many pictures of Tyrel, I do have some cute things he has said lately.

Such as right after I got my hair cut, I was showing him the ponytail that got cut off and he said "Mama's hair break?"

A few days after my parents left after visiting me, as I was tucking Tyrel into bed he asked me "Umpa comin' to see me tomorrow?" I told him no, Grumpa was not coming tomorrow, and that I was sorry and he sleepily relpied. "Oh ok, on Monday." I told him we'd call Grumpa and ask, but I doubted it since he lives so far away.

And I KNOW there are several others I wanted to post, but they seem to be eluding me at the current moment.

Wrestling with my Pride

2010-03-27T17:47:00.000-05:00

Sunday when I got to church I saw that my good friend Patty had cut her hair off pretty short. (Well it is about shoulder length.) I do not like short hair on girls. I told myself that she gave me new resolve to never cut my hair. It looked okay, I just always think long hair looks better on a girl. Then she told me she had cut it off for Locks of Love.

I spent the next few days mulling over how much I love my hair long. My husband loves my hair long. And to be honest, I didn't want my sister in law to have longer hair than me. In other words. I was proud of it. Then I got to thinking that I can regrow my hair. The people they use the donated hair for don't have that option. I should be grateful to have that choice, and that I am in health. And so, I got my husband's blessing, swallowed my pride, and went to get it cut today. The shortest length they accept is 10 inches. I was going to have 10 to 12 cut off. The lady that cut it can't measure I suppose. I measured the cut off hair when I got home. A little over 16 inches! Oh well it will grow back. I hope they put it to good use. I don't fry my hair or use hairspray or anything, so it is very healthy.

Five Months

2010-03-23T17:40:00.000-05:00

Okay, So I have skipped 2 or 3 months. I was a little better at remembering to post every month with Tyrel.

Kimber is growing so fast! She can now roll over both ways. But mostly from her back to her tummy. She will scooch all the way across the bed to me. I have to remember not so set her on the couch or bed while I do something anymore. She rolled off of the couch once. I also cannot set her in her bumbo so she can watch me wash dishes or make bread or something. She can lean waaaaaaay over and I am afraid she will tumble it off the countertop. She is sitting up pretty well if she has something behind her to lean on when she gets tired. She does still slump over a good bit though.

It amazes me how I can see personality differences in her and Tyrel already.

She does not eat nearly as often as he did as a baby. (Well I guess he still does eat all day long) But she is just a chubby as he was. She will sleep for longer periods of time at night than he did. (well he still does not sleep through the night most nights.)

One way she is a lot like Tyrel is that they have both been very "easy" babies. They neither fussed much. They are generally happy and talkative.

She and Tyrel love each other so much. Tyrel is a little rough with her, but I don't think he intends to hurt her. He just likes to play, and gets too rough with her arms or legs.

Well that is all I can think of for the moment./I don't have a picture right now either. So I guess this is it.

Just Pictures.

2010-03-12T16:21:00.001-06:00

Here are some pictures I took of Tyrel, Kimber and their cousin Kyle on Wednesday. Most of the ones of Kimber did not turn out, despite me taking as many of her as of Tyrel. Her eyes would be closed or else she would be looking elsewhere or something. The girls and I think the black and white one of Tyrel looks like his Uncle James. What do you think Crystal? It was about impossible to get a good picture of Tyrel and Kyle at the same time. So here ya go. Enjoy. Notice the bobcat in the background of picture of Ty holding a bobcat(tractor). It is one of his all time favorite toys.

So about that 5k. I came in 1st...

2010-03-08T10:09:00.000-06:00

91st that is. :) I was doing good there at the beginning. There were lots of people in front of me, but also several behind me. Then by the time all the people only running the 1k had made their turnaround, I was in very last place for the 5k. I eventually passed 5 people. So at least I wasn't very last....nor did I have to walk any. I finished in 34ish minutes. So hopefully by the next one I can trim that down.

My brothers and brother in law that ran all did much better than me though. Tommy got 3rd place for his age divison.That makes me so happy I could almost cry. Growing up he was never what you would call very athletic. He tried, but he was uncoordinated, and slow etc. When we would have race days at school, or go to homeschool track days he would usually come in very last place in anything he did. So I was so very proud of him on Saturday. And no he wasn't only one of three in his age group. There were several 20 and under people there.

My BIL MJ did great also. He finished just 2 minutes after Tommy. Daniel came in about a minute later, and Sam about 2 minutes after Daniel.They are all 13 years old, so they were in the same division as Tommy. I think they need a 15 and under division. MJ would have probably got first in it.

So anyways. Here are some pictures totally unrelated to this post. My mom took all the pictures of the race, and so they are now in Arkansas.

Trying to copy her wide eyed look.

Snow Day...and lots of pictures

2010-02-26T10:15:00.005-06:00

How do you like Tyrel's poor man gloves? Socks. It works.

In some parts of the world, and even in this very country, there is this stuff called snow. We see it now and then.Tuesday was one of those times. 5 to 6 inches here on our property!

Tommy got about half way to town and got a call from his boss saying not to come in, they wouldn't need everyone. So Stephen called to see if he could put off his loads til the next day since he drives a truck, and that was okay'd. So we had us a snow day!

The scanner was busy all morning because people don't know how to drive on snow around here. I am one of those people. So I stay home.

Stephen being the brilliant, fun guy that I married decided we would tie a rope to the back of his parents Polaris Ranger, and we could sit on a snow disc, while holding on to the rope to sled. Because West Texas lacks one major thing, other than snow for sledding. Hills. It was LOTS of fun.

Stephen and Tyrel riding behind the Ranger

After we came back to the big house and had some yummy stew for lunch and got littles down for naps, we went back out to do it some more, but the ranger died. Kaput. No worky. So we went and got the pickup and tied the ranger to the back of it and I rode it home. It's not quite as fun as riding the snow disc.

So we came back to the house to warm up for a while, then went on a walk. By then the sun was out and it was starting to melt, so my pictures didn't turn out as I had planned. But then they usually don't. lol. We did actually sled down a "hill" while walking. It is the back of the pond. MN and MJ rolled down the back of the pond towards the water, but for some reason didn't want to sled towards it. Something about not being able to stop.

MN being a "ballerina"

MN got the best snowball hit of the day. See the snow behind Stephen's glasses?

All better

MN, Me and TJ

Racing Stephen. He won....only cause he weighs more....

Snow piled up on Stephen's face while riding behind the Ranger

I don't know

I call this one "Snow.....on a tree....er Mesquite....they don't count as trees. :)

Walking

MN riding behind the Ranger

Stephen and I

Trying to be creative

By the end of our walk it was already turning to soupy, sludgy, mucky, yuck.

Yay for moisture!

This and That

2010-02-17T17:50:00.001-06:00

I don't like posting without pictures. That is why I have not been saying much. I am saving for a new camera, but it will probably be quite awhile before I get one, as the one I want is quite expensive. But I am hoping to use it to make a little extra income. I am not sure how I will do at that, but I'll try.

I am getting close to running a full 3 miles. It is a little less than 9/10ths of a mile around the frontside of the property, and I ran it 3 times today. I am going for 4 full laps before the 5k on March 6th. I have found that I must have weak ankles. I have never had a problem with them before, but I can hardly run without ankle braces right now. I am hoping keeping up running with strengthen them, but I'm not sure if it works that way with such things.

I have covered or turned around all the mirrors in the house except for the one in the bathroom where I can only see myself from the shoulders up. I was spending way too much time seeing if I was losing any weight with this running, and getting discouraged because if you check every 5 minutes, you can't tell. Not to mention it made me feel conceited or something like that. So they will stay covered until at least after March 6th. Even though I don't plan on quitting running then.

Tyrel and Kimber are doing great. Kimber is fast approaching 4 months. Which reminds me that I never wrote a 3 months post for her. She has rolled over 3 times. But they were days between, and it has been over a week since the last time she did. I am not in a hurry anyways. She is happy and healthy.
Tyrel is getting to be such a big boy. I know I always say that, but it amazes me all the time at how grown up he is getting. He looks so big, acts so big, and has been bossing the older kids around as if he was bigger than them....which we are working on letting him know he is not the boss of the big kids, or of Kyle either for that matter.

Well Kimber woke up from her nap, so whatever else I was going to say can wait. Just letting you know I am still here.

Just Some Pictures

2010-01-30T17:46:00.000-06:00

I don't have much to say, but here are some pictures I have taken lately with my MIL's camera.

I love taking sunset pictures. We get some very pretty ones here.

Her hair, and the look on her face cracks me up. Tommy and I have been calling her Kim Bran lately. Get it, Kim Bran....Kimber Ann. Yeah.

And Stephen and Kimber. Cuties.

So I'm Going to Run a 5K.

2010-01-18T18:34:00.000-06:00

I have a friend that is going to run in a 5k on March 6th. When I mentioned that I love to run (though haven't done it in a few years) she said I should join her. So I am. I was thinking "March. Okay, this is January so I have 3 months to train." Um no. It is mid January and the run is at the beginning of March. That gives me a month and a half. I better hop to it.

So far I have been out to run twice. When I first found out it was below freezing for the high those days, so I didn't run. Then I had a wedding in Oklahoma to attend, and didn't run. Then I had to flu or some such, and didn't run. So I have FINALLY been able to get out the past few days. Whew, I am OUT OF SHAPE. 3.1 miles is looking like a long ways off. That means I need to be able to run to the mailbox at the end of the county road. I have ran a little past the gate. Maybe 1/2 mile or so.

I just need to remember to keep my mind off of myself and I run much better. I try to remember to pray or sing while I run, and I can go much farther.

My youngest brothers may join me for the run. They started training today. Sam wanted to come down here until March 6th to train with me, but I didn't figure Dad would go for that. They have school to do. The times in the past when they brought their schoolwork, we never got around to doing it. So we will train seperate and run together in March.

Well, I guess that is about all I have to say right now. Anyone want to run with me?