What a week!

It has been a crazy busy week! It started Monday morning when Chip picked up Jenae & Aubree at 5:00 to head to Cheyenne. Kyle was up in the rodeo there Monday & Tuesday. I think Chip is a very brave and awesome Grandpa to take 2 little girls on a 6 hour road trip. I think they all had a lot of fun. It sounds like Jenae & Chip had lots of discussions all the way out there and back. Some of their topics of discussion were comparing US Military to other countries military, trade with China, if Muslims & Jews will go to heaven and many more interesting subjects. They got home about 11:30 Tuesday night. Needless to say I they were exhausted!
Wednesday we got up early to deliver one of our puppies. She went to an awesome home in Newman Grove. Abby her new owner has 2 little girls that will love the puppy so much. We stopped and had lunch with my parents while we were in the area and headed back to Chambers to help pick up little square bales out of the pasture. It was a family affair. Chip, Ben, Hope & I picked up while Marilyn drove the pickup with the 3 kids. Where was Kyle you may be asking??? He was in Deadwood SD, probably enjoying an air conditioned casino at the time we were picking up the bales & he is the one that uses the majority of the bales. It was not his fault they wanted to do the bales when he was gone, but I think we all were a little jealous of him :-)

Yesterday Jenae & I helped Chip move some cattle after I got off work then Hope came over and helped Jenae with her barrel racing practice.

We have a busy weekend ahead, but I am looking forward to it!

Weekend

Sorry no pictures to post from the weekend. We were so busy I did not even pick up my camera.
Saturday morning Chip needed Jenae & I to help him move cattle. Jenae is turning into quite the little ranch hand. She has taken over the horse that I usually ride. She and Hippie get along really good. I think she really enjoys riding him because he goes where she wants him to instead of fighting with Beauty. Chip seemed surprised to how smooth the cattle moving went. I told him when he had good help like Jenae & I what could go wrong :-)

I spent most of the afternoon working in my jungle, oh I mean my yard/garden. I will never again be gone 3 weekends in a row in July & have a garden. The weeds got a little out of control. Jenae had this idea that she needed to ride Beauty from Grandpa & Grammy's house to our house. Chip followed behind her in the pickup to help get her going down the road. Beauty was not being very cooperative and kept stopping and spinning around to head back to Chip's place. Jenae would get her loping along and all of the sudden she would stop. One time she stopped so hard it threw her forward and she got hung up in the stirrup. I still do not know exactly what happened and how it happened but Chip said she did really good and kept a hold of the reins and got beauty pulled up. It could have been a bad wreck. Later that afternoon Jenae looked up at me with her big blue eyes and said "I guess God wasn't ready for me to die yet, because if he was I think I would have died" It gave me goose bumps when she said that. It seems crazy to me that a 6 year old seems to have an better understanding that I do that God is in control of our lives. I tend to be a worrier about things and a friend of mine once told worrying is a lack of faith. I try to remind myself of that.

Since Beauty was being so naughty Chip thought it would be best if Beauty stay at our house for awhile & have her be in her own pen away from her buddies. Jenae was wanting to ride some more and I went over to help her get on. Aubree was busy playing with some toys on the side of the house. I had just checked on her before I went to barn to help Jenae. I no more than get to the barn and I hear a horrible scream come from Aubree. She is a pretty tough cookie and I knew something bad had happened to her to make her scream like that. I ran over to her fully expecting to see blood gushing out or worse. When I picked her up she was shaking & crying so hard and she said "they bit me." I asked her what bit her, she said "the spiders." I looked at her arm and saw a big welt on wrist. I thought to myself what kind of spiders would attack my little girl. Than I remembered Aubree thinks all insects & bugs are spiders. I asked her if they had wings, she quickly responded "yes" She must have found a wasp nest. She ended up with 3 welts on her wrist, ankle & under her eye. She swelled up pretty good where she was stung. I tried to give her Benadryl, but she spit it out and said "it taste to much like medicine"

Sunday we got up and went to Church. I was half embarrassed to take my girls. Aubree with all of her bits & welts and Jenae has some scratches on her face from a tree Beauty took her though. I am afraid someone will try to take them away from me thinking they are abused. They are not abused, just ranch girls :-)

We have sold a couple of the puppies already and have had quite a bit of interest in them. We are really hoping to find good homes for all of them. They are so cute and lovable.

Busy Wednesday

We had a very busy day yesterday. Jenae & I were Chip's ranch hands for the morning. We had to go and sort off some bulls a couple places. All in all I think it went well. Chip may say otherwise :-). Jenae was a little worked up about crossing the creek since it is running a little higher than normal. Chip & I had both crossed the creek and she decided to take off for home instead. Chip rode after her and helped her cross. It was funny to look up and she her making a bee line for home. We finished up with he cattle project around noon.

I had to have the girls at swimming lessons by 1:30. Then had to have Buster to O'Neill for his haircut by 3:00. He looks so good and I think he is really happy to have less hair with the heat. Missy the groomer said he did really good for her. He did not mind the clippers at all. I was a little bit worried, but he did great.

The girls & I went to the library and out for pizza in the 2 1/2 hours Buster was at the Beauty Shop. We had a lot of fun.

While being a ranch hand I sprained my ankle. It was pretty sore last night & to top it off I have a lovely summer cold. By the time we got home from our busy day I put a movie on for the girls and I crashed on the couch with my foot elevated. It is much better today. I do not like to be sick in the winter but I HATE having a cold in the summer. I have to much to do, I do not have time to be sick ;-) I am really looking forward to a nice relaxing weekend at home!!

Omaha Trip

We had an amazing weekend. A bunch of my family took a trip to Omaha to visit the Zoo. It was very hot, humid & crowded, but it was still fun and I really enjoyed seeing all the new things. Jenae & Aubree loved every minute of it. It was so fun to watch them take it all in. I am pretty sure I will never go the the Zoo on a Saturday again.

The hotel we stayed at was a very kid friendly hotel. The pool was prefect for younger kids. It ranged from 8 inches to 3 feet and had 2 water slides. The kids played and played and played. That night we stayed in ordered pizza & played games.
Our rooms were right across from each other at the end of a hallway and we had a nice quiet place with no one else around us. We were able to leave both doors open and went back and forth between the rooms very easily.

Sunday we got up and went & had lunch at the The Amazing Pizza Machine. It is run by the same people who started Valentino's. The buffet was very similar to the Valentino's buffet. They had several rooms to dine in & you got to pick which one you liked. The room we ate in was playing a Flintstones movie on the wall. After we ate the kids went to play games and go on rides. They had a special of all you can ride for $10. Much cheaper than a carnival would be. It was such a fun place to take kids to. Really there was something for all ages to enjoy.

The trip did have its moments! It was 7 adults & 8 kids ages 6 & under. 2 six year olds, 1 four year old, 1 three year old, 2 two year olds and 2 one year olds. When we got checked into the hotel, Brooke was so excited & running around. She ended up running into the door jam and got a bloody nose. Jenae ended up with a bad ear ache from swimming so I left Danielle, Kevin & Erin with 7 of the kids while I ran to Wal-Mart to pick up some Motrin. They were packing and hauling things out to the vehicles. We had an elevator right beside our room. Cooper pressed the elevator button and Aubree went into the elevator. Danielle was right there but could not get the door opened. We were on the 2nd floor and they saw the elevator was headed to the 7th floor (the top floor) Kevin knew he could not get up 5 flights of stairs faster than the elevator so he went to the lobby to wait for the elevator to come back down. The elevator stopped back at the 2nd floor and 2 nice ladies asked Danielle if she was looking for Aubree :-) Apparently Aubree had told them her name. She did not seem to be phased by any of it and was not upset or crying. Luckily the story had a good outcome and we have a funny story to tell. I don't want to even think about what could have happened.

The kids are all very tired after our big weekend. I am thinking us parents are feeling a little run down as well. I am looking forward to a nice quiet week and I have nothing planned for the upcoming weekend. Thank goodness!!!! My yard & garden are needing some major attention after have 3 really busy weekends in a row.

It has been another busy week. Wednesday we went to Albion for a Jr Rodeo. It was very hot & humid, but was still fun. Chip & Marilyn took the girls and I to the rodeo. A lot of my family was there as well. Jenae did good. She was 2nd the the 12 & under poles and 4th in the 12 & under barrels. Aubree got to do the stick horse barrels. She was happy to get to participate.

Instead of posting pictures of the puppies we have for sale on this blog I set up a new puppy website.

Under the blogs I follow you can click the link and check it out :-)

The other option to view the website is to copy and paste the following.
http://whitaker-australian-shepherd-puppies.blogspot.com/

Rodeo Weekend

Kyle was entered in a bunch of rodeos in Minnesota & Wisconsin this past weekend. It was Jenae's annual trip she gets to take with her Daddy. To sum up her trip in a couple of words, she had a BLAST!!! She played and played and played with the other rodeo kids. In this video she is "hazing". Kyle thinks he will have a new hazer in a couple of years :-)

I was worried that Aubree would be upset when she found out that Jenae got to go with Kyle for the weekend. Kyle was in the Madison rodeo on Wednesday and my parents met him there and took Aubree home with them thinking she would not catch on to the fact Jenae was going with Kyle. . She was very happy that she got to go to their house and it did not seem to phase her that Jenae was not going to their house too. I was thinking she probably thought that Kyle & Jenae were going home. She never said a word about it until Saturday someone said something about Jenae and Aubree said "My Sissy is not home she is at a rodeo with my Daddy" Still she did not seem upset about it. She was a very happy and cheerful girl all weekend long. However, The first thing she said to Kyle when he got home was "Why does Jenae get to go to rodeos with you??" So all this time she knew exactly what was going on. :-)

While Kyle and Jenae were off rodeoing Aubree & I helped Tyson, Kellen, Riley & Allyx celebrate their birthdays. They all have birthdays with in about 2 weeks of each other so instead of individual parties we had 1 big party. It was a fun day. We came on home Saturday night and did some laundry & house work. Sunday was a very relaxing day for Bree and I. I actually took a nap :-)

Hopefully in the next couple of days I will be posting some pictures of the puppies that we have for sale. If anyone is interested in them let me know. They are so cute and adorable!! I think we are all going to have a hard time parting with them.

Dunning Jr. Rodeo

Chip helping Jenae add up her winnings from the day. Aubree enjoying a pop she picked up from somewhere!

4th of July Rodeo

We had such a fun day yesterday. Jenae had her first Jr. Rodeo. She did so good! She won the barrels, 2nd in the poles & 4th in the goats. She also place 4th in the All Around.

We loaded up and headed to Dunning around 6:30. Chip & Marilyn took the girls and I down to Dunning. Ben, Hope & Trey met us there. We took Beauty & Speedster. The plan was to have Jenae use Beauty for the goats and Speedster for the barrels & poles. Beauty was acting a little bit nervous since it was her first rodeo so we did a last minute change of plan and had her ride Speedster for the goats at well. Speedster is a very seasoned rodeo horse and the minute he hit the arena he got a little excited. Jenae handled it well and just loped a circle to settle him down. When she did that she crossed the flag man and it started her time as she was headed away from the goat. She finally got things in order, ran down and ended up making a good goat run. The time was a little on the long side due to her extra circle that she ran that was on the clock, but she still did good. She made a nice smooth pole run. All went well. She had been riding Beauty around with her friend Taylar between events. We did not realize she would run her barrel run so soon after her pole run so she was off riding Beauty. They announced that the 0-6 barrel racing was up next. There was no sign of Jenae at the gate she was supposed to be at. I looked up and saw her at the other end of the area riding Beauty not Speedster. She was 2nd one out. Long story shorter there was a lot of running around to get Jenae on Speedster and in the arena. The only thing that saved her is that the girl that was first out walked/trotted a very slow pattern. Chip & Hope got her thrown on Speedster and she went right in the area and made a really nice run. It was a little crazy there for awhile but it makes for a good story and good memories.

Aubree did not get to ride much but she still had a blast! She was such a trooper for the long day. She loves the Zutavern boys and had so much fun hanging out with them.

It was nice to spend the day with all the Zutaverns. Amy had fixed chicken for lunch and we had a little picnic at the rodeo. Bryan, Reece & Caden did really good at the rodeo as well. I am not sure how they ended up but they made some really nice runs.

Kyle was in Belle Fourche SD for a rodeo so he did not get to be there with us. I feel bad that he was not able to be there because I think he would have had a lot of fun.

As soon as we got in the truck to head home Aubree was asleep. Jenae was really tired too, but I think she was on a high from her fun day. Instead of sleeping she talked and talked and talked all the way home. Good, bad or otherwise Jenae has been blessed with the gift of gab!

We really lucked out with the weather. They had been forecasting rain for the day. It rained in the night and was cloudy most of the day but the rain held out. It actually was nice a cool and no misquotes!!

I had so many good pictures from the day I added them as a slide show. Just click the slide show and it will open to a bigger view of it. It was such a fun day!!!

Busy times

Where did June go? I know I have said this before but it really scares me how fast the time goes. July is going to fly by and Jenae will be back in school before I know it. It seem like we have something going on every weekend in July. This weekend we will be busy with the 4th of July and Jenae's Jr. Rodeo . Next weekend are going to my niece and nephews birthday party and the weekend following we are planning to go to the zoo in Omaha. I am tired just thinking about the next couple of weekends, but it should be fun!

Jenae and Aubree have loved having Kassie here this week. She is a special girl that is amazing with kids. I am sure Jenae and Aubree will go through depression when she leaves. Hopefully we can find a weekend to go to Franklin for a visit.

I hope you all have a fun and safe 4th of July. Hopefully the rain will hold out until after all of the fireworks are finished!