Father's Day

It took me a little longer to get this posted than I had planned!  You got to love the craziness of summer time.  The days go by so fast :-) 

The girls & I had a great day.  We got up early for church & Sunday school.  After Sunday school we went to Foster & Sue's house for breakfast.  I had told the girls if they were good in church that I would take them to the creek in the afternoon.  Well I was not thinking of all of the rain we had been getting and once we got out there the I realized the water was way too deep and moving way to fast for it to be safe for us.  The girls had to settle for getting out the little swimming pool.  They had a great time anyway. 

When  Kyle  got home about 5:00 we all went over to Marilyn's house for supper.  It as delicious as always.  The kids were eager to ride and had a great time riding with Grandpa Chip.  It was a fun evening!!






Jenae giving Trey a ride on Beauty.



Chip working with Bree in the round pen.

Aubree riding on Comanche. 

Trey swinging on the gate.

Jenae on Hippie.  A 7 year old girl on a 6 year old horse.
Aubree on Comanche.  A 3 year old girl on a 4 year old horse.

Trey & Aubree watching on as Chip was working with a colt in the round pen.
They were both pretty fascinated!!

Aubree was tired!!  It was time for a nap :-)

Chip & Jenae were having a little pole bending competition.  Jenae was riding Beauty
and Chip was riding Comanche.  Chip beat Jenae so she wanted to trade horses.  Chip also
beat her when he rode Beauty & Jenae rode Comanche.

Chambers Jr. Rodeo

We had a great day on Saturday at the Chambers Jr. Rodeo.  I had so many good pictures from the day it was hard to choose what ones to post.  The weather was perfect for a Jr. Rodeo. It was mid 70s, lots of sunshine with a little breeze.  We could not have picked a better day for it.  The rodeo ran along very smooth, it started around 9:30 and was all over with by 2:00.  I wish all Jr. Rodeos were over that quickly!!  The girls both did good.  Jenae won the barrels & was 2nd in the poles.  She made a nice goat run, but did not place.  She was excited to win $70!  The Chambers Jr. Rodeo was a profitable rodeo for her :-) When I showed her the barrel run on my computer she said to me "Mom, is your computer in slow motion?"  I said "no" She said, "Well I can't believe I won going that slow, next time I will have to push him a little harder!"
Aubree did the stick horse events.  She was not to crazy about doing them, but with a little pep talk from Grandpa she was ready to go.  She was glad she did them as she got 4th in the stick horse barrels & 4th in the goat tail untie. 

The Zutavern crew came up for the day.  It was so fun to have them there.  My girls play & enjoy the boys so much!  We are looking forward to the Dunning 4th of July Rodeo to see them all again.

The Halsey family did an outstanding job putting on the rodeo.  We are very thankful that they got it going again.  It is so nice to have a local Jr. Rodeo to attend!

Since this post has so many pictures on it I thought I would do a separate post for Father's day.  Hopefully I can get that done tomorrow! 

Chip helping Jenae into the arena with Speedster.

Jenae starting her barrel run.

Speedster long stride really shows in the picture as they turned their 3rd barrel.

Chip getting Aubree ready for her stick horse events!

Aubree running the stick horse barrels.  Not sure how long we are going
to keep her interested in stick horse events!

Aubree running the stick horse poles.

Trey hanging out on the roping dummy.

Aubree with her first rodeo winnings!! 
She won money in the stick horse poles & the goat tail untie.

Caden & Aubree looking to see what kind of treats they got in their goody bags.
Each of the stick horse contestants got a bag full of candy!

Aubree & Caden walking back to the arena.  They are such good Buddy's!

Jenae & Reece hanging out on their horses.  They had a great time riding around the fair grounds. 
At one time they even went and found a barn to tie them up in for a little bit! 

We were walking to the concession stand and I looked back & Aubree was not with me.
I found her several feet back laying on the ground.  I guess this rodeo lifestyle is just hard
on a little girl!

Jenae getting ready to run her pole patten.

Jenae & Speedster running the poles.



A fun day.

Yesterday was my birthday and it turned out to be a fun day despite having to go to work!  My co worker, Natalie brought all sorts of goodies to eat, Kyle sent me flowers, Marilyn brought me in a DQ blizzard to the office & then Chip was in town for the cattle sale so he dropped the girls & I off at the park to play for an hour.  We had a lot of fun!!!  When I got home from work I got the girls picked up from Chip & Marilyn and we went back to our house and had a nice relaxing evening!  The evening even included a "spa treatment" by my two little angels.  It started by them giving me a foot massage, followed by them rubbing wet Kleenexes up & down my legs.  Then they had the idea of using wet q-tips on my face.  At one point Jenae asked if I had any pickles....  She was a little confused and was thinking that pickles are what some woman put on their eyes.  I explained to her that it was cucumbers that are used NOT pickles!!!!!  Then Jenae went & got my makeup bag and started putting makeup on me.  She said "Wow Mom,  this makeup makes you look really young, you look like you are in your 20's!!"  It was a really interesting experience, but very sweet of them to think of!!  As crazy at it sounds most of what they did actually felt really good!!!  Who knew a 7 year old & 3 year old could give such a great feeling spa treatment!

We are looking forward to a fun day with the Chambers Jr. Rodeo tomorrow!  The girls have been busy practicing!  We have had a lot of rain this past week, so things are a little on the muddy side.  I think 3 of the last 4 night we have had thunderstorms! 



Aubree Joy on the monkey bars.



Jenae Grace on the monkey bars.



Aubree had lots of fun on the slide



Jenae at the top of the slide.

Weekend!

I started this post on Sunday & I am just now getting around to posting it!  The craziness of summer has arrived!! 

Friday morning Jenae left with Chip & Kyle to go to some rodeos in Minnesota & Wisconsin.  She is finally old enough that she can go with Kyle with out being to much trouble for him.  She is pretty good at taking care of herself!  While on the road I think she pretty much took over Chip's cell phone.  I think it helped to keep her entertained on the trip.  She would call me and chat for a while then would lose cell service.  I would try to call her back & the phone would go right to Chip's voicemail.  One time after several unsuccessfully attempts to get though to her I finally called Kyle's phone.  He informed me when she lost me she decided to call Grammy instead of calling me back.  As much as she likes to talk on the phone now, I can only imagine what her teen years are going to be like!!! 

Friday night my Mom was in the area, so I met up with her & she took Aubree to their house.  I would have went down for the weekend, but I had some chores I needed to take care of on Saturday, so I just did everything up good on Saturday afternoon & headed down there to spend the night.  It was Newman Grove's town celebration so we had to in for the kid carnival.  Aburee, Brooke & Allyx had a great time playing games and winning prizes. 

Kyle & Jenae got home around 10:00 Sunday morning & Aubree & I were not far behind them.  Sunday was a nice catch up day around the house & then Marilyn had us over for supper. 

Here we are at Thursday already, I am not sure where the time goes!!

Brooke, Aubree & Allyx at the carnival in Newman Grove.

Never a dull moment.....

Tuesday night Kyle was leaving for a rodeo in Garden City, Kansas.  The girls & I were outside waiting to say good bye to Kyle.  He was off getting his horses caught & loaded up and the girls were playing in the barn.  I really did not think much of it since they spend a lot of time playing with the baby kitties.  Erin, Kyle traveling partner's girlfriend, went into the barn and I heard her say "Aubree what are you holding" and with in seconds I hear a scream followed my crying.  It turns out that Aubree was holding a baby shrew.  Her cat, Buddy, was in the process of killing it & for some crazy reason she felt compelled to pick it up & hold it before it was dead.  It scratched & bit her, thankfully not very hard.  It barely broke the skin & it only bled for a couple of minutes.  I wish I would have taken a picture of Aubree & what she was wearing when she had she shrew incidence.  A picture is worth a 1000 words but I will do my best to explain it.  She loves to dress up in what ever she can find.  She had on a tie dyed tank top of Jenae's that Aubree wears as a dress.  She had put a belt around her waist, & a shrug over her  her dress, topped off with her pink cowboy boots.  It was an interesting look!  I am not sure what would possess her to pick up such a critter, but Aubree is one of those kids who is not afraid to pick anything up.  She loves to catch frogs, toads & butterflies.  Last summer I found her picking up snakes & now she picks up a shrew???   I told her she does not need to be trying to catch wild animals!!!  Right after it happened she was crying saying it was a gopher that she had picked up.  She said, "well, it was either a gopher or a beaver"  Jenae actually saw it and she said it was a shrew.  I didn't look at it as I was more concerned with Aubree than seeing what bit her. 

With kids life is never dull!  Aubree is someone who we never know what she is going to come up with. 

The other day when she was riding she looked at me and said "I want Beauty to run....Duh!!  I am not sure where she learned that word!!!

At my ultrasound a few weeks ago she said to the ultrasound tech "Now this is very important....where is the baby's butt?"  We had not done a good job of explaining the ultrasound process to Aubree. We told her she was getting to go along to find out if she would be having a baby sister or a baby brother.  We failed to tell her that the baby would still be in my tummy for 4 1/2 more months.  When we were finished with the ultrasound I sat up & pulled my shirt back over my stomach & Aubree said "but where is the baby?"  She was so sure we were going to get to take it home!!  If only having a baby was that easy!!! 

Jenae has been busy spending time in the saddle.  She is currently riding one of Chip's horses that he really does not enjoy riding that much.  She has taken off & is doing really well with him.  Chip is wanting to sell him, but I am not sure Jenae is ok with that.  I am sure she is thinking he would be her next barrel prospect!!    Her big task of the summer is mastering the goat tying.  Last night Kyle was working with her on her tie & she made some good progress. 

One of my facebook friends had the following on her status. "Always look at the good things in life & never dwell on what keeps your head down...if you keep your head down you will miss the blessings"  This quote is so true & my blog helps me to realize all the blessings I have in my life.  When I write about our day to day life, I really appreciate the simple moments in it & all the blessings I have been blessed with! 

A ranching weekend!

We had a busy weekend with helping Chip AI.  Kyle was off on the rodeo trail from Wednesday night until Saturday night.  With Kyle gone, Chip had to rely on his back up crew(Jenae, Marilyn, Hope, Ben & me)  to get things done!  Jenae was his main ranch hand all weekend.  Friday night she was riding Bently, Hope's barrel horse & she took a little tumble off and hit the ground.  Bently is a really quick horse & up until this point she was really enjoying tearing around on him.  The dogs I think are to blame for spooking Benltly & he went one way & she went the other way.  It shook her up for a bit & she was not brave enough to get back on him that night.   

Saturday morning Chip called over to see if Jenae was up for helping him move some cattle.  The night before did not seem to phase her as she was happy to be back in the saddle again.  (This time on good ol' Hippie)  She & Chip moved the yearling heifers from the place down south to the home place, I am thinking it is about 3 miles, but I may be off my estimating how far it is between places.  .  Moving yearling heifers has its challenges as they do not usually know exactly where they are going like the old mama cows do.  Aubree & I followed behind in the pick up & trailer.  All in all it went fairly smooth considering that Chip's only rider besides himself  is a 7 year old!!! 

Saturday night we got to keep Trey overnight.  Everyone was so tired, so it may not have been the best night to have him stay with us, next time we will get him mid afternoon & keep him through the the night.  He was so happy to see his Uncle Kyle come home!  Kyle did good on the rodeo trail.  He won the bronc riding at Cherokee, IA & won the steer wrestling & bronc riding in Tekamah.  He also placed 4th in the calf roping at Tekamah. 

Kyle & I went to church.  Chip & Marilyn said they would keep the kids.  Taking 3 overly tired kids to church was not something that sounded like much fun to me!  Church ended up lasting a hour & 1/2, so I was glad that we did not need to try to keep the 3 little monkeys quiet for that long :-).  When we got home from church the kids were all busy riding.  They were having a great time.  Marilyn grilled steaks for dinner and Hope & Ben came over as well.  After our bellies were full we headed home to take a nice Sunday afternoon nap!  Well that was the plan anyway...  I was hoping my tired girls would think taking a nap sounded as good as I did,  however they decided playing was more fun!   I did make they lay down and at least rest, but no sleep for them!  About 3:00 we headed to the creek for a nice little swim on a hot day.  It was as fun as always.  I am really thankful to have such a nice creek in our back yard!  We have lots of fun there & make lots of memories! 

Jenae & Aubree riding their horses.

It takes a bit of a kick to get Beauty going :-)






Happiest on a horse.



Aubree & Trey




Jenae flanking her goat.

Jenae tying her goat "Wally"




Jenae & Aubree off to the creek for a swim.

  














Memorial Day

Memorial Day was a really fun day!  The Zutavern crew came up for a visit.  It was a warm windy day & the creek was so inviting!  The kids had a blast!!!!  Of course they did not want to leave, but we told them they could have an ice cream treat when we got back to the house.  After about 3 times of telling them it was time to go back to the house they finally came along!  The water was perfect.  It was cool to get it at first, but as we were there it seemed to warm up.  It was just deep enough that the kids could have fun, but not not so deep that we had to worry about it going over their heads. 

The Zutavern boy's play so well with my girls.  Jenae & Aubree are always so

excited to have them come visit. 

Mattee, Caden & Aubree playing in the sand.

Jenae, Reece, Bryan & Aubree. 

Reece, Bryan & Jenae.  They found mud and marked themselves as warriors. 

Aubree & Caden