A tough week

I wanted to get a good picture of my Dad's horse Doc.  He brought so much happiness to my Dad. I wish I would have taken the time to do a picture like this for my Dad before he passed away. 


This has been a long tough week.  A week ago yesterday I got a call from my brother my Dad had quit breathing & they were taking him to the hospital by ambulance.  It was such a horrible helpless feeling.  Kyle was in Austin & had just got done with his run in the short go.  I called him right away & he called his parents.  At that time I did not know how everything was going to turn out.  I was hoping for the best, & that we would soon be getting a call that he was awake & breathing.  Lacey called me & said she & her husband were headed down to Albion if I wanted to ride along with them.  Marilyn came over to be with my girls & we headed out sometime after 9:00 that night.  As soon as I met up with my sister we got the call from Dusty that Dad had passed away. 

The next couple of days are a blur to me.  I never knew how much planning went into funeral preparations.  We all pulled together & had a really nice tribute to my Dad.  The love & support  from so many caring people is helping us to get through this difficult time. 

Looking back over the last 12 years I do see how the plan has been in motion for some time now, setting our family up for this day.  There have been so many things that are not just coincidences.  The fact that all 4 of us kids got married within 5 years & we gave Dad 12 grand kids in a 7 year time span is so cool!  My Dad got to walk both my sisters & I down the aisle & he got more Grandpa time in 9 years than most men get in 30 years.  It is so difficult to at the time of an unexpected death in a family operation.  There are often questions for those left behind to try to figure out.  My Dad had a lot of the information in his head.  I was going through his cattle paper work & on Feb 13th 2013 he wrote some notes.  He wrote down what cows belonged to Dusty, what cows were the old cow & a list of the 1st & 2nd year heifers.  I looked back through all his other cattle papers & records.  No where else was there ever a list like this.  I could go on & on about other things that have happened this past year that make it obvious that there is an almighty plan & that God does work in our lives daily preparing us for the next stage in our life.  We don't know what the entire plan is, but I take great comfort in knowing that there is a plan.

I am taking it one day at a time.  I am so thankful for my loving supportive husband.   

Jenae & Tyson helping pair out.

Jenae trying out Domino.

To get out of the house for a bit, we took the kids to the Easter Egg Hunt in town. 
This is Aubree finding her eggs.

Cooper looking for eggs.

Allyx at the Easter Egg hunt.

Loving the 60's

The weather has been awesome this week. It is chilly in the mornings but by afternoon the sun shinning & temp is in the 60s!  No complaints here!  However our Nebraska weather is soon changing & I think is only going be in the 30's for the weekend. 

Kyle & Aubree working on getting Goliath to take a bottle.

Whitney loving being a ranch girl!



The girls loving on Goliath.  He is not sure if he is a calf or a dog! 



Kyle getting his first roping practice in at home in 2013.

Papa Chip & Whitney running the calves for Kyle. 



Aubree playing around.



Whitney enjoying the nice day.  Buster sure does love her!

Weekend

We were fortunate enough to be asked over for supper on Friday night (to our friends the Ehlers) & also Saturday night (to Hope & Ben's house)  We had nice visits both evening & the kids had great times playing with the kids.  I of course did not mind 2 evenings free from cooking supper! 

Saturday during the day the girls & I got some cleaning done.  I gave both Jenae & Aubree a few cleaning tasks to do themselves.  They both did a great job & it sure was nice to have the help.  I really appreciate having the girls get old enough to share in some of the house work.  It obviously gets done much faster with 3 sets of hands doing the work, plus it is more fun to do together. 

Since we got our cleaning & laundry done on Saturday we got to spend Sunday in the kitchen doing some baking together after we got home from Church.  It was not the warmest weekend & we did get some rain/snow that we were all happy about, but it was not a good weekend to spend time outside. 

The forecast is for sunshine & 60's by the end of this week.  I am hoping we are able to get out & enjoy the nice weather. 

Calving is going good.  We have had about 80 calves so far.  I am thinking they are loving the warm sunshine as well!



Ehlers have baby lambs right now.  I had forgot how cute lambs are!  My Grandpa Forre used to raise sheep so I grew up having baby lambs around.  The girls loved getting to see them!




Wyatt showing Aubree & Whitney the lamb.



Brooke & Wyatt with the lambs.

Trey giving Whitney some love.  Whitney adores Trey! 

Whitney & Chase playing with the door stop. They entertained themselves for quiet awhile with the door stop! 



Aubree having some Kool-Aid.  When we went to leave for Hope's house she came out of her room with this had on.  She had it off to the side of her head & I asked her why didn't put her hat on right.  She said "this is my artist look"  We just never know about her!



I was teasing Trey & Aubree that they were on a date! 

Jenae giving Trey a piggy back ride.

Jenae making worm cookies & Aubree frosting her worm cookies!

2013 Calving has begun.....

Probably my favorite things to do the end of Winter & beginning of Spring is to go out & see the new baby calves.  They are so stinking cute & there is something so peaceful about being out in a big ol' pasture cruising around seeing all the new life that is coming into this world. 

I do love all the traveling I get to do & the fun places I get to go, but in my mind there is no place else I could ever imagine living.  I am sure I could make more money living near a large city, but no amount of money is worth the quality of life me & my family have living here. 

The sunset through the trees was so pretty last night when we went out to check the cows.  Just a little glimpse of Heaven on earth, or what I imaging Heaven looking like anyway!

A brand new calf!  The mama was still getting him cleaned off. 

Some of the newest additions to the Whitaker Ranch.  I love the little white faces on this years babies! 

Kyle & the girls looking out at a new calf.

Whitney looking out the window watching Kyle check out a new calf.  She loves the baby calves, or as she calls the britty cows.  Whitney's word for baby wether she is talking about a baby calves or her baby dolls is "britty".

Aww....Jenae giving Aubree some love! 

Whitney "helping" Kyle drive.  FYI...we were in the middle of nowhere so Whitney was not in her seat. 

We had a really quiet weekend, which I needed to recover from our little get away to Houston.  Saturday I spent the day doing laundry & unpacking bags.  I was so tired of doing laundry by mid afternoon I took a much needed break & went out with Kyle & the girls to check cows.  I was in a much better mood just getting out of the house for a little while.

Sunday we went to Church & the girls & I spent the rest of the day mostly relaxing.  Kyle went to practice at Wakefields.  I was still really tired from our all night drive on Wednesday night.  When I put Whitney down for her afternoon nap, I took a cat nap myself.  I am not going to lie...it was awesome!! 
Sunday afternoon we did an Easter Egg Hunt in our house for something fun to do.  It is such a simple thing to do, but my girls love getting to do it!  I put one little thing in each egg.  Either a fruit snack, gold fish, m&m or a marshmellow in each egg.  Yeah I know.... I really go all out!!!  The girls seem happy & it limits their sugar intake by not putting much in each egg.  In years past I have put loose change in the eggs, but with Whitney's age, I didn't think that would be a good idea! 

Jenae wants her eggs hidden really well! 

Whitney & Aubree finding the treats in the eggs. 

Whitney would go get an egg with a treat & then go sit in the chair to eat it.  Once she ate it she would hop down from her chair & go get another egg & then climb back in the chair to eat.  This went on for a while! 

Rodeo Houston

One benefit to being married to Kyle is that I do get to go some fun places!  Not as many as he does, but probably a lot more than if I was married to someone with a 9-5 M-F job.  I need to remember times like this to off set the times I get frustrated having a traveling husband :-)

Kyle left 2 weeks ago for San Antonio.  He placed on his 3rd steer there, but did not win enough to make the semi finals.  He went to say with some guys that are from Nebraska, but are living in Texas this winter riding colts & roping calves.  Kyle had a great time saying with them between San Antonio & Houston.  His high light of his time there was going on a wild hog hunt.  If you get a chance to ask Kyle about it, it is an entertaining story.  Maybe I will see if he will write a blog post about it :-)

I flew out on Sunday evening to meet up with Kyle in Houston.  I left Jenae with Chip & Marilyn & took Aubree & Whitney to my parents house.  My Dad took me to the airport in Omaha & I made my way down to Houston.  I am so thankful for everything Chip, Marilyn & my Parents did to make it possible for me to make the trip.   I never do good at leaving my kids, but knowing I am leaving them in good hands does help!  It was nice to have some time with Kyle & Rodeo Houston really treats the cowboys like kings, which made the trip even more fun!  They provide 3 meals a day for us with all the ice cream & treats a person can eat!  I am mad at myself that I did not take more pictures of the hospitality rooms they had set up for the contestants & their families.  We did not really do any sight seeing or anything like that while we were there, but we did venture out to do some grocery shopping!  So many fun things at a southern grocery store & we loaded up on fresh fruits to bring back to Nebraska! 

I do get really nervous when I take off on trips with Kyle.  Some of our travels have been a little on the adventures side so as excited as I am to go I am always glad to be home!  The only slight problem was my van was dead when I went to start it Sunday morning.  Chip came right over & got my van charged up & off I went.  My Dad took my van in to town to replace the battery for me.  When they got to looking at the battery in my van it was a little tiny battery, one that should have been on lawn mower, not a van!  We bought my van with some hail damage on it & we are thinking they took the good battery out & replaced it with the little junk battery before they traded it off.  Just something to take note of next time you buy a vehicle!

Kyle did not draw the best in Houston, but did pick up a 3rd place check in the 3rd round.  The coolest thing about Houston is that there is no entry fee & they pay you $500 to sign autographs!  They only invite 40 cowboy's per event so it is a honor to just be there!  I hope we get to go back next year :-)

Kyle & me at the rodeo.

The rodeo is held at Reliant Stadium where the Houston Texans play football.  This picture does not really do justice to the size of the building!  It is huge!! 

They have pictures up off all the cowboys who are there competing.

A more close up picture of Kyle.

The grand entry.  I took this picture to try to show the size of the arena. The steers were running really hard & fast in the steer wrestling.  Most of them were caught on what would be the 50 yard line of the foot ball field.  The stadium holds 70,000 people. 

Lots of fireworks during the National Anthem. 

Kyle getting ready & watching. 

Kyle signing autographs.

Kyle signing autographs.  The place was so huge that I found it easiest to meet up with Kyle during the autograph session.  I stood off a little ways from where they were signing (unless I was taking a picture of Kyle)  but close enough I could catch up with Kyle when he was done.  It was funny to listen to the women/girls who came out of the Fan Zone.  One lady walked past me and said "They are such eye candy, aren't they!"