Rodeo and upcoming vacation

This past weekend we had a rodeo on friday and saturday night. It was a good time, though it didn't end until after midnight both nights so we were all extremely tired on sunday! Mom, Dad, and Bethany came out and mom also watched the kids for us so that they could be in bed at a decent time (Thanks Mom!). And we got a little more facetime with Braden too :) He is so adorable!
Here are a few of my favs from the rodeo.









Also, this weekend we're heading to St. Louis with Rick and Kim, Emily and Austin to go camping and go to the zoo. Origionally we'd planned to go to the Omaha zoo, but they're having the college world series there this weekend so all the campgrounds are full. So we decided to check out the STL zoo instead. I'm really looking forward to it since I know the kids are going to have a blast. And it will be nice to hang out and relax for a couple days with the kids.

Off the wall info: Mav has a new phrase. It's "Hi man!" LOL. Finally the kid starts talking a little bit and all I can get him to say the past two days is "Hi man". Guess it could be worse!

Bradens 6 months pics and Cowboy hats

Well so much for my 365 project. Though I have been taking pictures daily, I have not had much time for editing and posting them.

Today I did a mini photo session with Bethany and Braden. It didn't last long as it was hot as heck outside and Braden got hungry. But what pictures I did take are SUPER cute :) I'm looking forward to taking some more before they go back to FL.
Here's a sneak peek...

Tonight I had planned to go to Crazy Horse to shoot some more bull riding, but it got rained out. Hollie was pretty bummed as she wanted to ride a sheep. But she got over it when she saw the lightning! We did go to Kleindshmidts this evening to get us some cowboy hats and western shirts though. Dennis will be working behind the shoots at this weekends rodeo so he has to have a hat and shirt. And Hollie and I got hats just because they're cute :) I should have taken my camera into the store today but didn't even think about it until after the fact because the kids were being...well, kids. But next time we go I'll try to take some pics. It's a huge place and I'm sure we can get some fun shots of trying on western wear!

Fun Show

Here are some (finally edited) fun show pictures. Enjoy :)

Just for fun :)

I let Hollie paint my finger nails and toenails to match hers. She actually didn't do half bad...or at least not as bad as I thought she would. I did do some touching up though after she went to bed lol.

How our garden grows....

Our garden has really taken off in the past couple of weeks. I planted almost everything from seed (except the tomatos and hot peppers) so I wasn't really expecting anything to do very well. Mostly because any other time I've planted things from seed they didn't come up at all, or else sprouted and then died off. So I'm pretty excited and proud of our little garden this spring :)
Though, we are giong to have to get some fence up soon because the bunnies keep eating our strawberries and leaving the seedy evidence behind HA!

Update on my blog slacking!

Sorry I haven't really been able to keep up with this blog lately. I will try to get caught up some tomorrow. We've just been really busy lately. Went to the Oak Grove Youth Rodeo Club Fun Show last saturday and had a blast. Hollie rode horses all night and is still complaining that her "legs are getting old" because they're so sore, HA!
I took pictures at the event as well and this was my first time offering my pictures for people to buy. I've got several orders that I'm working on which I'm pretty happy about :)
Oh, wait. Here's a picture of me and Mavrick in the catalog race. He wasn't too happy to get on the horse, but didn't want someone else to hold him while I went either, so he opted for me to hold him while riding, lol. He had fun once he got up there though!

We spent the day Sunday recovering from not being home until 1am the night before.
And I spent monday and tuesday trying to get the house caught up. The kids have not been napping at the same time this week, so it's been difficult to find time for the computer, and when I do it's to work on the pictures people ordered from the fun show. But I will try really hard to post some pictures tomorrow as I have been taking pictures for my 365 project everyday.

G'night!

Bull riding, Memorial weekend, BBQ, and balloons

It's been a little more than a week since I last posted. Last week and this past Memorial weekend were super busy and went by way too fast. Tuesday evening I picked Mom and Dad up from the airport. Mom was returning from her trip to FL to visit Bethany and Braden. Bethany had some dental surgery done so Mom went to help her with Braden while she recovered. And Dad returned from Qatar for good :) He starts a new job at Whiteman AFB next week, so the comapny he was working for in Qatar let him out of his extended contract a little early.
On Wednesday we went to the library for a special puppet show and storytime, then had a fun playdate with several of our friends, followed by lunch at McDonald's and playing in their in-door (much welcomed air-conditioned) play area. The kids took great naps when we got home and then we were off that evening to Crazy Horse saloon in Pleasant Hill to watch some bull riding. I got lots of awesome pictures and Hollie had a blast chasing the sheep around the arena :)



The rest of the week is sort of a blur of cleaning house and shopping. We spent the day friday getting ready for Saturdays BBQ. And Friday evening Uncle Rick came over to help Dennis build the forms for the concrete to be poured for a new shed which they did on Saturday morning. The rest of the day Saturday we smoked ribs and hung out with the family :) Oh the guys also moved the swingset and put another slide on. Then later that evening we drove out to Gardner, KS to see the hot air balloon festival. We just caught the tail end of it, but it was pretty cool and at a really nice park so hopefully we can go next year and spend a little more time out there.
Sunday we spent the day at home being lazy and playing outside with the kiddos. And yesterday (Mon) we went shopping for outside toys for the kids to play with this summer. Overall a fun and productive weekend!



Here are some random pictures of the kids playing outside.