Livestock Auction

Have you ever been to a livestock auction?

I made my kids peek in on one Monday.  We ran out to Calahan to turn in county fair forms.  I noticed all of the trailers and people outside of their auction building.  Sure enough they have Monday auctions and in we went.

My grandfather used to take me when I was a little girl.  He would buy and sell cattle.  He would also buy me treats and so I was always willing to go keep him company.

Monday’s auction brought back so many memories.  The number stickers on the cow’s rump, touring the corrals with grandpa and making a list of those numbers he was interested in, the auctioneers voice, the cow hands prodding the livestock around in front, the smell, even just the crowd of people brought me back years ago when I was little.

A calf would usually sell around $100 when I went with my grandpa.  Monday the calves were selling for $650.  (No wonder the price of meat is so high)

As we were leaving the kids were all excited talking about it.  One of them said, “mom why did you decide to stop and let us see?”  It was mainly for ME to reminisce, but instead I said, “one of you just might marry a rancher and I thought I better prepare ya”  :)

Swimmer

Jacob LOVES to swim.  I don’t know why.  He swims Monday thru Friday, lap after lap, and I just can’t even imagine that being enjoyable.  He LOVEs it though!

Tonight he had a swim meet and Nathan went with me to cheer him on.  In his backstroke he stays under the water for a very long time.  I usually don’t take pictures of him under the water, but tonight I couldn’t resist.  You can see the three boys in the lanes above him are already out of the water and going…

  Then out pops the hand…. (I would be gasping by now)

(Here I would be in actual panic drowning mode), but he calmly emerges…

A second later he is distancing himself from the others…

 

Like really distancing himself…

Here he is finishing that race.  I wish you could see how completely relaxed and easy he makes the race seem….

  

My favorite event of his is the 100 IM.  I feel like all I can do is float on my back, so it is such a treat to see MY son swimming all of the strokes so effortlessly.

You rocked that meet Jacob!

My Workers

We have been working hard in our yard this summer.  This morning all of the kids were out sweating along with me.  We worked really hard digging and hauling dirt.  After a couple of hours I had to run somewhere and thanked my kids for all of their help.  I told them to go get a popsicle and rest.  The project wasn’t finished, but I told them I would do the rest later on in the day, even though there was a lot left to do.

An hour later as I was pulling in our driveway, I saw the kids out there working on our project.  It really made me cry that they would finish this hard work without me asking.  How wonderful to check that project off my list for the day!  Oh how I love having such willing workers!

 

Makeovers

The older girls decided to do makeovers on each other one night.  They pulled out all of their make-up and went to town fancifying themselves and each other.  When all of the make-up was applied, they then launched in on each other’s hair.  I was quite impressed with Kaylee’s cute, loose braid that Rebecca did.  Kaylee wasn’t to be out down and did a tricky wrap braid from a french braid.  THEY asked for a little photo shoot after they were all fixed up….

They were so giggly and soooo into the make-overs.  I just need them to make me over!

Golf

We took a little family trip one afternoon to play miniature golf.  We played money holes as we went along. At each hole I would yell out an amount that I would pay out, IF they got a hole in one. Sometimes I would say 50 cents and other times I would scare Stephen and yell out $20. I knew I was safe, my kids are not golfers.

Stephen and I so enjoy watching each of the personalities in our family.  There was the calm one who played a slow hockey game to get her ball into the hole.

There was the overly excited one who would cheer and carry on, when she got hers in the hole, even if it was a few inches away when she would putt it in.

There was the one that kept asking what we were going to get for a treat, and didn’t stop asking until we had finished and went to YoYogurt.  I really think she is in a growth spurt OR starving to death.

Of course both of the boys were overly competitive with our “friendly game” of golf.  We didn’t even keep the score card, and just did the money holes, yet the boys kept track of who was winning.  They are just so competitive with each other.

Kaylee’s giggles kept all of us laughing.  She gets so tickled at something and then just can’t get control of herself.  I don’t know how she managed to putt the ball while giggling.

  Anyway, we sure love each of the personalities that make our family who we are! 

Water Bracelet

I sent the girls down to the craft shelves to find something, and up they came with plastic tubing.  “Mom remember when we made bracelets with this.  Can’t we make some more?…”  So of course our craft changed for the day and we made water bracelets.

They are fun because the water moves the mini beads around.  We cut a piece of tubing to fit around each of the girls’ wrists and then cut a small piece of 3/8 inch vinyl tubing to connect the ends together.  I don’t know what the size of the other tubing is.  I just know that it fits perfectly inside the 3/8inch.  I’m sure you can try and connect them in Home Depot to find the right size.

We used a mini funnel to fill the beads and water into the tubing.  I was surprised at how different they turned out.  Some put A LOT of beads with very little water, which resulted in less movement and more of a solid bead bracelet.  Kaylee only used mini silver beads, and hers has a fun sparkle about it.

I loved the smile of one of the girls today when her friend asked where she bought her bracelet.  The pride on her face as she said, “I made it myself” made this project worth it!  :)

Pirates Cove

We love this little water park.  It is perfect with a little bit of everything.  I was a little worried about going without friends this year.  We usually let each of the older ones take a friend, BUT we had Dave and Lindsey’s family and that’s all we needed.

 

With all the nooks and crannies there at Pirates Cove, for some reason we all ended up in a corner of the sand area building and burying.  I don’t know why sand is so fun, but it is!

We ended our day with a stop by Aunt Jodee’s.  She had made homemade strawberry ice cream.  I’m not a big ice cream person, but THAT was delicious!

Dave and Lindsey

We LOVE Dave and Lindsey’s little family.  They are so sweet and easy going.  My girls have so much fun with their little boys. 

Rebecca packed Oliver around and Kaylee let Gideon drag her around.  Jerrica on the other hand was not thrilled at all to have these little boys stealing all of the attention she usually gets, but how can you not give attention to this cute little face….

 

We had a little food fest while they were here.  Lindsey is a great cook and baker.  She made some divine desserts for us.  Ash also got in on the food with a little tea party.  She dragged all kinds of chairs and tables out on the front porch.  She had made me a list the day before of what treats and drinks to buy for the tea party.  She even changed out of her clothes into “more fancy clothes” to host the party.

 

We went swimming, had water fights, watched movies, played games, rode on high rides, and just had a blast!

We already miss you Hayter’s!!!

the Girl with a Pearl Earring

Rebecca and I spent the day together.  She had a little 3v3 tournament in Castle Rock in the morning.  The girls were so cute in their Wonderwoman t-shirts and headbands, BUT let’s just say they looked better than they played.

Anyway, we were driving home and decided to make a day of it.  Rebecca turns 10 in August and can get her ears pierced.  We decided to do it today so that she will be able to change them out on her birthday.  She was ecstatic!

Anyway, I had to document the day with pictures and as I was looking at them tonight one picture reminded me of a famous painting.  It was a mixture of the headband she had from the morning 3v3, and then the new earrings.  What do you think?

She’s MY girl with the NEW earrings, instead of the pearl earrings.  :)

Rebecca is a little diva like, and I know this new way to accessorize is going to be fun for her.

Sure had a fun day with you Rebecca.  You make ME smile!

4th of July

We have had family in town and have had a blast entertaining them.  I need to catch up with everything we have done.  BUT tonight I wanted to capture our 4th of July with a few pictures from the holiday.

The parade that we usually go to in Monument was canceled, SO Ash without skipping a beat planned and carried out a parade of our own.  The kids were thrilled about the candy and chocolate that she bought with her dad to throw out.  As soon as Jerrica saw what she was  going to be throwing out, she decided immediately to NOT ride in the parade but to catch candy instead.  Ashley ended up paying her candy to get her to ride in the parade.  The big girls made a float out of the riding lawn mower trailer.

There were a lot of people happy about the candy from the parade…

A water fight cooled us off in the afternoon.  The kids spent forever filling up water balloons with Uncle Dave, yet the water fight only lasted a few minutes.  I loved watching little Oliver leaning over the tub of balloons trying to catch a balloon.

 

The food was so good and so filling!  I ate way too much as usual.  Stephen is amazing at his grill with all of his marinades and meat grilled to perfection.  Sure love and appreciate all of his help in cooking.

Aunt Lindsey made a delicious white pound cake topped with fresh whip cream and berries. 

All fireworks were banned because of the fire.  It was almost eerie how quiet the night sky was.  There are always fireworks screeching in the air even if they are banned, but last night we didn’t hear a single one. 

Dave and Lindsey were with us last year for the 4th of July in Washington.  The only thing different this year was the fact that she wasn’t pregnant, instead we had Oliver out with us this year. 

Redhead Date

We went with some redheaded friends on a redheaded date last week. 

Thanks to Aunt Kristy’s clever idea of an arrow pen (to go along with the Brave movie), I made little invitations and pens for each of the girls that went.

We fixed our red hair just right and headed out to see another redhead in Brave….

I loved the first half of the movie, but not necessarily the second half.  My girls sure enjoyed it though.  We then headed over to Red Robin for lunch.

It was such a fun date.  My friend Shawn and her cute little redheaded daughter came along too.  I always enjoy Shawn’s funny personality, she just makes me laugh.  Ashley kept saying how “lucky” we all were to have red hair.  That girl makes me laugh as well!

Anyway, super fun date!  We need to do more redhead dates!