Fun at the Ranch

Saturday Scott had a fundraiser trail ride. We didn't go on the actual trail ride, but there were horse rides, games, treats and even an egg hunt! I took all three kids by myself so Aaron and a friend could get the trim in the bathroom finished (it looks amazing!). It was a lot of fun but I was exhausted by the time we got home!!! Anna, of course, loved the horse rides. Jacob has actually warmed up to horses, too. He rode several times.

My little cowboy!

Round and round they go!

I LOVE THIS PICTURE! I need to print it off and frame it! She is my cowgirl, that's for sure. The other day she was whining about a little scratch on her arm. I told her that she needed to toughen up because cowgirls are tough. This is what she told me tonight:

Hey Mom, at school today I fell down and hit my elbow really hard. It really hurt. But I didn't even cry! You know why? Because I said to myself, "If I wanna be a cowgirl, I gotta be tough!" because I remembered that's what you told me.

I love her.

This boy. Oh this boy. He is a crack-up. He was playing around, entertaining everyone with his antics, I'm sure. I go to check on him and find him sitting in the Bobcat.

Hey Mama, how you tuhn dis on??

*laughing* I ain't tellin' you!!!

Why not?!

Because you don't need to know!

Yes I do. I need ta dwive it!!

You can't drive it. You can't reach the pedals!

Oh. I tan't get down. Heylp me.

Oh Jacob. Jacob, Jacob, Jacob.

Story Time Egg Hunt

I've been taking Jacob to story time at the library recently. When I remember, that is! Well Good Friday there was no school, so a story time that usually has 5-10 kids had at least 20. It was cah-razy! The kids were all really well-behaved, it was just a very small space for all those kids (and their parents). Anna was so excited to see some of her friends from school!

Ella (whose last name is ridiculously similar to Anna's...poor Mrs. M!), Anna, and Kylie

I love Elli and her unique sense of style. I know her Daddy is proud :) She's showing off her Dorothy Ruby Red Slipper shoes to Jacob. I'm not sure he really cares...

Hooray for stickers!

What made it even crazier that day? An egg hunt!!!

Zzzoooommm!!! Yight-ning MaWeen (Lightening McQueen) is on a wace!!!

Don't the parents look so enthused?! ;)

Let the madness begin!

Yook what I found Mama!!!

Lining up to trade in their eggs for CANDY!!

Easter 2011

Easter morning was not a good one in our house. Between over-sleeping, grumpy kids, Anna being so unreasonable about a SATIN dress itching...oy! So there aren't many good pictures of the kids in their super cute outfits from Uncle Windell. :(

But truly what Easter is all about can't be ruined by some grumpy kids. My Savior is RISEN! It is no coincidence that "Earth Day" was on Good Friday. As Dad said, Satan hates Easter. It means he is defeated eternally. What a might GOD! My favorite Easter hymn is "Christ Arose"

Lyrics ~ Robert Lowry, 1826 - 1899
Music ~ Robert Lowry, 1826 - 1899

Low in the grave He lay,
Jesus my Savior,
Waiting the coming day,
Jesus my Lord!

Chorus:
Up from the grave He arose,
With a mighty triumph o’er His foes,
He arose a Victor from the dark domain,
And He lives forever, with His saints to reign.
He arose! He arose!
Hallelujah! Christ arose!

Vainly they watch His bed,
Jesus my Savior;
Vainly they seal the dead,
Jesus my Lord!

Death cannot keep its prey,
Jesus my Savior;
He tore the bars away,
Jesus my Lord!

Jacob's outfit came with a pair of jeans. 4T and I was about 6" short of getting them buttoned!! And about 6" too long in the legs. You never know how different brands will fit! The pants he's wearing here are 3T and they're plenty big! Anyway, his shirt came with a tie and Jacob wasn't really sure what to do with it!

Miss Grumpy Pants herself!

Look out.

Pout much?

We had dinner with the Lamberts so I tried for some pictures there. No such luck for 3 smiling kids.

Anna says "Chester is mad, too." Chester is her toy horse. Alllrighty then!

Now Jacob refuses to look at the camera and smile!! *sigh*

The kids' table was so cute! And they even made Jell-O eggs!

Isaac was ready for his photo-op, though! :)

Is this food???

Ehhh, I guess I can just chew on it.

Such beautiful girls in their Easter dresses!

Well it only took 6 hours, but she's smiling!!!

The family shot...pretty good considering the day!

Thanks, Lamberts for having us over. We all had a great time and stuffed ourselves full of delicious food!! :) Jacob was even willing to take a nap at your house if it meant staying longer!

Oh yeah...Jacob found Caleb's baseball hat and decided it went well with his outfit. :)

The Things He Says

Jacob has been full of funnies today, so I thought I'd better write them down!

-First thing he asked for when he got off the bus today was to watch a video (he loves these youtube videos I found of Thomas the Train). I kept telling him no. He fell down and hurt himself so I picked him up and went to rock him (I still squeeze in some baby-ing now & then!). He suddenly sat up, wiped his eyes and said, "I need ta watch a video. Dat will cheew (cheer) me up!!"

-He was still begging for a video so I told him if he could figure out how to get to the videos on my phone, he could watch one. He figured it out in about FIVE SECONDS!!! Good grief. I don't think he's seen me do it more than twice. We are IN TROUBLE! At least he doesn't know how to unlock my phone...yet.

-"I need go poopy Mom"

Well then, go!

"But I need yur heylp."

No you don't. You're a big boy.

"But I need yur heylp. It's vewy hahd (hard) ta go poopy!"

-I don't know how long he had Isaac pacifier, but when I walked out to the backyard yesterday he was kind of hiding behind the tree. I could tell he was putting something in his mouth so I asked him what he was eating. He didn't answer but Anna obliged. He's got Isaac's paci Mom.

Jacob Scott, you give me that right now! You're not a baby!!

And the chase began. Little squirt! He NEVER took a pacifier as a baby. But since he's been about a year old, if he finds one he'll sneak it off and suck on it! When I babysat, he would steal the baby's pacifier and hide it somewhere. Such a goofball.

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Nothing Better...

...than a trip to the hardward store with Papa!

You know he spotted these John Deere mowers from 50 yards away!

Helping Papa load up the trim.

He had to try out every. single. mower. Only the John Deere ones, of course.

Five Months?!

Friday Isaac turned 5 months old. WHERE has the time gone?! Every month seems to go by more quickly.

New things...

Rolling over all the time-usually back to tummy.

Still working on those bottom teeth! I keep thinking they'll pop through soon, but not yet. And considering that you're teething big time, you're not fussy at all!

Still a very happy baby! Great night sleeper. In fact, last night you slept for 10 hours!!!

We visited Aunt Cara & Uncle Terry and went to the Farm.

Papa & Binga came for a visit.

You really like cereal with bananas, but you started getting a little backed up so we're back to just nursing unless I remember to give you some cereal once a day (which doesn't usually happen!). You eat every 3-4 hours during the day.

Still love watching Anna & Jacob play. Every day when we pick Anna up from school, you don't take your eyes off of her until we get home.

You are a very loved little brother!

Making a lot of different sounds (both noises and letter sounds, if that makes sense).

You really like the exersaucer! You're playing in it a lot earlier than Anna or Jacob did. You caught on quickly how to grab onto the toys and chew on them and how to turn yourself around in it.

You spit up. A lot. But it doesn't bother you and you are certainly growing! You're almost too long for the 3-6 jammies and the onesies are getting a big snug! Still nowhere near as big as Jacob was, but you're growing fast.

So today I decided I would try to do a 5 month "photo shoot". I didn't think I got any good ones, but these ones aren't too bad.

Jacob wanted pictures with you, but you kept trying to eat him...and he doesn't like that. At all. So this is the only one I got of you two next to each other!

When I sat you up (you can't sit up on your own yet), you went straight down. When you saw your toes, you immediately started trying to chew on them!

I absolutely love this one. THIS is your relationship with Anna...mutual adoration! :)

Those toes!! Once you discovered you had them and you could get them in your mouth, that's where they always go when you can reach them! In fact, I put you in your bouncy seat this evening and when I turned around to put the toy bar on, you had pulled yourself up to sitting and were trying to get your toes in your mouth!!

Isaac Jayden, you are a delight! What a blessing to have you added to our family. I love watching you grow and learn and watch and take things in.

Mustang Owners

Yesterday was a big day...we are now the owners (well, adopters) of a wild Mustang!!! Scott has been training and competing with wild Mustangs for a couple years now through the Extreme Mustang Makeover competitions. So we decided this year, we would go in on it together. We would put up the money for the horse and Scott would train and compete with it (I think we got the easy end of this deal!! ha). An auction is held to adopt out the Mustangs. You don't have to be at the actual auction...it's televised so you can just call in and bid over the phone. Talk about CRAZY!! We had a certain amount saved and had picked out 2 of our favorite horses. The first was a dun gelding that was ninth in the lineup. We were pretty sure it would go for too much and after a dun before him went for $5000, we decided to not even call in for ours! $5000?!?!?! As #9 came up, the bidding wasn't going anywhere...

$300...$200?...$300??...$300??....$300??

At this point, we're thinking this is crazy! So Scott hurriedly hits redial to try and get a bid in.

$400...$500

Scott gets through...

Number 9...we want a bid on #9!

And then we hear on the TV

$600....SOLD!

We could NOT believe that it went for only $600!!! We figured if the first dun went for so much, this one would go for close to the same! It was so crazy. But as I had been telling Anna, God would work it out and we'll get the horse He has for us. So I guess it wasn't #9! :)

Our next choice was #81, so we had a ways to go (they went in numerical order for the auction). It was just crazy seeing how much the horses went for...some you thought would get maybe $300 went for $3000, others you thought would go for $3000 went for $300! As it got closer to #81, Scott called in. That's when we found out that the TV was about 10 seconds behind the real thing! Which in an auction can be a pretty big deal!! Anyway, he placed our bid and up came #81. It started out pretty slow and then all the sudden it was like two more people were bidding on him! It went back and forth and while Scott was on the phone, 10 seconds ahead of what we were seeing, we were watching/listening to the TV thinking we had missed out on it! But we got him! It's a bay gelding and we are super excited. (He was me and Scott's favorite pick anyway) Anna has been trying to come up with a name for him. We get to go pick him up from a holding area in Nebraska next month. And then...let the training begin! I have a feeling we'll be making a lot of trips to Great Bend this summer! :)

And of course, what's a trip to Scott's house without some riding? ALL THREE of the kids got some riding in! :)

Isaac just wanted to eat the saddle horn.

This is Leah's (Scott's 1.5 yr old) horse Maximus! Anna rode him bareback.

This puts his size in perspective a bit!

Anna wanted to ride a big horse, though. She had a lesson in "show him who's boss" this time! The horse was mild and gentle but he knew it was a little girl on his back so he just meandered wherever he wanted. Scott and I kept telling her, "You gotta show him who's boss." How many times did I hear that line, Dad?? :)

Jacob even rode this time! He got to ride Daniel's (Scott's 3 yr old) horse, Bullseye who is a pony. Just the right size for Jacob!

We all had a lot of fun and are excited to watch Scott train the new Mustang! Anna didn't want to leave, of course. Jacob didn't either! I found out today that it was because he really likes Daniel's Thomas the Train sets!! He told me after church today that he was going to Scott's house to play with Daniel's Thomas trains!

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Brothers & Trains

One of the boys' favorite things to do is play trains...

Well, Jacob plays, Isaac watches.

And right after I typed that, Isacc rolled over and landed on the trains! Jacob was sure he'd done it on purpose!! :)