Oh my........

I can't believe I haven't posted anything since October. I'm not sure where the time has gone and I cannot believe it's the second week of December already! I'll try to give you the run down of what we've been up to.....

October: The last weekend of Oct. we took a little trip with some good friends of ours to Beaver Lake in Arkansas. We stayed in a cabin at the lake and just hung out for a couple of days. They brought their 2 girls, and Bethany had tons of fun playing with them! And they were a lot of help keeping track of Cody. That is the first "just for fun" trip I think we've taken since we were married.

I started going to a Bible Study at the church we've been attending. It's nice to get out for the evening and it gives the kids time with just their daddy.

November: We got to start the month off with a visit from Grandma Terry!! The visit was way too short but we enjoyed the time we had with her.

The newest member of Jeremy's side of the family was born. Deseri had little Rylee on November 19th.

We got to go home and spend time with my side of the family on Thanksgiving day and then spent a few days with Grandpa Eric. (Terry was in Kansas City helping Luis and Des with the baby)

December: Bethany LOVES parades. Lucky for her there were 2 of them this past week. Thursday night we went over to Caney and Friday night we headed over to Coffeyville. Cody enjoyed it alot better this year than he did last year!

The last thing we got to do was go back home and throw Eric and Terry (Jeremy's parents) a suprise 40th anniversary party. We weren't sure if we could pull it all off but we did. We had so much fun celebrating with them and a lot of their friends and family that love them so much.

Here are some pictures of our trip to Arkansas.........

Kaylyn, Sierra, Bethany

Boots and Mama

Boots, Cody and Daddy

Cody loved our hike and being outside.

A view from the deck of our cabin.

Each of us was gathering a rock to throw in the lake.

They've all been thrown....

And the not so big splash!!

Shipping Cattle

As most of you probably know we've been down here for a little over a year. It's had it's ups and downs like any move, but when I really start thinking about it the good really out-shines the bad. One of the best things is... Jeremy loves his job here. He gets to mess with cattle everyday, what more could the guy want?

Around the end of July, 420 head of calves where shipped here to spend the next 90 or so days eating and growing. In the beginning they weren't the friendliest bunch, but by the end, most of the group would follow Jeremy's truck anywhere. We have spent quite a bit of time moving these cattle to different places around the ranch. It can be a little stressful, but for the most part we all think it's pretty fun. Boots loves to go with Jeremy on the 4 wheeler when she can and Cody loves looking out the window of the pickup seeing all the cattle.

Last Friday we...well, Jeremy mostly spent the day getting ready for the cattle to be shipped the next morning. Shipping cattle always brings excitement, but you can't help but think of all the things that could go wrong and get a little nervous. Jeremy spends days and weeks thinking things through, like where to put the cattle, how to build the pens, what are we going to do if the cattle get out during the night....I think you get the picture. I on the other hand just try to do what I'm told, when I'm told, and am just nervous for him.

Below are some pictures of the days events.

We were gathering the cattle Saturday morning before the trucks got there.We got all of them, without any problems!

7 trucks came to take them all away.

Getting them loaded.


And off they go out to Scott City, KS.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET BOY!!!!

I can't believe it's been a year since this little boy of mine was born! It's still funny for me to think about how he came into this world! (If you don't know the story, go back to the beginning of my blog. I wrote all about it!) Here are a few pictures of him this past year.....

Bethany and Grandma Terry got to meet Cody before I even saw him. Bethany picked out that giraffe as a gift just for him.

This picture was take the evening after we got home.

This picture just killes me!!! It makes me laugh everytime is see it. I LOVE it!

This is a very rare moment in Codys life. He is just not a sleeper, so he must of been extra tired!

Such a sweet little guy.

Bath time is one of his favorites!

We had his birthday party a week early, when most of the family was already together.

Grandpa is sooo funny!

He loves pizza.

Here he is opening presents.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CODY, We LOVE You!!!!

To Homeschool Or Not To Homeschool, That Is The Question

Jeremy and I have done a lot of thinking and talking lately about how to educate Boots(and Cody, but we have a bit more time with him). She is almost 4 1/2, and many kids her age are going to pre-school this year, or have been in it since they were 3. There are definately pros and cons to public schooling, private schooling and homeschooling, but as we weigh all of our options, homeschooling comes out on top.

One of my biggest questions is......are we as a family disiplined enough to take our kids education into our own hands? We are a "fly by the seat of your pants" kinda family, so we'd have to make some BIG changes. I personally did not like school one bit. I did okay in it, and ended up with A's and B's, but I can tell you one thing.......I'm not sure I can recall a quarter of what I "learned" in school. It seems like the traditional textbooks and tests just weren't the best for me. Maybe I'll learn a thing or two in the process! Jeremy on the other hand is quite the smarty pants, and at least he will be around if I can't figure something out.

We have some family and friends that homeschool, so I can bug them with all of my questions (which I do...... I hope they aren't sick of me yet!), and there are a ton of resources, but how do you know where to start and what to do!?! A friend of mine told me about a book called 100 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum. I got it the other day in the mail and I love it! There is so much information in there.....things that I wouldn't of even thought to think about. I haven't even got halfway through the book, but I already feel like I have more of a clue than I did before I read it. Now, I just need to finish it and see if I/we have more of an idea about what we would like to do.

So, I quess what was in question, isn't really in question anymore. It's just what do we do with the decision we've made?

Below are a few pictures of Boots doing "school stuff" that I found and printed off. She asks me everyday if I will find her more stuff to do.

Mutton Bustin' & Mud

Here is a video of Boots riding a sheep last week at the Coffeyville rodeo. She did a great job. If they would have been judging, she would have gotten 2nd place out of 10 kids, ages 4-8.

Cody decided that chewing on Jeremy's muddy mud boots would be a fun thing to do. The funny thing is, Jeremy was standing there wearing them, helping me do something on the computer, and didn't even know it was happening.

Rodeo

This past Saturday we decided to suprise Bethany and go to a rodeo. She LOVES going to them, watching them on TV, and pretending that her Daddy is a bucking horse and riding in them. She wants to try mutton busting, and she already has big plans to be a barrel racer. We finally got our horses home and she is anxiously awaiting her Daddy to get the fence finished at the house so they can be right across the driveway.

Here are some of the pictures from this weekend..........

Part of the grand entery at the Pahuska, OK rodeo.

Boots watching one of the events.

All Cody cared about was his milk, cherrios and trying to get into the purse of the girl behind us!

Some team roping.

Daddy and Boots.

This isn't a very good video, but it was Boots' favorite!!

Boots has been busy!!

The last few weeks have been BIG for Boots!! I found out that they were having beginner swimming lessons in Caney. Caney is about 15 miles from us, so it was a bit of a drive, but the lessons were only 5 bucks (as Bethany would say). I decided that if the only thing she got out of the 2 weeks of lessons was to be able to go under the water, it was worth it. And worth it, it was!!

This was her first day. She was a little nervous to jump in.

They are blowing bubbles.

Down she goes!

And up she comes!!

The day after swimming lessons were over, we headed back home because Jeremy's cousin, Alyssa, was getting married and Bethany got to be a flower girl. She was so excited. We've been talking about this wedding for a long time!

Bethany is a little bit shy when it comes to people she doesn't know, so we were a little nervous about her actually going down the aisle.....but, she did wonderful!

Practicing.

Our little Princess!

Niko, Boots, Alyssa, Kyle & Addison

She did it!

Who knew that a Pringles can would be such a good chew toy.?


Sometimes he likes to swing, sometimes not so much.

Ridin' the train at the park.

Boots has been wanting to ride the train for a long time!!

Going down the big slide all by herself.

We spent Father's Day helping Jeremy work cattle.

These are some of the cattle Jeremy is finishing on grass.

She's a "Cowboy".