Fourth of July!

We spent the Fourth of July at the lake so we could enjoy some time with family and friends and watch the always exciting firework show in Duck Creek. We ate a huge dinner and then all gathered down on the dock to watch the planes and jets fly over and then settle in for the big show:

Since it was a little early and Callen had been having a very busy day he opted to take a little cat nap while we waited for the sun to go down:

Then it was time for the show to begin. Callen was in awe:

And Harper decided that napping sounded like a good idea:

But we definitely watched some pretty fireworks!

The next day we went for a boat ride, but since the wind decided to blow like crazy we ended up only going for a boat ride. The anchor just wouldn't hold. The kids didn't seem to mind the ride though:

We also went swimming. Callen loved splashing around and being in the water, until it was time for a nap:

We had a really fun week and a good time celebrating America!!

Our Summer.....so far

School's been out for almost a month and we've had a pretty busy time! I have successfully (almost) completed Callen's baby book up to this point. I still need to write a few items in there and Kristian is supposed to fill in the labor and delivery story since it was rather exciting and he (hopefully) has a slightly better recollection of that than me! I have completed the creation of birth announcements (5 months later) so I can mark that off my list (finally!). But for the other things I have on my list from April, we haven't gotten very far. At least I still have all of July and a wee bit of August before school starts up again. Am I being a little too positive with thinking I can do all that? I'm thinking yes, but I'll try to remain positive about it.

On top of those things we have also bought a house and the great move begins tomorrow. Once we get moved in I will get some pictures and post them for those that don't live close enough to pop by for a visit (don't get too excited, we know I won't get it done anytime over the next 3 months!). I'm thinking the move may be harder on my parents than us since they will not get to see Callen every day. I'm hoping my mother survives. She will probably be coming to see us a lot since I expect there to be grandson withdraws.

Callen is also sitting up by himself and loving it:

He has decided that this makes play time much more fun. But when attention is needed he knows a good flop over and scream will get the job done.

Eating has also become a favorite thing to do:

We have yet to find a food that he doesn't enjoy and the list of foods he's had is getting quite lengthy! He can also pack the food away. We think he hides food in his cheeks like a chipmunk, there is no way his tummy can hold all that eats. By the time he's a year old he's going to need his own pot roast! I better start saving for groceries. We'll be broke once he's a teenager at this rate.

Scooting and crawling are still a little ways off but he does have tummy time down (for short periods):

Tummy time is far from a favorite activity, we call it a work in progress.

That's about the gist of our summer so far. The move will keep us busy and by the time I post again we'll have house pictures, maybe crawling pictures, first plane ride pictures, and more!

Amanda

So much for posting more often....

So, I haven't posted since January. So much for posting more than every few months :-/ Perhaps the fact that I have an almost four month old and teach high school Geometry could be to blame?!? The school year is almost over which means two full months of 24/7 Callen time (hopefully squeezing a little mommy and Target and River time in there somewhere....maybe?), working on a few things for next school year, planning a first birthday party (since there is absolutely NO time for this during the school year), catching up on a baby book, sending out those birth announcements I have yet to even put together, and maybe blogging a little more often. Looks like my summer is overwhelming full already, yikes!

On another note, here are some pics of that soon to be four month old over the last three months:

it's hard to believe he's already grown so much and changed from month to month! Currently he can't wait to be mobile. Seeing his cousins running around the house at Caeden's 4th birthday was almost too much. He wants to be running with them so bad he can't stand it. Unfortunately, Callen doesn't quite have a handle on sitting quite yet so all that crawling and walking will have to wait a little while which makes him quite frustrated. With time, Callen, with time...and then we'll all be chasing after you!

In hopes of updating a little more often,

Amanda

What We've Been Up To

Since I took such a long break from blogging a lot has happened!
Here's a brief summary of what we've been up to the past several months:
April: I was laid off from my teaching job in Texas due to budget issues and we began trying to figure out what the game plan was for the future.
May: It was decided that perhaps it was time to begin looking at moving back closer to our parents so
I began looking for a job near them. Being apart was not what we really wanted to do but having a job is better than not having one at all! We also found out we were expecting a baby in December!
June: I received a job offer from a school district in a town about 30 minutes from parents' house. Prayers were answered!
July: I worked on prepping my new classroom for the school year, planning Geometry lessons, and moved the 4 hours from Kristian to my parents' house. Tobi and River came with me. Kristian started looking for a job near my new job so we wouldn't have to be apart too long. Tobi was pretty depressed to be away from her dad. Kristian in the meantime did a lot of work on our house to finish up some projects.
August: Target moved to Skiatook and settled right in to his new home. We found out we were going to be expecting a boy. School started and thus my first time teaching Geometry commenced. Kristian's job search continued, as well as the house projects.
September: We started organizing Callen's nursery at my parents' house and counting the days to his arrival. Kristian kept looking for a job. I got the hang of teaching Geometry and have some pretty great students for which I am pretty thankful!
October: Kristian found a job and moved in to my parents' house. It's a tight fit but we don't have to be apart all the time. We continued to count the days to Callen's arrival and I finally got to work on lesson planning for maternity leave (that takes a lot of work!) over fall break.
November: Thanksgiving time with family and less than a month to Callen arriving! The maternity leave lesson planning continued along with finishing touches to Callen's nursery.
December: I finished up the semester at school and managed to get all my maternity leave planning finished before Christmas break started. I'm not sure how I managed to get that finished, but it was great knowing I didn't have to stress over the break. Callen arrived early in the morning December 19, significantly earlier than we thought he would be arriving since I was induced. Apparently he had his own scheduled arrival planned we didn't know about! Kristian was able to take off work for the last couple weeks of the month and stay home with me and Callen.
January: I've been off on maternity leave taking care of Callen. Some days have been more adventurous or frustrating than others but he's a pretty good baby and I can't believe how quickly the month has passed. We also took Callen on his first trip to our house to work on more projects. He did really well on the long drive. He's a car sleeper!

Those are pretty much the highlights of the past few months and what we've been doing! I'll try to be better at posting more often.

Finally...A Post!

Obviously I've taken quite the vacation. I suppose I've had pretty good reason! Between starting a new job teaching a new subject, being pregnant, and trying to get ready for the arrival of a baby I haven't been able to squeeze in time to write! So hopefully now that things are getting a little more routine with my job and baby (Ha!!) maybe I can get back into blogging from time to time. I also decided it was time to update the blog a little too since we no longer are parents to only furry babies. Maybe a little later today, or tomorrow, I can post a little update on what's been happening since my last post in April. Granted, the furry babies will most likely no longer be the stars of the show!

Chasing Dogs

We have some wild dogs out at the horse barn. They've been around for a while but the numbers are dwindling a bit lately, thank goodness. For a while, around the time the economy took the big downfall, we were being over run with wild dogs. So bad they were coming out of the woods and up to barn. I'm pretty sure they were chasing Target around his pasture. He suddenly became VERY aggressive toward poor innocent River and that's just not going to be allowed.
With the wild dogs have come some pretty adventurous trail rides. The first few went something like this:
Target, River, and I are calmly walking along the trail enjoying a relaxing and peaceful trail ride when out of no where a dog barks. With this sudden surprise Target leaps straight up on his hind legs doing an abrupt 180 degree turn to high tail it back to the barn. I'm holding down the reins, keeping my rear in the saddle, and trying to keep him from high tailing it back to the barn while thanking God for giving me balance and Larry and Suzanne for teaching me to use said balance to remain on the horse that is freaking out. All while River takes off running after the dogs. Eventually I get Target facing back in the direction we were originally going and immediately clipping along at a machine gun trot trying to catch up. Not so comfortable for me. With time we come up on River heading back to us looking all proud of himself for chasing off the dogs. I'm just glad he didn't get mauled.
The next few rides went like this:
Again all three of us are walking along calmly enjoying a relaxing and peaceful trail ride when WE surprise the wild dogs! Thankfully since Target saw them he immediately takes off after River to chase them. I admit that I don't necessarily mind that fact that Target wants to chase the wild dogs. I would like them to continue to think that River has some mega big back-up dog friend that is a 16 hand, hard footed, stubborn horse that's really scary and I want the wild dogs to be scared of Target so they leave him alone. It also keeps the wild dogs staying far on the other side of the property from the barn and from trying to eat River since he either thinks they want to be his friend or he really just likes to hunt them down and chase them back to their hiding holes, never mind the fact there are 5-6 of them and 1 of him!
Then there was today:
A quiet sunny trail ride that I was really enjoying since everyone was so calm until I heard the dog barking in the distance. Thankfully so did everyone else which instantly meant it was hunting time for River. He did a good job too. Not less than a few seconds passed and he had flushed the wild dogs from the trees and the chase was on. Target didn't jump, spook, or hardly lift his ears up! I tried to kick him into a trot to get going after River and the poor old guy didn't hardly want to move. I finally got him going only to be completely left in the dust trying to catch River. We never caught River. River came back to us again looking so proud of himself. Target acted like he could care less and wasn't worried about the dogs the rest of the time we were out. He went right back to his snail pace and we had a great time. River, on the other hand, kept looking for the dogs in full on hunting mode. He seems to forget that he's a big weeny when we're out at the barn!
Gotta love my fur babies!

Trail Ride

After two weeks of snow and ice covered ground with single digit temperatures and a week to let it all dry out I was ready to go for a ride. Of course, I think River was more excited and ready than I was! Target was a little less than excited since trail rides require some effort on his part, but I think he was getting a little stir crazy from being stuck in his pasture too.

I was hoping for a fairly slow-paced, relaxing, and calm trail ride.

Surprisingly, that's exactly what I got!

Why was I surprised? Well, Target may be 21 years old (that's old in horse years) but there's no stopping the Thoroughbred sometimes. He seems to forget that he's a little arthritic and has been known to take off, freak out, and basically test my patience in every way possible. Especially when we haven't ridden in a while. I was certainly thankful to have a 'Quarter Horse day' and get to sit back and relax.

This was my view:

Until River decided it was time to go off and do his own thing:

I was in heaven.



Can I just have this kind of Saturday everyday?