cowgirls & cousins

Two weeks ago we went to visit my sister's farm to ride horse. It's actually her friend's farm, but she keeps her horse there and lets us come to ride every now and then.

Lydia rode first! This was her first time on a horse, doesn't she look like she knows exactly what to do?? It was so cute, she was gripping with her little legs and holding on tight to the horn. She really enjoyed riding the "hoo-hee" (horsie)

This is Dubbs. Not my sister's horse, but a nice old horse that's great for kids.
Cassie loves riding with her cousins.
Lydia loved petting the fluffy kitties. Our clothes were full of cat hair when we left!

Thanks for letting us come and ride!

June Happenings

WARNING: LONG POST!
I realize it's almost the middle of July, but before I add anything that has happened this month, I thought I should go back to June because it was pretty eventful.

For the third year, we planted our vegetable garden and grew our first radishes, and nobody likes to eat these in our house other than me, so they were all mine. They could have been a little hotter, but I won't complain too much. At least they grew! Other things in the garden: Beans, peas, carrots, lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, asparagus, jalapenos and sunflowers. We planted cucumbers, but we think they got overrun by weeds and didn't make it. Currently we're trying to stay on top of the weeds, and trying to be much better about it than previous years. Maybe next year on those cucumbers??!!
The second full week in June was our first time attending VBS (vacation bible school) at our church. Around 65 kids attended and it was so much fun. Cassidy still talks about it. They had a safari theme and I helped with crafts. Every day was something different and the kids kept very busy because they had different activities every 30 minutes. Here is the preschool class during their program on the last night:
Cassidy is in the front with the zebra hat. They made them in their classroom and I think she still has it in her bedroom. I had to staple it a few times because Lydia got her hands on it!


The following 2 weeks we had swimming lessons everyday in town. Again it was our first experience with lessons, so I wasn't sure what to expect because Cassidy has been so scared of water. She would cry & scream in the tub if a tiny drop of water got on her face. So I was sure we were going to go to lessons, because we needed to get over this "fear".
The first day was bad. I wasn't sure if we were even able to make it the next day. The teacher taught them how to do a bob, back floats, and at the end of that first day they were jumping off the side! Cassidy was very proud and excited and was ready for another day! She even called her daddy and told him all about it while he was at work.
The last day was their test day. All of the kids passed easily. Here is Cassie jumping off the diving board:
Even I can't do that!!
And her face is all wet too!! YAY Cassidy! We're so proud of you!


Nate was in a wedding in June. It was Deron (he was our best man) and Erin's wedding. Erin has become a good friend of mine as well as my hairdresser.
We had a wonderful time and the day couldn't have been nicer. 80 degrees and no humidity, lucky for them! You can check out more pictures at the photographer's blog. Congrats Deron & Erin!


That's about it for June. I'll leave you with this picture, my favorite. She never looks at the camera and when she does it's quick and usually without a smile. I was a lucky to get this one!!

Lydia-18 Months

Isn't she just the cutest? We love her to death and couldn't imagine our lives without her. She's got such a fun personality and keeps us on our toes.
She's such a smartie pants, for example, this morning Daddy and Cassie were playing Wii baseball and Lydia seemed to want to join in the fun. She ran over to the toy basket in the corner of the room and dug out the little plastic Wii remote that we got from a happy meal long ago and started pointing it at the TV. I understand that it's quite a simple thing that she did, but we don't play the Wii very often, and I think she's pretty smart to make that connection. She understands a whole lot more than we give her credit for. Funny.
About 3 1/2 weeks ago we took away her pacifier, aka nookie. She handled it better than I thought she would. We only had about 2 days of difficulty and after that it was a breeze. We've replaced her nookie with a cd player which has really helped her settle down. I'm so glad we decided to take it away sooner than later since we've heard so many horror stories about other kiddos and their "addiction".


**photos taken at Lake Louise.

Life is tough...

My poor Lydia. It all started 2 1/2 weeks ago. She got pinkeye and we didn't even think it was pinkeye, so she suffered 2 whole days with it until we took her in. Things were going good, until the 10th day of her medicine...She developed a rash. And not just a little spot on her arm, but an all-over-the-body rash with little red bumps. She was really uncomfortable, so I took her in right away to our regular dr. and he figured it was an allergy to the medicine that has amoxicillin in it. Nice. So she possibly is allergic to penicillin. Nice.
We were told to stop taking the medicine and let it run its course. Fast forward a few days (late last week), and she developed pinkeye yet again! So another trip to the dr, and he was a little shocked that she still had the rash, that it was worse than 2 days before, and also has pinkeye again. This time she got eyedrops. Wow. If you have never given a 16 month old eyedrops, you are lucky. It's just not that fun, I'll leave it at that.
By Saturday this poor child has a nasty rash, pinkeye, and then developed a low grade fever on top of it all.
Things didn't get any better on monday when I was busy yapping on the phone in our bedroom and in the next room, Lydia climbed halfway up her dresser when it fell over ON TOP OF HER! It was so surreal to me when I ran in there, throwing dresser drawers off of her. She cried so hard, but didn't even end up with a bruise. So scary.
Yesterday we went to the dr again so he could see how her rash was, and I explained how she's had a little fever, but otherwise fine. He checked her over and found out she has an ear infection. I'm so glad that there was an explination for all of this. Hopefully this new medicine will work for her and she'll be back to her normal goofy self in a couple days!

film photography

I wanted to share a couple of pictures that I used for my final project for my photo class. These were from a series of 5 pictures that represented the farm that I grew up at and how it's aged. I chose to just show these pictures because they were chosen by my instructor to be shown at a summer exhibit at the college! I have 17 other images from this class, which is way to many to post in one day, but maybe some other time. There was a lot of great work from our class and also a lot of pride went into making the prints. It was a lot of fun to see the improvement we made in our printing skills as well as the photography itself. I made a few friends and learned a lot from our master instructor. I will definitely miss this class, but I'm glad I have these few "souveniers" to remember.

So it must be the season to dust off my camera. It's been sitting on the shelf collecting dust for the last, oh, 5 months or so! That's terrible. My girls are growing and I'm not even getting it recorded. But things will change soon. I'm going to get it out and start taking more pictures because I just haven't wanted to during this winter. Sure I've had to take pictures for class, but that is for assignments, not completely for fun, and not for myself.
I just love this one with Lydia and her big cousin reading a book together. It was a very sweet moment.

It's been kind of crazy around here, I had 2 wedding showers and a bachelorette party last weekend! I know, all in one weekend! But now it is all over until the weddings, which will be a complete blast, I cannot wait.
Nate has been busy with yard work, me with school work, and we're trying to finish up our bedroom. We tore it all apart and we're going to paint this weekend, then soon carpeting and then move back in. (Cassidy has moved in with Lydia and we moved in her room, so I'm anxious to get back to normal.) I'll show before/after pictures when we're all done. It will be great.
In the last month or so I've decided to quit being a Stampin up Demonstrator. It's been a great 5 1/2 years and I will certainly miss it (I think mom will miss it more than me!). I've decided I need to concentrate on classes/artwork and my family, because time has been tight around here, and this is quite an adjustment. I'm hoping to get some time after this semester is finished (5 1/2 weeks!!) to work on our scrapbooks. I'm falling so far behind :(
Maybe I'll post more pictures in a couple weeks, otherwise, I'll be back next month...

Hapy Valentimes!

like the title? Cassie called valentine's: ValentiMes. funny.
Here's Lydia with her valentine sunglasses. She is quite a ham.
We had a good valentine's. Nate took us (me & the girls) shopping all afternoon & out to dinner and some more shopping in the evening! I cannot remember the last time I have been to rochester for no reason. It was quite relaxing and we ended up spending a wad because everything was on sale. almost bought a new computer too, but decided to wait for something bigger & better.

School is going good, in case you are wondering. Fall Semester I received a 4.0-the first in my life I can proudly say. And Yes, I am bragging. My brother in law calls me a nerd now. HA! I'm currently taking a math course (the first of 4) and I'm getting a 105%, and yes, bragging again :) But it really has everything to do with the teacher. She is wonderful and I hope I can get her again next semester.

Nate's job is great. They have been busy. I was concerned for awhile, but he reassured me that the only way he would probably lose his job is if the place burned down. Even then, the president would probably have something for him to do. So he's doing fine.

The girls are doing good too. We have been doing ECFE activities and they seem to enjoy daycare.

I think we're all anxious for spring. I received my Gurney's catalog the other day and have flipped through it about 4 times, dreaming of summer. It will be a great summer this year!