Hunting

Nathan saw a deer across the street and put on his boots and grabbed his gun. Watch out!

Hunting

We saw a deer across the street, so Nathan got his gear on and went "hunting."

Goodnight

Nathan stayed up late because he couldn’t sleep due to a late nap.  I couldn’t help but snap a couple of pictures of him as he went back to bed

Goodnight little boy.

North Carolina

Jennifer and I spent a long weekend in North Carolina last month. I had a conference in Wilmington on the beach so Jennifer came with me to get a mini-vacation.  We had a great trip except for the travel on the way there.  We had to change planes in Charlotte and there was a front passing through as we were trying to land.  I got visibly and audibly sick on the plane (twice) during the 1+ hour the pilot was trying to land.  At that point, the proposition of getting immediately back on a smaller plane in the same weather for another leg was not very appealing, so we opted for a rental car for a 4 hour drive to the coast.  Once we made it, it was smooth sailing for the rest of the weekend.  We had lots of good seafood and plenty of rest.  Special thanks to Nana and Pappy for watching Hannah and Nathan.  Here are a few pictures from our trip.

View from our balcony.  The beach was beautiful

There were some beautiful beach houses along the coast

I got in the water once.  It was cold but not too cold

Chapman Family Ranch Roundup

We went to a ranch roundup a few miles from our house earlier this month.  It was a free event put on by a local ranching family.  They were working cows and branding them.  The family had several chuck wagons set up and were cooking over campfires. This happened to be the same day as Hannah’s birthday and it was a good start to her day (more on her birthday later).

Here we are walking up from the parking area, there were easily 200 people there.  Notice we dressed appropriately

Here is my beautiful cowgirl

and my handsome cowboy

Although they were actually working the cows, this was as much about the show as it was the actual work, and there was no shortage of cowboys

Working the cows looks pretty easy when you have this many hands.  These guys were pretty efficient.

After watching them work, Hannah was able to recite the process: “one cowboy ropes the head, then the other ropes the feet, then they get the cow and give him shots and give him a checkup. that’s just what they do”

The kids rode a pony named Bucky. I presume he was named Bucky because he bucked at one point in his life, but that didn’t appear to be a concern this day, even with this 10 year old girl on the lead rope.

And finally we ate!  They had fajitas and dutch oven cooked biscuits.  And it was good.

Nathan was happy!

Ever since we’ve been home, Nathan has worn his cowboy boots a lot more and keeps talking about riding horses at Aunt Amber’s house.  This was a good start to Hannah’s birthday. If they do it again next year, we might have to make a tradition out of it.

Weird Weather

We didn’t get any sever weather today but we’ve had some interesting clouds over our house all afternoon.  Here are a few pictures

Make me Laugh

Now that the kids are both talking, we hear some pretty funny/memorable things around here. I need to do a better job of documenting them. Here is a small sampling.

H:  Mommy, how come every time we go somewhere you take clothes on and off. You should just pick something out and wear it.

H: (after her tummy hurt) Y’all shouldn’t have let me have that ice cream.

Disclaimer: If talking about poop grosses you out, skip the next one. It’s not terribly disgusting, but I’m used to it. We talk about poop a lot around here. This particular discussion was in the car and I couldn’t pull over.

N: Need to poo-poo!

J: Hold it in Nathan. We’re almost there.

H: My poo-poo holds itself in. I have magic poo-poo.

S: Does your poo-poo even stink, Hannah?

Nathan started randomly saying, “boom, boom” after making a statement. For example, he’ll say, “more strawberries. boom, boom.” or after he potties, “That was a big one. boom. boom.”

N: (when Jennifer walked out for church one morning) You look underful Mommy!