HB's First Birthday - A Day at the Farm

We had fun celebrating HB's first birthday by having family and friends over for lunch.  Kelly pit barbecued beef and lamb - we had a ton of beef short ribs in our freezer and they turned out super tender along with a the few beef roasts and legs of lamb we mixed in. My sister made her awesome crock pot beans and my mom contributed the world's best potato salad.  We ended up  having way too much food but really enjoyed the company of  everyone who came.  I think my favorite contribution to lunch was the relish "tray" I made using a box of wide-mouthed pint mason jars.  I filled each jar with various veggies and then served them in the box - I thought it was an interesting way to display the veggies.

I was really looking forward to getting some fun pictures of HB eating his cake and as usual the little ham cooperated and put on a big smile for the camera!  Grandpa bent down to see how the cake was and HB was very sweet and fed him some cake.  However, when I bent down to see how it was he threw cake at my face.  What an angel, right?  I made a coca-cola cake, which tastes great, but isn't that great for layering because it is very dense.  It was supposed to look like a farm field to go along with our farm theme which I guess was kind of realistic after the frosting was goopy and the cake crumbs I was going to press on were kind of spotty.  Oh well, he loved eating it and I think everyone else did too!

Happy Birthday J!

Happy birthday JM, you've entered the double digit stage of your life! I love your sweet nature, especially the way you're willing to hold my hand when we take a walk, even if it is just to the barn. You make me laugh at the silliest things, and I am so thankful for your uncomplicated approach to life.

You are already so intelligent and have such zeal for learning. You've amazed me at your ability to absorb information at such a young age. I can't wait to see the things you will learn the older you get and the places you will "go" by the books you read.

I love you, and am thankful you're my nephew. Have a great day buddy!

Happy Birthday Johnnie Reb!!

As you may or may not know, I like to post pictures on the birthday of my family members. My dog is obviously not human, but she's like a kid for me so in honor of Johnnie Reb, today's blog post is in celebration of her first birthday. I got Johnnie Reb was she was just six weeks old and you can see that she was absolutely adorable as a pup.


I love loading her up in my truck and be-bopping around town or to taking her to visit my family. In the picture below, she was guarding my truck in the small town of Wellton, AZ on my first visit to my sister and brother-in-law's new house! She had really big ears for awhile so I'm glad she grew into them.



I soon changed my mind about leaving her in the cab of the truck after chewed several pages out of my prized planner, which in most cases acts as my short term memory. I was doing SAE visits (home visits) for my students last June and when I returned from visiting with a student's family, this was how she let me know that she wasn't pleased about being left behind.



I gave my dad a litter mate of JR's for a very, very early birthday present. Below Buck is on the right and JR is on the left. Buck is a great dog too, although is much stouter than JR. I love going home to visit my parent's and JR loves giving her brother a run for his money to see who is the most rambunctious and crazy dog!

Well, it's been a great year JR! I look forward to a couple more but I sure hope you grow out of this digging, chewing, plant-destroying phase that you're in. It sure makes things interesting now, but I would eventually like to see a garden of mine grow to fruition. I know you love me, right after your tennis ball, and am so glad that you're my little buddy.


PS-Thank you Sarah and Bryan Geiger for breeding such smart, fun and athletic Queensland Heeler's! I love both of you, and I love Janie too (JR's mom)!

Happy (REALLY late) Birthday D!

I wanted to start a new tradition on my blog of posting a few pictures on the birthdays of family members; I started by telling my youngest nephew, P, happy birthday in November. However, I totally missed my niece, D's, birthday in early December. So, in an effort to follow through with this new blog-tradition, here are retroactive birthday wishes to my oldest niece, D.

D, I love your love for life. You are creative, artistic and curious. You never fail to amaze me as you create "stuff" out of nothing.

You can pout with the best of them, and despite your super sad eyes that make an occasional appearance, I love your competitive nature.

I can't wait to watch you continue growing and maturing into a beautiful, smart and talented young lady during 2010! Happy birthday, and I'm sorry the wishes are late on my blog:)

Happy Birthday P!

Happy birthday to you,

happy birthday to you,

happy birthday dear cowboy P,

happy birthday to you!!

I love you P and I love watching you grow! It's hard to believe that you were the tiny baby I held after Thanksgiving 2006...you've grown big so quickly! I love your curiosity, the fact you love cows and your smile! Have a great third birthday buddy.