Automatic Gate Opener

Since we turned our horses out in the pasture around the house, we (well, Robert...) put in a cattle guard so that we wouldn't have to open and shut a gate every time we left the house. However, this cattle guard was designed with a large truck in mind, not a small low to the ground car. So if I want to use the cattle guard, I can say good bye to the bottom of my car, muffler, you know, little things like that. So, mostly I'm stuck using the gate. However, thanks to my little helper, it's now practically an automatic gate, requiring only some cheering and applause to get it to work. I occasionally feel slightly guilty having a 2.5 year old opening and shutting the gate for me, but hey, it's never to early to start learning to earn your place, right? 'Sides, little Miss "Me Do IT!" loves helping momma!

Thursday and Friday night we were lucky enough to have Blake, my cousin's little girl, come over and visit. Blake is 10 and just the perfect age for entertaining Carter. She is a very sweet wonderful little girl and Carter adores her and her sister Vashti who is two years older. (For the non-family readers, my cousin has four girls ranging in ages from 16 to 10 and one boy, and as you can imagine, her house is Carter's very favorite place to be.) Blake is great about entertaining Carter and keeping an eye on her so that I can work on dinner, cleaning, etc. It really gives me a nice break and Carter couldn't be happier. A few months ago, Blake stopped in with her older sister Brianne to drop something off, and they could only stay a minute. Carter was getting all geared up for a fun time and they were already gone. She just sat down by the door and cried. I thought my heart would break for her. But yesterday, we got to played until we crashed! They must have spent an hour on the trampoline. Good thing since it snowed last night and will be a tad chilly to jump on today. We try to get over to my cousins to play whenever we can, which is always a challenge with everyone's busy schedules. Carter's new trick it to suddenly have to go pee whenever we are passing by their house. Note Dad trying to get all the wood chopped in the background!