Decorating cookies with Gramma Howell

Carter, Gramma Howell and I made pig cookies for Chase's first birthday.  These are a great sour cream cookies that is very soft and I figured would be pretty easy for him to eat.  (We are still a bit short in the teeth department, so not too much chewing yet).  We were lucky enough to have Robert's mom Barb come for a couple weeks to visit and she was able to hit both kids birthdays. 

Carter loved decorating the cookies...although some of hers looked like they had chicken pox or strange mutations with several noses or multiple eyes.   Details!

Carter really enjoyed all the time she got to spend with her Gramma Howell and was really missing her when she had to leave. 

Truck Ride with Grampa

Grampa came down from the shop to take all the kiddos on a ride in his newest to him truck.  His purpose was to test out the brakes, but I figured he probably had a pretty good idea that they were working pretty good otherwise he wouldn't have wanted to pack in 4 of his grandkids along as experiments. 

Getting everyone in was a challenge...the first couple steps were tricky, unless you were small enough to just have Grampa toss you up on the seat.

Carter and Cade carefully checking out everything Grampa was doing.

Step on the brakes...which did work...and Avery nearly tumbled off the "dog house" as Dad called it.

Chase didn't quite know what to think about the trip, but he was along for the ride at any rate.  It was nice to get out of the house for a bit although I might have done a bit more war paint if I'd known pictures were in store for today!

Riding with my little girl

I sometimes feel like Robert gets to do all the fun stuff with Carter while I'm home with Chase. So it was a real treat when Robert got the horses all saddled up so I could go for a ride with my little girl while Chase was napping. We had a great time.


I basically drug Titan the whole trip with Carter alternately yelling "Faster, we need to trot!" and "Stop! I need a break!". We didn't get very far in any kind of a hurry but it was a great day, not too hot.

Notice the baby monitor still attached to my pants...good thing Robert noticed!

Carter is getting closer to riding with out a lead rope. She rides around in the corral all by herself, but isn't quite strong enough to be turned loose out in the open. Soon enough Baby Girl!

Checking Stuff Out

This video really cracks me up. Chase is really getting into the spirit of what exactly I'm not sure...maybe taking some baby angst out on the chair? I like the part where it looks like he's kicking the chair too. Take that! I need a good title for this video, but after kid wrangling all day I'm not exactly firing on all cylinders.


Now that Chase can pull himself up, he's big into explorer mode. I don't suppose it will be much longer before he actually crawls in the cupboard.
He was having fun with this bus toy of Carters (that she had quit playing with over a year ago until she say baby brother with it). He's getting pretty good at pushing it around, until it runs into something or bucks him off.
He's still super wobbly and we have lots of falls when he gets himself pulled up and then can't get down or he picked a bad idea like a tiny chair as leverage. No major crashes yet, fingers crossed.

Slip n Slide

Robert's mom sent Carter out a Slip'n Slide in one of her great boxes and we finally had a day hot enough to get it out. Sunday was perfectly gorgeous and plenty warm. Sterling was over visiting, so they both had lots of fun!

Sterling trying to show us just how to slide down without falling...just before the crash!

Carter inching down the slide sideways

Checking out the sprinkler part of the slide. This was good entertainment! We were hoping to get the slide out again while I was watching Cade and Avery this week but it's now much too cold to play in the water, although that didn't stop Carter and Cade from trying to give the chickens a bath then soaking themselves with the barn hydrant. (Then coming in the house crying because they were wet, cold and tracking mud all over the carpet...)

Chicken Wrangler

Robert finally started turning the chickens out during the day and then locking them back up at night. Carter really seemed to enjoy the chasing the chickens back part. (I can't believe how fast they get big--chickens and kids!)
The chicken wrangler! Looks pretty darn serious doesn't she?

I also had to throw in a quick picture of my irises. The picture doesn't do them justice, they look so pretty this year. Last year, a last frost the beginning of June was really hard on them and only a couple bloomed. This year there is going to be lots! I'm really excited to see my dark yellow iris bloom again. I'm hoping there is more than one, but I haven't seen any yet.

Sheep Riding

Last weekend Carter rode down to Colorado with Robert and Ciara to pick up some needed job materials. While they were in Coloraod, they hit the Sundance Bull Riding Series going on in Fort Collins and Carter got to ride her first sheep. She LOVED it.

The kids are supposed to be at least 4 years old, but since everyone knew Robert, they were able to fudge her birthday just a bit.

Dad helping her get all situated on the boys and giving her pointers.

How many guys do you suppose it takes to get one little girl on her her sheep?

Cole, one of the bull fighters and Carters new best friend, spotted her across the arena. She looks like she pretty clamped down on that sheep!

Victorious! She looks pretty darn proud of herself. She jumped off her sheep at the end of the arena and waved to the crowd just like her dad told her too. She was very sure she had won the sheep riding and wanted her prize. Robert and Kevin Bivens convinced her that they judges would be mailing it to her, so we've got to come up with something right here directly and get it in the mail. Definetly will have to do it again. When they were taking all the sheep back to Kevin's, she wanted to ride all the sheep off the horse trailer. A big thank you to Seneca Bivens who took these pictures and was wonderful enough to email them to me.

First Wranglers

Naturally had to get a picture of Chase in his first pair of Wranglers. These wranglers have been lots of little kids first pair including Carters. They are almost worn out and unlike most little kid Wranglers, are pretty soft. I thought they looked pretty darn cute!

Chase is at the stage where he can figure out how to stand up on stuff, but not how to get down!

Just one more picture, getting ready to head down to Gramma's to help set up the branding meal (although I don't know how much help we were...). He seems to have picked up cousin Keenan's love of "Autos".

Sprinklers at Gramma's

On Friday, while we were waiting for the branding crew to show up for dinner, mom turned on the sprinklers for Cade and Avery to run through. It was almost 90 degrees on the porch, and it was sounding like a better idea all the time. Cade sure does make it look like fun!
Carter went up to the branding with her dad, so she missed on on the sprinkler fun. She had been in a big panic to ride and was NOT getting left behind. Robert was late leaving town, so Rance helped me get horses caught and saddled with Carter anxiously watching to make sure we got her horse Titan ready to go. Then she happily hopped in the pickup with Rance and off they went. Robert met up with them down at the ranch. Carter spent most of the branding riding around with Blake in tow having a great time. She darn near wore her pony out!

I even managed to catch a smile from Avery, but I don't think she noticed I was taking pictures...she was just looking at her mom. She not too sure about Aunty yet, but this coming up week I'm watching her and Cade while Landa is on vacation. We should get in plenty of bonding time and hopefully both of us will survive it!

My little goofball

Carter is all about extremes. When she's good, she's wonderful, when she's bad, she can really be a terror. And she is so funny right now. She has a little jump/dance that she does on occasion that she calls her 'hippity hop'. It cracks me up.

She informed me the other day that "I'm just little, Mom. I'm supposed to spill things, make messes and not share my toys. That's what we do." Oh really? I've got my work cut out for me!She likes to help me water the flowers which mostly consists of watering the porch, the dog, me the cats, that one rock over there, or anything else that catches her attention. The flowers don't really get watered, but she sure has a lot of fun with the hose.

It's so seldom that she will pose nice for the camera that I had to quick snap all the pictures I could get. Naturally it needs to be her idea to take her picture, then she's all about it. My little Miss Independent. My mom laughs when I tell her things like that...it seems I might have been a wee bit independent myself as a kid, or still...

In one of the boxes from Gramma Howell, Carter found a pair of sunglasses that she loves to wear. Notice the shoes on the wrong feet as usual. I've been trying to learn how to fix her hair and mostly end up with a little puff on the top of her head that makes her look a bit like a Who from Whoville. She also loves crazy socks. The more flamboyant, the better. And anything pink and girly looking.

Carter doing a little dance for mom. I need to get a video of the Hippity Hop, it's even better. I sure do love this crazy little girl.