Pint sized Cowboys

You know those friends, the ones you haven't seen in ages and yet, when you finally do see them, things pick right back up where they left off? For me, this is my friend Ashley; my best friend and partner-in-crime all through elementary and high school. Ash and I rarely see each other these days, but when we pulled up to her house for dinner this past weekend, it was like I was sixteen and headed over for a sleepover with Bucky (my high school horse....yes, our horses generally slept over too) rather than rounding the corner towards thirty and pulling up with three kids and a husband in tow.

Ash and her fiancé, Richard, live on a great piece of property about twenty minutes from our house. Their ranch is filled with dogs, horses, trees to climb, huge open lawn to run amuck on, and in general all things fun for little boys. Ashley had invited us to come out for dinner and had tossed around the idea of throwing the boys up on one of her five horses. Not sure if it would come to pass, I made sure not to make mention of anything other than seeing horses to the boys. Sure enough though (and I should have known, really), Ash was true to her word. Not more than ten minutes into our arrival there, the boys had her roped into catching a horse and letting them ride.

Meet "Dillan". Dillan is Ashley's cutting horse and was so patient with the two eager little rubber boots clad munchkins that had hopped up on him. After a quick lesson on how to make a horse stop and go, and how to steer...

...Drew was up and running all on his "own"

Same lesson for Collin...

...and off he went too!

Eventually they roped me and my uber rusty horse riding skills back up in the saddle (and in shorts no less. Nothing says "city-kid" more than shorts and tennies on a cutting horse!). Anyway, we put Drew up in front of me so that he could feel what it felt like to jog and lope, aaaaaand, eventually Ash and I fell back into old high school habits and played "cow". One person on the ground is the "cow" and the other up on the horse gets to cut. We told Drew to hold on tight and then let Dillan loose on his "cow". (Did I mention Ash is six months pregnant?? Superstar.)

When we were all done, we hosed Dillan off and set off for new adventures around the property.

And adventures they found! A surprise monster truck Richard had hiding in the shop...

...trees to climb and many a round of hide and go seek to be played...

...silliness to be had (although Coll hardly said five words the entire time we were there!)...

...and puppies to play with.

We had a blast and it was so much fun to catch up (so much in fact, that I forgot to get a picture of me and Ashley together as I had intended to! Next time). Thanks again She She and Richard!

After a fun weekend, our week unfortunately took a sharp turn for the somber as we had to say goodbye to our old boy on Monday. He was a great friend to each of our kids and oh so loyal. He has left a big hole in our family and will be greatly missed.

Wrigley

November 13, 2002 - April 22, 2013

Easter 2013

Easter in (mostly) pictures:

Grandpa and Drew at Brunch

Since last year, Drew has tried his hardest "to be very brave" when the Easter Bunny comes around to say hi. He did great this year, but this was as close and as happy (if you can call it that) as Collin would get with the Easter Bunny near him (The poor bunny even tried to bribe with a handful of chocolate).

The boys' cousin Tallie

Grandma and Tanny

I loved that Tallie carried her Easter basket like a basket and the boys would only lug theirs on their shoulders. Boys.

Three Things

Three Things

Three Things about Drew:
1. Loves to draw, paint, create. I'm almost positive this has been mentioned before, but it's on a daily basis so I felt like it deserved to be mentioned again. He usually doesn't like to color in coloring books. He'd rather have a plain piece of paper he can draw his own things on.

2. Always has some sort of imaginative play going on. He's super willing to let anyone else get involved and when you ask him what's going on and how to play, he can tell you in great detail how to be a part of it.

3. Loves potty talk. Not allowed to potty talk....but loves to potty talk and will take any and all opportunities to squeeze in something about some bodily function into a conversation. Oh, little boys.....

Three Things about Collin:
1. Is talking a lot....as in almost non-stop. And when you try to turn your attention for point two seconds, he calls you on it! Still has a few things he says funny though, my favorite right now being "blapes" for "grapes".  Nathan's favorite is "can't memer" for "can't remember", but said with clenched eyebrows, a crooked head and pursed lips.

2. Is such a little brother; loves to antagonize. It's almost comical.....some days. He also loves to be silly for a reaction.

3. Constantly (and I do mean con.stant.ly.) has three toys with him: Boulder, Chase, and Blades- the bulldozer, police car, and helicopter from Transformers Rescue Bots for those of you who don't speak little boy. He usually sleeps with these three, as well as other inanimate, hard, plastic objects these days (think toy buckets or flashlights).

Three Things about Tanner:
1. Is three days shy of six months. He now reaches for toys, babbles to himself and others, loves his brothers and the entertainment they provide, laughs that oober cute baby laugh often, and just rolled over from his back to his belly for the first time on March 29th. I keep calling my mom to tell her that I can't believe he's already doing these things, to which she keeps reminding me that he's almost six months old and what was I expecting? Clearly, I would like this baby to be a baby forever. Six months has gone flying by.

2. Finally tried solid foods for the first time this week (I know, majorly slacking on this one!) ...rice cereal and bananas to be exact. He loved them. There was no gagging or spitting the food back out at all. He ate every last drop. Yep, I'm thinking this kid was more than ready to try real food!

First taste of solids, a hit!

And I've been suckered into the oh-so-gross mesh feeders again!

3. Almost always has three fingers in his mouth.