Blog Music

While I enjoy changing my blog music to fit my moods or the season, I know that it gets annoying scrolling to the very bottom of the posts when you want to turn it off.  So I moved my player to the top to make it easier to shut off…maybe I should just get rid of it all together, but I’m not quite ready to give it up…yet!

Ree’s Blessing

The other day, Ree asked me if we thought me might bless her before she went to kindergarten.  Not really, but she was thinking it!  So at six months (if you haven’t notice, Spence and I don’t always do things by the playbook) we finally blessed Allie Marie Platt.  November 27th, 2010.  It turned out nice because she was able to sit up for pictures!  HA HA  Maren hurried and snapped a few shots as the sun was waning.  She got some great ones, especially for how quickly we had to do it and how cold it was.  Kristen made the blanket that you see in some of the shots. 

 

AZCHA Futurity

Once Spence found out about cutting and tried it, he fell in love with it.  He has now spent quite a few years watching, learning, practicing and training.  He has put a lot of blood, sweat and tears (well maybe not tears, but quite a few cuss words)  into learning the art of cutting and has gotten good enough to train his own horses.  It has taken a lot of time and a lot of hard work.  This fall, he was able to take two colts he trained to the Arizona Futurity; a competition for young horses that are just starting to show.  He also showed his favorite mare in a different class.  He did really well and won money on all of the horses.   I want him to know that I am really proud of him.  I never brag about him on here, but I’m making an exception this time. 

Spence on Peptobelle.  She’s the older (5 or 6 years old?) horse.

This is Smoothie, one of the colts.

And finally Spanky. 

Way to go Spence!

 

Merry Christmas 2010

After unwrapping presents, eating cream-chipped beef, taking a nap (yes, I actually got one!!!), and playing hours of train with Chase, we finally made our way up to the White Corrals to give the cows their Christmas presents.  Can you believe that I spent hours making over 500 lbs. of homemade granola for the cows this year?  It’s super time consuming and costs a fortune, but I think that in 2010, it will be out with the grass-fed beef and in with the granola-fed beef.  I’m thinking it will probably only make a subtle difference in the flavor of the meat, but in terms of cow happiness, it could be exponential.  We may not be willing to give our cows massages, but we are willing to hand-feed each one a little granola at Christmas time!

Hayes and Parker took advantage of the hay stack for its natural combat zone properties.

Parker, if you are reading this, Ree really does always look at you!

Silent but deadly.

Chase had to stay in the truck.  He didn’t feel good and didn’t have shoes.  You can’t tell by this picture. Hayes always dances on the hay stack to make Chase laugh. It works every time.

Here’s Spence checking out the cows, trying to figure out which ones have been naughty and which ones have been nice.  (Only the nice ones get granola)

Now he’s telling me, “That one has clearly been nice; see how long his body is and how thick his muscling is.  Make sure he gets a double portion.”

One eye closed is a dead giveaway for naughty.

The ones that won’t look you in the eye look a little guilty to me.

This one looks super sweet  and cute to me. The one in the background…definitely naughty.

Nice again.  Look at that cute hair do.  Man, I’m a push-over.

OK, the truth is I didn’t really make granola.  It’s just late at night and I must be a little on the tipsy side of tired.  It was a fun thought, though.  So while our cows didn’t get any granola, they did get plenty of hay and they just loved it.  If being massaged and eating granola would make our cows happier, Spence would probably do it.  He’s crazy about them. 

Merry Christmas to man and beast!

Ree’s first Christmas was a SHOCKER!

Christmas Eve, Eve

Just a question.  How far back, etiquette-wise, can you use the whole “eve” term?  I think we started on Sunday with Christmas Eve, Eve, Eve, Eve, Eve, Eve. I’m only asking because I couldn’t think of a good title for this post. 

I was scrolling through all my newly, uploaded pictures and was really starting to question my photography abilities;  either that or every one around me’s photogenicity.  I thought I just made up that word, but it’s in the urban dictionary, whatever that is…terrible sentence, I know.  Then I came upon these little gems.  They really made me smile after a long, long, long day with Chase.  (Not his fault…he hasn’t been feeling good and his balance is off (times a million) and today he seemed near a seizure or in a semi-seizure state all day long)

I’ve always wanted to get a train to go around the Christmas tree.  I had priced them a few years ago and it seemed like you had to spend a lot of money to get one that worked decent.  I searched through tons of feedback and reviews on trains that made me just give up on the trains.  Then this Christmas season, Wilburs had a cute little train set for $20 on the same day that I had actually won the “win what you spend” contest for $50 bucks.  So I splurged and thought I would just take it back if it really stunk.  I was pleasantly surprised.  My kids have already enjoyed it at least $20 worth and I haven’t had to replace the batteries yet.  It’s a pain to put on the track, but luckily I have Hayes who figured it out in no time and can keep it humming.  We even set up cowboys and Indians around it, attacking and defending it…complete with various characters and items placed on the tracks in front of the oncoming train to see who can derail the train.   (I’ll have to get pictures of that next time!)

I think this shot is priceless. (They are of course, watching the train)

Poor Chase had fallen and hit his lip the day before, but he still has the biggest grin West of Texas. Ree’s face cracks me up.

Chase likes to lie down to get a up-close look at the oncoming train.

Our own little de-railer.

She got one.

Are rabbit ears on the baby funny…really?? That’s so fifth grade! :)

Change the World

A few weeks ago, Spence, Ree, and I took a quick overnight trip to Albuquerque to watch our cattle sell at the auction and do a little Christmas shopping.  They put us on the 17th floor of the hotel.  In the morning, I needed something to keep Ree occupied while I got ready, so I sat her in front of the window with a great view of the city of Albuquerque below.  I put a toy or two around her along with her all-time favorite, the TV remote.  As you’ll notice in the second photo, she’s already trying to change the world.

where oh where have my hayes and chase gone, oh where oh where can they be?

I just uploaded the pictures from my camera.   There were none of Hayes.  There were two of Chase. There were 33 of Ree.  I sure wish those two would do something cute soon!

I’m kidding, of course.  If you know me, you know that I adore my boys, but what can I say?  I’m loving having this little girl around.  When I found out that I was having a girl, I wasn’t overly thrilled.  I was excited, but worried about having to dress her and do her hair and all the stuff that comes with girls.  I was the world’s biggest tom-boy, so raising boys came very natural to me. I can get into the guns and swords and transformers and Legos.  Am I going to be able to do dolls and princesses and tea parties?  I guess we’ll have to find out.  Unless of course, she turns out like me.  Then it will be more of the same; no dresses and bb guns instead of dolls.  I had a nightmare once when I was a little girl.  I remember it vividly to this day.  Two men came to my house.  They shot all of my family and kidnapped me.  And then to add insult to injury, they made me put on a dress to disguise me.  It was horrible.  Yeah, I was that much of a tom-boy. 

Here is Ree trying to inhale her Daddy’s ice cream cone. The girl loves food.

Her eyes have turned the same gray/blue as her dad’s.

Here she is checking herself out in my clean mirror.

Here she is in her cute, little owl hat that hasn’t gotten any use because of the beautiful weather.

Did I mention that I was going to post all 33 pictures of her???

Here’s the picture I took of Chase.  After many, many frustrating Sunday mornings where I get Chase all ready, but by the time were ready to go, his shirt is so dirty I have to change it (even when I wait until 10 minutes before time to go to get him dressed); I finally got smart.  I put one of my shirts over his Sunday shirt.  It keeps him clean and the neck is big enough to slip over his head without messing up his hair.  Ingenious. Or at least I thought so.

Tune in next week for another installment of Ree.

The Many, Serious Faces of Allie Ree

Sometimes you cannot get a smile out of this girl.  She laughs and coos and giggles a lot of the time, but she definitely has a serious side.  She’s always checking everything out with a serious look on her face. We’ll have to wait and see if she keeps this serious little persona.

Finally a little bit of a smile!

Trying New Things

Ree wanted to try Doritos the other day so I let her.  Ha Ha.  I know it’s not the most healthy thing to let her try, but what the heck.  She loved it.

 

Buddies

Spence and Hayes were headed out to go get some cows out of the neighbor’s pasture so I made them stopped for a few photos.  These two have become quite the pair lately.  Hayes used to be a mama’s boy, but is quickly making the move over to dad.  The other night Spence told Hayes to fire up the DVD player, we were going to watch a movie.  Hayes cheered and said Yay, a movie.  Then Spence left to go change his clothes and Hayes whispered to me that he didn’t really care about the movie, he just loved spending time with dad. 

They came home with a tale about jumping ditches and driving cattle through the Little Colorado.  Sounded like quite the adventure.  It took them several more hours than expected….life as usual on the ranch. 

Hayes told me the story: “We got there and opened the corral gate where we were going to pen them in.  We went through this little field they were supposed to be in, but they weren’t there so we kept going to the end of the field where it dropped down a little.   We could see the river and a fence that was a little higher than our heads, because of the drop.  We had to get off our horses and lead them under it.  It was too deep to cross the river right there, so we went up a pretty steep hill and straight back down.  We went through a couple of trees and then found a little spot where the water was more shallow.  My dad went first.  I was super scared.  We could see the ground most of the way, but it got deep towards the middle.  It never got higher than our horses knees. My dad’s horse pawed at the ground to see how deep it was.  Eventually he got across.  When it was my turn, my horse just walked right across like it was nothing.”

“So then we curved around the bend and through a few more trees where the ground was cracked.  Then we found the cows.  A black cow was leading them.  We decided to let that cow show us where they had crossed the river…it was quite a bit deeper than the spot we had crossed.  All the cows crossed and we followed.  It was deeper but not any harder.  My toes got wet until I pulled them up.  My dad had to lift his legs out of the stirrups and hold them out of the water.  Then we went up a little hill, but there was a fence that was bunched up about 2 feet off the ground.  My dad put a stick in it so our horses would see it so we could safely walk over it.  The cows crossed over it also.  Then we crossed back over the field and brought the cows to the corral.  Unfortunately there was another gate by the corral and they sprinted through it instead of into the corral.  My dad had to sprint on his horse and turn them back to the corral.  I didn’t realize what  was happening until he caught them.  Then I held the cows while my dad stood by the gate of the corral and we pushed them in.  Job done.” 

“But….we didn’t want to put the cows and horses in the trailer together, so we had to tie the horses to the back of the trailer while we drove to the highway.  At the highway, we tied the horses to a tree, hauled the cows to the Sylva, then went back and picked up our horses.  We were worried that the horses would get loose while we were gone and get on the highway, but when we got back they were still tied to the tree.  We got them into the trailer and went home.  Job done.  No wait….we still had to unsaddle them and put them away.  Job done…nope.  We still had to do chores and then we were finally able to got home and eat dinner.  Phew.  A cowboy’s work is never done.”