Chisum–18 months

Since our move, time has really flown. Our little boy is 18 months old today!

He is so much fun, ornery, rambunctious, loving and playful.  

He is saying all kinds of animal sounds // moo, huh-huh (pig), ruh-ruh (dog), wheee-ee-ee-ee (horse), ow (cat), duck-duck-duck (duck), rraaahhhrrr in a whisper (applies to lions, tigers & bears….oh my!), hand in the air (elephant – he only does the noise when he wants), sssssss (snake), turkey (turkey – we have one name down!), ah-ah (monkey) and working on more.

He loves to say, “Amen” (sounds a little more like “a-nen”with a southern drawl) but it’s pretty adorable. Of course mama, dada, nana, & papa are said a bunch and we are working on grandma and grandpa. His biggest word he likes to say (because he likes to eat them) is “blueberry” and it comes out very understandable! The word “ouch” makes him giggle beyond belief. That giggle is truly the best sound ever.

A big snow storm came and we got over a foot of snow. It was really cold for about two weeks, but the snow stayed around long enough for us to get lots of sledding and snowman-building in.

 


I got a great video of Chisum and his excitement for sledding: WATCH.

Right during the storm, the first calf was born. Chisum loved talking to her.
 
And waving!

It’s so awesome for us to see him experience these things with life on the ranch. We love you, sweet boy!

We’ve moved!

Well, our life has been on a little roller coaster ride and it’s been going in circles so fast I haven’t had time to update my blog!

As the title suggests, we have packed up our belongings from our beloved little house in Seward, Nebraska, and moved west to Colorado. This wasn’t an easy decision, but we are following our hearts and where God is leading our little family-of-three’s (or four, I guess we need to include Hank the cow dog as he is along for the ride!) life.

It all started back in the end of May when we found out that my parent’s neighbors were going to be moving and wanted to offer their house before they put it on the market. We went to look at it in June and did a lot of praying and number crunching to see if we could make this work and if this is what God had in mind for us.

After coming up with every reason not to, God kept opening doors, including making our finances work out, selling of our Seward house in 23 days (even doing so for sale by owner, thanks Zillow!), and providing jobs for both Ronny and I.

While it was bittersweet to leave our dear friends and great jobs in Nebraska, we are so thankful for the opportunity to be closer to family and be involved in the family ranch.

We still have boxes to unpack, things to organize, a little painting to do and furniture to buy, but we are loving life in the country, close to Nana and Papa and spending more, precious time with our little boy. We love visitors so let us know if you’re ever in the area!

All thanks be to God for His Blessings!

Baby Shower! {Colorado}

We had our first baby shower back home in Limon, Colorado over Father’s Day weekend. My awesome sister, sister-in-law and mom hosted…oh and Maelle helped for sure! Love these ladies.

They had awesomely, delicious, healthy yogurt & fruit parfaits and fun paper straws with the festive drinks.

It was so fun to see so many of my “moms” growing up in a small town. I had many of my “church moms”, “friend’s moms” and even my “Farm Credit moms” from when I worked there. I truly felt blessed to celebrate with all of these ladies.

Check out that adorable diaper cake from my cousins! The giraffe was made by my Gramps for my dad and his brothers – so it was a fun addition to the shower decorations and nice to have a piece of one of my favorite men there.

Lindsay had asked several of my “moms” along with my sister, mom and her to specify a characteristic that described me and to put a Bible verse with it to include on the mat of a picture frame.

They each explained why they chose that characteristic and verse – it was so meaningful! Lindsay noted that it would be a good reminder to me when days can be hard being a mother, but that I can remember these positive things and always lean on God.

Three of my best friends from high school surprised me by being there – they absolutely made my day and I was so glad to catch up with them!

Ronny showed up at the end of the shower to greet all of the ladies, and I’m glad we could get a picture with my Grams.

It was a great day, ending with a few maternity pictures by Lindsay.

Below is probably my favorite…. :) Thank you again Lindsay for your gift of helping us capture this fun time in our lives!

Colorado | a long weekend

Ronny, Hank and I were able to spend a long weekend in Colorado over the Father’s Day weekend. I was so excited to go home to Colorado as I hadn’t been there since Christmas!

On Saturday, Lindsay, Emily and Mom hosted a baby shower for me in Limon. More pictures to come – but they were super creative with putting together yummy, healthy yogurt parfaits. An effort by the whole family!

For Father’s Day, we went to church with Mom and Dad in Castle Rock, then all headed to Denver for the Rockies game.  It was fun to all be together with Dad for his special day and to celebrate Ryan’s first and Ronny’s kind-of first. :)

 

Miss Maelle was so excited for her first Rockies game!

We were able to just hang out with the fam on Monday, then headed to Breckenridge on Tuesday for the Colorado Livestock Association convention, and to just enjoy one last little vacation before Baby Pope arrives.

Stock Show trip to Denver

Over the long holiday weekend, Ronny and I had the opportunity to go with our friends, Matt & Lindsay Hastings, to Denver for the National Western Stock Show.

The weather was beautiful…we didn’t need our coats for most of the time. We even found some Nebraska signs to take our picture with.

While we were there, we enjoyed the cattle shows, horse jumping show and even the dog pull (did you know a 30 pound dog can pull 900 pounds!).

The highlights included walking around and reminiscing in the yards, seeing old friends, spending time with the Hastings, the cowboy church and the rodeo.

We were super impressed with the “One-Armed Bandit” at the rodeo.

Such a fun weekend! We also got to stop by my parents house on Friday evening and show the Hastings my family ranch. Always a great time to see my family and be home.