Ranch in the City

My Little Skunk

The weather has been so dreamy; mild and springish, so this weekend we took Kam on his first little outdoors walk near our home.  He loved his stroller ride, complete with his mommy and daddy, brother and sister.  He even loved his little skunk hat that kept him warm and cute!

Hello world!

This past week baby skunk has done great with his sleeping.  He is getting in about 6 hours straight, waking to eat, and then sleeping another 3-4 hours.  Yea!  Ryan teases me about putting him to bed in his "straight jacket" but I swear it works: he can't swing his arms all around and wake himself up!

Check out the sweet hands, notice that his "straight jacket" (street name SwaddleMe) keeps his hands down low by his side, instead of up by his face.

 

In other news, I'm working on getting rid of bad dog Andy Grandi.  Yep, he's terrible right now...he's not getting nearly enough attention and he's full of negative energy.  I met with a fellow Dal owner today to see if she wanted to take him to be her girl's boyfriend.  Turns out her girl is a really good judge of character because she HATED Andy and she made no apologies for letting him know that.  Oh Andy, will I ever get rid of you?

I'm not holding my breath.

Cow Gizzard

My little cousin, aka Cow Gizzard, tied the knot this past October in south Texas and I have neglected to post my wedding snapshots, much to my aunt's chagrin :)

It was a beautiful outdoor wedding, with a Texas flair and lots of fun!  The bride was gorgeous, the groom was handsome, and the flower girl (my little Devynn) was absolutely squeeze-able in her turquoise dress and cowgirl boots.  

Here is one of my favorite pictures of my sister and I giving the groom a Wet Willy.

This is a great picture of all the girl cousins! Love y'all!

 

The cow gizzard and his girl cousins.

My little flower girl.

To see all of my wedding snapshots (Aunt Joanie), click here: The Cow Gizzard's Wedding.

Good-bye 2011

Hello 2012!  I'm looking forward to this year but I can't complain because 2011 was pretty darn good to me. Usually I love working up my New Year's Resolutions but this January I'm not sure when I will get to my resolutions!  There are many things I would love to improve upon and I could scribble up a piece of notebook paper with goals and dreams and ideas, things I want to see, do, read, and achieve, but I also want to keep it realistic: 2012 is not going to be a year all about me and my desires!  Kam is keeping us busy and although he's a precious bundle of joy, having a newborn doesn't allow for much time in my day to do anything that doesn't involve showering, feeding, cooking, or cleaning. In fact, if I get those things done it's been a good day!  This is a busy phase of life and today when my daughter handed me a piece of paper that said, Dear Mommy, I love you, I decided I would frame it to remind myself that I am loved even when life is so amazingly hectic and I feel like I'm not giving each family member enough attention.

My one and only resolution last year was to live in the moment and I think I did a pretty good job of it but it's something I need to concentrate on even more so on this year.  This being my third child I realize all too well how quickly babies grow and change, and I know that this too will pass so I want to enjoy every moment, even the challenging ones!

We had a wonderful Christmas this year.  Of course we received many nice gifts, but nothing could overshadow the birth of Jesus Christ along with our beautiful bundle of joy.  Ryan gave me some new clothes and shoes, which was perfect, just perfect, because I've spent the last nine months in less than fashionable attire.  Kade gifted me a bracelet that he made himself along with some bubble bath; I can't tell you how much I appreciated that kid's thoughfulness!  I received many other very special gifts given with love and thoughtfulness; no doubt I am extremely blessed.  The kids were spoiled once again by Santa, aunts and uncles, grandmas and grandpas, and mom and dad.  To say it was a nice Christmas would be an understatement.

I've somehow just completed putting away all of my Christmas decorations, which is nice because they were starting to feel like permanent fixtures since I put everything up mid-November in anticipation of the Thanksgiving birth of my son.  We've also devoted some time to cleaning and organizing because every year we have to make room for the new toys and gifts which involves getting rid of old possessions.  It's taken me a good week to do all of this!  

What's next on my agenda?  A to-do list that I'm too scared to approach!  Thank-you notes, phone calls, and downloading hundreds of photos to the computer are just a few of the things on my list.  Oh and convincing my mom and dad to move here--that's pretty high priority for me.  

I'm gearing up for this week as my kiddos go back to school and the mom taxi is back in business.  I'm thinking the school bus is going to start taking care of some of my taxi clients for me!  

I hope to blog again soon and post some long overdue pictures.

Wishing you the happiest of New Years,

Near Fumble

I'm happy to report that Kam did great during his first {big} football game yesterday.  I wrapped him up in a Moby wrap that my cousin and aunt gave me and it worked perfectly!  There was lots of noise and onlookers but he held up like a champ.  

In other not so good news, yesterday before the game we almost had a huge fumble.  I was in Kam's room and had him laying on the changing table.  I had moved over to his chest of drawers to get out a blanket; in the meantime Devynn was watching Kam closely, too closely.  She had put her feet on the bottom rail of the changing table  with her hands on the top rail, and her weight caused the table to fall forward with Kam going down with her.  I turned and screamed DEVYNN and then rushed over and miraculously grabbed the table before Kam hit the ground.  My adrenaline had not flowed that powerfully in a long, long time.  After Kam was evaluated and we ruled out an injury, Devynn and I both cried crocodile tears.

The joys of parenting :)  I have determined that a newborn's greatest threat is his older siblings!