Lauren... almost doing it!

Okay I'm gonna go backwards a bit, and start with the newest instead of the oldest:

First on the agenda... look at baby girl trying so hard to just let go and do it! She did take several steps to daddy on Tuesday evening in the front yard when he came home.



And then Wednesday she took about three steps to Grandma at her house. And finally I got something on video. Sorry that it is distant, it was my first setup on the tripod, and wouldn't you know, she made the best walk then! So I just put together a little clip.




This is a picture I have been wanting to take, so I finally just had to get it in the car this weekend. on our way home from dropping Hunter off on Sunday, Lauren was having a bottle, and when she's not reclined enough, to help get the bottle up, she uses her feet. It is the cutest thing! Among this she has learned to move things, such as a photo box, next to mommy's desk, in order to stand on and "reach" things. She's just too smart for her own good!



These next pictures were taken at grandma's Monday night, she had the "sleepy sillys"... it was bed time, and she grabbed a pillow off the couch and started 'loving' on it. She lays down and coos to it. Then all the sudden she would sit up and throw her head back and laugh, like she had done the funniest thing. It really was hilarious, but how did she know?!?!?!

Rodeo Time!!!

We had so much fun this past week! So please excuse the lengthy post...

First off, the invitations are done, and going in the mail this week:


Aren't they cute? The pictures doesn't do them justice... They are a cute picture of a cowgirl I edited in photoshop and printed on some cardstock. Then the printed information is on vellum tied on top with some jute rope.

Also this weekend, Hobart held a small rodeo, so we took Hunter. We surprised him by letting him enter the greased pig contest, the goat tail tying contest, and the calf scramble. He also helped with the mutton bustin' for the younger kids. He had an absolute blast, and it was all he could talk about meeting some of the bull riders, seeing the bulls, and playing a 'part' in the rodeo clown's skit. Gotta love small towns!

Lauren had so much fun watching. She was very interested!



Below are a few pics of the greased pig contest. It was literally a little pig greased with crisco cooking oil. The winner got $50, Hunter got a hold of the pig, but they called the other boy as winner. Hunter had the back legs and the little boy had the front.




Hunter sat on the fence and watched the other kids finish the goat tail tying contest:



I'm also including the video of Hunters part in the skit. The Rodeo clown pretended he was from Hollywood looking for some 'extras' to play a part in a western movie. They all had to play a stunt shot part. One girl was so cute, she was 'dodging' the bullets.

(you may want to push the play button, then pause it, and let it buffer atleast 50% or more before viewing it... this keeps it from being choppy)




So for those of you who are not familiar with rodeos, particularly small-town rodeos, most towns only have one big Rodeo, in which they announce their Rodeo Queen. I had a flood of memories come back while watching the crowning in the arena.

Another tid-bit for those that don't know about me, I was miss Clinton 2002 Rodeo Queen. My sister and I drove around for two weeks, selling tickets like crazy, and at the last minute, a bunch of people came to town to board their horses and participate, and I sold the little bit of tickets that pushed me over the top to win. Wow! Was I so excited when they announced my name. To this day I remember thinking that I had placed third, and it took a second to realize that they were announcing my name! Here are a few pictures someone took that I scanned in years ago.

Just some more pictures for your viewing pleasure

I just thought I would add some more pictures from the last week or two:

A couple of pictures from our trip to Amarillo earlier this month when we dropped Hunter off. We stopped by Cavendars Boot City on the way home and got Lauren her first pair of boots and a pink hat. I have a surprise in store for later:




This is a picture of my little copy cat. She found the old duck call and grandma's house. So I thought it would be funny to blow it and scare her... only it didn't work, and after I gave up and handed it back to her, she looked at it, looked at me, and decided to try it as well! She's learning by leaps and bounds:



This is another cute thing she does lately... she puts objects in boxes or her truck and pushes them around. This day it was the baby inside a book box. At home the other night it was a pink pig in the back of the yellow Tonka truck:





She also got to try her first cupcake. It's practice for her upcoming birthday! She had so much fun with that cupcake. (In picture number three, she is offering some to papa who came in to see the fun):







Finally, Papa brought a little car by that the other kids all played in over the years. She was so fascinated with it. She just played and played in it, on it, around it:

Devestating Loss at the Fry House...

No, no one died or got hurt, but something died... my computer... along with ALLLLLLL of my pictures and video.

Now those that know me, know that I am not a half*ss person when it comes to my computer and precious pictures. I did have everything backed up on an external hard drive. And guess what? It died too!

So what happened you ask? Well, last week I started noticing problems with my main computer, and thought I better back it up and get it ready to go to the computer guy. While backing everything up, the internal drive transferred a bad sector to the external thus leading to it's departure as well. Only I didn't know this until AFTER we cleaned the main computer off and deleted everything. I was fortunate to have backed up Lauren's baby pictures, birth videos, and such to my laptop, but that's it.

So at this very moment, I am hoping that my drives have reached their destination at Temple Texas to be 'operated on' and see if my files are recoverable. This doesn't come at a cheap price either! $400-$600 dollars to be honest. So I have a couple of photography jobs coming up and I hope to make enough money to help pay for these precious memories retrieval.

With that said, all else is well here... I am posting a few pictures of recent that I just happened to not delete off my camera:



Just a couple of pictures from Vacation Bible School




Driving lessons with dad! The last picture is my favorite, he was whispering in her ear. The funny part is when I try to take her away from him, she clings to him for dear life!!!





And last but not least, we spent a few minutes down at the barn with the boys before they went coon hunting. Hunter introduced 'Gator' and 'Sally' to Lauren. She was quite fascinated with the dogs and the way Hunter talked to them. She listened so intently to everything Hunter said.

Oh! We will be walking any day, we are trying right now!!!

She turns loose of things, and if she doesn't think about it she'll let go and go to take a step, suddenly realize what she's doing and immediately plop down. She is still scared, and not quite understanding of what's going on. But she does know she wants to move, she just hasn't figured out the key ingredients.

Also on the 'Lauren Front', she has been extremely fussy and cranky the last few days. I checked to see if she might be getting another tooth in. I didn't see one, but a few days later, I felt towards the back of her lower gums and felt a tooth sticking out. So we are skipping all the front ones, and are now getting our far back teeth that we aren't supposed to get until between 14-18 months. But ofcourse like her mommy, she just can't wait on things!

Other than that, we are planning a huge BBQ in honor of the princess and her one year birthday coming up! I am planning on about 25-35 guests, most adults, a few children to attend a cookout that will be for her birthday, Levi's birthday, and our 4 year anniversary.

With all of that said, I guess I will go for now, and I will post something as soon as I know on the file/data recovery.

DON'T forget, if you hate checking the blog with no new posts, I can set you up to receive instant notification so you don't have to wonder. Just shoot me an email or a comment! Thanks everyone!