Deacon's Cow Milking Experience

On Friday, Frank Hill hosted a fabulous picnic out at his ranch. There was all sorts of fun including a band, rock painting, caber toss, bull fight, lots of food cooked by Joel Myers, ice cream horse rides and a milking contest. I am still not sure how I feel about it. It was between Deacon and Andrew...the boss! Apparently, my husband squirt his boss with milk from his side of the cow. Well, Deacon won the contest. I don't think proud describes how I felt, but it was pretty funny to watch. It was definitely something that I never thought I would see. I did have to insist that everyone get a shower before touching their beds. I don't think I was meant to be a farmer.

Gracie

This is a song by a group that Deacon and I have enjoyed together, Ben Folds. We danced to a song at our wedding reception (Luckiest). When the song Gracie came out, Deacon danced with Madeline to it. Ever since then, she is convinced that it is actually Deacon singing...to her. Every once in a while Madeline and daddy have a sweet little dance to this song. Anyways, one of Fiona's nicknames has been Gracie and so Madeline decided to sing this song to her, only she mixed up the words at the chorus to "And there will always be a part of me that Nobody else will ever want to see...Gracie girl."



"Gracie" by Ben Folds

You can't fool me, I saw you when you came out
You got your momma's taste but you got my mouth
And you will always have a part of me
Nobody else is ever going to see
Gracie girl

With your cards to your chest walking on your toes
What you got in the box only Gracie knows
And I would never try to make you be
Anything you didn't really want to be
Gracie girl

Life flies by in seconds
You're not a baby Gracie, you're my friend
You'll be a lady soon but until then
You gotta do what I say

You nodded off in my arms watching TV
I won't move you an inch even thought my arm's asleep

One day you're gonna want to go
I hope we taught you everything you need to know
Gracie girl

And there will always be a part of me
Nobody else is ever gonna see but you and me
My little girl
My Gracie girl

What the Kids Said

I was making a brief comment to Deacon about milk for the baby in the freezer. We stopped to hear this song preceded from Madeline's lips:

3 bags full,
3 bags full.
One for the master and one for the lane,
and one for the little boy who lives down the drain.

A couple of weeks ago, Ivan ran up to Deacon, Grandpa (dad Hoeft), Mr. Ditton after church. He had on his angry face and was pointing his two middle fingers up. He told Deacon, "These are my swords!" Deacon quickly encouraged him to use two fingers instead. Ivan replied, "No dad, these are the biggest ones!"Fortunately, he did not continue to pretend that his fingers were swords, so we did not address the issue further.

Fun Week

This was a fun week. Aunt Rebekka and I took the kids to the pool. They are still wild and crazy swimmers and didn't seem to mind that it was only 70 degrees and windy.

I snagged a cute picture of Fiona Grace and Grandad.

Fiona must be approaching 10 lbs. She take a chewy (passifier), her thumb, hardly cries and even gave a little smile for the camera. We took her to church for the first time this week. I remembered to get a picture with her so that I can show up in her baby album. Also, her eyes are getting more blue everyday. I would be shocked if Deacon and I had a blue eyed kid.

Everything is New

It is always fun to watch your kids discover. It starts early and there is a lot to discover. I was really amused by Fiona's fascination with the night light.

Family of 5

Fiona finally joined us for a meal...on the table. Unfortunately, we couldn't get Madeline and Ivan to eat because they were pretending to serve up there sister as the meal. They (for pretend) handed out all of her fingers and limbs. Deacon and I were happy to see our new family of 5 around the dinner table!

For Aunt Lynnessa

Fiona is thankful for her little dress from her Aunt Lynnessa.

What We are Doing

This week we tried to get a bit more of a schedule. For me it includes:
Make Breakfast for the kids and myself.
Nap for me.
Lunch.
Enjoy playing with Madeline and Ivan.
Nap for me and the kids.
Usually two small productive things: fold laundry, dishes, pick up toys.
Eat dinner.
Family time.
Watch tv and hang out with Deacon.
Eat again.
Sleep.

Of course I feed the baby in between many of these great events. Seems sort of blah, but it worked and the kids and I had four smooth days while Deacon had to go back to work. I really missed the kids and had a lot of fun giving them some simple love. I have to mention that I have had help from Bekka, my mom, my mother-in-law, and friends like Paula and Kelly and all the wonderful people bringing us food.
The first day of summer...so we had to go on a walk. Ahh! I can feel the pounds falling off already! Of course it was a pretty slow walk with Madeline and her stroller, Ivan and his dog, and my stroller with Fiona Grace.
So sweet. It is already going by too fast. By the way, for those of you that keep track, we definitely have another projectile spitter. This time we are carefully analyzing the delicate situation to see how much of it we can prevent this for the next six months. In the meantime, all the dish towels have been brought out.

Snow in June!!

I am not really sure what to think. The kids are obviously confused. They came in this morning and each separately said, "Merry Christmas!" I was thinking about calling the pool and telling them I would buy a pool pass for half price since I am sure sales are down. I wonder if they are still opened today? We may go later if anyone wants to join us. I just can's find the snow suits.

Fiona Grace came home!

We came home on Saturday, June 7th (also our 6th Anniversary). Since then, Fiona has slept a 5 hour stretch two nights, and ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT! I am not holding my breath over this, but I have high hopes that it will continue. What can I say, she's smart!

Madeline is learning to dress and hold her little sister. She is a great big helper.
We are all really enjoying having a baby in the house again!
Fiona has already given out some pretty cute, intentional smiles. She is a pretty mellow girl and really doesn't cry a lot for an infant.

Fiona Grace

The New House

Here are some pictures of our work in progress. Who knew it would be this much work? If only someone had mentioned to me that I am 9 months pregnant and that my list therefore, was crazy. We are so thankful for how things are coming together, but we have a lot to do... for the next few years. We thought we would be painting the day after we got the keys, but things always take longer than expected. It took us 8 days just to clean up all the trash and dust and then prepare for painting. Well we have our list and it will eventually get done, but with the baby coming in a couple of days, it may be even slower than we had hoped. Fortunately, half of our house is more together: painted and clean.