First Father's Day

I apologize in advance to those of you who want to be updated on Homestead projects (which there are PLENTY, including one happening right now), or the doggies, or our equine children, or the rest of the wedding, or the honeymoon we took last year, or anything else I've alluded to but never posted about. We kinda have baby fever over here, and well, its gonna spill over into this blog.

But at least I'm blogging!

For the first time, Cowboy H celebrated Father's Day with a fur-less, two-legged being this year. And it just kills me dead.

Too bad Baby H has such a sad face in this photo

And lest you think Hank has been kicked to the curb…

Hope y'all had a wonderful Father's Day as well!

Look Who's Here!!

That's right, the newest member of our family has arrived!

Born May 23, 2011 at 3:04 am, Baby H weighed in at 8 pounds, 15 ounces and measured 21 inches. And that was after passing his first poops while still in my belly. Just a small fry, ya know.

I promise that I will update y'all with more baby pics, labor/delivery details (or not), the finished nursery and just life in general with a newborn. It may take a while however, since I am resigned to typing with one hand while the other holds Baby H who, after 3 weeks, will no longer sleep unless held.

Until then, here's a few more photos to hold you over.

Tears In My Eyes

Tonight, as a parent I experienced one of the proudest moments of my life. Seriously, my heart swelled in my chest and something became lodged in my throat.

You may or may not remember, but a little over a year ago, when we rescued The Hankster, he required a major orthopedic surgery.

Poor little guy was only 12 weeks old and he came home like this:

In the months (heck, the whole year) that followed, Cowboy H and I often questioned whether the surgery did any good. Occasionally, we considered having the entire leg amputated. For the longest time it seemed, Hank didn't even use the leg. It was just there, even in the way sometimes.

Eventually we realized that the leg was shorter than the other one. In the few weeks between his injury and the surgery, the blood supply to his femur had been compromised. For that period of time, Hank's right femur did not grow at the same rate as the other, making the leg a little stumpy. We're still not sure if he'll ever use the leg normally, despite the fact that he gets quite a bit of use out of it now.

In addition to having leg surgery, Hank was also neutered the same day. The combination of not using the leg and not having the male hormones made us wonder if he would ever stop squatting to pee.

Until tonight. Tonight, while running around at the park, Hank stood on his bad leg and lifted his good leg to pee on a pole.

I have never been prouder.

Never, ever in my life.

In other news, the winner of the "Name That Photo" contest has been decided.

The Desert Rose: "Redneck woman vacuums up two dogs..."

I seriously laughed out loud, because well, I wouldn't be surprised if I actually did vacuum up a dog someday.

Congrats Desert Rose! Take your pick of one of the following:

A Text Message I Sent Cowboy H

Let me give you a little back-story first. As y'all probably know by now Hank loves Cowboy H. I mean loves him. When I let the dogs back in the house after their morning potty-break, if Cowboy H is not awake and walking around, Hank runs around the bed, looking to see if he's still there. Then, if he sees or hears him still in bed, he runs around the bed even more, trying his hardest with his three little good legs to get in bed with Cowboy H.

This morning, Cowboy H left early this morning right after putting the dogs out. When I let them in later in the morning, I had pulled the covers up on the bed, so it really looked like someone was still in bed. Hank came running in and started jumping up on the bed, crying and well, looking for his dad. It killed me!

So I sent Cowboy H this text message:

"Dad please come home. i miss you. i looked for you in bed and you weren't there"

Ahahaha, I crack myself up. Seriously, who does this crap?

Please, if you are guilty of sending text messages on behalf of your pet, 'fess up. We may need to seek help together.

A Homemade Wedding Homestead-Style: Dance! Dance! Dance!

There were three (or four) very important factors to Cowboy H and I in regards to our wedding. One was that the food be amazing. Check. Another was that everything have meaning to us, i.e. not doing something just because its "tradition". Check. Third, we really wanted that down-home, casual, relaxed, spontaneous atmosphere. Check.

And, lastly, we wanted a rockin' dance party!

Our swing dance pretty much set the tone, and pretty soon the dance floor was hopping.

Cowboy H and I danced and danced. I actually was able to two-step around the entire dance floor without screwing up. It was amazing. The two-step is not my strong suit.

Pretty soon my dad sidled up to me and stated, "Everyone says we need to dance together."

So, you're all thinking, Wha?! No father-daughter dance?! Well, I actually had a song all picked out, and I asked my dad, "Do you want to do a father-daughter dance?" And he replied, "No, I don't think we need to. I mean, you're already married, its not like this is the real thing." So, father-daughter dance was scratched. Or so we thought.

I don't even remember what song the band played, but I know it was a good one. For your information, I had picked out "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" sung by Judy Garland since Wizard of Oz is my dad's favorite movie.

No matter, I'm really glad we danced together after all, even if my dad is a horrible dancer.

Photo by my Nina

It was a pretty sweet moment. And pretty soon a bunch of sets of 'father-daughers' joined us. I loved it.

At some point, Cowboy H was caught dancing with his mom, even though we didn't do an "official" mother-son dance.

Photo by my Nina

Even though they weren't planned, I'm glad we got all these special moments captured.

Because, pretty soon, we were back to tearing up the dance floor.

Up Next: All The Details

(I swear, I'm almost done, but if you missed anything, check it all out here.)

All images by Applemoon Photography unless otherwise noted!

Feel The Love

Last night Cowboy H asked me to email him two photos.

One of him and Crow.

The other of him and Hank.

I obliged and asked if he needed full res images or if I could send him smaller, email-friendly versions.

He responded, "Um, I don't know. I want to use them as the background for my desktop, so whatever you think."

At first, my heart melted. Awww, how sweet, he wants photos of his horse and his dog at work, I thought.

Then, something clicked inside my head.

"HEY! You want photos of your dog and your horse, but what about YOUR WIFE!?!?"

And the punk that he is, just smirked and laughed at me.

Talk about feeling the love.

Hooked

Cowboy H this morning: "Do we have any carrots?"

"Yeah, they're in the fridge. But they need to be either washed or peeled for human consumption.

"Oh, that's okay. I just want to take one to Crow when I go see him today.

I know, huh. I know.

A Homemade Wedding Homestead-Style: Hamming It Up

Hello folks! Despite the forecasts calling for rain all day today, I woke up to bright blue skies, the sun shining and birds chirping! I also woke up with a clear head, thankyouverymuch. There's so much I could get done today! Ah, I love that feeling.

First off, I'm going to run out to the ranch with the dogs and mess around with the horses a bit. They both need baths badly! Then, I might actually clean house and do some laundry. Oh my!

Anyone else have big weekend plans?

~~~

In the last of the wedding saga, things were getting started at the barn during cocktail hour. But Cowboy H and I weren't there yet! We had whisked away to some special locations for our couple's portraits.

We started at this mustard yellow barn, which is kind of a landmark in my small hometown. In elementary/jr. high, my school bus used to stop here to pick up kids! And, my great-grandfather actually built this barn! How cool is that?

I've shown you this one before, but its one of my absolute favorites, so its worth sharing again. Eventually, this one's going on the wall!

From the yellow barn, we moved down the road a little ways into the orange groves. In this location, we were actually directly across the road from the reception!

From here, we actually went to the reception location, but snuck around a bit taking pictures before joining the party. All the "props" you see in the following photos are permanent residents of the barn and its surrounding areas!

By now, we had been spotted and some of our guests gathered round to watch the behind the scenes.

Photo by Katie


Photo by Katie




Please note that Cowboy H is actually trying to drive the mini John Deere.

And with that, I headed straight for the appetizer table!

Photo by Lauren

Up Next: Photobooth or Bust!

All photography unless otherwise noted is credited to the rockin' Applemoon Photography!

A Homemade Wedding Homestead-Style: Love, Sweet Love

I was going to take y'all inside the barn to where the party was getting started, but have changed my mind. In honor of Valentine's Day, I'm going to share a few wedding photos of just Cowboy H and I.

Have the trash can handy, cause it's gonna be lovey-dovey gooshy-mooshy pukey-wookey overload.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

All photographs taken by Applemoon Photography!

Welcome To My Life, Ed. 2, Vol III

At 2 am this morning, the smoke alarm went off.

BEEP!

BEEP!

BEEP!

Then, silence.

Cowboy H: What the?!?!

Mama H: (mumbling) It's the smoke alarm.

Cowboy H: But why did it go off? Has it done that before?

Mama H: (mumbles something)

Cowboy H gets out of bed to investigate. Mama H's eyes roll back in her head and all she can think is Do NOT make me get out of bed.

Cowboy H returns from investigating and gets back in bed.

Mama H: (mumbling) What was it?

Cowboy H: I don't know. That's weird that it just went off for no reason. Maybe its a ghost.

Mama H: (a little more coherently) Maybe the fire got so hot it set it off. Maybe it has a temperature sensor.

Cowboy H: No, that wouldn't be it.

Both roll back over and start to fall back asleep.

Cowboy H: (mumbling now) You set it off. You're so smoking hot you set off the smoke alarm.

Mama H: (smiles and snuggles in)

Good golly, I love my man.

A Homemade Wedding Homestead-Style: The Ceremony Aftermath

I could hear the chuckles as we left the church to the sounds of "Forever and Ever, Amen". People couldn't believe we were playing that song for our church wedding. But it fit us perfect, and had the vibe that I wanted. I could barely contain myself from skipping and jumping down the aisle.

Behind us, the rest of the group trickled out, smiling and breathing sighs of relief I'm sure.

A cool thing about this photo: Just to the left of Jenna's face are her mom and dad.

An impromptu receiving line was formed just outside the church doors, and I proceeded to display my finest faces.

If nothing else, I wear my heart on my sleeve. Its written all over my face.

I'm pretty sure we hugged and spoke with every one of our guests (at least the ones who went to the ceremony, ahem). There was so much joy and love and happiness going around.

I made sure to snag one photo with my three ushers before Cowboy H and I whisked off for our own private photo shoot.

In the meantime, the guests slowly made their way to the reception site (a pretty rough 3 minutes down the road) and got ready to party.

Up Next: The Down-Home Barn Party Begins

Of course, I can't forget Applemoon Photography. Thank you for the beautiful pictures!