Happy 1st Birthday Helena

You are such a sweet and precious girl. We love your smile and laugh. It has been a great first year and look forward to what next year brings. Happy Birthday!

"Finger Painting"

Maybe it's more like body painting. I mixed up some finger paint for Hannah today by adding food coloring to vanilla yogurt. I taped a piece of butcher paper to the floor. In the end it wasn't really big enough. I gave her the three primary colors to work with. I spooned all three onto the paper and Hannah went to smearing them all over. When she had smeared them to her hearts content she would say "that." "That" is her all encompassing term for, "I want more of that" or "What is that?". She really enjoyed herself. It is pretty obvious that I'm new at the kiddo and mess thing because I didn't plan for what I would do with a little one covered in colored yogurt. When she was done she headed off to the next fun thing. I had to convince her to stay in one spot while I got a towel. I scooped her up and gave her a quick bath. Next time hopefully I will think to plan ahead for the clean up of the kiddo.

Hannah's first piece of artwork. Abstract wouldn't you say? Really the paper is under there somewhere.

Upper Table Rock

Yesterday Mom, Hannah and I went to Medford to do a little bit of shopping. Before we came home we decided to go on a "little hike." We hiked up Upper Table Rock outside of Medford. It is rated as easy and I would imagine it is if you don't immediately gain 20 pounds by carrying your child in a backpack. Is this what it's like to be on "The Biggest Looser"? It was a 2.8 miles round trip and we had an elevation gain of 720 feet. Once we got going I was fine but in the first 50 feet I wasn't sure if I could do it. We got warmed up and then it went pretty well. I took my camera so I had the excuse of stopping OFTEN to take pictures of wild flowers or the scenery we overlooked.

Hannah and Mama. Notice Hannah's head is almost laying on my shoulder. She fell asleep about half way up.

The view part way up the trail. Mt. McLoughlin in the background.



Some wild flowers. I tried briefly to find out their names to no avail.

A little wildlife along the way.

Spring Work

Sunday afternoon we got a crew together and worked the cows and calves. Every spring the cows get vaccinated and wormed and the calves get vaccinated, branded and the bull calves get castrated. We did have one lucky purebred bull calf that was fortunate enough to get away with staying a bull that day. The rest are now steers and will be ready to go to the auction in the fall when they are weaned along with a few of the heifers.

We had lots of help. We had my Dad (Lee), Ben's Dad (Randy), Randy's cousin and his son, Lynn, Austin, Ben and myself. My Mom was busy playing with Hannah. Our friend's Carrie and Garret came to watch the excitement.

I do have to admit that we don't really do it in traditional cowboy style. We don't rope or have cow dogs that are trained to help, and there wasn't a horse on the place. We even have a branding iron that plugs in to an extension cord. We have Powder River working facilities with a squeeze chute (for the cows) and a calf table. So really cowboy doesn't describe us...I think we are just people with cows from the looks of it. Would we like some of traditional items? Yes, there are definitely times when they would help. Like when the wild calf escapes out of the calf table and Austin basically has to ride/bulldog the calf back to the alley. Some days I think, "I really should learn how to rope better."

Erika vaccinating a calf.

Erika castrating a bull calf.
Did we have a rocky mountain oyster fry when we were done? NO!! The dogs had some good eats though.

Ben and Garrett (Son of Randy's cousin)

Working with a bull calf in the calf table.

A bull calf that was really glad to get out of there!

(All above photos taken by Mary Cheyne)

Garret and Hannah playing outside.

(Photo courtesy of Carrie Guthrie)

Bunny Love?

A couple of weeks ago I took Hannah up to Grandpa Randy's to see the bunnies that he and Lynn found in the wood pile (I think) and rescued from the dogs. Hannah was not too sure what to think of the bunnies. Even with me holding it and petting it I couldn't get her to touch it. Last night Hannah got to visit the bunnies again and this time she actually touched them. I think she really wanted to grab it and make it squeak but we kept that from happening. I'm crossing my fingers that they don't end up as a birthday present for Hannah. Just what I need, a one year old and two baby bunnies to feed (hint, hint)! :)

Photo courtesy of Lynn

Playing Inside

We are still playing inside trying to get away from the wind, dust, and snow! I hear it's supposed to be warm this weekend but I'm not holding my breath. So moving on from the cornmeal box I thought we would try corn starch. Silly Mommy!! Are you crazy? In my defense I did this right before bath time. Hannah did love playing in it. She took hand fulls and squeezed them. It made funny sounds and shot out all over. This only lasted for a short time. She was tired and jumped into my arms. I was then covered in corn starch! I think we may wait awhile before trying this again, as fun as it was.

This Weekend

This weekend Ben, Hannah and I went to my parent's house to help my Dad build some fence. Grandma and Hannah played in the house which was good because it ended up snowing on us before it was all over. We came in for lunch and Hannah was playing around the table while we ate. Here are a couple of cute pictures that Grandma took of her.

She loves cabinets and drawers and will unload what ever she can out of them.

On a side note Hannah was looking through a book last night that we don't read much. She was going through and pointing out all of the ducks in the book. I had not previously pointed them out to her. Some of them probably were baby chicks but who's going to argue with an 11 month old at that point. Duck is the most clear animal name that she says. She can identify others but if you haven't been in on the translation you wouldn't know what she's talking about.

"Sand Box"

The spring winds have started around here. For those of you that aren't familiar with them, they can turn a perfectly nice day in one that's cold and incredibly dusty. Hannah and I have spent some time outside on the nice days but haven't gotten to go out much lately. I made her a makeshift sand box in the house. It's a container full of cornmeal that she can throw all over the kitchen. (Thanks for the idea Kari.) It's a great inside alternative to having sand all over the house and she's learning that it's not very tasty to eat!