Whirl Wind Trip

We just got home last night from a whirl wind trip to Chico and Sacramento. We left Sunday morning and headed to Chico. We stopped at Ben's aunt and uncle's to drop off out things and visit for awhile. Then we headed to Paradise to visit Ben's Grandpa and his wife. We spent several hours with them. They really enjoyed getting to see their great-granddaughter. We headed back to Chico in time to eat dinner and see a new cousin.

We got up early Monday morning and headed to Sacramento. We stopped on our way in to see Ben's other Grandpa and Grandma. They too loved the surprise visit of their grand kids and great-granddaughter. We spent a couple of hours with them and then headed into Sacramento for the purpose of our trip.

Ben attended the California Farm Bureau Leadership Conference where he served as a representative for Modoc County on the Wheat and Feed Grains committee. He was in committee meetings all afternoon so Hannah and I did some shopping. Really we only made it to two places before I was worn out and got tired of driving around in circles trying to get to places. For some reason in big cities I have a hard time driving directly to places I want to go.

We made it back to our room and rested for awhile. When Ben got out of his meeting we went to dinner and then came back and headed to bed.

Tuesday morning Ben went down to listen to guest speakers and Hannah and I went and visited my aunt. Again I couldn't drive straight there! We had a good visit with her and then we headed back to the hotel room to check out. We had lunch with Ben and other people from Modoc County and then headed back home.

Hannah slept from just outside Sacramento until about Shasta Lake. She decided it was time to get out the of the pickup. We took the next exit and happened upon a little campground and day use area called Bailey Cove. It was a beautiful day. It was about 65 degrees out, calm and sunny. It really made me want to go camping there but I knew it would get cold at night. Hannah was ready to get out and stretch her legs so we let her crawl around the day use area for awhile.

Hannah is now convinced that pine needles are not an approved part of a baby girl's diet!

Reading Time

Every night that Daddy is home at bedtime he reads a couple of books to Hannah. As a matter of fact when I read to Hannah before bed time she turns around several times to try to figure out why I'm reading and Daddy isn't. Here they are reading Hannah's favorite book "Guess Who Farm Friends." She has enjoyed it since she was a couple of months old and therefore it has already seen a lot of repairs. It has a pop-up at the end she just can't keep her hands off of. The little lamb has been ripped out several times now and has forever lost one of his ears.

Weight Check

Hannah had a weight check one week ago. She weighed 16 pounds 9 ounces. She had gained 8 ounces in 4 weeks. The doctor seems to be pleased with her progress. She is beginning to climb back up the percentiles as she recovers from having had the flu about 5 weeks ago. She remains on the "weight gainer" diet and loves all the good food she gets to eat.

Happy Valentine's Day

What Were You Doing at 4:15 This Morning?

Sleeping I hope! However, I'm thankful that Hannah decided it was time to eat at 4:00 this morning. We are calving and have already lost one calf to the nasty weather we have been having and I'm determined not to let it happen again. Even if I have to let cleaning the house go (OH, DARN) to make sure I get enough sleep. So, I fed Hannah and drug myself out of bed and into the cold. I had some good motivation since I had checked at 10:30 last night and one cow looked like she was going to calve very soon.

I wheeled out there and sure enough there was a furry black thing laying in the snow very still. I negotiated the drifts (which I have already been stuck in) and got to the calf. I thought for sure it was dead but it kicked a leg and bawled. I immediately jumped into action and threw the calf on the floor board of the pickup while watching Mama Cow to make sure she wasn't going to eat me.

I raced back to the house and drug the calf inside. One of my earliest memories of living on my Grandpa's ranch was when my Dad was helping calve and brought one into the house one cold winter night. He got the bright yellow hair dryer (think early 80s) out and began to warm the calf up. If it worked then it will probably work now. I got my blankets, towels, hair dryer, bottle and milk replacer and went to work. Daddy's job meantime was to keep Hannah asleep as long as possible while I worked on the calf. The news finally came on and I learned that it was 1 degree outside. No wonder he was cold and nearly dead! With the shock of an over 90 degree temperature difference who can blame him for wanting to give up!


They got up about 6:00 and came out to join the excitement. Hannah loved it! She was watching me work and then would venture up to pet the calf. She was fascinated by the mooing. Ben had trucks to load so it was left to Hannah and I to get the calf to stand and nurse, and then get him his shots and eartag before taking him back to Mama.


Finally about 8:15 we got him back to Mama Cow. I was driving out of the pasture when I noticed that another cow's water had broken. I thought here we go! This may be "one of those days." It seems every year we have a really cold day when calves keep dropping and we are doing good to keep up with getting them warm and fed. Today being "Super Tuesday" I thought I had better go vote in between calves or I may never get the chance. We drove the 2.5 miles to vote, got back to the pasture and the new calf was already on the ground. I drove to the house and by then it was already up and nursing. What a difference a few degrees and some sunshine can make!

Have a warm day!

Nine Month Pictures

Nine Months Old

Hannah is nine months old today. She had her nine month appointment last Friday and weighed in at 15 pounds 1 ounce and 27 inches long. You may not have remembered but I did that she weighed 15 pounds at her 6 month appointment. A gain of 1 ounce...not so good. We all had a TERRIBLE stomach flu about a week before Hannah's appointment. She had only had her appetite back for about 2 days before her doctor's appointment. I knew her weight wouldn't be great. Today we went back for a weight check and she weighed 16 pounds 2 ounces. That's a gain of 1 pound 1 ounce in one week! Needless to say she is feeling better and eating much better. The doctor put her on the weight gainer diet and she's loving it!

Like Father, Like Daughter

Today Hannah found the basket of old newspapers. She loves paper and loves to page through books so what better to do than drag out the newspapers and sort through them. Ben and I just laughed as she pretended to be reading the paper. It's possible that she's seen Daddy do it a time or two.

Hannah as been wound tight today. She has been racing around the house and talking up a storm. We had a relatively calm morning and then Daddy came home from loading trucks, and that's when it all started. I'm looking forward to the day when she can help me a little bit and expend some of that pent up energy! She's napping now so I'm hoping for a longer than usual nap time.

Watching Daddy work outside. The squeals and giggles never stopped the entire time she could see him.

Posing for Mommy.

Get Email Updates

I recently placed an email subscription function at the top left of the blog. It says "email subscriptions powered by feedblitz". Here you can enter your email address to subscribe to this blog. Enter your email address in the yellow box and then click "Get email updates". You will then be taken to Feedblitz where you will be asked to enter some crazy looking letters to tell them you are legitimately wanting to sign up for the blog and not some rude Internet crazy person. You should then be sent an email each time that I update the blog. I have had an email address subscribed to it for several weeks now and have not gotten any junk...only updates.

You may find this helpful so that you don't have to keep checking back to see if I have updated. As you might have noticed I have been on a 1 1/2 week hiatus and sometimes we don't have much to talk about. When I update the blog you will receive an email with only the text of what I have posted. If you are interested in looking at pictures I have included you can click on "The DuVal Family" in your email update and it will take you to the blog.

If you have a blog and want to include this this same feature on yours click here or you can click on "Powered by Feedblitz" on the left. It's pretty self explanatory.

Backwards Binkie

Little Miss Hannah has never really been into using a pacifier. She used one for a few weeks when she was about one month old but that was it...until she started teething. I start by putting the pacifier correctly into her mouth and she takes it out and turns it around. She prefers to chew on the handle side rather than to suck on the rubber side. She carries it in her mouth as she crawls around the house looking rather silly. She apparently hasn't read the book "What to Expect in the First Year" as she has sworn herself off of baby food or anything pureed, insists on using a pacifier backwards and recently started blowing bubbles in the bath tub (that's for another post). Those "how to be prepared as a parent books" are lately of no use to me since our Little Miss seems to want to do things differently!