Introducing Dusty Christopher...

Dusty Christopher
7 lbs 12 ounces, 20 inches, 8:01 AM
He has lots and lots of red hair.
We are sure happy to finally see him and hold him.
Thanks to G'ma Susie for the pictures!

My heart

has been stolen by these three.
On Wednesday morning my heart will be stolen once again when baby boy #3 is born.
Please come and see us if you are in the area. We would love it! It is always special to share the excitement of having a new baby.

48/52 Preparing for baby

38 1/2 weeks pregnant...(I just set the timer on my camera for the first two shots of my belly and me painting)
That is sure a handy function to have and know how to use finally. :)

Painting baby's shelf orange...

My head in the reflection of the mtn lion tracks on my screen.

Me and my bogs in the reflection of our sliding glass door with mtn lion blood on it (and lots of kids prints, dog prints & mud).

For more of an explanation on the mtn lion on my deck see a couple of posts below.

How did this happen...

How did my two baby boys grow up so fast. They look so grown up in their meeting clothes.

They are the best of friends. As I am typing right now they are walking around in cowboy boots and carrying their babies. The babies at this moment are two stuffed animal puppy dogs. Another favorite game is to take mom's stools from the kitchen and pretend that they are tractors or snowblowers or skidsters.
Thanks to G'ma Susie for emailing these pictures of the boys that she took.

Perfectly Imperfect

A little story about these pictures...
I took Fischer's coat off to try and take a few shots of him with his button up cowboy shirt on. He was not impressed. He kept telling me that he was freezing. Don't worry I wasn't too mean. I put his coat on right after my little photo session here.

A few things I want to remember about Fischer...

The other day we were heading to a nearby swimming pool. As you can imagine I have a hard time finding anything that fits very well. I just decided to wear some shorts and a t-shirt over my green bathing suit. Fish looked up at me with a smile and said "Mom, you look like Toad." If any of you have ever read Frog and Toad there is a story about Toad in which he decides to wear a bathing suit to go swimming in, but is embarrassed to have the other animals see him in it. :) I can relate right now, and his little thought made me laugh.

As we were getting ready for bed Fischer explained to me that "Hazen, him and me" all have "whiny voices" sometimes but Dad never does because his voice his deep. And then he proceeded to talk very low and business like. As you can imagine Chris thought this was great!

As we were driving in the car to town I had a favorite radio station playing. There was a lady singing from France and then I heard a voice from the back tell me "that lady sounds funny. She must be Amish." I have never talked much about Amish people, and I have no idea where he came up with this!

He loves to listen to Hank the Cow Dog on our CD Player, and his favorite CD right now is The Case of the Missing Watermelons.

Making "dump piles" has become a favorite thing to do...much to my dismay.

He takes all of the toys in the basement and piles them in the middle of the room. Needless to say I had to try to put a stop to this after the 6th time that we were trying to put everything back!

He loves to pretend with his brother. Recently they have been Clifford and G'pa George or Kenny, Jennelle and baby Chaizley.

He also loves to pack things in an old suitcase that we have or his lunch boxes downstairs.

I took these two pictures of Hazen yesterday. I love them for so many reasons. That morning he had run into my end table so Daddy had to put a Spongebob band aid on his cheek. It really is amazing what a special band aid and kiss from Mom can fix.

His shirt is on inside out because he has to dress himself.

Definitely in the "me do it" and "I'm big" stage. Here lately he says "I'm big" and then stands up real tall with his tummy and chest stuck out.

He had just woken up from a very long nap, and his hair shows it.

Also he is eating a special ice cream sandwich because just that day he had taken it upon himself to come upstairs and go poo in the pot. This is a big deal when your little boy tells you that he needs to go poo instead of hiding somewhere! He is becoming self motivated. HOORAY

We will see how long it lasts.

A Mtn Lion & A False Alarm

Yesterday started out like any Sunday morning. We dressed the boys for meeting, and I took some pictures of the boys in their Sunday clothes.

After lunch at G'pa and G'ma's house, we headed home to take a nap. Our dog Dot met us halfway up the road, and then followed us home. When we pulled up to the driveway Chris said "there is a mtn lion on the deck!" I looked at him like he was crazy. I thought it was such a random thing to say, but then I saw it. When we pulled up it started batting at my sliding glass door screen, and then jumped up and ripped my screen off of the window above our red couch in the livingroom. Chris thought it must have thought that my windows were a way out. I was worried the cat might go through one of my windows. Can you imagine the mess then?

Chris then parked the car behind the horsetrailer to make the cat feel less trapped. The cat then hopped onto the ledge of my front windows facing the mtn, and finally jumped off of the side of the deck. I am not sure how the mtn lion had cut itself, but there was blood on my windows and screens.
I never imagined that in my last weeks of pregnancy one of things I would have to do is wash mtn lion prints and blood off of my outside windows and screens.

I think all of the excitement might have caused me to start having contractions. We had to take the boys up to G'pa and G'ma's house at 10:30PM, and head to the hospital about an hour and a half away. We had to stay over night, and my contractions stopped with the help of some medication. It is best for baby if I can wait until my scheduled c-section. So now we are home, and resting up from all the excitement yesterday!

This is the side of the deck that the mtn lion leaped over to head for some near by trees.

47/52 Waiting for Baby...

37 weeks

We are packed and ready to go just in case!

The Rancher's Wife's Boys

Just click on the image to make it bigger.