September Happenings

September was such a busy & fun month for us. The first big deal was the Knox County Corn Fest where Molly was big enough this year to participate in lots of the activities! First of all was the parade where she discovered that if you wave, you get lots more candy thrown to you. Let's just say she filled her bag for sure!

Enjoying the parade.

Then there was the Corn Scramble. Quarters are hid in a big wagon full of corn and they put all the 3-4 year old girls in there together and see who can come up with the most quarters. Molly ended up with 3, which tied her for first. She won 2 dollar coins and a candy bar so she was very happy!

Find those quarters!

She also participated in the Pedal Tractor Pull ending up 3rd and getting her picture in the paper with her big medal. She was lucky enough to borrow a frog from a friend and got to be in the frog jumping contest also. Her frog got loose just before the competition and jumped really far with me chasing it...but when it came time for it's jumps to actually count it was rather disappointing. Still fun though. She also got to go on a train ride and jumped in the bouncy house. What a day!

Wes & Dad

Wessie was too little to participate in much of the Corn Fest (we refuse to do baby contests), and although he slept through the parade he did enjoy hanging out with Dad.

Other than the Corn Fest, we also made one big trip to Montana for my best friend's wedding and to visit family. It was a very busy 10 days! It was really nice that Molly had her own seat on the flight--so much more room, and Wes was a pretty good traveler. Here is a photo from the wedding. Molly was the Flower Girl and I was the Maid of Honor. It was SO gorgeous!

Waiting for the Bride's arrival.

Now, we are back home and enjoying the little things. Molly & I made our very first apple pie and Wes started swinging in the outdoor swing. Such fun!

My pie helper!

Swinging with some help from Sister!

November Already

Where did October go? Apparently we were busy, because it just flew by. There were a few highlights that I didn't mention on the blog earlier. October is really a month of birthdays: both my grandparents on my Mom's side, my Mom, Luke and several other friends and family members. Molly is really getting into "parties" whether or not it's much of a party. She can sing Happy Birthday and made sure Daddy had a white cake. Not sure why-but she was determined he needed a white cake.

Luke's 31st B-day

Also, I flew to Seattle for the weekend for our annual girls' trip. Since none of us had a baby or got married this year (it's been awhile since that happened!), we decided to go visit Lynmarie and check out her new house.

Lynmarie's house.

Besides the usual chatting & catching up, we spent time wedding dress shopping (for Lynmarie), seeing the sights of the big city, eating out & we even went to a movie (haven't done that in a LONG time).

Pike's Place Market where we bought some gigantic apples!

I was able to get a direct flight from St. Louis to Seattle so it was pretty easy traveling compared to the usual layovers and kid wrestling that tend to occur with our travels. Luke took over Mommy duty for a few days so I was able to go on the trip. He did great & I think him and Molly had some quality bonding time-and they both survived so that's the main thing!

July-in Summary

I am WAY behind on the blog again...so I decided to just do one post to kind of summarize our month of July. It was a crazy busy month of traveling, but we had lots of fun times! Here are some photos:

It started out with a trip to Carrollton to celebrate the 4th of July. Luke's cousins have a pool at their house & had a "pool party" (as Molly would say) on the 4th. Let me tell you-it was kid craziness in the pool! There were SO many kids there and the pool was full, but it was SO much fun! Molly loved the slide and must of gone down it 100 times.

Matt, Emily, Scarlett, Molly & I at the pool party.

Shortly after this, we headed to Yellowstone Park via Nebraska for Luke's company meeting & trip. While Luke was in meetings all day, Molly & I discovered the Lincoln Children's Zoo and enjoyed the day there. They had lots of animals, a playground, lots of kids and a park, so it was ideal for Molly.

I didn't even show her how to do this. Somehow she just knew you were supposed to put your head through to get your picture taken.

After that, it was off to Big Sky, Montana for the company vacation. The first day we were there, we took a bus tour through Yellowstone Park. I hadn't been there for years, and really enjoyed it.

Checking out the hot pots and geysers.

 We also went on a hayride/cookout up at Big Sky with Cedar Creek Corrals. It turned out being a bit more western than we were expecting, but we all survived.

The cookout location. So pretty!

On the way back to Missouri, we made a quick stop in Billings to visit some of my best friends & then stayed in Rapid City, SD for the night. We were home the next night. After the almost 3,000 mile roadtrip, we were so thankful to be home! We did make one more trip to Carrollton in the month of July, but tried to stay home as much as possible.

Molly's Rainbow Party

I can't hardly believe Molly is 2 years old (and that I've been a Mom for 2 years)! It has been a wonderful, life-changing 2 years and we have a lot to be thankful for!

We had a rainbow themed birthday party for Molly this year. Luke BBQ'ed and I made lots of "rainbowish" sides, with most of my ideas coming from Pinterest. Molly was much more involved this year and really liked eating cake, opening presents & playing with her cousins. She got some really cool presents too!

Ready for the party!

Birthday girl with her Mom & Dad.

Is it time to open presents yet?

Busy Girl

 With the nice weather we have been having, Molly has been a very busy girl (mostly outside). She loves being outside so much and has gotten to explore & run wild alot more this month. This great weather has also lead to fewer blog updates, but I'm trying to keep up with it (sorry!). So here are some of the latest Molly pictures so you all know what's new with her!

We spent a weekend in Carrollton with Luke's Mom for her birthday. It was a really nice time. We helped her some on the farm and got to have some family time. Molly checked out the chickens and thought the hens sitting on the eggs were really cool!

Amazed at all the eggs!

Molly hadn't seen her friend Hallie for a long time, but she got to have a playdate last weekend and catch up. They play so well together!

Molly & Hallie

 We have done ALOT of swinging...I mean LOTS!

Swinging with baby & blankie.

 On Mother's Day, the mama kitty finally brought out her kittens and showed them to the world. Molly has been looking for them for a long time. She was very excited to see them, but they were VERY wild--hissing & spitting at us. I guess we will observe from a distance.

2 of the 4 kittens-none yellow!

Well, that's about it for now. Hope everyone else is having nice weather & getting to spend sometime outdoors too!

Did I Mention...

We sold the heck out of sweet corn a few weeks ago! There were 4 families (including us) that went in together and planted about 2 acres of sweet corn this spring. It was ready to be picked the day we got back from our trip to MT, so no rest for us--it was back to work! When you sell sweet corn you have to pick it the same day that you sell it. When it's over 100 degrees every day, this means getting up and starting to pick as soon as the sun comes up. We would pick about 3 pickup loads every morning and then spread out through several of the local towns around here to sell. By my calculations, we sold somewhere between 500-600 dozen ears of corn! That's a lot of corn and we sold it all in 1 week.

It was quite the busy week--and a TON of work, but it was a great little money-maker project and our freezer is stocked with corn for the winter.

More From Montana-New Buddies

Molly had a great time when we were in Montana and really enjoyed playing with Tucker. They were buddies from the start and before we knew it, she was trying to kiss him! Tucker would have liked to grab her by the neck a couple times...but he would just grit his teeth and resist the urge and smile instead. She's not quite up for the rowdiness of Tucker, but they played very well. He even decided he would take her with him "to work" one day (they didn't actually drive anywhere, don't worry!):


Molly wasn't all too innocent either--I caught her trying to steal Audrey's binky several times:


Molly chillin' with her buds in Billings:

I didn't get any pictures of Molly & Colter. I guess she didn't harass him for his binky like she did Audrey. Colter is such a cutie though & I bet by the next time they're together they will be playing like crazy!

Missin' The Girls

There is nothing better than a good visit with your best friends! We had such a great weekend in Montana visiting my good friends from college Mariah, Mandy & Lynmarie. Although we are all so spread out across the country, we have remained best friends! With the addition of two new little ones this summer, it was essential that we planned a trip back to Montana to catch up. Mariah had a baby boy named Colter & Mandy had a baby girl named Audrey. They are both such sweet little babies!!

The new mommies & their precious babes!

Lynmarie also had something to celebrate...she's engaged!! We had lots of fun looking through bridal magazines and talking about wedding planning. The worst part is, the more time I spend with the girls, the more I miss them when we leave! Maybe someday we will all live in the same state again!!

I've got more pictures to come, but I hear Molly finally waking up (it's 9AM) so I better go!

The 4th!

Just thought I would share some cute pictures of Molly that I took on the 4th of July. We spent the day in Carrollton with Luke's family. Carrollton always has a concert and fireworks show & this year it was Marty Stuart. These pictures are from the concert:

Molly with her second cousins Michaela & Scarlett. Scarlett is just 3 days older than Molly.

Getting a big hug from one of Jeff & Kristy's little girls, Courtney. They were just lovin' on Molly the whole time--so sweet!

Molly's Very First Birthday!!

So, I'm just going to state the obvious and admit that I'm WAY behind on the blogging. Sorry! The last month has just gone by so fast--lots of parties, visitors, a computer virus, a baby virus, vacation, storm, power outage, etc. Anyhow...I decided to start off with a post about Molly's first birthday party and how much fun it was!

On Memorial Day we celebrated Molly's birthday (one day early) with a fish fry and "fish" themed birthday. Lots of family members and friends were able to come and share the day with us--my Dad was even able to come all the way from Montana--yay!

Here are some pictures to sum up the day:

Family Photo

The Fish Cake

All "caked" out!

Opening presents with Daddy's help

Showing off her new toys to her buddies.

Best Friends?

While it's been so cold and nasty outside, one of my good friends & I have taken the time to stay inside and work to complete the Masters of Beef Advocacy program through the National Cattleman's Beef Association. This has worked out well for Molly and her friend Hallie to have play dates.


Hallie is almost old enough that she can start actually playing, but Molly still looks gigantic next to her (they're about 5 months apart). The last time Hallie was here, they did the cutest thing ever--they held hands while sitting next to each other! We thought "best friends for sure!" Everything was great until Molly decided she didn't want to hold hands anymore, and Hallie wasn't letting go!

So, we'll see if they become best friends or not. It's kind of typical of little girl friendships--one minute they're inseparable and the next they're pulling each others hair--you just never know!

The Heifers Are Home

It has been really cold and snowy lately--can you tell? Well, we finally got our new heifers home and officially doubled our cow herd. They are due to start calving the end of February, so they have a few weeks to settle in before the real work continues (for us anyhow).



It was quite the adventure hauling the heifers home. The place we bought them from is about 40 miles from here, so we borrowed a 24' trailer from some friends and figured we could make it in two trips home. We were planning on hauling them last Friday, but we were supposed to get 3-6 inches of snow, so we figured we better try to get them before the snow set in. We went for one load after Luke got off work one evening and everything was fine until we got about a mile from home. We had to turn a sharp corner and then head up a pretty steep hill--we got about 10 feet from the top of the hill and spun out. The trailer (and us) went sliding backwards until it hit the snowbank on the side of the road. Thank goodness there wasn't more of a ditch or we would of really been in trouble. But...we were stuck, and it was dark and cold and the heifers were all at the back of the trailer kind of piled up on each other. Let's just say it was a REALLY bad situation. To make a long story short, we are SO thankful for our friends that were able to back another trailer up to the trailer that was stuck and unload half the heifers into it. That way, the trailer was light enough to be pulled up over the hill and home. Somehow the truck, trailer and all the heifers seem to be fine...whew!

Unfortunately, we still had to make another trip first thing in the morning. Luke salted and sanded the hill before we left and we only hauled half as many cattle and thankfully made it fine. What an ordeal! We had planned on trying to actually purchase some more, but after that situation...I think we will be fine with what we have now!

Since we've had the heifers home it has been cold and snowy every single day, so we have been pretty busy keeping everything fed and happy.

Love Notes

Back in September, we were able to meet up with our friends Greg & Lesley who had a baby boy about 6 weeks after Molly was born. They live in Oklahoma so we don't get to see them often & we were really excited to meet baby Tyler. We met them for lunch and it was pretty cute to see the two little babies lined up next to each other in their carriers. Tyler even brought Molly a little gift for their "first date". I'm sure we will be teasing them about this when they are teenagers--haha!

This is the Mizzou Tiger onesie that Tyler gave Molly:


Thanks Tyler! We can't wait to see you again. Next time we will be big enough to play.

Florida Visitors

Our good friends Cathy & Chad (Luke's roommate from graduate school), were in Missouri for a wedding a couple weeks ago and also visited us. We hadn't seen them since their wedding 3 years ago, as they moved to Florida about the same time that Luke & I moved up to our farm. We're so glad they took the extra time to come see us and meet Molly. Molly thought Chad was just hilarious and always had a big smile for him. It was so good to see them and catch up; it had been way too long!

Corn Fest

Since I've last posted, the county we live in has had it's annual Corn Festival. This is kind of the "big event" that the county puts on every year and since it was Molly's first chance to go, we had to take it all in. They had a great parade and Molly really enjoyed it. Usually she gets bored if she is in the stroller and you're not moving it, but she just sat there and watched everything go by and was really happy the whole time.
A friend of ours is running for County Commissioner, so we had to be sure to cheer them on as they passed through the parade:


After the parade we took a tour of the square, where they had lots of booths & food stands set up. We didn't spend too much time though, because we had to leave for a family reunion that afternoon. I didn't take any pictures at the family reunion, but it was nice to see everyone & all the new babies. Molly has a second cousin that is only 2 days older than her, so it's fun to see how they've grown.

Earlier that week, my computer crashed right in the middle of working on a cow sale catalog and it turns out the entire hard drive went bad, so I lost all the pictures I had on my computer. What a bummer. I also lost the catalog file I had worked on for hours and had to have done...I ended up having to tell them I couldn't finish it, which was really a bad deal but I guess there was nothing that could of prevented it. Technology can be so frustrating! But, now my computer is back up and running and hopefully I can try to do some more work from home in the future (and at least keep the blog updated a little better).

Visitors

Last weekend my three best friends came to visit from Montana and meet little Miss Molly. I hadn't seen Mandy or Mariah since Mariah's wedding last September, or Lynmarie since Christmas, so we were definitely due for a visit and Molly's birth gave us a great excuse to get together. It's so great to have friends that even if you don't see them for months at a time, when you do, it's just like you were never apart--love you girls!!

Molly got to meet her honorary aunties:
Saturday night we went to the Adams County Fair by Quincy, to the Lonestar concert:
Luke deserves the Dad/Husband of the Year award for taking Molly for a walk around the fair while the girls and I enjoyed the beer garden. It was a really good time.
I miss them already and can't wait until the next time we can all get together!

4th of July

We spent the 4th of July weekend in Carrollton with Luke's family. This was Molly's first overnight trip and she did relatively well. The evening before the 4th we went to a BBQ at Luke's cousin's house. This 4th was way more about babies than beer, but I guess were growing up! Luke has 2 other cousins that had May babies, so it was fun to see the 3 babies. Molly was definitely the smallest, but she was also the youngest and had the lowest birth weight.

On the 4th of July Molly went to her first concert-Little Texas played at the football field. Remember songs like "God Bless Texas", "Amy's Back in Austin" & "Some Guys Have All The Luck"? That's Little Texas.

All in all, Molly slept through the entire concert and never even got out of her car seat to show off her patriotic outfit.

Baby Shower Weekend

Two weeks ago (wow, already!) my sister-in-law, Amanda & future sister-in-law, Emily, hosted a baby shower for Luke & I at Luke's parent's house. They had intended on having it outside but the weather didn't cooperate and everyone was stuck inside. I hope that Steve & Debbie's house wasn't too destroyed because it was really packed & there were lots of little kids there!!

It was such a nice shower though & we are so much more prepared for Baby Miller now. It's so nice to know that so many people care about our little baby. Emily made sure to make the guys feel included by having a baby bottle beer chugging contest which was pretty entertaining. Luke's cousin Kacey ended up beating all the guys anyhow! I didn't get many pictures--my camera takes terrible pictures indoors, but here are a few:

Opening presents: I wasn't feeling the best and had some pretty swollen feet--Luke was a big help!

Baby Miller's first cowboy boots! Can you believe these were Luke's at one time?

The results of the onesie decorating contest--pretty darn cute:
We also got to meet Baby Emma that weekend! Emma is my sister-in-law Amanda's baby who was born last August. She lives in Florida & with me starting a new job and being pregnant we weren't able to travel to see her. They made the trip to Missouri though, so we finally got to meet the new edition. She is such a happy & cute girl! We had alot of fun with her:

Uncle Luke & Emma: Luke worked on getting some baby experience. He even changed a diaper for Emma. In this picture he's comforting Leah's (a friend) little girl, Kendra. It worked, because she quit crying!

We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our baby & finishing up the preparations in the nursery. We are taking a childbirth class this weekend which will hopefully not freak us out & just make us more prepared for what is to come. Some days I wish I would just have the baby & other days I feel like it can just stay in there awhile longer. Everyone keeps telling me that it's much easier to take care of while its still inside... We will just keep waiting and whenever Baby Miller is ready, it will be here!