It's hay making season again!

Mt. Dew keeps Joe going - or so he says...

Yes, I helped rake too... for about 5 hrs the first day.

Day 2 - Magnus helped by making sure Jack didn't get cold.

Magnus enjoyed covering Jack up until....

you could barely see him!

Day 2 - help arrives! We must have REALLY good friends!!

Tamela, Magnus and Jack

Well, folks, if you thought we were crazy for hand raking our hay last year, you would've thought we were insane this year! We let the grass grow even taller, and we raked the ENTIRE pasture (5 or 6 acres?). We got about 120 bales' worth of hay this time (quite a lot more than last year) which should be enough to feed the horses all winter! =) They really like this "special" hand-raked/stacked hay too for some reason, and will leave their precious grain to start digging into it. Joe worked hour after hour, raking, loading in the trailer and unloading in the barn. He spent two whole days furiously working on it before the rains came. I was good help for about 1/2 day, with pregnancy as my excuse to pardon myself. Then Melvin, Tamela and Melvin's brother Ben came for an evening and helped us finish. What a blessing they were! I can't believe what good friends we have - they have the blisters to prove it! =)

Memorial Day Feast With Friends

Joe and Magnus holding "Spring", the Boardmans' sweet little Italian Greyhound

The trampoline!

Backyard cookout and playtime.

The food - and oh, was it yummy! Chicken, burgers and shrimp on the 'barbie!

We went to the Boardmans' house for a Memorial Day BBQ with friends. The guys grilled some yummy meat, the kids played non-stop and Jennifer, Lisa and I talked pretty much non-stop too, when I wasn't too busy stuffing my face. =) We had more food than we could hope to eat, but we certainly gave it a valiant effort!! I thought I wouldn't want to eat again for a week, but today, not even 24 hours later, I'm thinking of that grilled shrimp and roasted corn on the cob... Ahh, what a wonderful way to celebrate and remember what our veterans and troops have done and are doing for our country. I definitely think we should do it more often!

You know spring is here when...

Little boys get dressed up for Easter Sunday at church.

The grass needs mowed - frequently!

The Goldfinches are back in town and hungry from their long journey.

One horse sheds this much fur in just one brushing! (Jake was the donor for this lovely pile.)

Slate River Ranch - April 2009

Magnus helping Daddy fly the Learjet 45

Petting one of the pretty strawberry roans at the ranch.

One of the many cute babies!

At the Fort Worth zoo.

Checking out a display at the zoo.

The lions kindly posed for me, per my request. =)

Magnus finally got to see a real live giraffe! His books were as close as he'd ever come.

Daddy and Magnus with some of the pretty SLR cutting horses.

Magnus helped me make friends with the two year old's.

One of Magnus' favorite things on the ranch! The golf cart. He was good at steering it too!

Daddy took Magnus for a trot on one of the ranch's "using horses".

The newborn foals were such sleepy-heads!

We found this poor fellow along the road (beer and all!).
♪ He put the bottle to his head and pulled the trigger. ♫

Checking out the daily cattle drive in cow-town.

Dining on BBQ in Stockyards Station.

At the Stockyards Rodeo - Magnus loved it!

I love this picture of my boys on the ranch pony! Magnus really enjoyed this ride.

Normally Magnus and I don't get to go on trips with Joe, but the owner of the Learjet (also the owner of Slate River Ranch!) generously allowed us to go on a week-long trip to his ranch at Weatherford, TX! They put us up in the large house there, so we had the "comforts of home", plus a golf cart to ride around on. =) We got to enjoy the ranch at the perfect time, since now is when they do their breeding/foaling. We didn't catch any foals being born, but the activities at the breeding barn were interesting to watch! Discovery channel material, to be sure, but really neat. They use "surrogate" broodmares for a lot of the foals so they can save their cutting mares for competition, and they do all the implantation, etc. right there on the farm. We took video for all of our friends to see, so just come on over and be enlightened! We took Magnus to the Fort Worth Zoo one day, as he'd never had the pleasure of such entertainment, and we enjoyed other local events like the cutting horse competition, Stockyard Station (a bit touristy, but hey... that's what we were!), the rodeo and of course some shopping at the western stores! Joe and I both agreed that the "cowboy culture" out there sure leaves Virginia with much to be desired! The people were great and all drove trucks... with horse trailers following close behind. It was a very relaxing visit, lots of fun, and by the time our week was up we were ready to come home to our own little farm. Check out the ranch website sometime: www.slateriverranch.com. It's truly a beautiful place!

Children's Easter Festival

Magnus loved petting the sheep, and they didn't seem to mind either. =)


He even got to ride the most adorable donkey!

The firetruck was definitely a huge highlight!



Ahh... sitting on the super-cool red machine!


Picking up "Easter eggs"!

On the prowl for those egg-shaped candies!

Magnus certainly enjoyed his trip to the Children's Festival where he go to experience his very first Easter egg hunt! It was a great way to pass the time while Joe was away (he's been gone forever, it seems!) and the only downside to the happy occasion was having to come home! The Easter egg hunt was fun for him, but I think he enjoyed the festival part even more! (I was just disappointed that they weren't real plastic Easter eggs! I am new at this Easter egg hunt myself though, so I didn't know they just throw out sugary egg-shaped candies!) Magnus loved going around to all the little vendors and having everyone give him candy! A guy could get used to that, for sure! His favorite thing was the firetruck though, and I think he could've just sat on it and soaked it in all day. He was very brave for his donkey ride too, and he wanted to pet all the lambs (and the baby goat, which wouldn't cooperate - it was sleeping safely in the MIDDLE of the pen!). We got to ride a little "train" and we even took advantage of the swings at the playground since it was held at the middle school right down the road from us. He had the time of his life, and the only things that would've made it better would've been Daddy, and getting to stay a lot longer!

Curing those rainy day blues...

Joe was gone most of the week, and I'm convinced he stole the sunshine away with him to Aruba, because it didn't bother to come out the whole time he was gone! Magnus and I were getting quite tired of all the rain and gloomy weather until he found out that it can be quite fun! He went out in the rain and splashed and played under the gutter spout until he was quite a mess! (I poked my head out the garage door to take pictures. Maybe if I had super-cool froggy rain boots I might venture out too, but until then...) The last two pictures have a story behind them, and I wonder, am I a bad mommy for calling this the highlight of my day? Maybe you should be the judge. Well, Magnus got tired of splashing in mud and decided to experiment with the garden hose. (You already know where this is going, don't you?) How he managed to squirt himself (on the first try!) full force in the face is still a mystery, but he did, and Oh! the shock and *chilly* horror on his face! I think he got lucky though, as it seems to have mostly glanced off the side of his head, peeling his hat up on the side! Well, imagine me, the innocent by-standing mommy... snapping pictures of my little boy playing in the mud, and then to see this great adventure unfold! I totally lost it... totally! I was reeling in such hilarious cackles and roars of laughter, that Magnus (who was crying at his misfortune) eventually turned around to see what all the raucous was about, saw his loony mother in stitches, and decided to join me in laughter! First he gave me this silly little smile (see photo!) then he giggled, then he let out a big laugh and forgot why he was crying. Maybe I'm not such a bad mommy after all. =)

The verdict is in! It's a...

Look at that cute little hoof!

Giving Mommy a thumbs-up. =)

Our little BOY!!!!!

My whole pregnant look at 20 weeks - I could've just used a pregnancy pic from when I was carrying Magnus since I'm the exact same size... but I thought that would be cheating.

We're so excited to be having another little boy! He was uncooperative during his ultrasound photo shoot for us to get a really nice, clear shot of his profile, but at least we were definitely able to tell that he was a boy! This is good news for us, but bad news for the economy since we won't be needing to go out and buy any new clothes or toys. =) If the last half of this pregnancy goes as quickly for me as the first half has, we're going to be holding that little fella in no time!

Magnus & Sydney

I have this picture on my desktop, and though it was taken a couple months ago, I just love it for some reason and thought I'd share it! =) Magnus loved Sydney, the Yellow Lab pictured, who was Melvin & Tamela's dog before he got killed in the road. Magnus still remembers him though (we would keep Sydney whenever his owners were away) and thinks any Yellow Lab-type dog is "Nidney". He even told "Nidney" night-night today at naptime... along with the stars, moon, Jack, Meow-Meow, horses, macaroni-cheese and everything else he could think of! What a precious little boy - who says the "2's" are terrible? I think it just gets funner and funner!