Meeting Cousin C!

Trump and Grade A welcomed a new (two-legged) member of their family a few weeks ago. (They acquire four-legged critters all the time. So a two-legged one really is special. Ha!) We were so thankful to be able to meet Cousin C while she was just a couple of weeks old.

Trump brought Cousin C to visit us one day at Mom’s. She was really good at sleeping during the day.

Cutie patootie!

Caedmon and Honor loved meeting Cousin C. They were so sweet with her. Honor was not satisfied unless she was covered with a blanket. All babies should be covered with a blanket, right? She’ll get along well with Mimis everywhere in that regard.

During family dinner on Sunday, we tried for a photo of the cousins all together. It went…well, it went. The Fab Five, together for the first time. (We had a lot more “big cousin” time during our stay. More pictures of that another time!)

Aunt Curly got to hold Cousin C for a while. She was supposed to be keeping her awake, I think.

I managed this one of Cousin C while Curly was holding her. Definitely not awake.

Precious, isn’t she? You did good, Trump and Grade A! Hopefully she’s figured out that all that sleeping is for night time!

Kid-Cation, Part 2

Saturday, we hung around the house and welcomed Squirt home from her summer internship (just for a few days). Of course, the guys had to hover around her truck and make sure everything checked out ok.

Honor figured out how to get her Papa Duke to take her places. She was in heaven.

Caedmon had a blast with Levi, and they got Squirt in on the fun.

Jill came out to see us, and we were so happy to see her! Caedmon took a great picture of Jill and me.

Caedmon was happy to see Jill, even if he didn’t want to sit still and visit very long.

And Honor loved playing with Jill’s watch. She made a friend for life with that thing!

One of the highlights of our trip was Trump’s graduation party. But first, we had to say Happy Birthday to the little girls. It was Cousin E’s birthday! So she and Honor celebrated their birthdays before we kicked off Trump’s party.

We thought it would be fun. E didn’t quite share that sentiment.

Honor was slightly indifferent.

It was a nice try. We had fun taking pictures, anyway.

Then it was time to get down to business. We were there to celebrate Trump graduating from college…finally.

Trump was serious about celebrating, too. She had a bouncy castle. A princess bouncy castle.

The boys didn’t care that it was a princess bouncy castle. They had a blast.

Trump took the kids to visit her bunny. Caedmon has been waiting to hold this bunny since Trump got him at Easter!

Cousin Q wanted to hold the bunny, too!

Mom made sure Honor was part of the action.

She wanted to see the bunny, too.

That poor bunny. He’s a trooper. More than once we pulled the kids away for a little while so he wouldn’t die of a heart attack. I’m happy to say he made it through the weekend, so if he dies now, we know it’s not our fault.

Also? I’d just like it known that I was endeavoring to get a sweet picture of Honor and her Aunt, while our “other sister” was back there photo bombing.

No, I’m not surprised. At all. We did manage to get a picture of the kids with Trump, though.

The rest of the evening was filled with good, old fashioned fun. Hula hoops.

Fidget throwing Squirt’s shoe on top of the house, and Squirt having to go get it.

Cooking and eating.

And talking.

And cake.

The cake says, “It’s about dang time…one class at a time!” Trump graduated with her Animal Science degree while working, getting married, and working some more. She also managed to finish with no debt (for anybody!). We’re quite proud of her!

Shootin’ and Rodeo’n

Saturday, we headed out to Deputy Guy and Curly’s to do some shooting. (Targets, not each other.)

Caedmon was quite serious in the car.

NLB drove Mom’s car. Oh yeah, he’s bad…driving a car with a steering wheel cushion. (His gripe, not mine.)

We picked up Trump on our way, and Caedmon played shy. Even when she had Skittles to share. She also tried to pick his nose, but that’s neither here nor there.

Caedmon and Cousin Q hung out on the deck and finished off the Skittles.

And while Curly watched my boy, we went out into the pasture to do some shootin’.

Here’s a little of our setup.

I must not neglect to show you Trump’s pink 380. It was fun to shoot. (That’s NLB’s Katherine in the background. At least I think it’s Katherine with a “K” since she was named after Katherine in “MacLintock!” I know for sure she’s never called Katie.)

People often ask me to describe NLB, and the best way I know how is this: You know the scene in Sahara where Al is dropping his guns and ammo long after everyone else is done? That’s NLB.

The little guys enjoyed watching from the deck. After we’d shoot, they’d yell, “Woah!”

We didn’t have any skeet, so we used a plastic jug to test out NLB’s new shotgun.

I’m proud to say that while I’ve never shot skeet before, I was able to knock that jug out of the sky. In fact, we are all pretty good shots.

NLB took this picture. I think he was proud to have shootin’ sisters.

After shooting, we went back to Mom’s for Caedmon’s afternoon nap. And HLB came to eat dinner before the rodeo. It was a good thing he did. Caedmon eats his green beans so much better when HLB is there to eat with him.

After dinner, a pillow fight was just what these boys needed.

Honor’s rash had faded on Wednesday, but came back on Saturday. She stayed home with Mom and rested.

Trump’s target practice was good for her. She went hunting with Grade A that evening, killed a deer, and was still dressed and ready to go to the rodeo with Caedmon and me.

We found HLB before we went inside.

First, we got to watch bronc bustin’, barrel racing, breakaway roping, and calf roping. Caedmon watched everything and did well. Events that last anywhere from 8-20 seconds each are just his speed. It also helped that Trump bought him Doritos and gum.

HLB would come visit us now and then.

Then it was time for the “buckin’ bulls,” as Caedmon calls them. This is one of those instances when a super zoom lens would come in handy. HLB was sitting on the chute (on the left) while another bull rider was getting ready.

And since I wasn’t able to get right up on the fence for photos, this is about the best I got of HLB’s ride.

Caedmon was proud of his uncle. We went to say bye before we left. (It was really dark in there and the flash wasn’t a lot of help.)

By the time we finished with the rodeo, it was late and we headed home for baths and bed so we could get ready to go to church on Sunday.

Cousin Day at Mom and Dad’s

Honor got to meet Cousin E for the first time the other day. We all ended up at Mom and Dad’s for the afternoon and had a great time letting the Aunts, Uncle, and Grandparents wear our boys out while the girls hung out together.

Cousin E (1 1/2 weeks) and Honor (8 weeks)…6 weeks difference in age is a big deal right now. Very soon, it won’t be.

Cousin Q was getting ready to go swimming with Caedmon.

He didn’t really want to get in…he thought putting his feet in was just fine for a while. Caedmon swam with Fidget until she had to go to work.

Mimi and Dad supervised from their shaded spot.

Uncle HLB stopped by on his lunch break and loaded up the water gun.

Aunt Trump and Honor hung out inside, out of the heat.

Then the boys took their water gun fight to the trampoline.

Oh, but Caedmon wasn’t done swimming. He convinced Aunt Squirt to get in with him.

And then Q decided to get in, so Mom got in with Caedmon and Squirt swam with Q.

They paused for a while and Caedmon helped Squirt water her horses.

But he refused to take off his swim vest. Because that meant swimming was over. He was not done. He and Squirt ended up back in the pool for a while. I think Caedmon wore out three people that day – besides himself. He was one tired little boy when we got home. And that’s the way I like it.