Family Matters

Breck cracking me up!

After Quentin's game on Saturday morning, Breck decided she wanted to come home with me and watch "horsey".  That's her word to let me know she wants to watch horse videos on You Tube.  (Look out Jed, you've got another little cowgirl on your hands.  LOL!)

So after we watched "horsey" videos for nearly an hour and a half she was ready to move onto other things.  Oh, I should mention, Breck doesn't like to watch the ENTIRE video.  Oh no, she just wants to watch about 15 - 30 seconds of the video then she points to another one to watch.  LOL!

Here she is "working out" with some weights.  

 

Isn't this hysterical?  She sees weights and things "FUN" whereas I see them and think "WORK."  LOL!

I love that she likes coming over to spend the afternoon with her Aunt Laura.

Going to Danielle's Dance Recital Tomorrow

I'm going to heading to Arkansas for a quick trip tomorrow to watch Danielle perform in a dance recital with her dance club, All That Dance, tomorrow.

I've gotten to see Danielle perform in Tulsa in February and in Kansas City in early March; so I'm excited to see how she's improved in 2 months.  I'm guessing that she will be doing different dances this time since PJ said she has new costumes.

Here is a layout I did of some pictures I took at the dance competition in Tulsa in February.

You are a beautiful dancer, Danielle; I can't wait to see you perform tomorrow.

Congratulations Quentin

Quentin made the million words club again this year.  (Yes, that means he's read a million years again this year.  He accomplished this feat last year, as well.)

He also received the Principal's award for the fifth grade.

And today Quentin made his debut at the talent contest at school.  Quentin has been learning to play a guitar and he played in the contest today.

The photo above is Quentin performing with his classmates in a play earlier this year.  He's quite the talented kid.

Congratulations Quentin, we are very proud of you!

Funny Breck

Last weekend after Breanna and Brenton's basketball game on Saturday, I went to dinner with Jed, Natalie, Brena, Breck, Dad and Abbie (Grossnicklaus).

Natalie carried Breck in with pink stuff all over her.  It was frosting from a cookie that Grandma Jeannie had given her.

It was the funniest thing I've seen in a long time and the faces Breck makes are just hysterical; I just had to share them with you.

I love you cute, funny little lady!

Quentin's basketball game from last weekend

Well I broke out the Jayhawk Linn T-shirt last weekend in support of Quentin playing his first basketball game last weekend.  He's on the 5th grade basketball team at Jayhawk Linn.

His team beat the Pleasanton Blu-jays.  Ugh... the first time I had to wear the Jayhawk shirt it would have to be against the Blu-jays!

It was fun to watch Quentin play.  Especially when he was guarding Hunter Secrest who was playing on the Pleasanton team.  They are good buddies and you can see them hanging out together at the Linn County Fair or anywhere else they happen to be at the same place.

Good Job, Quentin!

 

Breanna and Brenton both played at Jayhawk-Linn

Last week Brena and I went to watch Breanna and Brenton play basketball at Jayhawk-Linn High School.  Also there were Danea, DeWayne, Deanna, Dalton, Cassidy, Dad and Jed.

Unfortunately, Uniontown didn't win either of the games, but it was fun to watch them play. 

The most exciting part of the game was during the last minute of Breanna's game.  With 29.4 seconds left Breanna hit a 3 pointer to put her team up by one point.  However, the Jayhawk girls came right back and hit two 2 pointers to finish the game three points ahead. 

 

Mid-season basketball tourney - Jan 21

I attended the second night of the basketball tournament on Thursday.

I have to confess that on this night I took more pictures of Breanna and Brenton's fan club than I did the actual game.  (Sorry Bre and Brenton!)

Family and friends that were at the game to watch Breanna and Brenton play were: Danea, David, Dalton, DeWayne, Edward Lee, Jed, Natalie, Brena, Breck, Bret, Katie, Quentin, Mollie, Trenton, Kaden, Kasen, Karsten, Abbie (Grossnicklaus), and myself.

Here's the family enjoying some goodies from the concession stand before the first game.

Kaden enjoying a push-pop. 

Breanna on defense.

Another picture of Bre.

Breanna scored the first 5 points of the game.  Here she is shooting a 3 pointer.

Dad with Breck.

Mollie and Brena are big fans of Cousin David, they love his Donald Duck impersonation. 

Brena turning on the kilowatts when she sees the camera pointed her way.

Mollie in deep conversation with Uncle DeWayne.

 

This is what Miss Moo does when she notices I have the camera on her.  LOL!

Fan section on the Right (above)

Fan section left (above)

Brenton waiting for the ball.

 

Quentin has been hanging out with Grandpa Ed too much, he spend quite a bit of time telling stories to the McKee boys who were cracking up the whole time.

Beautiful Breck... she's lost her socks and shoes somewhere.

Dani visits for some scrapbooking lessons

On January 2, Dani (aka Danielle, PJ's daughter) came over for a few hours to break out the new scrapbooking supplies she got for Christmas.

We spent several hours creating her first layout and go over some scrapbooking basics.  If was fun hanging out with Dani for the morning, she's a great kid. 

Thank you, Dad!

Thank you, Dad, for taking care of Grandpa's cattle.  Thank you for going out every day to make sure they have water, feed and hay.  Lord knows 1.5 days was enough for me and I'm so thankful you will be home tomorrow.

Let me see...

• Friday - the auto waterer float froze and the basin was completely empty.  My gentle tapping - I didn't want to damage the valve - did absolutely no good.  So I had to haul water to the bull.
• Saturday morning - I took a blow dryer and portable heater to the auto waterer and got the thing thawed out enough to start running again.  Hallelujah!  The only downside, my hair dryer quit working, I thought it might have gotten too cold.
• Saturday evening - the large water tank with the float heater wasn't working, the water was frozen.  Crapola!  That made me think maybe my blow dryer didn't quit working, maybe I tripped a circuit; sure enough checked the lights and they were out too.  Okay, now where would they put a breaker box?  LOL...
  Figure it's gotta be in the big barn... sure enough it was there, I found the tripped circuit, reset it and everything was back on.  Thank goodness, I don't have to buy a new hair dryer.
• Next I fed the cattle that are pinned up by the big barn and headed over to fill up the large water tank since the frozen layer was starting to melt.  I went to attach the hose to the spigot and the hose breaks in three pieces... just great!  Can this day get any better?  I did find an old pipe that was made just for this purpose (i.e., connecting the water spigot to the water tank) and got the water running into the tank.  The only downside, I couldn't turn the water on high so it took twice as long.  I wimped out, climbed in my truck and turned the heater on high!  The tips of my fingers and my toes were totally numb. 
• Finally, the tank was full, got the pipe put away and everything put back where it belonged.  Next it was in the house for my next big adventure, trying to get Grandpa to take his medicine.  LOL!  Thank you, Kristie.  Thank you for taking care of Grandpa everyday... okay, that's a story for another post!

Here are some pictures from my adventures on the farm...

The bull that I had to hand water because the auto waterer (seen in the background) was frozen.
 

The auto waterer is working, thank heavens, and the cattle from the timber are taking advantage of it. 

The cattle that are in the big barn pen.

This is the large water tank that froze over when I tripped a circuit using the blow dryer.  It's the same water tank that I broke the hose on and you can see the pipe gadget I used to fill it up.  Not pretty, but it worked!

The broken hose.  And I did check, none of those hoses hanging in the background would work!
 

These look like pretty decent boots, looks are deceiving, they did not keep my tootsies warm at all.  But at least I didn't slip and slide all over the place like Friday night... 'bout wound up on my tush a couple of times in my cowboy boots.

I didn't completely lose my sense of humor, I did remember to take my camera and capture some of what I've come to think of as my "chore challenges."

Ya know, in my heart of hearts I still consider myself a country girl; however, after this weekend's experience I'm starting to think I'm a sissified townie!

The next time Dad asks me to do chores I'm going to make sure it's not going to be coldest weekend on record!  LOL...

Love Quentin's new football gear

Check out Quentin's new football jersey.  I never realized he was such a Blu-jay fan.  LOL...

Okay, I cannot tell a lie... or get Quentin in trouble with his buds.

Here's the real jersey.  I have to confess I photoshopped the Blu-jay over the Colt's logo; Quentin is a Payton Manning fan.

I had to do something in response to that Jayhawk shirt!  LOL...