Our Little Bull Rider!

With his right hand in the air, his cowboy hat on, we hear "OK boys," and he is out of the shoot trying to hold on for eight seconds before he gets bucked off. That is pretty much the norm around our house with Brady. We have been in this bull riding phase with him for about a year now. It is a phase that I thought would last only a short while, but boy was I wrong. We are still going full force with this one. About this time last year he started watching the PBR on television and became hooked. Today he knows most of the names of all the professional bull riders as well as the names of most of the bulls, and he isn't even three years old now. He'll say things like "I'm J.B. Mauney, and I'm riding Chicken on a Chain," or "I'm Austin Meier, and I'm riding Nasty Town. That's a nasty name for a nasty bull, Mama." I'm fine with this phase at this stage in his life, but I really hope it wears off by the time he is actually old enough to ride bulls.

Brady getting ready to ride a bull

St. Paul's Rodeo

Every year St. Paul's Christian Day School puts on a little rodeo with all the kids. This year was Brady's first rodeo. He is not, let's say, as social as Kade is. He is more reserved and quiet, so I wasn't sure how he would do at the rodeo especially when he spotted Mommy there. He walked in very cocky and confident. He was leading the class in and he was the man. He sat right down and was ready rodeo. So now I'm thinking "he's going to do ok." Wrong. They did a wagon ride first, and when he came around and saw Mommy, that was it. He started crying and refused to do participate in the stick horse race or anything else that had anything to do with the rodeo.
Kade, however, did great. He was ready and more than willing to participate in his events. They did a river crossing race and a couple of other activities as well.

Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo!

Saturday, March 6th we went to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo with Hardy family and the Stolz family. It was the perfect day to go to the Rodeo; it was warm and sunny, but very crowded. If it weren't for the nightmarish parking and the thousands and thousands of people there, it would have been the perfect rodeo trip, but you can't have it all. The kids had a great time. I think as parents, we were just paranoid of losing them in the crowd. Nevertheless, they all listened to us and stayed close to us throughout the day. We had tickets to the rodeo and Jason Aldean. Before the rodeo, we bought his newest CD so the boys would be familiar with some of his songs. By the time the rodeo came around, Kade and Brady both had "Big Green Tractor" and "She's Country" down pat. Brady is our little cowboy, so he enjoyed the rodeo; well the part of it that he managed to stay awake for. He took a siesta halfway through the rodeo. All the kids enjoyed the concert. They had fun singing, dancing, and eating a whole lot of junk food. Even though it was a great day, I have to say it was one of those "been there, done that" kind of things. Not that we won't ever go back, but it won't be anytime soon.

Jenna, Kade, & Leah

Getting up close & personal with some of the animals

Cotton Candy YUM! YUM!

Kade and Jenna watching the rodeo

All worn out!

Jason Aldean

Willie the Robot!

Every week in Kade's Ocean Treasure class, they have a letter of the week. A couple of weeks ago was the letter "R." They were assigned to build a robot to bring that Friday for show and tell. Kade, Dane, and I spent one evening putting together "Willie" the Tin Man. I think he turned out pretty good. Kade was proud of his robot anyway.

Blinn Baseball Camp!

Kade attended a baseball camp put on by the City of Brenham and the Blinn baseball team. Kade really enjoyed learning some baseball fundamentals from the college players. They just worked on the basics with them: throwing, hitting, catching, fielding and running the bases. This will be Kade's first year of t-ball, and we thought this camp would be good for him. Plus, he would have to listen to and learn from someone else besides mom and dad. I think he learned a good deal about baseball, and the Blinn ball players were great with those kids.

Kade and Blinn head coach, Harvey McIntyre

Allergic Reaction!

A few weeks ago, Kade had an allergic reaction to something. We're not sure what exactly, but we have an idea. He woke up one Saturday morning with red welts all over his arms and legs. The day before Dane and Wesley had gone creek fishing, and Kade helped them clean the fish. That night we went out to eat and Kade ate shrimp and red sauce. Anyway that Saturday morning I gave him some benadryl, and the welts went away about 30 minutes later. That afternoon, they showed back up on his face. We ended up doing the benadryl thing all weekend. That Monday morning he woke up to get ready for school and he was covered in red welts from head to toe. As a parent whose never dealt with any kind of allergic reaction like this, I got kind of freaked out because he looked awful. I took him straight in to see Dr. Draehn right away that morning. Dr. Draehn told us that it was a "normal" allergic reaction to something that he had some in contact with and that it should get better in a few days. He gave us a steroid to take along with the benadryl. I took Kade to school and went on to work that day. That afternoon, the nurse from St. Paul's called me at work to tell me she felt she knew exactly what Kade was allergic to. She asked me if he had been fishing or messed with any raw fish that may have come out of lake waters because his welts looked just like her husband's after he had messed with fish out of Somerville Lake or ocean waters. Well sure enough he had helped Dane clean all those fish they had caught out of the creeks that washed in from Somerville Lake. After talking with her it all made sense. Apparently any fish caught out a tank or pond does not bother her husband at all, but he can't touch a raw fish out Somerville lake or the ocean. I guess the only way to know for sure if that is what caused it is to let him mess with that type of fish again.

Granny Loewe's Birthday!

Back in February Granny Loewe celebrated her 88th birthday. Although age is definately catching up with her, she still lives by herself and gets around pretty well. The entire family was able to attend the party, so Granny had her two sons with her, along with her eight grandchildren, and eleven great grandchildren with two more on the way. Granny is very special to us and we love her very much. We hope to be able to celebrate many more birthdays with her in the future.