A well-traveled fetus!

Since she's come into existence, our little fetus has done her fair share of traveling! (Via her momma, of course.) Here's the list of all the places she's "been", so to speak:

• Minneapolis, MN
• Baton Rouge, LA
• Baltimore, MD
• Denver, CO
• New Orleans, LA
• Boston, Massachusetts,
• Sewell, NJ
• Greenwood/Dover, DE

Luckily, the traveling has come to an end for the time being. (No more plane rides until Christmas!) I'm incredibly relieved and needing the break, especially after all of the delays, and various airport fiascos that seem to come along with flying. Not to mention, those plane seats were starting to get quite uncomfortable!

Just a note for all who were wondering, we're not divulging any names at this point. We haven't made any final decisions, and I'm not sure we'll be able to until we see that smiling (more like crying) face. So don't feel offended if we don't share. And don't think that if you keep asking, we'll give in and tell. Just bear with us-- there's only 8 weeks to go!

I know I've been lacking in updates, and I could list a bunch of excuses here (we've been busy, working a lot, traveling a lot, etc), but the truth is I'm just too darn lazy at night to work on this thing! I'll try to get more motivation this week for y'all.

Our furry friends

Each spring, it's a Texas tradition to take pictures of your children in the wildflowers along the road side. We don't have any children yet, so it was only fitting for us to take our pups and do the same. I suggested we bring kitties, but they weren't fond of the idea of sitting alongside a busy road for a photo op.

Our pets like to get good and cuddly in front of the fire.

These little ducklings are our newest farm fowl. They are very cute, but tend to think they are chicks, instead of ducks.


















These were some of our first little chicks. They are three different kinds of chickens-- the one on the far right is a meat bird, the middle chick is an egg layer, and the far left is just a cute, fun bird. Unfortunately, chickens have a hard time at our house with all the snakes, raccoons, possums, etc and these three chicks are no more.

Random activities

Last year, we took a day trip to the beach with the pups and the girls . First we rode the horses, and then played in the ocean with the dogs. Rowdy was a bit hesitant to go in the water at first, but he ended up loving it!

As you can see, the pups are REALLY excited!

Last April, Jared and I rode our horses in the Galveston County Parade. The girls were pretty good, although at one point Rosie got really irritated with the loud music and had a bit of a freak out. It was certainly an experience!

As you can tell, the parade is wearing down at this point. The red bow tied to the other horse's tail means, "Stay Away, I kick." Jared and I didn't realize this until the END of the parade. Oops.

Interactions with wildlife

This rat snake was found in our barn stealing our eggs. We've tried to relocate non-poisonous snakes when we find them in our barn, but they always come back. Unfortunately, we've had to find an alternate solution. (And no, I'm not just fat in this photo-- there's a baby in my belly!!)

















We stumbled across this gator while trail riding one day. It only seemed fitting for Jared to go all Croc Hunter on it and pick it up for a photo op!














So I found this armadillo, and of course I had to poke it!! Very rarely do we see live armadillos-- they are most often found dead on the side of the road.

Wait, that's not wildlife, that's Heidi!!!!

Pictures from the farm...

I have obviously not gotten the hang of this whole blogging business yet, and after getting extremely frustrated while working on the previous blog, I gave up before I could post all of the pictures and little anecdotes along with them. As a result, instead of one REALLY long blog, you'll be viewing a bunch of smaller, more manageable blogs, which unfortunately are a bit disjointed. I am so not skilled with this kind of stuff...







A pretty sunset viewed from the end of our driveway.

Jared's enjoying the ease of lawnmowing now that we finally made the switch to a riding mower. It used to take us days (and lots more energy!) to mow everything with the push mower.

When we first moved here and we'd have heavy rains, you could always count on stumbling across a cottonmouth in the yard. As you can see, we had our way of handling this situation. We rarely see them around now-- I wonder where they all went???








Small hose, large brush fire. Enough said.













Our yard started out as a treed, shrubby mess and naturally, having horses, we just couldn't leave it that way. So we borrowed our neighbor's tractor, rented a bulldozer and spent hours upon hours clearing, piling, burning, repeat! Fun times.








The full-bellied horses sure appreciated all of the work. Until they ate it all, of course.