Catch up time!!

WOW! It has actually been over a month since I posted anything on here!! So much has happened! James has kept us on our toes you could say... we had two emergency room visits within a three week period!! Yikes! He is doing great and back to his normal shenanigans. The first incident he hit the back of his head on a bench - got two staples put in to hold it shut. The second incident he got his poor hand shut in a big tractor door and got to have x-rays taken of it, but thankfully it was not broken anywhere, and they just closed up the cut with a steri-strip(kinda like a butterfly bandage) that he stubbornly removed himself the following morning = ) But it has healed fine.

Chase is definitely coming into his own. He and I are in regular battles of will. He really thinks that he can do whatever he wants as long as he tells you what that is, or asks first, pretty much ignoring when he is told "NO" He is funny and likes being a clown at home, but is shy when others address him. He is SO ready for school! Asks me all the time..."When is Fall??" "Do I go to school today?" He will start kindergarten in the fall at a Christian school in McMinnville and just so he is not so shocked at the life change of going to school five days per week after being home all the time, I enrolled him for about 8 weeks of the summer to go to pre-school for two days a week. He starts on Tuesday and let me tell you - Tuesday can't come fast enough. I am looking forward to spending some one on one time with James while Chase is releasing his non stop chatter with someone else. Chase recently gave himself a "haircut" and I had to try so hard not to out right laugh at him, he is just too funny. Thankfully it's not that bad, and will get fixed soon.

Rowan and I have started on our second round of Obedience classes. We are both having a lot of fun at them and he is doing really well. He is so different from any other dog I have had before, and his very laid back attitude is a challenge for me - as far as training goes. He is great with the kids and although he was kinda supposed to be Chase's dog, James is actually the one who spends more time with him, even if it is laying on top of him. That James! Good thing Rowan has held true to the Newfoundland claims of being better than great with kids.

Allen has been riding his dirt bike every chance he gets with his buddies Kent, Will, Mike and some others too. He has gone to some great events and the kids and I even went to the last one with him which was all the way out in Heppner, but it was a wonderful place(minus the plague proportions of mosquitoes). It was at the Morrow County OHV park and Allen placed pretty well in his class, but above all had a really fun ride. I got to hang out with a lot of the kids from the RUTS (Racers Under the Son) crowd and meet more of the wives while we were there. Now I really want to sell my four-wheeler and get a dirt bike, cause the women and kids ride too! Allen has two more events in June, then no more until September. He would really like to get a new KTM bike, so we are trying to figure out how to get that in the budget = ) I would love to get him a new bike now, but they are expensive, so he will have to be patient.

Work for Allen is in full swing now, so we are not getting to see a whole lot of him, but it is only for a few months( I have to remind myself of that a lot). Allen and I are playing softball with some of our friends on Sundays. Our team is "Carlton Trenching" we play at Joe Dancer park in McMinnville and it is a lot of fun. I never thought that I would look forward to playing softball!! LOL I am so not a softball person, but it is a blast!

I am sure that there is more to share, but this seems like an awful lot for now. Here are some different pictures from the last month or so. Enjoy!


James at Memorial Day eating a deviled egg and playing in the ice pile...
Soooo you say you didn't get very good sleep?!? huh? I can't imagine why? LOL This is usually how I get woke up in the morning, but this day they decided Daddy was better.


The head incident...the bandage was just to keep the numbing gel on his head...he was so tired he slept through a lot of the waiting around we did that night. A couple of nurses saw us taking pictures...I felt a little guilty, but thought I should document this for when he is older.

The drive over to Allen's race in Heppner was beautiful!!


Here are some pics from the race.