Happy Birthday to my Baby Girl!!

Today we are celebrating DD's 12th Birthday! I cannot believe how fast my little girl has grown...Such bittersweet moments they are, as much as I love to watch her grow and turn into a wonderful young lady I very much miss the days of her crawling up on my lap to snuggle with her binky and blanky...Of course she is still a little snuggle bug but it's a bit harder to snuggle when she's almost as big as I am LOL!!!

So Happy Birthday to my precious miracle!!

My Baby Girl Turns 11 Today! ;(

11 years ago at this time I was laying in hospital bed preparing to deliver my baby girl 6 weeks premature. I was diagnosed with "severe Toxemia", when I was admitted into the hospital my blood pressure was reading around 207/110 something....I was borderline from having a stroke. I was treated with SO many medications that they couldn't keep anything under control after that, my blood pressure then bottomed out and they induced labor. It was a long labor but a very short delivery for my tiny 4 lb baby girl...She was born on December 23, at 10:53 pm...She was rushed into the neonatal unit, I only got to see her tiny face for a brief second before they took her...I was confined to the bed laying on my back for 12 hours due to a big loss of blood and it was still to thin I would risk hemorrhaging if I moved! Talk about being scared and wanting my little angel. There was a really nice NICU Nurse that took a Polaroid picture of her and brought it to me and my Hubby bought a disposable camera and went and had the pictures developed right away..I remained in the hospital until Christmas Eve and I was "allowed" to go home. No I was forced to go home as I wasn't allowed to stay with my angel at the hospital. So DD remained in the hospital for 9 days and we were finally able to bring her home and what a wonderful life she has given us...So Happy 11th Birthday to my Beautiful Angel!

My sweet Angel when I could finally hold her...

Daddy's girl...

Her very first Easter

I just loved kissing those cute little cheeks!!

Finally a toddler...It went by to fast...

DD and her best Bubby!

Growing up and loving her friends!

Such sweet friends!

My Angel, 11 today...

Amazingly Funny, She is!!!

Friday was my big brother's (only sibling) Birthday!! He is 4 years older than me and I love him to pieces!!! He has always gone out of his way to try and protect me and especially since my Dad passed away he really takes care of me...I love him very much!!! So what he wanted for his Birthday?!?! You'll never guess, because I'm pretty sure I've never heard anyone request this before....He wanted our whole family to get together and have a Monopoly tournament party!! So that we did!!

OK so the party was today and we of course were an hour late....Hubby is in TX at a reunion for his family and friends from his whole life...Yes we should probably be there but to be honest I couldn't bear to miss my bubby's Birthday. The last Birthday party I missed was my dad's 50th Birthday party and I missed it because we were in TX at a family reunion for Hubby's family...SO when my dad passed away just 3 months to the day from his 50th Birthday I just felt and still feel guilt from missing his party, I know he wanted me there...But I also needed to be with Hubby and his family as of course they are very important too!! His Grandma is the greatest lady, I wouldn't have wanted to miss it. But this time I just really needed to be here for my bubby, he doesn't do much for himself and the fact that he planned this whole party with prizes included LOL!!! Well that means it meant something to him..

So anyhoo, you all know I LOVE my family!! They are the greatest group of people on earth to me!! Friday was actually bubby's Birthday so the rest of the family went to dinner at this local Italian restaurant, we didn't get to go to that as DD had a rodeo...So when my mom was heading to the dinner she mentioned that she was going to get my Granny, and I said WHAT?!?! She's going to his B-day dinner but she wouldn't come to mine?!?! Well Granny didn't like the place I had chosen but she loves the place bubby chose so she went (it really didn't bother me, she had a party for me at her house afterwards)!! So I told mom to tell Granny I wasn't feeling real loved right now!! So when I get to the party today I walk in and she has cotton in her ear....And when I say cotton I mean pouring out of her ear....She held the door open for me and I noticed the cotton and thought "OH NO, she must be having dizzy spells again from an ear ache or something", she wouldn't really look at me so I thought WOW she really doesn't want to be here!! So finally I get everything unloaded and head to find her sitting on the couch so I go over and put my arm around her and I say "Granny, what is wrong with you?!?! Why do you have cotton in your ear"?!?! Somebody else says "she has an ear infection" I'm like "really"?? Granny finally says WHAT?!?! Like she couldn't hear with the cotton in her ear and so she pulls it out and then reaches to her other ear and pulls out MORE and she says "well I was afraid my ears would hurt"....I go huh?!?! She says "well your mom told me you were upset with me for going to bubby's dinner and not yours, so I put the cotton in until you would be done giving me a hard time....But I see it didn't work because your to busy being worried something is wrong with me" LOL, LOL, LOL, OH MY GOSH!!!! Everyone is rolling laughing and she said that she had been waiting for me to get there so they could play this joke on me but when I got there she couldn't look at me because she was afraid she might laugh LOL!! So I told her she's definitely gonna get it now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My J and ornery Granny!!!



So now all's I need to do is come up with a back at her plan LOL!!! Man I love them!!!

Busy Day!!!

So this past Friday I celebrated my 31st Birthday!! And I am so blessed with my Birthday because my family and friends always try to make sure I have a wonderful day!! I am such a Birthday freak LOL, I love them and I don't care that it makes me another year older!! My friends and I used to go to this country music festival called Country Stampede it's held in Manhattan KS. And never fails it always landed within my Birthday week, so the girls always allowed me to go from "a Birthday day" to "a Birthday week" Ha who wouldn't love celebrating their Birthday for many days LOL!!

So Friday I had to get my hair colored, I'd had a bit of a hair fiasco....My hair is generally dark red w/some blond highlights (my natural color is blonde, but I LOVE red)!! Well I was having some shampoo issues because I have used the same product called Grund, which I absolutely love but I can't use the same product for over a year because then my hair gets oily when I wash it EVERY day!!! So I had gotten some different shampoo from my stylist but this shampoo has color in it, it's called "watercolors" and it actually deposits color when you wash your hair!! Which I of course picked one called "crimson red" because I want red...Right?!?! Well I knew I was risking turning the blonde pink but I had hoped it would get red after a couple of washes, well after wash # 2 I decided I wasn't going any further.. My blonde was officially pink LOL!! So I wore a hat all week and got it fixed Friday!! I didn't do any blonde this time it's all dark red with dark brown lowlights.. Hubby really prefer's my hair to be blonde but he says I still look pretty LOL!! So that problem fixed!!

So Hubby had been out of town all of last week and got home on my Birthday, Friday. He was so sweet to bring me Birthday presents, even if he stopped at my rival's store to buy them LOL!! He said "well I had to check out the competition, right"?!?! But the thought was nice right?!?! So he got me the cutest sign that says "Horses Are Like Potato Chips You Can't Have Just One"!! We always joke about the fact that I need that shirt that says "I do not need another horse, I do not need another horse, etc"!! it's kind of true :~) And he got me the prettiest Brighton bracelet that is called "Love Rocks" oh I just LOVE it!! So then of course Friday night we had DD's rodeo and my Mama brought out a delicious Banana cake for us to eat!!

So sweet!! And OH SO true LOL!!



I just love this cute bag that my bracelet came in!!



Here it is!! My "Love Rocks"!!



So then Saturday night we went to my favorite restaurant called Strouds, I know my KS girl's know what I'm talking about?!?! Some of my family was there and it was so much fun, unfortunately DD was gone to camp so she didn't get to come:( Sadly I for some reason just couldn't eat so I did not enjoy their lucious food like I usually do as I only ate a little :(

Then we went to my Granny's and had cake and ice cream and more family time!! It was so much fun, I love my family!! We always have such a blast together and EVERYONE in my family made my Birthday fantastic!! I hope everyone is as blessed as I am!!

My Bubby and his GF!



My MIL, J, my nephew SB, and my Granny!!



My Granny, my Mama and I



My handsome Hubby and I!! And yes he has a horrible tan line :( He was on a rooftop in the 100 degree weather for a week!!



My J and I!

Playing Dead?!?!

Here on our ranch we currently have 3 dogs, Georgia who is a mini Australian Shepherd, Conner who is an Australian Shepherd, and Laramie who is a Sharpei!! I know it sounds strange right?? A sharpei in the mix... Well I grew up with my mama raising and breeding sharpei's so I have always loved them!!! I have been married to my Hubby for 11 1/2 years and have always wanted to get a sharpei but my Hubby for some reason just did not think highly of this breed, alot of it had to do with his mom says she is allergic to them and so I think for that reason they have just never been around them. Well one day last November I found that someone had been researching sharpei's on the internet and I thought that was a little strange but just figured my Hubby was just reading about them or something....Then within a few days my DD brings me her birthday and Christmas wish list (her bday is the 23rd of December, so we have always made sure to separate the two) so I get to reading them and on DD's B-day list she has listed a "sharpei puppy of my very own" and I kind of chuckled and asked her if she had been reading up on them and she said "yes I have been looking at them on the internet". So I at first thought well that isn't going to happen... But then I started thinking, you know I had always wanted another one too so I decided to talk with Hubby about it and he basically told me I could do whatever I wanted, so yeah me!!!! So I started looking on the net trying to find some close by for sale and I wasn't having any luck!!! So I called my mom to ask about the people we used to buy from having forgotten that the husband had died in a tragic accident many years ago. So mom started looking and sent me some links to like pupcity or something. Well the ad she found was in Mulvane, KS which is about an hour from me so I was really excited. So I go to the ad and figure out in order to view the ad I have to pay for a membership so I did and finally I could see the ad!!! I was so excited.....until I figured out the ad was dated from like 2007, so I thought no big deal and clicked the link to their website, and it was closed down!!! WHAT!!! I was soooo mad, here I paid for this membership to view this ad for a breeder that no longer exists!!! So I start thinking OK I will have to have one shipped but as I am going through the ads I was finding it hard to find current ads and there was hundreds of pages, so I finally started clicking on random pages and hit the jackpot!!! I found a breeder in Kingman, KS which is about 30 minutes from me. So I immediately go to her website and she had puppies for sale!! 3 litters of them, I was so excited I sent her an email and awaited her call. In the meantime I start taking into account how expensive these puppies were, so I decided I needed to talk with DD because if I was getting her this puppy she wouldn't be getting much more for her B-day. So I sit her down and ask her "DD how much do you think a sharpei cost"?? And she says "umm about $200.00 and I said wellll guess again, try like cheapest maybe $800.00 but more likely $1000.00. So if daddy decides that he wants to get you a puppy you wouldn't get much else for your B-day". So she says OK I'm fine if that's what you guys do. So then she asks me for both of her wish lists back and when she brought them back she had crossed out EVERYTHING on both lists except for the puppy on her B-day list and a pair of boots on her Christmas list!!! And I told her that wasn't necessary because her B-day and Christmas don't go together and she says she doesn't care she really wants a sharpei and doesn't want us to buy her lot's of other things. So I tell Hubby there is no way that I can't not get her the puppy because she obviously wants it :) So in the end we bought her a beautiful black sharpei from the local breeder. And to top it all off, the lady that we bought her from is a lady that we sold dogs to in the early 90's when my mama was a breeder and the puppy that I got for DD came from our original blood line!!! How much luckier could we have gotten!! So she didn't actually get to bring the puppy home until about mid January due to age etc.. Well needless to say for the first few weeks Hubby kept saying "love everything about her except the price"!!! And I think finally he is over even that part!! For those of you who may not know the breed, they are super intelligent dogs. They are wrinkly, sweet, territorial but if trained right not territorial in a bad way. They like to pick one person and that is the person they want to be with all of the time, if you go into a room and shut the door they will be laying there for you to come back, if you leave the house they will lay at the door till you come home LOL!! They are such amazing little critters, their personality's are almost that of a human and we are so thrilled to finally have that addition to our family!!


DD and Tay Tay when we took DD to see her Birthday Surprise!!!



DD and Laramie giving Kisses!!



So today I want to share some of our puppy's silliness with you. If you click on the title to this post it will take you to a video that I shot of her the other day. She will run as fast as she can around the other dogs and then just drop to the ground like she's dead!! We all laughed so hard the first time she did this. Now the video is about 4 1/2 minutes and she doesn't really get the other dogs' attention until about 2 minutes in. So please go check it out!!! ps- don't mind our lack of mowing yet :) Haven't gotten that far this Spring LOL!!