A Glimpse of the American Royal

A couple of weeks ago The Man and I won tickets to the American Royal Rodeo. (Thank you KOFO 1220) The American Royal is a month long agricultural-FFA-animal show-BBQ-rodeo festival.

The Man and I waiting for the Rodeo to start..

Before the rodeo started we checked out some of the exhibits. I'm slightly

afraid of horses. The man here.. not so much. I was pretty sure this horse

was going to break down the pen and bite his hand off. As it turns out..

the horse was pretty nice.

PIG RACE! Check out the girls in the blue cowboy hats. They are really

into this race!

Ever see a pig swim? You should check out Swifty!

This cow would not stop MOO-ing.

What I really want to say is.. "That is nipple number 5, a good dairy

cow should have like 4. (one of my favorite lines from Napoleon Dynamite.

I liked these white cows.. but my friend Claire says that white

cows are dumb and I should only like Angus cows.

Cows aren't usually this clean and fluffly looking. This cow (along with

the others at the Royal) have been washed and blow dryed.

I think this is one of those Angus cows Claire was talking about.

The rodeo was great.. I always slightly freak out at the bareback

riding. They seem like they are thrown around a lot.

The bull fighters.. fighting a bull…

The Budweiser Clydesdales even made an apperance at the rodeo!

We had a great time.. Thanks so much to KOFO for giving us the tickets.

Happy Birthday to My Sweet Baby..

Fourteen years ago today.. I was waiting for the arrival of my first son to be born.  I went into the hospital on December 20, 1995 with high blood pressure brought on by well.. being pregnant with #2.  He was born at 11:11pm on December 22.  I had been there so long, I didn’t care that my mother, 19 yr old sister, 18 yr old brother, his girlfriend and 18 yr old cousin were in the room watching it all.  (The Man was there too.. but he was supposed to be there)

I always wanted 8 children.  I was pretty sure I would adopt them… and along came #2.

This isn’t a baby picture of him.. but I thought it was fitting to show.

Here he is when he was about 4, sitting in the wagon in his underwear

with the sacred “Candy Night-Night”. He loved that blanket.

When he went to pre-school he suffered from separation anxiety.

He would scream.. kick.. run away.. whatever it took because he wanted me to stay.

He didn’t do it for just a week or two, he did it each time I dropped him off for the

WHOLE YEAR!  His separation anxiety freaked me out SO BAD I didn’t

send another kid to preschool.

He would stick his tongue out at me.. all the time.

I cried when he lost his first teeth.. (it was more like sobbing.. but don’t tell anyone).

Sometimes he can REALLY annoy me.. Like when I want to

take a photo and he’s the ONLY child that won’t “be normal”.

He will do just about anything to make me laugh.. like ride a fake bull.

Or put on his sister’s tutu..

Here he was doing his best impression of my favorite South Park character..

Can you name the one?

I love this photo.. he came into the bathroom and just sat down

on the Elmo potty seat to chat.  His BIG PADDLE feet KILL ME.

When he was teeny tiny I used to kiss those feet!

At Halloween parties.. he’ll hug anyone you tell him too.

He’ll put on anything you tell him too.. even a 4T Harley Davidson

Motorcycle jacket.

See the thing on his waist?  That’s a dog collar.

EAT A SANDWICH!

He’ll model just about anything you tell him too…

I had these shoes to sell on eBay, a buyer wanted a photo of them

on someone’s foot.  The shoes were to big for me and to small for

#1.. so #2 agreed to model them. (we didn’t show the buyer this view…

she probably would have died if she would have known she bought

shoes a 12 year old boy modeled)

The same thing happened when he was about 10 or 11. The boots,

I had him model, the reflective gear… was all him.

He’s so sweet to his family…

He loves his sisters…

He always had time for his brothers.. if it’s to wrestle…

Give them a piggy back ride…

or battle Link.

He’s been known to carry his father around on his royal throne…

He’s never too embarrassed for a hug from his mother..

Happy Birthday #2..

(nice flat top and awesome gold chain)

I can’t believe you’ve been in my life for 14 years!

I love you!