we reunite at last!

Did you notice any special visitors in the last post?

Ya…that’s right. Our besties Jeff and Kapri totally joined us for pioneer days. They were visiting Idaho from California during Jeff’s dental school break and were sweet enough to journey a couple hours to come see us. It was so fun to hang out with them for 24hrs and catch up after a long year and a half of being apart.

Over a year ago, Kapri and I found out we were pregnant just a day apart from each other. We were excited to find out at our first dr appts that Krew and Harper were due on the exact same day – December 6th. However, Harper decided to come 3 weeks early and Krew just wanted to stay cozy in mommy…he came 1 week late. Darn children!

Harper loved Krew {she has way too many boyfriends already!}. They had so much fun playing together. Harper was giving Krew the sweetest kisses. Check out the evidence:

don’t worry…she’s not an evil biting child. she was actually giving him kisses on his shoulder. so funny!

 

Come back soon! We miss you already!!!

Pioneer Days

here in civilization, they celebrate pioneer days every year. ry has always raved about what a party it is and we were lucky to get in on the action this year. they have stuff going on all week and I’m pretty sure the small population in this town more than quadruples.

we celebrated pioneer days with a bump n rub race, a pioneer program where one of the bedke relatives was honored, some deep pit bbq, a 10 year high school reunion, a parade, a rodeo, fireworks and a bedke reunion. it was a ton of fun {and it made it even more fun that we had some extra special visitors with us – see pictures below}. we can’t wait until next year!

pretty pretty harper girl

we took a few pictures after church today. now that I look at them, her headband is on crooked and weird. oh well! she can still put it off cuz she’s so darn cute!

hungry hungry calves

Harper and I helped daddy feed the motherless calves a couple weeks ago. Harper loved it {although you can’t really tell by her face}! Here are a few pics I took of our little adventure:

i’m finally a mom

a couple of weeks ago i looked down and realized i had snot all over my shoulders and puke down my shirt and pants from my sick little girl.

i almost got emotional.

not because my clothes were gross and i didn’t look very attractive. but because i had this overcoming sensation that…i’m finally a mom.

there i stood in that very moment with everything i had ever wanted.

lil water bug

we bought harper a lil pool to have up here for the summer. it’s mostly an excuse for me to put her in the adorable swimsuit i bought before she was born. i figured i should get my $5 worth out of it.

we put her in it this week for the first time and she just loved it!

notice the awesome sunscreen mohawk she’s sportin’.

i took more pictures than i would like to admit. so here are just a few of my very favorites:

 

I’m pretty sure she’s thinking “ok mom, that’s enough pictures already. can you stop making me look at the camera and just let me play? geez!”

I obliged.

duke, dixie and the unnamed

remember duke?

this is ryan riding duke OUTSIDE of the corral. he’s been riding him like this all week and duke has been awesome!

ry also started working with dixie and another 2 yr old colt {that is yet to be named} this week. he’s had time to spend almost all day with the colts so they’re making a lot of progress quickly.

got any ideas for a name for the unnamed colt?

ry is open to suggestions.

i was thinking Mister.

if he chooses one of the names you suggest, you’ll win a 5 night stay on this luxurious ranch. complete with horseback ridin’, 4wheelin’, gun shootin’ and dang good food {oh and some totally awesome hosts}. this is all-inclusive folks!

ok, you’re right. i’m just trying to trick you into coming to see us. but still…

4th of July 2011

Our 4th of July celebrations consisted of the 4 F’s – Family, Friends, Food and Fireworks.

We spent a lot of time at Grandma Bedke’s visiting family from out of town {and in town} and eating ridiculously good food {as always}. On Saturday night, we watched fireworks courtesy of Grandma and Ry’s cousin Derek. Harper LOVED them. She did not squawk once. She just kicked her feet and watched them so contently. I was pretty amazed. I assumed there would have been at least a couple tears. She also got to try out a couple of sparklers {well, she obviously didn’t hold them, but you know what I mean}. I absolutely love this picture of Aunt Addie holding a sparkler with Harper.

 

On Monday, we started off our day in style with red, white and blue pancakes:

We enjoyed a day of shopping, visiting and just spending time together.

Do you see anything wrong with the above pictures {besides the fact that Ry needs a haircut real bad}?

Yes…that is correct. Harper is not being very patriotic in her attire.

I had the cutest red, white and blue outfit for her. I had it picked out long before she was born. It was cute, had all of the colors and I knew it would fit her by the 4th. Perfect!

I put it on her about 10 minutes before we left for Grandma Bedke’s for lunch. Literally, 5 minutes after she had it on she puked all over the front of it. I wanted to bawl! I finally came to terms with it, put her in something different and decided I’d wash it so she could wear it to the ward party that night {and get a cute family picture}. I ended up running it through the washer twice in order to get the stain out. Luckily, we had it clean and dried about 10 minutes before we had to leave for the party. We got her dressed and not even 2 minutes later she puked all over it again!!! Now I really wanted to bawl. I decided my daughter had it in for me {or America}.

The weird part of this story is that she very rarely pukes.

I’ve decided she just really wants to be Canadian!

She never puked on her Canadian onesie…

a turd load of cookies

If you’ve ever wondered what 20 dozen cookies looks like, feast your eyes on this:

{the tupperwares are full of non-iced cookies}

Yes, Mom Bedke and I made 20 dozen cookies.

No, not really on purpose.

It’s actually pretty funny – Ryan’s sister had called Grandma Bedke for her marshmallow cookie recipe a couple months back. Turns out Addie had written down 1 and 1/2 cups instead of one 1/2 cup. Do you see where this is going? So Mom Bedke and I decide to double the batch. So we put 3 cups of shortening in {thinking we were doubling the 1 and 1/2 cups of shortening it called for}. However, based on the actual recipe which calls for one 1/2 cup shortening, we had 6x the shortening. Oh dear! Needless to say we had to 6x most of the other ingredients to catch it up to the ridiculous amount of shortening we had added.

Turns out when you 6x a recipe, you get a real turd load of cookies!

 

bronc ridin’

Ryan has been working with a colt {Duke} whenever he gets a chance {which wasn’t very much until recently} over the last couple of months. This is Ry with Duke:

When Ry first started with Duke he wouldn’t even let Ry up to him. Now he pretty much comes up to Ry and cuddles him - nibbling on his shirt and putting his face right up to Ryan’s. It’s pretty darn cute! It’s been really fun to watch the process. Last week, Ryan rode Duke for the very first time. It took a couple hours before he actually was on him. Ry had to do a lot of hopping and standing in the stirrups and putting his weight on him so that Duke would get used to it and not throw a complete fit when Ry jumped on. This is a video to give you an idea of what I mean:

This is the first time Ry got on him {MUST WATCH}:

It’s just so intense and fun to watch. You never know how the horse is going to react. But, I will admit, as fun as it was, I was still a lil nervous for my husband’s life!

Shortly after this, Ry got on again and Duke got a lil spooked and bucked through the fence. It was SO CRAZY! I wish I had video of it. Luckily and thankfully, Ryan wasn’t too hurt. Just some scratches and bruises.

Ry is going to start working on a new colt here shortly. Her name is Dixie {I named her!}. So basically if you want some good wholesome entertainment, you should come visit!

Harper’s new tricks

Holding her her bottle. I couldn’t get a normal shot of her doing it. She kept wanting to turn and smile for the camera. That’s my girl!

Drinking from a sippy cup:

The one-sided army crawl:

Just this week she’s started getting up on all fours and rocking, so I don’t think it will be long before she’s for real crawling.

She’s also started using the pincer grasp and picking up small pieces of food and putting them in her mouth.

She’s just getting SO big!!

to all of our Canadian family and friends:

Happy Canada Day {yesterday}!

 

Love,

Harper

these are a few of her favorite things

FOOD

Harper will seriously eat anything edible {and inedible, including paper}. There is nothing we’ve fed her that she doesn’t love {including lemons and vinegar}…

Some of her very favorites are Sunday’s roast beef dinners {taking after her dad} and anything sweet {taking after her mom}, including suckers {she did not like when we took it away} and especially chocolate.

 

ANIMALS

She especially loves horsies and doggies. As soon as she sees either her eyes go big and her feet start kicking and she starts hollering with excitement. It’s so darn cute! She is not afraid of them at all. She’ll happily go right up close and reach out to touch them.

 

TRACTORS AND 4WHEELERS

Harper’s legs were kicking the entire time she rode the tractor with Grandpa. And he said she wanted to touch the steering wheel the entire time. She was also all smiles and happy feet when we sat her on the 4wheeler with daddy.

 

 

THRILL RIDES

Some of Harper’s biggest smiles and giggles come from hanging upside down and spinning around and being tossed up and down! I’m so excited to have another roller coaster riding partner one day…

the reunion of family

Last week we had ryan’s mom’s family reunion up at the ranch. It was so much fun visiting with aunts, uncles and cousins that we don’t see very often. Our agenda was jam packed over 2.5 days. I think the best part though was all of the ridiculously good food we ate. Here’s a lil summary of some of the other excellent parts of the reunion:

1 – VISITING. Just hanging out in the shade watching others ride horses. I didn’t position anyone for this picture. They were all just standing like this watching and chatting; I thought with the background {just the dirty shop down by the corrals} it was such a cool pic.

2 – CAMPFIRE. We enjoyed hot dogs and s’mores with a lil game of fuzzy bunny between Ryan, Addie, Hazel and I.

3 – REGISTER ROCK. This is such a cool place. It’s along the California Trail which runs right through the ranch. I’ll have to do a post about this sometime!

4 – TARGET PRACTICE. Almost everybody got a lil lesson in shooting a gun and then we had a competition.

5 – PLAYTIME. Obviously Harper was never suffering from lack of attention. But, really, does she ever?!?

6 – BONFIRE. There was an old, very heavy couch and bed in the basement that we commissioned the boys to carry out and burn up. They happily obliged!

7 – HAYRIDE. We took a hayride one morning to see register rock and some of the other cool landmarks around the ranch.

8 – HORSIES. We watched Ry play with Duke. We also had “child-friendly” horses that everyone was able to ride.

9 – And some of us got an extra special ride in the bucket of the tractor!

Oh and did I mention we ate a TON of really amazing food? Oh I did. Ok, good!

daddy’s getting old

Ryan turned 28 this year. It’s so wild to me that we’re fast approaching 30. I always used to think 30 was OLD! Turns out , I was wrong. I’ve decided anything over 90 is OLD…and we have a lot of years in us before it gets to that point.

For ry’s birthday, his mom made delicious marinated steak. And his sister made his all-time favorite peanut chocolate cake. And, well, Harper and I decorated the house with balloons and streamers and “happy birthday” signs, and sent ry on a little hunt to find his gifts:

I have a few things that you might like,

But you will have to take a hike.

To begin you will want to look,

Somewhere one might like to cook.

Where it was found: in the oven

What was there: coupon for a pie of his choice

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This one isn’t quite as clear,

But I’ll give you a clue – it’s below here.

You’ll find it in something, I would bet,

That keeps you dry from the wet.

GOOD LUCK!

Where it was found: in his rain boots

What was there: coupon for a pedicure

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Now onto the best gift of all,

It might make you so happy you’ll want to bawl.

This place is favorite every night.

It rejuvenates your mind, body and sight.

Where it was found: in our bed

What was there: coupon for a 5 min back rub everyday for a year < {now that is true love}

 

daddy day

my two favorite people {with bedhead} enjoying breakfast in bed on father’s day…

we made daddy breakfast in bed again this year. Harper was as much help this year as she was last year! We also made him a little candygram that said:

Daddy

I love you mounds and mounds. Thank you for always feeding me your food and then cleaning my goobers. Thank you for always making me snicker, especially when you do the whatchamacallit. I wouldn’t trade you for 100grand. You’re the bestest daddy ever!

I love you!

Love,

Your Pride and Joy

Harper

xoxoxo