Crawling??

My, my how time flies. It seems like we were just in the hospital with Jayden; taking her home in a car seat that seemed way too big. Holding and feeding her in the wee hours of the night, keeping her safe from her big sister. And now she is crawling. Our little baby is crawling, already. It kinda took both of us by surprise yesterday when we turned around to see Jayden 3 feet from where we had set her down. Look out Miya, nothing is safe anymore!

Are You Kidding Me?

I tried to tape Miya's newest saying. For a couple of days it's all she would say, now she won't say it because she knows we want her to. I guess I have to be a little quicker with the video tape. One day we were talking at dinner and she said something about Charlie and I asked if she was kidding, she replied with "No, I'm serious." That was her response for a couple of days. Where she learned that.... I have no idea, but it was cute while it lasted. You'll also notice in the video that Miya still has no 'sits' in her. She is constantly moving around.

More Fair Pictures

'Jayden hanging out in her stroller'

I tried to get a video of Miya walking Uncle Tyler's pigs, however I ran out of tape on the video camera and battery on our digital. So we went back to the fair on Friday night with the specific intent to tape Miya walking the pigs...however on arriving at the fair we found that the pigs got pneumonia and all of the healthy pigs were shipped out to slaughter that afternoon. So, we did not get to tape again. I think Uncle Tyler and Aunt Alyssa are going to be going to a winter show this year so hopefully Miya will be able to help train their pigs :). We would love to be able to meat the Westra family in Iowa this summer for a pig show for Miya....we'll see how things go! So far she kinda lets the pig walk her. As for the rest of the animals at the fair....she still has no fear. She will walk right up behind a cow, calf, or steer and grab their leg (which makes me very nervous). She also likes to stick her fingers into the bunny and rooster cages. Things will calm down now that the fair is done, but I find myself already missing it. Miya was at a very fun age this year and I know that next year may be a little more difficult as Jayden will probably just be walking (I don't want to think about that yet).

'Miya telling the baby calf to 'stop' so she can pet it.'

Trouble, Trouble, and more Trouble. (Miya, Zach, and Alex)

Miya giving the monkey some money. She would bust out giggling EVERY time
it took the money from her (which was often).

Fair Week

Last night Green Valley was the sponsor for the Rodeo at the fair. Before the rodeo was a customer appreciation dinner which Jeff had to be at for his customers and after that everyone went to the rodeo and sat near each other. Miya thought it was great. She actually sat still for most of it. She kept telling us when they would fall down (which is everyone but the barrel racers)! She did get a little freaked out by a psycho horse rider. I left Miya standing on the gate while I grabbed Jayden's spit rag (I know I should NEVER leave a child standing on a gate...) I turned around to see a horse, and rider, skidding towards the gate directly in front of Miya. I looked at her (I was standing by her by now) and she couldn't even breathe she was so scared; she wasn't even ready to cry yet. For those of you that know Miya well you know she an animal lover and has no fear when it comes to them. She was terrified and I don't blame her. The lady said it looked like Miya wanted to pet a horse (which she did) so she ran her horse directly at her from across the pen. Probably not the best idea for a two year old. She apologized and moved on (thankfully). Green Valley also had a bunch of free ride wrist bands they were handing out so after the rodeo (yes, after) we took Miya on a bunch of kiddie rides. Her eyes were glassed over because she was so tired, but she had a blast. It was a late night but a lot of fun.

Today was the pig show. Both girls had a lot of fun and slept on the way home. I was hoping Jayden would nap at the fair but I guess that was wishful thinking; there is just too much she might miss.

"Miya with Kenzie and Zach-my cousin's kids. She watches Miya when I work
at school."

I love racing

Guess who?

Yeah, we had a great time in Bristol. Im glad I got to watch some good racing since my own isnt going very well. I started racing offroad derbys again a couple weeks ago. I raced to races and made it 1.5 laps. Pretty impressive. Mechanical problems though, not driver problems. Gotta put an alternator in the car and we should be all set. Anyway, as Nicki was saying, Bristol was great. Thankfully there are cars to watch and not just people (pretty hillbilly environment in the stands) at Nascar races. Lets just say there is more than enough interesting people there on a regular basis. We got scanners which were really cool, so we could listen to the drivers talk back and forth to their crew chief and spotters. They are really busy talking on a half mile track because there is always traffic to deal with.

We got to walk the track which was unbelievable the amount of banking there are on the curves of a half mile track where the drivers are doing well over 100 mph. We stood at the base of the track to the top of the track was probably 8-10 feet.

I got to play tire guy, watched some amazing scenes from the sky before the race from fighter jets to skydivers with the American flag attatched to him, took some closeups pictures of cars. Got to get a real close look at Kasey's 9 Budwiser car, Nicki got some autographs, and we got to smell like exhaust. It was great.

We smelled like burnt racing fuel so bad after that race, but I loved it. It was an awesome birthday present from Nicki. Anyway, I will probably remember more some other time. Just gonna post some pictures and get to reading b4 I go to bed. Love you all

Jeff

Week Away

A week ago we were able to travel to Bristol, TN to enjoy a Friday and Saturday Nascar race. Jeff was sooooo excited to go to this race; I was so excited to see the foot hills of TN and West VA (I actually thought I was going to see my first real mountains....maybe next time). We left on Thursday and the first few hours were really, really quiet in the car. I think we were both wondering what we were supposed to talk about. We are seldom together with just the two of us and no girls. I think we both enjoyed the peace of a quiet car driving away from the daily grind. When we both realized the peaceful car ride was going to last A LOT longer we began talking and having as much fun as possible in a car without a two year that doesn't stop talking and a crying baby. Sunday we spent the day driving around West Virginia admiring God's beautiful creation. Monday we did some fishing at the falls we found the day before-to no avail. We also went golfing and did a lot of driving and eating! Tuesday we focused on getting home to our girls (and house visitation)! We had an amazing vacation and both of us (I think) were reminded why we married each other almost five years ago. Hopefully we are blessed with another five years (and another vacation). I'll try to have Jeff post some of his race pictures in the near future.