A Day At The County Fair!

Several weeks ago we spent the day at the Cheyenne County Fair with Tressie and Gunner. It was a fun day but a very full and long day! Long like we were there from 11:00 am until 11:00 pm!

First up, the turtle races! This is a very big event at the Cheyenne County Fair! There were over 130 turtles entered this year! Each person can enter 2 turtles and almost all of these are entries from kids.

Tressie isn't real fond of turtles but we were able to get a picture. Don't know if this was "Mike" or "Sulley"!

Not to be outdone by his big sister, Gunner entered "Buzz" and "Woody"! He kinda likes turtles! He's a boy..... Well, none of their turtles placed but it is always worth entering as first prize is $50 cash! Papa and Tressie had 12 turtles in the horse trailer several weeks prior to the fair and would feed them melon rinds and other things all the while observing which ones were worthy of going to the races! There's always next year!

Next up.....the Kiddie Rodeo. This rodeo is for the younger kids and they compete using stick horses. Tressie and her Daddy and Papa set up a barrel course and tried to teach her the pattern several days before the fair. Well.....she kinda got it when she paid attention. Not to worry, the youngest of the kids were able to follow someone and complete their patterns. Papa was a good sport and helped her out. She ran the barrels and then did the flag race. I should mention that the course is much smaller than normal and they use plastic buckets for the barrels and poles. It was getting hot and Tressie had a blue snow cone on the brain. Halfway thru the poles she stopped and told Papa that her horse was tired! She was finished! Love it!

This is how Gunner enjoyed the Kiddie Rodeo! In his typical chilled out mode! Several more years and he will be entered!

After some lunch it was time for the carnival. A local church does an awesome job in running the carnival games and then for prizes they offer TONS of different school supplies! A great idea! Tressie was very into the games. She had quite the arm in knocking down the wooden pins and throwing the darts at balloons! She did the fishing pond, the ring toss and several other games. One of her favorites was the shooting booth! She loved it! Her Mom said that she looks like Annie Oakley in this picture!

After awhile she had a handful of tickets and it was time to shop the prizes! She had enough for this cute backpack, several folders, markers and several other things!

Then it was time for the carousel. Gunner, Tressie and Papa were the only ones riding at the time and got a pretty long ride. Gunner wasn't so sure he really liked it but he never cried!

By this time Gaga and Papa are getting tired but not Tressie! She had been wanting to do the big slide all day! She met up with a little friend from church and they had a blast on this. For awhile they were the only ones on it and the kid running the ride didn't even take their tickets for admission but just let them keep going again and again and again! They also rode in some kayaks and had a great time!

Tressie and Gunner with one of their favorite "girls" as Tressie calls them.....Lauren!

That evening Tony's Mom and Dad came and brought the team. There was a new event at the fair this year. It was a team driving competition. Each team pulled the same wagon thru an obstacle course. It was a timed event with penalty seconds added for knocking over different things, etc. Tony's Dad had already planned to enter and at the last minute, Tony entered. There were two different courses and Tony ended up getting third on the second course with "Tom" and "Whopper"!

It was a great day at the fair with our grandkids and we feel very blessed to be able to spend so much time with them and watch them grow and see the excitement of new things thru the eyes of a child!

Mother's Day 2013

I had a great Mother's Day this year!

About a month before Mother's Day, the FedEx truck delivered a package to my house.  As he was leaving he mentioned that he had a package for Emily and was going up to her house next.  I told him that he could leave it with me as they would be there that evening to pick up the kids.  He asked if I was sure and I said, "No problem"!  He went back to his truck and brought a package in and set it by the front door and was on his way.  The minute he left, I thought, "Oh, we MIGHT have a problem"!  The problem you ask?  Well, this package was from Kohl's but was in a box that told what the contents was, in this case, a KitchenAid mixer......Ummmm.....Emily already has a KitchenAid mixer and not two or three weeks earlier as I was trying to make buttercream frosting for Tressie's birthday cake and the beaters were literally pulling out of my hand mixer.....she tells me, "Mom, you need a KitchenAid".  I say yes, someday, maybe!  After I realize that I might of just ruined a surprise by having the FedEx man leave her package with me, I quickly shot off an email to her explaining what had just happened.  She wrote back and said, "Well, Happy Mother's Day and now I won't have to worry about where to put it until then or how to wrap it!  Go ahead and open it up and use it!"

I am SOOO enjoying my new mixer!  I have made several Angel Food cakes and several other things and I have to say I wish I would of had one years ago!  There is only one problem with this gift and it's not my problem.....You see, every since we built the new house I have watched Tressie.  In the kitchen I had this one cabinet that I was not using as it was Tressie's playing and hiding place.  The only available space for the new mixer.  She was NOT happy about it!  She would go over and open the cabinet and tell me to move it!  She has since accepted the situation.  Truth be told, she was almost too big to fit in there any more!

 On Sunday we went to my Mom and Dad's house and enjoyed eating lunch and spending the afternoon with them along with my sister and brother-in-law, one of my nieces, an aunt, and Emily and Justin and the grandkids.

My sister and I with Mom

 It is always fun to get a 4 generation picture.

Four generations

My beautiful red hair daughter and my sweet grandkids!  Don't know if either one of them will end up with red hair or not?
 

 Since Mom's birthday is tomorrow, May 15th, we also celebrated her birthday with birthday cake and homemade peach ice cream that Mom and Dad made!  My almost all-time favorite food EVER!  Yum.....it is soooo good!!!

To celebrate Mother's Day with Tony's Mom, I made lasagna last night and had her and Ernie and Andy come for supper.  

Another four generations picture

It was a fun Mother's Day week-end and I feel blessed to be able to spend time with my Mom and the rest of my family!

Christmas 2012

I decided if I was going to get a blog up about our Christmas, I had better get it done seeing as it has almost been two weeks since Christmas! And, again I am having trouble with getting pictures to come up in the order I want them to in Blogger.....so have decided to work with it instead of fighting it.....

One of the few pictures that we got of all of us together on Christmas.

On Christmas Eve we traveled the 5 minutes it took to get to the "Grandkids" house! It was a nice relaxed evening and Emily fixed us her yummy green chili for supper! Grandma knows that the kids don't need any more stuffed animals, but she couldn't resist these cute little 2012 Christmas horses that I found at Kohl's at a super low price. That always justifies it, right?

It was fun just visiting and watching Tressie open up a few of her presents and then helping her little brother with his. Gunner looked so cute in his little red outfit!

Before we came home, they opened their packages with their new pajamas in them and got ready for bed so that Santa could come!

I will make this long story short by saying that we had a great Christmas Day! We woke up to about 4 inches of snow that morning which was beautiful, but on the ranch, the cows need to eat before it's Christmas! So, Tony and Justin bundled up and fed the cows some hay and cleared the tanks of ice so that they could get a nice cold drink!

When they got in we had Christmas here at our house. I think Tressie's favorite present from Papa and Gaga was her Rapunzel doll. She also got a Rapunzel dress and crown and wig to dress up with.

It was a very busy day with stops at Tony's Mom and Dad's for lunch and then 100 miles in to my Mom and Dad's house! Happy that we get to spend time with all of the family, but it sure makes for a marathon day! We were again blessed with a great day celebrating our Saviour's birth!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE HAMMER RANCH!

Tressie's Christmas Tree

I am so tired of fighting with blogger.....Anyone else having problems? Download the pictures in the order that I want them and then when I preview them, they are in a crazy different order??? Any suggestions?

OK, so to the post....This is Tressie's Christmas tree! This picture was to be the last picture so that you could see the finished tree at the end.

We had this little tree that we used while we lived in the trailer as it was "trailer size". Haven't used it for several years, but thought that it would be fun for Tressie to have a tree that she could decorate and touch and enjoy. It fits just perfect in this corner and we have had such a fun time making decorations for it and then she loves putting them on "her" tree!

Grandma put a string of lights on the tree and the next day we made this paper chain. She really had fun! Yes, Grandma did finish it up, but she stayed with it longer than I thought she would! She would pick which color of paper strip to put on next and she also had TONS of fun with the glue stick! Good thing it cleans up easily with water.

Our next decoration was little green Christmas trees that I cut out of scrapbook paper. I had some little star stickers and she was quite good at taking them off of the sheet and putting them on the trees!

I also decided that this was a good place for all of her Christmas books. They only come out at Christmas and she enjoys having them read to her and also reading them herself!

I think her favorite project was making the candy canes out of red and white pipe cleaners! She kept saying that we needed more, more.....so we made more, more! These were super easy for her to hang on the tree!

On Tuesday we finished up the tree decorations. I remember Tressie's Mama making some decorations when she was little with macaroni. I cut circles out of poster board and then she glued macaroni on them. Grandma then sprayed them with gold spray paint. I also cut out some Christmas stockings from scrapbook paper and she put stickers on them. So, to see the end results of these projects and the finished tree, you will need to look at the first picture in this post!!!

Notice the plain little yellow star on the top of the tree.....would have looked really pretty with some gold or yellow glitter on it. Only problem is, this Grandma doesn't do glitter! She will endure alot of messes but not glitter! Sorry Tressie!

We are all enjoying Tressie's little Christmas tree in the corner!

Countdown to Christmas with Tressie!

The other day while Christmas shopping, I was looking for a new advent calendar to use with Tressie this Christmas season. I was thinking the little paper calendars with the little flaps that you open one every day until Christmas. You know, the kind like I had when my sister and I were little. Well, while looking at those, my eye caught this Little People nativity advent calendar by Fisher-Price.

Have you seen these? This is the cutest calendar for someone Tressie's age! It will also be Gunner's when he is old enough. It is a cloth banner with individual pockets for fabric pieces. Each piece has velcro on the back and makes it easy for Tressie to attach the pieces by herself! Each day a new piece is added to the scene until Baby Jesus is placed in the manger on Christmas morning! She is going to have a hard time waiting until Christmas morning to put Baby Jesus in the manger as it's only day 3 and that is the one that she wants to put on every time!

Tressie absolutely loves it! The only problem is where to hang it. She wants to be playing with it all of the time. That wouldn't be a problem except that she is a little rough when pulling the pieces off and her Mother declared that it was NOT something that she could play with, but something special to do each day at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

So glad that I found this as I think it will be something that Tressie and Gunner will look forward to getting out each year at Christmas while they are younger and who knows.....maybe even when they get older!

Our New Grandson!

Once more, a post that is way overdue, but too important to pass over!

Our grandson, Gunner William Golding, was born on October 10, 2012!

We had waited for what seemed like a really LONGGGG nine months to meet him! He has the most beautiful soft hair! I kept telling his Mama that I thought he was going to have hair. She had a hard time envisioning that because Tressie was born with only a very small amount of hair. We laugh and say that Gunner already has more hair than his big sister!

Speaking of his big sister.....she absolutely LOVES her little brother!

Gunner is a very good baby! He has alot of very expressive faces that he makes already! One of them is wrinkling up his little forehead when his sister is standing right over him yelling his name over and over and telling him "Hi"!!! I am sure that they are going to be great friends as they grow up together over the years!

Although, he might get tired of his big sister blaming things on him! We were sitting down at the table eating supper one night when Tressie's Mama asked about the fingerprints all over Grandma's window. She didn't even hesitate.....she immediately said....."Gunner did it"!!! And the poor little guy was only a week old!

Grandma and Grandpa are very blessed to have them live so close to us and we enjoy them and love them both more and more every day!