June-July: A Continued List

So, after the fair, we all went home and crashed for a few days. I did, anyway. The farmer never crashes. He drinks 72 cups of coffee a day.

And my daughter has a Red Bull drip somewhere on her person. I’ve yet to find it, but I’m certain it’s there.

3.Once I got over the morning/all day sickness, I started taking a few photos for people this summer, which has been fun.

My cousin and her family

My cousin and her family

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My nephew

My nephew

 

My baby brother

My baby brother

 

That moment right before the wailing begins. Pitifully precious.

That moment right before the wailing begins. Pitifully precious.

4. I’ve been going to doctor’s appointments monthly for pregnancy checkups. Here’s the first belly bump selfie I took at 17 1/2 weeks.

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5. My mom met up with Taegan and I in the city one day for lunch. I took them with me to my doctor’s appointment, but first I got this picture that I absolutely treasure.

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I didn’t realize until this picture how much Taegan looks like her grandmother!

6. We took a little trip down to the creek and packed a picnic. This was Taegan’s treat for learning her Bible verse and 5 sight words. It was Luke 6:31. “Do unto others as you would have them do to you.” I got this told to me just last Sunday when I refused to carry her purse at the restaurant we had lunch at.

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She loved it.

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A better playmate than Daddy can’t be found.

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And then Banjo comes in at a close second. We learned that day that Banjo finds skipping rocks very upsetting. Every time the farmer tossed one, he would race down the shore barking and whining. When he got to the water, he would attempt to “rescue” the rock by diving under the water. This is when he realized that there are a multitude of rocks at the bottom of a creek and attempted to bring them all to the surface all the while barking and whining because this was just an impossible task.

A tranquilizer would not have been out of the question.

There are times when his intelligence is very impressive, but then there’s the rest of the time…

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Another picture I treasure.

7. On the Fourth of July, we had a family reunion at my aunt’s place. My grandma is one of six children and those six children and their descendants were who comprised this reunion. I had the task of coming up with shirts for the kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids of my grandma. Her name is Betty.

So, naturally…

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This was Taegan’s shirt.

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That’s pronounced JEE-Jee-ma and that’s what the great grandkids call her. It’s a lot shorter than great-grandma and it just fits her.

Here’s almost everyone (and their spouses) that make up Grandma Betty’s line. My shirt said “Granddaughter 05” because I’m the fifth person that came out of these genetics. The farmer’s shirt read “Married To 05” on the back.

family reunion

grandma's siblings

Grandma and her remaining siblings. They lost a beloved sister some years back.

We ate, played games, sang out of the church song books.

This family doesn’t get together and not sing. We’re all singers and singing must be done. If you don’t sing, everyone stares at you like, “Why aren’t you singing??” We’ve all been doing this since we were kids.

Singing family

My aunt compiled songs that my grandpa wrote along with songs written by grandma’s sister. All the songs were published in church song books over the years, so we each got a little booklet full. They couldn’t be there with us in person, but they were definitely there in song.

While we were sitting there, someone asked Aaron to start telling stories. Aaron’s quite the storyteller and his go-to’s are always the ones about running off one of my great-aunt Sandy’s boyfriends. When Sandy was dating this guy, her nephews were in all in the 16-18 age range, I believe. They set out to run this guy off and totally got it accomplished.

They were just awful to him.

Aaron's stories

Sandy during stories

You can tell she’s really torn up about it.

My dad was one of those nephews. Look at him. It was fun watching them all relive it.

Dad

Dad and Justin (the oldest of my brothers)

I never get tired of those stories. And Aunt Sandy has no regrets. I would try to tell them, but I could never do them justice. Aaron holds a captive audience by telling and acting them out.

Later that evening, we did some fireworks and everyone said their goodbyes hoping it wouldn’t be so long before we saw each other again. My husband only just met some of my family in July and we’ve been married 10 years.

That’s all I’m going to be able to do for now.

 

More to come.

 

Still to be continued,

 

Breauna

Our Fall Family Photos

A while back, I told you about some family photos we had done. I wanted them taken at the dairy because, as far as scenery and photo ops go, you really can’t get much better than this. The next step was to find a photographer. It just so happens that I have a photographer cousin in Kansas City. (Icon Imagery, if you’re in the KC area.) I really wanted her to take them because 1) she’s awesome 2) she knows our personalities and 3) I enjoy her company immensely. She brought her little family down, we took pictures, I cooked, we ate, we stood around a backyard bonfire, and a good time was had by all. She even trekked down to the dairy barn to help the farmer the next morning!! (Her name’s Kim, by the way.)

Kim

Isn’t she gorgeous?

And here are some of my favorites that she took of us… Barrage of pictures comin’ at ya.

Tae and I

I’ve decided that I must have one like this every year.

Piggyback

This is our rendition of a picture the farmer saw on the internet. He told me he wanted it for his birthday. 🙂 We couldn’t have staged it better for him. An old red barn, a few hay bales, and his girls.

Angel

Angel.

Taeter 1

Peanut did an awesome job for Kim.

Taeter 2

I love her face here. It looks like she’s happily wistful.

Taeter 3

And this one’s just so candid.

the farmer and I

I can’t think of a picture of us that I’ve ever liked so much. I ordered a big 16×20 canvas of it for our bedroom.

the shoes say it all

Haha! And although this picture is on the suggestive side, it’s so totally us. If I were to title this one, it would be “The Shoes Say it All.”

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Yeah, she took my banner photo, too. 🙂 Just a random one she snapped as we were walking away that turned out so cute!

Taeter and I 2

I can’t figure out if I like the cleaner one or…

Taeter and I 3

the hazy one better. What do you think?

My family 2

My mom said this is the kind of picture you frame and put behind your couch. I agree.

My family

I love this one because we’re all smiling.

Special Request

I love this one because of Peanut’s sweet, spunky face. And I think it’s kind of great how we’re all touching. I don’t remember Kim telling Peanut to put her hand there.

Silly Tae Tae

Her face…

Tae Tae

The sun in this one’s pretty cool.

Tae's Leaf

This was one of Kim’s ideas that turned out so cute!

Tae's Leaf 2

And then Peanut did some posing of her own.

My Ornery Daughter

Peanut looks all disheveled here because the farmer was flying her around like an airplane. However, the haphazard hair and the little mischievous grin to go with it is why I absolutely love this picture. It visually captures…her. This is Peanut. This is what she looks like every other day of the week.

And finally, there’s this one.

sunset

This picture is symbolic to me, in a way. Symbolic of the journey. On one hand, we’ve come this far. On the other, we still have a lot more to go. But, we’re here on this dairy and as long as we’re all together, I can only feel hopeful.

Thanks for letting me share with you!

Happy Hump Day,

Breauna