It's about to get crazy.

I'm about to be getting a lot more comments about being gone so much lately but that's okay... Because we're going to get out of this heat for a few days!

My brother works at Dry Bones in Denver. I've talked about it before but in case you're not sure, its a homeless ministry in Denver, CO. Cole is their mountain intern again this summer. He takes youth groups up on the mountains for half the week while they are there on their mission trips. He loves it and has become quite the outdoorsman. In fact, he's decided that this is what he wants to do with his life - ministry through backpacking. Pretty cool.

Anyway, Cole gets the week of July 4th off and instead of him coming home like he did last year, we are going to him! I was telling Kanyon last night that I have been to Colorado every summer for the last 8 years (usually working for Young Life) and I'm glad I don't have to break that streak this year!

Mom and Dad arrive on Friday night and Kanyon and I will get there Saturday early afternoon. Sunday, Cole is going to take us backpacking for the day and we're going to peak a mountain. I haven't done this in a few years so I'm so excited! I think Kanyon is mostly excited about being somewhere it is not 110 degrees everyday. I can't imagine what it must be like to be outside all day working. I'm seriously in a coat right now because I'm freezing in my office. I feel like a pansy.

Kanyon and my dad are coming back on Monday for work but Mom and I will stay until Wednesday. We may even go back on the mountain after the boys leave. We're trying to soak up as much time with Cole as possible before he leaves on his study abroad in Patagonia.

So I'm just trying to get as much work done as I can before I am gone for a few days. I'll get home on Wednesday night, work Thursday and Friday until noon, and then head to Dallas for the weekend for a family wedding where we'll get to see all of my cousins! I'm so excited! But all this packing that I'm going to have to do is making my head spin. (I hate packing. Hate it.)

Another Guest Room Update

Well I finally opened the boxes my quilts from Overstock came in last weekend and have been playing around with them this week. I eventually came up with a way to have both of them on the bed for now while Vaughn is sewing up the shams and the valance. I went over there today to see how they're coming along and they are so pretty! I can't wait to put them on the bed. For now though, I'm pretty happy with how its coming along.

In this post, I showed you the stock photos of the quilts I had ordered for the guest room. I bought two because I couldn't decide between two of the ones I had found on Overstock but since they were both great prices, I just ordered both and knew that since they were both so pretty and versatile that I could keep both and use the one I don't use later on somewhere.

Here are the two stock photos from Overstock:

The white one because Vaughn and I both thought it would look really good with the wall color and the fabric my Mom gave me that we were using for the shams and the valance and the throw.

And then the printed one because it is completely against my decorating nature to buy anything without a bold color... (Even though I love the new white trend!)

I took them both out and put them on the bed each to see how they looked. The white quilt didn't have shams included (they were separate) so I didn't buy them since we were making them. But the white and brown one did. So until we finish the shams and the valance, I just combined them so I could see both of them!

But first, here's what the room looked like about a month ago:

And here is what it looks like at this very moment:

I love the quilts!! I can't wait to see which one looks the best with the new shams. I'm really pacing myself with this room since its not crucial to have it done immediately so I'm enjoying the process. After we get the shams and valance up, I'll decide on which quilt and what color to buy a bed skirt of, and some throw pillows. I have something in mind already for the wall above the bed. Just not sure what I'm going to do to cover the closet. I have curtains up there now to cover the doorway. Maybe just see if they have the same matching panels still at BB&B that match the sheer curtains I have on the window?

We've got a fun weekend planned. Nothing going on tonight except I'm going to actually cook dinner for the first time in a week! Tomorrow, we have a birthday party, a baby shower (just me), and then we are having dinner with some friends in Lubbock that we have not gotten to do that with in a long time! We see them all the time but it's different sitting down and talking for a couple hours, ya know?

And tomorrow is Kalith's (Kanyon's dad) 53rd birthday! Happy birthday, Kalith! We hope you have fun in Lubbock tonight with Vaughn! We love you!

Landon and Grey

On Saturday night after the boys took Addalie out on the horse, Landon said he would be going to Troy and Sue's for a little. I had been meaning to go out there for a while because Troy had told me a couple weeks ago he was getting a new puppy! Troy is Zeb's grandfather (?).. he's Zeb's parent's owner and breeder. So I call him that. Troy knows I love his pups so he always tells me when he has a new litter born or he bought a new pup.

So I tagged along with Landon to go play with the new puppy while he worked Grey out in the roping arena. 'Scuse me.. I meant ropin'.

I was excited to find not one but two new pups out at his barn! Aren't they adorable?

This was the best picture I could get of them because any closer, and they were all over me. No complaints here.

Zeb's daddy, Deetz. Also the best picture for the same reason. I've never known a dog that can literally hug me like Deetz can. He seriously wraps his front legs around mine. I love it.

After I played with the dogs for a minute, I realized I was missing a great opportunity to take some cool pictures of my brother-in-law. I love these.

Such a different and beautiful life I lead out here. I'm so thankful for it.

A Full Weekend

We had a great weekend with family the last few days and I am really excited about all the pictures I got!

I was actually home (I've gotten a lot of flack for that lately... from myself as well) and it was so nice. I couldn't even remember the last time I had seen Landon, my brother-in-law... I guess the last time I was home on the weekend. But I got to spend lots of time with him, too.

Sena and Daniel (Kanyon's sister and our brother-in-law) and their two (extremely) cute kids came to stay with Nana and Papa and see all the Welch family. It was a great weekend of playing on the floor, listening to two very happy children laughing all the time, eating great food from Vaughn, and catching up.

Asher is such a fun boy right now. Playing as much as he can and so easily amused. He made me feel like the funniest person in the whole world. I like to keep people like that around me.   : )

He laughs at everything, even just a smile! How amazing is that?

I can't even handle his cuteness.

And Addalie.. also such a fun little girl. She cracked us all up all weekend with her extremely expressive statements and her cute laugh.

We filled up the kiddie pool in the backyard for some swim time and some popsicles!

Asher's watching that popsicle intently. Just look at those rolls. He is the ticklish-est child ever and I took full advantage of it.

On Saturday night, the guys (Kanyon, Landon, and Kalith) took Addalie riding on the horse-ys (Addalie's word, not mine ;)

These pictures kinda sorta melt my heart.

Addalie telling Uncle Kanyon about the horse-y ride.

 She was saying cheese at least :)

Jake finding some relaxation from his busy life...

Landon and his horse Grey.

Sunday, I got to go to church for the first time on a Sunday in a while and it was great to see everyone. After lunch at Vaughn's, Sena and Daniel and the kids made their way home and Kanyon and I spent some time relaxing. Landon came over to watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, but about 30 minutes into it, Kanyon got a call that there was a fire in Welch.

I texted Kanyon an hour after he left to make sure everything was alright and he said that everything was okay but the fire was really big and really hot. To me, that doesn't seem okay but I figured he would have used another word if it didn't seem to be contained.

I did chores around the house and recieved a couple texts from Kanyon here and there so I knew he was okay. Then about 6:00, Vaughn called me but I couldn't hear her when I picked up and every call after that I made failed. We figured out later that no one had hardly any service in Welch that afternoon and night and I'm still not sure if that had something to do with the fires. Then she knocks on my front door and walks in asks me if I'm okay and if I want to go with her and Kalith to go see about the fire. Um, what? Apparently the fire had escalated a lot since I talked to Kanyon. But since he had been texting me, I knew he was okay.

When I got in the car, I looked at my phone and realized that he had not been texting me this whole time, actually. The texts I was recieving were the ones his phone had tried to send me in the first hour but were only coming to me every 45 minutes or so. So really I hadn't heard from him in a while. Scary feeling.

When we got to the point where the fire had been, we saw it was about a quarter mile outside of town. There were several little fires everywhere but the actual fire had been squelched.

It was a very eery sight.

See the little fires everywhere? Kalith got out and tried to put one out but it wasn't doing anything after having dirt piled on it. We learned later that Kanyon and the volunteer FD were putting all these out at the time.

What had started the fire was a power line going down, I believe.

Once Kanyon got home about 10:00, I was very happy to see him and I knew he was so tired but he still had to check water. So I went with him. We grabbed some sandwiches since he hadn't eaten anything since lunch and were up till midnight. It was a long day for both of us today. But praise God that no one was hurt, no houses burned down (two or three were in extreme danger of it and one house's siding melted from the intense heat), and all of our men were safe in their beds that night.

It was a great weekend with lots of time just hanging out. I really needed that. I've been going, going, going lately. It's all been stuff that I wouldn't have wanted to miss, though. But I'm glad for a brief stint of weekends at home. Because I'm leaving town again in two short weeks!

The Animals

Last week, Kanyon and I were at his parent's house for lunch on Sunday... wait a second.. I haven't been home on a Sunday in three weeks. So these are from three weeks ago. Wow.

Anyways, I wanted to show you a few pictures I took that day.

One of their barn cats had kittens!! They live under the playhouse and are still not sure if they like me or not because they still hiss at me while looking like they have no idea where that weird hissing noise is coming from. Its the funniest thing! Vaughn says they've taken to playing more out from under the porch and wrestling. I'll make sure and try and catch them at it this weekend.

This is Landon's newest horse, Grey. He's extremely friendly. In fact, he was wanting so bad to get close to me that this is the best picture I could get..

... until I finally went and grabbed some hay and threw it in his pen so I wouldn't have his attention for a second! Isn't he pretty?!

Johnny, Freckles, and Mary glaring at me for not giving them hay also.

Don't worry, I went and got some so they don't decide to take it out on me the next time I ride one of them. Johnny is well aware of how to make me look like an idiot and does it every time I'm on him. No matter that all he has to do is start trotting. He acts like he lives in a pen all the time or something and is just dying to run.

Some new apricots on Vaughn's apricot tree! (Have I mentioned I love my camera in a while? I do.)

Later that afternoon, I went with Kanyon and Zeb to check water.

Boy, does that pup loooooove water! He will run and sli---ide all the way down the stream. Its hilarious. I can't wait for the first time we have a slip-n-slide.

A man and his dog.

Shake!

When we were about to leave, we noticed Zeb running after something. This isn't unusual and we're pretty sure most of the things he's chasing are imaginary but then the thing he was chasing ended up very interested in him.

The hawk ended up circling us so closely for a good ten minutes. Zeb was being so patient and not chasing after it. But it was so strange! Kanyon and I have never seen a hawk act that way for so long.
He eventually got a drink of water from the stream and flew off. It was like he was trying to convince himself that we weren't going to try and grab him when he finally swooped down to the water.

 

It was pretty cool. We just stood there still the whole time to see what he would do. Then as soon as he got his water, he was off!

Planting Season

Planting for Kanyon has come and gone but its a little - okay, a lot - different right now than it was at this point last year because of the drought. Last year at this point, we had a lot of moisture and were looking forward to a great crop.

Also, this is the point where I remind you... I am a novice farmer's wife and Kanyon is not responsible for anything I claim to know and tell you on this blog. He wanted me to let you know.

Anyways. Kanyon planted his irrigated fields about a month ago and his dry land about 3 weeks ago. So I came out to see how it looked about a week ago.

It's coming up slowly this year with the lack of water - in some places, very sparsely. I went again last night with Kanyon to check water and he said one of his fields is running out of water. His wells usually don't get this low until late summer or not at all because we have rain to supplement our irrigation systems. But not this year yet.

(That is wheat that is growing alongside the rows of cotton.)

 Kanyon dug up a seed that had just started swelling with moisture and had a growth started for me to see.

God willing, these will grow into a beautiful field of cotton! We're hopeful and prayerful that we will get rain soon so that we can get rain water on our crops, which is so much more nourishing for the land and give our irrigation systems a break.

Did you notice how rough Kanyon's hands are right now? I told him I'm pretty sure he cut me with one of his callouses grabbing my hand last night...

Please be praying for our farmers right now. The wind and the very high temperatures this week (and lately in general) are very hard on these baby crops. The wind can blow away the top layers of soil, especially if its not wet (Kanyon's had about 40 acres blow out already) and the high heat will make the water that is on the ground evaporate before it can be absorbed. And rain would be really nice too : )  Thank you!