Fall is finally here!

I would update the blog with all the pictures and details of what all we did in August and September so far, but that just overwhelms me! So I'll just touch on the high points.

In early August, Brindle and I flew to Houston for a few days with my mom while Dad was in Denver visiting my brother. We had a great time visiting a lot of friends and Kanyon's sister, Kyla, and her family. We went to the beach and Brindle loved it!

She's only ten months old and she's already made two round trip plane rides! That's her momma's girl.

The week after that, we drove to Kerrville for the weekend for a little family reunion. And we did some more swimming in the river that Brindle loved! We've got a fish on our hands.

She is so ready for us to let her go in that water. She squealed and clapped the whole time. We had such a great time with the cousins!

A couple weeks after that, I had the pleasure of watching one of my best friends, Lauren, get engaged!

 It was so exciting and I'm so happy for you, Lauren!

Brindle had her 9 month well check later in the month and we found out that she is 17 lbs, 4 oz and 27.5 inches, which put her into about the 25th percentile. Still no teeth! She is a petite thing, still wearing only size 1 shoes! She is an active little girl, very alert and into everything. She's pulling up on everything and I'm sure its only a matter of days before she starts walking.

We are going through a rough phase right now where she is waking up in the middle of night again and we find her standing and talking and playing. I'm told that its normal when they go through a big developmental stage, like pulling up, but I'm ready for it to pass!

The cotton is looking good and Kanyon is ready to start turning off the irrigation systems. Harvest will be here before we know it!

Our little girl is so much fun and we love being her parents. She's become such a daddy's girl lately and I love seeing the two of them together. She hates to see him walk out the door anymore!

This last picture is hard for me to look at - she looks like such a little girl and not a baby in it! I keep telling myself its just a trick of the light or something.

We got some good rain this week and my parents are coming this weekend. Its a great week!

Summer

Get your bikinis ready! :) Don't you wish we all looked this cute in one?

This summer has kinda had a rough start for farming. All the wind has made the farmers stay on their game. Kanyon has been gone a lot out on the tractor. I have missed him. Some nights he hasn't gotten in until after I'm in bed, if not right before and leaves before I get up. I'm ready for him to be home more! Zeb misses him, too. Sometimes Kanyon lets him come home before he is done and I'm glad that I have someone to hang out with late at night. I can tell he's missing Kanyon when he sits by his chair:

But this weekend and next week, Kanyon and I will get a vacation with our families and I am so excited!!!

This weekend, we have a family reunion with my father-in-law's side of the family and all of Kanyon's siblings and their families (and Landon's girlfriend) will be there! Jada, his oldest sister, and her husband and kids have been here the last few days. They came early to spend some time in Welch and then go on up to New Mexico, where the reunion is, early to have a little family vacation before the reunion. So I have finally had my time with one of my new nephews, Krae! This is what we've done most of the time...

He is beyond adorable and so sweet. There's nothing like nieces and nephews. He's a major snuggler. Kyla, Kanyon's second oldest sister, and her kids will be here tonight and will drive with us up to Ruidoso for the reunion on Friday. She will be bringing my other nieces and my other new nephew, Preston, with her! Can't wait to get to see him. All the pictures she's sent have shown that he looks a lot like his Uncle Kanyon!

The next few days actually hold lots of exciting things happening because on Friday morning, we find out for sure what the sex of our baby is! The doctor is pretty sure its a girl, which I'm thrilled about, though he wanted to wait until this appointment to say for sure. I will be about 20 weeks at the appointment. It will also be a 3D ultrasound appointment, which will be so fun to show the family this weekend!

Then after making a quick visit to see our new second cousin Maddox in Lubbock, we will be heading to Ruidoso with all of Kanyon's family for the reunion. We'll all be staying in a large cabin, all 20+ of us. It will be so fun! There will be lots of extended family to see and spend time with, too. We'll be playing golf, swimming, eating a lot of great food (that always makes my list of important things), and going to a show on Saturday night apparently. I can't wait to get to the mountains and out of this hot weather!

Then on Sunday, Kanyon and I will say goodbye to everyone and head to Colorado to be adult guests at a Young Life camp called Frontier Ranch with my parents! I've been involved in Young Life in several capacities but this will be the first time I'll be an adult guest, since I've only recently become an adult ;) I am beyond excited! Besides staying in resort style facilities which is enough to make me want to be there right now, I get to watch and be apart of a ministry that I have sorely missed! My parents have been adult guests several times and they say its different than they think what being a leader or working is like at camp. So it's going to be fun! I pulled these pictures off Frontier's website... oh my goodness.

Frontier Ranch is Young Life's oldest operating camp (the oldest is no longer being used) and apparently has the most character for it. A lot of people say its their favorite and I'm excited to get to experience it. I've only been there for a day visit while working at another Young Life camp that is close by.

Writing this blog post has made me so antsy to get Wednesday and Thursday out of the way!! Especially so I'll have packing behind me... hate that part.

I may not be posting between now and then, unless I decide to post the sex of the baby, so have a great weekend and week!

Sometimes it hits me...

... that I never would have guessed I'd be here 6 years ago at my high school graduation.

Not that I hadn't ever dreamed about what it'd be like to be married to Kanyon. Because I did. In fact, I wish all the time that I could go back to my 14 year old self at camp and tell myself that I would be marrying Kanyon Brown, that boy I had a crush on (along with a few other girls). The look on my face would be priceless.

But on Sunday night, as I am driving down the turn row (what I am doing above) slowly as Kanyon fixes some things here and there, I realize, I never would have guessed I'd be a farmer's wife and doing this right here. I definitely wouldn't have balked at the suggestion though, it would have sounded like fun to me even then.

And I am so happy to call this place home.

As I drove to Midland on Saturday, I took a back way out of Welch instead of taking the main highway and found myself appreciating like I do every once in a while, like its the first time, how beautiful the place is that we live. Sure there are some places that aren't so pretty like the fields that look like a desert but even those look beautiful with our kind of sunsets behind them. West of Welch is probably my favorite area where the flat plain becomes small hills all of a sudden, with green grass as far as I can see.

There is something comforting in the fact knowing that you will live in the same town for your whole life. (Well its comforting if you love where you live.) Not to say there won't be lots of traveling but that one spot will always be home. I don't think I would have ever felt that way about the suburbs I grew up in or any suburbs but of course, I can't say that for sure. There is just something different about the country that allows you to claim a whole area as home. This is where my kids will grow up. This is where they will visit Kanyon and I, or maybe even settle down here themselves as Kanyon's parents have been fortunate enough to experience. 

I told Lauren this weekend as we talked about dating and marrying that I would have followed Kanyon anywhere. But I'm really really glad its here.

Rodeo Time

Welp, remember how in my last post I talked about how much I hated being sick.. I should have knocked on wood because I was not ready for what hit me Saturday morning.. but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Last weekend was the annual Lamesa Rodeo. I've really enjoyed it the last two years. Its a fun event where everyone gets even more cowgirl'd out than usual (the boys just wear their normal) and comes out to watch a rodeo and the local kids bustin' their bottoms in the donkey ridin', mutton bustin', and a couple other kid events. 

All the kids had their super cute cowboy and cowgirl clothes on :) 

Emry and Leif, as you could tell, were very interested in the rodeo. They came last year and were looking forward to it again! Aubryn (not pictured) even bought a special shirt to wear for the night!

Tac had on his boots, jeans, and his belt, which he showed everyone.

Like I said, the rodeo is always fun to watch, especially when the local guys compete. This guy I didn't know personally but his dad was in the next box sitting with our friend Troy.

Tac really got excited about the calf roping. He loves "horsheys" (horses).

I can't say that I even got to watch too much of the rodeo, though.. It seemed like I was chasing kids or taking kids somewhere the whole time. But I loved it! I also had to socialize, of course!

I didn't get any pictures of her, but my mom also came in that night! She was here for the weekend and drove from the airport to Lamesa to meet us there at the rodeo. She got to sit with Vaughn and Emry claimed her lap for some of the night.

Later that night, Landon, Kasha, and I moved down to stand by the chutes with Kanyon and Al (Kasha's husband) and I got a couple of cute pics of their little family.

I'll be the first to say they aren't professional quality but I thought they were cute all the same.

After sipping a glass of wine and chatting with my mom and Kanyon late into the night, I finally took out my contacts (something I was very thankful for later) and we went to bed.

About 5:00 the next morning, I woke up with my left eye the size of a baseball and both eyes glued shut. When I finally was able to open them, they were both blood red. Great, I thought, I had pink eye. And a bad case. Surely all the kids I was holding probably do too. I took my pink eye medicine that I had on hand, which expired in 2002, and went back to bed... but not to sleep. The pressure behind my eyes made them feel like they were going to explode.. it hurt. So Kanyon brought me an Advil when he got up to spray his crops at 6:00 am and I eventually fell back asleep at 8:00 or so.

Thank God my mom was here is all I have to say. I really mean that. He must have known I was going to need her. She deduced that it was not pink eye, since it was in both eyes which is not normal for pink eye, but a major case of allergies. Awesome. My eyes looked disgusting. Huge and puffy, very red, and yellow gunk flowing out of them all the time. You really wanted to know that last part.

Thankfully, I already had a prescription for my eye allergy medicine, it just hadn't been filled. But another symptom of my allergies is that I'm extremely sensitive to light. I definitely couldn't drive the 20 miles to town. Mom to the rescue. Thank you so much, again, Mom.

I didn't leave the house Saturday. I chilled out, hung out with Mom before she had to leave for Lubbock for the afternoon and night (she was here on business) and read my book and made dinner that night. I felt terrible. The congestion didn't really start until this morning, though.

Sunday, I left the house only for church (but we live across the street so its not much of an outing) and I'm sure I looked great in my glasses and puffy eyes. But Sunday night, I decided I needed to get out of the house at least once so I went to check water with Kanyon. Wouldn't ya know it, by the third circle we checked my eyes had swelled up again and were flowing... you know. Confirmation that its something in the air. We had the windows down because Kanyon's a/c is out.

But at least I was able to enjoy the incredible sunset.

And honestly, that was after it had tamed down. It was a vivid shade of hot pink and yellow but the sun sank below the horizon right when we got to a stopping point. Still though, pretty great shot.

For an update on where we are farming wise, let me just sum it up for you. This summer has been pretty awful, to put it mildly. Kanyon is three weeks away from the point where he will turn off his water completely and he is counting down the days. The extremely high temperatures and lack of rain have left the irrigation farmers with pretty sorry cotton and raised blood pressures.

It may look okay to the untrained eye (a.k.a. me and my mom this weekend) but its not.

But I will say again like I've said before, we are going to be okay. God will provide as He has already so generously provided. We are confident that we will come out fine this year. Its just been an extremely frustrating one for Kanyon. Putting so much work into something and getting sorry results is obviously discouraging. 

Thankfully, we have a lot to look forward to. A rest will come soon from Kanyon's watering and everything else that comes with fall.

I don't think anyone will be sorry to see this summer go.. hello fall temperatures, football season, sweaters, and holidays!

Pray for Rain

Our weekend was a thankfully a low-key one after a busy week behind us and a busy weekend ahead of us. Kanyon is in the plantin' stage of the year (when I say plantin-g with a "g", he always corrects me... "its plantin', Erika").

You may have heard about our extremely dry weather here in West Texas and the fire hazards its caused. Its not a good year to be a volunteer fireman... But one good thing that's come of it is that Kanyon and the rest of the volunteer firemen received all new equipment! The Welch VFD's equipment was seriously lacking... They had to share several things and most of it was worn out. But with all of the fires happening, our county came out for a fire our boys were at and noticed how in need we were. So all the boys get new safer suits and complete sets of equipment.

Its been a tough time to be a farmer so far this year. We haven't had a good rain since November. And even people who don't know a thing about farming know... no rain is not good.

Thankfully, we know that God is in control and that He will provide for us. And not to mention, He gave us a really successful year last year which we are still benefiting from. Its just the uncertainty of it all that is scary. Will we get rain this week? this month? Kanyon farms both irrigated and dry land cotton. The dry land, not being artificially watered through an irrigation system, has to be watered naturally with rain.

Even the irrigated, though, suffers. The water from the wells that the circle systems use (the irrigation systems) is not near as pure as rain water. The crops do not thrive on well water as much as they do on pure rain water.

 
All that to say, please pray for rain for our extremely dry land! Big Jake knows God will provide, though, and isn't worried a bit...

Sunset in the Country

I love my fancy camera. It makes up for all my lack of knowledge of photography!

I love getting the chance to go to work with Kanyon. It usually only happens on the weekends because by the time I get home from work, I'll probably have something else going on. But on the weekends, I can usually jump in the truck with him and Zeb and go to the fields.

Last Sunday, we were in no hurry so we had fun finding beautiful picture shots while we were checking water. Its pretty hard to not take a great picture out here!

 I love this man.

 Winter wheat.

 Its so nice to come out here after being inside my office all day.

 The benefit of not having buildings where you live.

 His favorite spot in the whole world!