The Event ~ Turning 64 and a New Baby!

Ordinarily, a 64th birthday is not major and usually uneventful.  This year I turned 64 on September 28 and had the pleasure of spending the weekend with Janel, Tim  and seven beautiful grandchildren.  The Andreasen family has a tradition of breakfast in bed for the birthday child.  On Sunday, September 28, I was the honored birthday child receiving the coveted breakfast in bed to a chorus of "happy birthday" sung by the choir of 10 family members, including hubby Tim.

 

Tradition calls for all to gather on the bed as candles (one lone candle for me) are blown out and wishes are made.  My wish was for my newest grandchild who was still in the womb to be born before we left Lincoln, considering the due date was the next day.  That didn't happen!  Note the baby still in the womb in the picture below!!

 

We later enjoyed brunch on the patio with a birthday apple coffee cake, followed by a football game featuring Jon. 

Friday nite before we enjoyed watching Jakob play football.   I think I can predict a lot of trips to Lincoln in the future as the grandchildren participate in high school sports.

Jakob playing for Pious High School junior year.

After Jon's game on Sunday afternoon, we made the traditional ice cream stop at the Zesto ice cream shop on the way home.  Except after the big brunch, I had no room for ice cream, so I just watched! 





My real birthday present arrived on Tuesday, October 1.  We got the text message at 6 am.  Beautiful Willa Frances Therese Andreasen arrived, 9# 7 oz.    Welcome Willa to the Andreasen family.  You are in for a bountiful beautiful blessing of a family!  I can't wait to hold you and hug you!

Not only will you have a houseful of brothers and sisters to love on you, charm you, and play with you, but you also have a beautiful cousin only five months older that you can grow up with.  You and Penny will have lots of fun when you can get together. 

 

Babies and birthdays - definitely events to be cherished!  Memorable eventful events for this aging Grandma! 





The Event ~ Cows!

Tim has had a love of ranching in his blood since childhood.  He always dreamed of owning a ranch but his dream never came to fruition.  At best, he had a small herd of his own cows form time to time that grazed small pastures on our farm in Bayard and then again on our current acreage near Scottsbluff.  Thirty and forty years ago he loved checking his cows on horseback.  But more recently, he checks them on foot or in the jeep.

Tim feeding his cows about 22 years ago

There is something so calming about watching cows graze on pastureland.  It makes for beautiful pictures.  Below are a few pictures of our cows grazing.   The following pictures tell the story!

fall calving

beautiful early morning capturing the rolling fog

 

cows grazing in our front pasture

 

Cows just came in for a drink on a pasture out in the hills

 

Joe and Mattie checking cows with Grandpa

 

Josh feeding the cows and wanting to make friends with them

 

Mattie leans to lure a cow closer and talk to them.

 

Ben and Grandpa feeding hay off the back of the jeep.

Heading out to feed the cows.  They all want to grow up to be cowboys!

 

Tim has had his own brand since high school days.

 

Janel even helped brand in 1984 when she was 12 years old.

 

Now the whole family - kids and grandkids - enjoy the branding.
 



Grandpa instructing Jakob how to prepare to rope a calf.

 

Yep, having cows doesn't mean we own a ranch.  But it does pacify the cowboy who has always wanted to own a ranch.  Our small little acreage is our little piece of heaven on earth where cows can graze and grandkids can learn the ropes of rural life, livestock, and the great outdoors, not to mention a whole lot of hard work.  Cows can be an eventful time, that's for sure!

 

 

 

 









The Event ~ Family Fun Time

I feel so blessed to have grown children that want to come back home for visits, and that want us to come to their home to visit.  Not every parent is so blessed in this manner.  We recently enjoyed Janel and Tim and grandkids at our house for a four day weekend.  Then just spent a day in Denver with Cash, Annie and Penny while Val and Alexis were also there enroute home from visiting Val's parents in Canada. 

It is just good family time together, no matter what it is we do.  We enjoy time together making blackberry dumplings.  I think this is one edible I can make better than Janel!!

Or maybe it is making cinnamon rolls with my granddaughter Mathilda.

 Or maybe it is watching the boys play football on the front lawn which they always do when we get together.

 It could be working on a project together as Tim and Cash did preparing for a new cement deck. 

 or hanging out on the patio together with the grandkids .

 Maybe its just hanging out in the kitchen while everyone pitches in to help prepare a barbeque dinner, as we did in Denver at Cash and Annies.



 

 

A good margarita always hits the spot on a hot afternoon!

 

It's always fun to go somewhere new, like the recently renovated Union Station in Denver where we just hung out with coffee while Aunt Lexi and Uncle Val enjoyed precious niece Penny!

 

Since I'm talking about good family times together, a little catch up is due. . .   Family time while in Phoenix six months ago in early March. . .  Enjoying another meal around the table at Vern's house with brother Allen and Suzy, Vern & Melinda, and niece Kadi.  It's even a blessed event when siblings want you to come to their home to visit!  Not always the case in a lot of families, but I feel blessed that my siblings still want to see me!!!

 Couldn't ask for a better Phoenix evening with food around the pool.  Melinda is an awesome cook!

A rare occasion to get three of us siblings together in one room!  Me, Vern and Allen in Phoenix.



 Oh my gosh, three sibling together again in one room!!!  Me, Kelly and Allen, with Mom!Another blessing for sure!  This time at Mom's home in Billings. 

It's always good to get those mother/daughter pictures taken Easter 2014. 

Yes, family is the greatest blessing of all!    It's a blessed event to have close and extended family that loves each other to eternity!  I love you all!  I am glad you are all my family!!

 







The Event ~ Josh on the Farm

A year ago, Josh started talking about spending the following summer here on the farm.  That's kid talk ~ dream talk.  Kids think it would be fun to spend the summer on the farm,  and say they are going to, but more fun stuff like baseball and sleeping in and being lazy ends up taking priority.

So for a year Josh talked about coming to the farm this summer.  Yeah, right!!  Wait a minute. . . . .
Oh my gosh - Josh is here - to stay - for seven weeks!  And work!  And get up early!  Oh, that's because he's not just a kid.  He's an eager young man, wanting to learn, and embracing the farm life, and appreciating nature and valuing time with his grandfather, and building memories.

One day Josh will look back and recall the summer of 2014 when he went to a country rock concert with Grandma, and then to a baseball movie with Grandma, and then dancing to 50's music with Grandma, and out for ice cream with Grandma.  Oh, and we went to the Cattleman's Ball together too!  And his time here is only half spent!  Oh, Grandpa was with us (except for the movie), but there is something sweet in these "grandma dates"!

The Cattleman's Ball is a big event on a ranch in Nebraska.  This year it was at a local ranch nestled in the hills south of Gering.  Tim's real estate office helped serve the breakfast brunch to those wealthier people who paid the $350 for the two-day tickets.  So Josh even put on an apron and helped serve the brunch.

Josh is putting in a lot of hard work.  He first started out by helping to rebuild a John Deere tractor.  A lot of hands on experience in mechanics.

 

Oops, Grandpa didn't tell him "No sleeping on the job!"

Then he learned how to drive tractor and move big round bales and brought in about 100 bales from the fields to the stack yards.  And loading by hand, hauling, unloading and stacking by hand 60 bales of horse hay.  In His daily chore is feeding the eight steers in the corral at 6:30 a.m. 

 



One evening we went to the Sugar Valley Rally, an antique car rally held here every year.  While there, he picked out a few of his favorite cars that he'd like to own someday.

Guess this isn't an antique. . . .

 



At least it's mobile. .  .

 

In between farm work, Josh has painted shed doors, corral gates, trimmed trees, dug holes, cleaned barns, mowed lawns, and has been offered jobs by three other people!





A noon power nap!

After several attempts and some lack of confidence, Josh finally regained his confidence and learned how to run the stacker of small square bales.  And then learned to bale small squares.  When not driving tractor in the field, he was kept busy with many small fix-it projects around the yard, like tearing out the back deck so we can replace it, painting the bench in the rock garden, mowing Great-Grandpa's lawn every week, etc. 

 

 

Tailgate suppers are always my favorite part of hay harvest.  Food just tasted better on the go and in the field!  It was an eventful time having Josh here for seven weeks.  We will miss him when he returns home in mid-July.  Grandpa is going to be lost without Josh's help.  I hope he goes home with some real life-enduring and eventful memories.  And I hope he remembers to turn his socks right side out! 





You gotta love this face!

 

Another Grandma date!