Family Update

Not too much has changed since I last posted.  Chance is really growing quickly.  I don't take as many pictures as I would like but have a few.

I'm not sure what the sneer is for.


Mikelle is slowly but surely adjusting to the changes, and I am slowly but surely adjusting to her.  She loves her little brother.  She has had a tough time learning how to play with him and love him without hurting him but she is getting better.  She loves to have him lay next to her.  Sometimes they lay in her crib together or on our bed together. 

Mikelle is pretending to sleep.

Her favorite thing is to have him lay on the recliner with her while she watches a movie.  She asks "Chance lay with you". 

watching Ratatoulle

She ocasionally steals his pacifier

The miracle is that she likes to share her blankie with him...rare.

She is starting to distinguish between "you" and "me".  She likes to tell me that she needs things.  She'll get a spoon and say "I need this".  She just likes to practice phrases that she hears me say.  She is now able to get in and out of the bath by herself.  Last night while I was rushing to get ready for mutual she decided that she needed her blankie in the bath.  I was on the phone when she got out and was dragging her blankie behind her asking me to pick her up.  It was Danny who finally noticed that it was sopping wet.  Although it didn't seem to bother Mikelle we had to wring it out and throw it in the dryer.  She is a lot of "fun" these days. 


   Winter is coming quicker than I would like.  The nights are frigid but we still have a few warm days left.  My tomatoes were partially frosted and so far only one tomatoe has ripened. 

 I planted lots of flowers this spring but only the sun flowers survived, and only one opened before it too frosted. 

A mysterious squash plant came up next to my sunflowers and a lone little squash grew before that plant also frosted. 

Least I had something to show for my gardening efforts this year.  Next year will be better I hope. 

Chance Ty Kerns

Most of you already know that Chance was born on the 18th of August.  I was a lot better prepared for labor this time and it didn't catch me off gaurd that it is the most painful thing IN THE WORLD !!  It was long but worth it and after about 26 hours, with an epidural that barely worked, we got a healthy, happy handsome little boy.  I'll spare everyone the hospital pictures, they rarely look cute when the baby is just all red and puffy.  He is home now and happy and Mikelle absolutely loves him.  We're getting adjusted and things are getting back to normal...well are approaching normal. 

This is Mikelle first real look at Chance the day we brought him home.

Just a few days old and already spends most of his awake time looking around and taking in the scenery. 

We spent an afternoon outside when Chance was about a week old. Mikelle couldn't stop kissing him.

This is my favorite face that Chance makes.

Finally Summer...

We had our first hundred degree day yesterday. Although I am aware that the eastern part of the country has been cooking in that kind of weather for months now, we have had a very late summer. We had snow in the end of April, endless cloudy days through May, and torrential flooding rains in June. The beginning of July was breezy with some occasional hail storms. From July 5th on we have had nothing but sun and hot. Being pregnant I am grateful that it took a little while to heat up, but my big horticultural plans for this summer were ruined. I had started beautiful tomatoes, squash, watermelon, pumkins, and cucumbers that didn't make it. They just couldn't wait so long to be transplanted, I had no idea the warm weather would take so long to show up. So I had to settle with some potted petunias and some tomatoe plants that I got from a local green house. Sigh, oh well, maybe next year. Our grass is really green and the freshly planted wheat around our place is looking lush and beautiful. I am really getting used to this place, maybe not the gigantic hail on our tin roof, but the rest is pretty nice.

Mikelle had her second birthday about 3 weeks ago. We had a few friends over and she played outside in the sprinkler and had some cupcakes. We celebrated her birthday a week before the real thing, on Danny's birthday.  She got so used to everyone saying "Happy Birthday" that when her Daddy got home that afternoon she kept telling him "Happy Birthday Daddy!" He loved it. Suprisingly her picture eating cupcakes looks almost the same as when she was one.

Two Years Old

One Year Old









It's hard to believe but she sure acts like a two year old. She talks all the time and is getting more and more independent. Some days she just doesn't want to get dressed and I just don't feel like fighting her.

When we were visiting Ruth and Anna's families in NC we picked up a pair of Dollar Store sunglasses. They broke about a week later and I just had to get her another pair. Now she wears them pretty constantly.

I am trying to keep her entertained this summer despite my lack of energy. We go to the library about once a week. They have some toys and we pick up new books to read. We got a kids songs CD and she asks for it all the time "turn on radio, wheel bus". She sings a lot and knows the words to rock-a-bye baby, twinkle twinkle, popcorn popping, happy family, and lots of others. It is really fun to hear her singing as she plays.

We also spend a little time each week playing in the sprinkler outside. The only trouble is she doesn't like to take her swim suit off. I got a nice shot of her plumber's crack after a playing outside for a little while. Danny and I couldn't stop laughing about it.

She is still a good sleeper and has funny ways of showing that she is tired. I will find her in the most random places laying down with her blankie. The other day it was the top of the couch. Silly girl.

We are patiently, or not so patiently, waiting for this little man to arrive. I am unbelievably huge. All the clothes that lasted my whole pregancy with Mikelle are not cutting it this time. It's getting a little tough. I can't get comfortable no matter what position I am in. Danny is gone a lot. He worked 77 hours last week. He goes to bed at the same time as Mikelle and is out of the house by 5:30 am at the latest. It's the summer though, and I knew it would be this way. At least we have sundays. I am just trying to make it through the rest of this pregnancy without crying everyday about how much I want it to be over. Staying busy helps. And having a wonderful silly daughter helps too.

Home Sweet Baker

Most of you know that we spent six months in Durkee, the most remot eplace I have ever lived.  We moved back to Baker this past weekend and it is nice to be back.  I would have included a great picture of the beautiful views we have here but we woke up to three inches and counting of snow...yep May 5th and we have snow.  Eastern Oregon is pretty nuts.  I am trying not to be up set that the sunflowers I planted yesterday are now lying in an icy grave, but at least I didn't plant my tomatoes yet.  That would have been depressing. 

Despite the snow we are happy to be back.  There are no stairs in this house and my knees now carrying almost 20 extra pounds ate glad for that.  Mikelle loves her new room and we moved most of her toys in there so she plays in there more often.  The has a new hair cut courtesy of me and it is very flattering, those crazy curls really go nuts the longer her hair gets and I can't keep up with it.  Danny's sunglasses are too scratched now so Mikelle wears them for fun...all the time.  I always catch her posing in them. 

                I finally got new glasses after losing my old ones to Mikelle and the garbage can almost a year ago.  I love them.  One of the gilrs in young women's told me they look like I have always been wearing them, like one of my facial features was missing with out them.  I am not sure if that was a compliment or not.

Danny's last big project in Durkee was to update some corrals.  That required digging a lot of holes and setting a lot of post.  He was only about a half mile from the house so Mikelle and I went to see him a lot during the day and I tried to help him where I could.  Mostly I would stand there and hold a post of try tuse the level for him.  Mikelle helped out a lot too but mostly she just played with her new best friend Sally.  Sally is what we finally decided to name our six month olf border collie.  She is a very good dog and very gentle with Mikelle.  They played so cute together.

Ahhh Sweet Spring

I love Spring.  I think I must have deluded myself to ever think that winter was my favorite season.  It is beautiful here. 

Despite the fact that we are still in Durkee and have no definite date for moving back to Baker that hasn't kept me from getting that house ready. 

I started my vegetables and flowers and I hope I will be in Baker in time to plant them.  I am excited to be getting a head start on that this year. 

I have also gotten a head start on canning too.  I know that is a little unfathomable for some of my sisters, but I do enjoy it. 

There is a shed here that some of you saw at Christmas that was full of old canning cars.  Most of them still containing some semblance of food. We had some dated as far back as 1962, and who knows how old the less recognizable ones were. Well Danny's mom came out here to help me clean out some of them.  Although most of the lids were rusted through the jars are in great shape.  We emptied and cleaned over two hundred in one day.  After all that the shed looks no different. 

            I kept about one hundred, Danny's sister Heidi took about that many and Danny's mom took another two hundred home with her... still full.  She wanted to use the old contents for compost.  She is so efficient, if that is the right word.

I spent all night and the following two days with the worst case of carpal tunnel I have ever had.  All that jar washing just killed my wrist.  Things are better now.  I am excited to have a lot of free jars.  Most of what I can is free, with the exception of some seeds I purchased.  With the jars being free the only thing I spend money on is sugar and some lids.  When all is said and done, canning one quart of anything costs me less than 15 cents, at least that is my closest guess.  It's worth a few days of carpal tunnel. 

Mikelle has found new ways to entertain herself.  When I am on the computer she lounges in the drawer next to me and sings to herself.  She has a great imagination and is usually playing with her bear in some motherly way. 

A few mornings ago she woke up wet and Danny just changed her diaper and left her in just that.  Than she insisted on having her shoes on and after pulling my apron from a kitchen drawer asked to have that put on.  She then humbly modeled for us.  She is a hoot. 

Life has its simple pleasures.  Danny takes a half hour each day to shoot ground squirrels, and Mikelle and I go througha thousand rocks into the creak that runs at the end of the driveway.  Spring time is wonderful.

Deep breath, big smile

The snow is finally melting, but all the ranchers want more. It sure is hard to sincerely fast for something you don't want, but hey my husband's job depends on fat cows, fat cows need good grass so what do you do? Just take a deep breath and smile. That's what I did when Mikelle asked me to read "The Doggy Book" for the tenth time in a row. That's what I did when Danny walked across a just-mopped kitchen floor in mud-caked boots. That's what I did after I jumped on to the back of the four-wheeler only to find a three-inch piece of wire was there first. It is amazing how much control you can have over your own emotions. Take a deep breath and then smile.

I thought I might mention Mikelle's habit of "peeshy" (sleepy). She lies down on her belly in lots of wierd places, usually the stairs or the kitchen floor, and says "peeshy". My friend Kim watched her for me on Tuesday and said she couldn't find her for a while and located her in the middle of the kitchen floor with her blankie. Quirky girl.

Finally Recovered

Christmas was a blast and I am really happy that we ended up having so many of us together. There was surprisingly very little contention. Not that we fight a lot, but there is usually something that heats someone up a little. I am happy to say that despite the close quarters we all got along really well. Having two pregnant and reasonable cranky girls sure added some spice to it, but thanks to a very patient and understanding family (especially those two husbands) we made it out without anyone getting their head bit off. I wish I could say that things got right back to normal after everyone left. It has taken me a while to get things caught up. The washer broke but Dick was quick to buy us a new one.

Mikelle got her gift from Grandma and Grandpa Kerns and Uncle Adam Kerns, it was a rocking horse that she loves. She yells yeeee haaaw when she gets on it, all though it sounds a lot like Heee Haaw. But that is okay. She loves it.

Danny started school again and thankfully it seems like it will be a pretty laid back term with very little work on my part. He made the Dean's List last term with a 3.62 cum GPA and we are hoping that he can qualify for more scholarships. we'll see how it goes. The next few months will go by slowly I am sure. I am still sick and have no idea when it will end, there is not much to look forward to these next couple months, but Mikelle is very entertaining and Danny is around a lot to support me. He actually had to go to Baker to get some parts and he offered to take Mikelle with him. So I am alone for a while and loving it. Danny's mom also lent me a bread maker that she doesn't use and I have a loaf of whole wheat cooking right now. It smells great. All is well and I sure miss my family. Can't wait for all the little babies.