Happy Birthday Baby!

I've been promising a good friend of mine for quite a while now that I would take pictures of her son on his first birthday.  I'm so glad I did because I've been terrible lately about taking pictures because we've been so busy getting ready to move.  My girlfriend had the great idea of getting some pictures of her son eating his birthday cake.  So first we took the nice, cute, clean pictures.  Then we stripped him down and gave him a cake!

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Paw It Forward

Milo received some wonderful gifts in the mail today from his friends June & Haze and their weima-mama Kelly Ann.  June is world famous for her blog called Hot Dog Junie.  She asked for volunteers a while back for Paw It Forward.  So we raised our paw and signed up.  June & Haze sent us some wonderful gifts and now it's our turn to Paw It Forward.  More details on that at the end.  First, pictures!

(These are pictures 224-233 for anyone who's counting;)

"Allright mom, I'm outta here!  I'm tired of posing for silly pictures!"

"Oooo, what's all this?"

"This ball looks pretty cool!"

"Hmmm, it tastes pretty good but I can't seem to eat it."

"Let me try again."

"It's official, it's not edible.  Maybe I should check out some of the other treats."

"Fine, just one picture with my cool new collar.  But I'm NOT looking at the camera!"

"Now we're talking, something I can eat!  C'mon Mom, just give me the treat already."

"I really want this but mom hasn't told me ok yet!"

"Yes!  Finally!  The good stuff!"

Thank you June, Haze and Kelly Ann for all the delicious treats!  Milo loved them and is staring at me as I type demanding more of that duck & potato treat!  Now for us to Paw It Forward.  If you want to sign up, here's how it works:  

1.  Comment on this blog post saying that you want to play.  Then e-mail me with your name and address.

2.  Once you get your package, you MUST blog about your gifts!  If you don't have a blog already, you'll be required to enter the blogosphere and start blogging!

3.  In your own blog post, ask for 3 of your friends to play so we can keep pawing it forward.

Ok, first three to enter get to play!  Ready, GO!

Hodge Podge

We have been so busy lately because we are preparing to move.  This move came out of the blue for us and we have very little time to get ready.  So while I'm trying to keep up with my pictures, I'm not doing very well!  Here are a few pictures from the past few weeks.

This picture is a little snake we found on our hunting lease after the fire.  It was terrified here so it curled up into a little ball.  I'm not sure what kind of snake it was, but we found out that Milo's snake breaking definitely did NOT work!  He was in no way trying to avoid this snake.  Instead, he thought it would be a great idea to go pick it up :o  I was shocked and horrified and so thankful this wasn't a rattler.

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 My son is waiting to launch this rocket.  We've had them all summer but haven't been able to use them for fear of starting a fire.  Now that everything is already burnt, we figured it would be ok to launch the rockets.

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 And here's their uncle who is equally excited about launching these rockets!

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 And here's the hubby laughing because the rocket launch went awry and the rocket completely fell apart in the air!

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 My youngest son is all packed up and ready for the move!

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Goodbye!

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The Fire

Last week we had a fire at the land we lease for hunting.  Thankfully we weren't even in town much less at the lease at the time of the fire.  When we went to check out the land a few days later, this is what we found.

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And apparently either Milo got in a fight with a burnt tree, or he's become a firefighter and was in the thick of the battle when he got this soot all over his face.

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Sea World Fun!

As a special treat for our family after the deployment, we planned a little trip to Sea World.  Let me tell you, if you have the chance to go, you definitely need to go!  We had so much fun!  I need to thank Sea World because they give all military members and their families one free day pass per year to their parks.  That saved us a bunch of money and allowed us to enjoy a second day there.  I only took pictures with my phone while I was there because it's Sea World and that means you're bound to get splashed by a killer whale at least once.  Since my cell phone fit nicely into a little plastic baggy, that made it my camera of choice for the trip.

Here's a not so fantastic photo of some beautiful, amazing creatures:

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Here's what little boys are able to con their daddy into buying them when he's been gone half the year:

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And here is Daddy pretending to be angry about little boys conning him out of his money:)  

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Disclaimer:  Yes, he looks scary and mean but I promise he was just pretending for the picture.  He's really a teddy bear.  Or a grizzly bear, it really depends on the day;)

A Silhouette

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I know I'm dreadfully behind with my pictures.  But I'm enjoying my husband being home:)  And so are the boys.  Here's a picture from tonight of my oldest son doing some manly activities with his dad.  

Good to be Back

This little road trip to pick up my hubby took what seemed like forever.  I took some time to see family before I picked him up and then we made several stops on the way home.  So I feel like I've been on the road for weeks.  It's good to be home.  Now without further ado, pictures I took along the way.

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A trip to South Dakota wouldn't be complete without a visit to Mt. Rushmore.  My boys begged me to take them there and much to my surprise, they loved it and were so excited to see it.  Their squeals of excitement when they first spotted it were so fun.

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And any trip to Mt. Rushmore wouldn't be complete without a visit to the ice cream shop.  It was pretty funny to hear everyone laughing as we walked past them saying things like, "That ice cream cone is bigger than that kid!"

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One of my favorite bridges in the Black Hills.  This pictured doesn't do it justice.

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A little piece of land we own.  It's so nice to see the pond full and the grass green.  When we first bought the land it was in a drought and was covered in cactus and not much else.  We had a vision though and now I see it coming to fruition.  The next step is to plant a little orchard by the pond.

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A little dragonfly kept landing nearby and teasing me.  Finally he stood still long enough for me to get a picture.