Pictures of the Ozark Empire Fair

Carlee with Cotton in the show ring.

Allie, Carlee, and Kirsten the top three of the steer show.

Carlee with Rasmus and the judge.

Tanner with Rubic in the show ring.

Tanner with Rubic before he went in the show ring.

Carlee loving on Rasmus.

Carlee with Rasmus in the Sale Ring.

Top 10 Steer Exhibitors.

What a week

Carlee's hard work and dedication has paid off for her. Bert and I are so proud of her, but yet she is still so humble about it all. Carlee won Grand Champion Steer at the Ozark Empire Fair the weekend of July 20th. She was the first one out to sale her animal at the Gold Buckle Gala on Monday night. She shined with her steer in hand. Old Rasmus did an outstanding job and really strutted his stuff. Cotton did well also, he received 1st in his class. After Rasmus won the overall division she had to pull Cotton out of the competition. She was so excited. Incredible Pizza purchased her animal. I can honestly say they are some of the nicest people we have ever met. We went to see them on last Saturday to take them a picture and some flowers and they were still just as nice as could be. I have just been very impressed with the family.
Tanner won 1st in his goat class with Rubic. He was so excited, and he did a very good job. He is excited about taking Rubic to the Lamar Fair and showing him there. The kids will both be showing animals there. Carlee is going to take Cotton to Missouri State Fair on August 12th, so I think she is excited about doing that. It is hard to believe that summer is almost over. It has flown by so fast. We have had a great summer though!!! Tanner had a blast playing baseball, Carlee has had a very successful time with her steers. It has been a really fun summer to watch the kids.

Sharing some pictures

I wanted to share some pictures of all of the good times that we had this summer!! Thanks to Tara and Bob for letting us hang out at their pool. It has been a blast!

Bob and Payton enjoing the sun and pool.

Tanner and Payton together. They are quite the pair.

Payton jumping in to Bob at the pool.

Carlee and Laney swimming together.

All the kids including Bert roasting marshmallows.

Tanner showing off at the pool.

Payton already starting to drive.

Koen is after Tanner's own heart throwing the ball!!

Summer

Well I look around and I see that summer is half over. My goodness how time goes by way to fast!! Tanner finished up with baseball June 21st, his team placed 8th out of 46 teams in the State Tournament in Branson. It was an exciting tournament, the boys played very well!! We are getting ready for Ozark Empire Fair at our house now. Carlee will be taking two steers and Tanner has his loving goat. The kids are getting very excited around the house. Bert has been working in the hay field, and trying to get that caught up after all of the rain that we got. We had a really nice 4th, it was so much fun. We had my family come over and then Bert's sister and parents came over also. We had a bbq, with fireworks and then we had a campfire to roast marshmallows. We bought a slip and slide and the kids had a blast on that throughout the night. I am really glad that we got to do that all together as a family.
I would like to ask each and everyone of you to please remember Doug McKibben in your prayers. Doug is our neighbor, and he has been diagnosed with Burkitt Lymphoma. It is an agressive form of cancer, and he is up at KU Med Center receiving treatment. Doug's children are the kids that were in the mud fight with my kids in the pictures from the June blog. He is around 42, and still has a lot of life to live with his family. Please keep him in your prayers, and his family too.

The baseball team in Branson @ our pool party.

The baseball team at the Branson tournament

Rubic the goat will be traveling to Ozark Empire Fair on Friday, July 18th

Brianna taking in the rays at our house.

Summer time

Well it is hard to believe that summer time is here. I still can't get over all the rain. I am actually starting to get tired of the rain and storms. The kids are having a good time this summer. Carlee has gone to volleyball camp and Tanner has gone to basketball camp already. Tanner was suppose to go to football camp Monday and Tuesday this week, but with the 2 1/2 inches of rain they rescheduled it for Wednesday and Thursday of this week. Carlee is still working her tail off with her steers. She is doing a very good job with them. She is learning a lot of responsibility and we are so proud of her. We had the Phipps Reunion this past weekend and got to see Joan, Jim, Deb, Curtis, and Missy. We haven't got to see them in quite some time - it was great to get to visit with them again. Missy graduated from high school this year. She has become quite the young lady, and it is exciting to watch her make her next chapter in life. How exciting. Yesterday we had the McKibben kids come over and boy did the kids have fun. They got to stay the night. Bert was nice enough to let them play outside in the cattle lot after the rain finally quit. I have to remind myself how much I love him. There is mud in places in my house that you can only imagine. (Of course there is some cow manuer in their too) Bert hosed the kids down before they went to the showers, but you just can't seem to get all of that off!!!


Tanner plays baseball in Nevada this weekend. He is excited, he has had two weekends off and he is ready to get back in to it! It seems that their team has really bonded since we went up t0 Overland Park to play. The kids had so much fun up there!!!


I have posted some picutres of the kids and their mud in the cattle lot. I have also posted a picture of Tanner with his new hair cut. We actually finished buzzing the rest of his hair. He just wanted to play a trick on Bert at first.

What fun

I tell you what this has been an exciting week. We have a new goat, a new pig, tornadoes and storms going through the town. It has just been different. We have had practices and homework a lot this week. We did get to go to Conner's first t-ball game. Oh my goodness we had so much fun with that! I truly enjoyed watching those little kids play in the dirt. It was cute - Conner played 3rd base and he even enjoyed playing in the rocks. I loved to watch him run because you could barely see his legs from his shirt tail hanging out. Cracked me up! I don't think there was a quiet person there - to much fun. Conner did a good though!! Tanner has had practice twice this week getting ready for some tournaments coming up. While Tanner has been at practice I have had the joy of taking care of his goat "Rubic". Last night I was out with the goat most of the evening. My goodness I have never laughed so hard at an animal in my life. Tiger my dog and Rubic were playing chase all through the yard. It is great.

On Saturday Tara and Bob brought their kids out to see the goat and pig. Well it decided to storm and we got a lot of rain. Tanner, Payton, and Carlee decided to play out in the mud and rain puddles. The kids had a great time. I have put some pictures below, so you can see how much fun the kids had together. Wow if only we would pay closer attention to God's creations and how much fun they are instead of taking them all for granted. I have taken so many things for granted and last night I really had time to think about it all. God has created so many things for us to appreciate, why do we rush so much and not allow ourselves the time to appreciate everything he has done for us.

Now you tell me that they didn't have fun playing in that mud. Oh my goodness their clothes were a mess. Actually the t-shirt that Tanner has in his hand ended up in the trash because I couldn't get it clean.

New Member

Tanner and Bert are on their way home from Oklahoma with a new member to add to our family. Tanner is going to show a goat this year at the fairs. I am sure you are all very surprised to know that he is getting a goat. Tanner called me and he is so excited. I am excited to see him. I am sure that this goat and him will be very good buds by the weekend and they will probably be attached together by the time summer gets here. I guess the goats name right now is Rubic. Bert told me that the mamma goat died and the rancher's daughters were feeding it by a bottle. I think that it is pretty spoiled!!! I will try and get some pictures of the goat and Tanner together, so everyone can see him. This is going to be a new experience I am sure!!!!