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!!!!

Fun Times

Carlee's last track meet is tonight. Bert, Tanner, and I will be traveling to the meet. Tanner is all excited wanting to know who all is going to be there. You would think he was going to a pro baseball game. Carlee will also have her last cattle show on Sunday in Springfield until July comes around. I think she is a little disappointed that the showing is coming to an end for a while. Tanner plays baseball in Nevada this weekend. It looks like his team is in a tough pool, but he seemed really excited and is ready to play hard. He said that all of his team really hit the ball last night at practice, so hopefully they will be ready! There are 16 teams in the tournament - I am not sure that we have played in this large of a tournament before. It ought to be fun for the boys.
Please remember Koen in your prayers tomorrow morning when he goes to get his tubes put in his ears. He is going to feel so much better, I am excited for him to get them in!

Track

Carlee had a track meet last night. She didn't have a real good night with the shotput, but she did really good in running. She ran the 100 meter dash and did very well. That was the first time that she got to try that event. She was excited and did very well. Tanner cracks me up watching him cheer Carlee on. He loves to go and watch all of the track meet. He loves to watch the boys run their relays. He will stand down by the track and cheer them on. He knows them all by name and he will yell push it, you know you can do it. I am thinking oh my goodness do I have a coach as a son. After Carlee was done at the track meet we took her to eat at the famous Pogo's pizza. It was very tasty and enjoyed the company of Bert's uncle Pogo.

Here are some pictures of last night's track meet.

Band, Baseball and Cattle Shows

We had a fun filled weekend of Band, Baseball, and Cattleshows!! Carlee left at 7:00 a.m. on Saturday morning for a band performance in Pittsburg, KS. The 7th grade band received a 1 rating, so they did an awesome job. Dad was waiting there at PSU to pick Carlee up to take her to Nevada to show. I did get to watch Carlee show in showmanship and she did really good! She was called back in for the Championship drive, but didn't receive anything. I had to leave with Tanner after showmanship to head down to his baseball games. Tanner's team won both of their games on Saturday, they were on cloud 9. Tanner got to pitch his first game of the season. He did pretty good - he struck out 8 and walked 6. I told Bert at least he did strike out more than walked. The score was 9 to 1, so at least he only let one score. HA!!Payton came and watched Tanner play with mom, and Grandma and Grandpa Edge. I tell you what she made a bunch of new friends and played in the dirt. I am sure that Tara loved bathing her that night. HA! I loved setting with her at the game because she would cheer on everyone that came up to bat. She asked mom one time if she could clap, and mom said sure you can clap as much as you want. She then yelled Yeah and started clapping really loud. It was so cute!! I may have to take her with me to the games to keep my entertainment. I am sure Tara won't let me though. Carlee did well in Nevada she received to trophies for Champion Shorthorn Steer and then her crossbred steer placed 2nd in its class.
Sunday came around and we split again Bert and Carlee went to a cattle show in Lamar, and Tanner & I went to 4 Seasons Complex for a baseball game. Tanner's team won their first game and we got to play in the Championship game. Tanner's team lost their game 9 to 7, but they got 2nd place and received medals. He was excited! Carlee did very well at Lamar show. Carlee got Champion Shorthorn Steer and then she placed 2nd with her crossbred steer. I love it that Carlee has a crossbred, but they are difficult to have because there are so many of them at the shows. If you stay with a specific breed there isn't as many of them. She does good though and she loves the competition. Carlee won showmanship at Lamar and received a chair. She was very excited!
We are off to a track meet today in El Dorado Springs. I am hoping to get some Pogo's Pizza while we are there. Bert's uncle Pogo owns a pizza place up there and it is some of the best pizza I have ever had!
I have placed a couple pictures below of the weekend.

Fun

Well yesterday Carlee had a track meet in Lamar. I can't decide who gets more excited about going to them, Carlee or Tanner. Tanner loves to go for the socializing with all of his friends. Carlee threw her shotput yesterday. We tried to encourage her to run, but she doesn't want to run in any events. I think that would put her to much in the spotlight. HA! The shotput is back where no one really sees you, so it is out of sight out of mind. Tanner has ball practice tonight and Carlee has church. Hopefully we will find out times for Tanner's ball games this weekend and see if I will get to see any of Carlee's showing. Carlee has a band performance on Saturday morning at 9:06 a.m., and then my dad will pick her up from Pittsburg after the performance and try to have her in Nevada by 10:00 or 10:15. Carlee is all excited about the weekend all ready. She will show in Nevada on Saturday and then in Lamar on Sunday. She is pumped. She told me her goal is to win showmanship this weekend! She doesn't want second place. HA!!!! Tanner is excited because the coach told him that he will get to pitch this weekend. He has been on cloud nine since practice last Sunday. He has been out in the garage throwing every night. I guess for the next couple of days I will be feeding Tanner in the garage of the evening so he can continue to throw the crazy ball. Not much else going on around here. It is just nice to finally see the sun shine, but it sounds like we are going to get some rain tomorrow.

Show Time in Butler

Well Carlee had a good weekend showing in Butler this past weekend. Although the temperatures were not that great, she did an awesome job. Bert is a slave driver and gets us up around 4:30 or 5:00 on show days. Carlee had a successful weekend, she received 2nd in her class with her white shorthorn, 1st in her class with her black crossbred, and then received Reserve Grand Showmanship on Saturday. On Sunday she received Champion Shorthorn, Reserve Champion Crossbred steer (placing 2nd behind a $28,000 steer), and then she received Reserve Grand Showmanship on Sunday. She did very well and I was very proud of her. Tanner and Stetson played together all day Saturday. They made us some wonderful mud balls, and mudpies. I think that Tanner's clothes were ten times more dirty than Carlee's, and she was the one doing all the work. We had a great time this weekend with our cattle friends and getting to have good family time together.
We have a full week coming up with track meets, ball games this weekend, and some more cattle shows this weekend. April is a fun full month. I just feel very blessed that my children have something that they love to do, and that they are able to participate in the activites.
I have placed some pictures below of Carlee with her steers.


This is Cotton, Carlee's Shorthorn Steer

This is Rasmus, Carlee's Crossbred Steer