Tuesday, June 17, 2014

May 23 - Critters and Rain!!!!

The boys have gotten busy looking for critters. Every year they like to collect all sorts of reptiles. We have caught lots of horny toads and some turtles in the past years. Up till now the boys haven't found much, but today, while out riding Shea found a horny toad. When he got back to the house with it, he found out that the other two had found a black headed snake. We had never seen one like this one, so the boys did some research on it and found out that is a good for mosquito control. Which would explain why he was out. It rained today, a really nice beautiful rain, but with rain and hot weather you always tend to breed the little beasts.  
The horny toad was about medium size.
The snake was about the length of a pencil and about half as wide.



Look at those beautiful puddles.

Janessa's roses are loving the rain.

Friday, June 13, 2014

May 21 - Goodbye Sahara and Shorty

For the last two months we have been boarding a horse and a pony. When we got the pony she was totally unbroken, but the man that owned her wanted her broke for his young son. So from day one she has had a lot of work. As you might know she has had every little kid on her back that has been at out house for the last 2 months. We have all grown very fond of her sweet disposition. 
Shorty has also been a wonderful horse. He is a wonderful kid horse and loves to please his rider. Right after Banner was born he and Tex got into a big fight and Shorty had one major cut and several small ones. After getting his big cut stitched up, we found out that he wanted to run all the time. That is good, except the wound was on his leg. He ended up pulling a few stitches which drew flies, which, in turn caused some infection. He has had a lot of tender loving care. He was very loved by everyone. As soon as he was good enough to ride, he was the preferred mount of almost everyone.
Their owner lives in Lubbock, so it is hard for him to get out here with his family to spend time with the horses. Today he has come to take them up to Lubbock so that they will have more time with the horses. It was hard for everyone, but especially for Gabe. He loved Sahara. There were many tears from all.
Gabe's last ride on Sahara.




Beautiful Shorty.


Later that afternoon, God blessed this dry land with rain!!! It was a beautiful shower, and being in Texas, there was six kids running around in the rain singing in the rain. Libby had gotten herself hurt after Shorty and Sahara left, so she and Banner were up by the house so we could keep an eye on her.




I love this sight. Can you just smell that wonderful smell?



Libby's makeshift halter. Her wound is under her chin and I was trying to keep the rope off of it.


Look at those wonderful clouds.


After the rain had passed this beautiful rainbow appeared.










It was so beautiful that Gabe let the kittens out for a while.





Reacher is "guarding" the horses.

It was a good day, full of lessons, and lots of growing up.

Sunday, June 8, 2014

May 19 - Trip to Colorado Part 4 - Coming Home

After saying goodbye to Grandpa, Grandmother, and mom's youngest sister, Allison, we hit the road. We had only two pups with us on the way home. We passed through some beautiful country on the way home.


In the little town of Abique there is a little general store that our family loves to go to. It is just like an old fashioned general store, although it sells some modern things. It has a section dedicated to books, manuals, and history of the place. It has a small restaurant, a fishing and game department, and some groceries. The people that work there are very friendly, and they love to have little kids in there. Every time we are in there, someone will take Gabe or Garrett and give them something for free or for very little just to let them spend that little bit of change that is burning a hole in their pockets.


I absolutely loved this. They are selling Pinto Beans, Potatoes, Onions, Bananas, and Cabbage out of basket.








If you ever go through Abique, New Mexico I highly recommend stopping at this store.

Saturday, June 7, 2014

May 18 - Our Trip to Colorado Part 3

We had a wonderful time with the family today! Michael and Melanie had to go home this morning. It was so nice to see them again, and we didn't have nearly enough time together! 
One of the traditions of our family that we like to do (in the summer) is play baseball. Unfortunately for the last several years we haven't seen all the family at the same time in the summer. This time, though, we all were able to do it. We played a game last night with Michael and Melanie and had a blast. But something like that, especially when you have that many ages, gets into your blood and you want to do it again. And that is just what we did. 

The entire league of the Lambert Baseball Season with the exception of Boone, who was taking the picture. 

We had a wonderful weekend, and hope that we will get to do it again soon!!

Thursday, June 5, 2014

May 17 - Trip to Colorado Part 2 - The Ice Cream Social

The day of the Ice Cream Social finally had come. Our whole family has been looking forward to this weekend so we can support Grandpa and be together with our whole family again. Mom's oldest sister couldn't come, but her two kids, Michael and Melanie made it. And well they did. Both Michael and Melanie had worked in an ice cream parlor, of sorts, so they knew just how much to serve everyone. Mom's younger sister and all of her family were there. They are a family Blue Grass band, so they provided the entertainment for the Social. And they did a fantastic job. Mom's youngest sister lives very close to Grandmother and Grandpa, so she has played a huge part in this whole campaign. Organizing events, honoring his name, and doing whatever she can do to help.





All the sisters brought cookies for the Social. We had over 10 dozen homemade cookies. And about 6 gallons of Ice Cream. By the time we were done, we had only about 3 dozen cookies and close to two and a half gallons of ice cream left over.
Bessie White, a longtime member of their county, and a friend of the Lambert family since before Grandmother even came into the picture. Stood up and gave the best recommendation that she could have, and somehow it seemed like the best that anyone could have made "He's a good guy." 
 After it was all over, the whole family pitched in to clean up. Now when you have 13 kids from the ages of 19-3 who haven't seen one another in a long time, there tends to be some competition and goofiness when they finally get some slack. Boone and Zach had the "fun" job of vacuuming the community center. So what else did they do, but race. It took almost everyone to "manage" the race and to "make sure that they were doing it right."

 Now that the serious part of our trip is all over we can get to the fun(er) part of the trip.



May 16 - Trip to Colorado Part 1

Mom's dad, James Lambert is running for County Commissioner in Colorado, so all of his daughters and their families came to support him in an ice cream social. Early in the morning of the 16th we packed up the van and left for Colorado. Dad couldn't get off so he didn't get to come with us. We still have four pups, so Kacy put them on Craigslist in New Mexico and in Colorado to try to get them sold. So we loaded them up as well.
Last romp between the boys before heading out.

This was the first time they had spent a lot of time caged up so it took them a while to adjust to it, but they did really good. No sick ones and the high-pitched barking only lasted for about 10 minutes once we started going. 
This is what they did most of the way to Colorado.
 We stopped once we made it into mountain country and let the pups and kids out to stretch their legs. The scenery was so beautiful that we couldn't resist taking some pictures.







I loved this picture of the red flower among the grey dirt and the beer bottle.