We plan to name him...

Corbin Rafe Dearden. Michael had picked out Rafe from a Louis L'Amour book "Crossfire Trail" quite sometime ago. I never liked it and told him absolutely not! I've wanted Wyatt for a long time and Michael said no way! So when I found out my little bundle is a boy I actually hit the internet for "cowboy names". Corbin was one in a list of mostly common names. I wrote it down but wasn't too hip to it just yet. For days Michael and I through name combinations around and one day I put together Rafe Corbin, and it had a ring to it I liked; however, sounded better as Corbin Rafe. I wanted to spell it Raef and Michael was wanting Rafe.

I bugged him for a few days planting, ok kinda forcing, the seed in his head for Corbin Rafe. He didn't like the spelling I wanted so we hit the Louis L'Amour book to see how he spelled it. Ok, so Rafe it is. Once I agreed to that spelling, Michael agreed to Corbin Rafe. So there you have it :)

Got Tools?

Opportunity has knocked and we opened the door, signed the papers and Michael is going to be leaving for tool-man school on Sept 21 in Ohio. We bought the Verde Valley/Flagstaff route for the Matco mobile tool truck. Michael's last day at Red Rock Jeeps is Thursday the 9th and he is ready for the change. He has developed allergies to some of the oils and working in the heat box of a shop is wearing on him.

So here's to taking a leap and trying something new! Its a little scary knowing Michael has no set income and it will depend soley on his sales, but that can be a very good thing for us too. Its as exciting as it is scary to go out on a limb and go into business for yourself. But the other option is to keep doing what we're doing and just wonder if it would have ever worked out for us.

Here's to something new!

For the Love of Horses

Ok, so these aren't horse, but I wanted to throw this picture in there. The neighbor's chickens come over sometimes and my little animal hound loves to follow them and get as close as she can. She gets upset when they run home and she can't follow them anymore.

Now for the horses. She loves these two. She has to go in and pet them at feeding time and whenever she is outside and they come to the fence she has to say hello. My nibbler, T-Bone, does well with her and usually will keep his mouth to himself.

They love the attention as much as she loves them.

She finally discovered my collection of Breyer horses up on a high shelf. She just had to play with them, and they are quite sturdy so I let her play. She talked to them for about an hour. She washed them, then she put them to bed and got a wipe...or blanket...for each one and covered them up. What was really cute was at dinner she insisted on having one with her, so I let her. She set it on the table and then she held a fork full of peas to its mouth and began talking to it saying things like "yummy".

I know what collection I'm going to start for her. No barbies, its going to be Breyer horses. She really loves her critters! She really never showed much interest in the one baby doll she had.

What to name him?

Ok, Michael and I have agreed on a name. For a little fun, I posted a poll to the left. Please vote on the name you think we have picked and I will announce it soon.

The baby is a ....

BOY!! He was cooperating very much during the ultrasound yesterday and made it obvious numerous times that he is a boy. Now for names...that is going to be a tough one since Michael and I don't quite agree on many boys names...time to hash it out. We have so much to get done. Time to move all of our hobby/craft stuff to another location then paint and decorate his room.

Puddles, Bugs and Kansas

Here is a condensed picture update. We took a trip to Kansas the end of July to surprise Michael's mom and tell them all another little Dearden is on the way. This time our good buddy Shawn joined us because he is a HUGE John Deere fan and has wanted to go to Kansas for a while since they make 'em bigger out in Kansas. He finally made it and he is welcome back with us anytime. Did you ever see a more contagious smile! That's our happy Shawn, its the squeaky little John Deere horn on this big tractor that has him so excited. We found this butterfly at the farm when we were letting Shawn climb on the equipment. As usual, Danae was very interested in it, she didn't touch this one though.

Danae watched the Leoti parade, which is one of the few parades I've been to that remembers what a parade is supposed to be with passing out candy, etc. Danae collected several suckers, or "sticks" as she decided to call them. She is pictured above with her cousin Eden who is one year older than her.

Danae has sat on the horses a few times, once with mommy in uniform, then when mommy or daddy held her up there and this time she actually rode around a little with Daddy on T-Bone. She of course loved it!

This water hound was so excited when we introduced her to puddles. Now I'm not sure that she gets excited over the rain because she likes the rain or because it makes puddles. She gets so upset when mommy or daddy go out into the heavy rain, I think it scares her. Thanks to Lizard, these cute pink sandals make the best little puddle jumpers!

Of course with rain comes snails. This was Danae's first introduction to snails and she was intrigued at first and soon lost interest, but she of course wanted to hold it.

My Little Dipper

Danae LOVES dip! It doesn't matter if its ketchup, ranch, applesauce, peanut butter, apricot sauce, guacamole, etc... if it looks like she can dip something in it...she does. Everything tastes better with dip and if you can't get her to eat something, give her something to dip it in. :)

Some things that come to mind are corn chips in ranch, chicken in apple sauce...oh and mashed potatoes because that counts as dip too. She dipped her peanut butter and jelly sandwich in her yogurt (or "yogie" as she calls it). Then yesterday when she dipped her peanut butter and jelly sandwich in some ranch dressing because she pulled it out of the fridge when I was getting the jelly and pleaded for some "dip". The gross thing is...she ate it!

P.S. I'll post some pictures soon