Houston Stockshow 2012 fun!

This is the second year we have attended the Houston Livestock show! This time we got to share this FUN experience with my brother Daniel and his family! Above is a photo of a young child doing the Mutton Bustin' challenge, which involves riding a sheep from one end of a small corral to the other. The children have protective gear on, and the dirt they fall onto is soft. There were bunches and bunches of kids participating, and having a great time!

Isaac enjoyed petting the little lambs! They were soo soft and sooo cute!

I got to hold a baby goat (kid)! It was so tiny and so adorable!

This little piglet was one of Isaac's favorite animals to see and touch. It had a tiny, wiggly tail that seemed to spin around and around as it walked around.

Isaac was especially fascinated by the piglet's tail, as it twirled around and around! It was so funny!

This sheep was babysitting these two baby goats (kids)! I'm not sure if it was voluntary or not! I think those two kids thought it was their Mommy, and the sheep didn't have the heart to move and make them fall off of its back.

One area of the livestock show included an activity for kids to learn about eating from all the five food groups. They had stickers with veggies, bread, meat, dairy, and fruits to put on a sheet of paper with a plate/tray on it. Isaac enjoyed sticking the stickers on with Mommy's help.

Here is a picture of Isaac looking at the baby piglets nursing on their mommy.

This exhibit taught the kids about how to milk a cow. It was a plastic cow with rubbery udders that they could hook the milkers onto.

Every year they have a green "hillside" set up where people can sit and watch a cow being milked. My niece, Sarah came and sat beside me and smiled so sweetly! She's sooooo cute!

Meanwhile, Isaac went and sat beside his Uncle Daniel to watch the cow being milked. Isaac became quite attached to his uncle while they were visiting.

Here I am petting Elsie the cow, who is the mascot for Borden milk. They even polish her horns and put other decorations on her. She had a calf with her, too!

The show cows were all lined up in about 10 long rows or so. Here are some really FAT cows!

The cow above, the one on the left, was PINK ---no joke! This photo doesn't really show how truly pink this cow really was. It was all natural, too, I guess her fur was just cut really short and since she's white, she seemed pink!

Isaac, Jason, me, Uncle Daniel, Aunt Alessandra, and Sarah! Here we are in front of one of the practice areas for the horses.

One rider, stopped her horse to let us pet him! It was a fun day at the stock show! I'm already looking forward to next year!!

Strawberry picking in March

Strawberry picking is in full force down here! We haven't tried this before, but after hearing about so many others who had recently picked strawberries here, we decided to try it too! It was a gorgeous evening to be outside. No mosquitoes . . . yet.

There were soo many berries!! It was really fun! I couldn't believe how many rows and fields they had and all of them were full of ripe, red strawberries! Unfortunately, there were some that rotted on the vine, so that was a little unpleasant to smell, but we found lots of good ones, too!

We even took a few minutes to taste some of the bright red ones, after paying for them! They were very very good!

Uncle Daniel, Aunt Alessandra, and Cousin Sarah visit!

We had so much fun with Uncle Daniel, Aunt Alessandra, and Cousin Sarah!

Aunt Debbie making Sarah fly! She would walk about 15 feet away and then run into my arms and I'd lift her high up and say "wee" and she would giggle and laugh! It was sooo fun! She kept walking over a ways and then running into my arms over and over and over! She probably got to "fly" about 35 times! She never got tired of it, but Aunt Debbie's arms got a little tired! It was great fun!

Here's the little princess testing out Isaac's tricycle!

We took everyone to the aquarium in Galveston!

The shark tanks and tunnels were awesome!

Two 2 year olds = Too much fun!

Isaac's cousin! Isn't she adorable!! :-) We had so much fun watching these two 2-year olds playing and giggling!

They ate supper together and even offered to share!

Sometimes Isaac would grab Sarah's hand and lead her to his toys and then pat the floor and say "play"!

Isaac being Isaac!

Isaac loves to run back and forth from one end of the house to the other, and always tries to get me or Daddy to join him.

They pump their arms the same way! Like father, like son! Isaac really admires his Daddy and tries to copy everything he does!

Toot toot!! He's really into making noise! He loves to play any musical instrument he can get his hands on, and often marches around the house singing songs. One day he started singing a song from church with the hand motions. It was the one about building a house on the rock, and then the rain comes down and the floods come up, etc. He likes to play the piano and sing at the same time, too! Occasionally, he plays the piano with one hand and the harmonica with the other and takes breathes to sing a few notes, too! It's really funny! I'll try to upload the video I took of that sometime soon, when I find it. I've been taking a lot of videos lately, so I'll have to see where I saved it.

Isaac is looking handsome in his new suit he got from Oma and PopPop for his birthday. He doesn't like to wear ties anymore, so as soon as I put it on, he is working on getting it off.

We found a fun tractor to play in at the farm where we picked strawberries! Vrrrn Vrmmm!

Lately, Isaac has been getting this piece of foam out from under his bed and playing "camping" with us. He gets us to lay down beside him and then covers us up with blankets.

Isaac helped Mommy make peanut butter cookies the other day. After he helped me with the cookies, ever since he has been wanting to help me with whatever I'm cooking. I have to try to distract him away from helping me sometimes, because I don't want him near the boiling pots or other hot dishes. He hasn't tried to help me wash dishes yet, but I'm sure that will be next!