Country Life Photos - courtesy of Orange Peel Photography

Last Friday evening, the wonderfully talented Kami Van Slyke, of Orange Peel Photography, came by the house to capture our little family of six on film. I can never see what she sees through her lens, but I always love the result. I'm not sure if it's how she takes the photos or if some aspect of who we are to her is caught in translation and presented in a way I haven't conceived in these photos. Have I mentioned that Kami is a love of ours? Bubba adores her, C thinks she's down to earth and so so funny and me? I know she's the real deal and she is really the present that Tyler gave me - another story for another time for sure.

So Kami came, months pregnant, on a cold, blustery Friday evening to get us to behave on film - it doesn't really happen, but these are so great.

We live the country life right now and it really is this breathtaking. And Bubba is the twinkle in our eyes and the reason for our smiles. This is us right now and Kami got it - thank you so much!

If you want to see more of our shoot, check out Kami's blog post. And if you want to time travel, this is a post about our first photos with Kami and another with Ivan's newborn photos.

The Three Bs

These photographs (all taken by the lovely and talented KV of OrangePeelPhotography last October) will not post in the order of my choosing. I completely forgot that I never showed y'all some of the great shots K took of my family!

While we were attempting to get some great shots of C and I with the old military Dodge in the setting sun, the dogs were waiting patiently in the truck. Boris and Bailey.

Boris loves the ride of an open truck with the sun on his face. He's a happy dog.

Bailey and Bella eager to go wherever it is that we are going! Loadin' up!

Pre-parenting the three Bs: look at the camera, be good, smile big, don't be in a bad mood . . .

Oh, how I love my big girl, Bella. She has my heart.

Bella smiling. Such a beautiful girl.

Bailey's half smile.

Not sure if Boris is smiling, but he sure is attentive!

I'm sure C is trying to get Boris NOT to lick him in the mouth. No worries, that comes later in the session. I'll try and post more of these as I remember - K took so many thoughtful photos that truly capture what our life is about right now.

While these three dogs are our family, we recently lost two dogs that lived with C's parents out at the farm. Read the post below. We've been holding our dogs tighter and enduring more kisses in the wake of their loss.

They are Deeply Missed

If you know C at all, you have heard stories about Bubba and Loki. Bubba is a black lab, rottweiler, basset hound mix that C got as a puppy when he was in high school. Loki was one of a litter of nine or ten (depends who is telling the story) that Radar had and she was C's brother J's good pal (Radar was a dirty white Corgi-looking dog that apparently had an affair with a blue heeler, as Loki looks pure blue heeler).

In the last month and a half, we've lost both of these dear members of the family. C has lots of stories to share about both dogs, as do his parents, brothers, and aunt & uncles. I can really only share mine, but I'll ask you all to talk to the R family about these dogs because they were family.

This is Bubba. He was the sweetest dog I've met. He's also one of the funniest looking. Upon seeing Bubba for the first time, my dad said he thought he was looking at a black lab (Bubba was laying in the back of a truck), but when the dog stood on his basset hound legs, the lack of height was startling. Everyone loved Bubba, and as C found out in high school and college (so I hear), Bubba especially loved the ladies and they loved him.

No funny camera work, Bubba was short. He made an excellent pillow for me multiple times. And he just made you feel good about yourself; he was a happy dog, content to sit at your feet and wag his tail. He always seemed happy that you were there.

This is Loki. She is the reason we have Boris, our own blue heeler. That, and there was no finding another Bubba. She was alpha female and pack leader. C has always told me that Loki used to growl at other girls he would hang out with at the house and he found it surprising that she never growled at me. He says that because she and Bubba responded to me so well, he paid closer attention to keeping me around. I guess that means that I can thank Bubba, Loki, and Radar for my husband.

I love these dogs. They represent home to me just as much as C's parents and his home do. I miss them so much. They lived fantastic lives and were adventurous and spoiled and rough and soft and loving and vicious (okay, I never saw Bubba be vicious) and so very loved. That's about all I can say about them without crying. I am glad that one doesn't have to be without the other for Bubba and Loki were dear friends.

Love.

Family Photos/Christmas Card Non-Contenders

We are spending the weekend with C's parents. Sort of. I'm spending the weekend with C's parents and he's sleeping here when he is not hunting deer. And my parents are headed over in a bit for dinner. So really, we're one big happy family. Minus the percievably dead deer.

Which means now is the perfect moment to post SOME pictures that Kami @ OrangePeel Photography took of my cute little family.

These are the ones that C wants on our Christmas cards. These are the ones that will not be on our Christmas cards:

Boris strikes again. During a photo session, nonetheless.
Which, of course, cracks C up to no end.

The Dogs at This TIme

We watched Mom and Dad's dog, Abby, for ten days while they were on their anniversary cruise over Thanksgiving. She gets along really well with Bella and Boris, but she can irritate C a little bit - just by being a small dog. There are quite a few things that a small dog can get away with that a larger dog cannot (jumping on your leg, sleeping on your bed, picking fights, etc.). Abby is, through nature (genetics as a dauschund) and nurture (my parents' training) a burrower with a sense of entitlement. What this means is that she likes to sleep under covers. A problem in the R household because C has the tendency to move around a lot and could possibly roll over on Abby, and Abby, sensing an injustice towards her might lash out with her teeth. Not that this has happened before at all. No way. We've solved this by letting her sleep under the fleece blanket at the end of the bed. On the other side of the peoples from Boris.

There has also been a pack hierarchy shift. Abby and Boris are about the same age with about 50lbs difference between them. Bella is alpha female in our family. Abby will place her tiny head in Bella's mouth to show submissiveness. That's not the problem; the problem is that Abby has actually dominated Boris for the last two years and then something shifted. I'm not sure what changed, but Boris has asserted dominance and Abby isn't sure she likes it. I've caught them baiting one another with toys during this visit so that they can snarl and fight a little bit. Really, they're dogs! Am I going to have to call the Dog Whisperer?

Mom, Dad, here is some fuzzy proof that C LIKES playing with Abby. He does. He plays a little rough, but she seems to like it.

Abby is the guard dog. She has no fear. She's charged dogs way bigger than her. She even bit Bella on the snout when she was stressed out. You can just barely see her green ball at the right edge of the photo. Boris, that is HER ball, DO NOT touch it. Just sit there and look like a cute blue heeler.

This is what Bella does. And she is really good at it. Hardly even snores.

Super fun game: Guess who is the rightful owner of the dog bed. Does size matter? Is it the dog that "fits" in the bed the best? The one that looks the most comfortable? Does the bed match one dog better than the other? I thought this was way too funny to pass up!

Taking Care of Fish-ness

I know you guys just LOVE my collages! Like I said, we cleaned the fish tank on Saturday and I don't think it has been done in a year. Which is actually fine, except some fish have died in there and in case it was an environmental thing, I thought we needed a clean fish tank. We were left with a sucker fish that measures about twelve inches long (can reach two feet) and a tiny little creek fish that had been hiding for so long that we didn't know he was in there. He could have been the legendary fish that survived (without our knowledge) in less than an inch of water inside of a shell for about thirty minutes when we cleaned the tank last. Who knows.

C scrubbing the tank (I helped!) and the living room in disarray. Cleaning the tank means we get to rearrange because otherwise we are not moving that tank full of water (no idea how much it weighs). Mom, Dad, you guys get the exercise machine back. It's great to hang things on.

The glorious sucker fish that I named Pluto. We took the dogs up to Petsmart and got some schooling fish and a few plants. I think there are some Bala Sharks, whatever the stripey ones are called, about five goldfish, and we got a tiny sucker fish (maximum length is six inches) and I named her Plutonia. It's so nice to gaze over at the tank now and see lots of fish! The schooling ones are especially fun to watch as they meander around.

C Saves Baby Bull From Sure Death and Starvation!

Okay, maybe it was a little less dramatic than that. Maybe C went rabbit hunting in the pasture and saw something move and went to investigate. He did find a newborn calf (estimated time of birth: Saturday AM) tucked away under a tree with no mama cow anywhere to be found. In Farmer M's opinion (him being the owner of said calf), the mama cow had cleaned up her calf and fed him his first meal, when she most likely went to eat for herself. C did not see any tracks, so of course gave Farmer M a call.

Farmer M drove over, loaded the calf up, and took him home to his very own mudroom. We went over to visit! This is the baby bull (seeing as how he still had his testicles, for another couple hours at least). He was keeping good company with Farmer M's five granddaughters petting him. Okay, maybe I was petting him too while C and Farmer M discussed guns and gun laws. I was told that a bottle fed, or hand fed, calf is a lot of work and I mentioned that even if I could take him home, I wouldn't want to because I'd have to name him Hamburger or Ribeye. Eating someone named Henry just doesn't seem right to me.

Still, no telling what shape this little guy would be in if C hadn't stumbled on him. I was just surprised that any female creature pushes something that big out of her body (I am aware that there are bigger babies, but still). It was the heart-warming story for the weekend and C is such a sweet hero.