A date, Ropin', and the Devil Child

Here's my sweet, sweet Jessie, who is normally so adorable and nice and easygoing. She's had a rough 24 hours, and actually, a rough few days. Ryan and I went on a date last night to our favorite restaurant with Krissy and Dylan. The kids stayed with my mom, and since my mom lives the farthest away from us, and it was going to be a late night, they stayed over. Jessie kept my mom and dad up most of the night, SCREAMING. Like she was a banshee. My poor mom. She was up a lot. She would rock Jessie to sleep, Jessie would be snoring, she would lay her down, and BAM! Not crying... screaming. My mom finally put her in her bed and she was fine. Which is so weird because the girl NEVER sleeps with us. Jessie treated us to her new "fun" self on the car ride home. Here's hoping to a short passing phase and ends like, right now. (Thanks Mom! And hopefully you get to bed early and get to sleep in tomorrow morning!)
After dinner (which was oh-so-good), we saw the movie "Sherlock Holmes." I've read the entire Sir Aurthur Conan Dolye collection, and I'm a fan. We liked it. The banter between Holmes and Watson was great. Anyway, the movie got over well past midnight, so we got a hotel room. Nothing like sleeping in with no children and being able to take an unlimited hot shower. Here in the trailer we get short warm showers (like 4 1/2 minutes) in the winter. It's not nice. The hotel had a small fitness center (which I used)! And breakfast (which we ate)! On the way to get the kids, we stopped at one of our favorite stores, Tractor Supply. Ryan made the observation that if there were only two stores on the planet, TSC and a super Walmart would be all you needed. TSC has everything! We went in for some ropin' supplies, and walked out with that, and...drum roll please... jeans for me! It's a miracle!
Here's our new toy. The straw bale has been around for awhile, but I told Ryan that I wanted to learn how to rope, as it seems a handy skill to have. I mentioned we should "get one of those fake cow head things" and let the kids practice roping it. This is a fabulous outside activity. I practiced a little, and it was hit and miss. Literally.
Ryan showing the kids what he can do. (Nice big huge scrap pile in the background, no? And the homemade straw bale jungle gym? Made by our kids, of course.)

Nice belly, Ed!
Of course they wanted to ride him, and Will was "steering" with the horns. Ryan roped two kids and the horns...
And here is Ryan showing Kacy how to do it. She was the most interested in it. We only have the one kid rope, and the boys' short attention spans had them pretending to ride the quads. They did enjoy it when Ryan practiced roping them. (Ropin' them?) Now, we just need our swing set up here and set up, and our kids should be set for awhile. I'm thinking a couple of soccer balls and a goal net will appear later this spring, too. Oh, and some livestock to practice on. And a horse to ride. That will be next spring, after the house. Can't wait!