Cowing Around....

Recently Morgan has acquired a herd of cows: 2 longhorns, 1 milk cow, 22 black cows, and 3 calves so far (more on the way pretty soon!). I never thought that watching a herd of cows and giving them hay could be so much fun. It amazes me how each one can have a personality. If you stay out there with them long enough, you begin to see each personality emerge. Which ones like to be the center of attention, which ones like to stay to themselves, etc.

Lucy, the milk cow, is my absolute favorite! She can be a pain because she feels she can do anything she pleases, but she allows anyone to rub all over her like she was a big dog! She loves attention and LOTS AND LOTS of food! 

Lucy, the milk cow

Our first baby born for the year was a longhorn baby. I call her mother Dapples because she appears to have spots, or dapples, all over her body. I haven't decided on a name for the baby, but I'm not going to do that until Morgan says we are gonna keep her and raise her :)

 

The longhorn, Dapples, and her baby

 Because all the black cows are well black, they look the same. So most of the time Morgan and I call them by their number in the ear tag. There a couple of cows we have name based on the number, however. Such as, number one is Uno and number thirteen is Lucky.  The second baby of the year was born to No. 6. He is already a month old and a big boy. He is also a little more independent than the other two calves so he pictured below by himself because he never would go near his mom while we were there! Our third baby of the season was born to "No. 2". She is the a small gal, black with one little white dot on her forehead.

Bull calf, second baby

The third baby of year and her Mom

Morgan takes great pride in his herd and is sure to give them plenty of hay during the winter so they will all stay fat and healthy! He has started to "unroll" the hay so the cows wouldn't be crowded around it and experimenting to see if they wouldn't waste so much this way.

Morgan getting the hay to take to the cows

Morgan unrolling the hay

A few in the herd

2010 National Champions!

I've been wondering lately, WHY DID THEY HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL AFTER I GRADUATED TO WIN A NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP!!! Oh well....I am still so happy they did. I still can't wrap my head around it. Auburn University, the school I graduated from, is now the National Champions of College football. I would have loved to have been in Glendale, Arizona for the game, but it was great just watching it on TV. Dad banned us from watching the game at their house because we watched the first half of the Iron Bowl there, and we all know how that was! We went home for the second half and it all turned around, thankfully! Anyway, because of this, we were not allowed to watch the National Championship at the parents house! 

Tomorrow, Morgan and I hope to go to Montgomery to see the National Championship Coach's Trophy. I remember last year, all the Auburn fans (not me of course!) were making fun of Alabama for taking the trophy to Walmart for the fans to see, but here Auburn is doing the same thing! Oh well, I still want to go see it!

I still can't believe the game was so low scoring. I knew there was the chance of it coming down to a field goal, in perfect Auburn style, but I thought the final score would have at least been in the 40's! It couldn't have been any better though! Well, truthfully, a blowout win would've been nice, but that isn't any fun now is it!

The Game-Winning Field Goal by Senior Wes Byrum

Our First Christmas

Yeah I know, it wasn't technically our first Christmas together, but it was our first married Christmas so I am saying it was our first Christmas! Our first family gathering was at Mimi and Popsie's on December 23 which we fondly refer to as Christmas Eve Eve. A night full of good "party" foods, lots of presents, laughing at the younger ones opening presents, and games. I have come to realize I love watching Bentley, Sydney, and Blake opening the presents from us just as much or more than I like receiving presents. I guess that's what getting older does to you :)

On Christmas Eve night we traveled all the way to Andalusia, Alabama for Christmas at Morgan's grandparents (Nanny & Papa Odom). There we had another delicious meal and opened presents. By the way, Andalusia was our farthest trip for Christmas. I love having all of our family so near. :)

Christmas Day was BUSY! Morgan and I woke up that morning and exchanged our gifts. We then went up to my mom and dad's. To our surprise, we opened the front door and found Santa had brought us a new freezer! We were thrilled because we have no room for frozen pizzas in our fridge freezer which Morgan thought was just a crime! Mom and Dad also got us an electric fireplace insert which let me tell you looks just like a real fire. Next stop, Morgan's parents for some more exchanging. Morgan got an Iron Bowl football vault which was a book telling the history of the Iron Bowl and had some old tickets and postcards which was really cool. He probably enjoyed that present the most out of them all! We then went to Mimi and Popsie's again for the traditional Christmas dinner. Oh yeah...the good stuff! Turkey, dressing, and my all time favorite CRANBERRY SAUCE!!! We were able to go home and take a break for a while before heading to Grandpa's (my dad's dad). We had to eat and run here because we had to get to Morgan's Nanny and Papa Wells for our final Christmas visit. There we played dirty Santa where I won a small vacuum cleaner and Morgan won a pocket knife set.

With Christmas behind us, we went home for a well deserved good night's rest!!! We look forward to the year ahead of us and can't wait for all the blessings to come our way!!! 

Happy New Year,

Julie