Scenes from baby's first cow show!

My mom and I recently ventured down to Louisville, Ky. for the North American International Livestock Exposition (NAILE), more specifically - The All-American Jersey Show and Sale. And if you're not familiar with 'em ... Jerseys are those sweet little brown cows with the big brown eyes (no I'm not biased ... wait yes I AM!) And no .... they don't produce the chocolate milk :) Jerseys milked twice, sometimes three times a day produce milk rich with butterfat and protein making it ideal for cheese, butter, yogurt and ice cream!

I heart Jerseys, just ask anyone ... I grew up on a Jersey dairy farm and have been quite involved in the breed organization ever since I was a little girl, including being crowned the National Jersey Queen in 2002. One of the few times I could call actually myself "queen."

Anywho ... NAILE holds special significance to me for this reason, and plus it is basically the world's best and biggest exhibition of Jersey cattle. And as far as the queenship goes, I'm VERY proud of the fact that I wasn't recognized for who my parents were, how productive or show-winning my cows were - I was recognized for MY achievements, work ethic and passion to advocate for the Jersey cow.

So with all that being said, as you might already assume I was REALLY excited about talking my baby girl down for her first cow show (esp. since we missed the State Fair!). Here a few moments we captured during the trip!

10 Things I Learned Over the Weekend

1. Mexican food and breastfed babies DO NOT mix well! Oh lordy!

2. Sometimes I can clean my house so vigorously - I'm in physical pain later.

3. I am seriously considering hiring someone to clean my house, BTW.

4. I LOVE having a fully-stocked pantry and refrigerator.

5. I am enjoying cooking new dinner recipes for my husband, thesedays. I got a new Cooking Light cookbook ... and it's AWESOME so far!

6. As a result of No. 5, I am considering posting a few recipes on my blog in the future ... we shall see.

7. Just because a baby is up ALL DAY doesn't mean she will sleep ALL NIGHT, unfortunately.

8. Reagan is becoming more mobile -- she is rolling side to side, rotating, wiggling and scooting. Ahh-ya-ya! No more leaving her on the middle of the bed while I finish getting ready anymore!

9. Now that harvest is over (yay!), Big D is in the house earlier in the evenings, which is great - because we can spend some quality time together as a family and not-so-great because he confiscates the TV remote and we watch The Kudlow Report, which is not my idea of a good time, but quite possibly better for my brain than say ... Entertainment Tonight.

10. Since I live on a pig farm, I'm a bit obessed with my house NOT smelling like a hog farm. Therefore, if permitted, I burn candles in our house nearly every evening! And P.S. I seriously heart fall-scented candles like Pumpkin Spice and Warm Apple Pie ... yum, yum and YUM! 

That's what happens when you have a .... DOG!

If you remember, last Friday was the official date night for hubby Big D and I. And I was pretty darn excited, obviously too excited. Because while I hate to complain, date night was an EPIC failure! :(

Of course, it started out pretty swell. Big D picked up the baby girl from the sitter and took her to Grandmas house. After work, I spent some time playing with her until we left for our date! During that time, my momma arrived at our house, because the next day, ie. Saturday, we were headed down to Louisville for the North American International Livestock Show (which I was also pretty darn excited about!). So in the craziness of getting ready to go, welcoming and hugging my momma and saying goodbyes to our sweet little girl, something terrible happened. This terrible thing I would find out as we were about to be seated for our "romantic" dinner for two.

As I was contemplating what tasty drink I would order and how delicious an appetizer would be ... Big D's phone rang. And surprisingly, it was NOT someone from the farm telling us that the power was out, a waterer was broke or a sow was having pigs in the gestation barn ... it was my mom.

I could hear her on the other end of the phone asking where the dog was. Instantly, I knew. Instantly, my heart sank. You see, in the fog that is my life now, I had let the dog out to pee when I was helping my momma carry her bags in. She is a pretty good dog, she doesn't need to go outside with a leash on; however, you HAVE to keep track of her or else she'll slowly walk herself right off the property hot on some good-smelling trail, which is EXACTLY what had happened.

It seems the dog was lost. And whlie my momma and my father-in-law were both outside looking for her, Big D and I just couldn't have a nice meal if we knew our puppy dog was runnning aorund the county in 30 degree, windy, sleeting, cold fall weather. We turned in the beeper that was about to light up letting us know OUR table was ready to go home and search for the dog.

I left the restaurant cursing, not terrible cursing, but cursing nonetheless. I was angry that I had left the dog outstide and now she was missing. I was angry that the ONE time we get to have a date night was cut short and we ended up sufficing for drive-thru dinner via Arbys. As we drove home from Indianapolis, I slowly got over it and re-focused my attention on finding the dog.

We drove around the area where we live, I yelled for her and no sign of our little black Lab. By that time, we needed to pick up the baby girl and call it a night. As I was picking up the baby girl, a voicemail appeared on Big D's phone, it was Animal Control - they found her. She was safe and sound, albeit a little cold and scared. The poor thing was running in the intersection of our road and U.S. 40. Well, someday again we'll try date night again. I'm not giving up that easily!

Psyched for daaa ... date night!

I got a date Friday night at 8
It's gonna be great!
Maybe we'll be mates!

Wait, wait ... wait. Hold up, I'm not in high school anymore ... I suppose I should stop myself from singing my ol' date rhyme over and over again. Ok, so (confession) maybe I used to skip around the house in college singing this tune as well. But I couldn't help myself - I used to get pretty excited about date nights. In college, it was a little different tho. Ok ... ALOT different.

Now a date night is so precious because it's the only time Big D and I get out on our own sans baby girl. Don't get me wrong, I don't really enjoy being away from her. But when we try to go out to eat all together, it's not about sitting down for an enjoyable meal, it's about making sure she (ie Reagan) is happy and QUIET. Sometimes, mid-meal - she wants to eat, be fussy, needs a diaper change or just wants to be held. And then the glares from folks trying to enjoy their meal ensue as she starts ramping up the volume of her cute little voice SCREAMING.

So one of us has to stop eating and entertain her and then switch while the other person eats. Plus, not all restaurants are exactly kid-friendly. So instead of sushi or a nice steak house (once and a while), we're going to more establishments like Applebees, pizza joints and Steak n Shake!

So ... tonight, we're going to one of those non kid friendly restaurants, where mommy can have a nice relaxing glass of wine (or maybe a beer, depends on how the day goes). So yea, I guess I may be skipping around the office today singing my ole' tune. Cause, yea ... I'm pretty darn excited about DATE NIGHT!

Wordless Wednesday ... First Trip to "Work" With Daddy

A proud Big D holds his baby girl in one of our piggie barns for the first time. Reagan was pretty intrigued by the sounds and smells of all of the piggies she met!