About Me + Check out this blog

First off I would like to direct you to The Crazy Doll Ladies Store. Emily is a huge fan of their blog and their store and I thought I would support them as well.

Now, I would like to talk about my family. I'm one of six children. Chase is 17 and starting his last year of high school this fall. I know he can't wait to leave the ranch and go to college. He loves the ranch and wants to have one of his own some day, but Daddy pushes him pretty hard.

Cameron or Cam is 14 and just starting high school. He's considered the lazy one in the family, which isn't saying much because we are all expected to work hard and constantly. Cam wants to have his own businesses when he's older.

I'm the next in line at 13. Evangeline or Evan--as we most often call her-- just turned 12. She's a fireball and never takes "no" for an answer. We fight a lot--which Daddy does not tolerate very well--but I love having her around.

Blake is 8 and an excellent barrel racer. He wants to be a bull rider. Isabelle "Izzy" is 4 and the cutest little mutton rider in the west. She loves animals and she can't wait until lambing next spring since she will be old enough to raise her own lamb.

My daddy was born in South Dakota and is a cowboy to the bone. As a young adult he went to NYC to visit a cousin and met Mom. They stayed in touch by phone and letters and were married a few years later. Mom was in law school at the time. Daddy must have been one smooth talker to persuade her to move to the middle of nowhere. Mom tolerates the ranch, but she doesn't really have a passion for it. Chase, Cam, and myself were born in SD. While Mom was pregnant with Evan, the ranch was having a hard time. We had to sell it and move to NYC where Mom got a job. She gave birth to Evan and was back to work a few weeks later.

Daddy hated NYC and had trouble keeping a job. He saved every penny he made and told Mom we were moving back to SD. Daddy always gets his way, so back to SD we went, new baby Blake as well. To be able to keep this ranch after a year, Mom headed back to NYC, us girls and Blake in tow. I met Angelica then and her family became very close to Mom.

This went on for awhile: going back and forth between the ranch and the city (we had an apartment there). Daddy finally decided this wasn't working and that we were stable enough to sell the ranch and move to Montana. Mom was able to get a job in the city and Daddy got his dream ranch an hour away. Mom commutes and us kids endure the hour bus ride to school.

That would be my life in a nutshell. Oh, and Izzy was born during the back-and-forth years. It's pretty complicated. It seems to be the norm for everyone in our extended family as well. It does make for some exciting stories, though. Anyone else have an unusual childhood?