Great Weekend at the Ranch!!

We enjoyed a really nice time at the ranch for opening weekend of deer season. Dwaine's parents joined us out there and watched the kids so I could go sit in the stand with Dwaine while he was hunting...
Looks like I'm good luck! This deer came out right as the sun was starting to rise. My eyes apparently had not yet adjusted 'cause I never actually saw it before Dwaine shot it. Good thing his eyes are better than mine! I was so relieved when he shot this deer early because I was super worried that I was not going to be able to sit there for very long without having to go pee. I really did NOT want to be the reason his hunt was ruined!

We had just finished up our venison from last year, so I'm glad to be able to fill the freezer again!
Thanks to Alli the photographer, we were able to get this great shot of both of us with our trophy. Dwaine was excited when we walked up to it, cause he actually has a very unique rack- a 12 point with some drop kickers that curled and twisted around the back side of his head (you can't see them in this pick).

Hiking and enjoying nature!!

As you can see we don't usually do a lot of grooming while at the ranch, but somehow they still manage to look cute!!

Halloween Festivities!!!

Fall is one of our favorite times of the year. Great weather, pumpkin patches, carnivals, Halloween... what's not to love? The whole family looks forward to it all year. I can't tell you how many times we had to answer the question, "How much longer till Halloween?"

Showing off the face paintings they got at a little church carnival right around the corner from our house. They had bouncy houses and slides, carnival games, an exotic animal show, etc- it was all very small town, no frills, no fuss but I have to say I really appreciate that sometimes! The kids must have climbed up and slid down the moonwalk slide about 50 times, each played a handful of games, won a bag of prizes including the stuffed animal Alli is showing off in the above pic, and got their faces painted- 13 dollars very well spent!!!

TJ's dragon- he loved it and was not at all happy when it came time to wash it off in the bath that night.

And Alli's lion face. Is that cute or what?

Picking out pumpkins at the local pumpkin patch. They each get to pick one and then later design a face for daddy to carve into it. Alli was waving at the cars going by on the street like a beauty queen. She cracks me up sometimes.

Me with all 3 of my kiddos- Wow, saying that is going to take some getting used to!

Alli posing and pointing at the pumpkins.

Showing off the pumpkin she picked out.

He and daddy really wanted to get the big round one on the left in the pic, but it was a little out of the budget so he went with a smaller skinnier one instead.

Can you guess who designed which pumpkin?
I was pretty impressed with both of them.

And for Halloween night...

A Bollywood princess and Darth Vader ready to Trick-or-Treat

Again with Alli's posing- all her idea.

The first stop is always Nana Pam's house and the kids love this one cause they know they will get a little toy in addition to their candy.

Enjoying a little of the night's loot. There was so much more than what you see here. It's ridiculous how much candy we have in the house right now- doing my best to ration it out in reasonable amounts. Daddy is enjoying it every bit as much as the kids- he's such a candy addict!

Darth Vader revealed!!!

Very revealed!

Alli's Original Picassohead creation

Alli is studying art in her GT class right now and today they created their own Picasso style art. She titled it "blue haired."

Check it out here.

First Day of School!!!

Just found this unfinished post that I started awhile back, so figured now was a good time to finally finish and post it. Better late than never I suppose!

TJ packing his lunch the night before the first day of school. This was also his first assignment- to bring a picture of himself doing something to get ready for school and then they shared it with the class.

Very sleepy kids at breakfast!!!


Now a little more awake and ready to go...

Alli couldn't let TJ have the spotlight to himself.

Showing off his Star Wars backpack and lunch bag.

I always love the pictures of Daddy walking them in.

Posing together in front of the school.

We dropped Alli off with her class in the gym and then headed down the hall to TJ's classroom!

At his seat excited that it is his turn to start kinder this year!

He did great and never seemed worried or concerned (that didn't come until week 2). It certainly helped that he had Alli's kinder TJ from last year. He already knew and felt comfortable with her! And she loves him too (God is so good!)

So, after hanging around for 5 or 10 minutes, Dwaine and I looked around and realized we were the only parents left, so decided it was time for us to leave too! Even though I knew he would do great, It's hard to walk away 'cause I just want to watch and see everything he does.

Chilling with Daddy after a long first day at school.

And no, we didn't break the thumb-sucking habit before kinder, but he says he doesn't do it at school. You better believe it hits his mouth as soon as we get in the car though. Oh well, I don't suppose he'll do it forever. I'm certainly not going to stress about it.

Green Eyed Planet

Alli's first ALPHA (Advanced Learning Program for High Achievers) project... All year, they will be learning about the 20th century (big stuff for a 1st grader). She came home with the giant green glasses and instructions to decorate them with anything having to do with the 20th century. She really wanted to learn more about the Hindenburg blimp and kept talking about that. Daddy had the idea to expand on that a little and follow the advances in flight through the 2oth century. We were told it was a family project, so the 3 of us teamed up on it and this was the end result. I think we make a great team if I do say so myself! Now we just have to type up a report and help her remember all the info so she can present it!! Really wish I could be there to see the presentation :-)

My Belly at 23wks!

This is the fun part of the pregnancy- feeling little kicks and punches, but not yet huge and uncomfortable. This baby does not seem to be quite as active as the first two were in utero unless maybe that is still to come :-)

By the looks of my love handles (Dwaine grabbed one the other day and asked if I had a baby there too) and the widening of my rear end, I'm guessing girl, but I suppose I could be wrong. And no, Dwaine is not in trouble for his comment- he meant in in a fun loving way and I laughed 'cause it really does look like it sometimes. I have started taking long walks in the mornings to keep it at bay though. Chili must think he won the lottery with all the walks he's been getting to go on now that the kids are in school!

Jellystone Park and SeaWorld!!

We recently had a chance to spend a couple days with the Westinghouse family as they were vacationing at Jellystone Park on Canyon Lake. We went out to spend a day with them at the Park...

The kids on the giant jumping pillow- Autumn, TJ, Alli, & Shelby. I tried getting some cute action pics but they came out blurry.

After jumping on the pillow- Alli covered in sand and dust and Autumn after she took a little swim in her clothes. They still look adorable. Steph and I took the kids to the pool right after this and let them all jump in fully clothed to get all that dust off of them before we had to drive home. People probably thought we were a little crazy!

A couple days later, they drove into San Antonio to spend the day at Sea World so we met them there. It was hot, hot, hot so we let the kids ride one ride then we hit the water park and that's where we hung out all day.

My big boy riding the Shamu coaster solo. Shelby does not like roller coasters so she did not join the kids on this one.

Alli and Autumn in the front seat!!

Lots of fun posing with all the Sea World characters. Poor Steph was standing in line for food for a solid 30 minutes so we had plenty of time to get cute pics of the kids.

On stage with Shamu. Autumn was all about striking a pose.

It was a super fun day!!!!

Last Days of Summer Break

Squeezing the last bit of fun out of summer during the week before school...

Playing with the water hose on the back porch. It's pretty bad when it's so hot and dry that the kids want to stay on the porch in the shade and away from the crunchy grass to play with the hose.

Floating pecan shell boats in the stream of water.


Somehow the water play turned into making mud pies. This girl is not afraid to get dirty. Unfortunately it made a terrible mess of the porch and a big mud hole where there used to be grass next to the porch. That's going to take some repair work (sounds like a fall project).

Then we took a trip to Fiesta Farms- a little petting zoo right down the road from us. I've always wanted to check it out but had never gotten around to it- better late than never! This baby goat greeted us when we got there.
Piglets!!! They were so stinkin' cute. They had signs: "pot bellied pigs for sale $150." It was hard to resist, but I know Dwaine would NOT have been happy about that and I'm sure I would regret the decision shortly afterward too :-)
Alli feeding the sheep and goats.
More piglets!!! And these were way tinier- only 5 days old. I was way more excited about them than the kids were, but I just couldn't get over how ridiculously cute they were.
2 pony rides were included with admission too! So fun.
This was the biggest horse Alli has ever ridden- there was one bigger and she really wanted to ride it, but she didn't get a chance. We may have to take her for a trail ride on a full sized horse sometime.
More pics of the piglets- they looked way cuter in person and I kept trying to capture it.
Our little goat again. He was 2 or 3 mos old and apparently his mom didn't make enough milk for him so they had been bottle feeding him.

Alli named him but I can't remember what the name was- I'll have to ask her when she gets home from school.

Thanks to Alli- I actually made it into a picture!

Feeding the bunnies!

They had a little playground too with seesaws and a tire swing that the kids enjoyed playing on...

Alli fell in love with this dog....

She was super sweet and would just sit outside the fences of all the different animal pens and watch over them.
Is that not the most adorable thing. She must have sat next to that dog for 10 or 15 minutes straight. They were just loving on each other.
Holding a chicken- I know it looks a little like she smashing it, but she was really being pretty gentle.
TJ with one of the chicks.

The kids had a blast and would have wanted to stay longer but we had to bolt when it started to get unbearably hot. They kept asking when we would get to go back and talking about how big the baby goat would be next time we see it. But I'm thinking with both of them being school, it's not likely we will be back anytime soon- maybe next summer!