The Ranch

We spent a weekend at our ranch in Brady recently and enjoyed some amazing weather.  It's always such a blast getting out in the country and I vow to get my kids out there more regularly in 2014! Having a house out there would make it much easier, but I'm not going to let that stop us.  The trailer works for now.

Our friend Jeremy and his kids joined us, as well as my mom and brother.  The kids loved showing their friends around (so did Micah)!  Kai and Owen spent some time at the "buffalo waller" searching for and catching frogs and other critters.

We saw rattlesnakes, Owen went turkey hunting with his grandma, we shot a deer that had hung himself on the fence and ate it for dinner, we took a hike, shot guns, ate smores, fed the cows, and planted bluebonnet seeds.  Yup, we're back in Texas, ya'll.

 

 Brian gave Owen and me a lesson in guns and we had a little target practice.

Kira, Adler, Kai and Owen being silly!

I love this picture of Adler, wearing her pajamas and rain boots, enjoying the outdoors!

 

 
 

This particular cow, "Calfy" was raised by my mom and Fred in their back yard after it was abandoned by its mom.  She's still pretty tame and would eat right out of our hands.

Campfire and smores on the rim rock!

 The main reason we chose to go to the ranch on this particular weekend was to help my grandmother celebrate her 98th birthday.  That's right.....NINETY EIGHT!!!!  This woman has always been one of my favorite people and I'm so lucky to still have her in my life.  We saw her 2 days in a row and she even came out to the ranch with us one day.

Our Lilttle Dancer

Adler has been taking a dance class once week since September.  It's her absolute favorite day of the week and she enjoys every second of it!

She often dances around the house, imitating moves she learned in class.  I know absolutely nothing about dance, except that it makes Adler extremely happy. 

Stinky toes!

Cute little dancers

Let's Play Some FLAG FOOTBALL!

 Owen just finished his first season of flag football!  In Texas they start playing really early!

We had a great experience with an awesome coach who was such a positive role model and gave equal playing time to all the boys on the team.  For over 2 months we've been practicing and playing games and Owen had a blast!  We also enjoyed the other families involved......couldn't have asked for a better introduction into the sport.

 This series of pictures is from Owen's first touchdown!

 The game of football is much more complicated (than soccer) at this age, because of all the different plays the boys had to learn.  Sometimes Owen seemed a bit confused on offense, but he always knew exactly what to do on defense, and really enjoyed pulling those flags!

 The Lions ended their season with 4 wins, 3 losses, and 1 tie.  They also played in the winning bracket of the tournament and won the first game by beating the Cowboys, whom they had previously lost to.  What an exciting game that was!  Then they lost the second game of the tourney to the undefeated Saints, who I swear looked to be teenagers.

The younger sister cheering section!

GO LIONS!!

 

Here's a video of Owen's first touchdown. I'm not sure why there's a logo in the middle of the video, but you'll get the idea!

Aggie Football

We recently took Owen to his very first Aggie Football game (and it was our first game in years)!  We arrived on campus early to see the Corp of Cadets and the Aggie Band march through campus to Kyle Field.  This was quite a sight for Owen!

 This was an evening game against UTEP, that didn't even start until 8:00 pm.  Owen was a trooper and stayed up until midnight that night!  The cotton candy may have helped.  :o)

 We loved seeing Johnny Manziel play in person!

 The final score was 57-7!  It was a great game and fun to be back in Kyle Field before the renovation construction started.  I'm thrilled to see phase 1 of the renovation next season!

Halloween

We had a ton of Halloween fun this year!  The weekend before Halloween, we attended Goblins in the Gardens, an event at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.  The kids trick-or-treated around the gardens, made Halloween crafts, and went on a scavenger hunt. 

My little Ladybug and Ghostbuster!

Getting cozy with a Great Horned Owl.  Check out the claws on that bird!

Adler and Ella

Both Owen and Adler had events at their schools for Halloween.

At Owen's school, the students were supposed to dress as a character from a book.  We couldn't find a Ghostbusters book, so Owen dressed as Jack from Magic Treehouse book series.  All the first grade teachers dressed as Dr. Suess characters!

Adler's school had a costume parade and Halloween party!

After spending Halloween day helping with the kid's Halloween activities, I was pooped.  It was a crazy, busy, fun day, but the kids were most excited about trick-or-treating!!!

There's not a lot of kids in our neighborhood, so most houses were VERY generous in their candy giving.  These kids have enough candy to last a year!

Check out all that CANDY!!!

Barton Hills Farm

I knew we were going to miss Corley Ranch this year, so I'm happy we found Barton Hills Farms to go to instead.  They didn't have the awesome pig races, but other than that they were very similar.

 Barton Hills Farms is outside of Bastrop on a gorgeous piece of land next to the river.  The giant cottonwood trees reminded us of Nevada.

 The kids were able to ride the barrel train

 We always have a blast running through the corn maze!

 The kids could have bounced on this jumpy pillow all day long!

 PUMPKINS!!!

This is the best family picture we were able to get!