Thanksgiving trip to the ranch

For Thanksgiving every year, we go down to our family's ranch in Llano to deer hunt and hang out with Nana and PawPaw. This year was a blast because Emily was old enough to go to the deer stand with us, go fishing with us, shoot her bow and arrow and just really appreciate how wonderful it is down there. Alli was a bit of a challenge, and we are so grateful that Nana and PawPaw were willing to keep an eye on Alli and Emmy while we got to hunt! So here goes...a recap of our Thanksgiving weekend in pictures...

The ranch house (aka: one of our favorite places in the world)

Alli terrified of the cat...which she later warmed up to

The girls in our pink and camo

My hunting buddy (who was bored out of her mind at the time of this picture)

Ahhhh...much better!

Sweet Alli

Nana and Emmy reading a book

PawPaw and Alli going for a walk (yes, I am aware that she looks like a little boy...she won't wear bows and I don't even try anymore)

Trying some dirt...her pediatrician asked us if she was part billy-goat...now you see why!

On the way to ride around the ranch with her daddy

Daddy and Emmy shooting her pink bow. He scored big on this one, she LOVED it!

Fishing

Attempting to let Emily shoot a .22 for the first time, all to find out she is just not big enough yet. Maybe next year!

Jarrod being "tortilla face man" to entertain Alli

Emily's stylish pink camo boots

Llano Christmas lights on the river. This is a walk-through park, and feels quite lengthy when it's cold outside...so we walked about 10 yards into the tunnel and decided that was a bad idea...so we went back to the ranch. The girls did enjoy the lights and their location is BEAUTIFUL right on the Llano River.

I killed two does the last night we were there, so Jarrod and I had our work cut out for us. I wasn't sure how Emily would react to the dead deer, but she LOVED everything about it. She actually stayed outside the whole time Jarrod and I cleaned the deer and just asked lots of quesitons and stuff. I was very surprised!

So then, as we were putting stuff up after finishing the deer, this guy was in the a room in the outside garage down there. These are some mean lookin' little dudes!

But have no fear, my husband has a crow-bar and he's not afraid to use it! Really, this was the closest thing around us that would work to kill the little dude :)

Much better!

Time for a Feast!

Today was Emily's Thanksgiving Feast at Green Acres EEC. It started with some tears and ended with some tears because she gets kind of weird when I come to her school parties. She wanted me to sit beside her, but since there's not room at the lunch table, and they are miniature tables, that was not an option...so the tears started flowing! She got over it pretty quick...Here she is stuffing herself with one of her helpings of macaroni and cheese

Gobbling up some green beans

What an awesome feast...ham, green beans, macaroni, a roll, applesauce and milk...what more could a 5-year old want!

Pretty sure this is her second serving of macaroni and cheese...she is her mother's child for sure!! I am a total carb addict!

This is Emily's awesome teacher, Mrs. Tawana. She is WONDERFUL, like all the teachers have been at Green Acres EEC!

Mommy and Emily...man, I love this girl!

Emily and her sweet friend, Lorelai


Every year at her school, they are either Pilgrims or Indians...and this year, obviously they were the Indians. I'm kind of sad that this will be her last feast at Green Acres!

The tears started again when it was time for me to go back to work, but we had a little chat about it and I explained that it already makes Mommy sad to leave, and when she throws a fit, it makes me sadder. She realized that she didn't want to do that and promised that she would be better at her Christmas party in December. Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving! We are headed to the ranch for our annual trip and we are so excited!

Deer Hunting Trip

We had a blast this past weekend with our friends Trent and Shane. We ate good food (well, they ate a LOT more than I did)...see below evidence of what was left of our breakfast casserole one morning ;)

I got to play around with my new camera and take some neat pics of stuff at the ranch...

And we just had a good time. We didn't kill any deer though, so that was a bummer...but we get to go back in just a week and a half for Thanksgiving with Nana and PawPaw.

Here's a pic of the boys....

Giddy

Tonight I am SO excited, because Jarrod and I are heading to what's probably our favorite place tomorrow after work...to our family's ranch in Llano to deer hunt!  I know, most people are a little surprised to learn that I actually hunt.  And I actually got Jarrod interested in hunting when we started dating in high school.  Now, he is completely obsessed! 

We will miss our girlies so much, but they are going to have a blast with their grandparents over the weekend.  We are very excited to get away for a little time off.  I have to admit though, when I am down there, I sure do miss the internet, but I can still Facebook on my iPhone in most of the blinds!  I just know I am going to be completely worthless at work tomorrow because I will be itching to get out of town.  I wasn't quite as giddy last season because Alli was still so little and I had just killed a big 10-point the past year, so I kind of felt like he would he hard to top.  This year, I am pumped!  We definitely have to kill some deer this weekend because of a management program we are doing (mostly does), so if anyone wants some deer meat, let me know!

I am also really excited to use my new camera down there and try to take some cool pics.  I am just pumped...can you tell!

Funny conversation

Conversation between Jarrod and Emily today:

Emily: Daddy your truck has bird poop on it.
Daddy: Oh really?
Emily: Yeah, when I get a car I am not going to have bird poop on mine.
Daddy: How are you going to keep birds from pooping on it?
Emily: I will just put a sign on it that says "No bird pooping allowed!"
Daddy: (trying to control laughter) Oh ok.

Peace and Quiet

Jarrod and I are sitting here right now in total peace and quiet, which is a rarity in our house. A typical evening for us includes multiple meltdowns from Emily (usually because she didn't get something exactly the way she wanted it and when she wanted it), a few little fits from Alli (because her sissy is dragging her, holding her down, tickling her, stealing a toy or something else to harass her) and both girls usually pester their daddy continuously. Don't know why they choose to pester him so much, but many times they are both crawling ALL over him.

Right now, Emily is in her room as happy as a little lark watching Arthur and I am sitting here holding a pitiful Alli. She has been passed out for about 2 hours now and it's so sad...but apparently she needs the sleep! Daycare called today because Alli had fever, so I picked her up and just to be completely safe (since we leave to go hunting Thursday) I took her to the doctor. I was worried that the fever might be caused by something I couldn't see, like her ear tubes being blocked or something. He said both tubes look great and her throat is great too, so it's probably just a little cold or teething. So, Alli and I will be hanging out at the house tomorrow (and I will be working as much as I possibly can so I don't get too behind before being gone on Friday). Hopefully I will just be hanging out with a fun little girl who is fever-free, but we will see.

On another note, Emily is getting SO big and so smart! She is learning so many sight words and knows how to write most all of her letters. She loves spelling words and asking "what does that spell mommy?". She just came in the living room and proudly proclaimed to her Daddy "I can do math!". He then tested her with a couple of basic addition problems and she got them correct. I can't believe what a smart big girl she is becoming! She definitely keeps us on our toes! Pretty soon we are going to have to stop spelling "secret" words out when we are around her! Ha!

Hope everyone has a great week! I know I am going to have an awesome weekend because we are going to the ranch to hunt for the first time this season. Woo Hoo!

October's CliffsNotes

I know...I know...It's been a REALLY long time since I blogged. I really need to do better. Here's a photo journal of our last month (since it's been nearly a month since my last entry). Lots of stuff has happened since then...

Maddie went home from the hospital. Hooray!

Emily got to hold Madelyn for the first time

Emily's class went on a field trip to the East Texas State Fair

We went to a Whitehouse High School football game and Emily got to meet Willie the Wildcat

We had a birthday dinner at Grandma & Grandpa's house for me, Jarrod and Kathryn

Went to the Trick or Treat Trail at Whitehouse HS

Went to Moore Farms pumpkin patch with Nana

Emily had her Halloween party at school

And we ended the month trick or treating around the neighborhood

Wow, we had a pretty busy month! It's not until I look back at all the pictures that I realized just how busy we were. Now Jarrod and I are SUPER excited because it's deer season and our favorite time of the year. Hopefully one of these upcoming posts will include pics of our trophy bucks that we get this year! We shall see.