Wading in the Creeks

As a young girl I loved to wade in the creeks on the ranch in Llano. With all the rain God has blessed us with this year, the creeks are full and so beautiful! Kalyn, Sheldon, and I went to Llano during Spring Break a couple weeks ago and one afternoon we all went for a ride in the gator and did lots of "wading." My sister and her kids were there as well. The cousins all had their rain boots on and had so much fun splish splashing in the creeks. We were really surprised that none of the kids actually fell into the water! I am so glad our kids will grow up having the same memory as Carie and I do of wading in the creeks on the ranch in Llano.

The boys

Sheldon and Kalyn

Oni and Granden with the grandkids

Cute Cambry

Granden and his boys

On top of the cliff with Granden

Kalyn closing one of the MANY gates on the ranch

How about some poop?!

I'm sure you are wondering what possessed me to put the word ""poop" in the title for this post. Well, now that we are working on our garden we are in the process of making a compost pile. It will be composed of different rich materials in order to fertilize our crops this year. One of those things includes...you guessed it...cow manure!:o) On Sunday Ricky hooked the trailer to the 4-wheeler. He put 3 large bins on the trailer to hold the manure that we toss in there. We rode around the place and walked in the pastures picking up DRY manure. The kids had a blast! They had been playing earlier in the treehouse and continued pretending to be batgirl and Obi Wan Kenobi as we collected the manure. Soon they challenged each other to see who could find the BIGGEST patty of manure. Needless to say, we all had fun even though it was a stinky job! :o) Have I mentioned lately how much I LOVE country life?!?!? God is so good, all the time!! (Don't worry, for those who are wondering...we did wash our hands thoroughly after we were done!)

Just gettin' started....

Tryin' to get it loosened up...the older the manure, the more it sticks to the ground

Phew!! (not really!)

Hard at workLook at this one! (it had swirls in it-ha!)Daddy Ricky hauling the trailer with the manure and kiddosHUGE patty, Kalyn!

Silly, HAPPY kids!!

Look, I got several at once!

Still workin'....

Kindergarten Rodeo

Last Friday was the Kindergarten Rodeo. It was so much fun!! My mom was in town and was able to go with me to watch the whole thing. Sheldon had fun dressing up as a cowboy and did very well in his events. They had bull riding, roping, barrel racing, hay ride, and several others. Sheldon said his favorite was throwing horseshoes and he did really good too! After all the events were over, the cute little cowboys and cowgirls enjoyed a hotdog and chili lunch. Yeehaw!!

Hoops for Heart

Many of us grew up with "Jumprope for Heart." I remember jumping as much as I could to reach my goal and getting a prize. As a teacher I watched my students participate in the same event each year as well. I think it is a wonderful way to raise money to help with heart disease. This year our school did something different and I LOVED it! Kalyn and Sheldon had so much fun with it and I have to admit it was much more entertaining for the parents too! Instead of jumping rope the kids did different activites revolving the wonderful sport of BASKETBALL! Many of you know I played basketball in middle school and high school...it was so much fun to watch my kids enjoy it and they did awesome! I really hope they will want to play on a team in the future. Anyway, each grade level took turns with different activites...passing, dribbling, and shooting baskets. Prizes were given to students who got the most points as well as the most money raised for this event. The morning concluded with a scrimmage between several teachers and selected students from various grades. It was fun to watch and I hope they do this again next year!!

Kalyn with her 2nd grade class

Sheldon with the Kindergarten classes

Kalyn and Mrs. Rose waiting for the ball

This is the face I got when I arrived...melts my heart!

Sheldon listening to directions from Coach Mitchell

And off he goes....dribble, Sheldon!!

Now Kalyn dribbles...

Getting ready to dribble again

And Sheldon takes a shot! GREAT form!

Kalyn too! Hope she plays basketball soon!

Mini Slumber Party!!!

Since we went to American Girl for Kalyn's birthday we didn't throw a big birthday party like she has had in the past. However, we let her have a couple girls spend the night after we got home from Dallas. Grace and Chesnee showed up pretty soon after we did and the craziness began! The girls played outside while I did some quick decorating and baked the pizzas. Once we finished eating supper we sang "Happy Birthday" to Kalyn and got into the cookie cake...YUM!! The girls spent the rest of the evening playing with their American Girl dolls, giving each other manicures and pedicures, watching movies, singing and dancing, and laughing. Ricky said girls are really different from boys...they are loud! :o) Sheldon lucked out as he was spending the night with his best friend, Mason. Ricky was such a good sport with the girls as he teased and talked with them. Ricky and I went into our room to watch our fave show. "Everybody Loves Raymond" and when I checked on the girls around 11:30 they were all snuggled up fast asleep. The next morning came early since we had church and needed to leave the house by 9:30 to drop Grace off at home. Chesnee wanted to go with us to church which was wonderful...we loved having her with us! Kalyn was sad to have to drop Chesnee off at home after church, but it was time for her week-long birthday to end. :o) Kalyn is already talking about another slumber party next year...with more girls! We will see...Ricky has already said he will go camping! :o)

Playing "salon" with the dolls

Grace, Kalyn, and Chesnee

Make a wish!!

Happy girls!!!

Let's dance!!!

Kalyn, Grace, and Chesnee

See what I mean...such a GOOD sport! Love him!!

American Girl!

Kalyn wanted to go to American Girl for her birthday this year instead of having a big party. We invited my mom and sister to go with us and we had a GREAT time! I got Kalyn out of school early on Friday and we met my mom at Schlotzsky's for lunch in Georgetown before meeting my sister. We got to Dallas around 5pm and got checked into the Westin Galleria. It was so nice and the best part about it was the "American Girl" package that we got with our reservation. It included a welcome card for Kalyn, a doll bed for Kalyn's doll along with milk and milk cupcakes! Kalyn loved it!! After we got settled in Kalyn wanted to go to the American Girl store to get her new doll, Lanie. Mom, Carie, and I were amazed with the store and I have to admit it was nice to feel like a little girl all over again. We browsed around the store for a little bit then went back to the Galleria to get some supper. Kalyn enjoyed watching people ice skating from our table in the restaurant. We did a little shopping at the mall before we went back to our room for the night. Kalyn played with Lanie for quite a while before we got under the covers to watch "The Princess Diaries" before falling asleep.

The next morning we had reservations for breakfast at the bistro in the American Girl store. I loved the way the bistro was decorated....it was so cute! The light fixtures and decor was so girly and I couldn't have asked for a better place to eat breakfast with three of my favorite girls in my life. Lanie even got her own chair and menu at our table! Our meal started out with mini strawberry muffins and butter...even for Lanie! It was really neat to see how all the waitresses really included the girls' dolls into the whole experience. The food was fabulous too. Kalyn and my mom had Belgian waffles with strawberries and whipped cream on top. Carie and I had heart shaped blueberry pancakes with berries on the side as well. So YUMMY!!! After we finished our breakfast we went back downstairs to let Kalyn finish the rest of her shopping with the birthday money she got from several people. She had a hard time choosing what all she wanted with so many different things to look at!! She finally settled on a couple more outifts and accessories for Lanie as well as a matching set of pajamas for herself and Lanie. Lanie also got to visit the salon and had her hair put up in a pretty twisted ponytail. It was really fun to watch her sit in the doll chair and get her hair fixed by a stylist. We finally got out of the store and headed back to the hotel to pack up for our drive back home. We managed to stop in Hillsboro for a couple hours for lunch and did a little shopping too!

Kalyn thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the trip and hasn't stopped talking about everything we did. I hope it is something she will remember forever. Mom and Carie...thank you both so much for going with us and making this trip so special for Kalyn. I hope this is the start of many more "girls only" trips to come!! We love you!!

First "catch" of the year

We all went fishing last Saturday afternoon at one of our tanks. It was a beautiful day! With the drought we had for several months, we were afraid that all the fish died...but we were wrong. After about 10 minutes Sheldon had something tugging on his line. He reeled and reeled it in and it was a big ole catfish! He was so excited and we had to eat it the other night. :o)

Getting ready to cast our lines

I fished a little too

Waitin' for the fish to bite

And something finally does!

Sheldon reelin' it in

Look at that catfish!

Daddy Ricky and Sheldon