Happy Thanksgiving!!

A little late I know. But I hope you all had a wonderful day, filled with blessings and thankfulness.

We headed up north to spend it with my side of the family. Liz and Gary hooked us up with deluxe accommodations. Steve and Miki hosted Thanksgiving at their house and it was wonderful. Great food... (yum yum tofurkey for me and Miki) Such fun to get to spend time with family.

I talked Steve, Miki, Keanna and Liz into doing the whole midnight black Fri shopping thing with me. I think we had a blast, laughing, joking running and shopping. We didn't fall into bed until after 4am. (ok I may have been tired and grumpy at the end but that's WAY past my bedtime) Good times!!

So our newest member Snickers is doing great. Other then Dewey and I spending most of our time saying "Kolby put the cat down". He carries her everywhere, whatever he does she does.

I swear they were both looking at the new toy catalog that came in the mail.



We spent the weekend recuperating after our Thanksgiving getaway. But there are always things to do around the house and yard. I knew the boys were "supposed" to be helping Dew rake leaves and spread in the garden. When I looked outside I saw them taking turns jumping off the hay piles

throwing leaves in the air

And having their version of snowball fights using leaves.

Not sure how much actual work got done but it looked like fun to me.

We also took our pics for Christmas cards. Generally I make it a big stressed out occasion for me. This year I thought, it has to be an easier way. So we slapped on the Santa hats and walked out into our very own yard.

Here's a sneak peak at one we took

I'm fairly sure that the boys believe the whole purpose of our hay is for them to jump off.

And lucky for them dad makes the perfect catcher.

On Saturday we met Grandma and Grandpa at the theater and saw Authors Christmas, a very cute Christmas movie. Sunday we put our Christmas tree up. The boys favorite part is seeing all their decorations from years past. The ones they have made and the ones with their pictures. They love seeing how much their hands have grown from their hand print ornaments.

Let the holidays begin!!

23 is the answer.

The question is ....How many animals do we have?

With the addition of our brand new kitten, 23 animals.

I'm sure you all are wondering (and ready to call some sort of animal control) so I'll break it down for you.

13 chickens

2 Horses

2 Dogs

2 Guinea Pigs

4 Cats

In our defence one of the cats is a barn cat that showed up about a month ago and lives ONLY in the barn. Kolby named him "Tractor" a few weeks ago. (the cat mostly lives under the tractor, we are nothing if not clever)

Our brand new rescued Kitten is named Snickers and just cute as can be.

The boys are just a tad excited to have a new kitten.

We were not planning on a new cat nor did we go in search of one. But when someone leaves a poor little kitten half starved and freezing outside my sister in laws doorstep what are you gonna do. With a little help from Grandma putting everyone together the boys have a new kitten.

And you know my motto "Whats one more?"

As of last night Snickers started acting like a real kitten playing and jumping. So with a few days some love and food shes going to be just fine.


On an unrelated topic I had to show a picture of our typical morning.......

This is Luke and Kolby AFTER waking up and making their way into the Family room

In case any of you were under the impression we are a "bright eyed, bushy tailed, rise and shine" type family.....we are not. Some of us (me,me,me,me) can fake it better then others. (every male member of the family) But as a whole we are a "much rather be snug in bed" then up and facing the day family.

Just a little nugget into our lives :) Plus the above pics just make me smile.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!

Fall Fun

A few weeks ago when we still had leaves on the trees and they were such beautiful colors the boys I decided to take some fall pics. OK it was mostly me that decided but they were nice enough to play along. Alright alright so I may have bribed them with their brand new light sabers that arrived that very day if they would only smile. But we got pictures!

We even took some of our home grown pumpkins. How big does Luke look in this picture (sob sob)
I love taking pictures, however it makes me SO frustrated when I don't take good ones. I'm sure this has a lot to do with my lack of knowledge, camera and no photo editing skills. These are all things I plan to change, they are on my "To do" list for the new year. Move over "work out/ get in shape" that has been there for the past 100 or so years. And unlike the latter one I plan to do the Photo one :)
Kolby with his happy face

We still had fun though...

Look at these real smiles, not the camera smiles they are so good at flashing me.

We went to one of my favorite places to take pics an old farm/barn.

I love this one.

And this one...

True story, the last time we went there the elderly farmer that owns the property pulled up to ask what we were doing. I politely asked him if it was alright for me to take a few pictures. (from the looks of the place it has been abandoned for years) He looked at me like I was crazy. "you want to take pictures here"? Me, yes please. "I don't know why you would but go ahead". He walked off shaking his head. Funny how people see beauty in different things. :)
We are past the fall stage and currently in the holding pattern for snow and full on winter.... So I thought I better get these posted. Hope everyone is well and gearing up for the holidays. Enjoy some hot apple cider on us.

Katy Football

My brother Jordan is a football player. And not just any football player he is a starting outside linebacker for his high school team. His high school team just happens to be ranked 5th in the country right now, A pretty big deal. Hes a senior this year so my brother Steve and I decided we would fly out for his last game. (not really his last game since they are now going on to state playoffs but anyway) Dewey and I decided Luke and Kolby would not sit still long enough to watch the game and since that was the whole point of going they would stay home this trip. So it was a boys weekend at our house, filled with McDonald's, and movies with Grandma and Grandpa. Big thanks to my darling hubby for handling everything so I could go. We flew out last Fri night to make it in time for the early Sat game.

Steve and Patrick (who went to state playoffs himself 2 years ago). Were able to get passes to stand on the sidelines for the whole game.

Being that I'm from Utah I had heard about Texas high school football (I don't live under a rock) but really had no idea how big it is. So fun to be able to be part of it all for a game. Tailgaters and people standing in line for hours for a high school game...who knew.

Jordan is number 40. I tried to take pictures of him playing but with my bad eyes/not the best digital camera/ no zoom lens they did not turn out all that great. But you get the idea :)

I missed getting shots of Jordan's tackles and sacks, but he looked great. Such a fun game to watch with all the crowd enthusiasm.

Katy won 38-7!!

They took regional and broke the school record for least allowed scored points by the other teams for the season. (prob not the technical term but that's how I understood it) Way to go Jordan!!

Jordan, Steve and my mom after the game

Patrick, Jordan and Steve

When they go to state (which I'm sure they will) they get to play in the Dallas Cowboys stadium, how cool is that?
After the game they drove us to Kemah, which is on the gulf. Whoopee for me I got to see some ocean water only only very favorite thing. We brought a wheel chair for grandma since she had already gone to the football game. It was a bit to much walking for her.

Me, Patrick, Steve, Jordan with Grandma.

This pic makes me laugh, the wind was blowing just a tad....

We had a wonderful time! Kemah was doing a military appreciation weekend, They had a skydiver and Darryl Worley live in concert. We have a lovely dinner, shopped a little and explored the area. The weather was warm and perfect. The night was topped off by an amazing fireworks show. A good time had by all.

I was not all all happy to return home on Sunday to a snow storm and the freezing temps we have had ever since.

A fun quick weekend that I'm so glad we were able to do. Big thanks to all that helped make it happen. And huge congrats to Jordan on his winning season!!

Happy Halloween..a little late

It seems like this time of year we have something going on every day. So I'm a little behind in posting Our Halloween pics. We started last week by carving pumpkins that we grew our very own selves in our garden. We started this with Luke and we continue every year. The kids get up on the counter and dig in.

Its the Great pumpkin Charlie Brown playing in the background.

Pulling out the seeds is always the fun part, who doesn't love slimy?? We let the boys try carving their own pumpkins, with a LOT of supervision. Happy to report no band aids needed and cute pumpkins now sitting on our porch.

So the big reveal...... the boys have spent the last two months looking at costumes and going back and forth between who they wanted to be. The process is half the fun :) After much discussion between the two of them, they choose.....

Obi-Wan Kenobi (or as Kolby calls himself kobe-kenobi)

And Anakin Skywalker

Our little Jedi Knights.

Luke's School had a Halloween carnival on Fri night. Lots of games and activities for the kids. As you walked in the building Luke's Principal was dressed all in black with a hood sitting in a chair. Kolby refused to walk past him. We carried him in and then stopped to get a picture at this frame they had set up. Dew had to stand behind it with Kolby. You can see where he is looking....he was not a fan of the principals costume.

On Saturday was our Heritage festival held every year. This flag was sent from one of our local boys serving in Afghanistan. It was carried by his cousin in the parade. I was so proud of Luke and Kolby. We were at the parade with some of their friends. When they saw the flag coming they stood up and told their friends to do the same. Luke said "that's our flag you put your hand on your heart when it goes by" It doesn't seem like that long ago when we Dewey and I were crying as we landed in Minneapolis because it meant Luke was now a U.S citizen.

A very touching moment in the parade.

My pictures did not turn at that well because we were facing into the sun, but this one was to cute to pass up.

Lots of big tractors, to hold a boys attention.

And the highlight, sheep running down main street

I'm told they bring the sheep down out of the mountains this time of year and that it goes along with the Heritage theme. Its a crowd pleaser for sure :)

The local Calvary church puts on a HUGE Halloween festival each year for the town. There are bible themed games with loads of candy given out. Cotton candy, apple cider and bounce houses, we go every year and love it. This year they had a firetruck and police car with police officer for the boys to talk to. He was so nice and let the kids sit in and check out his car as much as they wanted.

I did not even have to ask Luke to smile, he was just this happy to be sitting in the car.

Same goes for Kolby

We did go trick or treating to a few house in our neighborhood. Luke and Kolby are the only kids, thus only trick or treaters. So once again they made out like little bandits. Our wonderful neighbors spoil them silly. I'm pretty sure they do not have a very accurate idea of what trick or treating really is.

Another fun Halloween come and gone.