The Ranch

Saturday we took our first family vacation and went down to Blanco to visit our good friends, The Sierras. Sam and Lila spent the first morning getting reaquainted. Right after we got there friday night, Sam started giving Lila lots of sweet kisses. I think his daddy had a talk with him that night, though, because the next morning he played it much cooler!

After a delicious breakfast it was time to begin our fun-filled day.

The little boys played some baseball and soccer...

and then talked the big boys into taking them for a ride around the ranch.

They ended up down at this pond...

where Jackson did a lot more pretend fishing than real! Us girls met them for a picnic lunch on the dock and then the dads went out in the boat to try and catch some fish.

Right as we were driving back to the house Jared caught his first fish! That's his story, anyway. They said they were hollering at us and waving their arms but we didn't see them. I so wish Jackson could have seen Jared holding a big ol' fish.

Back at the ranch we enjoyed lots of other fun things...like this big swing.

Of course, the weekend would not be complete without some good old fashioned cleaning, so Jackson promptly found a mop and went to work.

After he was done with his daily chores, we went on an animal finding escapade. Stephanie printed out two pages of animals for Jackson to look for as we drove around the ranch. He got to mark them off with his blue crayon whenever he found one. This miniature horse was a favorite. He got out to pet it and then held his crayon high in the air and told the horse, "you can't get it!"

Yes, our son taunted a small horse!

Halfway through our scouting expedition we found the ducks. Sam showed Jackson exactly how to feed them. Those ducks sure do love some corn.

The boys hiked down to the river and checked out the fish and then it was time to head on back.

Before dinner Jackson got to go on a little ride in Sam's blue car. Who knew the country had rides, too?

After the ride it was time to feed the deer. The kids put out the feed and then waited on the screen porch to see them come eat it.

There were so many of them!

The next morning we went out to find the two Longhorns that eluded us the day before. Lila enjoyed her ride in the truck, sans carseat.

And alas, we found them! I must admit, I was a little scared to take this picture!

Jackson and Jared weren't though, and walked right up to Bert the Longhorn.

We took a few family pictures. Jackson would smile for a few and then decided it was silly face time:) Thanks again, Sierras for a fabulous time. We had a great weekend!

7 whole months!

Happy 7 months to the sweetest blue eyed girl I know!

We love you, Lila Grace! Stop growing up so fast, though. I'm having a hard time keeping up with your baby book!

Dada

Lila loves her Daddy! So much, in fact, that her first word was Dada.

Yes, even though her Mama cares for her night and day, she decided to show her daddo some major love.
Maybe it was all that sweet sugar her gave her while they were hanging out this weekend.

Gotta love a little one in her jeans!

"Oh dad, stop it!"

Halloween bonanza!

It's a good thing Halloween only comes once a year! It wore me out this year. Seriously, Jackson had his school party on Friday, which meant he dressed up and went trick-or-treating there. Then we went to two Fall Festivals, a family Halloween party and then trick-or-treated on Halloween night. Whew! It was a lot to take in for one weekend, that's for sure. Good thing I have such a great fam to spend it with, though.

Friday night was a little chilly, so I made the fireman wear his gloves to the first Fall Fest.

He played a few games like this bean bag toss

and find the key

and then just had to go take on the bounce houses!

Miss Lila went too and slept through most of it, but when she woke up we got this family pic. I think she was a little bit overwhelmed. For most of the night she had both arms out to her sides and just this scared look on her face.

Jackson discovered the greatness of the cake walk. As a child, this was one of my favorite things to do at our family reunions. I always came home with at least two cakes!

So imagine my pride when our child won on only his second try!

The next day Jackson and I went to his school Fall Fest. We just happened to park right next to Mia's family (blonde girlfriend mentioned in a previous post). She walked right up to J, grabbed his hand and off they went!

He didn't even care that her daddy was right there!

We did a few indoor activities first, like letting the kids get fake tattoos. Maddie got something on her cheek and J got a dragonfly on his arm. Pretty interesting choice, but there really weren't too many cool things to choose from.

The outdoor part was lots of fun--the kids headed straight for the petting zoo. I thought Madison was going to hop on in with these little ponies.

Then they played a few more games, like this toilet paper toss.

Boom thought he should get to play, too, so he threw a few balls at the target for the dunk tank. He actually hit the target twice, but she didn't fall in!

A friend of mine snapped this picture--I love it because it looks like I've got everything under control, right? The truth is about two seconds after this they both broke free and were running like the wind to get to their next event! I was running after them hollering, such a scene, and they could not have cared less!

We ended the afternoon with another turn in the bounce house. They loved it so much that they refused to get out. The guy had to go in and get them for me. "Yes, those two unruly ones are mine. Could you please bring them out for me?" Guess that means they were having fun.

Halloween night it was finally time for the main event. These two did so good this year. They said "trick or treat" at every house and even told most of the neighbors
"thank you," as well. By the time we got back to our house they were pooped and so were we. They got some really good candy, though. Jackson's expression says it all, I think. Halloween rules!

Great day for the Arboretum!

I love the fall. I know I've said it before, but it really is my favorite season. The weather was beautiful here yesterday, so we headed on over to the Dallas Arboretum.

Jackson spotted these huge pumpkins right when we walked in and got a big kick out of them. He had to sit on lots of them and kept commenting on how gigantic they were. I can't get over how long his long legs are!

This was the best sibling shot I got--he's reaching his hand over her shoulder, so sweet. If only he were also looking at the camera. Oh well!

Lila was very intrigued with the hay. She tried to eat it the whole time. It was really hard just to get her to look up because she was so enthralled with the hay.

Oh my! I was very nearby for this one.

We did put her on top of the pumpkins once. She didn't really love it as much as we did, though.

Gigi went with us--here they are in front of one of the cool pumpkin houses.

Jackson loved showing me how big this one was!

They even had a baby pumpkin house and J thought it was cute, too, so we took Lila over to see it.

This year Jackson was fascinated with all of the gourds. He kept finding bigger and bigger gourds. I think he just liked saying that new word.

After all that gourd hunting a boy's bound to get hungry. There was a great outside eating area serving hot dogs, chips, sauerkraut and root beer floats, so we took a seat there. The best part was the german music they had playing. Jackson jammed in his seat the whole time and even came up with original songs that he performed for us!

After filling our bellies, it was time to get some pics of Lila in her halloween costume. Her big brother picked out her costume.

Isn't she such a sweet angel baby?

I love it!

Thanks again, Gigi, for going with us. J man, angel baby and their mama all had a great time.

Sugar babies

In the spirit of Texas Rangers day, we decided to bake some sugar cookies and let the big kids decorate them. I thought they would have fun rolling the dough and then baking the cookies.

I did a demo cookie roll for the kids and placed it on the baking sheet. They each were given four slices of dough to roll themselves. Now take a close look. Jackson has nicely rolled his and is even giving his mama a sweet smile. Madison is not so interested in forming a cookie ball.

No cookie balls for this girl! Notice how she was tearing the dough in two? It was preparation for it to go directly in her mouth. Forget the oven--let's just eat the dough! Gotta say, I'm with her. I'd rather eat cookie dough any day.

So proud of his sprinkle cookie.

It looks like the sprinkle cookie was a hit with the littlest cookie monster, too!

We've got spirit!

Yes we do! Today is Texas Rangers Day at Jackson & Maddie's school.

Madison came over this morning and told me she was a Rangers cheerleader.

Josh Hamilton and his number one fan.

Looks like they are ready for the big game tonight.

Let's Go Rangers!!