A Little Piece of History

This was one of my Christmas presents from my Mom. I haven't posted about it because every time that I start to write about it, I cry....That is SO not me.

We had Christmas with my Mom and her husband RT (he is so funny), my brother and his wife, and my niece at my house Christmas evening. My Mom and RT came a little early and when she got here, she called my daughter, Katie, and I in the kitchen together. There she handed me this simple 18kt gold band......She's worn this band on her middle finger for a long time, and I never even realized how special it was. She told me that it was getting too little for her now, and that I will be the 5th generation to wear it, and that my daughter will be the 6th when it's time to pass it down to her. I've been wearing it non-stop every since Christmas night. Every time that I'm in the middle of anything....and I mean ANYTHING from cutting hay string while I'm feeding cows to making homemade biscuits, from doing my daughter's hair to cleaning up the kitchen....I look at this awesome piece of family history on my middle finger and feel SO proud to be a part of it.

Thanks, Mom! It truly meant the world to me....I have to go cry some more now. Love you!

Big Caitie and Little Katie

Big Caitie was our neighbor for years when we lived in Giddings. She's practically another daughter of mine. She's 15 now....hard to believe. She's staying with us for a few weeks during the holidays and tonight she decided to straighten Little Katie's hair. Little Katie's natural hair do is a fro... :) She for some reason has blue eyes (mine are green) and curly blond hair (mine is straight as a board and dark brunette). If I didn't KNOW she was mine, I might seriously be worried! ;) Anyway, these are the before and after pics....She LOVES her hair straight, but we can't keep it from frizzing at the roots, no matter what we try.....I LOVE her hair curly, but she hates me for it. :)

We also took the boat out today on the Canyon Lake and fished for a few hours. It was tons of fun, but I was worried to take the camera.....3 kids and my crazy husband in a boat.....I was worried about me and my camera ending up overboard.

Tomorrow we're going to the canyons. Hopefully I'll have some good pics to show.

Happy New Year!!!!

Happy New Year to everyone!!! I hope that everyone had a night as CRAZY as mine last night! (I had absolutely NO plans.) Sadly, my daughter (whose 11) is the only one in our family that had any plans last night! She spent the night with a friend and this morning will be heading to Dallas to watch the New Year's parade there. Her BFF is a Jr. Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader, so they should have a BALL! She's so excited. I left the house to pick up a dear friend of ours from Giddings as a New Year's surprise for the kiddos. They are so excited that "Big Caitie" is here....You'll see pics of her later along with stories of our adventures over the next few days.

The above pics are from Christmas Eve at my Dad's and Christmas at our house. The top one is my slave labor picture. I made all of my children help with all of the goodies that we took to school for their parties. We had a blast. In this pic they are dipping pretzels in chocolate and putting sprinkles on. My kitchen was a WRECK after they got done "helping", but it was worth it.

The next few pics are Christmas at my Dad's. Kyle & Korey got matching spurs, and Katie got a "My Horse and Me" Wii game.....Can you tell that they're country kids?! :) I could not find one pic with my baby boy smiling, etc.....In every pic he's got a goofball look on his face. Guess he was excited!

The last pic is our new band. :) They got Guitar Hero World Tour for the Wii for Christmas. I think that my husband plays it more than the kiddos. ;)

The holidays have been a blast, but I am SO ready to get back to our normal schedule. Between calving season, the holidays, and the kids being out of school I'm running on empty. I just have to keep reminding myself that they are only little once. Cherish every moment, right?!

Happy New Year!!!!!

Signs and ornaments

This sign is for Katie's room.....

This one is for my youngest, Korey's room....

I painted the sides of Korey's to resemble a bandana.

These are the ornaments that I made for the kiddo's teachers.

You can't really see the detail on the poinsettia one, but it turned out really cute. These were my first "crafty" project attempts....I had fun, but I have TONS to learn. Oh, well....I'll probably never take time to do anything like this again anyway ;) Hopefully everyone keeps in mind that "it's the thought that counts" :)

Do we have school tomorrow?!

Why is it that "Do we have school tomorrow?" is always the very first thing to come out of a Texas born child's mouth when there's one snowflake on the ground?! :) Yesterday it started "snowing" around the time that school got out....and continued lightly falling until around 10 last night. The kiddos had a really good time playing outside while I cooked supper....My dog, on the other hand, was totally ticked at me for calling her out of her doghouse to get a pic of her in the snow....That's her "disgusted with my master" look....She's quite good at it, don't ya think?

I hate cold weather....

I really do hate the cold....I always have. I mean, it's great when you can sit outside around a campfire roasting marshmallows....or when you can relax in front of a roaring fire in the fireplace reading a book....but HONESTLY, who has time for that?! I got out this morning in the freezing cold to hook up the hay fork on the tractor because there's a gentleman coming today to pick up a few loads of hay. Then I checked all of the cows and fed. After being outside in this 25 degree weather, I came home to cook breakfast and dream about selling out and moving to the tropics.

I guess one good thing to come out of this is that I am actually taking the time to work on all of the Christmas projects that I wanted to get done. I've made a few ornaments already. I've finished putting all of the pictures in my brother's photo album, and now I just have to decorate the front of it. I've got a sign for Korey started....It's my first one, so I'm a little worried about how that's going to turn out. I'll post pics of the final projects...even if they suck ;) Maybe folks can learn from my mistakes! :)

Getting Crafty :)

Well, today I've been inside pretty much all day....which is CRAZY for me. I went out this morning and checked on all of the springers. Everyone was fine...no new babies today. The wind was HORRIBLE...and for someone wearing contacts, windy conditions make it horrible to be outside. If your eyes aren't drying out, then you're getting sand under your lenses which means PAIN...So, I decided to come in and work on some Christmas ideas that I've been thinking about. I'm really excited about the photo album that I'm making for my brother and his family. Our parents divorced and somehow I ended up with all of the "family" photos, so I've spent all day today scanning and printing pictures from our childhood and creating an album for him. I can't wait to see the look on my 3 year old niece's face when she sees pics of Daddy when he was little! :) I'm going to the closest "big city" to us tomorrow to make a craft run. I'm making handmade ornaments for the kiddo's teachers along with baked goods for their Christmas presents. I also have a few ideas for signs that I need to get supplies for. While I enjoy making things, I REALLY hate being stuck inside....It's just not really my thing....but I guess on the bright side, it's cold outside and I hate cold weather, so it makes being warm and inside a little more inviting ;)