bluebonnet bliss: maternity photos

April 2010- Well, this year has to be the best on record for bluebonnets in Texas. And I couldn't be any more excited that the timing of them was right on track to take some maternity photos. My good friend and amazingly talented photographer, Tori Faulkner, took these for us. You can see more of her amazing and talented work at http://www.barnraised.com/.

This one is my favorite:
Isn't this sweet? He's going to be the best big brother ever!!
Big, big, bigger...I think I may pop!!
This one is Casey's favorite (Pecos channeling Casey Tibbs):
Pecos insisted that Brownie the stick horse needed to have his picture taken too!

My 2 favorite boys in the bluebonnets:

blue-(and maroon!!)-bonnets

April 2010- It is springtime in Texas and in a good year that means my favorite wildflower- BLUEBONNETS!!!

When we first moved here we discovered a few seed packets for bluebonnets in our boxes when we were unpacking. One was for Aggie Maroon bonnets. So we planted (i.e. tossed them on the ground and completely neglected them) at our gate. We've been so dry and drought stricken until this year that we kind of forgot about them. This year the winter rain and cold came in the right combination for them to sprout. So we have just a few lonely maroon bonnets at the gate and Pecos had to check them out and share them with you.

And here is the one and only Indian Paintbrush flower that bloomed for us this year along with one of the very few bluebonnets we have on the property:

Since we don't have many of our own bluebonnets we found a patch of nice thick ones in Doss for this photo:

pecos cotton tail

April 2010- Pecos had a fun time this Easter. It started with an Easter egg hunt at church the week before Easter. Here he is with his little harem of girls from church. This was the first year he was really "in" to the whole egg hunting thing. Previously either he didn't catch on or just wasn't interested. But this year he was really eager to fill his basket with eggs. I suppose I should have tried to cinch up his jeans and belt a little tighter, what with all the bending down that is required of egg hunting. So here is this year's HAPPY KEESTER photo.Next it was on to baking and decorating sugar cookies with Oma. Was he making cookies or a mess- you decide. Either way, in the words of Pecos it was "a whole bunch of fun!"

Dyeing eggs is always fun. I stripped him down because I knew there would be some ruined clothes if I didn't.

He took his job VERY SERIOUSLY.

Here's the results:

The Easter Bunny left a basket full of goodies for Pecos.

And even hid some of the eggs out in the yard for him to hunt. Egg hunt #2, this time in his cowboy hat and Indian shoes (another souvenir from the authentic roadside joint in New Mexico).

Pecos even got all dressed up for Mass on Easter Sunday. Well, to him it wasn't necessarily dressing up, it was just dressing like daddy that mattered. And for the record, this is not a maternity dress I'm wearing so if you see me wear it again after the baby is born don't think I'm depressed or wishing I were pregnant again. It just happened to be one of the few things in my closet that was big enough to cover my massive belly but still look nice enough for church.

Sunday afternoon it was off to Oma & Opa's for more fun. Pecos had fun busting cascarone eggs with Uncle Duke.

Then it was egg hunt #3, with Uncle Duke in hot pursuit. Pecos declared himself the winner.

After all that we had time to head down to the river and do a little fishing. Uncle Duke is an expert fisherman and he showed Pecos how to catch a mudcat.