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.

fair is fair

August 20, 2009- The Gillespie County fair came around and I just couldn't resist the urge to enter something. The county fair back at home was always one of my favorite times of year and our family always had lots of things to enter- from livestock to baked goods, vegetables to arts and crafts. If there was something we made or grew then we found a category to enter it in the fair. So I guess I was re-living my childhood and got excited about the possibility of ribbons (and bragging rights!!). Plus, there is always the chance of winning a trophy and who can resist that? Pecos even got in on the fun; for the past several weeks he's been helping me in the garden and I told him he could enter his vegetables in the fair. He was excited about that! Here's the bounty we brought to the fair (the photo was taken with the camera on my cell phone so the quality is not that great):

The day entries were due I played Betty Crocker and made 4 different cookies and some cupcakes to enter in the baking category. The chocolate cookies were a recipe from a bakery in town...they are my all time favorite cookie but they did not turn out very good at all when I made them. They tasted fine but looked horrible. No more of those in my oven....I'll just stick to buying and enjoying them from Peach Tree. The snickerdoodles were another favorite of mine, but not a favorite of the judges. But the judges did like the macaroons, chocolate chip cookies and cupcakes so it wasn't a total loss.

A week or so before the fair I made a jar of pickled okra the way I had always made it growing up with my grandmother and mother. I was so proud of my efforts but the judges obviously don't know a good pickled okra when they taste one because it didn't get a ribbon. But they sure looked good in the jar! I also had a jar of hot salsa and hot pepper jelly to enter. The jelly got 1st place and the salsa was 3rd. I gave Pecos the best vegetables and eggs to enter and he did pretty good- 1st place butternut squash and cantaloupe and 2nd place snap beans and eggs. My snap beans were 3rd so I guess I need to work a little harder next year in the garden!

And if you know me, you know I take lots of pictures. I'm no professional, I just like to have good pictures. Besides, professionals can't enter photos in the fair anyway! So I decided at the last minute to enter some photos and it was so hard to choose because they only allow two entries per person. This was my animal life photo that got 2nd place. As I was searching through photos taken in the past year I came across this one. It wasn't the one I was looking for but for some reason it struck me as a good entry for the portrait category. And turns out it was- it got 1st place.So another year of the fair has gone by and some of our entries were great and others were not so great. Still no trophy, but the quest will continue next year. I guess you can say the Fair was fair.

cookie monster

Feb 18, 2009- Being the good wife and mother that I am, I made chocolate chip cookies for my two favorite guys. As they were set out to cool I caught this little cookie monster with his "hand in the cookie jar," so to speak. The evidence was all over his face and he had a fresh cookie in hand. This is not his first attempt at cookie thievery. His first criminal act was a few months back when he found cookies on the counter, moved his step stool over to get within reach, grabbed a cookie in each hand, ran to find me and prompty proclaimed "I need milk!"