speedy

March 31, 2013- Friends and family often ask how I get such good pics of my boys.  Beyond the endless reading, research, and practice with camera settings, the answer is I've gotta be fast.  

Because the split second after I get that cute shot that's gonna look great on the blog and make everyone believe they are just perfect, this is what happens:

But they really are cute.  And perfect.  Mostly.  Thank you for noticing.

easter

March 31, 2013- Easter has come and gone providing much family fun and proof that He is Risen!

Since I'm posting this way after Easter I don't remember many of the details but the pictures prove we had a great time!

Decorating Easter Eggs:

My sugar cookies never hold their shape and usually end up looking like a big puffy blob, so I tried a new recipe.  

Good News: It worked and the cookies came out perfect!  

Bad News: I couldn't find my Easter cookie cutters so we had round biscuit shaped cookies.  And tractors.

The Easter Bunny stopped by and spoiled the River Boys again.

We did a little egg hunting before Mass.

Two Golden Eggs.  How convenient.

After Mass we headed into Kerrville for lunch and found a small patch of bluebonnets on the side of a building.  The River Boys indulged me with a picture.  Hope you enjoy it because it turns out this is the ONLY bluebonnet pics we took this year.  Sad, I know.  My Texas citizenship should be revoked.

  The rest of the day was spent at Oma & Opa's house.  More egg hunting.

After the hunt there is always a cascarone fight/wrestling match with Uncle Duke.  It's tradition.

Then a little bit of fishing.

Oh and the week prior to Easter Pecos had his church program.  He was a red jelly bean.

Since I just can't seem to find the time to update the blog as quickly or as often as I'd like, most of our life ends up on Instagram.  Here's the Instagram version of Easter:

boys will be boys

March 29, 2013- We had a day off of school for Easter and Casey was out of town, so I took the River Boys to visit friends in Austin.  I worked with Jennifer at the Texas Beef Council and our boys are very close in age.  We played at their house for a while then had lunch at Republic Grill which happens to have a fantastic outdoor area.  The boys played on the playground while caught up with all the latest.

Don't they look cute?

The food was great, the company was even better, but before it was all over her youngest jumped in the fountain and Brazos dropped his pants to pee off the outdoor stage.  Some not very nice things were said about this by other patrons who clearly don't potty train in the country.  Better keep the River Boys out of the city until we get the potty training mastered.  

be mine

February 14, 2013- 

Don't these cowboy cupids look cute?

Here's the card I made for Brazos to give his friends at Mother's Day Out.  I used the same tractor graphic from his birthday party theme last year.  

Front:

Back:

Then I converted it to this cute little bag topper and packaged the card and some other goodies in with it.  

Then I couldn't just let that be enough.  I had to get him this shirt to wear to his school party.

Pecos needed cards for his class party too and he requested Legos so I made this one for him.

Front:

And took this picture for the back:

He wanted to give out candy in addition to his card so I found these Lego brick candy pieces, made him a bag topper and packaged them up for his party.

Now, if that wasn't enough, we were invited to a kids Valentine party in Fredericksburg.  I didn't have enough of the original cards to distribute, plus some of the same kids would be there from the Mother's Day Out program so I made these "Hugs & Kisses from the River Boys" bag toppers and filled them with Hershey's hugs and kisses candy of course.

Happy Valentine's Day!

XOXOXOXO

reveling in tx

February 2013- Here's the Instagram re-cap of our Mardi Gras revelry:

A new wreath I made for the door.

A delicious king cake from New Orleans sent from Oma.  She knew we were missing it and that we would share.  It was the traditional coffee cake type.  

Pecos found the baby.

This king cake showed up when MiMi & Paw Paw came to visit.  It is from Donut King in Jennings and sooooo good.  This is more like the glazed donut/cinnamon roll type.  Very yummy.

And the River Boys with plenty of beads.  One day we'll take them to Mardi Gras in New Orleans.  My sister lives on the parade route for the Krewe of Thoth parade and it would be a shame to miss out on that opportunity.

horsin' around

January 2013- 

"Sit tall in the saddle, Hold your head up high,

Keep your eyes fixed where the trail meets the sky,And live like you ain't afraid to die,And don't be scared, just enjoy your ride."

from a Chris LeDoux song, The Ride (written by Sony Tillis and Sam Weedman)

Brazos and Widow Maker

Pecos with Chief

Pecos on Pepper

5-1-5-0 somebody call the po-po

October 31, 2012- Pecos picked out the costumes this year.

They had fun playing games at the community Fall Festival.

This is why he's a jailbird...he tried to run off with Steele's tractor!

Then we did some trick or treating.

What's a holiday around here without craft time?

Brazos' class had dress up day at mother's day out and he went as himself Cowboy Small.