December 23 - Adopted Family Visit

The Carroll/Bell's cousins were here for Christmas, so they came out today to spend the day with us. Even though it was very cold, we all went outside and rode horses for quite a while. Cowboy got ridden by someone else besides Kacy for the first time today. Jenna and Austyn rode him first then Addy and Andi. All they had to steer him was a lead rope around his neck, but they did awesome. He is coming along really fast. We hadn't seen the Carroll/Bell's cousins since we had puppies, so they were having a lot of fun seeing how much our babies had grown. Addy asked me where the calf was, because she didn't realize that Jenny was the same calf we had when she was here last. 

Austyn giving Rusty another turn around his pen.

Jenna fell in love with our "baby" chicks. They aren't so much babies any more.

Mrs. Lacey's youngest sister, Kalie, riding cowboy. This was the first time she had ever been on a horse bareback and the first time she had ridden in six months.

Jenna and Austyn trying to get out of the cold.

Libby and Banner watching all the fun. Isn't he growing?

Andi, Addy, and Quincy posing for a picture on the hay bale.

 After it got too cold, even for Jenna and Austyn, we all went up to the house to play town. Everyone has their own "job" and our city limits are the house. It is a huge favorite. Usually we will play for about an hour, but today we played for three or four hours and had a blast!!

Sheriff Andi and her deputy Ethan putting Garrett in jail.

Shea kept busy with his game arcade.

Austyn and Jenna were the doctors and made everyone come into a checkup every 30 minutes.

The proud soldier/deputy.

 It sure was a wonderful day and we all can't wait until we see them all again!!!

December 8 - Meet Cody and Clara

Today we went into town to get Shea's new finches, Cody and Clara. Shea has been planning for these little guys to come for a long time! He has done lots of research on their care, breeding, habits, and anything else he can find on them. They are so cool! The entire family loves them! If you've never had a zebra finch and you are contemplating getting a pet bird I would highly recommend these. 

December 7 - Big Family Party

We get together with several other families once a month for a play-day. Some how it got dubbed "Big Family". Tonight at Big Family night we had a celebration for all the birthdays in December. There were 5 birthdays and an Anniversary this month. It is always so much fun to be around these families!

The younger boys playing bubble talk

The younger girls and Gabe playing Candy Land.

The older kids playing Taboo

 Mrs. Duflio made each family a letter of the family name for Christmas.

 After dinner everyone got together to play a huge game of Pictionary. We divided into three teams. Lots of giggles, yelling, and shushing happened.

December 6 - Shea's Birthday Party

Tomorrow is Shea's 14th birthday, but today we had his party. Garrett worked really hard to make him a treasure hunt. He did really good! The hunt took Shea all over the house and then all over our life here in Texas. 

This is his "I'm trying to figure out a clue" face.

In the cabinet? 

He found one in a straw.

Even in the movies.

On the bottom of each clue was a set of numbers. They were dates to different posts in the blog. Each set of numbers lead to a letter somewhere in a post. The letters spelled out "i-n-t-h-e-m-u-d-r-o-o-m" so we went to the mud room.

Putting each clue in order.

Looking them up on the blog.

Three brothers.

The treasure at the end was a lego set that Garrett and Gabe bought for him. He was thrilled!!!!

Janessa made him a beautiful turtle cake.

Mommy, Daddy, and Kacy went in together to get him a nice bird cage and a pair of Zebra finches. He is really interested in breeding them. He has been making toys for them for over a month, hoping to have a cage one day.

Garrett and Gabe also got him a lego ideas book that he wants.

Happy Birthday sweet boy!!!!!!

November 30 - Cousins!

Dad's mom, Ruth, has been staying in Wisconsin for the past year and a half. For this winter she wanted to be in a warmer place, so her daughter, Barb, and four of her kids brought her down here. We had a lot of fun with our cousins that we haven't seen in quite a while. We played lots of games, giggled a lot, and looked at lots of old pictures. 

The whole crew playing Mafia, In the orange jacket is Ruby the youngest, in brown is Lydia, in camo is Harvie, and standing up in green is Rachael. 

 Before coming here, Grandma went to go see some of her other kids and got lots of old pictures of her family.

Grandma's second oldest daughter, Bonnie, her husband Stephen, and her kids. Tallest to shortest boys; Sean, Scott, and Sam. Girl is Christy.

Daddy as a very young man.

The two youngest sons, John and Paul

Grandma and Grandpa Pogue

 Plus many many more that I didn't put up.