The Most Amazing Brother!

We have all been working hard to get Delaney to sleep in her own bed and not come into Mommy and Daddy's bed every single night, like she had for nearly 18 months now. This particular night, Carter had offered to stay with her in her bed and when I went to wake him up for school, this is what I found. Carter just turned 10 years old and Delaney is 2 months shy of turning 4 years old.

Girls' Weekend Trip To Austin

The girls were scheduled to have a soccer tournament in Houston this specific weekend but with the recent heavy rains it was canceled the day before. Megan and I had planned for it to already be a weekend just with us girls so when we received the message it was canceled, we knew we still wanted to get away with our precious girls for a special weekend. 

We decided on a fun weekend to explore Austin and saw so much in our 2 days there. Early Saturday morning, we started exploring all the famous spots off Guadalupe and took in the "Austin culture," walking and driving up and down the packed streets. We stopped at a yummy and hip burger and milkshake spot and explored some cool stores, before taking off for what we hoped would be a quick tour of the State Capital in the early afternoon. Little did we know, that it was the busiest day all year with the National Women's March on the front Capital lawn. Still not knowing what was really going on and not being able to find a parking spot, I dropped Megan and the girls off to at least look around and snap a picture. Looking back, what they witnessed that day - from the signs to what people were wearing, probably left a strong memory in their little 8 year old minds.

We checked into the Embassy Suites hotel, right off Town Lake and went and explored the lake and enjoyed the absolute most beautiful and sunny weather possible in mid January. Then, we were off to take in the very cool Graffiti Park and had a fun dinner at Hula Hut. We capped off the big day with a late evening swim in the indoor hotel pool and had the super special experience of watching a movie in the hotel!

Sunday morning, we woke up for breakfast and explored the University of Texas campus. It was the perfect getaway for the 4 of us and Addison already declared next year's girls' trip is to College Station!

Delaney Gets A Library Card!

With an impromptu evening outing to the library for Carter and Addison to check out Battle of The Books books for school, we realized that Delaney recently started writing her name confidently so it ended up being her big memorable day to get her own library card! Delaney is 3 years and 10 months old!

Annual Hunting Trip With Pops!

January 2-3 2017

This was a very big year for Carter. It was the first time he took a shot a deer.  I honestly had no expectations for him to shoot at a deer, but he hunted with Pops the entire first day and Pops was very excited for him to have a try. 

Addie hunted with me the first day with the goal to shoot the .22 magnum, at a hog.  Previously, we had seen hogs nearly every time we were in a stand but unfortunately we did not see any this entire trip. It was an abnormally warm - 75 degrees, which the hogs probably were eating and moving when it was cooler at night.

   

Pops brought his 223 for Carter to shoot a deer with and he first evening he tried to shoot "something really big... at least an 8 point," according to Pops and Carter but missed a little high. We had a blast spotlighting that night and killed a couple of rabbits, one of which was Carter's first official kill. He also shot a possum and now they both understand how ugly possums are. The next morning I hunted with Carter in "Mike's Blind".  At first light we saw 3 very large bucks.  Carter took his time and finally had a good shot at a nice 10 pointer yet once again he was a little high with the shot. We went back to the stand, but didn't get a another shot at the big one.  Interestingly, we went back and did some more target practice from the 125 yard mark, which was the distance he shot at the deer and Carter was almost perfect every single shot, with both the 223 and the 22. Although Carter didn't seem nervous with his shots, it must have been the adrenaline pumping through his body.

Addie had a blast shooting both the vintage 22 that Yaya given to her this Christmas. The gun had been given to Yaya, from her father "Charles" when she was 10 years old, in 1959. Addison also practiced as with a different 22 which had a scope for target practice.  It was amazing how much better she did with just one day's target practice.  She was really hoping to see some hogs or turkeys in the stand, but all we really saw were some small bucks and doe.  She really enjoyed the entire trip, especially feeding the cows, and riding around on the lease looking at all the wildlife.  Next year, I predict we may have a first deer from Carter and first hog for Addie.

(Written by Blake)

2017 New Year's Resolutions

As we pack up the stockings after Christmas, it's customary that we reflect and think about what we want our New Year's Resolutions & Goals to be for 2017.