Thankful hearts

I had such a full heart on Thanksgiving this year. It was small, and simple. It was nothing special, nothing spectacular, something that anyone else wouldn't really enjoy. But I absolutely loved and enjoyed it!

We hung out in our pj's most of the day, we sat around and watched the parade, and played some games. Ki fixed the girls bookshelf while I made pies and the girls played with Rudy. 

Testing the pie filling. I love how her eyes would close when she licked it. She just didn't want to miss one bit of the yumminess. 

It passed inspection by both girls, thank heavens!

Playing hard

Then it was time to eat! We always enjoy Gramma Grawe's groovy gravy! 

It was so delicious and Rudy very much enjoyed his first Thanksgiving feast!!

After our meal we had to take care of our wild animals. It was cold so they needed blankets and their heat lamps. 

Gramma had to work that night so we came home and watched a movie. After the movie we treated ourselves with pie!

We asked the girls what they were most thankful for (this is where my heart melted). They told us that they were most thankful for Ki and I  and Rudy, and for the time we spend together as a family. 

I was so proud and excited to hear from their tiny little mouths, what Ki and I are trying so hard to teach them. 

Nothing ever has been or ever will be more important then our families. And I'm ecstatic that my children are picking that up from us. 

6 months too short!

I cannot believe my baby boy is 6 months old! 

I love this age. He's such a fun, happy, interactive, exploring, adventurous, talkative and bossy little man. Well he's really only bossy when he's hungry or cranky from teething. Yes my poor man broke his first tooth, and neither of us enjoyed those few days. He's still learning to not bite mama, but he's definitely not doing it as much. He's like Bea in the sense that, when I tell him no biting and I tap his chin with my finger, he just giggles. The first few times he gave me his pouty lip, but after that he just laughed. 

  The day Rudy turned 6 months we were in Austin visiting the Woods, some great friends of ours.  

It was general conference weekend so we had fun listening to the talks of the leaders from our church. 

We also had some outdoor fun as well. 

Rudy's first hike. He proved to be an outdoor man just like his daddy. 

The girls really enjoyed the hike as well. 

They were impressed by the fact they could all touch this tree. 

It was really nice outside. So I guess Rudy decided it was nap time. 

Bea was informing me she was tired and no longer wanted to hike since it wasn't a mountain. 

"If it's not a mountain it's not a hike mommy."

Grace, Rae, and Bea. They love, they fight, they laugh. Their teenage years should be a blast, haha. 

I love the color of these wild berries. 

These were just cute. 

Bea helped me take a picture of the cactus. I told her how my Nana Beatrice used cook them up, and she promptly responded, "with the pokies? That's not very nice food!"

She always makes me giggle with her silly little comments. 

Sunday morning we had the tastiest breakfast. Summer made a pancake cake. It had fruit, jam, Nutella and of course big fluffy pancakes. 

We topped it off with cool whip and it was so tasty! 

Doesn't that just look heavenly! She was telling me how some friends of hers makes this for breakfast on their birthdays. I thought that was a really fun and super sweet idea. (Pun intended, hehe)

Here are some fun photos of my big guy: 

He loves being thrown around. I think Ki really enjoys that he can toss him up in the air, and twirl him around, and hang him upside down. 

Our monthly picture with Oscar. Rudy used to be so short compared to this pup. 

As you can see he is a very happy little man. And he has his daddy's awesome smile! 

Rudy has a serious crush on his gramma. Every time he sees her he gets super excited, he gets extremely flirtatious, and he reaches for her as if he hadn't seen her in a months! It's really adorable!

He loves books. He loves being read to, an he enjoys flipping through the book by himself. 

Rudy also likes to just lounge around like the prince of a castle. 

Nap time! 

This was at his actual 6 month we'll check. My poor boy got 5 shots that day. 

Mess maker

His first pumpkin patch. I think he enjoyed it. 

As you can see we have a very happy, and active little man. He on the verge of crawling so I can only imagine the things he's going to try and get into. 

I titled this post 6 months too short because 6 months is supposed to be a pretty long time. I mean come one it's half a year! 

But I've learned that as an adult and even more so as a parent, life goes by way faster then you'd like. I really can't believe he's 6 months, and that Bea is almost 5, and Rae is 7! 

Parenting really is bittersweet. But even with the bad days, for me it seems to be more sweet then bitter. 

What a week

One of my girls favorite time of year is when family gets to visit. The visitors this time around were Ginger and Lily and they came to help with the state fair in Dallas, which happened to be on Rae's birthday. 

We took 2 cows and 12 goats. It was wild but fun. 

Here are a few pictures of the visit and the fair. 

Lily and Bea keeping Ginger and I company while we shave goats. 

Rae and Romeo before he got shaved. 

Romeo half shaved, too funny to me! Lol

Romeo fully shaved! 

We shaved all the goats. 10 goats in 3 days. This is Ginger's goat Callie all fresh and shaved ready to be shown. 

The boys were keeping us company too. They started a no girls club. Even the dogs in this picture are males, haha. 

Lily trying to comfort Marble while she gets shaved. 

Rae braiding Lily's hair. 

These three are my favorite girls (=

We took cupcakes to Rae's class the Friday before her birthday. It's always so fun to see her at school. 

We took them an hour before school was over and so the teacher said we could stay and hang out until the end of the day.

It was sad to me to see Bea out there answering 1st grade questions. She's even bigger then some of them! 

We left that night to head to the fair and we stopped for dinner. This is Rudy throwing a fit because I was taking a picture of him instead of giving him more French fries. 

At the fair heading to the show ring. 

My birthday girl in her birthday shirt. She's got some sass in her pants! Haha. 

Rae and Romeo with their ribbons. Unfortunately I didn't snap any of Bea and tulio. But they wind grand champion and reserve grand champion. I'm still kicking myself for not taking pictures with my phone because the fairs prices are ridiculous! 

Last time we went to the fair for Rae's birthday we went to On The Border. (She LOVES Mexican) and this year was no different. She remembered the restraint and wanted to go back. Both of the girls enjoyed the tasty desserts. 

Then we headed back to the hotel for presents....

...and sleep!

The next morning was pretty simple. We didn't have to get up to early. 

The simple plan was to go back to the show grounds and help mom, Ginger, and Kelly load everything up after they two bulls were shown. 

So after the show, Ki and mom went to get the trailer while we cleaned up. It really was simple and fast. 

Here is a picture I took and edited of the last day at the show. 

This was Rae's little birthday party at home. We had to have one last party since Papa didn't get to go to the show with us. 

The girls are always finding a way to have fun. As you can see this day was no different. 

For Rae's "cake", she decided she wanted a jello mold. So I made her a rainbow jello mold in the shape of a horse. But for the life of me I couldn't get it out of the pan. It was very frustrating, but it didn't make a difference in the taste. And when we scooped it out, it looked pretty cool. 

Rudy is a big fan of rainbow jell-o and cool whip, haha. 

Another exciting thing that happened during the 2 weeks of Giner visiting is we got some new family members. 

One of the cows, Heidi, had a baby girl. As you can she she's very tiny. But she is healthy and growing. Mom, Kelly and I came up with the name Little Miss Aggie. But we call her lil Miss for short. 

We also got some new puppies as well. 

Gabby had 4 puppies but we sadly lost 2. This a more recent picture of her and her puppies so they are almost a month in this picture. But they are super chubby and super cute. Their eyes are now open and they are whining and crawling around. 

It's pretty great to see them grow and see how Gabby just knows what to do. Although she gets pretty loud and crazy when there are a lot of people around, haha. 

Through all the crazy busy times of the two weeks, we got to spend time with one another. And honestly that's all that matters to us. (=

School (and life...)

The first day of school has come and gone, the first week of school has come and gone! Well Rae has already finished her first 2 weeks and Bea Bea her first week. 

It's amazing to me not only how fast summer went, but how fast life is going. It scares me sometimes.

  I love my children with all my heart and I just want them to be happy and have good memories to look back on once they've grown. But it seems like life is going to fast for us to stay caught up and enjoy it. I'm learning that the goal is to just stop, forget that the dishes need to be washed, that the laundry needs folding and that toilet needs to be scrubbed. The messes will be there tomorrow, not only will they be there if you don't take care of them, but they'll just come back after you clean them. So it's ok to take a brake and sit on the floor to play candy land, or to watch the girls fashion show, or play peek a boo for 20 minutes straight. It may be boring, I mean come on, I know I'm right behind the blanket and after 20 minutes my cheeks are hurting from smiling, but it doesn't matter. To hear those kids giggle, (yes even the girls like to watch me play peek a boo with Rudy) is all that matters. 

My kids are beautiful, sweet, caring and silly people and that's all thanks to my Heavenly Father. We wouldn't have them without Him and I know Ki and I would be lost. 

First grade! I'm sorry I must have been comatose the last 7 years because this girl was a teeny little shrimp that her aunt and I could carry around in our purse last week! But 1st grade not possible! But she adores it. She's already got her friends phone number and is bugging me all the time to call, (girl, no calling boys!).  

Pre-K, this little sassy pants was never meant to stay a baby. She has places to go, people to meet and a mommy and daddy to sass. I love my sweet little chubby knees even if she doesn't have chubby knees anymore. Bea loves school and can't wait to go to the same school as Rae. (She doesn't do pre-k at the elementary) 

Rudy just turned 5 months old. He thinks he's almost 9 months. He's been worm crawling for about 2 weeks and eating baby and table food for about 2 months. He loves to be outside, even if he's sweating to death. His favorite people besides mommy and daddy, are hands down his big sisters. I've never seen such excitement in my girls eyes like I see when they play with him. He adores them and as soon as he sees them he can't get close to them fast enough!  Something I hope they will alway have.