Matt and I were fortunate enough to get invited to The Ranch a couple of weekends ago. My brother was a superstar and watched Jack and Bella all weekend, even while Aunt Ashley was working Saturday. While diaper changing, feeding, bathing were on Uncle John's agenda, hunting, fishing, eating, socializing and relaxing were on our agenda. Thank you Uncle John & Aunt Ashley!
We took a little outing to visit the longhorns. They were fairly friendly. As with all cows, they are unpredictable so we were careful. They were beautiful and ate pellets from our hands. We learned that longhorns mature much later than the average cow. They also live much longer than the average cow.
While I was getting a pedicure and massage, Matt was fishing. We joined together for a 'hunting' outing. Matt and I don't have a license for hunting...nor do we know how to hunt. However, we wanted to go out to see what it was all about. We left on a gator (supped up golf cart) with 2 guides, 3 hunters and us. I thought we'd all be together quietly watching for animals for about an hour. Ha! Was I wrong! They dropped us at our own deer blind, a small wooden box elevated about 20 feet off the ground, all by ourselves.
Matt talked for about a half hour and anyone who knows Matt knows that he has a loud voice so we saw no animals. When I got to talkin' (ya hafta taalk like dis when you're out West) with my much softer voice then we saw a doe and her 2 yearlings. Success!
We sat in the deer blind for about an hour then decided to get out and walk around. When we did that we saw even more wildlife. Ants, armadillo and possum. (We didn't photograph the ants.)
Walking around and seeing the small critters took about an hour and I was sure we'd be picked up by the gator soon...but no one came. We walked around some more. We saw this old pipeline which amused us for about 10 minutes.
We continued to walk around but not too far. We were unsure how close the real hunters were so we were cautious. Surely the guys were coming to pick us up soon. We kept hearing a gator in the distance so we walked toward it...then it disappeared. We finally figured it was a neighbor feeding the cows because we could certainly hear the cows mooing. We joked that if we were on a deserted island we would go crazy hearing things. I hushed Matt numerous times. We froze to 'confirm' that I indeed heard a gator coming toward us... only it wasn't. The sun set, but the moon was full and bright so we could still see to navigate around.
Once it was dark we decided we would chance it and walk back toward The Ranch. Clearly we had been forgotten. On the way we found the other deer blind with an unsuccessful guide and hunter. We waited with them the remainder of the time until the gator picked us up. We weren't really forgotten. Our group didn't kill anything, but the other group did and we got to see that dead deer skinned and prepared for eating.
Ahhh!! The warmth of the fire and the taste of the wine! As you can see I wasn't really prepared to walk miles in my slipper shoes, but they were ok.
We really enjoyed ourselves and the quiet of the Ranch. Food and conversation followed this gathering (many others joined me). It was a perfect evening out of town.
Merry Christmas!
She loved the jingle bell on top of mom and dad's gift. "Dingle bell, dingle bell..."
She carefully rips off the wrapping paper. 
Analyzes each piece.
Rip. Tear. Slow. Cherish. Wait. Patience.
Daddy and Penny helped.
She loved her puppets that Santa brought! Moo!
The orange car hit a milestone!
Can you see them? Two great Asian elephants and one cute little baby. Bella likes "AahFints" and makes the trunk sound perfectly by putting her lower lip over her upper lip and blowing. It's adorable but so far she won't do it on command when we have a camera in hand.
Bella and the orangutan liked looking at each other. We love looking at Bella's outfit. She picked it out all by herself. Brown 'AahFint' pants, blue socks, green shoes, pink and white flowered short-sleeved shirt, black animal print sweater, black and white hat. Technically, it all matched.
We took a little outing to visit the longhorns. They were fairly friendly. As with all cows, they are unpredictable so we were careful. They were beautiful and ate pellets from our hands. We learned that longhorns mature much later than the average cow. They also live much longer than the average cow.
We sat in the deer blind for about an hour then decided to get out and walk around. When we did that we saw even more wildlife. Ants, armadillo and possum. (We didn't photograph the ants.)
Walking around and seeing the small critters took about an hour and I was sure we'd be picked up by the gator soon...but no one came. We walked around some more. We saw this old pipeline which amused us for about 10 minutes.
We continued to walk around but not too far. We were unsure how close the real hunters were so we were cautious. Surely the guys were coming to pick us up soon. We kept hearing a gator in the distance so we walked toward it...then it disappeared. We finally figured it was a neighbor feeding the cows because we could certainly hear the cows mooing. We joked that if we were on a deserted island we would go crazy hearing things. I hushed Matt numerous times. We froze to 'confirm' that I indeed heard a gator coming toward us... only it wasn't. The sun set, but the moon was full and bright so we could still see to navigate around.
Ahhh!! The warmth of the fire and the taste of the wine! As you can see I wasn't really prepared to walk miles in my slipper shoes, but they were ok.
I'm in love with this acrylic table lamp. I spotted it on this blog: www.brooklynlimestone.com and they said that it was from Marshalls. Of course they don't have it at my Marshalls. It's not on amazon either. If you spot this lamp online or out and about, please let me know. Better yet, buy it and I'll reimburse.
Thanksgiving started with the Turkey Trot, a 5K walk/run/stroller push through the Galleria in 80 degree weather. It was fun, except Matt was not very happy that I made him wear a long sleeved shirt.
My parents arrived that evening and we went back to the Galleria area to watch the lighting of the trees and the fireworks. This time it was about 50 degrees and raining. The fireworks were beautiful and both Penny and Ellie didn't mind the "booms" and crowds of people. 
Uncle John's neighborhood hosted Breakfast with Santa. We forgot about it until Santa, on his fire truck, rattled us out of the house. After Santa's tour of the neighborhood, he hung out at the clubhouse with his camel. Matt and Bella got to take a ride. In case you're confused, Santa rides a fire truck or a camel when in Texas. It's clearly too hot for reindeer.
