Walking in a Winter Wonderland!

This past week, we were treated with an afternoon of snowfall in Texas. Kade has been wanting to play in the snow all winter long. He just doesn't understand why it doesn't snow more in Texas. Well, his wish came true. We had some light snowfall earlier this winter, but this time the snow came down pretty heavy and stuck to the ground. Dane picked the boys up when it really started to snow decently hard and took them home so they could play in it. You never know how long it will last and stick around. Kade and Brady both had so much fun playing in it. As soon as I got home and stepped out of the car, I was bombarded by snowballs. In the future, I will make sure they are on my team. They both have good arms and their aim isn't too bad either. After the snowball fight, we started rolling the snow into big balls in hopes of building a snowman. I have to say that I think we did pretty well on our snowman. We used charcoal for his eyes, mouth, and buttons, a carrot for his nose, and sticks for his arms. Kade said that everyone snowman needs a hat, so we went in the house and found him a colorful winter hat. The boys were very proud of "Frosty." Before it was all over, we ended up with a beautiful blanket of white up here on the hill. We took lots of pictures to remember it because you never know how long it will be before we see that "white stuff" falling out of our winter Texas skies again.

Snowball Fight! Game on!

Preparing to make a snowman

Fun in the snow


Kade and Brady's snowman


Frosty and the boys

Last Hunt of the Season!

A few weekends ago, we made the trip back to Fredericksburg to spend one more weekend deer hunting on the Longbranch Ranch. All four of us, including Nana and Papa Rau, went this time. Nana really helped us out with Brady when we went out hunting. We really appreciate all that Nana and Papa do for us. We couldn't have asked or ordered a better set of grandparents. They boys were looking forward to seeing and hunting some deer, taking some jeep rides, shooting rocks in the ponds with their slingshot, and practicing their aim with Kade's new BB gun. Our first afternoon, Kade and I went out hunting with Wallace. We saw a bunch of deer, but nothing to shoot. Dane took Brady to sit in the blind that afternoon. Dane said he thought he was really something sitting in a deer blind. Dane said that lasted until the snacks and drinks ran out. The next morning Dane and I went out hunting while the boys stayed at the cabin and slept in with Nana and Papa. We saw lots of bucks and a few shooters, but decided against shooting that morning because we knew Kade wanted to be with us when we shot. That Sunday afternoon none of our shooters came out. We had one hunt left that following Monday morning. Kade got up early with us and went out, and luck was on our side. As soon as it was light enough to see, we saw a nice 9 point buck standing out there. Kade was excited to see Mommy shoot a buck. He was smiles from ear to ear. When we got back to camp Brady couldn't stop talking about Mommy's big buck. He told me "Mama I am so happy." The boys had a great time on the ranch. Being outdoors like that is right up their alley. Wallace and Delores are always so generous to have us come and stay to anytime. We always look forward to making the road trip up there to see them. Thank you Wallace and Delores and Nana and Papa for making this such a fun trip.

Dane and the boys having fun in the rock creek.

Kade focusing hard on spotting some deer.

Hunter Kade!


Ready, set, aim...


FIRE!


Hunter Brady!


Dane and the boys on a jeep ride


BB gun practice


Mommy and Kade with the buck


Family of hunters


Dane and his little hunters

Fishing Friends!

A few weeks ago, Dane let Kade invite a couple of friends over one afternoon to go fishing with him. He decided to invite Ian Stelter and Eric Aschenbeck. Dane and Cody got the fishing gear together and took the boys out fishing for the afternoon. They started off fishing here at the house for some catfish, but the wind kind of put a damper on that. Brady even got in on the action for a little while. He was the bait boy. After about 45 minutes and not bites, they loaded everyone up and went down to 105 to fish for some bass. They got lucky there. Each of the boys caught a fish or two. They had a good time and I know Kade is looking forward to many more fishing trips with his buddies.

Eric, Ian & Kade

Check out that stringer of fish.


Kade waiting for a big bite

Brady keeping everyone's hook baited