~kANsaS PHEasaNT HuntINg~

Every year Austin & his best friend Kenny take an annual trip to Kansas to hunt Pheasant & Quail. Let me correct myself, Austin, Kenny and their four legged friends, Briley Pearl, Sam Bony, Pearl & Dixie (I'll have to ask Kenny if he gave his bird dogs middle names too!)

Austin usually brings us home some pretty good loot & we store it in the freezer and eat it grilled wrapped in bacon (anything wrapped in bacon is good in my book), baked, and slow cooked in the crock pot! Oh ... and my personal fave - pheasant enchilada's, recipe courtesy of Grady Spears, the renowned Reata Chef.

This year Austin actually kept two birds, feathers still in tact, for the kids to see. They were a HOOT! Cooper wanted to hold the quail by the feet and kept calling them turkeys & Banks was holding the big ol' pheasant like a baby.

Aus then proceeded to the garage where he gave the kids a lesson in cleaning birds. Banks kept talking about the blood and Cooper wanted to STILL HOLD THE FEET that Austin cut off! Aaah. She is SUCH my girly girl and also my little tom boy, i LOVE it, just like her mom!

I may have mentioned in an earlier post, our family is the 'hunter/gather' type. I grew up shooting guns & participating in archery tournaments, fishing & camping. It's a great gift my father gave me and Austin & I just so happen to enjoy sharing in our outdoor excursions. We're looking forward to sharing our love with the kids, and especially can't wait until we can share the love of upland bird hunting with them. That, folks, is what I remember Austin and I doing and loving the most before we HAD kids :) Watching our dogs is amazing!!

And finally the photo's you've been waiting for!



~Austin & Kenny with our Wirehaired Pointers~



~Sam, our youngest, crazy bird dog~



~Briley, Pearl, Dixie & Sam~

~A big Kansas Mule Deer, about to jump the fence~

~Love at first sight~

~Way to go Dad!~

~Too funny, Cooper's face cracks me up, it's a smile/what in the world? face~

~LOL~

~Austin teaching his little man how to shoot his Buck BB gun~

~Getting the hang of it~



~Got it!~


Have a great Friday Night & GOOD LUCK AGGIES! :)

It's been a LONG week!

Adjusting back to 'Normal' after the holidays has proved to be a challenge, as the week goes on, it gets harder and harder to not hit {{snooze}} on the alarm clock...twice or three times...

Any who, tonight is a short post - a single picture of my babies frome one of our recent trips to the ranch.

{Dora Birthday}

~Back to the month of November to Miss Cooper Reese's THIRD birthday~

It seems like we just brought her home from the hospital YESTERDAY! It is so true when people tell you to savor every moment with a newborn baby. You blink your eyes and the next thing you know you're planning their 3rd birthday...{smile}

The day we brought our sweet baby girl home from the hospital, Novermber 28th 2007.

So TINY!

~ Heading into the Treehouse for her big Dora Party~

~Dora CupCake Balls~

I have a great friend at church that has started an awesome side business {Heavenly-Aspirations}

 They were so ideal for her party - no knife, no sticky icing, and VERY little mess!

There will definitely be more cake balls in our future ;)

 

~one BIG bow~

Yes, the bow is BIG! THREE of them stacked high...for her 3rd birthday, of course!

~Waiting~

Is is time to eat the cake balls yet?

 ~Friends~

Cooper & one of her best friends from school, Suri

~Gifts~

Opening birthday gifts, Suri, Cooper, Taylor & Samuel

The girls are the three blondie amigos at school, they are TU TU CUTE!

~Cheese~

Posing for pictures with mini-Dora & Suri

~the BUCK fam~

Including a not so happy Banks!!

 ~Heading back to the ranch~

CooperReese had to stop and pose ONE more time, she's got the camera thing down.

~Fun Dip~

It's hard to believe that stuff is still around, it was a favorite when we were kids...He's finally happy because daddy let him rip open the package, only he didn't use the candy stick to 'dip'

~Face Painting~

My beautiful nieces, Megan & Kelsey painted the kiddo's faces at the party!

~To MANY more fun birthday parties~

LOVE, LOVE YOU COOPIE!!

*JH Softball Classic*

We are so blessed that Austin works for such a great organization, James Hardie Building Products! This October JH hosted a customer appreciate event for their clients & their families at the Rough Rider Baseball Stadium in Frisco, TX. Everyone had an unlimited supply to Cotton Candy, Hot Dogs, Chips, Bounce Houses & Face Painting! My kids were in heaven ... and VERY hyper on sugar ... which made the bounce house the ideal place to spend time.

It was also the perfect venue since the Texas Rangers made their grand debut at the WORLD SERIES!

Everyone had baseball fever. Here are a few pictures the game, thanks Uncle Hardie! :)

 Did I mention the entire stadium has Hardie all over it? Good stuff.

 Before the game got started, all of the kiddo's (big & small)

 were allowed to run around on the field & play catch.

Banks is a baseball SUPERSTAR! I love this photo mid-air!! 

Mad throw to Daddy Bear. 

SCORE! 

Sweet Leah with a kitty cat face :) 

Deuce trying to get Banks to give him a hug...he's thinking about it. 

i heart 00 

~Cooper & Leah ~

Banks put his Daddy's number on one hand, and batman on the other :)

In Robin Mask  

 He must have done something she didn't like - lol

The game has begun...Austin played catcher, took him back to the old days!

 Up to bat...





...and hit a TRIPLE! You've still got it babe!!

 Bat girl 

Austin's team won & took home trophy's! 

CHEESE.

CHRISTmas 2010

One of my New Year Resolutions is to blog more...funny how with digital cameras we take so many pictures these days, but NEVER print them! I just uploaded an SD card I found wedged in my purse, there were so many great photos I had already forgotten about. What a better way to choose the best ones and add commentary? So I'm challenging myself to 365entries in the 365 days following 1 Jan 2011!

I'll begin in reverse order, starting with Christmas first. :)

We had a nice Christmas at home. Since Austin and I have the littlest ones, our parents spent Christmas Eve with us and stayed the night so that they could see the kids open their presents in the morning, what a special day to have everyone here together! My dad was sick and didn't make it up, so we paid him a special visit a few days later.

The kids were super excited for Santa, however we wanted them to know first and foremost the reason for Christmas is to celebrate the birth of baby Jesus. Let me tell you Cooper LOVES her some baby Jesus - we have a small Playmobile nativity set and Ms Coop always has tiny baby Jesus in tow :) I took the kids through a drive through nativity and we had to circle around twice so Coop could get a better look at 'tiny baby Jesus.' That is what she calls Him, cracks me up, I love it. Banks is VERY proud that he memorized, in perfect order, 'Jesus is the reason for the season,' quite a mouth full for a 4 year old.

Our Nativity Set (including baby Jesus) he's usually MIA

I love the super squinty cheeses. :)

 Miss Cooper Reese

Mr Banks Ryan

 Gee & PawPaw got Banks 'the skape board' he's always wanted!'

Thank goodness it came with elbow & knee pads & we already have the helmet.

 Mimi bought Cooper TCU purple cheerleader pom-pons & A TALKING CHEERLEADER doll...thanks to mimi the entire family now has a library of 5 new cheers, that we all recite! lol

Almost all of the girls (Yvette & the boys came over later & we didn't get a pic :()

Angel, Megan, Cooper, Mom, Kelsey, Kimberly & Me

 The GRANDKIDS!

Joshua Brandon, Seth Michael, PROUD Mimi, Megan Taylor,

 CoopReese(she dressed herself), Kelsey Rachelle, Aaron Blaine & Banks Ryan

Um, we somehow didn't manage to get our annual Christmas photo, so here's one from Turkey Day instead

(If I hadn't told you, you would have never known ;))

Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year to you and yours!