Rewind back to last summer 2013..... Part 2

On another day I took the kids and my mom to the Ft. Worth Stockyards to watch the Longhorn Cattle Drive down the cobbled streets of old town Ft. Worth.  It's a fun place to go.  Kids love it and there is a lot to see and do in the area.

Cute cousins waiting for the longhorns

Parker & Mikayla with a young longhorn

Watching a wild west show and shootout 

The Ft. Worth Stockyards is also the location of many museums, the Cowboy Hall of Fame and the Stockyard's Championship Rodeo.   

This is the Cowtown Coliseum where the Rodeo takes place

This wall mural makes it feel like Jessie is right there hanging onto that Bull

Love this one of Mikayla and Parker as well.  

Jessie being way into being a cowboy and a bull rider enjoyed the museum and coliseum.  We had a great day visiting the shops and buying mementos to remember this visit.  

The next few days consisted of roasting marshmallows for s'mores in our backyard fireplace while enjoying the beautiful June evenings, playing games, celebrating a birthday and enjoying spending time together.  

Mmmm.... Yummy Roasted Marshmellows

We had the awesome pleasure of being able to celebrate Melanee's birthday while she was here.  Aunt Valerie made that cool soccer cake.  I hope she enjoyed her special day even if she was far away from home.  

Wishing Melanee a Happy Birthday

As I reflect upon this time, I remember experiencing such joy and happiness to have a houseful of loved ones.  We had such a great time together.  I will tell you more in Part 3 coming soon.  

Rewind back to last summer 2013.... Part 1

Since I have a lot of catch up to do on this blog of mine I will start by going back to last summer because it was the best summer I have had in a very long time.

In June of last year (2013) my son Jessie came out to spend the whole month with me.  I was so very excited. Also in June my parents brought two of my nieces with them and spent over two weeks out here visiting. Splitting their time between me and my sister Valerie who lives about 30 miles from me, Jessie and my nieces got to see and do so many fun activities with all of us.

Since there are so many things to tell you about I will have to break this up into different parts so as not to make one huge long post that will take forever to read.  So this post is Part 1 of Summer 2013.

The first family activity took place on June 8th one of the first days after everyone arrived.  We took the family to Mineral Wells State Park for some kayaking and fishing.  Considering it was June, the temperature was very nice and tolerable.  The kids had a blast!  Dad and Mom seemed to really enjoy it as well.  I enjoyed having everyone around and watching them have so much fun!

Later that week they went over to my sister's home to spend some time with them.  She took them to Build-A-Bear where they were able to build their own bear. 

I think it is cute that 17 year old Jessie chose a bear too.  Over the last year he has taken an interest in being a cowboy and doing some bull-riding so he chose a cowboy bear.  Don't you just love his styling outfit?  I sure do!  LOL

Jessie & his Cowboy Bear

Melanee and her Texas Bear

Parker & his Batman Bear 

Mikayla & her soccer player bear (dog?)

Aunt Valerie also took them to the Aquarium and Swimming at the neighborhood pool.  Fun times were had by all.     

At the Aquarium in Dallas.  I just love this photo!

Swimming Fun with Cousins

Thank You Aunt Valerie for making sure they had a fun time while I had to work.

This is the end of Part 1...... look for Part 2 coming up soon.  

About Lilly

Three weeks ago my beautiful 6 year old niece Lilly was diagnosed with Leukemia.  It came as a shock for all of my family.  It is so hard to watch her struggle and be so sick.  I would take it away in an instant if I could.  However, she is such a strong little girl even though she is going through so much right now.  She is an inspiration to me.

You can follow her jouney here:  http://bebraveforlilly.blogspot.com/

Please pray for her, her parents, and her little sister Emery as they make this heart wrenching journey to wellness!

Now maybe I can get back to blogging!

You might be asking why I haven't posted anything for many months? 

Well as you know I have been in school and working full time and that has pretty much absorbed my whole life for a few years now. 

But guess what?  I am now an official college graduate with a Bachelor's Degree in Forensic Accounting.  Yee haw!!!  So happy to have accomplished this, which I never thought I would. 

So now I have created a task list of all the projects that need to get worked on, one of those is catching up my blog.  I have so much to tell you about!

I hope I haven't lost all my blog followers?   Hang on... I will be back soon with some updates on this past year.  Thanks for all of you who have hung with me. 

Good Deeds

I have been wanting to write about this for a long time but just haven't had the time with school and work and all that I have going on right now.  However, I feel that this story is important to share because it gave me Hope and a realization that there are still a lot of really good people in the world.

If you don't already know, I work at a bank.  A few months ago one of our female customers who is on a fixed income and can't work due to a disability came into the bank.  One of our tellers was helping her while I was helping another man.  The lady asked the teller how much money she had in the bank for which the teller informed her that she had $8.50.  The lady then informed the teller that she would like to withdraw all but the 50 cents but wanted to make sure that wouldn't cause her account to be closed.  The teller gave her the money and the lady left.

Meanwhile, I was helping a man who happened to not even be one of our customers but was only there depositing money into an account that did belong to one of our customers.  After I completed his transaction he opened his wallet and took all of his cash out and handed it to me asking me to please make sure it got deposited into that lady's account that just left.  He said it wasn't much but was all that he had at the time. And with that he left.  He wasn't a customer so we didn't even know his name.  He was a stranger helping another stranger in need.

And with that both me and the other teller broke out into tears.  What an amazing thing to do for a stranger! What he gave me to deposit may not seem like much to him, but could mean that lady may have enough for another meal when she may have had to go without.  It was really touching!  And it renewed my faith in people.

This example reminds me of a song by Alabama "Angels Among Us".   Here are a few lyrics.  

Oh I believe there are angels among us.

Sent down to us from somewhere up above.

They come to you and me in our darkest hours.

To show us how to live, to teach us how to give.

To guide us with the light of love.

I believe that man was an angel that day!  His example makes me want to be a better person!

Because everything is bigger in Texas....

Even the Texas State Flag!

Happy Wednesday to y'all!

The FaRmiLy

I just wanted to introduce you to some of our FaRmiLy....

LLAMA LOVE

This is are studly male Llama, Caesar

Isn't he a gorgeous animal.  Love his eye lashes.

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We have had 4 Llama babies since November

Up front and center is Cinnamon and her baby Oreo is behind her.  

Dotty is the white Llama and her baby is Brownie right there in the middle

Oreo was born in early November, Brownie was born about a week later.  

Caesar fathered Brownie.

This is Baby Cakes and her baby Valentino.

Valentino was born on Valentines Day!

This is Pyam and in the background is Sebastian

Pyam is pregnant in the picture.  

Sebastian is the father of Oreo and Valentino and the unborn baby.

He is quite the stud!  Wish I had a better picture.

This is Cinnamon and Oreo a day or two after he was born.

And here are our cows.  These beauties are all Brangus Heifers.  

They are named after the Disney Princesses, Ariel, Jasmine and Mireda.

These are our future breeders.  

And the newest member of our Llama family is this beauty named Mystique.

Pyam gave birth to her on March 28th.  

The cows welcoming her into the world.  

Each one got to give her kisses.  

Surprisingly, mama Pyam allowed them to do this.  

Very sweet!  

And this is our cat Tangerine who as you can see loves our Daisy

Also very sweet!  

And here is our little princess Abby at Christmas

There are still a few more members of our FaRmiLy that I need to get photos of.  For instance we have 10 baby chicks that are almost big enough to go outside into their coop.  Right now they are in the garage under a heat lamp.  I will post photos of them soon.  

Yes I am quite the Rancher, Farmer, Cow Girl nowadays.  

My Grandpa would be proud!

Lovin' this Life!!