Groveling for Gravel

Between all the heavy rains last year and this year, the gravel on the front walk had pretty much washed away. This left us walking on sand, essentially. Which meant it constantly tracked into the house. I hate sand. So I've been begging Justin to fix it and he finally did! After picking up 2 yards of gravel with the trailer, he used the tractor to unload it and fix my walkway. We also did part of the driveway. We still need to get a lot more to fix the driveway completely, but for now I can at least walk from my car to the front door on rocks (and track pebbles into the house instead!)

 

I used a big push broom to help spread it out and make it even.

 

Checking it out:

 

Every little boy's dream. A big pile of gravel to play in with trucks. He was VERY upset when I later spread this out over the driveway.

Creek or River?

Talking about all this rain, we had 6 inches of rain in 2 days last week. During a break in the rain, I was able to trudge down to the creek and take some pictures of the aftermath. There's a bench under the tree to the left that you can normally sit on!

 

Rain Puddles!

It seems like this year has just been rainstorm after rainstorm. I'll take rain over snow though, so I can't complain too much. So at the end of one rainy day when it wasn't too cold outside, I let the kids go run around in the puddles and get wet and dirty. They went straight to the bath afterwards but they had a blast.

Outside Play

We have been blessed with beautiful weather here recently so we've been spending lots of time outside playing. I think we played outside yesterday for a good 5 1/2 hours. The kids and I played soccer, dug in the dirt, played pirates on the playground, went for walks, had a picnic lunch, and climbed trees. I've been so busy playing with them that I haven't taken very many pictures lately. I made a point yesterday to get a few to post.

Here was our picnic lunch:

I climbed the tree first to show Levi how it was done. Then I helped him up. He liked it but was not interested in climbing any further. Mattie, however, was getting mad at me because I wouldn't let her go up the tree where I couldn't reach her. She's a little monkey.

 

Roasting Marshmallows

We had another bonfire the other day when it rained but it still had hot coals for days so we got it going again this weekend to finish burning a few more things. Since it was a beautiful day on Saturday while we burned, I grabbed some marshmallows and attempted to show Levi how to roast them. He somewhat enjoyed it (mostly seeing the fire up close) but he did not at all like the actual marshmallow. Weirdo. Just like his dad. But Mattie loved them and became a hot sticky mess!

Sorry, most of these are of my "good side"

Christmas Card 2014

Our 2014 Christmas Card for anybody we missed mailing one to.

Parades and Pet Deer

The kids and I visited Pop and Gram this weekend so Justin could have a quiet cabin and try to hunt. Plus, the Weinachts Fest Parade was on Saturday night in Boerne and I wanted to take Levi. I knew Mattie wouldn't last that long past her normal bedtime so she stayed home with the Grandparents while Levi, Aunt Hannah, her friend and old roommate Jordan and boyfriend Steven, and I went to the parade. In the past years, the parade was followed by Dickens on Main where the main street is shut down to traffic and all the stores stay open and activities are going on for the kids. Unbeknownst to us, that was not happening this year. Bewilderment and shock are an understatement to how we felt when we discovered that. Apparently, they only did it one weekend this year and it was the weekend prior. We still had a good time and visited a few of the stores that did stay open.

He really liked Steven. Thank you, Steven!

Another great thing about going home are the "pet" deer that my parents feed. They are so used to humans that a few of them you can feed right from your hand. Make no mistake, they do not have names and if they look just right, they could become dinner.

Apparently, this is the first time anybody hand fed this little buck!

Even Levi managed to be quiet and still enough to feed the deer!