Naming the hens

Introducing the newest ladies on the ranch....

SISTER MONICA JOAN

and DAISY

Its only been 2 days, but they are becoming fast friends. They love to snuggle side by side. 

And they LOVE the coop! As soon as I put them in the cage on the grass, they quickly climb the ladder and up to the 2nd floor to the nesting boxes. 

Norman is not to sure about this yet....

The gals

Happy Easter!!!

New life is in my heart...and in my yard.

Farm fresh eggs, here we come!....in a few months, that is.  These lovely ladies won't be ready to lay for a few more months - they're only about 4 weeks old.

Can you see mungo checking out the coop? I can't even write a chicken post without those sweet kitties being in it.

Anywho, here are the deets on the birds: 

One bird is a Buff Orpington...the "buff" colored one. She will be a lovely light tan color, and i'm told these birds are incredibly friendly! 

The other bird is called a Barred Rock, another people-lover, and she'll have an awesome black & white pattern when her feathers come in. They're already starting to appear - can't wait to see her!!

I hope they will be best friends. Guess I should get busy naming them...

Cats and other stuff....but mostly cats

I feel like I should rename this blog "our country life.....who am I kidding, its all pictures of cats!". 

Ok fine. Before I get to the animals, here is some non-cat news. I am allergic to bandaids. And Neosporin. And I can't wear normal earrings anymore because I'm allergic to anything that's not gold. And I have to start wearing glasses because I'm cross-eyed. Yep, after 31 years, my skin and eyes have decided they won't work and play well with others. So this basically means if one were to give me a paper cut, shove sterling silver into my ears, take off my glasses and walk away, I'd probably just turn into a giant blistery blurry rash and die right there on the spot.  As un-excited as I am about the glasses, I AM super thrilled about being one of those cool old ladies with ridiculously large glasses, clip on earrings, and loud sweater sets. 

Now to CATS! And my sweet doggle. He'll always be my #1.

I've started calling them "big brown & lil' white". They go everywhere together. Its so adorable. 

Toonces (rapper name "lil' white") has FINALLY healed from the horrible hole-in-her-side injury.....and the results are a bit odd. 

Instead of re-growing long white fur, she grew short black fur. Her beauty spot!

The boys are still loving being outside and have claimed all of our outside toys for napping...

It only took Munch a few hours to claim the go kart. 

And finally, here's good ol' Normy. With his most hopeful spirit, he lays in front of that heater every day knowing it will magically spring to life and emit heat. It hasn't been plugged in for 2 months. 

Until next time... :)

big ol' boat

Its always so nice to get away - and even better to get away with family! I was so fortunate to go on a Tropical cruise with my man and his fam.  Here are a few highlights...

I'm pretty sure the cave tour ("Gumbalima Park" in Roatan...in the JUNGLE) did not include this photo stop, but whatahusband and I couldn't help ourselves. 

 

 While at the park, we got to get up close and personal with the birds and monkeys!  

LOVED seeing these incredible jungle trees!

 

Drinks with my sistil!

Did you know if you put your snorkel mask on backwards you turn into Zorro??

All dressed up on the boat.

Cause...why not? 

Please note the very realistic fingers on the beer bottle. Nice touch, wooden sign maker.

 

This guy. 

 

Can't wait to go on another cruise!!!!

Christmas and Phone dump

Happy New Year! I hope 2014 has been good to you so far.

Here's a few pics from our family Christmas.  Why is it that I never seem to get enough pictures??  Just too busy drinking cocktails having fun.

We had a great time laughing with my side of the fam, and lovin' on my sisters kiddo's.  Here are the sweet twins.  They absolutely love sitting down for a book.  The thing is, you have to read it fast, because they'll hop up and get another before you get to the end.

 

Here's Kadyn in the bath.  Such a cutie with that huge smile!!!!

After a long Christmas day, this sweet boy was not ready to leave everyone and go to bed. With tears in his eyes he walked up to whatahusband and said, "Will you please read me a story before bed?"

"Of course! Pick out a book and let's go."

Well, Skyler picked out the longest, smallest print book you've ever seen. (Whatahusband walked right into that one, eh?) The Jungle Book for kids. But he faithfully read every word in his booming baritone voice. And was even corrected a few times by the pronunciation police. "No, no, you say it mow-glee, Uncle Russell. MOW-GUH-LEE."

Back at the ranch, my little kitty killers are keeping warm by trying to catch birds. They are usually WAY to far away to actually reach them, but they still try. On new years eve, this pile of feathers showed up outside our doorway. They got a cardinal!

All three of them were huddled around the pile of feathers, proudly showing us that they infact were the ones responsible for this.  Munch and Toonces had feathers stuck in their fur. I was so happy for them!

They licked the feathers for hours. Getting every last drop I suppose. haha

On New years eve night, Whatahusband proved that he is the cat whisperer.  They flocked to him like he had catnip cologne. It's only a matter of time before we are "the cat people" - heaven help us.

And finally, this super cold weather has been WICKED...we are miserable.  We huddle up at night and drink hot cocoa, praying for summer and worrying about our cats outside. Ok, so I worry about them. I know they're fine, but it's so cold!! I want to sneak them into the laundry room, but I always get caught. The only one I'm not worried about is this long haired girl - - she has grown this amazing winter coat, and she is constanly pearching on the lawn mower or kitty house showing it off.  We just love her!!

Turkey day

So many things to be thankful for this year! Norman and the kitties survived, mainly because of our awesome doggy sitter, and although the dog house looked like a frat party had been thrown in there, they were all alive and happy when we arrived back home.

We had an awesome time in San Antonio with whatahusbands family.  This was only my second family thanksgiving as an official member, but I am feeling like part of the clan these days. Example: I pinched a few butts and blamed it on my sistil. :)  (these were not random butts, these were family butts.)

Random photo op in the parking lot of H-E-B in front of Whatahusbands favorite beer. I just realized "Never say die" is the slogan. That is serious.

One of the very special things we did while we were there was to visit the family Ranch, Stoney Hollow.  The fam is always telling stories about times at the Ranch growing up, and it was really cool to see it in person. It's getting a much needed facelift (see giant construction vehicle we are sitting on), but in a few months it will be back in shape for a whole new generation of kiddo's to make memories. 

Look at these sweet babies!! My nieces. We are the three blondes swimming in a sea of brown. The distance is so far when we're apart, but the times are so sweet when we are together. 

 

My sistil! Love her.

 

Back at the house, my little helpers and I made their uncle's bday "cheesy cake".

They are phenomenal stirrers...and tasters.

And this is the sweetest ever. See that white powder on Whatahusbands face, hair, and shoulders? These girls have been talking about pranking him for probably a year now.  Scheming. Coming up with ideas. Getting up the courage to finally prank him...and they did it! Powdered sugar on the head when he was sleeping. They're on their way to being in the family prakin' business.

My gosh, I made it that whole trip without a big family picture!! I always do that. Dang. Next time!

The guests

Poor norman. His fence and house got him MUCH more than he bargained for.

The photos tell it so much better than i ever could....

I'm going to file this as a win :)