December 4th 2009 SNOW!!

What a treat! Snow in El Campo, Texas in early December will certainly get you in the Christmas spirit. The girls went down to El Campo with Aunt Misty, Aunt Wendy and Grandpa at lunchtime on Friday. Grandpa and Aunt Wendy came up to visit Great Grandma Dornak who is in the hospital not feeling so well - please keep her in your prayers. I went to EC later that day after work. The girls had 2 days of fun in the snow and I got to join in the fun on Saturday. After snowmen, snow angels, snow balls and sledding behind a 4 wheeler (no hills in EC) we were all snowed out (and by we, I mean me). All I remember growing up was the occasional freeze with crunchy icy grass on my way to the calf pens to feed my steers. On a really cold day there was ice at the water trough that I had to break up. Guess it's all that global warming that has made it snow in December in 2004 and in 2009- ha. I'm not even going to get started on that...enjoy the pictures, we sure enjoyed the cold treat!

We are Thankful...and Busy!

(I originally started this post over a week ago - fitting that I'm just now getting back to it!) With so much going on around the holidays I don't get in all my "post worthy" pictures and stories, but I'm going to attempt a quick catch up tonight. Addie continues to amaze me daily. Whether it's "reading" Where the Wild Things Are (she knows almost every word in the book), randomly quoting Cinderella ("Momma, it broke into a thousand pieces" she informed me this morning on the way to school. I quickly agreed and was clueless until this evening as we were reading Cinderella I read the line where the evil stepmother tripped the guy with the shoe), being super sweet to her sister (Nora got her first taste of a sucker this evening. At least it was organic. That makes it better, right?), singing Spanish songs that I don't understand but her dad does, or just showing her spunky little personality, "I'm a beautiful princess with radient blonde hair, right my Mommy?" That's one of her things these past several months. When she's buttering me up I'm "my Mommy" and when she's pouring it on thick with Chris he's "my Da da." Nora is getting BIG. I'm going to weigh and measure her some time this week so I can record her 10 month old stats in her baby book. This week every time I hold her I realize just how big my baby has gotten. She is an amazingly happy go lucky child- pure sunshine. She's "communicating" non-stop and barking is a favorite method. So she looks really smart when you ask what a dog says because more often than not she's going to bark in excitement:-) She also moos and quacks. Actual English is being learned as well. She is actually starting to listen to instructions like "come here" and "lay down," but we're still working on an accurate response to "No, no."

Mmmmmmmmm......pie!!

Nora is the little Indian on the right.

Addie's daycare had their Thanksgiving feast the week before Thanksgiving. We went down to Houston to Chris' Aunt Clarice's house for lunch on Thanksgiving and Addie had a blast playing with her cousins, Caleb and Abigail, who she met for the first time. After a little black friday early morning shopping- my first attempt ever and really not that bad- we were out to the ranch for the remainder of the weekend to spend some time with Oma (who was sick on Thanksgiving day and so couldn't join us), Opa, Aunt Cassy and Aunt Courtney. Aunt Cassy shot an awesome buck that Addie and I helped "track" - it fell about 100 yards from where it was shot.

Run Run Run As Fast As You Can...

We had a hard working weekend full of cleaning and painting. It's amazing how quickly you get sore after 2 days of physical labor, especially when using your "painting muscles" which don't get used that way very often. On Saturday the girls stayed with Oma and Opa while Misty, Chris and I went to work painting. On Sunday the girls came with us for the morning. I graciously volunteered to entertain them while Chris finished staining the balcony and Misty put on a second coat of paint. Nora loves to be outside and was happy to pick up leaves while I was picking pecans. Addie loved picking pecans too but got a little confused and sometimes called them apricots and other times called them leprechaun (I had to spell check that word - don't think I've ever written or typed it before - very odd). She was certain that she liked how they tasted! It was really cute when Chris later cracked several of them for her and she stored them in her little pants pockets. Every now and then she'd sneak one out and eat it up, just like a little squirrel.

Even more fun was than picking pecans was running. We were taking a few pictures when Addie asked me, "Mommy, can I run to that tree?" There was pure joy on her face when I told her she could. She wasted no time, I think because she thought I might change my answer, and promptly took off to touch the tree. After only a moment's hesitation she ran back to me at full speed and almost knocked me over. This was repeated several times before she decided she needed a new direction to run in. Again, the cautious question, "Mommy, can I run over there?" I told her yes and the look on her face was like she just couldn't believe her luck. She took off again and after a few laps stopped only to pick a dandelion which she took delight in blowing to pieces. Then it was time for lunch so Chris took them to his parents house, fed them and put Addie down for a few hours nap while Misty and I continued the painting process. This was perfect timing though because it rained the rest of the day.

It'll be fun when Nora is running after Addie, and she keeps getting closer to this every day. She's standing and balancing on her own fairly well. Last Thursday after spending most of the day at home with me because she was running fever, Nora actually let go of the couch and took 2 steps my direction in a desperate attempt to make me pick her up. Chris and I both saw it and couldn't believe it. Needless to say there has not been a repeat since then. I don't think I'm ready for a 9+ month old to walk:-)

Nora is still working away at her little teeth. One other new development is the departure of "Baby Love" from our house. This was the kitten that I picked up off the road a few weeks ago. He's finally at his new home with Joanie Roome's mom. Addie was a little sad to see Baby Love (a name she gave him last week out of the blue) leave but it was certainly time for him to go!

October 2009

We spent a lot of time in October out at the ranch. One highlight was getting our "family stand" put in place (thank you Chris, Dad and Doug). My dad created this stand (wtih the help of Dwayne) based upon my request for something similar to the stand I grew up hunting in. However, the end product here isn't your ordinary deer stand. For starters it has a regular door for a house on it. The idea is that it is large enough to fit a lot of kids (our kids, friends, cousins - not that we intend to fill it with our own kids:-) and several adults. It's by one of the tanks so the kids are sure to have entertainment while they "sit out." I've already added a little potty and will soon add a survival kit complete with crayons, coloring books, books, etc... so I don't have to haul that stuff back and forth every time. The first time Addie and I sat in it (for a total of 45 minutes) she saw 2 elk (which is amazing in light of the fact that there are no elk out there). I had a great time listening to how they would fall down and hurt their knees which of course would require a kiss to make it better. She also tried to look out of my binoculars a few times only to inform me that they were broken and that she needed her own baby binoculars. I'm looking forward to many more future hunts in this stand!

The weekend before Halloween we made a day trip into Fredericksburg to see Oma and Opa and the great grandparents. Oma put on a really scarry mask to give Addie her treat but it didn't seem to bother Addie at all. She knew it was Oma's voice and walked right up to her showing that appearances don't matter to Addie - it's what is inside that counts!! Especially if what is inside is offering you a treat bag:-)

Addie had decided quite some time ago that she wanted to be a black kitty for Halloween. Lucky for me, Aunt Holly had 2 black kitty costumes that were just the right size! (many thanks Aunt Holly) To add to the fun, about 2 weeks before Halloween I rescued a little black kitten from the middle of a road that has 4 lanes of traffic while on my way to the courthouse. The girls have REALLY enjoyed having the kitten around and thankfully next week he is going to his new home. While we had him though, I thought it'd be cute to get a few pictures of the girls with him. Addie was only too happy to oblige although I can't say the same for the kitten.

Because Halloween was on a Saturday this year, we were able to go Trick-or-Treating with all our cousins! First we went to see Skylar (peacock), Cadence (ladybug) and Luke (bumble bee). We had a delicious but spooky meal (red popcorn, soup in a pumpkin), changed into costumes, took swings at a pinata, and went on a hayride trick-or-treating. Unfortunately, I wasn't checking my pictures as I was taking them, and most of the photos that evening were too dark to see anything in them:-( We got a few pictures early on though under the carport (while the pinata was being beaten). Next we went to see Charles (fireman) and Abigail (Tinkerbell) and went to some houses in their neighborhood. At one point Addie told a lady "I want some candy" instead of "Trick-or-Treat" so we had to have a little talk. She wasn't rude about it, just being honest, but we had to talk her out of that before it became a habit.

Opening Weekend with the Dornaks

This past weekend was opening weekend down at the ranch and we had my entire family out - 7 kids and 9 adults, we still have them outnumbered...for now. The weather wasn't the best, kindof overcast with occasional rain on Saturday and Sunday with occasional windows of sunshine. Luckily Misty brought some shirts and paints so we could all make Halloween shirts, although if she hadn't brought them I'd have probably been able to take a much needed nap - oh well. We'll actually all get to go trick-or-treating together since Halloween is on a Saturday this year so the shrits will be fun to wear during the day on Halloween.

Skylar and Holly painting a shirt.

The highlight of the weekend was taking all the kids on a ride in Dwayne's newly created top-drive truck complete with seatbelts for the kids and coolers stocked with juiceboxes and cokes. Unfortunately, because of the weather, we didn't get to ride in it as much as we would have liked. We had a lot of fun together anyway and even managed to get a few deer. I did a poor job of taking pictues so I had to borrow a few from Holly (thanks Holly). As the kids get older trips like this get easier in my opinion. It's so fun to see them all interact and to be able to pick up on who they seem to be taking after personality wise.

Backseat riders in the top-drive truck.

Side view of top-drive truck. Notice the ice chests are padded and have a frame welded around them to hold them in place. I was sitting on the one you see in the picture and put on juice patrol!

We're off for the first trip.


Charles chalking early Sunday morning.

One of my favorite examples of this was a conversation between our Addie and Wendy's Abigail. They were on the back porch EARLY in the morning with Grandma when Abigail said "That's a forest," to which Addie replied, "No, those are trees." Apparently this exact conversation was repeated several times until finally, Addie relented and said, "Ok. That's a forest." Later when Grandma was telling the story, Addie dutifully spoke up again and said, "No. Those are trees." I had to laugh because it reminded me of me and Wendy. We can be saying essentially the same thing but because we each have a different way of looking at it we just may disagree - and I'm always going to get the last word:-)

It was a ton of fun. Addie didn't even make it out of the gate before she was out!

Our Sweet Girls

Both our girls are happy, healthy and growing every day. Nora is 8 months old today and is crawling and pulling up on everything. If you happen to be holding her and she sees the cat you better hold on tight because she is going to kick and twist while squealing with delight. She is such a loving baby and has nothing but smiles and laughs for everyone - until it's bedtime that is.

Poor little Nora would love to be held in our arms all night long and she is such a good cuddler. In the past few weeks Nora has gotten quite insistent on not being left alone at night once we put her down. After one particularly painful-to-listen-to crying bout I went upstairs to check on her and found my sweet sleeping baby gripping the rails on her crib while slumped forward in a sitting position. Chris and I repositioned her but took a few pictures first.

The past week and a half in San Antonio has had some much needed rain. This was good news for our grass and was especially good news for Addie as Grandma had given her a princess umbrella for a back to school gift. Aunt Courtney had given her a duck raincoat for her birthday, and she had just picked out some pink Minnie Mouse rainboots on a recent trip to the Disney Outlet in San Marcos. She was in heaven getting ready to go out the door to school the first day of the rain. We took some pictures when we got home - when it was no longer raining.

The biggest news in the past week and a half is Addie's decision that she wants to be potty trained. This literally was an overnight decision made one Saturday night after bathtime. Long story short - Brooke at school wears big girl panties and so now Addie Schoessow wears big girl panties. SO PROUD!!

Addison has also always been a little spoiled by the ladies at daycare. They love to play hairdresser with her in the afternoon (after nap time) and more days than not she comes home with product in her hair and a super cute hairdo. Here's just one example of what they can do:)

Finally, some pics of my girls playing together. This is what I've been looking forward to ever since I found out I was having another girl - evidence of that special sister bond! They are already conspiring against me too. Addie has started "lifting" Nora and rolling with her. I can say NO until I'm blue in the face but as long as Nora laughs 9 out of the 10 times Addie does this to her Addie is encouraged and continues to do this regardless of what I have to say. They really love each other and are so sweet to watch together. We really are blessed.

You catch a fish?

This past weekend we took a trip to the landcut to do a little fishing. While rain threatened off and on throughout the weekend we only had a light rain for part of the boat trip there and a few showers mid-morning Saturday - not too bad. There were some beautiful sunsets and rainbows so we certainly can't complain.

This was Nora's 2nd trip to the landcut in the 7.5 months that she's been around. I think she really enjoyed this trip, at least she was much more interested in everything that was going on around her. She handled the 35 minute boat ride like a champ sleeping the entire way there and back! We are pretty sure she began teething in earnest on this trip although no tooth has erupted yet.

Addie, oh Addie. Boy does she LOVE to fish. Everthing appeals to her from the boat ride, the "shrimpies," bait, lures (pronounced "loo-uhs"), reeling fish in, throwing them back (if they don't measure up), and eating them. She also had a blast playing with her cousins Skylar, Cadence and Luke. The cutest part of the weekend was on Saturday night when she was running back and forth between Dad, Grandpa and Mr. Garret (Chris' friend Garret Bonn) reeling the fish in after they hooked them. Once the fish was on the pier she'd state "You catch a fish!" very excitedly. She helped reel in speckled trout, red fish, and "flounder fish." After she and Grandpa reeled in a keeper trout, Addie went up to Aunt Misty who wasn't having as much luck. She started reeling in Misty's lures and asked her "You catch a fish?" Misty was slightly irritated at not having caught a fish in several casts when most everyone around her was catching fish. She told Addie no but that when she hooked one Addie could help reel it in. Addie kept reeling in Misty's line anyway and told her in the sweetest voice "Addie will catch a fish for Misty." Aawwww. I actually caught it on video and can imagine the day when I'll need to replay it to remind me how sweet my daughter can be.