Worth the wait!!!

I know it has been months since my last post. I have been so busy, had computer issues and lots of excuses but I am back - I promise. I will try to post once a week if we have anything exciting going on.... :)

This week was the Williamson County Livestock Show and Youth Fair. We took the the RV to the fair grounds and made an event of it. Allie showed her little girl goat - Ginger Spice, and placed 5th in her class. This is very impressive considering she has not really been that into working her this year! She placed high enough to make the sale and will auction off Ginger on Saturday. Hopefully she will bring in a bit of money.

Emily & Allie both entered items into the Youth Fair. Allie entered candy and two jewelry items that she made during the summer with the help of Mrs. Carr. She won "Grand Champion" with her candy and one of her jewelry items.

Last year Emily won "Reserve Champion" with her Carrot Cake so she really wanted to take first place with something this year. She entered an item in each of the Cake, Pie and Bread divisions trying to increase her chances of winning. Boy did it work!! - She took "Grand Champion" in both the Cake and Bread divisions and "Reserve Champion" in the Pie division.

So in case you didn't get that = Out of six entries into the fair the girls brought home one 2nd place (Reserve) and four 1st place (Grand) ribbons!!! Pretty good for only the second year.

We are still at the show and have the auction tomorrow so I don't have photos to post just yet - but will add them soon so keep checking back!

Beerfest 2010

What a great time! No other way to put it....

We had great Food - from the yummy homemade pretzels and cheese sauce that Constanze and Markus made to the absolutely awesome brisket David smoked everything was wonderful.

Easy there, don't spill....

We did lots of relaxing and drinking ice cold beer...

There were lots of dogs - they all got along fine but tried to kill the chickens!

What a great success the first ever Anderson Beerfest was!

We are not the only ones building

Paul & Jen have made some real progress on building their house and barn. Thought I would share it with you.


Setting up the forms....
















Pouring the slab for the barn & house...

And erecting the barn between rain showers.

Can't wait to see it when it is all done!

Celebrating July 4th with Family & Friends

Camping and the 4th seem to go hand and hand for us...for a lot of us actually!

This year makes the 4th year in a row we have celebrated the 4th with Jared & Felisha and the 3rd year in a row to be with Markus, Constanze, Eric & Lisa. Look how much everyone has changed - 2009 & 2008

This year was extra special because Shayne, Gallant, Easton, my sister (Sandi) and Amanda's boyfriend Arron celebrated with us. Everyone came out to our land for lots of yummy food and fireworks. As always - we had a wonderful, stress free time with everyone.

Thanks, but we don't need any help gathering the eggs...

Last Saturday we spent the afternoon at Vivian's 5th birthday party. As always it was so much fun we didn't want to leave.... We had dinner with them and stayed very late.... When we lived across the street that was not a big deal but now that we have a 45 minute drive and a bunch of animals to care for when we get home it can make for a really late night. Last Saturday we had no idea how late it would actually be once we got to bed....


As soon as we got home the girls ran off to get ready for bed while David and I started to feed. I realized I still needed to get the eggs and asked David to go with me because I was scared there might be a snake in the chicken house. I had no reason to think that but I must have had a feeling because sure enough there was one in there!!!!!!!!!!


He had already chowed down on most of the eggs, including one of my ceramic ones and was eyeing my baby chicks! After I just about knocked David down running away, he grabbed the snakes tail and killed it.





I could not get to bed after that... thinking about that snake in there with my babies! It really scares me... and what do you know there was another one two days later.

















I am afraid we are just starting the battle with the snakes..... But with David as my "snake hunter" I am sure we will WIN!!

June was a busy month...

I have been very bad at keeping up to date on my posts. Here is June in a nut shell...

The first weekend in June was very busy with the Indy race in Dallas and Graduation in Cedar Park...

Danaka Patrick - "Go Daddy"

Looks like David, Markus, Jared, Felisha and Connor had a great time.

Graduation was LONG... over three hours long! It was exciting and sad all at the same time. It is hard to believe that Amanda will be going off to college in less than two months. They grow up so fast!

We celebrated Amanda's big day by having a BBQ party at Grannie Eloise's house. We had great food and got to visit with a lot of folks we had not seen in a while.

June is a big birthday month for us - David (4th), Amanda (19th) and Allie (22nd). We didn't get to really celebrate them like we usually do - David's was in Dallas for the Indy race on his and Amanda spent most of her day with her friends - Guess that is what happens when you turn 18~ Allie was at horse camp on hers. We did have everyone together that night for steak, baked potatoes and salad - Allie's favorite meal.

Allie was so glad to have all four of her sister's with her at one time..... but Easton stole the spotlight... he is such a cutie! He is in every photo and Allie wanted to hold him the entire time.

Allie wearing her new shirt from Emily and holding her nephew, Easton. What a great Aunt she is going to be.

Don't you dare call him "Grandpa".... He is really starting to like the little guy!

Look out HEB; you may have some competition coming your way!

It is official, I am an egg producer now!



I sold my first dozen eggs today to a lady at my work. I have given quite a few away to family and friends, but it was nice to actually get some cash in return.



She was very eager to get her hands on these precious little things. And evidentially, they charge $4.00 a dozen at the farmers market for farm fresh eggs!!!!!!! Maybe I need to get another 200 hens and quit my job.

Siding

After a few days of hard work the siding is moving right along… David and I have finished the front, one side and almost the back. Next will come caulk and paint - can’t stand the yellow color!

Isn't it super cute!!!

Won’t be long until we are hanging out and watching the “game” in there!

Easton has arrived

After a long labor he finally arrived - 7 lb, 14 ozs and 21 inches long.



Easton and Shayne




He was having a hard time breathing and went to the nursery so we weren't about to hold him yet. Hopefully we will get to really soon.

Senior Picture Time!

David took Amanda's senior pictures on Sunday... here is a pre-view...

The Scarlet "hand off"

Sunday afternoon, Erica, Grace and Carter brought Scarlet to live with us.


Erica made me this wonderful egg gathering apron to remind me of them each day when I gather eggs. I just love the egg material!

The drop off was going well until it was time to say goodbye - Grace didn't want to leave. Erica reassured her that Scarlet would have a wonderful home here, be very happy with the other chickens and that she could come visit her again soon.


As Erica quickly loaded the emotional Grace into the car, Allie and I found the sweetest little "Thank you" note I have ever received.



Don't worry Grace, we are taking super good care of Scarlet for you.



After just one day here, Scarlet is already having a ball with her new "big brothers and sisters."

Car #20

Allie has been waiting for Saturday, May 1st for quite a while. Not only was it the "kids day" at Home Depot but it was also the day that the Home Depot race was to be on display at our Home Depot.

Skye was here for the day and got to go with us. Both girls had a great time at the "kids day" where sky made a planter and Allie made this wooden replica of Joey Logano's race car.

Allie just happen to wear her Joe Logano shirt - What a coincidence!

After our morning at Home Depot the girls got to ride Cutter a little.

Yet another mouth too feed!

I have my chickens, the girls have their goats and now David has his horse!

Cutter is a beautiful, wonderful spirited, sweet horse. He has been living with our friends Sue & Jason for the last few years. Becasue they were not able to take him to New Mexico we bought him from them. He has not been ridden a lot in the last year but he is doing really well. He is getting really spoiled and seems to like all the attention we are giving him.

Eric & Lisa and Markus & Constanze came out last Sunday for a short visit and to see Cutter. The kids loved playing with all the animals.

I wonder what these two were pondering....

David giving "pony rides."

The chicks are hatching...

Check out Eric's blog to see the first of the three chicks, "Scarlett," hatching. Come on you other two - we can't wait to see you!

NASCAR!!!!!!!

A little late on this post... This was two weeks ago -

Thursday after school we loaded up the RV and headed to Fort Worth for a weekend of food, fun and racing....

Sue and Jason are moving to Albuquerque, New Mexico and asked us if we wanted to use their in-field camping spot for the NASCAR race at the Texas Motor Speedway. We could not pass that up - there is a 10 year waiting list to get these spots!

We had a great spot just after turn two... If you taped the race go back and see if you can spot our boxing kangaroo flag in the infield.

This is a special photo David took - it shows the Boxing Kangaroo flag and Marcos Ambrose (#27) - the only Australian NASCAR driver.

We rented "kangaroo tv" (no kidding that is really the name) for the kids so they could watch the race on a small tv screen and tune into the drivers talking to the pit crew. Actually it was really cool to hear the drivers talking as the cars zip past you.

It rained Saturday and Sunday but we stayed on Monday and got to see the race.

I am a Jeff Gordon fan (#24) while David and Emily root for Jimmy Johnson (#48) and Allie likes Joey Logano (#20) the Home Depot Car. It was a great time - would have been better if Jeff Gordon had won!