Singles Tournament and Youth Hunting Weekend

Our Saturday started off bright and early for Zach's Singles Tennis Tournament.

Zach and Dad between matches...

He did great and it was exciting to watch him play! We are proud of you Zach!

Then we went to the Rankin Ranch for Youth Hunting weekend. We parked the truck down and road and walked to the Blind.

We had to fight off some wasp, but eventually they cleared out and we got go inside ...

and wait for sundown.

Zach is ready!

Right on time (7:15 pm) the deer started coming in to the feeder. We had to sit so quiet. Some of the deer looked very suspicious though. Like maybe they heard us...or felt us watching them...then here came the first buck. All eyes glued to it in the silence. Boom. We all watched the buck fall.

Wow. Zach shot his first deer.

Now we are waiting for our deer meat to be processed. Drew can't wait for that steak! Zach can't wait for his mounting. I'm just thankful for my family of boys and that I went with them. Precious memories...

Happy Halloween

Each year at our Elementary school, they have a "Fun Day" the last school day of October. Each year they pick a theme for the kids to dress up as. This year's theme was "StoryBook Character". Of course Drew wanted to dress up, but he wasn't in any hurry deciding what to be. We looked online and found a CUTE Curious George costume, but of course, that was too baby-ish for a 5th grade boy.

So on Thursday, (the day before Fun Day) he decided that he wanted to be a Civil War Union Soldier. He had a picture in a book of what he wanted, so off on the costume quest I went! Believe me, this quest was filled with prayer, because of the last minute and because I was right in the middle of one of my worst RA flares ever! My legs were hurting to say the least. However, I was glad to have a distraction from the pain!!

Here is an authentic Union uniform.
Here is what we came up with!

I found the authentic military hat and belt buckle and they were perfect! Plus the old Boy Scout mess kit with pouch was also PERFECT!! Then found a plain Navy shirt at Target! Hobby Lobby only had FOUR brass buttons, so I did my best with what I could find!
He really needed to carry a rifle, but of course, that is forbidden at school. It was great to see Drew dressed up with all the other kids and it was so fun getting to help him put together what he really wanted. I never in a million years dreamed I would have two boys that love history as much as my boys do. I am sooooooo glad God knows better than me!

Rankin Ranch

We spent the day at the Rankin "Ranch". (Dan lovingly named it "the Ranch" instead of the "land"). We loaded the deer feeder, killed the hundreds of wasps in the deer blind, rode the four wheeler and shot at targets and birds. Came home tired and ready for some yummy

2 Alarm chili Frito pie! We took these pictures in the cotton fields next to our Ranch. All three of my boys are counting down the days, minutes and seconds until Oct. 30th when they get to go deer hunting!

Tennis!

Zach had his first tennis tournament today. Here he is ready to leave the house, nice and early!
It was a doubles tournament. His partner, was Andrew.

They had to play 8 matches per game.

One game was a tie, 8 to 8. So they had to play a tie breaker. It was very long and stressful, but they pulled it off and won!!

(bottom) Here is Andrew getting ready to hit the ball. They had to play 5 games with 8 matches each game. (I hope I am getting this tennis lingo right....I'm learning tennis too!!)They came out with a 2nd place win for their division. There were 5 Jr. highs participating. Congratulations Zach!! We are sooooooo proud of you!! Keep up the good work!! ♥

Somebody's 13!!!!!

Yes, We have a teenager in our house!!! Happy Birthday Zach!!
Okay, maybe the cake is kinda kiddish, but it sure it FUN! And teenagers like to have fun!!

Little brothers like to have fun too!!!

Dan and I can hardly believe Zach is a teenager. It definitely hit me. Whew....but it's such a joy to see Zach grow up and see his interests develop! We can't wait to see what God has in store for his future!! It looks very bright!! ♥

We also had the pleasure of experiencing Zach's first choir concert this week. It's a 7th grade boys choir. They did fabulous!!! Dan and I were so proud!!

As I've said all along...Zach, you are such a treasure. Thank you God for Zachary!!!!!! ♥♥♥