This and that

A few more pics from spring break week. I am loving it that my friends have such great cameras...and jealous because now I want one too. But for now we'll settle for stealing their pics...:)

Rodeo time!

Ok, so the first picture isn't from the rodeo, but it's cute, and he thinks he's on a tractor, so I thought it could count. :)

The week of spring break was filled with adventure around here! We brought home Georgia -- who will now probably grace many pictures as well -- still leaving Todd and I behind the camera rather than in front of it I'm sure. We also took a trip to the Houston rodeo and to the Aquarium for the first time...all kinds of family fun! Needless to say, there are many pictures...I'll try and catch some highlights...

First stop, petting zoo. It took a while for the kids to get warmed up -- in fact, Elyse never did want to actually touch anything. But Will had a blast after a few minutes. Then he had to touch every animal and point them all out to us -- over and over and over. We are STILL hearing about them...



Then we moved on to "fun on the farm." Will really got into this -- must be that midwestern blood. :)

Planting onions...


Picking oranges...


Picking corn -- he thought long and hard about this one -- it's in his genes I tell ya!


Then at the end you have to "sell" all your goods. I thought for sure we'd have a meltdown because he wouldn't want to give them up. But he was quite the little farmer! Here he is checking out his crop cash -- times are tough it looks like. :)



The kids get to use their earnings to purchase a snack at the end -- here is Will with Elyse enjoying their juice and crackers they bought -- it was a good year for the crops I guess!



After that it was on to mutton bustin -- which Will LOVED. He laughed and clapped the whole time. I of course nervously pondered how many years I have left before he's going to want to actually do it...yikes!



Then we were off to the pig races. "Pigs go fast!" is now a popular phrase around here...and I had to include this pic to show sweet Elyse's reaction. She couldn't decide what to think about everything -- she kept clapping and saying "yea!" with a grimace on her face -- it was hilarious!



This is my favorite pic of the whole day. Doesn't he look like a little cowboy??



It was such a fun day with a couple of our favorite people. Who knows -- one day Elyse may be Will's little mutton bustin cheerleader!

It's a girl...

Dog, that is! Meet the newest member of our family, Georgia.



For some reason still unknown to even myself, while I was browsing the internet this morning I decided to look up rescue dogs in our area. This is something I have done many times before, and I always see sweet dogs, but nothing ever comes of it. Todd has wanted to get a dog forever, but we keep pushing it off as not the right time. But for some reason this morning all the planets aligned -- I saw Georgia, Todd saw opportunity. Next thing I know, we are calling the rescue program, Annie's Angels, to make arrangements to meet her. Here's her story...

An 80 year old woman who lives on a ranch in Laredo, TX has made it her mission to take care of all of the stray dogs she is seeing in the area. She even hired a ranch hand just to take care of them. One of the strays was pregnant and when she had puppies the woman rescued them and made sure each of them got a good home. She couldn't find enough homes for all 8 puppies, so she drove them here, to Annie's Angels, who have foster homes for dogs in the Houston area. Georgia had two siblings that made the trip with her that have already been adopted. She has been living with some wonderful people in Manvel, TX for the last two months. We went to see her today and it was immediate -- Todd was filling out the paperwork as soon as he could. Will was super excited -- he wanted to carry her -- and she didn't mind him trying, which pretty much sealed the deal.

We will be officially making her a member of the household next weekend -- I asked for the week to prepare the house (and my mind) for our new addition. Our spring break starts next weekend, so we'll be able to devote a little more time to getting Georgia acclimated to life around here. Be on the lookout for more pics!