Thanksgiving Weekend at the Lease

On Wednesday we loaded up early to head to North Texas for the Thanksgiving holiday!  Another weekend at the deer lease....just what I was dreaming of. Just kidding, maybe.....

No, really I enjoy it.  Minus the fact that I don't have Internet or any kind of civilization for MILES!!  But really though...I love seeing my boys in their element, and just look at these beautiful open skies!

My little hunters up bright and early ready to go!!

Or maybe not....Jack decided he was a little tired and took a little nap while I hunted.

These two come up with some crazy ideas...love their imaginations.  This is them hunting in a tree. 

Barrett and I had a ton of hogs come to our stand....now he loves this because he love to shoot things. As terrible as that sounds, hogs are a nuisance animal and we do try to get rid of them.  So, Barrett was glad to see them come out.  It was funny because we didn't take his gun that night I only took my guns, he asked if he could shoot my gun.  I said sure....now it may kick a bit more that your, but you will be fine. He shot and was knocked back quite a bit!  He said, MOM...that thing has fire shooting out of the end! I'm done with that! HA!!!  He still wanted to kill some so when they came back out I shot a couple. 

On Thursday I didn't hunt...I had to get our Thanksgiving feast prepared.  Let me say that cooking in trailers is not ideal...one oven and a small little stove will make you get creative!  We pulled it together and had a great lunch!!  After lunch the boys wanted to fish.......

We had such fun!  Jack threw his line out and caught his first fish!!!  Yea Jack!!

I even got in on the action.....

My treasure hunter found all of these turtle shells....I swear this child will "collect" anything!

On Friday Jeff and Cole joined us for the weekend.....Cole killed this awesome 12pt!!!

Way to go Cole!!!

I didn't do the best job with pictures this trip....to busy enjoying myself I guess!  We had a great Thanksgiving and we have SO much to be grateful for!!!  Tons of great memories made....We are so blessed!!!

Poetry Feast

Before the Thanksgiving holidays Barrett's class had their poetry feast.  The kids had a program where they each memorized a poem to present to the class and parents.  

Jack was excited to be there and was a big help, HA!

The parents all ready to hear the poems......

The kids singing their thanksgiving song........

Barrett reciting his poem....he did GREAT!!  He said he wasn't nervous at all...I'll admit, I was....just a little.  He remember his whole poem and read with enthusiasm!  

Next up was the feast!  

It was a fun day with my boys!  I cherish these times and being able to volunteer in their classrooms. 

Great Job Barrett!!

Barrett's 8th Birthday!

On November 8th, we celebrated Barrett's 8th Birthday!!  How do I have an 8 year old....HA!!

We started his day with birthday cinnamon rolls........

Blowing out his candles, err candle, err votive.....just keeping it real!!

Jack and I went to have lunch with Barrett at his school..........

and then we celebrated outside on the playground with his class!  I think the kids liked the cookie cake, I got a lot of "your the best mom ever" comments.  

Barrett's birthday fell during the week and we had a hunting weekend planned for the weekend....{Barrett told me he WOULD not miss hunting} so we had his party on his actual bday at Double Dave's Pizza.  

Very enthused;) can you tell......

The boys had a ball playing the arcade games....they may or may not have BROKE me with the quarters. Sheesh!!!

 It was a fun night with some very crazy little boys! Story of my life!  Happy Birthday Barrett!! We love you to pieces and are SO very proud of the young man you have become!!  

Barrett at 8

- You are 4' 1.5" tall and weigh 51 pounds

- You LOVE hunting and baseball.

- You are quite the ladies man {well...they like you, but you don't seem to care} 

- You are ALWAYS working on something!  Digging, raking, etc!!!

- You have had a great school year so far. Principal's 100 club, and tons of compliments from teachers. YEA!!

You continue to make us SO proud to be your parents!!  We love YOU!!!!

On a side note....your real present came while we were hunting, you killed an awesome 8pt deer. Fitting for my 8year old boy!!  

Hunting Season (for the minis) begins!

On November 2nd (ahh, finally up to the current month) we headed up North, to North Texas that is and our deer lease.  The boys were pumped!  It was finally gun season and they could FINALLY hunt.  

Jack and I killing time while Daddy put all the corn out....

Barrett and I hunted together in the bottom and Jack and Daddy hunted our front stand.  Barrett and I saw a ton of bucks our first morning, we had a good 10pt. that was around us he actually had an arrow in his side, like someone had shot him durning bow season but not killed him.  It was pretty crazy, he seemed to be fine eating and jumping around like normal.  I was going to let Barrett kill him, but the shot was a little to far for him and we never got a clear shot.  

My sweet boys....

They just LOVE being out at the lease!  In their element for sure.  I took the boys on a nature hike to look for treasure, I was just hoping that we didn't find any rattlesnakes!

We got up Sunday morning ready to hunt again....it was our last hunt before heading home.  We were hoping for some luck!  Right at daylight I could just barely see something down the lane, I got the binoculars and checked. Sure enough there was a buck there.. I told Barrett and he was so excited!  I explained that we had to wait until daylight so we could see it clearly.  When daylight broke I was ecstatic! The buck was massive, I told Barrett to get his gun he could shoot him.  He calmly got ready and I got my binoculars ready and watched the deer.  I told Barrett whenever he was ready he could shoot.  He made a great shot and I could tell he hit him!!  Now the waiting begins.....Here he is so excited and ready to go get his buck! 

I radioed Ryan so he could come help us.  We waited about 20 for them to get there, finally we could go.  We found a good blood trail and found the deer.  He was a massive 8pt.  He had alot of broken tines that I couldn't see in the early morning light, but honestly I would have taken this deer regardless because he is just such an awesome deer!  Way to go Barrett!!!!!!!!!!

Jack wanted his picture with the deer to....he can't wait until he can hunt!!

Barrett told us on the way home, "Mom I think God didn't give me a shot at the 10pt the first day because he was sending me my big deer."  Yes buddy, I think you are right!!  It was so wonderful to be there with him for this experience!!