A day at the ranch...

Oh what a lovely day! We had an invitation to spend a day and night at the ranch in Dickens, TX. This is the first time I had ever been there and we had so much fun! We went with our good friends the Watts and the Louders and all of our girls so that added up to 10 of us. The girls played and the husbands went for a late night hunt and the moms vegged in front of the TV ...do you know how rare that is??

Friday night was a little rough for this family. We finally got in bed around midnight and then Farrah woke up at 2am ready to play. If we had been home Farrah would have gotten to put herself back to sleep but since we weren't wanting to wake the entire house James and I did everything we could do to put her back to sleep. The only problem is Farrah wanted nothing to do with sleep. I took the first two hours and gave up so James gave to the rescue and took the last two hours....You read it right, Farrah was up from 2am-6am. The guys were planning a morning hunt so James' alarm went off at 7:45am and you guessed it Farrah woke up! Talk about frustrated! This mama needs sleep and a lot of it.

So the guys went hunting and we made breakfast and got the girls ready for the day. After breakfast the guys wanted to take us around the ranch. We hopped on four wheelers and were off! Farrah LOVED it. I think all the girls loved it. Peyton slept the entire time and by the time we got back to the house Maci was out and Madison and Farrah were ready for a nap.

We only had one injury and that would have been poor Madison. We were driving through trees and the Louders and us were on the four wheelers so we were able to go around most of the brush but the Watts were riding on the Rover and a tree branch would not budge and went through the front and hit Madison in the eye and whacked Kelsey in the head. It was pretty scary for a second but both of them were fine.

Once we got back to the house it was nap time for the girls. The girls napped and then the adults went outside to shoot targets. We had so much fun shooting the new "toys".

We had such a fun weekend! We are truly blessed with such great friends!

On a side note I was having a tough time being a mommy this weekend on top of pure exhaustion. Farrah has entered the stage of hitting and throwing fits and I'm totally new at this and I have no idea how to handle this. Here Farrah is hitting and I don't want to spank her for hitting cause it seems like I'm hitting her for hitting. Does that make sense?? Anyways on the way back home I was talking to James and feeling like I have failed Farrah. I just really felt like God was telling me to just enjoy Farrah at every age even the hard ages. She won't be this age for very long and I want to make sure Farrah has wonderful memories, not memories of mommy being so wound tight. So today I choose to let Farrah be a 19 month old. Yes she will mess up and yes I will correct her but we are going to have some fun playing and laughing.

Tonight when I was getting Farrah ready for bed we played in the bath and played before bed. She got so tickled and had the biggest belly laughs and that is what parenting is all about! I needed some healing tonight and just by hearing my Farrah laugh and love and tease me was just what my heart needed!

Farrah showing daddy how to start the four wheeler.



The family



The Louders



The Watts (You might me a redneck if you strap you baby's carseat into a Rover!) Ha!







Maci, Farrah and Madison (I promise Peyton was with us she was just asleep)



I LOVE this picture of James with Farrah and Madison! I can't wait to see James with more children...he is such a great dad!



Be careful we all know how to shoot!! I promise all the guns were NOT loaded while taking this picture and all the little girls were inside sleeping!!



Thanks Watts and Louders for a great time! We ALWAYS have such a great time with you guys and your families mean the world to us!