Our house

So if you've never seen our house, my Mom took some pictures that I'll post here. Enjoy.

The front of our house. The tree is a pecan tree.
Our lovely driveway
The backyard
Backyard & patio with swing set (aka the Dillon Sleep Machine)
Our living room. Windows overlook backyard.

Amber

Happy belated birthday Amber! I sure love you my dear! I feel that every year I get to know you better, and we get closer. That's a wonderful thing. Thanks for all the advice & listening ears that you've lent me the past year. I appreciate your take on things, as you always have something to say that's worth listening to. Also, I never knew this about you, but you're a very nice, sweet person. That came out wrong. I always knew you were very nice & sweet, but recently, since you've come to visit us for about a month every year & I see you in action, I see that you're much sweeter & nicer than I've ever given you credit for. You have an incredible patience with your kids & are so much more "motherly" than I'll ever be.
Happy Birthday & may your year ahead be terrific.

Mom's Visit & Pics

So Mom visited us last week. We hadn't seen her for about a year and a half, so it was very special & nice to have that time with her. Thanks for coming, Mom! Jeff couldn't get any time off work, unfortunately, and so she pretty much just hung out with me & the kids....well, mostly with Noah, who monopolized her something dreadful. He is a very bossy child....can't think where he gets it. But Mom just played with him and colored and in general did "Grandmotherly" things till she was blue in the face, I'm sure. But Noah ADORES her & had such a great time. Dilly was just kind of there, like the blobular child he is. And Mom & I talked pretty much non-stop for the 4 days she was here & caught up on everything. It was pretty great.
We also went to the park for a picnic, had a "girls night" shopping extravaganza wherein nothing was bought (thanks, Jeff, for watching the kids!), went to dinner a few times, had a hair-straightening fest that Mom emerged from looking like a million bucks, and ended everything up by going out to Fabens to the working ranch they have out there & seeing the "anmeals" & eating dinner. It's really a great place....when any and all of you come out here we'll take you there, if you haven't already been. There are quite a few animal pens, almost like a mini zoo, a huge wooden fort & play set big enough to keep kids busy for hours, an indian corn maze, and a very nice steak house. After we wandered around the grounds for about an hour we had some great food & margaritas...and Mom even took the kids for a jaunt while Jeff & I ate our food, which was the 1st time in a while that we had been able to eat together. So that was very nice.
And now she's gone....sniff. We miss you, Momma.

Noah on the slide in the play area

Dillon looking dorky

Noah concentrating on driving the tractor

Mom & Noah in the hay wagon

Noah on the little old bouncy horses we found

I joined in

The tooth shot. Notice the new bottom teeth.

Dilly blue eyes

Handsome daddy and grumpy Dilly

Ostriches
Is your Mama a Lama?
The lama poopeth. Mom thought this was terrific material for a photo.
This guy is straight out of Dr. Seuss. I think the good old Dr. hit the crack pipe & looked at photos of lamas for inspiration, personally.