Jaydens first deer, and other firsts...

First and foremost, hunting season is upon us and we now have 3 hunters in the family.  Ryan took the boys hunting this past week on opening day and Jayden shot this nice 3 point buck.  The next day he got a button buck!  He loves being able to actually shoot something!

 Dylan shot his first deer with a bow this year as well. 

Another first is for Luisa, she has stayed dry for 2 days now!  She is really getting the hang of this potty training thing, it makes her momma very happy, and she is enjoying the candy.  Found out she loves Tootsie Rolls, she picks them over all the other candy, every single time.  Anaya loves to help Luisa, and she takes her in with her when she has to go, just to show her how it's done, too funny!

I was able to park my vehicle in the garage for the first time!  This was a momentous event, one of my favorite things about this house is that we finally have a garage, and now it is cleaned out enough that I can park in it!  We were giddy with excitement last night as we were taking the groceries in and could hear the rain and wind out side!

We also were able to hang clothes in the closets for the first time since we moved in.  Ryan finished up all of the kids closets this week and it is so wonderful to not have the huge mess of clothes on the floor.  Ours should be finished this coming week and we will be done living out of suitcases!  We still have to get closet doors, but, for now...

We are looking forward to celebrating Thanksgiving this week, we sure have a lot to be thankful for! 

Jaydens first duck...

 He was pretty excited!

 Successful hunters and their proud daddy!

This picture cracked me up, Ryan took this with his phone while hunting, look at Easton's face mask, {they're all looking kind of funny,} but Easton...crazy kid!

Ryan took the boys hunting this morning for the youth duck season and Jayden shot his first duck!  Dylan shot 2.  I had said no hunting until we were in the house, however, I couldn't deprive my boys of this day, and besides, they were back by 9 AM!  And then we were off to work on the house. 

the great outdoors...

 In another post, I will show you how many pictures it took to get this one with all of them smiling AND looking my way!

Nothing clears the heart and mind as well as a leisurely walk through the woods with the family.  Today we were waiting to hear about a bid we put on yet another house{still have not heard about that,} and our dear sweet dog Max is not doing well at all.  He had a tumor removed while I was in Colombia, and he now has another tumor, and we are afraid it may be cancer.  He is in a ton of pain so we took him back to the vet today and he gave us some stronger pain meds to make him comfortable.  So sad!  I have never really cared all that much for an animal before, but I absolutely adore Max!

 We thought we may be a tad late looking for morels, but Spencer was the first to spot one, and the next and the next...all together he found 35!!!

 I found a few, Lucy kept watching me stare at the ground, and bend over and pick up a morel so she would bend over and grab a few leaves and hand them to me.  I think she was totally confused as to what we were looking for!  Sweet girl.

 Jayden found a few too!

 Anaya kept saying "I found one!", but then she would say..."nope!"  Funny girl.

The boys were sucessful in turkey hunting this year, not the daddy though!!  He had his chance, but he just can't shoot straight!=)

 Jayden and his huge tom with a 9 and 3/4 inch beard!

 And Dylan shot this jake earlier in the season.

 The boys went out fishing and we had our first fish fry a few weeks ago!

Psalm 104:24 {The Message}

What a wildly wonderful world, God!
      You made it all, with Wisdom at your side,
      made earth overflow with your wonderful creations.

Dylan's first post about his first deer...

This was my third youth hunt and my first deer.  On Sunday morning, me, my dad, and my brother Jayden went hunting on a corn field and in the middle of the corn field was a food plot (for deer). We woke up at 5:30am and got in the hut at about 6:30 am, we sat till 8:00am but we did not see anything.  We left early because we had to go to church.
At night, a friend of ours, Steve Riley, took me hunting in the same food plot.  When my mom dropped me off at his house I walked over to were he had his rifle set up.  I shot the rifle and hit the bulls eye right in the center!  If I wasn't on with the rifle, I would have had to use a muzzeloader that was sited in for 75 yards, but since I used the riffle, I could shoot further.
So, we went out to the blind at about 5:30pm and sat until about 7:00pm.  Then we saw a buck walk out of the woods at about 180 yards, from there, the buck walked behind a tree and into the corn, he stayed in the corn for about 20 minutes. Then finally, he stepped out, went up on his hind legs, and started licking branches, right when he came back down on to four feet, I shot him.  He was about 170 yards away when I shot him, then, we heard him crash about five seconds after the shot. I was shaking so bad, even Mr. Steve was shaking and he didn't even shoot.
  We left the blind and went back to his house and watched the video just to make sure I got it.  I called my dad ( who was at youth group ) and my mom and told them to come and help me find it.  We got out there and there was not a drop of blood on the ground, but we walked right up to it.  He only ran about 20 yards, if that.  He had an 11 1/2 inch spread and was supposed to be a ten point but the brow tines were cracked off, so he was an eight point buck.

                                                                  Me and Mr. Steve.

                                                                Me and my buck.

                                       My Dad and My brothers, came out to help me drag it out.

                                             Me and my brothers dragging out the deer.

                                                               Thank you Mr. Steve!

Successful turkey hunters...

This is Dylan with the jake he shot early Wednesday morning.  Spencer and Ryan were with him.

And this is the turkey Ryan shot last Friday morning.  Spencer and Easton were in the blind with him.  Dylan and Jayden were sittting nearby.

Ryan's traditional turkey picture with all the kids.  He woke Anaya up to get the picture before he headed off to work.  Now that all the tags are filled the boys can finally get a full nights sleep.  They were getting up at
5:00 AM and would be home by 7:30 so Ryan could get to work by 8:00.
CRAZY kids!!   But they loved it!
So thankful for a patient daddy who takes them with him!

whoa, long time no post....

First of all, thumbs up for Ryan, he shot a nice buck last Friday night with his bow! The boys helped with the short tracking job, thus the cute picture, they were pretty excited!

And a great big thumbs down for me, who has been super busy doing SEVERAL things other than blogging! But, I am happy to report some of those things are finally finished! One of the things I was working on was a photo album of our trip to Guatemala. Yes, I am aware that was well over a year ago, however I had over 500 pictures to deal with and let's just say it got a little overwhelming for me. I go into shut down mode when I get overwhelmed, but I got a 20% off coupon plus free shipping that had to be used by the end of the month, so, nothing like a good discount to get me moving, and I finished it up. All 208 pages of it! I also put my blog in there for that period of time, I am so happy it is done, it didn't cost me a fortune, and we will have a nice big ol' coffee table book of our time spent there!

Anaya has been playing with her babies so much lately, so I hauled all of my old babies out and she was thrilled! The doll with the bib is wearing one of the outfits Anaya wore on our first visit trip! It was tight on that doll!

The look on Easton's face says it all! That is a LOT of mandarin oranges ~ the sick thing is they ate almost all of them in ONE sitting! WOW! I don't want to see our grocery bill in a few years!

Turkey hunting success...

Ryan did a good deed and actually got a bird in the first few days of his season! (He shot it because Spencer was with him...he usually waits for a "big one") He usually passes up a few birds so that he can continue hunting for the entire month! He denies this, but its true. He was quite bummed that he was done! I bet he won't do it again next year...

This was Dylan's first year to turkey hunt and he got this nice Jake! He was pretty pumped! Thanks Grampa VZ for taking him!

Ryan actually prepared his turkey for our mothers day lunch! Every year he makes me and my Mom and Grama lunch for mothers day. This year my Grama was sick and he invited his parents over as well. He is quite the cook and always puts out quite a spread! This year it was a turkey stir fry, some awesome potatoes, rice and an incredible peanut butter parfait brownie dessert!! YUM!! Thank you Ryan, you are an amazing husband and I love you!

Success...

Ryan had 1 1/2 hours tonight and he took all 4 boys hunting! Usually this means that their chances for actually getting anything are slim to none. But they have fun just trompsing through the woods. Today however, they had success! First, Dylan shot a squirrel on the way to the duck pond! Then he was able to shoot a duck too! He called me when they were on the way home to tell me, he was so excited! He said that Daddy had to go swimming to get the duck out of the water...

Sure enough, Ryan was wet to his shoulders!! I couldn't believe he did that! Ryan said Dylan shot the duck at 6:30, and they were supposed to be home by 6:45,(so I could go to Bible study) so he just jumped in and got it for him so they could get home on time! What a great guy! Crazy, but great!

Dylan's duck had 2 bands on its legs, one of them said $100 reward! If he gets $100, I may take up duck hunting!!! I guess we have to call in with the band number, so we will see! Uncle Matt says its true, he will get $100~and Uncle Matt knows duck hunting so Dylan is pretty pumped!

They love their Daddy.....

And it is all smiles when they get to go hunting with him, but that was not the case tonight!

Tonight they were all in a tizzy because Ryan is leaving to go down to Hamilton so he can hunt tomorrow morning, and they had to stay home! Usually he takes them with him when he goes, except for opening day of course! Well, today was opening day, and he did go out for a little while this morning, but tonight he was HOME for dinner(and then we had church!) Home for dinner on opening day of bow season ~ this has NEVER happened! As long as I have known him(like~almost 20 years)he has never missed going out on opening night!! So as you can imagine this was very strange for him, and then he had to deal with the boys too! It was so funny to hear him "guys, I take you with all the time... Daddy just needs one day to hunt alone... I will see you tomorrow night at Grama's house... Friday, I will take you hunting...it is just one day..."

He came upstairs looking frazzled and said~"Am I selfish?" ABSOLUTELY NOT! You go and have fun Ry!! I love that man!

Guess what season it is?

HUNTING SEASON!

Finally, fall hunting season is upon us (Ryan's thoughts). This is the first fall that Dylan can hunt for the entire season. After he turned 10 last February he shot his first squirrel, but this year he could go on many more hunts.

It started on Labor Day with a goose hunt on Grandpa VZ's farm. Shot no geese but saw a few. The guys in the field next to us shot 16. Bummer.

Then there was an early doe season on Uncle Robb's farm. We did not shoot any, Dylan was wishing he was 12 so he could use the gun as all 8 does stayed around 25-30 yards away. Dylan has practiced hard with his bow and can consistently shoot in the bulls eye within 15 yards. So any deer that ventures that close will be filling our freezer.

Then this past Saturday was a youth (10-16) duck hunt. We could not go in the morning as Stacy was at a women's retreat, but she returned by late afternoon and off we headed to our favorite waterfowl pond. Uncle Matt and Bryce were our guides and Dylan shot his first duck as it flew over his head. . I do not know who was more excited but I think I saw Matt doing a dance by the other pond . Thanks Uncle Matt.

Next comes the most anticipated season of all, bow season on October 1.

Mommy always knows it is nearing hunting season when the boys wear 2 pieces of camo every day! No joke! The rule at our house is, you can not leave the house (unless of course you are going hunting)with 2 pieces of camo on. Only 1 piece of camo if we are going in public! But during the day, I don't really care what they wear if we are at home and camo is the uniform of choice around here!