Alaskan notions of a Texas girl has officially been changed to Notions of a Texas Ranch Girl.   We really enjoyed our Alaskan adventure in Juneau for over two years, but it is really nice to be back with family, back in our ranch house and seeing blue skies and the sun again!   Of course, we will probably be huddling around the air conditioner and think we are dying come summertime, but maybe we will be acclimated by then.

For now my boys think its fine summer weather (the weather in Texas right now is pretty much like a beautiful summer day in Juneau), and are always putting on shorts and flip-flops, when everyone around us are enjoying wearing sweaters and coats!

We have moved back into our house that we have owned for four years.   Its on our family ranch in the Texas hill country.   I do have one neighbor that I can see from my house, but since its my sister, its not so bad!  :)   Just yesterday I needed to borrow some eggs, so I called her house, no answer....   I went outside while I was still on the phone, and saw that her van was still there, so I recorded on her answering machine, "pick up Karen... I can see you are still there, I need to borrow three eggs, and Morgan is almost to your door to pick them up."   About that time her husband picked up the phone, and Morgan came home with 3 farm fresh eggs.    You can do that type of thing with sisters!

My other neighbors that I can't see, but live on the ranch are my brother Kolin and wife, brother Kevin and family, sister Krissie and family and my parents.    My great-grandparents bought this 600+ acre ranch in the 40's (I think for $20 an acre) and it has been in the family since.   There is a creek that runs through it and several stock tanks (when its not too dry).   Part of the ranch is also owned by my grandmother, and my great-aunt and cousins that live in Louisiana.   My dad is retired civil service, and he now ranches full-time.   He has a few cows, goats and sheep.   My new blog photo is one I took the other day right outside my house.    My dad also has a mule and pony, and my neice has a horse that are in the photo.    We can hunt white-tail and/or axis deer here on the ranch as well.

So it is quite the ideal place for four little boys to grow up, right around cousins and adventures for the making.

We had a nice Christmas yesterday.    The boys got bows and arrows that they were very excited about:

They also got bikes, so there is no stopping them now!   Morgan went to visit uncle Kolin on his bike right away.   We later went to my cousin's house for Christmas dinner, where I got to visit with family I haven't seen in 2-4 years.   They had a trampoline there which the boys thoroughly enjoyed:

And a photo of my two neices having fun on the trampoline: