Cattle

My dad has always had a dream of owning longhorns. He grew up in Texas and was a UT fan. I grew up hearing him sing their fight song and learning the how to make the Longhorn sign. Even though I grew up in OK, I proudly let people know that I was born in Texas. Seriously, I'm 33 and I think people want to laugh at me when they ask me where I'm from. I can't just say, "We live in _____________". My answer is ALWAYS, "I was born in Texas, but I grew up in Tulsa". I LOVE TEXAS!!! And, with that I have been a Longhorn fan for as long as I can remember.

How perfect God's plan was to allow us to have best friends that own a longhorn ranch: Semkin Longhorns. We immediately started buying meat from them (b/c we love them, but also b/c longhorn meat is leaner than most all other meat). From there, my dad decided it was time to fulfill his dream. He bought longhorns.

 My dad's longhorns stay at the ranch in Perry, OK. On Father's Day, we decided it was time for him to meet them. :) We drove to the ranch and got a GRAND tour of all their land.

These beauties are about two years old. They are old enough to become Mommas, but their horns aren't quite "long" yet.

Meet Gus! He is the oldest longhorn on the ranch and his horn-spread is over 100-inches long! He's super sweet and super friendly! We enjoyed loving on him!

We were able to see a couple new babies too! They were probably one day old and hadn't been tagged yet. They must have been having a play-date b/c their mommas were just hanging out while the two babes played together. They look like they could be related, but I don't know if they are. I just love their white color!!! So clean!

One of the bulls - He was pretty determined to get the treats we brought and wasn't interested at all in sharing. :)

This little one was BRAND NEW! We must have missed its birth by minutes!!!! Okay...it could have maybe been an hour, but probably not longer than that! What was really awesome was that we got to see it stand up on its own for the first time! Precious!!!

Meet Unbreakable. He and my hubs go way back. :) They have a very strained relationship. Apparently, Unbreakable had met a new lady friend that belonged to another rancher, which is a big "no-no"! KP was ranching that day with our friends and had to tear Unbreakable away from his new love interest. Needless to say, Unbreakable was not very happy about it and, funny enough, seems to remember KP every time they see each other. KP also calls him "Ruger with horns". :)

And, finally these last pictures are my dad's "dream come true". :) These are all longhorns that he owns. We love them. They are more like pets than they are cattle, so they'll probably be a part of our family for a long time.

I guess this is kind of a dream come true for me too. Ever since I was a little girl, as we would drive through Texas, I'd listen to my dad say that he'd own some one day. I kind of took on that dream too. Along with the dream of living in Texas and having my own ranch someday. So, these longhorns are kind of like having a little bit of Texas!

Favorite Things In June, Part 2

In early June, I seemed to have my camera in the right place at the right time. I captured quite a few of my favorite moments. Its seems the rest of the month my camera found its way to mainly events....with a few snapshots of our favorite furry kids. :)

We celebrated my mom's birthday in Tulsa. By the pool. With yummy food, cake and family.

We learned that Rossi LOVES ice! Every time she hears us in the freezer she dashes to the kitchen, hoping for one cube to find its way to the floor. Usually it happens. :) Its even funnier when we put it in their water bowl. She drenched by the time the ice disappears.

These three just happen to be my most favorite of all!

A weekend with my best friend at "Girlfriends Conference". LOVE! We were able to spend much-needed, uninterrupted girl-time...including Cheesecake Factory, shopping, encouraging one another in the Lord, and just talking!

Spending time with our favorite couple on the longhorn ranch!!!!

Vintage Market Days in Tulsa. It was awesome! So many things to decorate the house with and it was all vintage and most of it was really well priced!!! I wouldn't have even thought about going, but a friend of mine asked if I was interested...and I was interested in spending time with HER! So, I said YES! And, I am thankful I did.

Megan and I had so much fun! Usually we see each other with our husbands and her kids. We love getting to see them, but this was the first time Megan and I got to just be by ourselves. I so enjoyed our time together! I'm so thankful when God brings people into our lives and we get the blessing of friendship!

We met my mom and sister-in-law and niece there too!

Celebrating Miss Evi!!!! :)

Love notes. This might be my favorite. When I made my "marker-board", I knew it would mainly be me writing on it. So, I love the unexpected messages I get from my sweet husband!

Flowers from my mom. I wish I had taken pictures when she first brought the flowers. They were gorgeous!!! She and my dad can get anything to grow!!! I seem to kill everything. :) So, I'm so grateful when she brings me pretty things from her yard that I get to enjoy too!

Antique finds that take me back to childhood. I found this book when I was shopping in Jenks. Its not REALLY an antique, but its a book I had when I was little. I remember loving the pictures. I'm not sure if this was a book in our home or our church, but we don't have it anymore. For $3, how I could I not take it home???

New friends and getting my hair done! :) KP and I have been supporting some friends who are about to take their show on the road. John is a musician and Glenda is a stylist. We are taking advantage of their talents as much as possible before they hit the road. Glenda can turn my hubs into a trendy-magazine-styled model in a matter of minutes. :) He can't seem to bring himself to style his hair quite the same way she does, but I do love it when its all "messy". You can check out John's song, "Old School Party in the Living Room", here.

Our summer has been very quiet. We are usually jetting off somewhere during the summers, but this year has been a little different. We are taking it easy and enjoying life at home (with the anticipation of a long vacation in November!). Hope your summer is going well!!! :)

Favorite Things in June

Some days I wake up and just see the beauty in life. I wish I could say that I do this every day, but usually I'm rushing around in the mornings just to get to work on time...which is usually 5 minutes late. June 1st just happened to fall on my day off, which is also the beginning of my weekends. It was a pretty typical day, but life became a little more precious lately and I think I was taking in the little things.

The hubs usually gets off work a little early on Fridays, so after dinner we spent some time outside. It was unusually cold. Our neighbor had given us permission to pick as many blackberries as we wanted and I noticed that all the hornets and bees that usually swarm the bushes were not there!!! We grabbed a bowl and started picking!!!!

It was a beautiful night! I love that we can now stay outside until at least 9pm because its getting dark later and later. This was also one of those nights where we had so much fun just being together that I wanted to remember it forever. There was nothing in particular that made it wonderful, it was just good conversation and enjoying an evening together.

This was one of my favorite nights we've ever had! :)

Saturday mornings are always my favorite! I usually get up by myself. I love it because I get the house and the deck all to myself in all its quiet-glory. Early June had some beautiful and cool mornings. I took advantage of as many as I could. I'd grab my 5 books that I had started, my coffee, a notebook, my computer, and my phone. Usually I don't really know where I'll start my quiet time, so I just bring everything. Saturday mornings, I usually like to get on the computer and watch some of my favorite pastors across the nation.

I love being on our deck in the mornings! Its always quiet, but I love the early morning light and weather. The back pasture is my favorite view! :) 

The family always joins me when they get up too! They will always be my favorite!

I love waking up to and spending my mornings with my favorite person! I love that we both love spending the mornings outside and with COFFEE! :)

One of my new favorite things is how Rossi sits. Usually her back legs are crossed and she looks so dainty. But it just cracks me up that she kicks her legs out like that. 

 Of course, this is one my favorite things!!! Coffee is like a vacation in a cup! We love when we're on vacation to start our morning with coffee and I realized this month just how much it takes me back to memories of some of our vacations. So, I now soak it in when I'm having my morning coffee!!!

Menu planning is definitely one of my favorite things! I've always liked to cook, but baking was more fun because I could take it all to work when I was single. When I got married, I really found a love for cooking! It was so fun to be able to make new recipes now that I wasn't cooking for just myself. Every week I print off my menu plan and start looking for recipes. Its very rare that I make the same things. I like to try new recipes so often, there are few recipes that I repeat. I love sitting down with my computer and cookbooks and figure out the next week. :)

I'm pretty sure everyone in Oklahoma is super excited for the OKC Thunder! We've never been much for professional basketball, but now we actually have a home team to cheer for. We got into the playoffs at the very end of the season last year, but we were in it from the beginning this year. The Thunder have played so well and we've really enjoyed getting into the games.

Now that we don't have a cat, we've had some new little friends around the house. The cardinals and blue jays are everywhere!!! Now, the cardinals have a nest right off our deck! I can't wait to see the little babies!!!!

My latest favorite thing FINALLY arrived!!! Two weeks into June, our bushes right off the deck are finally blooming!!! I've been waiting all Spring! I think since we had such a cool Spring, it took longer for them to bloom. There are only a few that have come out, so I anxiously await for the bushes to be full of flowers!!! 

Thankful that God reminds me to appreciate the little things in life! Things that I won't have forever, but I appreciate in the moment. What are some of your favorite things of the summer so far?