give her ALLLLL the animals...

She's been asking for weeks to go to Moomie's house.....now I know why. 

She made friends with all the animals, including the mini poodles indoors...

even though she was weird...she was loved.

In Spring of 2012, a cute little stray kitty showed up in our backyard of our West Texas home. She was fluffy and white and had blue eyes. How could I resist this cute, little white kitten? 

I brought her inside, bathed her, loved on her, and she made our home her own. 

We named her Prim.

We moved homes 350 miles away and she came along. Her feisty demeanor and trouble making curiousness was typical. 

Our home was small & we didn't have a backyard. It was hard keeping her inside all the time. She grew to stay indoors....for a while. 

We soon found her a sister, which we named Rue and they grew to tolerate one another. 

But she escaped once and got that taste for the outdoors. There was no keeping her tame now. 

She was an outdoor cat. 

We moved homes from a tiny apartment into a house with plenty of room to play inside and outside. It was heaven. For her & for me. 

She would always want my love but was very skeptical about others. She was not an easy cat. But moments like these, when we both needed love, we would be right there for each other. 

I was in labor with Elena (my third homebirth) in the picture below when she came to visit me. 

She was an outdoor cat. She was wild. She was sweet. She was crazy. She was mine. 

I usually am not a very ooey-gooey pet lover, in fact, I can hardly stand pets. But she was beautiful to me. 

We lost her a few weeks ago.

How, is still a mystery and it was brutal. She didn't deserve to die. She was not a very confrontational cat. I cried much more than I thought I would when Gary called me with the news. 

Her death became a first experience to my two older boys, who were full of questions and also tears. The disappearance of Prim is still a concept not understood by my daughter often asking, "where's Prim?" 

Although Prim wasn't very friendly, the kids loved to try to pet her and play with her.

We all cried as we put her into the ground. Struggling with the unfairness of why she was taken away from us. To never forget her, we printed a picture of her and put her up in our hallway. I always see her. 

Funny though, that I still expect her to come running into the house when I open my door. 

We miss you, Prim. 

Pumpkin Patch 2016

Just wanted to post this batch of pictures of an outing we had when my in laws were visiting recently. We had already purchased large pumpkins but I wanted some pictures. A local nursery, which I love going to, had loads of them & beautiful plant backdrops (like, my total favorite). 

These cheesy decorations were the best :D

it was a beautiful day, but it didn't mean that the kids were happy -- haha! they still managed to complain about taking pictures...

we did buy a banana plant though. yay!

have a happy November, everyone! 

Our October celebrations

Because I keep neglecting this poor blog, and before a year goes by without a documentation of our most favorite month, I figured I could put this little post together at the very least. 

So, this entire month we busted out our decorations, with just a couple of updates (you can see them here)

We made skeletons out of cookies that were delicious, we made sugar cookies with Halloween cookie cutters, we trick or treated and went to festivals for what seemed like an entire week! We carved our pumpkins and also went trick-or-treating for real...enjoy!  

Her Ariel costume this year was such a win. Yeah, not just for her, but for me! It was a dream come true (like meeting Ana & Elsa at DisneyWorld this summer). She looked absolutely fabulous & loved her hair. She couldn't keep it on long, you know how itchy wigs get.

Our library trips begin again and I'm so excited! She loves the crafts part & as always, we take a picture with our most favorite librarian - Mrs. Megan! 

Our county's festival is always a must. They get loads of candy and kids go crazy with the bouncy houses & free rides. Elena has been such a die-hard horse lover that it's the first thing she requests. 

My little slugger always goes to the baseball one. 

And Andrew loves any climbing wall. He's a monkey, ya know? 

Earlier this month, the boys got to pick out pumpkins & they have been sitting on our porch until a few days before Halloween. Jonah, always trying to outdo everyone, grabbed the biggest pumpkin he could carry. He was told he had to carry it. So he did. 

Andrew has gotten more adjusted to handling gross things like bugs, mud, glue, etc. and now pumpkins! I only helped him a little bit this year. 

Jonah on the other hand, wanted to avoid the inside of the pumpkin no matter my threats...and instead of fighting him, I just did it for him. 

He thoroughly thanked me when it was all finished. I love that stinker. 

Elena woke up from her daily nap and joined us with her tiny little pumpkins. 

Baby girl was so very upset because she couldn't light up her pumpkin. The boys totally enjoyed lighting up the jack-o-lanterns. They looked pretty cool!

Happy Halloween! Hope you all had a safe & fun holiday. 

Now let's get ready for Thanksgiving & some Christmas shopping!