Dawson Homecoming

Dawson's homecoming was a couple weeks ago and their parade goes right in front of our house! 

Kanyon was driving one of the fire trucks for the parade so I thought I was going to be standing by myself but thankfully some of our family showed up to keep me company! Mama Brown, Aunt Rhnea, and Sena and Addalie and Asher all came over.

I love our small community and that I can know most of the people on these floats. Such a difference between growing up at a large 5A in Houston!

Show me your candy, Asher!

Addalie and Asher went home with lots of loot. Sena said she found Asher one morning in the laundry room stuffing candy in his mouth with the door closed before she even woke up. Kanyon would probably do the same thing if I limited his candy intake. The man loves candy. More than homemade cookies or cake!!! I don't get it.

Sometimes it hits me...

... that I never would have guessed I'd be here 6 years ago at my high school graduation.

Not that I hadn't ever dreamed about what it'd be like to be married to Kanyon. Because I did. In fact, I wish all the time that I could go back to my 14 year old self at camp and tell myself that I would be marrying Kanyon Brown, that boy I had a crush on (along with a few other girls). The look on my face would be priceless.

But on Sunday night, as I am driving down the turn row (what I am doing above) slowly as Kanyon fixes some things here and there, I realize, I never would have guessed I'd be a farmer's wife and doing this right here. I definitely wouldn't have balked at the suggestion though, it would have sounded like fun to me even then.

And I am so happy to call this place home.

As I drove to Midland on Saturday, I took a back way out of Welch instead of taking the main highway and found myself appreciating like I do every once in a while, like its the first time, how beautiful the place is that we live. Sure there are some places that aren't so pretty like the fields that look like a desert but even those look beautiful with our kind of sunsets behind them. West of Welch is probably my favorite area where the flat plain becomes small hills all of a sudden, with green grass as far as I can see.

There is something comforting in the fact knowing that you will live in the same town for your whole life. (Well its comforting if you love where you live.) Not to say there won't be lots of traveling but that one spot will always be home. I don't think I would have ever felt that way about the suburbs I grew up in or any suburbs but of course, I can't say that for sure. There is just something different about the country that allows you to claim a whole area as home. This is where my kids will grow up. This is where they will visit Kanyon and I, or maybe even settle down here themselves as Kanyon's parents have been fortunate enough to experience. 

I told Lauren this weekend as we talked about dating and marrying that I would have followed Kanyon anywhere. But I'm really really glad its here.

Landon's New Baby

A couple weeks ago, Landon and Troy traded horses and Landon got a baby to raise!

I'm going to stop talking about it now since I'm already at risk of sounding like I don't know anything about horses. I'm just here to take pictures, yall.

I love going to Troy's. His horses are all so friendly and he sometimes has a litter of Australian Shepherd puppies along with several grown Aussies. LOVE those dogs. If you didn't already know, Troy is the one who gave us Zeb. The gift that keeps on giving. We love him.

Zeb loves chasing birds... for hours.

I love horses, they are such beautiful creatures...

Speaking of horses, we saw War Horse last weekend and loved it!

Dawson County Stock Show

Actually a better title would be "Some pictures of Al and Kasha's kids".

This was a really fun weekend. We didn't get much sleep but that was our own faults for staying up late watching movies or our latest TV series addiction. And thats the way I prefer it.

The stock show actually began on Thursday morning but I only made it out Thursday night after work and Friday at lunch. (My sinuses told me that was plenty.) I really love stock shows. The kids showing love it and everyone comes out for them. We got to see some friends that we haven't seen much since football season.

I didn't take many pictures because I was afraid I would be putting a neon sign above my head that read GREW UP IN THE SUBURBS. Gotta blend in, you know? But I did get a couple of Tac. Who's surprised?

Helping Dad with the shoots. They pull a lever to let the pigs go into the arena to be shown.

Here he is talking to the pig!

Friday night, we went to the Dawson basketball games (Dawson is the name of our county and is the name of our school in Welch). The games were at Wellman and the girls lost but the boys won! Our boys have been playing so hard this year.

Saturday morning, we headed to the Sale (auctioning off the animals that were shown that weekend) for the stock show. Someone came to visit us at our table.

While we don't have kids yet that are selling and we're not bidding on any of the animals, everyone has the opportunity to add on to the selling price. The auction is basically a fundraiser for the local kids who have put money and time into their animals. This is a way for the community to help support them monetarily. Other people can add on to the amount the kids receive. So Kanyon and I like to go and add on to the selling price.

Al and Kasha's three week old baby, Ainsley, got to come, too, and had her eyes open long enough for me to take pictures of her! She sleeps a lot so this was exciting!

Oh my goodness. I can't stand looking at this picture and not going to see her right this very second. Her and momma are coming over tonight though, so I'm counting down the hours.

That night, we had our friends and their kids over, the Fryars. Clayton is the basketball coach at Dawson and they attend church with us. Afterwards, Kanyon headed over to the other basketball coach's house to play poker with Clayton. He lost money. A whole $5 buy-in.

Sunday was business as usual - church and then lunch at our in-laws. Usual but always my favorite time of the week. That night, Kanyon's mom made a birthday dinner for Landon (his birthday is January 12th) and invited his girlfriend and her parents. Vaughn has a child's birthday every two weeks about in January and February!

Hope yall had a great weekend!

Sunrise, Sunset.

West Texas sunsets.

(This second one is horrible quality but such a gloomy beautiful sunset.)

Winter

I love winter. Its my favorite season. I love the snow and the cold weather and the warm clothes and warm food.

What I don't understand is why the retail stores don't like winter.

As soon as January hits, bam - they put all the winter clothes on clearance and put out all the spring lines! I don't understand it. You are ruining it for me! I hate summer, stop trying to push it on me! Does it look like I'm ready to wear your sleeveless top?

 Zeb had his first snow day since he was born in the summer yesterday. And he loooved it.

He would bound across the snow as if he couldn't walk through it but only jump through it.

At one point, he got so excited when we were running around that he hard core tackled me from behind to the ground! I couldn't decide if I thought it was funny or if I needed to be mad because I was now covered in snow. But then he started jumping again and it made me laugh.

He has really grown a lot in the last three months. Look at the difference!

He's a pretty boy, huh? :)

I love it when it snows here. Its so pretty in the country because it doesn't go away because of cars or people walking on it. It just stays. Unlike Houston where it may flurry a little but never stick to the ground..

Hope everyone (in Texas) is coping with the power outages well!

it feels like a monday

I left work yesterday after being here for about 30 minutes because a cold that was coming on for days finally hit me.. but I'm back at work today and feeling much better! There's a lot on my mind this morning.

 

• A family that I have loved getting to work Kairos and Emmaus with was just selected for EXTREME MAKEOVER HOME EDITION just this morning! Seriously!!!! We're all so excited for Jeanne and Mac and Katrina. As I drove to work this morning, the radio stations were all excited about the bus being in Brownfield. Read the story here.

• Mom went on her Walk to Emmaus this last weekend and absolutely loved it. It was so cool to see her participate in something I have become involved in. It was a huge blessing to her. Thanks to everyone who prayed and sent letters for her!

• A typical Welch sunset for ya from this weekend:

• Dawson (Welch's school) is going to play in our second play-off game this weekend!! I love small town six man football.

• The boys are almost done with harvest, hallelujah.. Please pray for clear weather so Kanyon can go with me to my family's Thanksgiving in Oklahoma.

Thats about it.. back to workin on the church website! Yall have a good Monday... I mean Tuesday.

proof

Remember two posts ago, I told you that Kanyon and I did not need to have a baby yet because all of the babies in Welch are too cute?

Here's proof:
(I hope this is okay, Britni!)

I stole this from Britni's blog who is the mother of the baby on the right, Slayde. I just could not keep myself from sharing this picture with the whole world. IT IS TOO CUTE. This is Tripp Roberts (Levi and Nicole Roberts), Noah Phipps (Andrew and Christen Phipps), and Slayde Oaks (Rusty and Britni Oaks).

They are all so fat and cuddley and sweet!

So there you go.

babies

Kanyon and I decided that we would wait a couple more years before we would have a baby for several reasons.. but one great reason is the fact that babies are everywhere in Welch! Seriously, everyone is having them. Here's two of them that are in my life:

Harris and Andi's (the youth and children's director at the church I work at) baby, Silas.

He's just a chunk of happiness. He never cries. He just sits there chubbily.

And smiles and laughs. And I get to play with him at work!! 

Al and Kasha's baby, Tac, came over to trick or treat last night! He was a moose!! How cute is that!

Here's the top of his costume:

Rusty and Britni brought their kids over yesterday to trick-or-treat too and I wish I had a picture of Slayde to show you too. That kid is also a chunk of love. I love chubby babies!

All of our friends who have had babies in the last year (about 6 couples!!) keep telling us that if we hurry up, our kid will be in the same class in school as the others. But the truth is.. we're destined to have a girl first. Its predominant in our family. And we know all those babies' daddies. We'll wait a few more years and save ourselves the worrying that would come with our girl dating any of those boys, thanks :)

baby boy and baby colts

Last week, Kanyon, Kasha, her baby Tac (Taegan Allen crisp) and I went to go see Troy and Sue's new colts.

 Kanyon can't complain about being all legs once you see these babies runnin around..

  Tac brought his shades.

 

welcome to welch, tx

(kanyon's family is going to think this is hilarious. but here I go..)

welcome to welch, tx. where the weather is hot and so are the people.

i tried to look up the population a while back.. but apparently no one keeps up with such things around here.










here is the school that kanyon and his siblings and his parents, among other aunts and uncles, all went to. 

our kids will go there too someday. 

the source of many of kanyon's school memories: six man football and track.

the post office where we receive news from the outside world. that is if the pony express is in service that day.


just kiddin. 




















the church of christ we attend with kanyon's family. kanyon's dad, kalith, is an amazing preacher. just ask around, people'll tell ya.

i didn't feel that a tour a welch was complete with out a pumpjack and wheat. cause there's lots of them. lots of it. how would you say that?

there's a few buildings like this that i don't really know what do.


and then on the right, there is the one gas pump for people like me who wait till the last minute to fill up then find themselves on E with no town in the next 15 miles.













i know what you're wondering... and the answer is yes. 
i did just fit the whole town of welch in my view finder.




thanks for stopping by! please bring hummus next time you come.