Thanksgiving

Chalk this year up to another fabulous Thanksgiving!

This year, as we do each year, we started out at Nate's families house for the first part of the day then headed over to my families house for the second part of the day. Since our parents live just a few blocks away from each other it makes it quite convenient!...and plus, you'll never hear me complain about eating two Thanksgiving dinners...MMM!

Last year my mom made these super cute Thanksgiving place mats as souvenirs

So this year we got these totally awesome Thanksgiving turkey candy bowls!

Seriously, what will this woman think of next??

 Ready for round 2!

Instead of lingering at the table making moaning sounds about how full you are, or laying down and unbuttoning your top button to let some of the bloat out, or heck- even taking a nap, the boys instead decided to go outside and play football. And when the football game was forced to end due to loss of said football over the neighbors wall...a game of corn-hole then commenced. And when corn-hole got boring...they changed the rules a little bit. ...Don't ask me what they changed 'em to, all I know is it looked like this:

Let's just say we're missing an orange bean bag and one of the legs needs to be re-screwed onto the board.

Before we all departed, much to the chagrin of Nathan, I suggested we take a family Thanksgiving picture. Cause what would Thanksgiving be without a family picture, yah?

We got this one:

...and then it was pretty much all downhill from there:

...and that's really all I have to say about that.

Sorry Mama, had to do it =)

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Gun Dog Millionaire

Today is Gunther's birthday. Yep, he is a Thanksgiving puppy and he turns 2 today!

Gunther's first day as a Townsend, and he's been my snuggle buddy ever since!

2 years old!

He thinks people all over the country take the day off work and get together with their families just to give thanks for Gunther.

...I know, I just feel bad being straight up with him on that one.

Gunny is an pretty cool dude. He might've had it a little rough when he was little, like serving as a keep-away toy for Maycee,

playing dress-up at his expense,

being mocked for his over-size ears,

and even being forced to commit acts of violence.

...But I'm pretty sure he came out ok anyway.

Gunny gives awesome high-fives, jumps as high as an NBA player, and will always give you his undivided attention...and by undivided attention I mean he'll stare at you. For long periods of time. Especially if you tell him he can't get on the bed. ...and by that point he usually looks so cute I let him up anyway. 

Can you believe he was ever this small??

Then... 

...Now

Then...

...Now

Then...

...Now

Happy birthday Gun dog!!

Bird Hunting

Nate and I have been feeling bad lately that the dogs haven't gotten to do anything fun in a while; so this weekend Nate suggested we go bird hunting and take them along for the ride! So bright and early we loaded 'em up and headed out!

Rule #1: He who forgets his hunting license shall be designated photographer.

Since it was just Nate and I, and the dogs don't have thumbs, I'm sure you can employ your process of elimination skills to figure out who left their hunting license in their other pack.

oopsie.

Let's be real though...license or no license I would've be designated photographer anyway.

...I should get a business card for that.

...Anyway I was a little bummed I didn't get to shoot at anything, racking the shotgun is my favorite part. It makes me feel like a BA. Maybe killing a bird SHOULD be my favorite part and make me feel like a BA but...I haven't been so lucky as to hit something yet. But don't remind Nathan, he'll rub it in.

Maycee was rearin' to go ever since she saw Nate load the shotguns into the truck before we even left. She looooooves bird hunting. I'm pretty sure she was foaming at the mouth.

Waiting for the Dove's to start flying

As soon as she jumped out of the truck she hit the ground running; Nate had to remind her that it was her job to retrieve the dead ones on the ground...not chase the living ones out of the sky. 

I feel like this picture should be on the cover of a Bass Pro catalogue or something

The only bird she didn't get was one that Nate shot over the corn stalks. It was too thick to get back in there...but bless her little heart she tried!

She was in the zone all morning...

Gunther on the other hand, he's just along for the ride cause, well, he's Gunther. He's more interested in chasing Maycee down than chasing the birds down.

After we headed back to the truck we gave the dogs some water and threw the ball for them so they could run off a little more energy. ...my sliding glass door asked me to...it's taking a beating these days.

2 happy dogs

I'd say it was worth the early wake-up call on a weekend for a morning like this.