It does appear to be cercis canadensis (or similar). Not too hard to grow from seed, but patience is required. Must have stratification, either in-ground or in frig, and recommended that you scarify the seed (by nicking/sandpapering/water-soaking the hard seed coat or such). Not infrequently, tiny seedlings can be found underneath parent trees which are easily scooped up and repotted/moved, eliminating all the hassle, fwiw. Seedlings a bit sensitive to strong sun until 'adapted' to it, IME. A nice species of tree, IMO, and worth the effort(s) for reproduction(!). Am stratifying a bunch of these seeds myself currently ;-) Watch for little bugs within seeds/pods, also, HTH, Alex

There are several Q. buckleyi x canbyi hybrids known and I've seen a rather large one in Western Oklahoma which had leaves much more in the range of Q. buckleyi in size. So, you're right it could very well be a hybrid. Also, the last photo looks like there are developing acorns on 2nd year twigs, which would make it a Red Oak, but it's somewhat possible those are aborted acorns that are still attached. Also, it could be just the photo, but Mexican Blue Oak is usually quite blue or blue-green(much like Lacey Oak) in appearance and the photo doesn't look blue or blue-green to me. Also, the leaves just don't seem oblong enough. The leaves on Mexican Blue Oak are usually in the 1 to 1 1/2 inch range in length, making them smaller than most Oaks. I'm not trying to throw water on your parade (so to speak), and it could be just that the camera isn't capturing the actual color of the tree accurately and that pair of what appears to be developing acorns are really old aborted ones still attached. Also, what part of Texas are your in-laws located?

Well, I was at the Dallas Arboretum yesterday afternoon looking for an answer to my own question and here is what I found: Tulips green tips starting to poke up through the ground. Flowering Quince just barely starting to flower. Winter Honeysuckle blooming like crazy. Gingko and Cherry Trees with swollen buds. Other than that, nada! And now there is snow in the forecast again for Tuesday...but I see a quick warm up within two days, so this is better that the nasty weather is more short lived by this point of the winter!

We live west of Flower Mound and the sad part of the snow is the moisture content is so high we are going to have to replace a ton of trees in our neighborhood. The multi-trunk type trees (ie wax myrtle and crepe myrtle) all had large trunks/limbs broken off. While the snow was beautiful the tree damage was sad.