To be a boy

What a  joy to be a young boy on a sunny day, a friend to play with, land to explore, rocks to excavate. 

Goalie Time

At the tournament my oldest son had been asking his coaches over and over and over again if he could play goalie.  He was ecstatic when he got to play goalie for the last game. Here they are coming onto the ice.  He was so excited!  Ready for action!  SAVE!!!

The group photo of our Ice Dawgs mite team.  This tourney was just for mites ages 7-8, so our middle son didn’t play since he is a termite u-6.  It’s a great group of kids.  They all got medals and the team got a trophy to take back to our rink. They had a poster with each of the kids names written on hockey pucks. 

One last shot before we left.  They’re record at the tourney was 3 losses and 1 win.  All in all they had a great time.  As for the game he played goalie I know he had fun but I’m not sure I want him to pursue it since it’s a very expensive position.  But I’m glad he had the opportunity!

Fire & Ice

Things seem to be heating up on the ice lately with my kids! 

My Three Sons

All I can say is that I am one lucky mom to be raising these boys.  And  am one blessed mom that my husband allows me to stay home and raise these little balls of energy. 

He makes it easy

From the very beginning he made it pretty easy.  As a baby he was sweet and cuddly.  He was sick oh so much though when he was little.  Other than that, he has been such a sweet, old soul. He helps out around the house with big or little chores. Helps with his brothers.  Does well in school.  Has a huge, giving heart.  Really, he makes parenting easy for me.  Maybe it’s because he is the oldest?  I don’t know.  But I do know I’m glad he is the oldest brother and is such a good example for his little brothers.

The other thing he makes easy….. Photography.  He is so eager to pose for me and help me by being my model so many times. 

The thing he DOES NOT  make easy…. Keeping my camera in MY hand.  The little paparazzi, he could take a thousand pictures a day if I let him.   How could I say no to him though?

Cowboys vs Vikings

My oldest had his second to last game on Saturday. Ol’ Mother Nature has played quite the trick on us and they haven’t played many of their games. Saturday was cold but tolerable. The games are in the outfield of baseball fields. Most of the parents line up along the fence and just sit in their cars the whole game. Is it just a Montana thing or do people do it where you live too? Now me, I like to be out there, seeing the action, cheering, encouraging and clapping chasing my toddler around.

He is #1 on the Cowboys. Grandma was pretty upset he wasn’t a Packer but he lucked out getting school colors of red and black.

“Hey, good play over there man!”

The middle punk dropped me like a hot rock and ran off with friends, that left me to watch this little squirt.

Well, I guess if he’s gonna make faces and smiles like that I better not complain too much.

One last good move of #1 in action. Way to go buddy!

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This week it's all about the school spirit...

Yes, I can get a little carried away sometimes. When will it be OK to paint MY face?

********************52 Weeks********************

52 Weeks is a year long challenge for YOU to be in a picture once a week for 52 weeks. We are always the ones behind the camera, this is YOUR chance to get out in front and be in the pictures with our family. We are glad you are joining this challenge. More importantly your family will really enjoy having you in the picture. Thanks for playing along! Oh, you can just jump in now with 1 of 52, you're not getting off that easy! Now go take a picture!

The Jersey

The boys had so much for Friday’s Homecoming for our town schools. It was red and black day and the kids were excited for wearing their school colors. I couldn’t believe my ears when my oldest said he was going to wear his football jersey to school on Friday.

I mean, wait just a second. Wear a football jersey to school… on a Friday? I’m totally flashing back to when I was in school and all the football players wore their jerseys on Fridays. But my son? Wait just a second.

I feel like I blinked and he is growing up so fast. What’s with that anyway? Sometimes I look at him and I see the little boy he used to be.

Then sometimes I look at him and see the nice young man he is turning into.

I might as well count down the days until I hand him the car keys.

And I’ll enjoy every single one of them!

He ain’t a farmer…

Last weekend we went over to  my in-laws for a visit and to do some shopping.  Little Man’s grandpa was mowing the lawn when this happened….. Grandpa said the kid just ain’t a farmer if he can’t stay awake on a tractor. 

Grandpa is out harvesting in the wheat and lentil fields now, I wonder if Little Man could stay awake in a big tractor or a combine?  Hmm, we may have to find out.

I’ll think about it after my nap.

Disappointed…

Do you remember the little incident toward the end of the school year? The one where my oldest son broke his nose? Well, seems like he has been at it again….

This time it is a black eye. I must tell you though, we are very upset with the situation and disappointed. We thought we had done a better job in raising him. We thought we had taught him how to handle himself in these types of situations.

Apparently we were wrong.

I mean really, try to teach a kid to keep their hands up to defend themselves, but nooooo, they never listen do they? Hands up next time son!!!!

Ah, just kidding. He is in a theatre camp right now and it’s just make-up. But you knew that…. didn’t you?

Brothers & bows

The boys made a ton of bows when we were at my moms. They went through a ton of string and cleaned up a few branches in the process.

I love to see when my boys are kind to each other. My oldest was making a bow for his little brother. It was so cute to watch them interact. And yes, his tongue is always busy when he is working on a project.

My boys sitting quietly… ahh, I could get used to this.

These are the sweet memories I’ll treasure. Hopefully they’ll block out all the arguing later. Please tell me your kids argue too.

The best way.....

The best way to start a branding?

Why, with donuts of course!


"Hey, you wanna pass me another donut please?"

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Guess who is feeling better?! Little did I know he was making faces while I took this, trying to sabotage my pictures.

********************52 Weeks********************
52 Weeks is a year long challenge for YOU to be in a picture once a week for 52 weeks. We are always the ones behind the camera, this is YOUR chance to get out in front and be in the pictures with our family. We are glad you are joining this challenge. More importantly your family will really enjoy having you in the picture. Thanks for playing along! Oh, you can just jump in now with 1 of 52, you're not getting off that easy! Now go take a picture!
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Please add yourself each week to the Mr. Linky so we can all visit your page too. THANKS!

Almost a rainbow

He still aches just a little but is feeling pretty good overall. He even did a small bit of baseball practice. I'll admit I was cringing while he practiced. There is still swelling and I'm wondering if his nose is straight. We have another day or so to decide. I just hope the silly thing is straight so he can avoid any more pain.

Teaching the next generation

With three generations together this weekend it was time for teaching. After our last shooting adventure and realizing our son was having a hard time with a regular .22, Lineman called his dad. My father in law went into town and picked out a new Cricket for our boys and brought it to us this weekend. It was such a treat for me to be able to watch a father and a son work together, so

eager to pass their knowledge on to the next generation. They taught him about safety, loading, safety, sighting, safety, the trigger, safety, the ammo, safety and knocking over that target. Oh, and they taught him about safety, too.

He held the rifle with ease, it's smaller size really made a difference. He looked through the sights, took aim, squeezed the trigger....

And hit the target on his second shot (he hit right about the logo). It was so fun to see the excitement he had. He really got the hang of it immediately and was hitting his targets very well. I'm positive he is waiting for his next outing with father, grandfather, or better yet, both!

Broken

I went into town this morning to get groceries and just as I was leaving to go home the phone rang. It was the principal at my oldest son's school. She explained he had a little accident on the playground and his nose was bleeding and would I mind coming into town. I'm thinking, seriously, you want me to come look at a bloody nose? So I turned around and headed to the school. The principal meets me in the hallway and says "his nose is very swollen and I think it may be broken. He was playing tag on the playground and as he was running he turned and ran right into a bar hitting the bridge of his nose." Okay, I think to myself....

I walk in the office, he pulls the ice of his face and...

YIKES!!!

But I kept my cool. This is the first picture I took with my cell phone, we were at a clinic in the hospital. This was taken about 90 minutes after the accident and the swelling had really gone down at this point. Seriously, the swelling was way worse at the school. It was extending all the way across his cheeks to the middle of the eye.

I called Lineman who had our middle son with him and they came and met us at the hospital. I was so glad that Lineman had gotten home from being on the road. He was gone this week and made it home in the middle of the night last night.

It turns out this poor boys nose is broken in two places. The visiting ENT happened to be in town today and took a look at the x-rays. He said it looked pretty good and he wouldn't need to do anything. I guess we are to just watch it and see if it's straight at the end of 7 days. Then we take him back in if it's not straight. Sorry about the bloody nose but it just keeps bleeding lightly. The doc said don't worry about cleaning it at all until tomorrow, just too tender right now.

We are also keeping an eye on him because he was extremely quiet this evening. Obviously he is hurting but I'm worried about him. We all are.

We suggested he sleep in the recliner tonight. Then his younger brother wanted to sleep with him (they sleep together on bunk beds). So we put our middle son on the couch. Well, then he wanted his dad to be there too. So Lineman is in another recliner sleeping. Then Little Man couldn't sleep so he is finally sleeping in Lineman's arms.

And me, the odd girl out, is blogging away.

But I'm tired and going to bed while all the boys sleep in the living room.

This living with all boys, it's a wild ride!