They Grow Up SOOOOOO Fast!!

My friend Gina posted about how her little boy is growing up so fast. Last week, he couldn't reach the faucet to wash his hands and this week he can!! I have been realizing that myself a lot lately. Things that the kids hadn't done before, they are learning to do. Looking at the ages, I am quickly reminded that they will soon be adults, striving out into the world. Life passes by so quickly and we get caught up in the daily busyness. We need to stop and remember that even though there are the things that we need to do, we don't want our kids to grow up right before our eyes and miss it, because we were too busy!!!

Share what you do to make sure the busyness doesn't rob you of the precious time you have with your children.

We try to establish traditions, both at holidays and other times throughout the year. Some revolve around the foods we eat, the decorations we use, the places we go and others may be just a one-time thing, but they all add to our collective memories, that are specific to our family. One of the many reasons that I take lots of pictures and scrapbook is to make sure these things are not forgotten. Like today, when Grandma taught both of the girls to drive the tractor.

Wyoming Trip

So that Ranchwife won't disown me, as I promised her that I would post these to my blog, without further adue (sp?), I am finally posting some photos from early August and our trip to visit them at their 7,000 acre ranch in Wyoming.



Shot going through the Sandhills of Nebraska, nearing the Pine Ridge.



We made it to Wyoming. After taking this picture we turned around and shot one of the Nebraska sign, so we didn't have to stop on the way back.

The guys starting the morning, visiting over a cup of Joe on the deck.

All of the munchkins (well almost all of them). There were our three, Ranchwife's three and four of the our friend's six. They range in age from 3-11 here. The under 1 year old and the other 11 year old weren't present for the picture. That's a lot of kids, but they sure had fun. My son enjoyed having more boys around and our friend's only girl sure enjoyed having more girls around.

Rancher and my hubby brought in two cows that had recently calved and so our kids got in on a little branding (something that we don't have to do where we live). We had to laugh as we asked our oldest daughter "Are you ready?" She responded, "Yes!" and we asked asked again, "Are you ready?" and she said yes. Then Ranchwife started branding and the calf started moving......She wasn't quite ready for that...... but it gave all of us grownups a good laugh anyway.

Look for more photos in upcoming posts.

Cute Things Kids Say

Tonight as we finished our supper of ham, my son said, " I love ham and turkey and hamburgers and steak!" I responded , "you wouldn't make a very good vegetarian." To which he responded, "I am a meatetarian!" Given that we raise beef, lamb, chicken and turkey to sell, I am glad that he is!

Moments later, I was sitting on DH's lap. My son says, "That is so cute!" My husband asked, "What is cute?" My son replied, "All that love stuff!"

The Rest of the Pets

This is Buzz, meeting our kids for the first time, last year. In his prime, Buzz was a Little Britches Roping Champion. He is now 25 years old and as my son says "He's old and slow...." He is just what we needed to get our riding ability honed before moving on to younger, more spirited horses.

Below on the left is Sharka, our bottle lamb. She follows my oldest daughter everywhere. On the right is Roy, one of our border collies. He is sweet, hard-working and oh-so-lovable. He is always excited to see us. Please forgive the white corner in that picture. The kids took these two and I didn't take time to try and crop it out.

Last but not least, the two border collie pups, Bo and Max, that we got right before the big blizzard in February of this year. Unfortunately, there are no current pictures but they were so darn cute when they were puppies (living in our kitchen with baby gates).

There are tons of barn cats, bottle calves, etc. but no pictures for now. Hope you enjoy looking at our menagerie. Stop by and check them out for yourselves.