Buncha' Nothin'

When the kids come inside from working or playing I often ask them what they've been up to and their reply is consistently the same.  

Buncha' nothin'.  

This is what comprises a bunch of nothing in our little world...

One nice day we went for a walk that never seemed to end.  They all kept asking if we could go 'just a little bit farther' and I never said no.  We walked a little over two miles that day and all the kiddos were thoroughly worn out by the time we got home. 

One of the things I admire most about our kiddos is their ability to play accurately.  Notice how John is backing his trailer up square with the barn so he can unload his horses?  We do NOT back up our trailers all willy-nilly around here. 

Kathryn has reached the stage where she reads allllllll the time.  Except this book (Frosty the Snowman) which she sings the song to in her soft, angelic little one year old voice. 

Go sledding, Wes said.  It'll be fun, Wes said.
Wes lied.  Sleet pellets were hitting us in the face and it sucked. 

She told me she was too cute to do chores.
I told her she was wrong.  Cute, but still wrong.

When the weather outside is frightful we play enjoy building tall towers (and then karate chopping them down).

I was not lying.  We read, and read, and read...

Mama's mashed potatoes are not too shabby.

Some mornings are easier than others to get bundled up and go outside.  For instance, when the men are shipping cattle and need supervision.  

Fashionable eye wear choice, my dear.

There you have it.  Our boring little life in a nutshell.
A buncha' nothin'.

Ages and Stages

This is, without a doubt, the most fun stage with the kids thus far. 

This is, without a doubt, the most exhausting stage with the kids thus far. 

God bless child photographers.  They must be alcoholics.  I am a pro at getting one kid to smile, one kid to grimace and one to find a rock.  Every time.  

Kenyon is five with the soul of a 65 year old man.  When you talk to him he'll normally ask, "So, what've you been up to this morning?".  He likes a lot of cattle, a little bit of farming, a little bit of mechanicing and a little bit of woodworking.  He also enjoys playing, as most five year old boys are wont to do, but playtime usually consists of gathering and processing play calves with his brother.  He asks 100 questions an hour easily.  If you've ever met him you know that this is in no way an exaggeration.  He's starting to recognize and grasp some bigger concepts about life and so there are some deep conversations as we drive down the road and he stares out into the pastures. 

John is now three and is blossoming nicely.  He has some quiet, sneaky, middle-child tendencies.  For example, we caught him sitting at the supper table one evening trying to stuff little bites of steak into his arm cast so he could have them for a snack later when he went to bed.  

He is much like his older brother and loves the outdoors, animals, pretending to spit chew.... you know... man stuff.  Along those lines, he is also fearless with a poor grasp on the inner workings of gravity and thus he is also our injury prone kiddo.  He got an arm cast off last week and is doing marvelously now. 

Sweet Kathryn is one.  Although she looks like a girl, please don't be fooled.  She is a little boy and does absolutely everything that her older brothers do.  One of her favorite things to do currently is stand in front of a toilet, tree or tire, lift her shirt up and thrust out her pelvis.  When she is done pretending to potty she lets out a satisfied 'ahhhhhhh', lowers her shirt and walks away.  It's slightly disturbing, but really adorable at the same time.  She is starting to talk and I need to record it.  Her voice is light and airy and a little slice of heaven.  At night she tells her brothers "night, night.  Love oooh" and it melts my heart.  I will never tire of hearing that.  

Like all siblings, there is a fair amount of fighting.  For instance, we see here the classic "MOM WHY IS HE STANDING SO CLOSE TO ME?" face.

Which 87 % of the time is followed by the classic 'I'm gonna hit you with my face in retaliation' move.  That'll teach him, kiddo.  Good move. 

This picture perfectly sums up how most of my days go.  One child needed help buttoning his jeans after relieving himself so I turned my back for one moment to assist him.  I then heard a shriek from Kathryn who had managed to get herself stuck in the middle of the only mud puddle in a 40 acre trap.  

Here we see Kathryn mimicking her mother's classic WHAT IS WRONG WITH ALL YOU KIDDOS? face.  She's seen it once or twice, tops.  (Insert hearty laugh here.) 

These days a blur, but I'm sure one day I'll look back at these pictures and smile. 

The Good Stuff

It's been a week, a month, a year.  I could think we've had it bad, but it could always be worse.  We try to keep that in mind.  Things could always be worse. 

Therefore, let's focus on the good stuff that we've experienced this week. 

Sunday morning Wesley asked us to help him work cattle after church.  I woke up early to pack everyone baloney sandwiches.  When the kids woke up I gave everyone baths, the kids and I went to church and then drove back to the chute where we had a picnic lunch and then processed calves.  As long as I kept the tub loaded, the boys could push them up the alleyway while Wesley and I gave shots, wormed, implanted, dehorned, banded, branded and tagged them all.  We got done processing in time to get the littles to bed at naptime and then I could run the BVD snap tests on all the calves while they slept.  I love days like that.  Days where we are scheduled to within an inch of our lives and everything runs smoothly. 

Another day the men weaned calves and we brought lunch to them.  Sure, one kid hit her head on a rock and one almost got taken out by a VERY maternal cow, but we had a great time. 

And then there was the afternoon we decorated pumpkins...

And we can't forget about the day with friends when we carved pumpkins, rode power wheels down steep hills and ate chili over a campfire.  

I got a nice note from a friend at church yesterday that made me tear up with her sweet words.  Words that not only made me tear up but inspired me to be more.  

So when bad days happen I feel that I'm able to take them all in stride.  When one of the kids breaks a bone I'm better able to load up the one year old on my right hip, the three year old on my left hip and march on ahead.  (Literally.  All the way to our car so I could drive like mad to the emergency room.)  

I'm getting better at finding the good stuff and clinging like hell to it.  

Prescription for Play

In the evenings after the children go to bed, often my husband and I sit in our chairs and read.  He reads articles about cattle while I peruse the parenting genre.  We then share the highlights of interesting articles with each other.  

One article that really stood out to me pertained to playtime in children.  It would seem that many children do not spend enough time playing outside and therefore their pediatricians are writing them 'prescriptions for play'.  I'm fairly certain that we won't be needing such a prescription any time soon.  

I took these photos a few weeks ago during a quiet, cloudy Saturday afternoon.  We packed sandwiches and a bag of grapes for lunch and let the kids play near a spring.  The water was incredibly cold but no one seemed to mind - least of all Kathryn.  I purposefully did not pack her a swimming suit, knowing very well that the water would be too cold for her liking.  On the contrary, she was the bravest kid that never ever wanted to leave! 

 

Kenyon loved drinking out of the natural spring.