Frankie's First Haircut!

here are some pics of Frank getting his first hair cut. He did really well. Didn't fight it. stood there just like a good little man should and got his hair cut. He now looks like a little toe head. Apparently there was blonde hair under all that brown fluff. (the pictures don't show the blonde hair very well, terrible camera and terrible lighting)

A spring Storm

Well calving is almost over (thank goodness! I have never worked this hard in my life, haha) and we have been blessed with a spring storm. It laid about a half inch of slush before it snowed about five inches. It wasn't too bad though, the calves didn't seem to mind and my kids really didn't mind. It was just the right temperature that we were finally able to make snow men this year. The kids were very excited about this. So we made each one their own snow man. They personalized each one the best that a 1, 3, and 4 year old could. Guess who's is who's?




Earls is the one with "strong muscle arms", Gwen's is the girl one with hair, and Frank, well he really was more interested in all of the dogs and taking pictures rather than decorate his snow man.

Calving Season!

Calving season is upon us! It is a very busy and restless time of year. However, this year is unique in that my husband has recruited myself and our three children to be his helping hands. Each morning starts out with Coffee and breakfast, then we are off to tag all of the newborn calves. Gwen my avid animal lover absolutely loves doing any thing that involves the calves. In fact Gwen is so motivated to help her dad that she usually gets herself up and ready to go with out me having to do a dang thing. Earl and Frank need a little encouragement but they still enjoy going with too. Frank loves to look at all of the "moos" everyday. And Earl just loves doing anything his dad does.

Out in the fields we are quite the crew. All five of us stuff ourselves into a standard cab pickup with a manual transmission just to make things more interesting. I am the writer, I write the calve's tags out, Gwen and Earl 3 are the tagger keepers (the tagger is the tool used to put the tag into the calve's ear) they hand their dad the taggers when he is ready to tag the calf. Frank is the "complicater" He feels that it is very important to touch or grab anything that he can get a hold of to make things more interesting for the rest of us. And for a 17 month old little boy he is quite fast. The little turkey. I can't complain about my job, though, my husband has the most difficult. He drives and catches the calves to tag. This is a very dangerous job at times. Some of the "mommy cows", as Gwen and Earl refer to them as, do not like their babies to be touched. And this Gwen feels that the cows need "Spankings" for chasing her dad. One morning in particular the cows were feeling very feisty. After the third cow chased Earl, Gwen quietly leans over to me and whispers "Mom i think the mommy cows are very grumpy today, maybe dad should give them a spanking". Ah, the mind of a child, they just crack me up with the way they think.

We love helping Earl out with the cows. Although it is very stressful at times, it is also the most rewarding part of our job. Getting to know the animals and take care of them gives us all a sense of pride and compassion. It is great family time spent together.

nine lives

OK I now know why they say cats have nine lives. A while back I posted a pic of our new cat, Rosie. She is a very curious little cat that is constantly into things. After about her first three weeks in our home, she got a fish hook caught in her leg. I couldn't get it out so my husband had to use a pliers. This was not so bad. One life down, eight to go. Next she adventured out side at the wrong time and got beat up by a dog so bad that she had to have hernia surgery to get her completely healed up. Bad at first, but problem solved. Two down, 7 to go.

But the happening from this morning has made me realize that this cat will be lucky to live past the age of two. I was changing loads in the laundry not really paying too close attention to what was around me. I threw the wet clothes into the dryer and shut the door. When I turned the dryer on I heard a very loud thump...thump, thump...thump. Now none of the clothes I threw in the dryer were very large. I believe most of them belonged to my children. So i opened the door...AND OUT JUMPS MY DANG CAT! I WAS DRYING MY CAT!

three down, 6 to go.

by the way she is fine.

Happy Holidays!

Well I missed out on the Halloween pics. I accidentally deleted them off of my computer. But here are some random pics of all of us. Just a note about my son in a dress...Gwen so very badly wishes for a little sister! She is very convincing of making her brother somewhat fulfill her dreams of one day having a sister.

Hunting Season!

SO I am officially the world's worst blogger! We are so busy around here lately that I myself can barely keep up. We shipped the calves off last week! Hoo ray! another year gone by with a good "crop". My kids are growing like weeds so I have been sifting through there closets selling stuff on eBay to make a few extra bucks. I just finished making their costumes as well. Pictures to come of those (spoiler: E3 might be mistaken for a Disney terrorist, hahahaha)And Hunting season has now kicked off.

This is some good ole' family time here on the Brown Ranch. Since the ranch is so large we get to take the kids with us when we go hunting. We are spoiled in the way that our kids are able to drive around with us while we are hunting our game. Gwen and E3 are getting very good at spotting. However sometimes their imaginations like to kick in as well and they spot so much more than just deer and antelope. Earl swears he saw a bull dozer and a combine on the side of the mountain the other day and Gwen somehow always managed to spot a Dinosaur here and there.
the picture is of one of Earl's antelope from the other day. We still have three more "prong horn" tags to fill an one Elk. Yes, the elk tag is mine! I am so excited!

pictures didn't post! So here they are.