Afternoons with the Boys

Cole gets home from school at 11 every day.  That's pretty early considering the rest of the kids in the neighborhood don't get home until about 3.  There have been many days when I pick Cole up from school and he bursts into tears in the car because he wants to stay at school instead of coming home and being bored all day.  (Let me just insert now how VERY GLAD I am that I sent him to school this year!) I have a hard time getting Cole to do something other than watch T.V. in the afternoons.  Especially with crappy weather! He has friends over a lot, and I try to think of things he can help me with that aren't too painful. 

The other day I asked him to help me make bread for my visiting teaching sisters.  He was thrilled, mostly because he is always begging me to let him "spank" the dough! He insisted that we take lots of pictures and "not just of me mom"! Okay I had to be in the pictures too.  (Don't mind my Hoagle Zoo sweatshirt, it's my favorite piece of clothing at home I am sure my kids get so sick of seeing me wear it!)

Anyway Cole ground all the wheat himself, not photos of this because he did it out on the deck and it was way too cold for me to go out there!

I then let him spank and beat one of the loaves until he was happy and content.  I figured we would keep this one for ourselves, too bad I honestly couldn't figure out which one it was when the baking was complete! Whoops! I guess that's really saying something about my loaf making skills huh?

 

 

Anyway by the time we had the bread in the pans, I had one happy boy and it was nearly time for Kallie to be home! And of course I didn't get a picture of the baked bread because that would require me to remember to get the camera out again. 

 

Enjoying our Right to Bear Arms

We have a new obsession with weapons in our house, guns in particular.  Maybe it's the fact that the government would like to take this right from us that makes it more appealing than before.  Weston got a new gun for his birthday and hadn't been out to shoot it yet.  Cole is and always has been fascinated with guns and such, all the boys in the neighborhood are proud owners of BB guns except Cole.  He has decided to save his money for a BB gun. I was hoping it would take him a couple years, but that kid has been earning his dollars at an alarming rate lately. 

Anyway we took the kids out behind some fields to do a little target practice.  The wind was blowing and it was freezing but that ten minutes was blissful to them.  Hagen was content to sit in the pickup with me to do his shooting, he is pretty proud of the fact that he can now cock his gun all himself. 

Cole won the footrace back from the taget, he was impressed with Weston's skills in hitting every can!

Kallie always begs me to see every picture I take as soon as it is taken. I love to withhold from her, it's fun to see her suffer!  (Remember when we had to wait three days for Wal Mart to process our photos to even see them?) Spoiled kids!

 

 

 

 

Even though it was short lived fun, it was still some family fun!

I loved this; I looked outside to see Cole seriously trying to teach Hagen how to shoot his bow.  Hagen could've cared less, but nodded politely anyway and then went to retreive all the arrows Cole shot.  That won't last much longer, that's for sure!

Cousins

Creed and Bowen came to play with the boys the other day and they had so much fun together.  The weather was so nice for about a week and we enjoyed every second of it.  They loved eating their lunch on the back deck and using the new picnic table the kids got for Easter. 

I wish I was better about taking pictures but I am usually in on the action too much to do so.  The boys played the afternoon away riding bikes and seeing who could make the longest skid mark, digging in the sandbox, playing some baseball, hunting in the field, and having  a war with plastic army men on the deck.  It was so fun to watch the littler boys mimmick the older ones, and to watch the older boy's imaginations fly. We really do love having so many cousins close by!

 

This is Hagen's new afternoon routine.  He has been really fighting naps lately which is fine with me because then he goes to bed earlier, but every couple days he just gets too tired.  I love how he will fall asleep sitting up or on the kitchen floor or just wherever.  I do miss rocking him to sleep for naps though.

Easter 2013

That bunny did not disappoint this year that is for sure.  Once again he thought the amount of candy he purchased was just right for three young kids but alas it was WAY too much! Kallie and Cole were up bright and early snooping around the house but I told them they had to wait to hunt eggs until Hagen work up.  Hagen is usually the first one up but for some reason he chose Easter Sunday to sleep in until 8:00! The kids were going crazy and trying to be as loud as they could to wake him up.  Once he was finally up he was excited to see a bunch of candy!


He took egg hunting very seriously, opening each egg and eating it's contents before moving on to the next.  Let's just say he got maybe three eggs and the other two took the rest.  With two more hunts to go before the day was over, it was really no big deal.

 

These three were on a major sugar high before we even left for church so you can imagine how well Hagen sat through Sacrament meeting.  It was a great meeting though and the weather was beautiful.  After church I made the kids dump all their candy into a bowl and then use it to fill eggs to take to Grammy's and Grandma's.  They weren't too happy about this but I let them eat as much as they wanted and they still brought home more than they took.

 

 

Even with a few piles of snow still around, it was really quite warm and made for an enjoyable afternoon.  I love watching my kids play with their cousins.   

 

 

 

 

Spring

We bought a few calves to graze our pasture last year and it worked out really well for us so we did the same this year.  We went to Blackfoot to pick them up and by the time we turned them out to pasture it had turned into an all day job.  It was some good family time though since we were each others only helpers. 



It was a long drive to Blackfoot and back, I had only brought a small baggie of some Easter candy and so to make it last the kids would have to take quizes to earn a treat.  They thought it was pretty fun, especially when all of Hagen's quizes were on colors and he answered "pink" to everything!

 

 

Once we picked the calves up and got back home we had three hungry kids so we ate a quick lunch and then had to brand and vaccinate the calves.  Each of the kids had a job.  Cole had to push the calves up the chute and Kallie had to make sure Hagen didn't get into trouble.  The weather was nice so it was a pretty enjoyable job. 

 

 

Kallie's job was also to be the photographer, she did a great job and I won't mention the 100 pictures she took of herself that I deleted!

 

 

I'm not sure what this shot is of Cole but I thought it was funny, there were a bunch with them pulling funny faces.  Hagen was so happy to be outside and with the "tows".  He loved all of it. 

 

 

 

I love days like this when we are doing what we enjoy together.  I know that my kids will remember helping with the cows and hopefully they will enjoy it too.