Fishing!

Papa (Grandpa Fred) gave Callen a great fishing pole for his birthday. This is the first time he got to use it, however not his first time fishing. We went down to Duff Pond which is about 3 miles from our house. Great location, I will probably have to take him without Rusty on my days off if he is busy.

Ready to go! Callen is at that perfect age for picture taking. He loves being in the spotlight!
Fishing....
Caught the first one when I went back to the pickup for the chairs! Rusty did a great job taking the pictures!
You can see he isn't scared at all of the fish, quite fascinated with them. He wanted to see their eyes and called them cute and adorable. Even the worms were cute!
Another fish that I got to see him catch and photograph.

I just thought this was a great moment to capture. Ears bent down by the cap watching the fish.

Claysen enjoyed the fishing too. He looks sooooo chubby here! I forget to bring toys for the little guy, so we were improvising with a water bottle and stick.

Callen caught 5, Daddy 0, Mommy 0. We know who the fisherman of the family is!

Compare Callen vs. Claysen

I took pictures of Callen and Claysen after their baths with their hair combed around the same age. Callen is a little older here; about 9 months. Claysen is about 8 1/2 months in his picture. See Claysen's picture below and see how different they look. I see similarities in their eyes, but the face shape really is quite different.

Just Cute!

Can you tell he had carrots or squash for dinner? That big scratch on his head is from his new mobility experiments. He rolled under his little seat that has a tray on it and it scratched his head. He is reaching for the camera here. I wanted to compare pictures of him and Callen at this age. I have one of Callen sitting up after his bath with his hair combed looking grown up and cute. I will post it next so you can compare too!

Just looking cute, playing on the kitchen floor! He looks so grown up in that outfit. Only 8 months old and 6 days!

Flowers for Mom

Callen picked these beautiful flowers from our yard all by himself. It was his idea too, no promting from Dad! He has always been a loving boy.

Happy Mother's Day

I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day. Mine was uneventful as I expected. Rusty has been really busy building/fixing fence at his leased ranches. We own about 250 head that he has turned out on grass that he is leasing in Council and New Meadows, ID. They are going to be profitable deals that he has been putting together on the side and all his own. He is excited that he can make $ on them, but now realizing how many hours are going into that extra $. This was the 3rd weekend in a row that he has spent all day each weekend day up there fixing/building fence and turning out the cattle. Last two Saturdays we went to the feedlot to load the cattle on the trucks so Callen could go to "work" with Daddy. (Callen can pronounce "feedlot" perfectly, but still calls himself "Cowen". I find it interestly that he can pronounce "l" in one word but not the other.) He loves it and asks to go back frequently. This last Saturday there was only one truck to load vs. 3 the previous week. I got smart and took the backpack for Claysen, so I didn't have to hold him. I planned to take the camera this time and get pictures to post, but silly me, in all the loading I forgot to load the camera! The owner of the feedlot saddled up his "kid" horse and let Callen ride around on it. Callen was in heaven to say the least. Claysen got pretty excited seeing the animals, that was neat to see. He doesn't seem afraid at all.

This week we have discovered that Callen is allergic to horses. On Wednesday and my parent's house he rode for a short time and even getting wiped down thoroughly by Maga he still got swollen itchy eyes. Saturday after riding at the feedlot he did the same thing, so I think we will have to pack Benedryl in the diaper bag to ward off future episodes. He loves the horses and riding so I can't really see not letting him take part, just try and drug him up before he rides.

Claysen was diagnosed with an ear infection on Friday, and is trying to push through all his teeth at once! He was a bit of a bear this weekend. But really that isn't very bad, since he is such a good kid anyway. Just a little more needy (still not as needy as Callen is all the time!) Amazing how different they can be! I discovered one tooth had finally pushed through yesterday. One down, 19 to go! He is due for another hair cut too, got his mother's hair, grows fast! Oh and he weighs in @ 21 pounds now!

I feel blessed to have such beautiful healthy boys. Being a mother is hard, but the most rewarding work in the world!

But there are a TON of rewards

Yesterday Callen was playing with his rope (shoe string) and he loves to tie things up. He tied the rope onto the arm of our desk chair. He pulled it over to the kitchen where I was making dinner and said to me, "Mommy, I have a present for you." I played the part and asked what it was, he stepped out from in front of the chair and proudly displayed it "Vanna" style and said, "This chair!" I fell all over him thanking him and telling him how wonderful it was. He put his arm around my neck and said, "Mom, you're my best friend." That makes all the tough times worth it right there!

Callen is getting better at playing with Claysen. He was making him laugh pretty hard yesterday too. Claysen was laying on the floor and Callen was burying his face into Claysen's belly and talking jiberish to him and Claysen was just giggling and giggling! Again a spectacular moment of motherhood.

Being a Mom is a lot of work!

It seems like we have been really busy lately, doing what I can't pinpoint. It just seems that I always feel behind and can never catch up. The house is always a mess the toys are always needing picked up and someone always needs changed or fed. Sometimes it is so bad I just don't know where to start cleaning or picking up so I don't. I know these are the wonderful years of enjoying the kids, but sometimes it seems like a lot.

We have been working on changing some sleep habits of the kids. Claysen has been getting up more, I think because seperation anxiety is setting in. He definately doesn't need the extra nursing time! Callen is addicted to chocolate milk in the middle of the night. We took that away a week ago. Surprisingly it hasn't been that bad. Maybe he is maturing and understanding better. He still gets up in the middle of the night usually twice. Two nights ago we were up most of the night between the two kids and the dogs barking. I think we should get rid of one of them. I guess we should probably keep the kids. Claysen wouldn't go back to sleep and I refuse to fall into the same habit I did with Callen and just feed him to get him back to sleep, so I was laying in bed with my fingers stuck in my ears until he went to sleep. Last night I actually got some ear plugs. Boy those are nice. This may work out! Sounds cruel, but if you look at it from a sleep deprived state it isn't so bad. Right? I do feel bad and a little selfish, but I know I will be a better mom and have a better kid for it in the long run.

Mother's Day is coming up, maybe I can have a bit of a break. My silent plead to Rusty!