Category: CowKids

To Moms of Boys

posted by Chelsea

I startled him right out of his dreamy near-sleep state.

“Buck!”

“What?!” he asked, startled (like I mentioned above).

“This baby boy can NEVER ride rough stock. I’d like to establish that right now.”

Buck- laughed.

“I’m not kidding. He can rope. He can bull-dog. No roughstock. Let me be more specific: No bulls. No broncs. No steers. No sheep.”

A mental image for you:

“No sheep? He can’t mutton bust?”

“No sheep. I can’t handle it. AND it will only lead to bigger and worse. No bucking animals whatsoever.”

“Lets discuss this when you’re more rational… like how about in the morning? Or better yet, maybe we should meet the little guy first.”

“It just hit me. We’re having a boy. He’s gonna wanna do crazy things.”

“Umm…. Yep…”

And now, I keep thinking about the crazy things this little man will want to do. And how I might persuade him not to. And how I never thought about this before. And how he hasn’t even entered this scary world yet and I’m already planning his safe life. And how that’s probably not going to work for us. And how my prayer life is going to get a lot more intense.

….And how every crazy boy has a mom. So today and on this Mother’s Day weekend, I salute you.

My Oldest Girl’s Top Ten

by Charlotte

I recently downloaded photos that my oldest daughter has taken. She takes some great photos – in my opinion. I thought I’d share 10 of her best ones . . . in no particular order.

Her trip to the coast.

Self portrait.

View from the back yard.

Horse collection.

Moses. (I miss him.)

Sister.

Brother.

Kids at the branding.

Painted toes. Faith wanted all three colors on her toes and this is how my oldest girl painted them.

And our new puppy.

Hope you enjoyed them as much as I did.

Tucker’d Out

posted by Chelsea

After a day of branding, riding, playing & fun…

This is all that’s left….

Dirt. Sloppy Joe. Branding boogers. Sun. AND one tucker’d out girl.

Little Girls and Horses

posted by Robyn

I think I can speak for most of us here on Cowgirl Clippings when I say we were horse crazy growing up. Well of course, that is quite a silly thing to say, as it’s probably obvious. Most of us haven’t grown out of it and never will- at least not completely.

There is something about most little girls and horses. It seems like even when a girl grows up in a big city, she spends most of her Christmas wishes on a horse, in hopes there will be one under the tree Christmas morning. Now wouldn’t that be a sight? For the lucky few we don’t know life without a horse. And yet we still dreamed about them when we were little…..pretending the plain old sorrel was jet black, or flawless white, or the paint you saw on that movie the other night.

No matter how you put it we are just silly crazy over the four legged beasts and we have no explanation.

This little girl…

…is so horse crazy she sneaks out to the barn yard to ride, despite getting in trouble when she returns. In her mind it is all worth it. Here she is claiming her dad’s horse Dutchess aka Dutchy. She grew up on a horse like most of us here on CC, but she can’t seem to get enough…..I can totally relate!

Fence Climbing 101

posted by Chelsea

One of the first things every cowkid has to learn is how to climb a fence…

…or climb through a fence. It’s important to be able to get to the other side. It’s also important, as shown above, to be able to get a birds-eye-view from the top of the fence.

Occassionally, a daddy (one busy ear tagging calves) on the other side of the fence…

… needs a helper…

… and sometimes he needs one QUICK. In that case, the actual fence climbing needs to be bypassed, and a little person needs…

a little…

..bitta…

…”Daddy assistance”…

So together…

branding 2012 037

…they can get their work done :-)

My Boy’s Second Branding

by Charlotte

The title may surprise you a little bit. “Why not write about your boy’s first branding?” you may ask. Well, because I was not at my boy’s first branding. I was at home with two sick girls. I’m not bitter. There will be lots more brandings for my boy. And it will be fun to look back and see how much he improves over the years. First or Second will not make much difference ten years from now.

He did really well.

Very serious.

The other guys were so good to him.

Helping him every chance they got.

It was a proud day for this mama.

You may also be wondering why my big girl didn’t rope as she is older. She was sick the first day and she had tests the second day. But please know that her day is coming, too. I’m so excited.

The Best Part

posted by Chelsea

The best part of brandings, in my opinion, is the little people who frequent them….

They’re happy to have a fence to climb on…

A good vantage point to see the action…

They’re really happy to find a little hiding place to call their own…

And if, at the end of the day a Grandpa…

Or a dad…

… lets them on for a ride, well then…

…it’s definately a day well done.

Inquisitiveness

posted by Chelsea

I love having an inquisitive child….

Her questions often stump me, perplex me, and humor me.

A few days ago, she was sitting on the couch next to me, with her hand on my stomach waiting ~~ever so patiently~~ to feel the baby move around. While waiting, she looked me up and down and said, “Mom? Do you ever feel the baby kick inside your neck?” :-) Then we discussed that he’s contained– that’s why my belly is so big. No free reign in my neck, arms, legs or any other place- just the belly region.

The Pig Mobile

by Charlotte

As I’ve mentioned (a time or two), we are in the middle of branding season, so the chances of having the pickup and trailer available to me are slim. I had to pick up my oldest two’s 4-H pigs last week and, of course, the pickup and trailer were nowhere to be found. So I turned our little family mobile into a pig mobile.

I took out the back two seats and put a water trough in . . .

. . . and drove to the pig farm. We loaded the pigs into the trough and drove home. Faith was in the fetal possition with her fingers in her ears the whole way even though the pigs barely even grunted, but other than that the trip was uneventful.

Then yesterday I had to take the red one to the vet for her eye. Yep, you guessed it, the pickup and trailer were gone so out came the pig mobile. The ladies at the vet clinic were very impressed with my little pig mobile.

“So where are the pictures?” you ask.