Proud Mom Moments

This is one of my all-time favorite photos of Matthew and Peter.
Summer of 2006 - Do they remind you of anyone?

I have very high expectations for myself and my children. I want them to grow up to be polite, respectful, considerate, and motivated adults. All of the boys help around the house and on the ranch. Matthew and Peter are expected to work hard in school and always strive to do the right thing. I have to admit, all four boys live up to these standards and make Toby and I proud every single day.

Despite their successes, I am not great at giving out compliments. It is something I need to work on so the boys know how proud we are of them. This week, I was reminded of how lucky we are to have such fantastic children.

On Monday night, I received the following text from a friend:

"Just bragging on your Peter. He is so sweet to Rocco at wrestling. Rocco totally looks up to him! Good job raising that one Mama!"

Less than an hour later, a different friend posted a video of Peter helping a classmate at wrestling practice with this comment:

"Your son is soo good with helping other kids. He takes the time to show them how to do the moves that they don't know. Such a big heart."

On Wednesday, I received the following email from one of Matthew's teachers:

"What a great kid! I have been promoting the "Zumbathon" to help out the Reed family. Today before class, Matthew walked up to me with $9 of his own. I asked him what it was for. His response, "I am not going to make it, but want to donate money." WOW!! WOW!! No other teenager would think of doing something so selfless."

Each of these comments made my heart burst with pride! We truly have amazing sons!

Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation

Each year, we try to attend the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation banquet. It is always a fun time and supports a good cause, as it raises money for elk preservation. This year, the banquet happened to fall on Valentine's Day, so our romantic evening was spent playing games, bidding on items, and enjoying a delicious prime rib dinner. We shared a table with my Dad, Jana, Tiffany and Chad. Matthew and Peter also went with us. The banquet appeared to be very successful, as there did not seem to be an empty seat in the place. While we did not win any of the drawings, we did purchase a set of three RMEF duffle bags in the live auction. As always, we had a lot of fun and saw many friends at the banquet!



Happy Valentine's Day!

These two are quite the pair!

Peter won a set of knives!

Matthew participating in the youth gun drawing.

It was a big night for Tiffany and Chad.
It was their first night out without MacKenzie.



Love her!

Dad and Jana

 

The table decorations and RMEF swag were very nice!

 

The Feeding Crew

William, Toby, and Joseph

This time of year, Toby is extremely busy with the cattle. On a normal year, he will trail all of the cows home in December or January and feed the 900+ cows hay until March. This requires hours of transporting hay on pickups to three or four different locations on the ranch. Now that Matthew and Peter are older, they wake up early and help feed each weekend. They help drive pick-ups to the different feed locations, which significantly reduces the amount of time it takes to feed.

 

Recently, William and Joseph have joined the feeding crew. They get so excited for the weekend because they love helping Toby and seeing all of the baby calves. We are right in the middle of calving, so each morning there are at least 10 new calves born! This morning, I decided to join the crew. We took two pickup loads to one location, two loads to a second feed ground, three loads to a third feed ground, and one pickup load to the last location. It is always so much fun watching the new babies jump, run, and play in the sunshine. It was even more enjoyable to see the delight in all four boys' eyes as they helped on the ranch.

 

Meet Stickers. He is almost 20 years old! He has been on the ranch longer than I have!

Yum, Yum, Yum

Top feeding dog Daisy.

Newborn calf. Probably a day old.

Sunday Funday

Sunday is my favorite day of the week. It is the only day we don't have meetings, practices, games, or other activities. As a result, it is typically the only day of the week we can stay home and enjoy time as a family. Last Sunday was no exception, and the unseasonably high temperatures allowed us to spend much of the day outside!

 

The boys were extremely busy. They built fences.

 

 

 

 

Hit A LOT of baseballs.

Played with the dogs and cats.

 

Groomed Clancy.

 

And just had fun!

 

 

While writing this post, I could not help but notice that William's shirt was on backward all day long! I guess that is okay because that is what Sunday Funday is all about!

A Boy and His Horse

Peter has always had a love of horses and roping. When Peter was five, he informed Toby that he wanted to start roping at our brandings. So, Toby put him on one of our soundest horses and turned him loose. The first year, he caught one calf. Since that time, Peter has roped at all of our brandings, and his skills have improved significantly.

During the last year, Peter has been pressuring Toby to teach him to team rope. Peter is convinced that he is ready to move beyond the branding corral and into the roping arena. One of the largest barriers to teaching Peter to team rope has been that we have not had any team roping horses since Toby's head and heel horses passed away about five years ago, and Toby did not want to place Peter on a horse that was not already trained to team rope.

That obstacle was overcome on December 31, when Toby found a team roping horse for Peter. Now, Peter has his own horse to begin learning how to team rope on this spring. He is an 11 year old blue roan gelding whose registered name is Two Eyed LeRoy. Peter has chosen to call him Clancy. He was born on May 9, and is one year and five days older than Peter. As a result, he and Peter have many years of team roping ahead of them.

I will keep you posted on Peter and Clancy's progress as they learn to team rope!