Real, live cowboy

It happened. I turned Brent into a cowboy. He turned me into the photographer. What the heck?!? Something's wrong here and I won't stand for it!!

Brent has been taking Bo-D out on some good rides here recently. One up behind the house with his Dad, brother and Glenn. Then another day or so later they rambled on for 25 + miles on a scouting trip. Can you believe that he asked me to hold dinner for him that night?!? Hmmm....we're going to have some talks.....and buy another horse. :) I'm so happy that Brent enjoys his horse time just as much as I do!! And I love that Bo-D poses so nicely for pictures.

A couple riding partners.

I'm not surprised

With a name like Cash, I'm not surprised that he will go on a 3 hour horseback ride and only cry when he has to get off the horse! With a mom like me, I'm not surprised that when he did get mad about getting off the horse....he REALLY got mad.

These are some pictures of Cash riding Pete with our good friend (and neighbor) Glenn. They got Pete for free because he was so wild and couldn't be broke. We thought he would be a good one for Cash to ride. :)

Hey -- what happened to MY horse?!?

Why read books.....

....when you can read the Victoria's Secret magazine? I can see we're going to have our hands full. After breakfast, Cash normally goes to his bookshelf and grabs Humpty Dumpty or Animal Noises, sometimes even Curious George. Not the other morning. That morning, he went to the magazines....he grabbed the best looking one....he smiled....he giggled....he crawled up in Brent's lap and held it out to read. Brent smiled....he giggled....held it out to read and said -- 'quick, take a picture'! And I did. And we're sharing.

To the guy that puts the toilet paper on the roll.....

I salute you -- that is hands down, the worst chore ever. You never think he's ACTUALLY in there unrolling it all until it's too quiet for too long. Next thing you know you're 10 minutes into trying to reroll t.p.. I don't know why, but I can't ever just fold it up and call it good.

Muddy days

I wish that we had the camera out earlier, but I was able to snap a photo or two of Cash post mud puddle and during bath time. He had walked down the driveway, found the only mud puddle, sat right in the middle of it and proceeded to splish, splash!

And then someone did this to his hair....who would do that??

Hard at work

**Disclaimer: No, I am not pregnant in this photo -- it just looks that way. Also, I don't wear my boots like this unless it's a rush out of the house because Cash wants to play day.

We've been picking lots of rocks, burning and dragging our pastures these past few weekends and I see that it's starting to pay off. The place is coming around.....green grass everywhere! It's always nice to actually see benefits from your hard work.

Cash has been helping out as well -- a few rocks have been polished up in his mouth, but he's pretty good about just picking them up and throwing them. He's had some great 4 wheeler rides and has even rode our new horse Bodie.

This isn't the greatest picture of us -- Bodie looks like he's got goofy legs or something. He is a really great horse and is sweet, sweet, sweet. I hope to take him up the mountain tomorrow afternoon sometime. I can't wait! ** You can see a little bit of the fencing in the background...if you look REAL hard!

A few for the books

They really do exist! I didn't make it up -- Brent and Cash DID hang out with G & G Olson! :)

GGO

Well....since Brent has neglected to take over the blog (are you reading this, Brent?) I am forced to write about a vacation that I didn't take! :)

Brent and Cash drove over to Billings to meet up with G & G Olson for Easter. They got there without a problem, Cash was an angel. They ate, played in the pool/hot tubs, ran across the bridge, went to Costco (thanks for the PJ's - from Cash), met up with friends, enjoyed some downtime in the hotel room and then drove back home -- driving home was wonderful. Cash was, once again, a little angel.

Oh....and there were some pretty heated games of cribbage I'm guessing and Easter egg hunts.

hahaha....Sure wish I could've been there -- sounded like a wonderful time and the boys came home happy. A good trip for everyone. Only one part of this story may be false....possibly the 'little angel' part. Guess we'll never know.

Blog in Bulk

The blog has hit the back burner lately. I'm not going to throw out promises of how I'm going to do so much better and I promise to post more pictures and you'll never miss out on a day at the Olson's ever again. I will, however, throw out that Brent is now officially in charge of the blog (are you reading this Brent?). I wipe my hands of it, I'm terrible at keeping up and I can't decide which picture Cash looks the cutest in out of 4032 photos.

How about this one?? See how sad he is and how concerned I look....is that a smile on my face?? I'm a bad mom.

Maybe I shouldn't have started writing this blog at 10:20 on a Thursday night....I wouldn't be giving up so easily. I had every intention to start earlier, but I got hung up on another blog. She's good....like really, really good....makes me look like some sort of amateur in everything that I do. I should despise her, her perfect life and her perfect blog (she posts almost DAILY!!). I don't. I love it, I love her. I can't stop reading it. I can't wait to finish this post so I can go read more. I wish that my life was this exciting -- maybe it is -- maybe if I 'blogged' more I'd see how exciting it is. I'll tell Brent to get on it. Check out Ree's blog if you have lots of time!!!! Seriously.

And what else have we been up to? Cleaning. Lots of cleaning. A nightly, 8:00 ish pick up. That usually starts with the kitchen. Holy crap. This is minor.

When we're not cleaning....we're playing.

Or reading with Grandma and Grandpa (sorry Grandma and Grandpa Olson, it seems the camera didn't work for the 3 pictures that were on it from Billings -- I'm sure you have 1 or 2 you could send our way).

Cash is a great driver.....hey, somebody had to drive us to Pullman (just kidding, don't turn us in) - isn't that why we have kids? So that they can take care of us.....do all the chores, drive us places, cook us meals, do the heavy lifting, etc.? Cash doesn't even know what he's got coming. Poor little guy.

Thank you to all for the Easter cards and gifts. I think that Brent had more fun with the new tent and tunnel than Cash did. In fact, we all had a great time and the thing is still in one piece. Amazing given the fact that Cash likes to throw himself on top of the tunnel more than he likes to crawl through. Can you believe that a 6'3" (give or take), grown man can fit into a tent/tunnel designed for a 4 year old??

I am officially done with trips to North Carolina for work....at least until July or so. This is wonderful news for the whole family. I was getting sick of being away from the boys and I think that Brent is now much more appreciative of single parents. I'm sure my turn will come. **sigh** I'm betting that things go much smoother for Brent when he has Cash by himself than it would for me -- it's gotta help when Cash likes his pops the most. I swear, all I hear around this place is, 'Dadeeeee, Dadeeee!'. I would much prefer 'Mama, I love you so much. Thank you for allowing me to work you over for 9 months, how can I repay you? You are my favorite and I promise to be the perfect little angel that you know I am....oh, and I promise to stop throwing my cup across the dinner table'. Is that too much to ask? Sheesh.

My boys tonight, after dragging the top pasture and moving some rocks. I think Cash still has one of the rocks in his mouth. I swear, you can't get the kid to smile once you pull out the camera. He's really a happy little guy.....really.

And don't worry. The blog will continue. I promise.

Steelhead

A successful fishing trip for the Olson's! We went on a runner to Salmon, ID this past weekend. Froze our buns off on Saturday, then had a beautiful day on Sunday. Cash wasn't overly thrilled with sitting in the backpack in the wind -- he seemed much happier when the sun was shining. I don't blame him, I felt the same way. On Sunday we met Jeff, the ultimate fisherman from Salmon and he got us on the right track for catching fish. Thank goodness -- a fishing trip is always better with a fish or 2 to fry! The fish will be smoked tonight and ready for some eating....then we'll know if we're going to go back or not.

Big bonus: We came home to a fully fenced homestead. Best fencing ever done -- go on a fishing trip, come home and it's done. It looks wonderful! I burned most of the back pasture yesterday and have a little burning left to do (I bought a weed burner and it's by far my favorite toy ever!)....I'll get some pictures up soon.

Why the blog has been so blah lately

WE'VE BEEN WORKING!

We have heat!!! Yipee! I think we're pushing 80 in the basement.....I have left the wool socks and the long sleeves in the 'winter closet'! :)

Sledding

We had a very small window of opportunity for sledding this year -- the snow just hasn't hit like it seems to have for everyone else. We decided that we would do some redneck sledding with the bit of snow that we had. So.....we put on our warmies (note Cash's -- 'I can't put my arms down!'), dug out the sled and hooked that little baby up to the 4 wheeler.

Brent and I had a great time. Cash seemed pretty indifferent. Alright. GO FASTER! So we did. Still nothing. At least he wasn't crying!

A Little Help

Cash has become quite the helper. You start pulling things for dinner....he'll make sure you don't forget anything.

You load the dishwasher....he'll empty it for you.

Our little helper!

Holidays and Cash's Birthday '09

CASH'S FIRST BIRTHDAY PARTY! Believe it or not, the Casher turned a year old on December 18th! We had his first birthday party up at Todd and Tracy's house in town. As you can see, he and his friend Maddox really enjoyed one of his presents. A toy that throws balls up in the air. YIPPEE!!!

Mommy and ol' Rudolph! Cash's day care hosted a Christmas party at the Missoula Carousel. There were about 25 kids and 50 parents who showed up for the event and everyone had a great time!

...That is a great time until Santa showed up. Cash did alright with Ol' Saint Nick for about a minute and then he decided he had about enough of the HO HO HO's and the strange man with the big white beard. Well, at least we got a picture of him with Santa!

We hope everyone's holidays were full of happiness and good cheer and we wish everyone a wonderful and blessed 2010!!!

Book Worm

Reading?? Not quite, but pulling them off of the shelf....all of them....got it!

How's my hair?

I wouldn't be surprised to see this picture next to the word "bedhead" in the dictionary!