My teenagers

My boys are growing up! Dustin is 15 and Brady is 13 now. It's hard to imagine that time can go this quickly. People warn you about it and when your kids are little and into everything. You say you believe it will go quickly but I don't think you really comprehend the full extent of it until they are older. I'm sure when they are both gone to college it's going to be even more shocking to me.

They have gone back to public school this year as I was pretty sure high school math was going to start getting over my head. I'm convinced the transition was harder for me than for them. I thought I'd be overjoyed at having my "time" back to myself again. I'm loving being able to go with Mike so much again now but I must admit this last fall was pretty tough on me. I felt lost with my boys gone so much of the time. It didn't help that they were in football and were gone from 7 am until almost 7 pm most days.

They have made me very proud in school. They have both been on the A Honor Roll all year and are consistently getting glowing reports from their teachers on their attitudes and work ethic. I know the cardinal rule about never bragging on your kids or your dogs but I just can't help it right now. I know they will both make plenty of mistakes (trust me we've already had several "good" ones) but right now I couldn't be more proud of how they're growing up.

Yesterday the boys barely got home from school and got put right to work. We had a broken legged yearling that need roped and loaded in the trailer. Another yearling that we missed castrating and needed to brought in to get cut. There were still 600 hd of yearlings that needed fed again before dark. So, Dustin took off with the tractor and processor and took care of feeding while Brady, Mike and I managed to get the broken legged yearling loaded and hauled to the house. Dustin is sporting a good welt on his leg today from holding the yearling for his dad to castrate him. No complaints from either of them though.

The other day the season's first branding brought home to me how much they've matured. They know the work, they have the ambition to get in there without having to be told and they both have enough heart to finish the job. I'm not always the best at telling them how proud I am of them but I made sure to take the time when we got home that night. I tell them "I love you" so much they probobly think I'm a broken record but I need to work on pointing out how proud of them I am as well. Everyone likes to hear they've done a good job and teenager's are no different. I think I'm going to try harder to show them how much I appreciate them from now on.