Nick took Josiah and Levi hog hunting this week.
Josiah's 12th birthday was in January and Levi's 10th was in February,
so this was for their birthday.
I will go ahead and warn you, I saved all the bloody pictures for last. :)
As you can see they are a little excited.
They have both been hunting before, but it has been a while.
They saw lots of hogs, some very big.
The first time they pulled up to shoot they were both too excited to pull the trigger.
The next time though, Josiah pulled right up, the hogs were uphill
so he aimed a little high, got off a perfect shot and stayed calm.
The next morning Levi was ready.
He missed on his first shot, but did good on his next.
He shot this one because he liked the colors on it. :)
It doesn't matter to me, they'll taste the same.
Nick shot one too. His goal was to let the boys shoot one though.
They had an excellent time and cannot wait to shoot something else!!!
And now for the bloody pictures, which do not bother me!
I grew up going hunting and fishing.
I always baited my own hooks and cleaned my own fish.
Sometimes we hunted with dogs here, and a typical thing to do
is gut the deer and let the dogs have it.
If that bothers you, maybe you should skip the rest of the post.
Josiah's was a good heart/lung shot.
They gutted and skinned the hogs.
Levi's and Nick's hogs waiting to be tended.
This is what was left of the heart of Nick's hog.
The blood definitely doesn't bother the boys! ! !
They had a great time and Nick thinks I should go next time. : )
This past weekend we were out of town at a church in Mississippi. The motel we stayed at had an indoor pool, which is normally heated. For some reason the heater wasn't working, but you know children don't care about that. The room was warm though. Truthfully, Nick and I both got in just not for as long as the children. They had an excellent time splashing and dumping buckets of water on one another. Stonewall brought his water gun, for long range vengance!!! : ) 
The church we were at did a family school, where everyone stays together for sunday school. The pastor taught on..........................................
the plagues in Egypt. Can you guess which one he taught on? Yes, the frogs!!! He made it very interactive for the children and kept their attention. He was explaining how there were frogs everywhere; in the beds, bathrooms, food.................you get it. He handed out these stickers for saying the verses correctly, which Josiah did. He walked around while he was teaching. Then, in the middle of the lesson, he starts pulling these frogs out 
of his pockets and throwing them in everyones laps. They were going all over everyone. In our laps, our hair, on our Bibles, purses, on the floor. I'm sure everyone had several frogs on them. And I can tell you all of those children know what the lesson was about that day. We came home with quite a few frogs, the children all understand that plague very well now.
Hunter joined in this time with their game.
Boaz and Stonewall worked together well too. Very cute. Boaz loved his pockets and I even had to start checking them before washing. I usually found a small derringer gun or a rubber glow in the dark snake!! 
Building houses for their "animals".
This is the Saturday before we had to take Boaz in to the hospital. I knew in my heart something was wrong, but never dreamed what it was. I even believed it was serious, but we never guessed it. As I got to, and left the doctors office on Monday I told the Lord, "Lord, he's always been yours, and if you take him now, you are still gracious and kind. And no matter what, you are still on the throne". I really felt then that he would take him, but as time wore on and he started getting better, I began to believe I was going to get to keep him. But it looks like God took me up on it. I don't like it, don't think I do. I miss him every single day, in ways only a Mommy can understand who has lost one. Some things do remain though, no matter how I feel. My God is still in control, even when I don't understand. 
Gracie climbed up and was feeding Boaz his yogurt, though I have no idea why. It was very cute. Just the kind of thing friends do! 
When Boaz got sick, even the little ones seemed to realize our days with him were a gift. We didn't want to give him everything he wanted, but we all realized God could take him at any time.
Stonewall loved his "Buggy". He didn't understand at all. He has seen him feeling so bad that I think he just thought he was sleeping or still sick. He wanted to know if Boaz wanted to color, and gave him toys!
So, one day we realize Gracie and Stonewall have taken up together since Boaz passed. We overheard them talking too. Gracie said, "Now that Silas is gone and up in the clouds we'll just have to do with each other". And they really do a lot together. 
They are playing house, obviously the kitten is the "baby". Stonewall had been "babysitting" while Grace "fixed dinner".
Here's Stonewall and Cheyenne, they play together pretty good, though sometimes Stonewall acts like......well.....he's such a boy!!! He can be cute and be feeding her pretzels one minute. But then the he turned around and stepped on her blanket, smiling the whole time. Chy though is letting Stonewall have it!! : ) 
One time Chy decided to wrestle with him. Stonewall again is laughing (he's used to wrestling with his brothers), but Chy was NOT!! She could not get out of this one! It took a few minutes for Alex to be able to settle her. Really, I didn't teach him to wrestle with girls. ; ) 
