Josh is Riding Again!

Most of you may remember Josh

had an incident with his knee

a little over a year ago,

and blew it out loading hay.

Well, he is know confident in the

leg muscles that were knee-glected (hee, hee)

from being down for most of the last year.

He has been riding for a while

at the arena,

and just started working on trail rides from home.

So, I got out there with my camera!

Here is Josh getting Bell ready.

and Heather working on Cheyenne.

I included this picture, because

I never realized the size difference between

Heather and her horse.

Heather is a TALL 9 year old,

(only a half a head shorter than me and I am 5'1")

Cheyenne is a TALL horse

and

Heather's head is level with the horses butt!

ready to go

mom, quit with the pictures

let's ride!

and off they go into the desert for

hours!

Last night

(11-13-09)

Josh and Heather went down to Dunn's Arena

to see how their horses

and them

do with Team Penning.

Well, it was really dark

and my camera was struggling getting some

decent pictures.

But,

here they are warming up their horses.

Payton and Hailey

freezing on the bleachers.

Jasmine saying hi to dad

when he stopped for a drink.

Savannah, just being cute.

We are going again next week,

hopefully I will get some better pictures.

Overall they did OK.

The first 2 runs, no cows in,

but learned some things.

The 3rd run

the got one cow in right at the buzzer,

but it didn't count.

Not to bad for their first time.

Heather and Josh's horses both did really

well. Even Bell, with her one eye.

Bell and Josh have a great connection/bond.

She really trusts him and will do things for him

that she won't do for anyone else.

Kid with Ribbon Pictures

I finally got some pictures

of the kids with

their ribbons.

Jasmine with her 2nd place ribbon

Savannah with her 3rd place ribbon.

Josh and the girls that he helped-

he ran/walked all the patterns

to get their ribbons.

Happy-Smiling Faces!

Hailey and her participation ribbon.

Payton and her participation ribbon.

Heather and her 3rd place ribbon.

Lots of smiles around our house.

I am going to have to do a room

addition on our house,

just for all the ribbons and trophy's

that these girls are going to get!

Bad, Bad Mom :(

Today was another Saddle Club Gymkhana.

After having taking hundreds,

if not thousands,

of pictures of Heather on her horse,

I didn't have the camera today.

However, when I got to the arena

Josh decided to sign up

Jasmine and Savannah-

their first time in a gymkhana.

Figures, the one time I don't have the camera....

So, Josh walked/trotted the

two girls around for lead line.

I wish that I had pictures of their faces.

They were SO excited!

In the end we have these:

left to right

Jasmine took 2nd

Savannah took 3rd

both in the lead line group.

(for family - that means that Josh walked

the patterns and held the rope while they rode)

Heather took 3rd in her group

Payton and Hailey got

participation ribbons.

Payton and Hailey

have tough competition-

Heather is in the same group as them,

and a couple of ranch kids

and some REALLY good riders-

getting a 1st, 2nd or 3rd

will be tough for them.

At the end of a long day,

11:00-6:00

at the arena,

this is what we do.

a sleepy kid on the couch

How cute is that girl!

Daddy made their day

by letting them ride.

NEXT time,

I will have my camera!

Gymkhana Series and Dream Catcher

Today was the final Buckle Series gymkhana.

Heather did AWESOME.

She took first for the day

YIPPEE!!

Josh giving her some pointers

and pumping up Cheyenne.

fellow Saddle Club kids

with Wonder Girl and Heather

waiting their turns.

Honey and Wonder Girl did great today.

See the sweaty eyes?

These horses are earning their feed quite nicely!

Honey and Cheyenne were actually dripping sweat today!

Heather showing off the EXCELLENT trophy

that she earned for SECOND place in the Buckle Series.

All Smiles!

This is how Josh feels about it:

all giddy!

We are so proud of Heather.

She really has come along way in her riding.

Even from the beginning of the series,

she is a completely different rider.

She has really only been riding for less than a year

and doing this well already...

One more,

just cause we are proud parents!

Hailey and Payton also got awards.

They competed in only 1 of the gymkhana's

and the family hosting the event wanted something for everyone.

Payton

Hailey

Sydney from Bitless Horse

had a contest a while back.

I took 2nd place in it. (Yay me!)

I won a handmade dream catcher.

It is so gorgeous!

and it matches my house perfectly!

Look at that handy work.

I can't wait to get it hung!

Thank you Sydney!!!!

And, of course Halloween.

We did it small this year.

Savannah and Jasmine

all dressed up and ready to

Trick-or-Treat

Payton, Heather and Hailey

ready to chase Savannah and Jasmine

around asking for candy!

How Do We Do it?

Heather got it too.

when I picked her up from school today

she was crying because her legs

hurt so bad.

I felt sorry for her

and told her that

she should have told her teacher

and I would have picked her up!

Tomorrow - day 4 that I am missing from school.

Thank goodness

I have a wonderful student teacher

that I can trust with the kids!

With that being said,

I have 5 sick kids

one sick husband

and me.

How do I keep it all straight??

who had what meds,

what is their temp,

what time did they take it?

This is my system.

Let me show you up close.

Heathers page

temp, time, what she took.

after a while it will look like this.

times, temps and meds.

this is the only way that I can keep it straight in my brain.

especially when I am one of the sick ones.

these also play a major role in my day

We have only had the white one for years

today my wonderful husband

bought two more.

what a genius!

Now I can measure 3 girls at the same time.

We have used a LOT of this:

for Jasmine and Savannah

and this:

for the bigger kids.

So far:

Savannah is fine still

thank goodness!!

Jasmine finally quit running a fever

earlier in the day.

Hailey's fever has been very low.

Payton's fever has been in

the high 101's.

Heather is just starting

and running at 100.

Carina - nothing yet.

Josh, finally can breathe

and is moving around.

Me, well,

no fever, just a cough lingering

from the bronchitis.

So, since we have all gotten it already,

we should be flu sick free for the season.

Gymkhana on Sunday=

hopefully Heather is in top shape=

my plan is that she can roll through it like Savannah did.