Canter

Walk Trot Canter Gallop

Bri has been taking riding lessons for about a year now. She is getting pretty good at handling a horse at a walk and a trot but at her last lesson her teacher decided it was time for Bri to get her horse up to a canter. Canter is faster than trotting and not quite as fast as galloping, to a mom watching, cantering seem pretty darn fast.

Brianna loved every minute of it.

She really is happiest when she is on a horse.

Remember the new baby colt? He is almost 2 months old now and he his growing like a weed.

Bri loves to visit him and all the horses.

Happy Birthday Baby Jack

This is my cute nephew Jack. It is his first birthday,



And he is sooooo big. And so darn cute.

He loves cars.

And his cousins and sister love him.

We love you little Jack.

First Bees game, Almost

We aren't really big baseball fan's, in fact we have absolutely no interest at all in baseball, but Bri and Carly's little friend Braden has been to several games and every time the plane flies around with the big banner behind it the girls beg us to take them. So when Jon was offered some tickets to a Bees game we decided to take them. The only problem is that it has been a very wet spring and tonight was no exception. We got to the game a bit late, we were also given free food so we left the girls with Jon's boss and his wife while we went to get hot dogs. By the time we got back to our seats they were already pulling the tarp over the field because of the rain.

The rain wasn't too bad to begin with so the girls happily ate their hot dogs, but the rain really started coming down after a while and just wouldn't let up. Eventually we had to take cover.


We eventually decided that it was too wet and cold to enjoy the rest of the evening so we headed for home.

And of course the sun came out and we got to see this beautiful rainbow.

So as we were waiting to catch the train I saw this cute couple trying to take their picture with the rainbow, I ran over to take their picture. They were here on vacation from Mexico. They were really cute, and when they saw the girls shivering from the cold they insisted they give them the t-shirts that they had gotten at the game. (They handed them out for free to the first people there) We felt bad that they had give us their shirt and we had nothing to give them, but they told us to think of them and Mexico the next time we saw a rainbow. They really made our night.

Here are the girls on the train ride home in their new shirts.

We promised them we'd try it again later this summer. Even thought we got rained out it was still a fun night.

The Fathers Day Post

Fathers Day weekend was really great. Friday we got to spend time with Jon's little brother Jared who we don't get to spend much time with. We were so happy to see him and catch up.

The family hasn't all been together for over 11 years.

Sunday we had Jon's parents over for breakfast. The girls really love their Papa.

We had my Dad over for dinner. They sure love their Grandpa Gary.

We got a little crafty (surprise, surprise) with fathers day gifts. We Made t-shirts for the Grandpas and their dad.

We also made stepping stones for my dad to put in his garden, my dad has quite the green thumb. We did hand and foot prints of all the grand kids. They were a lot of fun to make.

So I know everyone says it, but Jon truly is such a great dad. He is always such a great help and never has to be told to help me out with them. They are Daddy's girls for sure. He puts them to bed every night and sings them Daddy Hum Hum. He is so great with every one's kids, all the nieces and nephews and neighborhood kids love Jon. I'm truly a lucky girl to have such a great husband and father. I love you Jon! You're the best!

Swimming!

We managed to go swimming in between rain storms last week. The kids had so much fun. The got to go swimming at our cousins house.


There were lots of cousins to play with and even their great aunt Sherrie.


My girls are part fish.

Too Cute!

I love the next series of pictures. We are really having a great time with our new camera.

Hopefully it will stop raining so we can do this again soon.

How does this happen

This is a plant growing out of the wall in my living room. The thing is, is that this is in the middle of my house. It's not near an exterior wall it is smack in the middle of the house.



I think it's best not to think too hard about how this happens it makes me very scared about the construction of our house.

I can't believe it's been 10 years!

Ten years ago today Jon and I became first time home owners.

The plan when we first bought our house was to only be here for a few years and to fix our house up and buy something bigger and better. Well, we have done a lot to fix up our house and some where along the way we fell in love with our little house.


I don't think the original owners would even recognize their house now. About a year after we bought it a wind storm blew the siding off the chimney at the time we didn't have the money to reside the whole house so we put rock on the chimney instead. About a year later we were able to replace the siding to a much nicer color. We've also replaced the roof and planted many trees. We have done a ton of work on the inside. When we moved into our house we called it the amazing technicolor dream house. Every single room was a different color. We had a Sunshine yellow room (carpet and all), a pink room and mint room, a rust room, a blue room, a peach room and the main floor was a lovely shade of hospital green. Slowly we have redone almost every room in the house including the Kitchen, all the bathrooms (which all were carpeted.)

The best part of our house is of course the location. It is close to everything but still on a rather quiet street. And our neighbors are the best. Any night of the week we can walk out and talk to any of our neighbors. There is always someone to borrow any egg from, help move furniture and we all just generally look out for each other and we have made some really great friends over the years. I don't know how we could ever leave our little house now and I hope we don't have to.
It truly is Home Sweet Home.

Some more horse pictures

I'm sure everyone is sick of seeing pictures of Bri's riding lessons but since I got my new camera I just can't resist posting a few more.

I was talking with a man in our neighborhood who has horses and he told me that horse crazy girls are a good thing because they are so crazy about their horse that they forget about boys. I hope she forgets about boys because we are in big trouble with Miss Bri when the boys start going crazy for her. Honestly, I don't know how I got such a beautiful daughter.

This summer Bri has started taking group lessons. I really love the group lesson. I feel like she gets a lot more out of being in a group.

She just loves being on a horse. The horse she currently rides is named Taffy. She is such a sweet horse. Most all the horses at the stable she rides at are rescued. When they got Taffy last summer she was very very malnourished. The horses at the stable she was living at wouldn't let her eat and you could see every bone in her body. She is looking great now and really is such a sweet horse.

The man behind her is Mike. He is one of her teachers and is so great with all the kids. We are so lucky to have found such a great place for her to ride. My favorite part of this picture is Bri's face. You can she just how happy she is to be out there.

She now rides with out using the pommel. Right now they are working with her on being able to stear the horse with her reigns and to speed up and slow down. She can get her up to a trot and wants to get her up to a canter soon. She really is getting quite good.

I know every kid does it, but.......

I was still so mad!

Carly decided to give herself a haircut Friday night.

My Neighbor Marci came to our rescue and fixed it.

Well sort of. There wasn't a whole lot she could do. So now Carly is sporting a super short page boy look. It's a good thing she is so darn cute.