There is a Season

Baby Bird is 12 weeks old

BB is growing up soooo fast.  She laughs, smiles, kicks, fixes those big eyes on objects and cranes her neck and head when she hears voices.  I took these photos the other night and had someone do some editing on a few of them.  It was a great investment to have her tweak these photos for me. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hope you enjoyed that sweet face!  I know I haven't been a great "bloggy friend" the past few weeks.  It's hard to read and comment on all the blogs I like to visit....but I have been trying to read y'all thru my google reader!  Hope you all have a great 4th of July.  I think hubby and the older girls are going to visit our family and I hope to enjoy a leisurely day at home.  Be safe and take care!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pics from our last show....

turnin' first barrel

  gettin' outta there!

congrats coming from paw paw!

turnin' second barrel

 and gettin' outta there!

No looking back.....bright future ahead!!!

One week out.....

Well, I've been back to work a week and seem to be picking up right where I left off.  I am also carpooling with two other ladies and changed my hours to 7 - 4.  That is all working great and it is nice having company for the drive in!  I do miss my little Bird though and her sisters and their daddy....but we do what we have to do.

I took my horse last week to ride when we took Lib to practice.  She is still swollen from getting kicked so we are going to have to get her checked out.  Say a prayer she is ok!!!  I was so excited to get back on a horse.  Then, Friday night we met our friends GW, AW and their "kiddos" to eat.  While we were eating, it was decided to come back and have some fun on the Wii.

 

 

Lib has been doing great on the new horse.  She placed in Open Barrels twice this weekend as we had two shows this past weekend.  So, she won a little money and was really excited.  We were proud for her and she had a lot of family and friends there to see her ride on Sunday.  We took Bets to the arena for a friend of ours daughter to putt around on while they were there and Bets seemed to enjoy getting out.  She even tried to trot up on her own at one point!  I saw Bets standing at the trailer later in the evening and I asked Lib who did she have to think for "teaching" her to ride so well and she said "human or horse"....we winked at each other and both said BETTY !!!!  She knew what I was getting at and I got kind of choked up.  But it's truly amazing to know this girl only started running a year ago and is now hanging in there with the adults!!!Lu even rode around a little bit on Bets and had a great time too!  Both shows were close to home and it was good to have a shorter drive and be able to have family and friends there!

I haven't gotten around to too many blogs lately but I've been trying to save them to get caught up.  With having two horse shows this week, I didn't have a whole lot of spare time (not that there is too much spare time anyway!).  I'll try to get caught up this weekend!  Have a great week and I'll try to post pics from our show in the next few days!

BBNO - Bama Bloggers Night Out!!!

Go here to see what it's all about!!

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it's off to work I go....

So, I headed back in to work today...well, I should say I returned to the "office" because there's always work to be done with three kids, hubby and our house!  At any rate, the day I have been dreading was finally here.  BB is 10 weeks old and it was time for me to resume my job outside the home.  I dreaded it all weekend and shed a few tears this weekend as each day drew to a close and I knew Monday was one hour closer.

We did have a busy weekend though....

Decoration at the cemetery
Attend hubby's fishing tournament weigh-in
Watch him WIN....yay! 
Go to a great steakhouse with my "first set" of in-laws
Celebrate Father's Day on Sunday with the many Fathers in our lives
Eat good food with our family
Good time with family
Get ready for work on Monday!

Whew - makes me tired just thinking about it!  But we did have a great weekend and it made it all the harder to know I was going to be leaving my sweet girls this morning.  My Mom made the drive out to our house this morning to keep BB here and C's Mom is going to help as well.  It definitely makes it easier knowing she is here with her sisters, her grandmothers, her own things and that C. is close by since he works from home.

Well, I'm going to spend some time with my girls.  Keep us in your prayers as we make the adjustment this week!

Conversations with Lu Lu

• Since I have been home for the past nine weeks, there have been many days that we have grabbed something out for lunch, gone thru a drive thru or picked up something from a little restaurant down the road.  The other day Lu asked what we were having for lunch and I replied "sandwiches".  I had just gone to the grocery store and while there had picked up some lunchmeat so I thought we would just have sandwiches.  She looked at me in disbelief and said "What?  Sandwiches?  Are we poor?"   I couldn't help but laugh!  But, what have we done that would make her 6 yr old mind think that because we are having sandwiches that we are "poor"?  And just to be clear....we are not wealthy....maybe not impoverished but not wealthy - LOL
• After the birth of Baby Bird, people began remarking about how similar she looked to both of her sisters (keeping in mind she and her two sisters don't share the same biological father).  So, we pulled out baby pics of both the girls and would make "comparisons".  The other day I found Lu's hospital pics and had them laying in the living room.  Lu looked at it and said "oh look at Baby Bird" and we told her that wasn't BB but that it was her.  She looked in disbelief at the picture and said "that's me?" and we said yes!  She continued to look at it and said "I look like a ninja!....a boy ninja!"  We burst out laughing at the fact she thought she looked like a "ninja" and asked her why?  She said it was the position of her hands and that they looked like she was ready to "fight"!  We still aren't really sure why she felt like she looked like a BOY NINJA - lol, but it was too funny!

Life in the "fast" lane!!!

Lib had a show this weekend on Loot and they did awesome!  We video'ed instead of pics and the smile on her face, in the video, says it all!  Wish I could share it with you!  She got her fastest time EVER, on any horse, on him - a 16.6.  She ran Cloverleaf first and ran a 17.0, even going wide off the third barrel.  That class had adults in it and she pulled out first place with a 17.0.  Then in 12/under barrels, she got the 16.6 and won that class too.  Her coach's time was a 16.0 so not bad for her 2nd weekend on Loot.  She also won arena race on the pony.  She had room for improvement the rest of the night but those were two really high points of the night.

We actually left the show the earliest we've probably ever left a show and got home before midnight - whoo hoo!  That was great because we had a busy day on Sunday.  We went to a new church because Lu's ball team was being recognized in the service for their great season.  This church sponsored the team and the pastor's daughter was on the team.  They did a neat video of the season and gave all the girls a copy.  It was really sweet.  Then they had lunch for us.  We had a great time and enjoyed the church too.  The girls keep asking can we go back there!  After lunch, we ran back by the house and then down the road a ways for a baby shower for C's cousin.  We visited with everyone and then headed home.  Lib and Lu's grandparents called and wanted to come over and see us so when we got home they were headed over.  We showed them the ball team video and horse show video and then the girls headed out to swim.  C. has spent time off and on this past week getting our "blow up" pool put up for the girls.  I call it our "redneck pool"...anyway, it's a good size and it does the job to cool things off - at least until we can get a real "cement pond" er, swimming pool..ha ha ha.

So, we had a pretty busy weekend but a great one.  Hope you did too!  This is my last week home with the girls before I go back in to the office next week so I'll be a little slow in posting and visiting this week....gonna spend as much time with them as I can!  Also, no horse show this weekend but we will be going to C.'s weigh in at the lake and then going to eat.  Hope y'all have a great Father's Day weekend!

New Pics - Baby and Horses!

Baby Bird is 8 weeks old!

 
(Lib caught this picture for me with her really LAUGHING !!!)

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Here's some of Lib riding Loot last night.  They are fine tuning some things for her to adjust to riding him and really being on her game with a faster horse.  He can really take her in there and she is not even asking a lot of him yet, compared to how much she had to push her previous horses.  We are really excited about her upcoming shows!

 
(Lib taking instruction from GW!!!)

 
loping circles

Kickin' up some dust at the second barrel!!!

Lookin' good on the first barrel!!!

C. and Lu havin' fun while Lib is riding!

Loot's first show in Alabama!!

Lib and Loot had their first show together this past Saturday night.  Loot has stayed this past week at our friend's house because C. has been out of town this past week on a fishing trip.  So, we left Loot over there so Lib could go ride but the weather did not cooperate so she did not get to ride.  Our friend was also going to the show with his new horse, so I asked if he would get Loot there and ride him for us first...then we would let Lib ride so the show would count as a qualifying show for one of her eight shows she needs to go to State in September. 

We had to go to Lu's team party in the first part of the day, so my Mom came over and kept BB so we could go to the team party at a local water park.  We ran in from the water park and changed clothes to go to the show.  Our friends arrived ahead of us at the show so we met up with them and unloaded all of Lib's tack at their trailer so when he was thru riding Loot we could do a tack change and get her tack on Loot.  The pony was also there for her to ride so we were in for a busy night!  Our friend (SC) exhibitioned Loot a few times and then we had Lib exhibition him.  The plan was for her to walk him in a few times, then trot him in a few times on the pattern.  After she trotted him, her barrel coach GW, said to go get her another exhibition so she could kick him up to a lope.  Meanwhile, she was outside the pen riding around on him and you would have never known it was her first night to ride him!  He was doing great both in and out of the arena and was very quiet and controlled.  So, she loped him thru the pattern and they looked great.  We also entered her in a class that she doesn't usually run in and it has all ages in it from adults to the youth.  That class was first and she began asking if she could run him instead of loping.  So, I consulted all interested parties, friends, family and barrel coaches (LOL!) to get reassurance and we said OK.  They did great and for her first run EVER on him, they got a 17.5.  She was just barely out of placing on him! 

They did great the rest of the night and also just barely missed placing in the poles class.  We had her take it slower on the poles until we saw how he handled them even though we knew he was used to doing poles.  He did great weaving in and out of them!  So, with a few adjustments they will be doing even better and we couldn't be happier with our girl and new horse!

C. got home late Saturday night and I gave him all the updates.  We are hoping the weather will cooperate for them to ride this week before our next show.  I didn't take pics because I was trying to video but I didn't get much video because my battery went dead - ugh!  But, I promise to do better this weekend!  Loot came home yesterday and his pasture mates (Betty and Hannah) hardly left his stall.  I am sure they were drooling over what a looker he is - LOL.  Poor Blackie, our pony, is probably really having a case of short-man syndrome about right now! 

Hope you have a great week!

Lib's "Loot"....

This is Lib's new ride...."Loot".  He is gorgeous and seems so sweet.  He is staying at a friend's house (pictured) for a few days so he can take him for a few spins and then Lib will go give him a whirl!  She has a show this weekend so maybe she can take him thru slowly and get a qualifying show in on him for our State show.  She has to have 8 shows and we have 13 shows left.  Hopefully we won't run in to any problems and she can still get qualified on her new ride!  Then, hopefully next week she can get some good riding time in on him and really start getting with him to really run!  We miss our pretty girl, Sparkle, but I think this big boy is going to bring some nice eye candy to our pasture and really get Lib running where she needs to be!