Cookies Galore.

 My mom and I got together to decorate a few cookies for her to send off to relatives.  

We had particular fun dipping nutter butter cookies in chocolate to make these cute little critters.

Although it was so much fun to make some cookies together, nothing tops the creations that my mom has been doing with sugar cookies.  These are some of the awesome cookies she has been doing for holiday parties.  She made the trucks and trailers for the ranch Christmas party.  She even put 'HVR' on the door of the truck.  So adorable.  One would think they are too cute to eat, but the manage to get devoured every time!

She made these cute snow globes as well. 

She used the snow globe cookie cutter to make these horse cookies for the Eh Capa Christmas party.  Her talent amazes me!

A Special Tradition.

We celebrated Kevin's birthday and my parents anniversary on December 4th.  This has become such a special tradition.  This year we were missing Terrell, as we have been celebrating her birthday that evening as well.  She was in Montana this year, trying to stay nice and warm, but was with us in spirit.

Each year, the girls do a candle lighting ceremony.  This year, Sidney could not seem to get the first couple candles lit, so they broke out in laughter.  It is good that they can have all the feels.  Laughter, sadness, anger, joy, etc.  This year was definitely goofy and joyful as they remembered their dad.

My parents have been married 51 years now.  Amazing.  I am still trying to figure out how to get my dad to pose for a picture.  This is as good as any.

We had dinner and pineapple upside down cake.  Sidney complained that she wished Kevin had a different favorite dessert.  She will forever be eating pineapple upside down cake on December 4th:)!

After dinner, we started the Christmas puzzle and decorated the tree in honor of Kevin.  

Kendall enjoyed putting each of the special ornaments on the tree, along with our black and white photo ornaments.  

As I mentioned, this was an interesting year, as the girls seemed to be in very goofy moods.  As evidenced by these pictures of Kevin we came across, while decorating, he would have appreciated that!

Pure Joy.

This girl exudes pure joy.  Sometimes I just have to stop and marvel at her ability to find joy in the little things.  She was so excited that her coloring project won a prize in the Mathnasium coloring contest.  She did not really care what she won, she was just happy to win.  Moreover, here is a beautiful, almost 16 year old girl, that found joy in entering a coloring contest.

This picture shows it all.  She found herself a used record player and a couple of fun records.  Best gift to herself, ever!

She is a teen.  She has her first car.  She has run into a few things and someone managed to run into her.  Instead of getting angry, she decided that she will learn to do a bit of body work.  This girl has the ability to make lemonade out of lemons.  This is a quality that I strive to have more of.  I am fortunate to have such a great example of joy living with me every day.

Night Light Parade.

Sidney had a dream come true.  We went and watched the horse night light parade in the neighborhood next to ours a couple years ago.  She dreamed of riding a horse in the parade someday.  Well that someday happened this year.  We loaded Pigeon up and took him to the Western Riding Club.  Sidney donned him with lights (and herself too).  He did really well.

Kendall and her friends came out to watch from the back of the Prius.  Will someone tell Abby that it is literally freezing out?!?!  While taking this picture I had long johns, jeans, wool socks, snow boots, a heated vest, a coat, hat and gloves on!

Fall is Here, and the Puzzles are Out.

It went from summer to fall/winter in a couple of days.  I did not hesitate to break out the puzzles.  I bought this one last year and had not put it together.  It turned out pretty cool.  

After I put it together, Kendall told me about a tictok trend in which people were picking their puzzles up. She did not believe I could do it.  Oh do not fret, little one, it is simple physics.  I put a bit of tension of the end and pulled.  Presto puzzle!

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, I wanted to do a craft but had no idea what to do.  The girls mentioned that I should make some Christmas placemats.  I got to work immediately.  

Here was the end result.  Now, how do I keep all of the chocolate and spaghetti sauce away from them?

Our original flag finally decided to shred.  I ordered a new one and Liza and Sidney did the honors of flying it.  Liza even managed to fold the old one, very impressive.

We got our tree up.  I love seeing these two dogs curl up with one another.  They really have become quite the pair.

Winter Jump Series - November 2023.

 As most of you know, we have had Pigeon for about 8 months now.  He was a ranch horse that had also dabbled in team roping.  Sidney has been working with him to teach him all kinds of new things.  He sometimes thinks she is crazy and gets a bit frustrated, but as soon as he understands what she is asking, he is all give.  One of the things she has been working with him on is jumping.  After months of practice, she had her first chance to try it out.  They participated in the first month of the winter jump series.  

Sidney signed up for ground poles and cross rails to start.  There were nine jumps in the pattern.  Pigeon was not too sure about the whole thing.  Here was a perfect example of how he approached the ground poles.

When it came time for cross rails, we did not know what to expect.  However, he went out there and flew over them as if they were nothing.  (no pictures)

He did so well that Sidney asked me to sign them up for the 2' jump event.  They did amazing.  They had an entire fan club in the crowd, as Alyssa and many of her Eh Capa friends were there as well.  Shortly after they did the pattern, we left for home.  About halfway home, we received a text from Alyssa that they had placed third in the 2' jumps.  Wow!  So exciting!

What an amazing experience.  These two are quite the pair!

Office Makeover.

My craft room serves double duty as my office.  Every day as I work on my computer, this is what I see...

Some people might call that organized chaos.  I call it a mess.  Finally I had enough and decided to check out Ikea's website to see what I could do about it.  After countless hours of finding the perfect setup, I put it in my cart only to find out many of my selections were on back order.  GAH!  Back to the drawing board.  I scoured Amazon next and found this great solution.  I absolutely love it!  This is the new view from my office.  I am especially thankful to my parents for hanging out until almost midnight on a Saturday evening to help me put it all together!

While I was at it, I found these great units for our den.  Organization makes me happy!