My Right Arm

My kids have the best grandpa in the whole world.
On Monday Doodle called him, begging him to take her on a horse ride.
He said, "No way! I don't like horse rides! I don't think I can manage taking a little girl on a ride!"
Not really.
Really he said, "Can you be here in 10 minutes?"
We decided on Wednesday instead.
It turned out to be a perfect day.
The sun was bright and there was just the hint of the perfect breeze.
Our favorite aunt Lisa and Justin showed up with their horses, to boot!
Kathy and I fished with the little boys while the others rode.
Then the horses found us near the lake.
Suddenly all the little boys wanted a ride, too.
We put the boys double decker on the horses and away they rode.
The strangest feeling came over me as I saw all of my children riding away from me.
Suddenly my hands were empty and I felt odd.
Like those horses were riding away with my right arm, leaving the rest of me behind.
As mothers I wonder if we really comprehend the bond we have with our children.
Their little lives are so intricately intertwined with our own.
Sometimes it's hard to tell where one ends and the other begins.
Everything we do is for them and with them.
We bake, read, nurture, hug, listen, kiss, hold, scold, cry, laugh, dance, fall, run together every day.
My children are, hands down, my biggest frustration in life. But they are also, hands down, my greatest joy.
And I would not trade one second of it for anything in the world!

Just Horsin Around

We keep having these nice sunny October days.
We keep thinking everyday might be our last good horse riding day of the season, so we keep going on awesomely gorgeous rides.
This week we went out to Antelope Island.

My baby was just too precious on that mare so I just could not stop taking pictures of him.
I took pictures of the rest of us, too, but let's face it, we're just not as cute as the littlest Weaver.

I hope there are many, many more days like this before the snow comes.
Oh, my heart just can't take all this cuteness!

Somewhere, My Love, There Will Be Skies of Blue

We have been having so many great adventures.

We were really tempted to do school work this morning. I had all the kids down stairs with our morning devotional all ready to start, then I noticed a message on my cell phone.

I made the mistake of listening to it before we started school.

It was Lisa and she wanted to go to Snow Basin for a horse ride today.

How could I resist?

If she were going anywhere else I may have been able to say no.

But Snow Basin? How could I?

Just look at those gorgeous leaves. They are so new and bright. They make me so happy just looking at them. The wild flowers are starting to bloom, too. In another couple of weeks that mountain will be covered with the most beautiful blue bells you have ever seen.

It was our first time back to our favorite horse riding spot since last fall.

It has been too long.

Snow Basin is up, up, up in the mountains and it takes longer for the snow to melt up, up, up there than it does down, down, down here.

Oh Snow Basin, how we have missed thee!

We have missed the sweet music of the mountains. The birds chirping above us, the sound of the river rushing at our feet, the sound of the baby oohing at all the majesty, the sound of the horses breath as they trot, the sound of the clip clop of the horses hooves, the sound of all the little bugs buzzing around.

We have missed the scenic vistas and wonderful hiking trails.

We have missed dipping our toes in the crisp water of the river.

We have missed eating our lunch in the shade of the twinkling leaves.

We have missed spending the afternoon with Grandpa and Lisa and Jessica and Jo.

We missed the wriggly fuzzy caterpillars and the purple butterflies.

Being back up in Snow Basin today felt a little like coming home after being gone much, much too long.

When we got home and got the car unloaded we were ready for a nice cool treat. I made the kids a super tasty chocolate slushie.

We drank them in the hideously long grass of our back yard and wished the day would never end. Oh, OK, since you asked so nicely I'll give you the recipe. You'll die when you see how easy it is.

Super Yummy Chocolate Slushie

Ingredients:

2 c milk (I use rice milk since we have dairy allergies, but cow milk works, too)

1/3 c agave nectar or honey (or 1/2 c sugar)

2 T cocoa powder

Ice

Directions:

Put the first 3 ingredients in the blender then put in ice, blend on high until it's nice and slushie. I don't measure the ice, I just keep putting more in if it's not slishie-y enough(let's just pretend for today that slushie-y is a real word, K?) .

See, told ya, it's as easy as it gets. The kids think they're getting some kind of special treat and I get CHOCOLATE!

Does life get any better than this?

Bitter Sweet

If I had to describe how I feel about fall in one word it would be Bitter Sweet. Ya, ya, I know, that's two words. Go ahead, fire me!

Speaking of fire, doesn't that tree look like it's on fire?!?

It's Gorgeous.



This is the part about fall that I love.
There are so many variations of leaves. Some are bright red and orange.
Some are still green with streaks of red starting to appear. Some are bright yellow with just a streak of green hanging around.
Some are speckled yellow and orange and red. No two leaves are the same. They are each unique and breathtakingly beautiful.

We always come home with handfuls of leaves to press and to be made into place mats.

It's one of my favorite fall traditions.

I love to be out in the fall air. I love the warm sunshiny air and rich aromas of the mountains.
Every year we have at least one horse ride during the fall.

We go up the canyon near our home and enjoy being in the autumn atmosphere and stare in amazement at the masterpiece that is fall leaves.
This is my amazing sister-in-law, Lisa. But really, I consider her my real sister. She is such an inspiration to me and my kids. Doodle is the horse woman she is in large part because of Lisa.
This is the first time Dubs rode his very own horse for the whole ride. He rode 2 1/2 hours, not bad for a 3 year old. He loves horses almost as much as Doodle.

Look at this beautiful horse. His name is Spit Fire. Look at that main. He looks like he's just been back from the salon and had highlights put in. I wish my hair looked that beautiful.
I guess it could if I were willing to spend the money to keep having highlights put in. But I don't, so it doesn't.
The part about fall that is bitter is that I know in just a few short weeks all these gorgeous leaves will be gone. The trees will be left barren and brown. Color will not come again all winter long. White gets old really quick around here.
I feel like I'm in a hurry to soak up all this nice weather while I can. Soon the warm horse riding days of summer and Autumn will be gone. Gone will be the hikes in the mountains and weekly park days with our crazy home school friends.

No more spending hours in the afternoon playing out side in the grass under the big shade trees in our back yard. No more green grass and drooping apple trees.

But there is one thing that gives me hope.

Without fail, Fall comes every year!

To see what every one else is talking about this Bright Orange Tuesday visit

The Lazy Organinzer.

Are Horses Vegetarians?

OK, I can admit when I'm wrong. Take a look at this one of a kind horse!

I thought I'd never see a horse eat a cheese burger! But do you blame him? I would not want to live my whole life without one either!

Go patches!

Horses are Vegetarians

I was going through some pictures the other day. I do that when I start to feel hormonal. I get really sentimental. I start remembering my life when I only had one child. Life was easy then. She was cute and had no other monsters to get into trouble with. Look how cute and little she was. I was 7 months prego with Beano. I had no idea what adding another child to the mix would do. It's like adding Baking Soda to Vinegar. Want a fun experiment? Try that! Just be prepared to clean up big mess. Most of the time that is what I'm doing, cleaning up big messes

that I didn't make!

I digress. This post is really about the horses. I found these photos from 4th of July, 2003. These are some of my favorite pictures of all times. Time first time I saw them I laughed so hard I cried.

We had a BBQ at our house and had tons of left over watermelon rinds and corn on the cob. The horses loved our left overs. Doodle and her Uncle Steve had fun feeding the horses all those yummy left overs.

Until they came to the hot dogs that is.

You see, these hot dogs were your standard super market variety made from pork, chicken and beef. Plus heaven only know what fillers are in there. I don't want to know, thank you. I'm not listening to you! (Fingers in my ears, eyes closed, yelling LALALALALALALA!)

And horses are vegetarians!


They don't eat pork, chicken or beef, thank you VERY much!


Unless a sweet little one year old princess gives it to them!

I just have to say I had never seen a horse make that face before. I was still really new to the horse scene. Like I said I laughed so hard I cried. I have since found out what makes horses do that. Want to know? OK, I'll tell you.
It turns out horses have a very sensitive sense of smell. they also have olfactories (smellers) in their very sensitive lips. When they catch a whiff of something new or offencive they curl their lips like that to get a better smell.

Weird, huh?
There, see, you learn something new everyday!

Baby Boy!

Look at this cute little thing! He is almost as cute as my baby, almost. This is Mr. Bird's dad's new baby Fox Trotter. He was born last week. Aren't they the shiniest most beautiful horses ever? Grandpa was out of town (that always seems to happen when his horses are foaling!) last week when Shar went over to the house to check on things for him.

When she got there she found more than she bargained for. It's a good thing horses can just kinda do their thing without much need for help from their humans. It's a good thing she didn't start hyperventilating and begging for an epidural. There would have been no one there to help her out of her pickle. In Grandpa's defence he was born 3 weeks early. He was planning on being home in plenty of time for the birth. When Shar found this cute little guy he was not even standing yet and it was very apparent that he was born just that morning.

This new little guy is our horse, Shadow's brother. Misty is their mother. They are all the sweetest horses. They are all so good with the kids. I think it's because we start out the day they are born bringing the kids over and letting them touch the baby and feel it's mouth and belly and feet. It is so fun looking at their tiny feet. It's like when your girlfriend has a new baby and you go over to welcome the new bundle to the world. You just have to check out the glorious tininess of all the cute fingers and toes.

To see what others are talking about this fabulous Tuesday visit The Lazy Organizer. This week we are supposed to be talking about our home tours but we really don't have anything that exciting going on around here. We do have a few things in the works that we are very excited about. We have the plans all drawn up for a new garage! Bye, bye car port! We are just waiting for the city to approves them before we start building. When things get going I'll post before and after shots. Plus I am wanting to redo the boy's room and the living room. Maybe next month I'll have something to show everyone about all our projects.