Friday, September 25, 2009

Back In The Saddle Again

The weather turned out to be nice (sunny, but HOT!) Thursday afternoon, so Rachel got to go to her first riding class of the year. She had talked about the horses all summer and was heartbroken when Allison got to go to horse camp there in June and she did not get to ride, so I know she was happy to finally get a chance to ride again. Below are some pictures of Rachel at her horseback riding class.

She did not enjoy waiting for the class to start.......
Helmet on and ready to go.
Finally back on the horse and loving it.
Here she is tossing dice and getting the horse to take the number of steps she rolled. She gets practice throwing, counting, and following direction as she has to tell the horse to "walk on" to go and "whoa" to stop. She also was pulling on the reins to stop the horse. That was a first for her.
She is so little that she cannot reach the stirrups even when they are a short as they can go.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Today Is The Day!!

Today Rachel gets to start back with her horseback riding!!! They take the summer off because it is just too hot to ride, so Rachel has not ridden since May. She has talked about it all summer long, though, and I cannot wait to tell her it is time to go! I will have to video tape her reaction! This is the one thing that Rachel gets excited about, so I have been anxiously awaiting the moment as well. I have not said anything to her yet, because I did not want her worked up all day long. The class is not until 4pm. It is raining right now, so I hope that it is sunny by the afternoon......another reason not to mention it until we know for sure that the weather will cooperate!

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Born To Be Wild

When Rachel gets home from school, I am often standing out in the driveway talking with the neighbors. Rachel usually wanders through the garage and on into the house. The other day, after I finished talking with a neighbor, I walked back into the garage from the driveway. This is what I found!!



She said, "Daddy, ride." I guess it is about time Mike let her ride through the neighborhood with him!

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Gymnastics

Rachel got to go to her second gymnastics class today. When I asked her if she wanted to go to gymnastics, she said no; but when I asked her if she wanted to go jump she excitedly said yes. Once she got there, she was ready to go. The instructor brought them out three times to get a drink of water and each time Rachel protested about having to come out of the gym. I was only able to get her to have a drink of water once. The other times she just wanted back in the gym. Below are some pictures from Rachel's morning.

It is a really blurry picture, but here is Rachel in her class.

Friday, September 11, 2009

September 11, 2009

I cannot believe that it is already almost the middle of September.....September 11th. Once a date that had no meaning, but now we all remember that day and what we were doing when we heard. Eight years ago today, Mike, Allison and I were in Destin, Florida vacationing with friends. Because we were at the beach, it was noon before we knew anything had happened. It was all over by then. I still remember the feeling of total disbelief and the following weeks of shock. I kept reading about the expectant mothers that lost their husbands....I was pregnant with Leah at the time. Those children will soon be turning eight too. Leah will be eight in January. My prayers go out the the families who lost loved ones on that terrible day.

On another note, Mike and I will celebrate our 17th wedding anniversary tomorrow. It seems like forever and yesterday at the same time. Time marches on. Labor day is now over, and the holiday season is fast approaching!! I am so used to time going by so fast, that I have even taken to speeding it up myself. Just the other day I told someone I would be 47 in November. I truly believed it at the time. Just yesterday, it dawned on me that I was wrong. Good that I am a year younger than I thought, and bad that I cannot remember how old I am!

The girls are already debating on what they are going to be for Halloween. Gone are the years of pretty little costumes, Leah says she wants to be a ninja, and Allison says she is going to be the Grim Reaper. We will see if that comes to pass, but I can guarantee you that I won't have any fairies or princesses unless I decide to dress Rachel as one. Let's see..... what was the lesson I learned from the last year's Halloween costumes.........oh yeah, don't pick something that needs white face paint because it is not as easy to put on as one would think, and don't purchase a wig for a kid to wear. The theory that we sacrifice comfort for fashion does not hold water for a seven year old, and the mommy will have to carry the wig through the neighborhood after it gets too itchy-which is approximately 10 minutes. The ninja and grim reaper seem like pretty good costumes when you realize they require nothing but the costume! No makeup, no wigs, no fake finger nails, no hair paint, etc......

I am still waiting to see what Rachel thinks about the gymnastics class. The teacher was sick two weeks ago, and Rachel was sick last weekend. Hopefully, everyone will be well and we can try it out again. Only two more weeks until the horseback riding starts again. Rachel is going to be so excited to get to do that again. She talks about the horses often and still remembers two of them by name. I just recently found out that the local Down syndrome organization will cover the cost of the horseback riding!! We paid last year, and it is not cheap, so we were so excited to hear that! The organization also sponsors the gymnastics class, so that is free as well. We are so blessed!

Allison recently had to make a relief map of a state out of homemade play dough and prepare a short report for her social studies class. She was assigned Texas-we thought that was cool since she was born there! Below are some pictures of her project. She cut out the state shape and painted it all by herself.

She was supposed to label all the larger cities, but we could not resist labelling the little town we lived in-Weatherford!

Friday, September 4, 2009

Lounge Lizard

Doesn't this look like a nice comfy chair?
This lizard likes it too. He is a regular out there in the mornings soaking up the sun.

Nothing New But Hairstyles

Not much going on these last several days. School and homework are keeping us busy. Rachel does not start back with horse back riding until September 21st, and the gymnastics class she went to two weeks ago did not meet last Saturday because the teacher was sick. It will be interesting to see what Rachel does in the class tomorrow. It is obvious she enjoys the horse back riding, but it will take a while before I can figure out if she likes gymnastics.

The girls all went and got haircuts yesterday. Allison is still on a quest to grow her hair as long as she can, so she just got a trim and there are no before and after pictures of her cut, but Leah went for a short bob, which really helped shape up her hair from the short haircut she had been growing out, and Rachel got a couple of inches taken off too. Below are some pictures.




Oh yeah......Leah lost another tooth this week. She has now lost eight teeth. That is the same number Allison has lost, so Leah thinks that is way cool. Leah actually asked me to pull the tooth. It didn't take much to get it out, but Allison would have never asked to have that done. Leah is my bravest kid.