My New Love

This is Hank, our newest addition to the horse clan! He is about 9 and his owner, a 76 year old man, passed away on Thanksgiving so we became his proud new family this weekend. He has completely stolen my heart. As huge as he is(about 16.2 or 16.3 hands), he is the biggest lovey baby:) I am so excited for all the riding I will get to do with him!

Enjoying Winters Simple Pleasures-Umm Trying

Nate's car burried andthe front steps leaving our house

Anyone wanna BBQ? ehehe

Dog food and water bowl and bucket, ummmm I am thinking they will have to eat indoors all winter

View from lower side porch of our yard

The trees are breath takingly beautiful, like postcards

Jaxxon 13.6 lbs at 2.5 months!! yes he's a BRUISER:) I love it

lil man watching TV( I really only sat him in here for a pic I promise, I know he is too young) I just thought he looked so cute in it!

We are truly trying to enjoy all winter has to offer in the mountains because our lease is over halfways over and we definately want to get moving off the mountain when it ends. Don't get me wrong, we have met some amazing people up here along with some not so amazing people. We LOVE the snow, but hate it when its weeks before it melts off our road which is REALLY steep and the trash truck with chains can't even get up here to collect our trash. We are trying to have fun making snowmen, throwing snowballs and sledding as well as sliding out and hitting snowburms while driving: NOT. We are getting our fill of one of Southern California's coldest places topping out many days at 20 with a crazy wind chill, only to remember that next year we will only VISIT the mountains and when that wind chill picks up, we will go home where its 95% of the time all year round, nice and sunny 50+ degrees. Who knew 45 could feel like t-shirt weather! I will say though what really has killed us most about our winter wonderland.....our horses! I am finally able to ride(not preggo anymore) and can't because there is simply no way to even get them out of their corrals with the steep snowy terrain. They are depressed, mine in particular is losing weight from depression and cold. We blanket them, they have beautiful shelters and feed very heavy, but my Jersey is just so depressed she is barely eating. We are waiting/praying for a break in the weather to try and get a trailer up here and get her off the mountain and board her where its warmer. I am praying God will open a door somewhere some way so we can get our family back to our small town at the mountain's foothills. So please if you have a second to add our family to your prayers we would appreciate it. We are praying a housing situation with room for horses will open up at an affordable price, praying his job will eventually take him back off the mountain and praying for our horse who is severely depressed. Nate and I miss our weekly horseback rides(so good for our marriage) and without family nearby and good weather, that just doesn't happen for us. Praying to go home to the same lil small town we grew up in near all our family. I know some opportunity will open up soon, I have faith that it is not the will of our Father for our animals to live this way through another winter. I know deep down something amazing will come up and we will be able to reunite with our small town. 

Our Newish Horsey-Dolly

I have been so bad about not blogging lately, I completely forgot to mention our new horse. We got Dolly about 2 months ago and she is a wonderful mare. She is 10 so she has maturity and wisdom and is past being afraid of all the silly things that our baby horses are afraid of. We love her to pieces, she's a keeper for sure and beautiful to boot.

Trading Up

Isn't she just beautiful?

My sweet girl, Jersey

Tanner, Maddy and I with Jersey after we bathed her

Dont mind the shorts and boots, its been hot haha!

Well, I agreed to get rid of 2 of our so-so horses for one good, expensive one. I wanted a really good barrel horse with good lines and I wanted a mare. Geldings just aren't my style. I ended up finding Jersey on Dreamhorse and picked her up the next day. She is absolutely AMAZING! I got her for a very good price too because of the bad economy. She has great lines with Bar and Skippy so I am thrilled. She is also double homozygous so she is guaranteed to throw a paint if we breed her! She is only 6 and was trained 1.5 years ago so I love how youthful she is. She is just the kind of horse that you point her in a direction and she goes, nothing scares her or bothers her. She loves water, crosses busy streets and will REALLY get up and go when you barely nudge her. She is just so awesome. I cannot wait to go to our first gymkhana together. We are gonna clean house! So we now have the pony(Dandy), Jersey, and Speck(our appaloosa mare). Life with horses is a life I will never again live. I am truely living now. I can't beleive how much these animals complete me as a person. They are who I am.

Some Current Pics

Dandy, our teeny lil 10 hand pony. He is AWESOME
Lexi(my sisters baby, 6 weeks old) and Maddy(just shy of 3 months), arent they adorable?

My sister and her baby Lexi, My brother and his baby Chevy and Me and Maddy

Libby

She is young, but also underweight, look at that mane though
Such a beautiful girl

her skinny booty

We rescued her from an abusive situation out in the desert and she is an absolute sweetie. She ties, trailers and we have been able to ride her as well. She is only around 2 and she is smart as can be. She is underweight and needs her feet trimmed, but otherwise she seems like she is gonna be a great little horse.

My babies!

All the kiddos at the new house, sitting on the hay
My beautiful little Kenna the cowgirl (20 months)

Kenna (20 months)

Maddy and her little grin (2 months)

I have never had a baby with blue eyes, they all came out brownish. I can't beleive how blue they are because she has a very dark complection

Things are really coming along at the new house, we have our horses over there, we just got them all dewormed and the shoer and dentist are coming out tomorrow morning to do their feet and teeth. The kids love having horses and I am absolutely loving it too! As far as the actual house goes, the addition is almost completly done now, the new windows are all in and we will start busting out the bathroom next.

We Got a..............

5 minutes after we got Speckles home
She's a big girl! I love her

My baby

I haven't been this happy in so long, other than my kid's births probably!

So yeah, I am completely head over heals for this baby

NEW HORSE! OMGosh, I am so excited!!!! It all happened so fast. We are keeping her at our new place even though we can't move in for a bit. We are just taking care of her over there until our move in since its only 1 mile away. This past Saturday night, my mom called asking if I wanted her. My Aunt had a neighbor who is struggling with lung cancer and is on his second go round with chemo treatments and he is too weak to care for his animals at this point so we were offered Speckles(our new Appaloosa Mare) for free. We jumped on it and we went yesterday and bought all kinds of tack and gear and grooming supplies. Now, my mom has offered us one of her horses as well because she has too many and isn't riding enough to keep them so we are getting and Appaloosa Gelding named Spencer from her tomorrow. We are super excited. I jumped on Speckles bareback within 2 minutes of getting her home and she did perfect. I went over today and washed her, groomed her, braided her tail, rode her bareback all over including loping her for a while, and she is just perfect. She is slightly spirited so not a kid's horse, but she is perfect for me. It was meant to be. Now we will see how Spencer does tomorrow when we get him over there. We will be looking for a pony shortly for the kids too. Its been 7 years since I had to sell our horses so its really nice to finally get horses again since I thought I may never get to.