Forgotten post!!

Tuesday was the perfect day: sunshine, warm weather and NO SCHOOL(due to election day) so we decided to meet our friends, the Oedys, at the zoo. We have been spoiled this summer with having lots of play dates with them and now that school is back in session it's harder to get together. Even though my kids are older they LOVE when we get together with Lana, Nathan, and baby Ava,  we are truly blessed that we can be apart of their "Kentucky Family." 's

 I gave Hunter my camera so most if not all of these pictures were taken from him!

All the excitement wore Ava out!

Lunch Bunch:

Hunter, Nathan, Lana and Hayley

While the kids were playing on the playground, we all were fighting over getting some special time with sweet Ava. I tell you what, both kids are just smitten over her!!

LOVE THIS PICTURE....Ava cracks me up

Yep, I got my hands on her lots...LOVE the fact that I get to spoil and then send her home (Sorry, Diana!)

Poor Nathan, thinks that he is just as big (if not bigger then) as Hunter. It was so cute to watch them all. day. long. Monkey see, monkey do

Thankful (week 1)

I love how every Novemember when you log onto Facebook, its not uncommon to read many posts each day about what people are thankful for. As hard as it to understand, some of my loyal stalkers are not of Facebook so they can't see my daily posts. I wanted to take a minute to post mine on here so that I can always look back and remember just a few of the many blessing in our lives. This will be a 3 part series, so stayed tuned.

  Nov. 1-- Today, I am thankful for my amazing hubby who is always providing for the kids and I . He is the hardest working man I know and has set a wonderful example of what hard work and providing for your family looks like for the kids. I am truly blessed.

Nov 2-- Today, I am thankful for the hardest, yet rewarding job I ever had, being a mother. God has blessed with 2 healthy and amazing children, which are my life

Nov 3-- Today, I am thankful for my parents. They have loved me unconditionally, supported me no matter what, stood by me during my rebelious years, and let me live when they should have beaten me to death. LOVE YOU MOMMA and DADDY

Nov 4-- Today, I am thankful for my sisters. I know that we didn't always get along when we were younger . I am so glad that we grew up and have the close relationship that we do now, I couldn't imagine life without them now!! LOVE YOU AMY AND ERIN

Nov 5--  Today, I am thankful for the opportunity to be an Aunt. I love spoiling my my rotten nephews and neice beyond words and can't get enough of them

Nov 6--  Today, I am thankful that I am able to go to church and worship freel. For my awesome church family and all those who givee and use their time and talent teaching and serving. Your work does not go unoitced.TThe need is great and the workers are few!!!!!!

Nov 7-- Today, I am thankful for the Spitznagel side of my family. That I am blessed with both of my grandparents (GG and Gramps) still healthly and alive, a HUGE loving family that is always growing, filled with lots of hens and chicks who are so amazingly awesome, and countless family traditions that I love being apart of.

Nov 8--  Today, I am thankful that even though my kiddos are older we still have fun going on on playdates with friends. Zoo bound this morning with friends!

Barrel Racing

Since Blogger has a mind of it's own half of the time, I had to dedicate a complet post to the videos I took at the Red Barn. They are pretty cool to watch, but it was much more intense and awesome to watch in person!

Emily's run

Terri's run

Red Barn Arena

Saturday,we headed to the Red Barn Arena (theredbarnarena.com) to watch Terri and Emily in their memorial show. This is the first time that we have been to a show there and it was a beautiful day for one, there were over 180 horses there!!!  I had aimed to take lots of pictures but that didn't happen, too much going on.

my cowgirl all decked out

Hunter was chilaxin'

Not a very good picture of Emily and Tiny (her horse) but it's the only one I took all day. (There was too much going on to think about pictures, bad blogger, I know!)

Oh.my.goodness. the food!!! It was all so yummy and we ate our fair share of it all....nachos, pretzels (with and w/o cheese) corn dog, hot dog and this yummy potato!!

Even Dixie Booth (Emily's dog) was there!

taking a break with my man

 Hayley is just like me, I was so nervous and stressed for Terri and Emily. Good thing they are pros's at this and don't get as worked up. Hoping its a long while before Hayley gets into shows like this, my nerves can't handle it! She told me that she and Lightin' are going to show next year. YEAH RIGHT!!

 T and Emily had awesome runs both times, Terri ran a 15.425 and Emily ran a 15.661! They both were flat flying round those barrels!!  I did video them on in the open class but haven't gotten them to download yet (hopefully will soon!)

It was a long but fun day, and we are blessed that we got a chance to experience and help celebrate two amazing men's life.

O Christmas Tree

It's officially November 1st and you know what that means??? 54 days til Christmas!!! I am beyond excited, as if you couldn't tell. I LOVE Christmas and get so excited when I am finally "allowed" to put up the tree. Brian and I have came to an agreement that it can't go up until at least November 1st. I usually wait until the week before Thanksgiving but we are already book solid every day until then, so that meant that tree went up sooner. YEAH!!!!!

While the kids were at school yesterday I scrubbed walls, baseboards, windows, dusted, vacuumed,  etc and got ready for the madness to begin. It was kinda nice to get to be able to go thru everything and arrange my cabinets the way I like, atleast for now.

Some of my favorite decorations are: my Nativity (from GG and Gramps), Christmas books from family members, our elf Michael (THIS IS  MUST HAVE...Elf on the Shelf, check it out) and my Granny's Santa boot.

When the kids got home from school and all homework, dinner and chores were done it was finally time to decorate the tree. This is the hard part for me...letting them do this completely on their own! GASP. I am beyond anal when it comes to decorating the tree, just ask my Mom and sisters about me and my obsession with lights. I used to spend hours wrapping each branch with the perfect amount of lights. It was MY thing, thank goodness for prelit trees now!

As I was unpacking the ornaments the kids were both so excited to make their pile of ones that have been given to them each year.  They could tell you who gave them what and what ornament they picked out with Grandma Fisher.  When the get big enough to move out they will have a nice start on ornaments for their own tree.

They both did a great job of placing ornaments and actually got along while doing this. SCORE for Momma!! As they were decorating I was listening to them talk about their favorite Christmas memory/traditions (Angel tree shopping, Reading the Bible story, going to Great Grandparents, Christmas play, ornament shopping, ginger bread house) and got kinda teary eyed. My babies are growing up so fast and it doesn't seem possible. I am holding on to the "magic" of Christmas because I know that its not going to be much longer before things change. Hunter is on the border line now and its kills me, Brian thinks its funny.

When you have such a large family, in laws who are both remarried, family outta state, and both grandparents alive you begin to start planning Christmas weeks in advance. This used to stress me out with all the places that we are obligated to go but it really is a blessing to have that much family alive!! I am going to sit back, count our blessings, and enjoy every minute of this season and try (KEYWORD) not to get stressed as we begin our Christmas rounds on Thanksgiving!

Remember:

JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween

From:

Bay blade and Country Pop Cowgirl (how fitting, right?!)

I am  not or never have been really into Halloween and could really care less if the kids dress up and go trick or treating. Honestly, they could care less about it as well.  Hunter is getting at the "I'm too cool age" and Hayley is just well, Hayley and is all over the place. They were more excited about their classroom parties then anything and could honestly been fine with that.

We ventured down to Main Street (because that's were us country folks go) after dinner and had an interesting time people watching while standing in line with the kids. I was laughing so hard watching Brian's face as he saw the way some people (mostly parents) were dressed up and wearing. That right there was worth the trip to town. I didn't take many pictures because of that, I know BAD MOMMA!!

On the way home we all were laughing because Brian kept saying he was SUPER DAD and he was in his costume. I did take a picture of that.

SUPER DAD

KCCT Recognition

Thursday afternoon was the KCCT recognition program and I was SO excited that I was able to attend. I wouldn't of missed this for anything (I turned down working so that I could attend) because it was all Hunter talked about for over a week....getting his medals.

Each child that scored a a proficient or distinguished on their test are recognized with an award, pictures and name of the Wall of Fame (like a Senior picture with Olympic medals). Hunter scored PROFICIENT on both areas tested, reading and math!! I AM SO PROUD

Each child's name was called and they got to be all official and shake hands with Mr. Abell

 

LOVE how proud he is!

Later that evening was the annual cookout/balloon toss. The weather was nasty/rainy/cold and I was hoping that it was going to be canceled because I was not looking forward to being out in the cold. Needless to say that the kids were super pumped and our staff is AWESOME about keeping their promises and braved the kids, cold and water balloons.
 Mr. Abell (their principal) was in charge of grilling hot dogs. I made sure  to get a picture of this because I am always teasing him that he never does anything but wander the halls. Good thing, Mr. Rick and Ms. Suchy were there supervising him, he needed it!!

After our lovely dinner the kids headed outside and waited for their class and names to be called for their balloons. A proficient earned your 2 balloons and a distinguished earned you 1 balloon.

The teachers making a game plan

The teachers at TES are AWESOME...they are always going way beyond to encourage and reward the students for their hard work. I am not so sure that I would stand out in the cold and let me students throw water balloons at me. Brave people.

Hunter was so excited about his turn he could hardly wait.

Mr Seabolt was brave enough to give the kids their unpopped balloons back. Well,. Hunter took it as advantage and was going to nail him with one, he got lots of cheers from his peers.

POOR, WET, TEACHERS

All in all it was worth braving the cold to see how excited everyone was over our scores and achievements. Hunter is already making his game plan of teachers to hit for next year.