AND THE WINNER IS........

Oh my GOODNESS, I am so sorry to have taken so long to announce the winner for my giveaway!!! DD and I drew the winner....a few days ago but we have been SO busy with Thanksgiving and then our Grand Opening on the store...WHEW I am tired!! LOL!!







So without further ado the winner is.......OH and please excuse DD's dirty looking fingers...She had been painting and well it wouldn't come off LOL!!



Pony Girl is from "Pony Girl Rides Again"!!

And we decided to draw a runner up for a prize as well!!!

SOOO that winner is.....



Rachel is from "Once Upon A Miracle"!!

So Congratulations to the winners!!! Thank you to all who entered!! I will wait until the ladies have their gifts then I will let you know what goodies they got! I really love having contests so who knows when I'll throw another one out there!!!

ps~ To my winners, please send me an email with your mailing info!

Wordless Wednesday

DD's Aunt took this shot of her running poles at the rodeo this past weekend!



Me playing with a beautiful picture of my girl!

Well I finally have her sold!!!

Don't forget the contest ends tonight at 11 pm, so if you don't have your entries in get them in there!!!!!!!


Last year I purchased a weanling dun filly. I introduced you to her here, then I did a little update on her here... Well a few months ago we decided to sell her, but really I did not feel comfortable selling her to just anyone because she needs a lot of work and a special person to get through to her.. So a couple of weeks ago Hubby had decided to just take her to the sale, we knew we wouldn't get much for her but at this point she is just another mouth to feed that I don't have time to give the proper amount of attention to.. So while I was over at my new shop getting things set up the lady who owns the place and has her salon there had some customers sitting around and we got on the topic of Sissy. I said she was going to the sale, and this gentleman there asked why, and basically said he was looking to buy a yearling that he could start fresh with and do everything his way. I explained to him her past and the issues that she has had, as I would never NOT tell someone exactly what they would be dealing with. SO we have been very busy and with the stupid time change it's dark by 5:30 and we were never available until after then and you can't really do much in the dark, right?! So finally we were home this afternoon and he was able to make it out before dark, so he spent some time getting up close to her and backing away as she would get tense. I was supremely impressed with his equine skills, I haven't met a lot of men that will use this method of approaching and backing off until the horse feels safe but this one did and I'll be darned if the minute he got his hands on her she calmed!! I was so happy I got tears in my eyes, I knew she was scared and I so want her to have a loving bond with someone. He rubbed her down for a bit checked her body condition and then I gave him the lead and halter and she took it great (of course she is halter broke, but you'd have to get the lead around her neck to stop her or she would run off). So he walked her around a bit and then came over and said he was very impressed with how she is filling out and the muscle mass that she has is good for her age! SO he said it....Yes he would love to own her!!!!!! I was so happy!!! I think they are a perfect match and I know he will do great things with her!! She will stay here a bit longer while he gets where he is taking her situated and plans to have her paid for by Christmas! In the meantime I have told him he is free to come see her anytime he wants!! So that was a great ending to a somewhat stressful day today!! YIPPEE!!

Sissy right after we got her..



Sissy last Spring with my sweet Ellie...


Such a pretty headed filly!

WHEW!! Another long Rodeo Weekednd behind us!

Well I can say we've never done this before LOL... Friday night DD had one of her BFF's stay overnight so that she could go to the rodeo with us on Saturday, but her friend wanted to bring her horse so she could ride around Saturday as well! So Hubby said it was A-OK to bring the horse over!! So DD had her very first friend and horse sleepover LOL!!!

Saturday's rodeo went well, DD had a time of 17 something we couldn't hear the announcer but they will put the standings up in a few days anyhow. She did a pretty good job following through on her looking to the next barrel with the help of my SIL who hollers for her to look. That always seems to help her get focused LOL!! Poles weren't the greatest but she did a time of 30 seconds...We have a couple of things to work on with her, and hopefully by the next rodeo in December she'll do better! Goat tying on Saturday went good only because her goat didn't move after she tied, she said the rope was loose and if he'd of moved it would have come undone LOL!! Breakaway they did good tracking the calf now she needs to get throwing the rope down!! It was only her second time doing it so I am pretty proud that she's giving it a try!!

This is actually Sunday's run, the video was a bit better on this one :)

Gonna be a BUSY Weekend!!

Well the weekend has finally arrived!! Can I get an amen to that!! OH YEAH AMEN!!! I don't know about you but this has been a funk of a week for me!! So I am glad to be heading out for DD's rodeo this weekend!!

ps~ Don't forget to take advantage of the entry chances for The Rhinestone Cowgirl contest!

Time to Gear up for Another Rodeo Weekend!! And Don't Forget this Awesome Contest we've got going on!!

OK now don't forget to get all of your potential entries for "The Rhinestone Cowgirls" contest giveaway!!! I PROMISE I will be super GENEROUS!!!

So as we head into another rodeo fun filled weekend I thought I would send off with DD's goat tying from 2 weeks ago!!

My New Store!!! And Maybe I Smell another Contest!!!

Well I am proud to finally say the store is UP and running!!! Throughout the last few months some of you may know I have been working to open a retail shop here in the small town that we live in!! My SIL is working with me and she does all of the really cool graphic designs! Because she's cool like that LOL!! I pretty much take care of everything from the business end. The store is called "The Rhinestone Cowgirls" and I carry Cowgirl Tuff Co clothing, Hanbags & Wallets, Bling Belts, Awesome Jewelry, Hats, Bags, Bling Flip Flops!!! I will be continuing to add other clothing lines, I am already set up as a retail seller for Miss Me, Petrol, Gypsy Soule, Unbroken Apparel, and hope to add many more cool lines!! So here is the deal... We are going to have a contest!!! There will be multiple ways to enter, and the prize....Is something very special from my store!! So first off if you are not a follower become one and comment on it, if you are a follower tell me and that's an entry. Secondly~ See that new pretty button on the side there grab that button and add it to your blog and let me know cause that's an entry!! Third~ Blog about this contest with the links back to me and my store and that's an entry as well! Fourth~ Become a follower on The Rhinestone Cowgirls blog page, yep you guessed it...That's an entry!! And last but not least check out my website @ www.therhinestonecowgirls.com and let me know what your favorite item is and that's an entry!! This contest will end Tuesday November 24th!! At 11pm I will close the entries and I will have a drawing to see who wins this awesome prize!! So if you head on over to The Rhinestone Cowgirls Blog you can see pictures of the new store!!

Wordless Wednesday

I'm so Lucky to be Married to My Greatest Guy!!

As you all know I have pretty much disappeared from Bloggyland lately... Not that I wanted to, I hate it!! I have to get caught up on ALL of my readings!! So I finally have everything up and ready to go in my shop, I am SO excited!! I will get some pictures and do a post on the store soon!! But this past weekend was a great one for me..

My Hubby and I celebrated our 12th Anniversary November 15th and I tell you I am SO very blessed with this man I married!! When we married I was 19 and he was 20, I already had J and Hubby was from the first moment he met J his dad. We had DD about a year and a month later, and she was just another blessing in our lives together!














A couple of years ago on our 10th Anniversary Hubby took me to the Ozark Mountains and we stayed in this most beautiful cabin suite, I loved every moment of it!!! This year with our busy schedule I figured we would be lucky to have an Anniversary Dinner!! But the Hubby told me to clear my schedule as he was going to kidnap me!! LOL!! Boy I was so excited to get kidnapped let me tell you!! He said I was all his!! So that he did, we packed our bags and dropped DD and her cousin Oldest Cowgirl at my Mom's and off we went on our day.. First we went and had lunch at one of our favorite restaurants, and I was thrilled when Hubby had to go to the restroom before we left and I stole the ticket to pay for our lunch LOL!! He thought I was pretty funny too!! So then we went and checked into our Hotel, and lounged around before we headed off to see the new movie "Couples Retreat" absolutely HILARIOUS!!! Kind of raunchy in some spots but very funny!! Then the Hubby took me to my very most favorite restaurant called "Redrock Canyon Grill" I promise you they have a house salad that is HEAVENLY!!! OHHHH the food was so yummy!!! So needless to say the weekend was great and I am feeling extremely blessed with my life right now!! Through every struggle of any kind that we have endured through our many years together we are that much stronger now!!!

I LOVE THIS MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I Got Little Treasures!!!

Well I had the best gift today when I opened my mailbox.....A couple of weeks ago I entered a contest at Copper Pony's Cowgirl Blog, the contest was to see who could match the "Equicuz's to their Owner's! I have to tell you, it was quite honestly the funnest game I've played thus far in Bloggy world!! I loved it!! And it was a bit of a challenge, but I learned alot too!! So the gift in the mailbox was a box of Little Treasures!!! You wanna see!!!

So I got the CUTEST Little pillow that says "Anyone can dream with a little faith" and that's SO true!! Oh the card I just loved it, it was so cute!! Orange paisley! I want some bed setting in that pattern and color now LOL!! OK so then I got a hanging decoration pillow that says "Blessing" which I LOVE because I am very blessed!! AHH the Santa Christmas Ornament, LOVE it!! Some really cute pop up stickers I'm thinking I will use in DD's scrapbook!! Last but not least the Black and White tile magnets, I love those!!! I have never seen those before but they will get good use here because I have a million things on the fridge LOL!! Oh and I cannot forget to mention the cutest tissue paper ever!! Polka Dots and Strips in bright colors!!



SO THANK YOU DUSTY DEVOE!!! I Love it all and you!!! Now I am sure that all of my readers read Dusty's blog but if you haven't your missing out, so get your buns over there and say HI to one of the neatest Cowgirls in the world!!!!

Rodeo Pole Bending time!

Among the events that DD does at her Junior Rodeo's is Pole Bending!! She really loves it, but her horse not so much LOL!! They have had quite a struggle to learn the pattern and run it correctly. Saturday morning pole's were first, and she blazed out there and came around pole #6 and Pete (her horse) just wanted to go straight!! So she backed him a step to get him back on the pattern, well in this new age group that she's in 5-8 grades they do not allow correcting, you get an automatic no time...After looking the video over I told her from now on if that happens mow the pole down! You get 5 seconds added and it's not really what we want to teach her but she needs to do something! We actually don't even know if Pete would hit the pole...They have never knocked one down! So Sunday's pole run she decided that it was pattern first and speed later, so she went out and got around pole 6 and she kept control and they did it!! Now their weave up was fair but the weave back was sloppy...She needs to get his hip out instead of completely relying on the reins to work him!! But her time was 31.157..Not bad not good LOL!!

Wordless Wednesday

J and I at our 4H Banquet..




Secretary ~ J, and President and VP of our 4H club..



J getting his savings bond for being crowned King at our County Fair for 2009!!

WOW one heck of a rodeo weekend!!

I am so behind with everything!!! I feel like I have a million things to share LOL!!! So today I will tell you about the HYRA, this stands for Heartland Youth Rodeo Association. This is their 20th year of running this Junior Rodeo. It basically runs every other weekend, both Saturday and Sunday from 9 am till it's done, and sometimes that has been as late as 8 or 9 o'clock!. We absolutely LOVE it!! Last year was out first year to participate and were still kind of iffy about whether we liked some things about it...But then this summer after being back into GHYR it was a bit chaotic because they have switched all jobs and people around, so it was fairly unorganized. But please let me add they are great people who have alot on their plates and I am sure they will get the hang of it!! So DD says "I'm SO excited to be going back to HYRA because they are SO organized" LOL!! That's my girl!!

DD is signed up in multiple events but we will just talk about barrels today, otherwise I could go on for an hour LOL!! So going into the barrels she was a bit nervous since her accident, so she decided to just pace herself and work on getting the pattern perfect with her horse and not apply all of their speed in this run.. And it actually paid off for her, she beat her best personal time with a 16.986. I think obviously if they were going full throttle they'd have done a bit better!! So then on Sundays run she turned a bit to wide on barrel one and ended up with almost a second added from her time the day before...Usually they run better the second day LOL!! But none-the-less she had a great time!!

Her Barrel Run from Saturday's Rodeo



ps~ Thanks Becky for the video tips!!

I Promise I Didn't Disappear!!

So I have been a HORRIBLE Bloggy friend this week!!! I just wanted to pop in and let everyone know that I am here I've just been SO SO busy!! I hate it when I don't get to read everyone's posts, so I will be doing that SOON!!

What have we been so busy with?!?! Well for starters this week we started the transition of our store into a shop here in our town, and I have been there day and night trying to get set up!!! I am almost done, and then I will show you all!! I am so excited to be doing something I have waited forever for!!

Then this weekend marked the kick off for DD's winter circuit rodeo, which is all day Saturday and Sunday! She had a great day today, she ran her personal best in barrels, she had a snag on the poles....In the age group she's in you cannot correct anything so instead of mowing a pole down she backed her horse a step and that's a disqualification :( But that's OK, it's just the first day back!! She had a great goat tie! And Sunday she will be trying her hand at breakaway roping!! She has been practicing for a while, so we will see how it goes for her. She is SO excited for it!!!

I miss you all and hope to be back on track SOON!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope you all have had a blessed week!!

Summer Rodeo Awards Banquet

This past Sunday we finally had the awards banquet for the summer rodeo circuit DD did called GHYR.. So we had a dinner and the kids got their prizes! It was done a bit different than I've ever seen before... Usually each child will get a prize that goes with the event that they participate in. Like last year Barrel racers got a saddle blanket. This year they gave everyone the exact same things even if they didn't do the same amount of events... So DD is now sporting a new buckle that she likes, nice warm coats with their names embroidered on them, a saddlebag, a bucket, and a t-shirt.. So they had a good time, and unfortunately DD was missing some friends due to illness's in their families so we got all of their prizes for them!!

She is ready to EAT!!!!!



Do you think J would have rather stayed home?! LOL!



DD and her cousin Little Cowboy!



I love the expression on her face LOL!! She must think those 3 buckets are heavy!!



And she likes it!!

Wordless Wednesday

This Church is one that I love to look at!! It's so simple yet so beautiful!! I took this picture in the dark on Halloween night!

A Little Pre Rodeo Practice!!

First things first...I am severely behind in reading everyone's blogs!! I will catch up soon I promise!!

Halloween night my DD and her cousins were planning on running in a rodeo in a town West of us. The paper said as long as the weather was good they would be having it so I was thinking at about 70 degrees was pretty good weather for a rodeo, right!?!? I mean it was a NICE day out on Halloween day!! So away we went and only to find that there was no one there...Due to water in the arena from rain a few days before, but it wasn't really all that much water and it was off in the corner by the chutes and we wouldn't be using those anyways! OH well we had the horse saddled already so we told DD and her cousins to just ride for a little while then they could do some practice runs! We ended up actually with another family that showed for the rodeo with their horse and another family that just came...But they had a great time, and DD got the practice she needs and will hopefully be geared up for next weekends runs!!

Giving Cousin Little Cowgirl a ride!



So sweet!!



Slow practice on the barrels



Little Cowgirl wanted DD to take her through the water LOL!!



DD and her friend chatting!

Halloween Night!!

For Halloween this year DD had decided on being a "Zombie Doctor", but then we got a letter about a rodeo in a town just west of us at their Saddle Club grounds. So we talked with DD about it because she officially starts the winter circuit next Saturday and thought it wouldn't hurt for her to have the extra practice. And they had plans for a "Tailgate and Treat" after the rodeo, so she said yes she wanted to go and decided that she would just be a "Zombie Cowgirl" since she would already be dressed LOL!! So off we went and arrived at the rodeo grounds to find no one else there!!! So after a couple of phone calls we figured out they had canceled it due to some water in the arena... The water wasn't that bad! So anyhow we let them ride around for a couple of hours and a couple of other families had showed up as well so we had our own little practice session LOL!!

So since they didn't get to trick or treat there we all went to our small town for some Trick or Treating!! First they had to get their makeup on and DD decided after she got her makeup on that she did not look like a zombie so she decided that she was going as a "Dead Cowgirl" OH BROTHER!!!! Oh and how she was killed you ask!?!? She was stepped on by an Elephant LOL, her Uncle helped her come up with that one... SO it was DD and her cousins, they had fun but everyone tired pretty quickly!! I must say this is the best weather I can EVER remember having on Halloween!!

I still am not sure that I like her chosen "theme"...



She did look pretty scary though LOL!!



DD and the cousins, T a vampire cowgirl, D a werewolf cowboy, and M tinkerbell!! Notice we stick strong in the cowboy around here LOL!!



How many people can say they trick or treat at their Principals house!! So sweet!!