So Uh Yeah We Should Have Named Her Grace...

So yeah I just realized I didn't share this with everyone...We have come to a conclusion in our house. DD should have been named Grace *no offense to anyone with that name as it is a beautiful name it's just slang for klutzo around here*! Literally this girl can look at something and get hurt!

Here she was last weekend at her TOP Dance Competition



Now here she is 3 days later...Sorry I know you can't see it real well but her right hand is all wrapped up bout midway on her arm.



Now not to be confused because l did know she actually had *an* injury then but I wasn't being a good attentive mommy and rushing her to the DR! Now don't go gettin all in a tiffy calling SRS on me! We just thought her finger was jammed!

Seriously I was gone to a meeting for 2 hours and come back and she's all puffy in the face been crying her eyes out so I ask what are all the tears about and she shows me a slightly bruised swollen finger. So I ask her what the heck she did?! She says "I was playing soccer out front and I kicked the ball way up high and went to catch it and jammed my finger"! Who does that?! Gets injured playing by themselves! So I have our resident Dr J look at it and he says it just jammed so we iced it and went to bed. After the main swelling went down her finger was still puffy between her top knuckle to her middle knuckle and resident Dr J said he now thinks it is broken on that bone. You may be asking yourself why I ask my 15 *nearly 16 in my defense* son about her injury, but he has had training at school and this is the exact field he is leaning towards career wise. He had set his heart on being an FFA teacher but in the last few months he has realized he's pretty good in the sports medicine type issues! So anyhoo...I took her to the Dr and they X-rayed and sure enough it's broken right where J thought it was! So my girl has to keep this brace on for a few weeks! Hopefully not to long because she has recital coming up and that would suck!

Oh and I might add just as an example why I call her Grace....Right after I called the Dr's office to schedule her appt she was going into the other room and stubbed her pinky toe on the chair then proceeded to wallow around on the floor for 15 minutes thinking she broke her toe! Then as soon as she got up she says "ohhh and I hit my knee on the shower ledge this morning getting out"!! All of said injury's happened on the same side of her body!! I told her I'm gonna wrap her in bubble wrap!!

Yeah My Kid Rocks! What Can I Say?!

I just couldn't be prouder of my boy this week! It seems like he is doing something everyday that blows my mind and reminds me how lucky I am to have such a driven and smart young man!! Aside from just being the most awesome 15 yr old boy I've ever known he has had a great week!

A couple of weeks ago he was a bit in the dumps because his "Burb" flaked out... We bought the suburban last summer for J for his first real vehicle. I know a bit odd for a teenager but it's all about safety for me! When we bought the Burb we had to put in a new engine so the Hubby bought a used one from a guy and put it in. All was well until December when the tranny went out and we had to replace that! So the latest issue was the engine burned all of the oil and spun a bearing... UGHH!! He had checked the oil about a week prior and it was a tiny bit low but somehow it all just disappeared!

Beginning of the school year when the Burb had life..



So he was a real trooper about understanding it was back on the big yellow bus! Well the Hubby surprised him last Friday with a new (new to him of course) truck! J was so excited when he and I pulled up and he saw it sitting there. He started screaming "WHAT IS THAT"?! "WHAT IS THAT"?! I just smiled until I was parked and he flew out and was instantly in love again LOL!!

He's totally lovin this truck! Of course we will be putting his Ranch Hand bumper and his nice wheels and tires on this truck soon! You did know that's a must, right?!



Then Wednesday night was our high school's FFA Awards Banquet. During this banquet they award all of the individual achievement awards and install the new officers for the 2010-2011 FFA year. J had his interview last week. He has been really active in FFA and I think it has been so great for him. One of his greatest achievements this year is he qualified for State in Cattle Judging so we are very excited for that! He was also awarded the "Proficiency Award for Agricultural Communications", there were 5 boys in their chapter that went to this contest and overall they ended up placing 3rd out of 20 teams for their speeches!! His next award I think is pretty cool, he was awarded "Outstanding Sophomore Award" which is an award the VP of the school and FFA leaders choose for who they think per class who the most "outstanding" was! To top off his night he was installed as the 2010-2011 FFA Advisor!







OHHHH and did I mention this super busy teenage boy also achieved Honor Roll! He has always been a good student but his freshman year he had a tough time in his math class with no help from the teacher, he passed the class but not with the best grade and it dropped his GPA. It's taken him some time but he has gotten good grades his whole sophomore year and finally got them back into honor roll territory! I am definitely one proud Mama!!

Nothing Like Good Old 4H Fun!!

Wednesday night marked our county's first 4H Horse Project meeting of the year! We were a little late in the year to be having our first meeting but it's been a transition to say the least! This year I have taken over as the Project Leader for the group and I have to say I have NO idea what I'm doing when it comes to running a group like this!! I did not grow up in 4H, I always wanted to join but it didn't really fit our lives as kids I guess.... So my kiddo's have been member's for many years now! All of this came about as my friend Cowboy S was the leader and really the man is stretched for time in every aspect of his life so that's where I came in! He is our "Superintendent" so he helps me with ideas and any questions I have, he really is a great asset to our kids so I am very glad he stayed on! In addition I also have a gal from our county but different club than ours, she called me a couple of months ago and offered to help so that has been AWESOME!! I totally love her! She is so much like me....Might get dangerous LOL! We have lots planned for the kiddo's but our first meeting was grooming. We decided to go with that as we weren't sure how many "horseless" kids we have so some of them may not know the basics. I was so thrilled that everyone signed up for the project was there!!

Cowboy S never passes a dare....Think he's a bit big for the pony?!






























Our next meeting we will be covering trail riding and trail safety as our first outing we have planned is a ride to move some cattle across the Chickaskia River in May!! I am SO excited for this! I think it will be an absolute BLAST for the kiddo's!!













This was HILARIOUS!! We sent the girls to load up one of Cowboy S's horses and next thing we know it's taking all 4 of them to close the door LOL!! Best part is they already had the divider closed so PJ wasn't getting out!

We Start em Young....Gambling That Is ;)

Whilst at the Old Country Styled reception the kids were all having a blast doing this...

Yep we like to start em young in this fam...

My Baby Girl Turns 11 Today! ;(

11 years ago at this time I was laying in hospital bed preparing to deliver my baby girl 6 weeks premature. I was diagnosed with "severe Toxemia", when I was admitted into the hospital my blood pressure was reading around 207/110 something....I was borderline from having a stroke. I was treated with SO many medications that they couldn't keep anything under control after that, my blood pressure then bottomed out and they induced labor. It was a long labor but a very short delivery for my tiny 4 lb baby girl...She was born on December 23, at 10:53 pm...She was rushed into the neonatal unit, I only got to see her tiny face for a brief second before they took her...I was confined to the bed laying on my back for 12 hours due to a big loss of blood and it was still to thin I would risk hemorrhaging if I moved! Talk about being scared and wanting my little angel. There was a really nice NICU Nurse that took a Polaroid picture of her and brought it to me and my Hubby bought a disposable camera and went and had the pictures developed right away..I remained in the hospital until Christmas Eve and I was "allowed" to go home. No I was forced to go home as I wasn't allowed to stay with my angel at the hospital. So DD remained in the hospital for 9 days and we were finally able to bring her home and what a wonderful life she has given us...So Happy 11th Birthday to my Beautiful Angel!

My sweet Angel when I could finally hold her...

Daddy's girl...

Her very first Easter

I just loved kissing those cute little cheeks!!

Finally a toddler...It went by to fast...

DD and her best Bubby!

Growing up and loving her friends!

Such sweet friends!

My Angel, 11 today...

It Must Suck to be That Tiny!!

My son J is 15 yrs old and currently weighs around the 119 mark and he's 5'7 1/2 something around there....J has done everything that he can to try and gain weight but it just doesn't happen!! He is in weight lifting at school, doing power lifting and currently plays Basketball! So the other night when we were at a game J was playing great!! But I noticed people kept saying stuff about his shorts?! I didn't notice I guess because I am used to it?! So they start asking us why he is having problems keeping his bb shorts up, they said he keeps adjusting them so they won't fall down LOL! So I start paying attention to that and finally notice him tell his coach that the string in his shorts won't tighten or stay tied whatever... So he finished the first half and managed to keep his shorts up LOL!! When they came back in after half time I think I about wet my pants in laughter as he walks up like this.....

Yes folks that is tape.....holding.....his.....shorts.....up!!! LOL!!!!



It was classic I tell you, my heart felt great after that!! He really played a great game that night. He scored 13 points had 2 steals and 2 blocks.....oh and 4 fouls LOL!! Ref's weren't that great! Trust me I told them so!! ;p

So here the ref watches as J fights off these kids...No fouls yet?!



But here...Come on!! The one kid on the far side is holding and number 11 has his arm around his face LOL!! Right after this J went up to shoot and you could hear the slaps and no fouls were called!! This is why Basketball is SO hard for me to watch! I get mad when they don't call games fairly!!



Now this here is J's first foul of the night and really he was moving backwards and they collided so I believe it was called as a "push" LOL!!



This is leading up to his first steal of the night!!



And away he goes LOL!!



Fast breaking for a lay up!



Going up....



Up some more.....



And it's GOOD!! Yea!!


Scrapping for that basket again!



This shot they finally called the foul! Basket's good and 2 free throws which he made both :)



Again the shorts *giggles* hehehehe LOL!!



Going up for another 2 points!!!



Again it's good HA!!



2nd 3 pointer for the night!! Love my boy!!