the weather has been absolutely gorgeous here!!! the flowers are in full bloom, though i realize i need to take some pictures of them. we have enjoyed playing outside and i can't stop taking pictures of the wonderful, wild beautiful hair Fisher has. Drake has become a soccer player and will have his first game on April 3rd. He is pretty excited and we can't wait to watch them. If any of you have been following me on Facebook, you would get to see all of Drake's amazing words that he strings together and keeps us on our toes. Fisher will be 2 in May and we have begun planning her fun party. She is no longer a baby anymore!

n We also have a total of 11 foals now. 9 of which are boys! unbelievable. With Katie moving here, we have been able to get a few things in order and are keeping our heads above water as far as paper work goes. The countdown has begun to our summer in Ruidoso! Our horses have had 2 races thus far and we are very pleased. Our New Mexico bred horse Rabbits Rabbit trained by James McArthur qualified for the Spring Fling Futurity in El Paso that will be run Easter weekend. And we will have 3 running in OKC this weekend for the Remington Park Oklahoma Bred Futurity. All three are trained by Eddie Willis. Wish us luck!

well we had two more babies in the month of January. we are super excited about them. And breeding season is now in full swing. I made my first trip to the airport in Austin yesterday and Micah will go today. there is no telling how many of those we will make from now until May. For those of you who dont understand that, when we breed horses the stallion farms ship the cooled semen and we pick it up, call the vet to meet us, and as soon as we get home they breed them artificially. This can happen at any time of the day or night, and most often the shipments are delayed. And, it's about 4 hours round trip without a delay. But, we get pretty babies like these within the year so it is worth it.

I'm not sure how it happened, but somehow we now own a covered wagon. And here she is....
we have found that it is useful to play on...

I told Micah we could keep it as long as I can decorate it for each holiday. So if you have any ideas for this, let me know.

We went to Austin to have a follow up with the pediatric ENT for Fisher; to see if her xrays showed a need for surgery as well. We had a very early appointment so we chose to stay the night before. well, Fisher had one of her usual nights and cried ALL NIGHT LONG. There was nothing we could do, but that didn't stop the guest next door from calling a noise complaint. It was a bit awkward for everyone, especially the front desk lady and security guard who knocked on our door (waking the other child now) to see if there was anything they could do to help...um sure, take her for two hours and let the rest of us get some sleep! LOL

anyway, here is a fun moment bright and early the next morning of the kids enjoying room service overlooking downtown Austin. So the dr appt went well. Fisher does have enlarged adenoids, tho certainly not the size that Drake's were, so we have opted to put off surgery and schedule a sleep study first. The sleep study wont be until sometime in March or April.

We have had some really beautiful days which have resulted in lots of dirt time and roping. We have also had our first foal!! so darn cute. 17 more to go. We haven't made it all the way through January and Drake already is sporting another bandage. This time a butterfly on his chin from falling on the stairs. I went today and stocked up on butterflies and bandages. Look like it's going to be one of those years.

we had a fantastic December and Christmas. We were able to celebrate with each of our families before having Christmas morning at our house. Santa was sooo good to us! We opened presents all day long in between playing with new toys and eating food. Loved it.

After Christmas we drove to Midland to catch a plane to Jackson Hole, WY for New Year's Eve. There were 21 of us traveling and it was such a great crowd. The weather was a bit rocky at first, they closed the Jackson airport and re-routed us to Idaho Falls but mid-flight, they opened it and we made it just fine. The snow was incredible and we really enjoyed the hotel. We definitely recommend the Four Seasons if in Jackson Hole. a great highlight of the trip was Drake skiing. We enrolled him in the lessons on the first day and dropped him at 9am thinking he might stay half a day. We had to drag him off of the slopes crying at 4pm! We so loved the instructor that we got Drake a private lesson the next day and they skied the same hours. If you are looking for a ski mountain with a fantastic kids program, we HIGHLY recommend the Kids ranch there. Ask for Casey Poe; the best instructor around.

We came home on Jan 1 and started our year with a bang. Drake had an unfortunate fight with a wheel barrow on the 2nd and ended up with 2 stitches and 4 staples in the back of his head. Then on Thursday, he had surgery to remove his adenoids and tonsils. He came through it remarkable well but we are still in the healing process and having a few bad nights. We are looking forward to 2012!!