HI - larious

I don't know why I love this but I totally do!

What We've Been Up To

As usual it's been quite a while since my last post and I thought I would catch people up, just in case we don't actually talk, in which case if we do you know what we've been up to.

On August 19th Nathan's sister got married in the Idaho Falls Temple to Skylar Stewart. So we have a new member of the family.




Also, I went back to school in August for my Masters of Business Administration (MBA) at George Fox University. I really love the program, although the work is pretty heavy I forgot how much I love learning and especially being able to apply everything. It's a great program and I will finish it in October 2013. That sounds like a really long way away.

I've been showing Top Gun in our local NRHA and SRRA shows. I won year end award for the Green Rookie and was fourth in the Rookie. They won't hold the banquet until January but it was my goal and I am pretty happy about it.

In October Nathan, myself and his dad went to Tulsa, Oklahoma for Arabian U.S. Nationals again. Nathan showed Top Gun in the Open Reining and had an amazing second go with a score of 216 to make it to the open finals. It was a really awesome run.

My dad came to visit us earlier this month for a couple days. We had lots of fun just hanging out and went to a hockey game. I don't care about hockey but any live sporting event is really fun.

Well.... there ya go, that brings us to where we are now.

Chromer, Chrome Dome, The Big C

This is my big boy. My good friend Holly helped me take these photos because it's a little difficult to take photos and ride the horse at the same time. I love this giant!

A Whale of a Tail

I was recently called to be the Humanitarian Leader at church. When I was first called to do this I laughed because I was the last person qualified to do this. I went over to get all the supplies from the past leader and she proceeded to inform me of the projects she was working on such as; quilting (sewing quilt tops together and binding the edges), crocheting beanies, sewing cloth blocks stuffing them and stitching up the sides. It was all I could do to keep my composure in her house. The only time I had ever used a sewing machine was in high school to sew the French flag and my mom was there to help the whole time. After many swear words, searching youtube, and taking a quick lesson I fumbled my way around the sewing machine enough to sew a quilt top in straight lines. During this process I realized sewing wasn't such a bad thing. I then proceeded to search youtube (my new best friend) for how to make a dog bed. I made a very large one for Brady and a very small one for Archie.

My next project was some new tail bags for the horses. We go through these things like crazy and I hate buying them. So here was my super exciting Friday night project. The Boise State fabric was more a joke than anything. I am really excited about this new hobby I have taken up and grateful for the opportunity to have learned it. Otherwise I probably would never have taken the time to learn.

My Kidlets

There was some serious playtime going on in my office this week. Brady is such a good big brother to Archie. As you can see Archie likes to chew on his face, his tail, and climb all over him. Brady just sits and lets him and never gets upset. I love these boys.

Kentucky

Nathan and I recently took a trip to Louisville and Lexington Kentucky. The original purpose for this trip was rather depressing but after we got that out of the way it turned out to be a great little vacation for my hard working husband and I. We got to walk around the Kentucky Horse Park, take a tour of the biggest Thoroughbred barns in the Lexington area, and tour Churchill Downs. I immediately fell in love with the Kentucky countryside. There are green pastures every where you look and they go on for miles. At one point we just took a drive through some back roads and there are barns and paddocks (that's what they call pastures) EVERYWHERE and I fell in love.

Super Saver, the 2010 Kentucky Derby Winner

On our tour of the Thoroughbred Race Horse barns was such a neat experience. We went to the Keeneland Race Track and got to watch some horses train on the track. That track started the Keeneland Horse Sales and that is what made Lexington the horse capitol of the world. People from all over the world would fly in on their private jets, go to the sales then fly the horses they bought home to their countries. We also got to tour the stallion barn at Winstar Farms. They have 10 stallions that they stand stud including $100,000,000 Distorted Humor. Yes folks, that eight 0's in that price tag. He is an actual corporation and the owners sell shares on him. His stud fee $100,000 and they breed about 140 mares a year to him. This is Tiznow, he has a $75,000 stud fee. The breed fees at that barn varied from $100,000 all the way to $6,000. Still, $6,000 is what the highest reining stallions go for. I was blown away. The Kentucky Horse Park was amazing with it's history of the horse museum and history of the Arabian Horse. The legend that is Man O' War was impressive and I even got a little emotional reading about his only loss.

I am definitely grateful I got see the horse capitol of the world.

Archie Kent

As I sit here busily working away on new projects I realize I never introduced the newest member of the Kent family. I have sleeping in my lap a very adorable little terror. Archie Kent is a mini dachshound or weiner dog, which ever you prefer. I have been in love with weiner dogs since I was little, for some reason whenever I see one they always bring a smile to my face. And I knew if we ever got another dog that is what I wanted. I also didn't want the traditional colors such as brown and black, I wanted a male and I wanted to get it when it was six weeks old. There is some dispute as to whether that is to young to get a puppy but that is when I got Brady it's a good age if you want to socialize them with other dogs and people. I really don't want a dog that is afraid of people or barks at other dogs, that drives me crazy.

About four weeks ago now we had our Idaho Horse Expo. I was working with the Des Arab Club at our booth and Nathan was working with some of the horses from the barn. There was a couple that had three six week old mini dachshounds and apparently Nathan saw them earlier in the week and failed to mention anything about them. Luckily for me we had a client who walked by and mentioned the adorable puppies that were there so I marched over and fell in love with this little face.
I can't say Nathan was super excited about it at first but honestly, how could you not fall in love with him.

So far Archie is anything but antisocial. He loves his big brother Brady, even though the feeling isn't mutual, and loves the other dogs on the property. Everyone loves him and he is happy to cuddle with anyone who will pet and love on him. He is a tiny terror sometimes and really likes to play, luckily it only lasts for about 30 minutes and then it's nap time. (Don't mind my jacked up look)