New, New, New!

So, most of you by now know that I had a FABULOUS birthday week...almost 10 days!! I had many wonderful surprises and best of all I received not one but two amazing presents! A horse back riding lesson (which I have this love for horses but have only been on one once and that was when I was 6), and .....I got a new camera, a Nikon SLR!!!! So please bear with me, I put up quite a few and I have been playing around with it a lot. The kids have been sick, and then me, so I have not had a really good chance to take any amazing pics yet...but of course that did not stop me in putting a whole lot of pictures up! :) There are a whole lot of pictures that Andy took of me on the horse...I just couldn't decide. Since this is a better camera it took me a little bit to figure out how to decrease the size of pictures (without changing it permanently), to upload them...all set with that now. Needless to say I am very excited to get out and take plenty more pictures and share with all of you, my friends & family. And a big thank you to everyone that took part in me getting my camera! THANK YOU!!

Harry signed his name for his buddy Kaiden's birthday party, I was so proud of him, that is the best yet!

We went back up to Grand Rapids for Harry's good buddy Kaiden's birthday party. It was at Chuckie Cheeses, both kids had a blast! We were able to visit with dear friends as well.

Harry and his old friend Ethan (he lived across the street at our old house), Harry loved this game, it was a simulated roller coaster...he sure got into this one.
Nina's tongue hard at work, helping her steer the tractor...her great grandpa would be so proud that she was using it to help her.

Harry "jet skiing" He kept belly laughing with this one, it was hard not to laugh with him.

Ahhhh, cake! Kaiden is the fourth one in...he was so busy running around having a great time, that I didn't get many pictures of the birthday boy!
Amelia happy to be dancing with another girl...she loved this.

Amelia loved dancing in front of the blue screen, she loved seeing herself on tv, so her brother had to join in the fun.



Harry & Amelia take after my heart....with their new found love of ski-ball. Harry celebrating, while I was trying to get Amelia to stop putting the tickets back into the machine, they came out so she thought that they must go back in!

Meet Glory. You will be seeing a lot of her in the next few photos :) She was a wonderful and patient horse. This was my first time leading a horse.
I actually got up on the horse the "old fashioned" way, first time! I felt pretty good about that.

I was so happy to be on a horse, I had no idea how I was going to feel. You know when you think about doing something for so long and then actually get to do it...will it meet your expectations? This definitely exceeded them by far! I got tears in my eyes when I was first sitting on Glory, of course I pulled myself together, it was just such a wonderful experience.

I had Glory walking in and out of the cones, go over a bridge and then had her trot...that was soooo much fun.


The trainer was amazing! She traveled with and performed on the Lipizzaner Stallions. We actually saw her and her fiance perform with them when we saw the show in GR a few years ago. She was so nice and had me ride Glory out to the open fields...actually to the back 40! The farm is situated on 40 acres, I thought that was cute. What a feeling riding Glory out in the open...she was wonderful.
Me calling her over for a treat.
Feeding Glory a biscuit for having so much patience with me.
What a sweet horse.

Nina collecting her Care Bears on her way to bed.

If you look back at our pumpkin carving pictures from last year, Harry has just about the same face when he saw for the first time what the inside of a pumpkin looks like...he was not as disturbed this year.
In the beginning they weren't too sure if they wanted any part of the slimy mess.


For some reason....much to our dismay, Amelia kept eating the pumpkin. Who would think that after the first few bites that she would go back for more!..either way, cute picture opp! :)

"monster faces!"
Mama got to stay out of the big messy part and be the one to draw the faces.
Harry looks horrified at what I am drawing :)
Can you pick out who's is who's?....from left to right...Andy, Nina, Mine, & Harry.
I lit the pumpkins when they were in their bath, they were quite excited to see what they had become with light on the inside....Amelia was not too sure about all of it.