Let's try this again

After a year of no blogging. I'm gonna do my best to keep up with it this year, promise really.

We've moved up! We've moved on! We are riding calves now.

The first ride was with Tri-State Youth Rodeo. Jimmy Just decided he wanted to move up.

First Calf Ride

Second Ride

Not a winning weekend

This weekend involved 2 rodeos, however we fell off at both. Yeah, not good I know. But...we are taking this next weekend off of rodeoing, and hopefully start back April 16th meaning to win. So there was a ton of driving involved this weekend. Littlest knows 38 words on the first grade list (which is great because he's only required to know 75 from the kindergarten list)!!!

Since I have absolutely no videos from the weekend...I'll post about the jewelry I make. Sorry but I'm taking it over, at least for today. I like to create jewelry.



Most horse related.



A horse hair bracelet.

So I took over the post...Sorry Bud.

OH AND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I just found out I was on tipjunkie.com! can you belive it? Neither can I cool!!! :)

Well...I may get fired

I think Littlest may fire me as his webmaster. I am slack slack slacking.

This weekend was another fun rodeo weekend. Tri-State Youth Rodeo was held at the Lone Hickory Indoor Arena. Again it is an awesome facility. The weather turned cold on us. But thanks to the heaters we stayed warm.

Friday was great practice for Littlest. We had 4 re-rides before we got a good out...The sheep just didn't want to mess with the Littlest Cowboy!!!! I'll only show the final ride on here, as his DoDa and MiMi's internet is slow. :)

Friday 3/25/11 Tri-State Youth Rodeo
Mutton Bustin'


Friday 3/25/11 Tri-State Youth Rodeo
Goat Doggin'
VIDEO TO COME (Blogger and I are arguing)

Yeah...we practiced some chute doggin' this past week. We might need to practice grabbin' that nose uh?

Saturday 3/26/11 Tri-State Youth Rodeo
Mutton Bustin'
VIDEO TO COME (Blogger and I are arguing)

Saturday 3/26/11 Tri-State Youth Rodeo
Goat Doggin'
VIDEO TO COME (Blogger and I are arguing)

This next weekend is busy again...2 rodeo associations start up. North Carolina Junior Bullriders and Price's Arena.

I'll post those events here on Sunday...promise...scout's honor.

Running behind

Sorry to all. These should have been posted on Monday. I'm running behind this week. A good friend of mine has experienced a great tragedy and I have been working to help her this week every night. Please pray for their family.

So with the apology out of the way...We rode this weekend. Lone Hickory Arena has the best facility bar none. You have to go check them out!

Alright. Time for video's. FYI- I'm going to post these through YouTube. The video services of Blogger are a little lacking, so I'm going to do some experimenting today.









Thanks All

The 100th day of School

The 100th day of School, well techinically it's the 97th because of snow days. Oh well. I'm still counting it. Littlest and I created this poster to celebrate. Littlest's class at school is celebrating on Friday, and they are all displaying posters. Littlest did all of the gluing of the cotton balls. He decorated the cowboy, but didn't glue that down. I mean I couldn't send him to school with his fingers burnt from using my outdated hot glue gun!

Cute uh?

A New Rodeo Year Has Started

It's time boys and girls! Time to dust off the rust of a winter break and jump back into rodeo life. So here we are again packing snack bags, fixing coolers of sodas, water, and Koolaid® pouches. Loading the dog up and hitting the road. (I'll be adding a horse and trailer to the list in a few months.)

We went to the Tri-State Youth Rodeo Association's first rodeo of the year this weekend. Below are the rides for Littlest.

Saturday 1/22/11--Dusting off the Rust



Sunday 1/23/11--Taking what you can get



Sunday 1/23/11--Goat Doggin'


I know...too cute right!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Riding sheep is like Living Life

Riding sheep is like life. You get pumped up in the chute for an exciting ride. You come out (sometimes off kilter). Sometimes you can pull yourself back right, and sometimes you fall off and have to look for the next ride. Isn't it that way in life. Some days you wake up and everything goes just right. Your sheep runs in a straight line like a bullet, you stay in the middle and make the buzzer. Then other days you wake up, your head hurts, you get started, you come out tilted to the side you can't correct yourself, and you hit the ground (sometimes hard), eat a little dirt and think "Wow, I'm glad that one's over!"

Riding sheep is difficult. There is tons of pressure to be good. And the competition is tough. Does that sound like your life? It does mine. Sometimes we put a lot of extra stress on ourselves to be the best at what we do, and we forget that it needs to be fun too.

Life can be stressful, but you just have to breathe through those moments.

Qualified RIDE!!!!!

Really this entire post should be in capital letters!!!!

We made a qualified ride last night! WOOOOO HOOOOOOO!!!!!

This was the ONLY picture I took of the ride...I was jumping up and down way to much!
He showed me how he celebrated after his ride :) cute uh?

After his amazing ride he played with all of his NC friends. I took better pictures of that!

Today we are playing all day in Oklahoma City.

Good luck all of the NC boys!! Ride hard and bring it home!

The Round Night of the Finals

We rode tonight of the first night of the National Junior Bullriders Finals. A total of 22 Mutton Busters rode. And of those 9 made the whistle. We weren't one of those tonight, but tomorrow night is a different story!

Pictures---

lining up for grand entry


It is powerful when you have 100 kids under 20 kneeing a praying for their friend to have a safe ride.


The chute gate opened, and that was the last shot I could take! Sorry.

He did buck off. He did not make the 6 seconds tonight. But we have another shot at it tomorrow!

The Road to the Finals

Warning. This will be tons of pictures!!!

We are in Oklahoma for the National Junior Bullriders Finals!!!!!!!!!!!

We are here to WIN it!


Doesn't he look so ready??!!


We stopped in St Louis MO to see the Gateway to the West. It was Very Very cool!




We then stopped at Bass Pro Shops in Springfield MO. They even have a live alligator inside the store!

The trip to Shawnee was successful. Then yesterday we went to the National Cowboy Museum. It was so past cool!!! I loved it. Below was my best shot of the day!



Infront of the National champion Hall of fame wall. It was such a fun day!!!

And just one more picture. This last one is Littlest infront of the Jim Shoulders Exhibit. He was so excited about seeing all of the buckles, saddles, and Native American items in the museum.

Rodeo Dreams

Last night Jimmy had a dream. Not a bad dream, but as he was asleep I heard him in his room saying "outside boys!"

Cute, I know! He is thinking about rodeo in his sleep. It is the first thing that he thinks about in the morning!

Cowboy Casanova

Just a picture of a current Cowboy Casanova!!!! He's eying the cowgirls warming up their ponies. Usually when we get to a rodeo his girlfriends come to get him. And when I say girlfriends I do mean plural! Their ages range from 2 to 18.

In this photo he's scoping out his next victim!!! He is SUCH a cowboy!!

A trail Ride

We went on a trail ride today...since we had no rodeos this weekend. Jimmy's horse, Copper, was ponied by Tax Day (his dad's horse). It was a ton of fun. It also was a ton of HOT!!!!

Working on it

Hey all. We have been working hard all year practicing. And the result!!!! Jimmy will be riding in the National Junior Bullrider's Finals in Shawnee, Oklahoma in November!!



We have begun a serious hunt for Sponsorships for Jimmy's trip out West. He is very excited about the trip!

Today was Jimmy's first day of school. A sad day for me as his mom. (Please note in this picture he is wearing shorts, however he wanted to wear boots and his cowboy hat too, but I wouldn't let him!)

Price's arena

Well, rodeo season has started. We have had 2 events so far this year, and many more to come I'm sure.

Yadkin Valley Youth Association's First rodeo was in April, and Jimmy smoked both of his sheep. He's been practicing on one of the ponies here at the farm, and is trying to master barrels. We will see.

Last night he rode at Price's Arena. Scoring an 80 point ride and coming in 2nd. He's planning on winning the mutton bustin' buckle at Price's. And once his mind is set, it's gonna happen! (I just hope he stays safe and wins his entry money back.) I missed filming the ride last night. But is was great, it even included the sheep falls and rolling over him. He didn't get hurt, because he's a cowboy!!

Heating up his rope.




Getting it on his mind!


Checking out the rides for the night!

Roping School

We had a roping school this weekend. Now...don't worry we haven't stopped riding sheep. Just exploring opportunities.





He's been practicing 15 min everyday.

Best Action Shot

I don't know what's up with the video in the lat post. I've never had any trouble with Blogger before. uh!

Anyways. I have the best action shot. Included are little puffs of dirt from the heels of the powerhouse sheep!

2nd place

Yelp...Jimmy won 2nd place in Mutton' Bustin' at the Yadkin Valley Youth Rodeo Association this year. Which is great, because he's 4, and riding against 7 yr olds. Rodeo season is winding down, thus the post...and we are all taking a few weeks rest. Below is a video of his one of his finals rides from YVYRA.



We also had fun at the Foothills Youth Rodeo Association this year. Jimmy had a lot more competition there. He finished I'm posting one of the group pictures from that Association.

Jimmy's Mutton' Bustin' competition for this association.



A group picture from the FRYA Association.

Thanks for a great rodeo year!

Yellowstone national park

Well...My dad's leaving for Yellowstone National Park tomorrow. we are helping him pack. The following is a picture of the shoeing supplies he's taking on a 2 week trip into the back country of Yellowstone.

Going Mobile

I'm heading to a mobile life. I'll be posting from my phone from now until the future.

The following picture is from a "weekend off". No rodeo required. Littlest went camping with his dad, auntie M, and "do-da"=GRANDPA.



He loves camping! They went to South Mountain State Park in North Carolina. FUN, FUN, FUN!!