Santa Claus

We got to see Santa and Mrs. Claus on Saturday in Boling. What excitement. Our town of probably 1,000 all came out for the 'big' parade and to get their picture taken with Santa. We skipped the parade, but just had to meet Santa. The cool part is I got a polaroid picture of her with Santa. I think it's cool because that's how they did it when I was a kid and now they are doing away with polaroid cameras. So, this might be her only picture with a polaroid. What a classic!

We also had a good time with our friend's on Friday. I have to admit, after two evenings w/o Shelby I was missing her a lot! I was glad when the party started to fizzle out and left around 8:30 PM. I was also exhausted from a long day at work and sleepless nights with Shelby. She's getting so much better, but working full time and taking care of Shelby is a lot of work and makes me VERY tired. Ryan, of course, does his share it's just that babies are very demanding. Who would've thought??!! :)

Today was awesome too. Shelby was right on schedule with her naps so inbetween I went out and rode horses while she slept. Ryan stayed inside with her. I worked Mito and he did great. He's starting to learn how to stop straight, turn into the fence and lope off while I'm on him. Now, we still have some work to do, but I am pleased with our progress. The weather has been nasty so I've just beeing working horses at home. It's not nice enough weather to haul somewhere and take Shelby. She and Ryan don't like the cold. :) I also exercised Badger and ponied Romeo today. I'm so excited to start riding Romeo. He did awesome today when I ponied him. He went all the different speeds I asked of him. Sounds simple, but some horses get a little stupid and want to do their own thing. Once the weather is nice enough for Shelby to go outside I'll saddle him up and either Ryan or I will climb on him. I hope it's me, but Ryan may not let me so we'll see. :) I was trying to hold of until we had his teeth done, but I'm running out of patience so I may just leave the halter on him and make the leadline reins. We have a halter from Clinton Anderson so it has some pressure points on it which I think will work well with riding him in the round pen. I guess we'll see, huh?

Christmas is very near and we are all excited. Tomorrow we go to Rossy's house to do a white elephant gift exchange and eat dinner. That is always a lot of fun! Then Christmas Day Ryan, Shelby and me will open our gifts and enjoy the day doing who knows what. The weather is supposed to be nice, so maybe we'll get her outside.

Shelby is doing great. She is growing everyday and we are all figuring each other out which makes it so much easier!

Finally, Shelby has found her thumb...and sometimes her fingers or whole fist. How cute??!!