Rocking RS Blog: Birthday Girl

What a fun birthday weekend for Shelby! She turned two on Friday and celebrated with my family via web cam and Skype. It was fun to see everyone. It was also great to have them see her open her gifts from 1800 miles away. What a blessing she is growing up in this technology world and is able to know her family from afar even though we don't get to them like we'd like.

It was fun seeing my Grandma smile as she watched us and talked to us. Oh the things she has seen in her 90 years! From horses in the field rather than tractors to skyping with her grandaughter to watch her great grandaughter open gifts. Pretty cool! My newphews thought it was pretty cool too. My oldest nephew, Matt, will be 18 this year and had never seen anything like that.

Shelby enjoyed them singing Happy Birthday to her and also enjoyed hearing and seeing them. Although, I don't think she's quite got the hang of it. What a blessing we can do all of this for free!

Saturday was Shelby's big birthday party. But, before we did that we had a barrel race to go too. I had an AWESOME run on Shiner. He ended up in the 2D. WOW! That's a second off his time. In the barrel racing world that's a big improvement. Badger didn't do as well. I'm not sure if it was me or him, but suspect it was more me. I was worried about him hurting so I don't think I pushed him as hard. He also seemed to get hung up on the back of the barrels. Almost like his legs got stuck - he didn't seem to slide like he normally does. That's ok. He's still my favorite barrel horse.

After my two runs we rushed home to get cleaned up and finish getting ready for the party. The first guest arrived at 5 pm and the party was rolling by 5:30 with pony rides. We had kids and adults enjoying it. What fun to see the kids so excited about a pony ride. They wanted to know the horses names and share their 'horse' experiences of the past. The smiles were bright and the cameras were in full force. What fun!

We then all ate yummy BBQ (brisket made by a good friend of ours, Jesse), Pasta Salad (I made one and another good friend of ours, Erin, made the other), ranchero beans (by Erin) and cupcakes for dessert. It was all fabulous and if anyone went home hungry it was their fault! HA!

Shelby then opened her gifts and struggled with letting the new toy she just opened go so she could open the next gift. She thought they were all so cool it was hard for her to set the gift aside to open something else. She got clothes, baby dolls, playdough and other cool gifts. Our friends were all so thoughtful and knew just what to get her. It was neat how each one bought something that they knew she would love. Even my friend, Jackie, bought her goldfish because they share goldfish when they hang out together. :)

Ryan and I bought her a little princess couch that folds out into a little bed and a tricycle. She loves them both and has enjoyed playing with them. She is still a bit small for the tricycle, but it won't be long before she'll be flying around the yard on it.

Today (Sunday) we have to haul hay hay. I'm wooped so this should be interesting. I am very thankful that we will have hay. Our pastor was given a field and so he gave it to us since we are unable to bale our hay. (It was too long before we got to cutting it and kept binding up the hay cutter.) So, what a blessing!!!

Well I guess that's it. Here are some pictures of her special day! What fun to see the joy of a child on her birthday. It was worth all the hard work and effort to host a party for her!

More pictures can be found by clicking on the the link to your right.

Getting ready to sing Happy Birthday. She was already wore out by now.