Art show, Paintball and "The Zone"

well we have been busy this spring. Emily had an art show to attend at Cedarville University. 2 of her art pieces from school were chosen for the art show. She ended up getting a superior and an excellent. Yeah Emily!!

Sarah had the opportunity to play paintball at her best friends birthday party. They had a great time and Sarah really got into competing against the boys.

Lastly, Sarah and I traveled to Michigan for "The Zone" which is the semi-finals for horseback riding. The entire team did poorly thanks to the judging. Last year this same team won Nationals and this year we aren't even qualified to attend nationals. Sarah did well and placed 6th in her category of 12 riders. She had a nice tall horse which she looks lovely on but he spooked very easily and did. I guess the best thing about this show is that the year is over and now we are gearing up to start jumping. Sarah will be competing next year in jumping and on the flat.

Regionals

About 10 days ago, Sarah and I traveled to croton ohio for her regional horse competition. The day was very difficult. Sarah had been chosen to represent her team as the team rider in her class. This is a big honor and she had been preparing for 2 weeks. When we got to the show her coach informed us that she decide to pull Sarah from the team rider spot and give it to someone else. The reasoning she gave was inconsistent with Sarah's performance but what can you do. We were hoping that the coach would look at the objective results of this years standings and not get input from others on the team. Opinions are never accurate. Sarah has more points than anyone in her class. I felt that this decision to switch riders on the day of competition was unfair to both riders. Anyway, the entire team didn't perform well and the judge was rather harsh. At the end of the day, Sarah did not qualify as an individual rider for the next event, The Zone. Only 3 girls from our team of 40 qualified. The high school and middle school teams both qualified for The Zone. The Zone will be held on April 4-5 in Albion Michigan. Sarah has been selected as team rider to go to this show. We are hoping it is because of her skill and not because of the other girl declining to go.
When this season is over we will need to make a decision as to whether or not we will be continuing with horseback riding. Sarah loves horses so this will be difficult for her.
We have decided to sign her up for 4H. I hope this is not a mistake. This year she is doing a food project and possibly going to the fair. Next year, we might lease a horse and show him at the fair.
Emily has finished upwards basketball and enjoyed it. We are now signing her up for art lessons at a studio.
We are all quite busy right now. I am working 4 days a week to cover a maternity leave. Brian is still working hard and is very busy at work. We are all looking forward to this summer.

Finished

Well, Brian bought me a 3000 piece puzzle for my birthday. We started the puzzle on Christmas day and finally finished. We love to work on puzzles throughout the cold winter months but this one was huge. It took up all the dining room table even with the extension. Here is a picture of the finished result.

The girls are doing well. Sarah just finished with Cheer leading. Emily is still playing basketball. We are gearing up for Sarah's next horse compettion which will be regionals and nationals. We are praying that she does well.

Emily's first Basketball Game of 2009

Today Emily had her first game as a third grader. The team consists of third and fourth graders. I am truely amazed at how much better Emily has gotten since last year. She is definetely more aggressive and understands the game much better. Here is a video and pictures.

Sarah's final 2 horseshows of the 2008-09 season

Sarah had 2 wonderful horses at the last 2 shows. She was very nervous after she drew both her horses but she calmed down and did great. She placed 1st and 2nd. She needed 7 more points to qualify for the regionals. These 2 scores put her over. We now are looking forward to regionals in March. If she qualifies in this regional meet then she will go to The ZONE (like state finals), then to nationals which are held on the east coast. Last year our middle school team placed second nationally. We are looking forward to the upcoming competitions but also are loving a much needed rest from all theses shows.

New Years Eve- WhooHoo!!!!

We decide to stay home for New Years Eve and just celebrate with the girls. We had been so busy over the holidays, it was nice to stay home and relax. We planned snacks and a movie then watched the ball drop. I found it much more difficult to stay awake until midnight but we made it and we shot our poppers and made a bunch of noise.

Christmas

I guess this post is coming pretty late. We had a great Christmas. We visited family, ate too much food and finally got to rest. The best part of Christmas for us is the anticipation from the kids and the time we get to stay in our PJ's all day and rest and relax. Here are a few pictures. We sure did take a ton.