Happy New Year!!

Its has been a crazy week! Let me tell you that it will probably take me a full week of blogs maybe just to get it all on here ha! I just wanted to say a quick HAPPY 2016! This is going to be a year of BIG changes in our family.

Here are some highlights of the kids Christmas break! Thought I would do it in pictures. We were at home for Christmas but after it was a whirlwind of Mil, My dad and step mom surprising us and treating us for days to come......This is not in order.....:)

Whew! It was a long and awesome last five days with family and friends!

Freezing Feeding Frenzy! (PICS)

Jack and Leroy

California you think as great weather. Not this California ha! Ok so its Northern Cali that can be full of weird weather from sun to rain to snow to sun to rain to snow again. Today it happened to snow almost 8 inches. My animals were not ready for that but thankfully we were.

Its FREEZING outside. So doing our daily chores of feeding felt a little more like a FRENZY this time. All my babies were happy to see it. We checked their water to make sure not frozen. Pulled out the heating elements for their water so it doesn't freeze. They all have shelter to go to and lots of feed.

Our rescue bottle fed RJ

Minnie our Cow we bottle fed since birth

Jack in front and Leroy in back

It does amaze me though that they don't go into their shelter more. I mean if I was a horse or a cow I would be under that thing in a minute. But NOOOOOOO they think its more fun to be in the snow under a tree or something. What do they think they are? Animals? These are my babies....get under the cover ppl! :)

Suzy Q our bottle fed goat

Suzy Q

It was a long day. We moved some of the animals to different pens to be closer to one another. I happen to like being on the quad with my husband moving our calves closer to the horses. Just makes it easier to feed when its FREEZING outside. Its kind of romantic too I think. You know....freezing but making something better by putting heating lamps for the chickens or our goat Suzy Q. Making sure the horses and cows are doing okay and have everything they need. I love my animals. I would be upset if anything happened to them.

Fatty our Rescue Horse

Our Dogs thought the snow was the coolest thing ever. They have their own 15 by 20 room that is heated with a million dog beds that is attached to our house. Used to be our game room but with the weather like this it has become the dogs room. They love the snow. I keep telling them to go back into their room but they go out the doggy door and just have a grand ol time! As you can see.

Ninja...Jacksons Dog

Sebastian going crazy in the snow. Had to Warm up Cassies Dog

Maggie is Jasons Dog. She is a Rescue Whippet

Sassy is the youngest of the bunch. MILs Dog

Our oldest and very loved Princess Sierra

Can you see my dog Molly trying to be incognito

All in all it was a beautiful day! A busy day with snow as my husband had to plow at the ranches but a good day! We always wanted a white Christmas.....who knew it would be a White Thanksgiving.

Nope I don't wear make up in the snow

Ryan giving extra apple snacks

One of the barns

Subscribe to this blog by email, Google+ or Bloglovin. Have a very Blessed Day

To Shoe or not to Shoe

We have 5 horses. All of which we have saved from one place or another. Our horses are our babies and we do everything we can for them. From Vaccinations, Worming, Teeth Floating, Brushing, Loving, Feeding and also Shod  their Hoofs.

To Shoe or not to shoe. There is always a debate on this. We actually do both. Our Ranch horses that move cows get their Hooves Shod. We do that because they walk through some rough terrain and it helps their Hooves.

Our horses are part of our family. May sound odd to some but we have Fat, Jack and Leroy. Then we have Foxy and Elvis. Elvis is an old boy who we never ride. He is more of a pasture pet that I love dearly. He was an ex Racehorse that we saved because he was almost skin and bone. He is a healthy old boy now. So we just get his feet trimmed regularly. Jack is our crazy huge horse that only Ryan can ride who was also an ex Racehorse. He gets trimmed also. The ones that get shod are Leroy (Ryan's main horse) and Fat. Fat get shod every 6 weeks without fail because he has navicular so he needs the horse shoes to help his legs to feel better as he walks. Leroy is the one that is ridden the most and Ryans baby so he definitely gets shod.

To shoe or not to shoe. As you can see we do both. I have heard pros and cons with both but in the end I think its what is best for the horse. We have an awesome farrier who has done this for many years. She is the best in our county and we are thankful she treats our horses so well. She even let me take some pictures this time with a little bit of coaxing.

I am just thankful that we have our babies and the ability to save and take care of them. This summer I will also be taking lessons to feel more comfortable on the horses. Ryan and Jack are pros. The rest of us are more of trail riders. Its fun to ride as a family but the part I tend to like most is brushing and caring for our horses. Especially Elvis my old boy.

Subscribe to my blog by Bloglovin (the app), Google+ or on the home page you can subscribe by email. Thank you all for reading along. Have a blessed day.

Get Ready...Get Set....GO!

With four teenagers nothing is ever really that simple. Going on a Vacation is included in this. We are pretty excited because we are going on our first cruise as a family. All 6 of us are going to have 7 days of glorious sunshine (fingers crossed) on the way to Cabo and Puerto Vallarta.

Ryan and I have been on two cruises before. One was our honeymoon and the second was this Christmas when all the kids were at their other parents house. We didn't want to sit at home with no kids on Christmas and be super sad. The one good thing about having a blended family we are finally on the schedule were we have all four of them or we don't have all four of them for Christmas and Thanksgiving. We are lucky they live with us full time but its still hard to not have any of them for Christmas. Anyways...being a mom and having that oh to normal feeling of "Mothers Guilt" I felt so bad they weren't with us that I booked another Cruise for all of them to go this year while we were on our Christmas Cruise. Hey its the only way I could have fun without feeling so guilty.

The cool thing is we are going back to the exact same destination. We love it anyways! The great thing however is going on a cruise with the kids that you have already been on. We already know the destination so it becomes more cost effective. We know the places to go or not go and the excursions to go on or not go on. We are even going to be on the same ship although we did get a free upgrade to a Ocean Balcony Suite for our two rooms which we are SUPER excited about.

The kids don't even realize what fun they will be having yet. Are they excited..yes. Do they really know how excited they will end up being...no. Since we aren't going during Spring Break and are going two weeks later on the cruise we have to do Independent Study for the kids. They will be out a week and so we got all their work to do. The teachers were nice enough to give it to us a couple days early so we can try and get it all done. Its funny though because one of the teachers has all our kids. She told us that we aren't allowed to vacation together anymore because she had to do all the work for all four of them. She said it jokingly of course but it was funny. So after school for two days the kids have come home and sat to do their work for hours. They are complaining a little as they have just gotten out of school but they wont be complaining once they have a week off and not have to worry about it. Plus....we don't want to have to bring all those books onto the ship.

I am very thankful that my Mother in Law is going to watch our animals for us. We invited her of course to go but with her vertigo she decided to stay back to help us out by watching our house and the animals. I love my mother in law because she is always so selfless. We are going to have to take her on a vacation on land sometime soon though for all the hard work she does for us. She will probably need one after watching all the animals anyways.

Tomorrow we are off and on our 11 hour drive to the port. We will spend the night there and get on the ship the next day. I am still packing even though I started a couple days ago. Have to Iron the formal wear and I think I will be done. I loathe ironing! So much so that I got a dryer that has
"dewrinkle" as the kids call it. For formal night though I will become Cinderella and iron. Did I say I LOATHE ironing! :) With 6 people there is a lot to iron. Then there is my husband who packs an hour before we go, always ends up having everything he needs while I am checking down my checklist that the kids and I have everything we need. I tried packing for him but he knows what he wants better than I would.

So we are off! To Cabo. I will try and post another blog before we actually leave but then Everydayraerae will be silent for the week. Silent because I am going to be listening to the ocean sounds and relaxing while hearing my kids say "thank you for taking us on the most magical vacation in the whole wide world". Ok I can dream. It will be fantastic though and when I get back you will be overwhelmed with fun pictures! We are going to be snorkeling and swimming with the dolphins. Its going to be the best family vacation! Hope you all have a blessed week. Say a little prayer that these Baby powder looking legs don't get too burnt.

Subscribe by email, Google+ or Bloglovin