Update for Everyone!!!

Hi Family and Friends!!
We have created a Facebook account under "Eric Petska". If you are already on facebook you can go in and look at all our pics and stuff. If you arent already on facebook it is easy to create an account....
We will probably use that more often than this blog site...it is so much easier for me to upload photos to the facebook.
Hope you will all check it out!!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!
Love You-The Petskas

Taylor Turns 10!!!

October 16th was Taylor's birthday...

It was a thursday so before school she got to open

her present from Eric and I...

(you may notice a new set of eyes on Mason...yes, that is a new dog!)

She got her first CD player and was pretty excited!

Now she can play her music in her room with no complaining from the boys!!

After school we went to the state park for her party.

There were 10 girls total including Taylor.

They had quite the time...

lots of hiking on the trails and also a scavenger hunt.

We had tacos and chocolate chip cookie cake while we were at the park.

We stayed for about 2 hours before heading back to our house for a sleepover!!

I have not had to do a sleepover yet so I figured it would be a good thing

to do for the "double digit" birthday~

We had 7 girls total that spent the night.

This pictue is of thier after dark hayride.

They sat in the wagon with a big blanket over their heads...had flashlights and told scary stories while Eric and I drove around the property.

They stayed up till around midnight and fell asleep to a movie.

Here they are in the morning eating their donuts...you can kinda see all the blow up mattresses in the background.

I gave them the great room for the night and it worked out pretty well.

They had lots of fun making up dances and judging each other...

I think this is my favorite pic...

They all loved Taylor's new pony "fritz" and went out first thing

in the morning to see him again....it wasnt even 8am and still really cold out.

I think he enjoyed all the attention!!

Hope you enjoyed the party pics...I think Taylor had a really good time...

she wants to know if we can do it again next year:)

The Three Stooges...

Well here are the horses we have at the moment...

Far left is Blaster aka "David"...he is Erics horse.

We havent owned him very long and are still getting to know him.

Eric has ridden him once or twice...hoping he works out well for Eric.

Next is Blue...which you have all met before, he is my horse.

He is only 4 but he is doing really good...Im having fun with him.

Rain is next and she is my mom's horse.

She started out as Eric's but proved to be too much for him.

Her and mom seem to get along really well

and Blue likes her really well:)

David and Rain are both Tennessee Walkers so they have a smoother gait.
Blue is a Quarter Horse so he just does walk, trot, canter...

although I havent been brave enough to get him into a canter yet!

We hope they like their new barn:)

Our New Barn!!!

We are SO excited about this new barn...

Mom and Dad are having this built for us and it should be done next weekend.

It will have 5 stalls....one of them will be our tack room.

3 of them will be for the 3 horses and we will have one

extra one for whoever may need it at the time.

Maybe goats having babies...sick goats...etc.

It is going to be so nice to have somewhere to put all the feed, saddles, etc!!

As you can see it is really close to the house also...nice and convenient!!

Another storm...

Well we had yet another storm.

This happened about a month ago.

It was a very short storm that blew through but VERY STRONG winds!

It probably only lasted about 5 minutes.

All of the sudden we looked outside and all of our trees were practically laying sideways.

We heard a loud thump and crash and looked out to find this...

Our goat shed had been totally uprooted, thrown against the fence and then up and over

the chicken yard fence and blew over into the end of the chicken yard.

It traveled quite the distance!!

I cant believe how crumpled and flattened it is!

Unfortunately it is still laying there...

hopefully we can get it cleaned up before it snows:)

The chickens think it is just a new little shelter for them to play in...

Here is a perfect example of an old toy becoming new again!

On the last day of summer before school was to start

we moved this playset from the playground and attached it to the willow

to make a "tree house"

It has become very popular again!!

There is ladder attaching it to the tree

and then a slide on the other side.

A regular swing and a double swing.

As you can see Taylor is demonstrating the "zip line"...

well not really but they pull this over to the top of the slide in the tree

and then as they slide down while holding it they are lifted off the slide

and swung around.

Here they are on the first morning of school....very excited!

Summer....

I wish I had tons of pics to put on here but I guess I wasnt real good at taking them this summer. We spent quite a bit of time at Big Surf Waterpark again...probably twice a week.
We also did some boating with my parents. They bought a wave runner this summer and that has been alot of fun too. Eric likes to take the boys out on it and be silly. Taylor thinks it is a little too fast and she is happier to just play on the shore and look for shells.
We had a lot of company over the summer....Grandpa Ronnie and Grandma Barbie came to visit twice and that is always a lot of fun. We also had my Aunt Margaret visit from Kentucky for a week although it wasnt a great reason (my uncle....my dads brother...had passed away) but it still was a lot of fun visiting with her and just hanging out.
While my aunt was visiting we had a baby deer get stuck in our chicken yard that we ended up having to catch....that is not easy if you have ever tried. We finally got her caught and put in the coop for the night and then the next day my mom had to come pick me up and help me take it down to the vet so my friend could take it (she does rescues). It is quite the experience to sit in the front seat of a car holding a deer and hoping it doesnt freak out...they have very strong legs!! It ended up doing great and being turned loose again.
I have a pic of the deer but its on my phone....oh well.
Hope you all had a great summer...ours was fun and relaxing.
The kids started school on August 16th...a little early this year. Taylor is in 4th and the boys are in 2nd. It is going well although it was a tough transition. The boys would come home saying "is every day going to be that long?!"