Ballerina & Pianista

Two of Ella's most favorite things: piano and ballet. Well, ballet would come first. This girl absolutely loves her ballet classes. She's in pre-ballet 1 right now, learning all the proper poses and technique. It's really neat to see her practice at home. She's big time into it, doing her best to follow her instructors (whom she adores, Ms. Waters and Ms. Sarah, her assistant) and it's really great to see that, as I could never see that same enthusiasm and involvement when she was taking gymnastics. Happy she found something she loves! Got her costume ordered for her June recital and she's now working on some cool "First Thanksgiving: Pilgrims and Indians" choreography. Really cute to watch.

On the piano front, our little fuzz ball is really good at sight reading, her teacher Ms. Bell never fails to praise her on that. She's learning new pieces every week. Right now she's working on "Jingle Bells" and "Old Saint Nick." Fun to see her play with both hands a couple of measures of "Jingle Bells"!!! It just reminds me of my humble beginnings with piano, the difference being that I was a few years older than Ella is now.

The weather has been so nice to us, lately reminding me of what a great decision this was to move to TX!!!! Love it, love it, love it! Can't beat short sleeve and 78F temp in the middle of November!

Looking forward to Thanksgiving: we have some friends over, nothing big, just some yummy turkey and a few side dishes. I'm looking forward to not being stressed or overwhelmed with unecessary preparations. Because you know, Thanksgiving is not (ONLY) about the food. 

Hrishi got his first deer this weekend in NE! Hurray! We are really proud of him, how he described it: "it was a perfect shot." We now have plenty of venison but just need lots of recipe ideas as I don't usually cook game meat. He also got a turkey.

Ella decided to get a (short) haircut as she declared she wants to look "like a baby"! Very funny but she looks just adorable with short hair!

Sweet things

While Ella was explaining to me what her new doll should look and be like, I got a little worried as I have not yet came across a doll that has/does all those things and finally with sadness in my voice I told her that Santa might not be able to find such a dolly...she immediately replied cheerfully:"But mommy, Santa doesn't get the toys at the store, his elves make them in Santa's workshop! They can make any toys kids want!!!" Duh, what was I thinking??? I just brought a big smile on my face and reminded me of this beautiful age of innocence when all things are possible.

I just love this time of the year as we all seem to be more giving, more loving, more patient, more willing to share of our time, of our means, of our souls. I'm so grateful for all the can-a-thons, food drives, and the other million ways people are encouraged to give. We have a virtual food drive at work for the local Food Bank, Ella's school had a can-a-thon for the CCA (Christian Community Action) in Lewisville for which her classroom delivered all the food to their facility. How exciting that was for Ella: she got to ride the school bus with her classroom friends and teacher and deliver those goodies there! I just want her to learn to give more and more. Of course she is already a very sweet giving child, but I guess we can never do enough, here's just so much need in this world.

As we're gearing up for Thanksgiving, I want to jot down a few things that I'm deeply grateful for:

~My sweet daughter
~My wonderful husband
~My parents and parents-in-law
~The Gospel for Jesus Christ
~The Church of Jesus Christ
~The country I live in and the country I come from
~Good friends
~Daily necessities like food, clothes, a working car
~My job
~My education
~Good teachers
~Nice home and neighborhood
~Physical and mental health
~Great trainer and nice gym to go to
~People and materials that have inspired me to have a more healthy lifestyle
~Food allergies that make that healthy lifestyle a bit easier (sometimes!)
~Spiritual Promptings
~Opportunities to give
~... and lots of other small and big things that make life such much better.

I'm excited for Ella's Thanksgiving feast today at school tonight. The children have put together a nice little program and everyone will bring their favorite dishes. We're bringing sweet potato casserole (my healthy recipe which entails a minimum amount of brown sugar, flax seed margarine, and spices.) Hrishi off to Omaha for his annual hunting trip (and the first one since we left Omaha.)

Looking forward to a nice weekend. I have some pictures yet to post from here and there but haven't gotten around to it. Been busy trying to figure out my new (smart) phone. Sometimes I really think it's smarter than me! :-)

Halloween has come and gone

The candy bucket is half empty and sweet Ella is partaking happily from it every morning: that is she picks her candy for the day! I just love the excitement and giddiness with which she carefully examines and then picks a candy. It's a long process you know: she doesn't just pick a candy. She'll look at it, turn it around, smell the wrapper, look through the bucket a few more times, and will end up picking a completely different candy!!!! How funny is that?



Halloween was fun. I just loved watching Ella get all worked-up about which costume to wear and when [she ended up wearing her witch costume from a couple of years back for the actual trick-or-treat(thanks goodness for mommy who buys a couple of sizes up!!! :-).] At the school parade and the concert she wore this year's pink unicorn costume. After church, we headed to the concert which was great (they had a lot of fun pre-concert crafts and activities for the kids, an instrument petting zoo-Ella was delighted!), then we wandered around downtown in the Arts District and checked out the different bands playing in the street. I loved it, everything was so vibrant and cool!  And the sunny and warm weather (it was in the 80s) topped it all off. How blessed we are. Life is great!