Fall, an ordinary day, and more equine impressions

I'm personally not a big fan of the Fall season, as that's when sinuses and colds are more frequent and so is the need to use nebulizers or antibiotics. And I don't like cold weather BUT I do enjoy the turning of the leaves (well, we don't get much of that here), the tad bit cooler temperatures, the pumpkin carving, the Halloween costume excitement, and watching Ella ride late in the evenings when the lights are on in the arena, and the cool breeze and burned wood aromas dance around, all making for some really neat Fall memories.

And of course, the making of treats. I try to stay away of the cute creative stuff as I'm not the creative type anyway, and I dislike all the sugar overload that hides underneath it all, but every once in a while I cave in and make my own adaption of classics such as blondies. Pumpkin blondies are waiting on the counter for my little Dorothy and her sweet daddy. I can't wait for them to have a bite. I had one and I think they are terrific. I went easy on the sugar (and used some Stevia) and they  turned out great. Yay!!

 

I was planning on going out to the store to pick some things up but since my eye is still swollen I decided to bake instead of giving everyone an early Halloween scare. Really, I do not mind wearing my sunglasses everywhere, it's mighty bright and sunny outside but when you're inside the store, well that is a bit odd. So I'm dealing with my "infirmity" at home (thank Heavens that I do work from home.)

 

But back to happier things, last night I got to watch from under my sunglasses my sweetie take her first Dressage lesson. Since she's asked Ms. Jackie a couple of weeks ago if she could compete in those shows as well as her regular Hunter/Jumper division, Ms. Jackie decided to honor her request and do a Dressage 101 with her last night. It was even neater than her typical lessons as Ms. Jackie rode on Star the entire lesson time. It was a cool "show and tell" lesson.

 

 

We are really grateful for wonderful teachers who make such a difference in Ella's life and ours too. Ms. Jackie is one of those amazing teachers.

 

 

 

 

 

Little Ms. Toughmudder

They had a FUNdraiser at school over a month ago that I never took a chance to write about. Good thing I had a few pictures to remind me of it.  The kids got do an obstacle course set up on the school playground. Ella loved the whole experience, especially the "mud pit." It was a hot hot day so the the cold rinse they got afterwards felt good!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Headed to the next one:

Water slide, weeeeee!!!!

 

To top it all off... with confetti!! ;)

 

 

Yay, finished!!!!

 

 

Now I know they're doing the Marathon for Kids where they have to do a walk/jog for a total of 26.2 miles to complete the marathon. They started last Friday afternoon during their 10 minute lap time during recess. When they complete the marathon they receive t-shirts. Pretty neat idea to get children excited about fitness and accomplishing a pretty cool fitness goal: doing a marathon!! :)

 

 

 



 

Busy girl

I love it when she gets busy like this:

She's caught the VOCABULARY bug with the school vocab costume coming up on Friday and the word is EQUESTRIAN! :)

Some other work I snap a few pictures of while I was visiting with her teacher for parent-teacher conference:

Her latest creation from last night:

 

 

Love my teddy bear!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Birthday festivities continued

This year Ella Bella Portabella got very lucky as  she got to celebrate her birthday three weeks in a row. This Saturday we had the family-friends-at-home party. It was a lot fun, great company, and good food.

First time she had a pinata. Oh boy, it was a lot of fun to watch her and a couple of our adult friends (myself included, lol!) take turns and hit that thing! It took some serious team effort. :)

We played Headbanz. Big hit in our family!

And ate. I made baba ganoush for the first time. It was delish!!

And watched Madagascar 3 again! To Ella's delight our friends hadn't seen it so she got to get excited about it all over again with them.

And had some yummy chocolate cake with chocolate ganache (another first for me.) It was heavenly, will probably never use store bought frosting again.

This coming Saturday we resume for the final festivities with a rock climbing party with close friends from school and church.

Then this momma can take a break from party prep, ha-ha! :)

As far as updates, Ella has started to nicely canter as of last night. She cantered before but hesitantly and with a certain degree of fear. It is a pleasure to watch her ride Jenkins last night. They're both in the groove, nice posting and sitting trots, good diagonals, and lots of CANTERING!! She's loving it now, she wants to do it all the time but forgets that cute little Jenkins Pooh is a little old and needs to take walking breaks! :)

 

 

Ella and Jenkinator!!!!
(I tried to post a video of her in action but it errors out... I've never been successful in uploading a video up here.)

 

 

After her next competition in two weeks, she'll be starting semi-private group lessons with another little girl of the same level. She's excited to have a riding buddy in the arena.

 

It's just so amazing to watch her grow in self-confidence and command of the horse. She looks great and you can tell she's the happiest when riding.

 



On the fitness front, I did some metabolic and cardio testing at the gym last Friday and got some good news: my cardio vascular fitness is that of a 20 year old so now I can truly say that I'm only 20, ha-ha!! Really, this is such a great testimony to me that all this work is truly paying off. I've also learned that I need to work at higher intensities (in my new heart rate zones) so that I can most efficiently burn fat and carbohydrates. Not going to be easy, as I've been cruising on a very comfortable speed on my runs but I have to take it to the next level. My VO2 max (that is the maximum capacity of an individual's body to transport and use oxygen during incremental exercise, which reflects the physical fitness of the individual, as defined by Wikipedia) went up significantly from last time I tested. It's got good potential to go up even higher with increased intensity aerobic exercises.

 

Warrior Dash is coming up in a couple of weeks so we're excited about that!! Remember, Hrishi and another friend are going to join me!!

 

 

So Happy!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEETEST ELLA!!

Can't believe it was seven years ago when this angel joined our family or better said, made us a family!!!

We are so grateful for all the happiness and joy she brings into our lives.

Seven (of infinite number of) things we absolutely love about ELLA:

1. She loves with all her heart and never fails to show it.

2. She is brave and never shy of a challenge.

3.  She is hard-working and determined.

4. She loves her Heavenly Father and Jesus and always strives to make good choices.

5. She has a great sense of humor and always makes us laugh.

6. Her smile and the sound of her laughter is pure music to our ears.

(These are all from... obviously the American Girl store where we went over the weekend to get THE present!!! Boy, this American Girl thing is serious business. And I thought Build-a-Bear was... pricey!!! Silly me!)

Now back to our list:

7. She is very talented and has a ton of interests.

I could just go on and on and on. Today I was able to go have lunch with the birthday girl and it just filled my heart with happy!!! We love you sweet girl, you make this life so wonderful!!!! Thank you for being, and for chosing us as your earthly parents.

*(Wearing the pretty PJ mamaie and tataie sent.)

After her piano lesson, we had a nice TV dinner of mint-cilantro lamb chops with mashed potatoes and red beet salad (this was Ella's dinner menu request) and Madagascar 3. We laughed so hard!!! We ended with the yummy yogurt blueberry cake. It was pure awesomeness. I had a have nice helping myself.

Awesomeness!! :)

I'm sneaking in a few pictures from the day before when her and Hrishi carved one of the pumpkins and from the day after when they carved another one and placed both on the front lawn. Cool!

(This girl loves to get her hands dirty. She must be taking after her momma who used to LOVE to gut and clean fresh fish back in the day. Not kidding!!)

(We toasted some of the seeds, they were yum!)

 

 

Loved this!

Courtesy to http://www.memoriesoncloverlane.com/

That's what's I'm trying to do: not waiting for the perfect time or opportunity to experience the best that life has to offer, for the time that everyone's health will be perfect, for the time we'll be able to travel and have these amazing vacations near or far, pretty much care-free lives, etc., etc. Life is not about getting all that, is about making the most with what you've got here and now.

This reminds me also of Pres. Monson's counsel that "our future is as bright as our faith." And I think every piece of that future is built upon the little present moments.
 

Days come and go

I find that days are passing faster and faster nowadays. It's Monday and then it feels like the next day is Thursday already, and then the weekend is there.  I love our busy life but I just wish we could slow it down a bit and stretch out the moments so we can soak more and more in. The other day we found Ella's birth keepsake box and in there, her first hospital little shirt and onesie!! They are so tiny that I almost could not believe my baby was that small... and that it was all seven years back.

When I came back from Omaha last Friday, I was handed these amazing love letters:

 

I was speechless when I first read them, I just teared up and wondered if I was really worthy of such love.... .

 

So getting home and having a free weekend with nothing planned was just wonderful. We watched  talks in each of the sessions of General Conference and I've been trying to get caught up with the rest. I really love that we had summaries/excerpts available right after the live sessions. And although we might have not paid attention 100% the entire time, I could feel the Spirit in our home and the peace and testimony that were flowing in by just allowing ourselves to hear the word. 

 

In between sessions we took Ella and her friend Noah from the ward out. They have had play dates before and enjoy hanging out together. They did a bunch of things from rock climbing, to horse feeding, soccer playing, to Halloween decor posing, and horse fighting (that was actually a bit scary. As it turns out you should never throw a treat to a horse on the ground, especially when there are other horses around. They do fight and kick galore!!)

 

 

And we enjoyed being the parents of two cute kids for a short while! :)

See? Happy mommy carrying water bottles. :)

 

Hrishi was just so cute clicking that I had to "pose." :)

 

 

 

Then came Monday with horseback riding lesson. Practiced diagonals a lot and some cantering. Notice jackets and long sleeve shirts, yes it's cooled down even down here but only temporarily. We're now back in the 90's. Now, I really don't mind that!!!! :)

 

"Scootering" around how she calls it. I just love how cool she looks with her half chaps on.

 

 

This girl has some moves! :)

 

 

Tuesday and Wednesday just flew by and here I am sitting on Thursday night with the latest updates. Speaking of updates, a ballet report is in order since horses have taken over our life lately. Nutcracker rehearsals are coming along great, lots of work from both the angels and their amazing instructor, Mr. Michael. Classes are going smoothly and everytime I think to myself that maybe ballet would be the one thing to give up on, when I see her do so well, I change my mind all over again.

Today Mr. Michael was out of town and they combined classes with an older class. It was a joy to watch these little ballerinas get help with form from their older "sisters." It was even more fun to watch them do the Pollichinelles part from the Nutcracker together. Ella was in heaven!!

 

(She is in the front/center in the burgundy leotard.)

 

 

 

The all loved this part of the booty shake! :)