Beauty, grateful heart, and Hanukkah

So grateful for this little beauty of mine who keeps creating beautiful things and making life so wonderful.

I love the little message that came with this lovely hand-painted globe by no other than our resident artist, Ella! (Greateful for the teacher that put time, effort, and creativity into this. I can imagine how not-easy must have been to get twenty-one children to safely and carefully hand paint glass globes!)

Christmas is fast approaching. I feel excitement, anticipation, wonder, and somewhat relief that we have made it fine, in fact wonderfully well through another year, and that we're all happy and healthy, and blessed beyond measure. I'm grateful that I can feel this way; that I can feel the gratitude in my heart.

And before Christmas gets here, we wish dear friends Happy Hanukkah!!! Ella drew/cut/colored a couple of beautiful manorahs and played with her dreidel:

Lots of love, warmth, and good thoughts to all!

An artist in the making

Mamaie and tataie are absolutely convinced Ella has a future in the art business. They suggested that we figure out how to  feature her in an art exhibit. That'd be great, however I don't know anything about kids' art and how you'd go about doing that, since Ella is not yet part of an art or drawing club. And while I don't know about a future in the art business, I do love her creativity and talent spilling in all her drawings, coloring, cutting and pasting, etc. Enjoy!! :)

Love in the Animalia Kingdom:

Flowers, more animals, and a ... turkey cake:

All, by the one and only Ella Karekar....

Done and done! 10K, Christmas tree, mici, etc.

Today.... today we ran 10 K. it was wonderful and tough! I enjoyed almost every minute of it, first two miles of slow and steady, last 4.2 miles of high intensity intervals. It was exhilirating, all under one hour. So happy to do it! Hrishi ran it too, just finished a few minutes behind me.

And yes, sweet Ioana, I did think of you and we'll be running it together next fall or whenever you are up to it! Lots of love and thanks so much for all the support! And many many thanks to all you friends out there who were so nice and encouraging! :)

And then we did some stretching and laughed and laughed, and had a great time!

(and yes, I was tired.)

Hrishi looks much better :)

Last night we put up the Christmas tree last night, lots of fun, Ella did a lot of the hard work! ;) Seriously, she really did. This kid loves to decorate!!

But before that we went and saw a really cool live nativity put together by a family in our ward!! They do this every year at their property. They have live animals and people performing. Realy neat.

Then we came back home and had some fun in our front yard. The camera didn't realy cooperate but we had fun:

Decided it was time to ride that reindeer! Lol! ;)

Back to today, after our run and a couple of errands (nope, didn't rest any other than almost sitting down to refuel and enjoying a nice warm showers), we went on to make some of these:

(YES, MICI!!!!!!!)

Do you recognize these two... meat "dealers"??? :-)

Thanks to mom and dad for making the wonderfully delish mici!!! They were perfect!

I whipped this up, real quick. Apple pie:

And then we "dumped" some powder sugar on top and it wasn't that healthy anymore, hahah! :0

And enjoyed it all along with good conversation and some big laughs with friends.

*It was quite a challenge to get those three beautiful little girls to pose for me:

 

They did do a silly pose for me with their candy canes....:

And something I'd forgotten to post, Ella's poster letter to Santa:

And so far this was such a fun filled, packed to the brim, awesome weekend!!! And I'm very grateful for it! Tomorrow is stake conference with Elder Nelson!

Sweet little things

These sweet little things... I want to notice them more often, encourage, create, and keep them in my heart and mind forever. Grateful for all that I have and we have collectively, as a family. I am so grateful for this little resident artist I have at my house, who is assidously creating day in and day out! :)

(Apparently, you can never have too many gingerbread men!)

And the miniature gingerbread couple!

To the loveliest artist there is on Sweetwater Lane!! :)

Pinkalicious and some motivation

A few days ago at school pick up time, Ella and me: we hug, quickly chat about the day, she is "Pinkalicious" (wearing a pink jacket) and I am "Redelicious" (wearing a red jacket) and then she tells me how beautiful and young I look! Awwww, what a sweet child I have!! :) She definitely made my day. I am so grateful for her magical love and want to always live up to it.

Now, on to motivation: a while back, I wrote in here that I've been looking for motivation and inspiration which every way I can: friends, random people, books, billboards, facebook, you name it!  I found this little picture shouting out a great message:

(would like to add that we must keep moving FORWARD!) :)

And Ella's and my family's love for me are my greatest motivators to try to do and be better every day.

The simple pleasures: mommy-daughter time

For me those have nothing to do with getting spoiled at the spa, or going on a cruise, or dining out at a fancy restaurant, although I have to do say that don't "hurt" either, BUT the simple pleasures in life are those tiny ordinary moments spent with loved ones in the most common of circumstances. So this Saturday Ella and I planned a library trip and made some really sweet memories. We drove in the rain looking for pretty colored trees, chatted, picked up books at her favorite library, flipped through their pages with awe and wonder at all the neat stories hidden therein, watched through the library windows ducks float on the nearby pond. All in all, we had a great time together.

Of course, memories are not complete without pictures.

Beautiful red oak in front of the Primrose School of Coppell, old stomping grounds

  In front of the Coppell library. (Noticed the beautiful holly tree behind Ella?)

Reading IS sweet!

My avid reader:

(I just could not get enough of watching her excitement once we got into the library: she was in heaven. This kid truly loves books and reading.)

The Nutcracker: ta-daaaaa!!!!!

We've been living and breathing Nutcracker for the past week or so, tech rehearsal week, dress rehearsal, and finally tonight, the BIG opening night, and Ella's big debut on the stage. Tonight was PERFECT!!! I couldn't have hoped for a more special experience for her and us, as parents and grandparents, all sitting in that 300 plus anxious and proud sea of family and friends, teachers, all eyes and ears pinned to that stage. The show was fantastic, every single dancer was top notch, same goes for the orchestra. Guest dancers were principal dancers, Julie Kent and Jose Manuel Carenas with the American Ballet Theater Company, famous and well-known in their guild.

So here it is:

The pictures are no order as I'm a bit too excited (and a bit tired) to have the patience and lay everything out in order. :) Sufficeth to say, it was a night to remember. That has brought tears of joy and gratitude to my eyes, to see my baby up on that stage along with all those wonderful little or not so little dancers, all with fire and passion in their eyes and hearts for this beautiful art of the classical ballet.

Ready to rock'n roll:

The night before dress rehearsal, she was ready then!

Excited to be in her costume, finally:

With her dear mamaie:

The beautiful headpiece wrapped around the bun:

Getting her lipstick on:

With her good friend, Jana:

All of the Saturday show Cherubs:

Home late, after the show:

Very proud grandparents with one cute ballerina:

It was magical and beautiful in every single way.
Today I was up for a wonderful treat (again): I got to watch the ballet encore with my sweet ballerina so she can enjoy the show from the audience. I'm so glad we went: she soaked it all in!!! Quite amazed how still she sat and emotionally participated in the whole thing. She had a favorite student teacher she cheered for fervently. I did too. [And while sitting there with her on my lap and clapping in frenzy almost, I realized once more how very very much I love ballet. Funny little story: when I was in middle school I used to pretend to be a ballerina and would dance  on classical music after school, before my parents would come home from work. It was my little secret! :)]

Here's to many more Nutcrackers, to attend and to be part of!