Maleha's 1st day at Preschool!

Right after I stopped recording I said "Bye Maleha, I love you, Mommy's going to go now." And she ran back to me and gave me a huge hug and kiss and said "I love you too mom,bye". I wish I had kept recording to had captured that. It was so priceless! I love my BIG GiRL! She's growing up so fast!

Maleha's pre-school!

This is Maleha's first day at pre-school and she is rushing to her classroom at 8:30 in the morning to meet her new teacher Dena. This day has been long over due. We had her on the waiting list for the German pre-school just a block away from our home and they said January of next year they could get her started but now they are telling us not until Spring of 2008!

So, Thats when I just went ahead and signed her up for the Bitburg pre-school . Luckily they had a spot for her and she was able to get started right away. The only thing I do not like about going to Bitburg is the crazy drive there! It's 15 minutes away through Windy busy roads and it is so not fun to drive! Actually it is very quite scary! Especially lately with the weather being wet and icy.But it's totally worth it for Maleha because she absolutely thrives off of school. When picking her up she was happy to see me but not at all happy to leave. She cried and cried all the way home! I had to keep re-assuring her that we were coming back.She will hopefully understand and get the hang of her new schedule. She loves the interaction with the kids,the teacher,the crafts, the toys, just all of it!! It's so exciting to see her grow and progress.

Talents

Here is my massage room that I have in our upstairs apartment that we rarely use. It's nice because it's quiet and a great room to receive a massage. I still need to do some decorating touch-ups before I really get the business going. I look forward to getting the word out.

Having it be Christmas soon I think of all the wonderful gifts that we exchange with one another as family and friends but mostly what kind of gifts we exchange with God. And as I was able to teach the Young women on Sunday we were able to talk about this and what gifts Heavenly Father has given us,which are our Talents. We are to exchange them with each other to help build his kingdom here on earth. I also shared the importance of having a desire to discover new gifts and talents that Heavenly father has blessed us with.

Well, the following Tuesday the girls were able to attend with us our Relief Society enrichment night where they sang and were able to auction off their services of talents to help others. It was really a wonderful experience to take part of teaching them and then witnessing what I taught go into action. I felt it was important for me to be an example and so I offered up my services to do a full body massage and Danielle Boyett won it with all of her 497 points. yaa! This special night made me reflect on all my gifts and talents that Heavenly father has blessed me with and how important it is for me to share them as well as discover them.

As for right now, I know from my patriarchal blessing God has blessed me with the gift of laughter and spirituality and a true honest devotion to his church but he also mentioned to me other special gifts that I am to nurture and magnify. So I really have reflected on my gifts and feel that I need to utilize them more by just laughing more, praying more and studying the scriptures more. So far I have discovered that I have the gift to listen and understand, to heal through massage, the eye for photography, crafts, designing, decorating, art, organizing, being creative & instinctive with ideas of fixing something, accounting money, selling something, making others laugh, Oh yeah! and giving birth to 8 pound babies.(That counts)

Well if there is anything else that I did not mention that you may feel I have. Let me know.
Thanks!

My list of talents that I have yet to discover is

1) The gift to sew
2) The gift to learn to play the guitar
3) The gift to sculpt
4) The gift of self-discipline and mastery
5) The gift to enjoy cooking and baking
6) The gift to memorize
7) The gift to one day become a hair stylest
8) The gift to sing
9) The gift to be a good speaker
10)The gift to build a house!

My goals in life is to one day

1) Lose weight! haha and stay that weight!
2) Be a wise mother,Grandmother, great-grandmother,and hopefully a great-great grandmother.haha
3) Write a childrens book.
4) Become a better and more powerful teacher
5) To Read the book of mormon in depth twice every year.
6) To be a dancer (Salsa,hip-hop,ballroom)
7) To go to photography school
8) To make a quilt
9) To attend a cosmotology school
10) Understand what is involved in being an architect
and design and take part in building my own dream home!

It's important for me to accomplish these goals in this life and to continually discover what I have to offer this world. Discovering my talents in this lifetime is a huge part of my progression to move forward in coming into myself and touching the lives of others.

Summer trees

This is a better view of what the trees look like from inside of my bedroom. As you can see the trees just make it look so peaceful especially with the rainbow.. This was taken in the summer. It's a continuation of the photo I had entered into the contest. Every morning the sun rises through these windows to greet me and so I put my crystal ball where I will also arise to the rainbow prisms that shine through it.... Maleha makes this photo complete with her beauty and innocence. Now you can see why I love these two trees and the princess in between.hehe

Winter Bathing

Maleha and Kasiah love their baths and I love taking pictures of them while giving them one. I know you may be thinking it's too risky with a camera but it's definitely worth the risk when you get to capture ones like these. Totally fun and appropriate!

Winter trees

These are the two trees in our backyard. They are the view I have from my bedroom and so I wake up to them every morning and this is the picture of what I woke up to today. It is the first sign of snow and warning that winter is near. I have grown some kind of an attachment to these trees because I find myself looking forward to seeing them when starting my day. They give me such a calm feeling of peace and harmony. I love these two trees! When gazing at them they remind me of our own family tree and how one represents my side of the family while the other represents Dustin's side. I found the perfect hallmark tree to put on my window seal So that when looking inside you can see this hallmark tree in between these two trees which will become our own "Ballard batch" family tree. It is a metal tree that hangs pictures on it. It it really neat and it just brings it all together. I love decorating and bringing the outside in..I also want to do a craft by designing our own family tree and framing it. I have seen some really cool ideas. I am also going to frame a spring, summer, fall, and a winter photos of these two trees. I am hoping one day that I can get around to drawing them in water colors. Anyhow, these trees are the inspiration behind it all.

Fall to Winter

Here Maleha stands in between two beautiful colored bushes . One representing the colorful fall Autumn season and the other a prickly green red holly bush for the coming winter. I have to say that my favorite time of the year is Autumn because of the special feeling that I receive when breathing in it's crisp clean air and taking in all the colorful leaves. It just brings back so many fond memories of my childhood and just the symbolism of what Autumn means. It shows the maturity of the earth that year and the entering into a new existence to renew and better ourselves as part of Heavenly father's plan. I love the feeling of progressing and coming into a new and saying goodbye to the old. It's now December 1st and winter is here. Let it snow!