Blush

So, it's a known fact that I'm a bit of a good old-fashioned sap. I love knights in shining armor, damsels in distress, curls and red lips and dashing heroes.

But more than that, I love the message behind this song.

I had it sent to me by a dear friend quite some time ago, but never sat down and listened to it till last night. To say I was blown away would be an understatement. I was enthralled. For every reason I can think of, this song became my favorite. For the timeless (yet oft forgotten) message of chivalry, of innocent maidens, of love that could wait a long, long time, of true romance and Victorian style courtesy......all put to one of the most moving and beautiful melodies I've heard in a long time. They do an amazing job of portraying romance in an extremely beautiful and healthy way, and yet not taking away from the mystery and wonder and rapture of true love.

But I'll stop talking and let you hear for yourself.................I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

First Dance Song

I'm home by myself....sipping hot tea, listening to the rain outside, editing pictures....chores are done, and I am so incredibly perfectly happy.

And I decided that this is the perfect, PERFECT first dance song for a wedding. Maybe I'll get to use it for my own one day.....if my husband turns out to be a Clint Black fan :)

Baby Video!!

So grateful for this filly :) Here's her birth video.....the birth was a little difficult, but so glad to have her here and alive! An amazing, wonderful miracle.

Fly Away Home

Maybe I'm silly....or sappy....but this movie makes me cry every time....and this song never fails to give me chills. 

Feeling nostalgic tonight....

Fun videos :)

Taking a break from always posting pictures to post some recent videos.....some of us, and some that just make me happy :)

This first one is all 3 of my sisters and I playing the piano at the same time. This was our encore piece for a recital we did the end of summer


This.......this is the most exciting thing EVER! The last two clips are of me showing my mare, Treasure, at Nationals, and the first couple clips are the amazing stallion she is in foal to. I cannot wait for this baby, but I'm scared to death and praying that she foals safely. She's due in March 2014.


Late nights at the World show = sheer hilarity.


One of our gorgeous 2012 fillies growing up!!


Our stunning 2 year old filly playing with Jessie. This little girl is a moving machine and so much fun to handle. Mom's currently breaking her to cart.


And this one.....because it's so hauntingly beautiful. And makes me eternally regret not learning cello.


Saving the best for last! Thor is coming back......and I can't wait.
Favorite. Superhero. Movie. EVER.


Okay, I lied. Had to slip one picture in here at the end. Yesterday afternoon was a beautiful time of fellowshipping with this gorgeous family. The pictures of this little girl and horse are some of my new all-time favorites. More to come!

"Rest Easy"

Right now, this is my newest favorite song. Now, that tends to change fairly often, but for the past week or so, I've been rather stuck on this one.

It is such a beautiful reminder that nothing we do can ever make us more or less acceptable to God. He's taken us just as we are...awful, broken, and ugly - but worth so much to Him. 

Romantic Music

For those of you who, like myself, are huge fans of the Romantic era of music, you will love these two pieces! They are from our recital weekend before last. Anna doesn't make an appearance because she was bit by a scorpion the night before and thus was incapacitated :)

This first one is Jessie playing Chopin's Nocturne in Eb Major, Op 9 No 2




And this is yours truly....Brahms Rhapsody in bm Op 79 No 1

Pathetique

I fell in love today.....with the second movement of Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata. Incredibly emotional and moving to listen to, and even more so to play.

Listening to it and playing it, I am reminded again of the incredible emotional impact music has on us. How beautiful God made it, and how terribly man has twisted it.

If you've never heard this piece before, treat yourself.

If you're feeling rather melancholy, like I was today...every note of this piece is perfect and pure. Every chord magical. Every harmony and dynamic expressive and unique.


 

Best Father of the Bride speech ever!

This is worth watching!! LOVE it!!!



The Most Touching Speech Made by Bride's Father to the Groom from mcsquid86 on GodTube.

Battle Of Athens

So how many of you have ever heard of the Battle of Athens? This is an amazing event that happened in Tennessee in 1946 that I'd never heard of. An armed revolt of WWII vets....amazing.

Fantasie Impromptu

Hey, look...I actually remembered!! Remember the senior recital I gave a few months ago? I'm finally getting around to uploading the videos onto Youtube. It's going to take a little bit to get them all on...on second thought, I may not upload all of them.

But this is my absolute favorite piece I've ever learned. Chopin's Fantasie Impromptu Op. 66.

Enjoy...and ignore the crummy video. The church was really dark and there was miscommunication with sisters on where I wanted it video taped from.... :D

Fiesta Bowl Parade 2012

Saturday was the annual Fort McDowell Fiesta Bowl Parade!! I'm not into football in the slightest (don't understand it a smidgen), but the parade is sure fun!!

The APS Volunteer Clown Troupe sponsors us every year, and we sure enjoy ourselves!!

Here's some pictures..

Dave having fun with the cowboy hat he got to wear :)

 Everyone decorates their cart to their taste...Linda's was beautifully done!!

David driving his Sawyer

Jessie drove her favorite mare, Cameo...also known affectionately as "Baby Devil." Can you guess what she's like?? :D

 

Jessie and friend, Vicki

Adopted brother #1 - David

Adopted brother #2 - Dave

Richard got these beyond awesome shoes for Christmas and he wore them the whole parade!!! The crowd loved them.

Flyovers before the parade started kept us entertained...

 

New baby, Mickey, came along! David was the backup plan in case Mick got tired :)

My mom during the long and tedious waiting process!

I really like this picture.....

Everyone adored Mick! These girls were from the Historical Cowgirl group and they loved him.

Dave and Platinum watching the parade!

And we're off!!

Mrs. R (aka Mommy #2) 

David looking like a photographer LOL 

Mom and Mickey!

This...THIS...is my favorite shot of the whole parade. LOVE the vintage feel and the lines and the whole thing. 

The Clowns in their mega-Bug!

Mickey didn't quite make it.....he got tired and hitched a ride!!!!

The crowd loved seeing the baby in the cart!

He was asleep within seconds!!!!!

Dave and Platinum

It was a blast!!!

We really enjoy getting to share our minis with people this way. It is a way for us to do what we love and bring joy to others at the same time. Minis have given us such a chance to spread the gospel, too. Everyone we show with knows we are Christians and watches us closely.

God is so good to allow us to do what we LOVE and help further the Kingdom at the same time!!!! It is so encouraging to see how He gives each of us a passion - be it horses, photography, music, art, cars, fashion, whatever! - and then opens doors for us to share His love and hope within that passion.

For those of you like me who love videos, here is the video Jessie made of the parade! She is getting super good with the video stuff. I think she's considering investing in a super good video camera :) I took this video,  but she edited it all and made the movie. She probably could have done a much better job filming than I did. But I enjoyed taking the pictures :)

Surfin' Arizona Style, Part II

For those of you who got a kick out of our first “Surfin’ Arizona Style” movie, you’ll be sure to enjoy our “Surfin’ Arizona Style, Part II.” More people, more horses, more boogie boards, more falls...more fun!! 

Enjoy!

Surfing...Arizona style!!

This is how we beat the heat here in Arizona....... (IMHO, this is the BEST video ever!!!!!!!)

Puppies, Chickens, and other random farm things

This post is just going to be a little bit of catch up on our life of late. Most of it has to do with animals, of course!

Right now, we have two of the most adorable litters of puppies ever!!! The first is from my little Papillon, Joy, and the second is from our huge Lab, Dandy. And the most exciting thing of all is that we're keeping a pup from each litter!!!

This is Lexy, our new little Papillon girl!!

And her brother, Turbo. He is going to live with the lady who is #1 in the nation in Senior Pro Barrel Racing!! Pretty cool!

Our new Lab girlie...Annie. She is going to be one big girl.

And the other Lab pup, Finley.

Lately, we have had quite the boom in our Serama chicken breeding program. Anna and Jessie (and recently, my mom) have lots of these little guys and breed and sell them extremely successfully. I am really not into chickens, but I love this rooster.

His name is Chico, and he is in love with my mom. If she goes to the end of the pasture, he will follow her all the way down and back, running as hard as he can. He is super cute and I love this picture of him that I got yesterday.

Here's some of his babies

 The other night, my dad took me out to the mountain range by our house to try and get a picture of the moon rising over the hills. He had seen it the night before as he was coming back from his mountain bike ride that he does out there, and said it would make a really neat shot. So of we traipsed to try and get a cool picture.

Well, we figured out that the moon does NOT come up anywhere around the same time each night! We waited for over an hour after he had seen it the night before, and no moon. It didn't come up until about an hour and a half later.

The upside of it was that we got to see a whole bunch of deer!!!!

Up in the mountains looking out towards the city.

Just a neat picture I got in the rear view mirror...I'd never tried a rear view mirror shot before, and I thought it was pretty cool.

I have saved the best for last....

Meet Tex!!!!!

The new guardian of our herd. Looks quite ferocious, huh??

He should come on Sunday from some great friends in Colorado!! We are getting him to sadly replace our wonderful Marshall (a.k.a. Dude) who is really hurting from hip dysplasia and will have to be put down soon. He has been such an amazing and wonderful dog, and we are just hoping that Tex will be like him.

Me = EXCITED!!!!!

Tex is closely related to this gorgeous doggie, Dixie, who belongs to our "adopted" family.

This is a really, really gorgeously stunning video that my aunt sent me. These are Fresians that are actually from Fresian, The Netherlands and it just gives me chills to watch these horses.

We are still waiting on that silly mare to have her baby. She is now 11 days overdue, and we are going totally crazy. C'mon Treasure!!!!

Does anyone have any fun plans for the summer? We are just going to be hanging out here taking care of animals and turning misters on and off :)

I hope to take a couple online photography classes now that I'm done with school and have some more time. I also have my senior recital coming up, so I'm up to my eyeballs in music to get ready....a Bach Prelude & Fugue, two different Chopin pieces (the Fantasie-Impromptu, and a Nocture), two different Beethoven sonata movements, two different Brahms pieces (a Rhapsody and an Intermezzo), Etincelles by Mozkowski, Hoe-Down by Copland.....you get the idea :P

We're still loving our worldview curriculum, and are just getting into the American Revolution. Very, very interesting stuff. How many of you have read the Federalist Papers and the Anti-Federalist Papers?? What do you think?? Should America have a standing army?? I'm really excited to dive into this.

Ta ta for now!!!

Cutest Video Ever

You can tell when I'm sick and have to stay home from church by the onslaught of blog posts :)

But seriously, this video is TO DIE FOR. This is "Thunder" (the colt born on Friday) following and playing with an adorable little girl from our church.




And here's the video of him being born for those of you who are interested. The birth was pretty traumatic!

Some awesome music!

Recently, a friend of mine introduced me to ThePianoGuys and their music. All I can say is that after listening to them for about a month, I am completely and totally hooked. Their music is epic, compelling, very fun and easy to listen to, and almost completely free from any sort of secular beat. I say "almost" because some of their songs can get a little bit of beat in them, but not anything obnoxious.

According to them, "We like to put a new spin on classic stuff and a classic spin on new stuff." If you are a fan of cellos and epic classical music (like soundtracks) these guys are fantastic!

Aside from their music, their music videos are outstanding!! The ideas these guys come up with and they way they carry them out is pure genius. I could watch their videos all day!

Just a few days ago, they posted their newest music video. Oh my.....my favorite one yet!! It's a play on the soundtrack to the Bourne series. *disclaimer* I have never seen the Bourne series and have no idea what they're all about, but if they're music is similar to what's in this music video, then at least their music is pretty awesome *disclaimer over*

Enjoy! "Bourne/Vivaldi (Bourne Soundtrack/Vivaldi Double Cello Concerto)"




This is another one of their videos that I think is really neat. They have so many more neat videos on their youtube channel...check it out at http://www.youtube.com/user/ThePianoGuys?feature=watch




Oh boy...I also couldn't resist posting this one. This is the one that originally hooked me on their music.

Live Web Cam

So...would you like to see a foal born on live web cam? We now have our barn cameras live online, and you can watch our pregnant mares!

http://www.ustream.tv/channel-popup/iamranch

Just click on the above link. Ch 3 and Ch 4 are on the same mare - Sam - and she is the next one due to foal. Ch 1 and Ch 2 are on Pearl with her brand new foal.

Join the fun and marestare with us...and who knows? If you happen to be watching at just the right time, you may see a whole passel of us invade the stall and birth out a new foal!

Video of our new foal being born

Here is the video of the new baby's birth!! Be sure to watch till the end...she is running around in our front yard. She is SO adorable and I am head over heels in love with her.

Any name suggestions?? I'm thinkin' "Freckles" because of the little specks on her back, but no one else in my family likes that. haha

Birthing Video

As promised, here is the video of the birth of our new baby! SUCH a miracle!

His name is officially "I Am Ranch Let's Roll Partner" and his barn name is "Jack."