The best day

Halloween day was probably the best day of my girls life thus far.... not because of the candy or the costumes but because of HORSES!!!! 

We finally got the long awaited horses at Grandpa's farm!!!  We are taking care of these horses that are part of a huge camp program while they are out of season.  So these guys have been around the block and are perfect for us, the inexperienced equestrians :)

We have 6 months to find our own horses while we love on these sweet guys.  Problem is we are quickly growing attached.  

Thank goodness for my beautiful friend and all of her horse expertise.  She has been a lifesaver this past week as she shows us the ropes.  She is one of my best buds, we both have big families blessed by adoption.  I am so blessed to have friends like her!

 My heart is so full right now.  And not exactly because of the horses.  Truth be told I am a total spazz around them.  I am not an animal girl by nature :)  I am trying my hardest to overcome my fears and flip outs to find my way with these magnificent animals.  My heart is full because ever since my oldest girl was a baby I saw myself in her in so many ways.  She has healed some dark sides of me, this beautiful child.  I can love some of the qualities that have held me back because I see them glorified in her.   One thing that was hard to watch was how painfully shy she was.  As I really suffered from that as a kid.  For me it turned into lacking of self confidence and led me down some really tough roads.  But my girl, she is different.  She is confidently shy.  It's really cool actually.

 And something clicked in her a few months ago when she started being around these animals.  I saw a light go off in her.  She may not be the most gifted soccer player, or some other typical things... but when she is with these animals,,, my jaw drops in awe of how "large" she is.  I tease that she has a little bit of horse blood running through her veins.  

 All of the sudden she has this "don't mess with me" attitude, these horses pick up on it immediately.  If I walk into their pasture...they walk away from me.  This girl, they follow her around like puppy dogs.  She shows me the ropes and climbs around and tacks them up without flinching.

 We are so blessed that Grandpa loves this place as much as she does.  But I know for sure that if I had to, I would move my whole crew into a trailer to keep them around horses.  Now I just hope a few of the others follow suit and fall in love just as much.  That would make things a little easier around here as far as carpool for all the crazy activities goes :)

 Ok, so we had to get to the Halloween cuteness.

 This picture stinkin' cracks me up.... This is my girls in a nut shell.  They had to dress like cowboys for a fall party at preschool.  Mina is perfectly posed in pink...and Finn is smirking with her shirt lifted up as she scratches at her belly button.  Total opposites these girls!

 Finn wanted to be a scary witch for Halloween, thanks to some plastic teeth that got her a ton of laughs the previous week.  So this is what we came up with in about 9 minutes of prep time... It's awful..I know.  I hate that nasty greasy face paint... yuck-o.  but she was pretty hysterical.

 Work it girl.

 This was Mina's 75th costume choice of the hour...we just went with it...10 hour old face paint and all.

 Rough looking Halloween crew :)

 She got ready in 2.7 seconds after spending the entire day with her horses.  She could have totally skipped all of this...chocolate has nothing on those horses...