Saddle Saddle Saddle Club. I LOVE the Saddle Club.

Yes, I truly thank God for the show The Saddle Club. It is a show about three girls who ride horses and the ranch they train at. Anya is enthralled with it which means I have a tool to use for discipline-and it is on every stinkin' night!

Anya says "No, I won't ____(fill in the blank about what she is supposed to do" 

Then I say, "Do you want to watch The Saddle Club tonight? I'll put a check in the box for Saddle Club."

"No, no! I'm sorry!!" She even agreed to clean up the dog poop in the yard instead of missing four nights of The Saddle Club. It's never a good idea to tell me to shut up. She wanted to be paid for the work too. I told her cleaning up poop would help her to remember to not let stinky words come out of her mouth. And in case you were wondering, no, she did not get paid.

After watching the show for the first few weeks, she really got into it. A couple of times after the 30 minutes passed and it was over, she proclaimed, "Noooooooo, that was too short this time!" No, sweetheart, it wasn't any shorter than normal. Anya sings the title and ending song as if she were performing with the three girls on the show.

Now she is really into horses. That is what she told Ded Meroz (Santa) she wanted for Christmas at the Little People Christmas party. Then the Santa at our friends' party gave her a four pack of small horses (with the helpful rule that the parents of the child bring the gift for them). She was delighted!! For our family's Christmas party, my little sis gave Anya her toy horse from when she was a girl and it was given to her by our twin babysitters too! Anya LOVES the thing.

Thanks for the pics Bobby Chezem!!

Anya enjoying the horses from Santa with our friend Lehti (who was, by the way, the only adult on the staircase with all the kids waiting to see Santa! She was so excited to enjoy it all with Anya).

The horse from my sister.

Also, we have been listening to Christmas music in the car. Anya really likes the song Sleigh Ride. There is an instrumental version and we hear it often. The other day, Anya got really upset at the whip sound in the song. "What is that sound? Are they hurting the horses?!" she asked with a horrified look on her face. What a sweet heart she has. 

Wait until she gets her other gifts! And NO, it is not a real horse by the way. Lehti has some we can hang out with.
~Monica