Gracie is off to School

Jon and I dropped Gracie off at her Obedience Training this morning.  She will be gone for four weeks this time.  We let her ride outside of her kennel when we drove out to the facility where we had to take her.  She laid on her bed in back most of the time but as we got closer to the facility, she crawled up front into my lap and laid there.  It was a sweet departure snuggle for me.
Once we got to the facility, she got out of the car and immediately started to bark.  The boarding facility was full dogs (80 to be exact) due to spring break and all you could hear were dogs barking and barking.
We spend a good amount of time talking to Dave who will be training Gracie for the next four weeks.  Dave actually lives in the Black Hills of SD so today, Gracie was heading to the Black Hills with 7 other dogs who Dave will train.  You will be able to see photos of Gracie and video of her training on Facebook in about a week.  If you go to Facebook and search Black Hills Gun Dogs, you will see the site where she will spend some time for the next two weeks.  Not to shabby!

Note the Pink Bow the Girls added to her!

After she is done with her training in SD she will head back to MN for the last two weeks of training.  During this time, Jon and I will both go out to work with her and her obedience.  Today Dave said that training the dog is the easy part....its the owners that need work....Dave has no idea what he is in for with me!

We know that Gracie is in good hands but I can't tell you how much she is missed.  The kids talked about it so much this morning, that I had to finally ask them to stop for awhile because it was making me so sad.  It's amazing how far I have come in the last six months.  Gracie really is like our 4th child.  She is very LOVED and extremely missed. It's truly amazing how a dog can capture your heart! We will all be excited to see her when she returns and I cannot wait to witness how much she will have learned.

However, I do feel that it is only fair to point out that the two beautiful boys above are THRILLED about having their house back to themselves!

Wordless Wednesday ~ Grandpa and his Girls

First Grade Music Concert

 Last Thursday the kids had their 1st grade music concert.  All three of them did an awesome job.  Actually, all 90 of them did an excellent job. 

 I have heard rave reviews of the music teacher at the kiddos school and after watching the concert, I know exactly what the kids and other parents are talking about.  It was such great variety and included lots of musical instruments as well as some pretty awesome songs. 

 You could tell that all the kids enjoyed giving the concert to their families. 

 The kids were lucky enough to have both sets of Grandparents at the show, as well as Jane, and both Jon and I. 

 It is amazing to watch the kids and see how far they have come this year.  They are all learning new things at a rapid pace and it just makes Jon and I so proud with all their accomplishments. 

 K is always asking BIG questions of us, questions that I need to google to find out the answer.  A is doing awesome at her Math and reading, and E has mastered her hand writing, reading, and math as well. 

 We sure have some smart cookies and we could not be more proud. It was so fun for the kiddos to have so many loved ones at their concert to cheer them on.  You could tell they were proud of their accomplishments.

We are so incredibly blessed to have A,E,and K in our lives.  We are proud of your every accomplishment A, E, and K.  We love you. 

Wordless Wednesday ~ Gracie's New Friend Bella

A Mid Summers Dream

These past few weeks we have had AMAZING weather.  It is such a treat and the kids have enjoyed wearing shorts and short sleeve shirts to school.  I even enjoyed an early spring pedicure to get my feet ready for sandal weather.  It has been awesome.

This past weekend we headed up north to check out the play my niece was in for her high school.  It was Mid Summer Nights Dream by William Shakespeare.

 It was fantastic and we cold not be more proud of E and her performance.  It was a quick trip up north but so worth the fun.
Saturday was St. Patrick's Day so there was  a lot of talk about leprechauns; both finding and catching them. 
 K was all over getting that pot of gold. You can imagine when we came home from the play to Grandma and Grandpa E's house to find this mess that was left behind by those sneaky little leprechauns.

 Oh so fun.  The kids went crazy!

Raising Money For The MS Cure

This past Friday night we had our third annual MS Bowling fundraiser.  It is such a fun night and this year was a HUGE success.  I was responsible for putting together all of the silent auction packages this year.

 I had a handful of donations and some gift card money that we were awarded from our teams fundraising last year.  It was a lot of work to put together the packages but overall it turned out to be a huge success.  We ended up raising over $1500 at this event.
I have such awesome friends and family surrounding me and helping this event be successful.  It feels great to have a supporting husband, family, and friends that want to help find the cure for this nasty disease.  I feel so loved.

We have already started to discuss how to improve the event for next year.  It really is a fun night and all the money that is paid for the bowling is giving back to us for the MS Society.  So we will not talk about my bowling scores that night as I was not on my game but we had some AWESOME bowlers amongst the group.

Special Thanks to Donny who owns the bowling alley, Matt and Jenn who helped set up the venue and got some Silent Auction items, and helped us to run the event, to Emily, Shelby, Nancy, Carol, Jane, Mary, and Matt and Jen who helped to make the silent auction the biggest and best yet.  I love all of you. Thank you.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Dentist Day!

Wordless Wednesday ~ Grandma Mary Goes to School