Wordless Wednesday ~ Happy Birthday Bella

Happy Birthday to our favorite Lil dog Bella!

Wordless Wednesday ~ Tooth Pulling Drama

A Very Loved Pup

Gracie is sure loved by all of us! Even our extended family loves her. I never knew how much she would add to our family and I'm so glad that I said yes to the dog!

Snowboard Dude

This past week, K decided he wanted to start Snowboarding.  It turns out that he LOVES it.  It is fun to watch him and hear him talk about a new love.

 He has done well for it being his first time too.  He spent 8 hours one day over break practicing.  Now he has not interest in the skiing. The other day he told me that he wanted me to drop him off at the ski hill and give him my phone.  He then said that he would just give me a call at home when he was done so I could come and pick him up. I love the way that boy thinks sometimes. I smiled and reminded him that he is 8 not 15!   I think it is official, we have a snowboarding dude on our hands! 

ELF

Every year Grandma and Grandpa A treat all of us to a play and a nice dinner.  This year the play was ELF and we LOVED it.  It was kid friendly and so colorful.  The acting was great and we laughed and laughed.  I give ELF 5 stars. 

 After the play went to Axel's one of our favorite places to celebrate.  We had excellent service and outstanding food.  It was truly an amazing night of celebrating. 

It is such a fun afternoon and evening to spend with family.  We all enjoy going to the play and of course a fancy dinner.  I feel like this exposes the kids to the theater and the arts.  They look forward to it just as much, if not more than Jon and I.  What a wonderful way to kick off our Christmas celebrations.  Thank you Mom and Dad for the wonderful gift year after year.  Love you.

Santa Came to the Hood

This past Sunday, we were blessed enough to have Santa visit us in our own neighborhood for a second year in a row.  It was a fun evening and each child got to sit on Santa's lap and have a 2-3 minute conversations with him about their behavior this past year.  Some had good reports and some had not such good reports but it was fun to hear Santa give all the kids some good advice.

 We feel so blessed to live where we do and to have met such incredible neighbors who are now friends.  I am thrilled that my kids will have such fond memories of their childhood neighborhood.

We are "almost" ready for Christmas.  The kids have been having fun with Sparkle the Elf.  He has been up to some crazy stuff again this year.  The other morning we found him in the Barbie Pink Convertible with the Ken Doll.  We had lots of theories about where they were headed that day and where they had been the night before.  Today he was riding the pink Barbie bike.  So fun.

The count down continues and the kids can't wait to celebrate Baby Jesus Birthday and celebrate the season with our families.

Merry Christmas!

Wordless Wednesday ~ Breakfast in Bed

The Sandwich Project

On Sunday at Girl Scouts, our troop made 300 sandwiches for our local community.  It was an awesome event and one that really hit home to all of us involved. 

The girls loved making the sandwiches knowing that those would go to people in our own community that are in need.  We learned about The Sandwich project and about Mr. Law who started this program a few years back.  He drives around our community and delivers the sandwiches to those people who are in need.  He drives all night long and he has not slept in his bed for 12 years.  What a impact this man is making on our community. 

We also took home banks that we made to collect donations for Mr. Law and his organization.  It was a great project and really helped the girls learn how they can make a difference right here in our own community.  Awesome!

A Trip to the North Pole

On Saturday, we were all lucky to help Jon fly a trip to the North Pole.  There as an event through his work for kids that are in need to come to the airport and fly to the North Pole.  Well, not really fly to the North Pole....but we can all pretend pretty good. 

K and Daddy getting ready for the Flight

At this event there were carnival games, the local sports teams mascots, a magician, music, food, and we all loaded onto an airplane an pretended to fly to the North Pole.  Jon was lucky to be the co pilot for the trip.  The plane taxied around the airport and went really fast down the runway and then they hit the brakes.  However, when we were taxing, we all closed our window shades so no one could see where we were at.  When we got back to our gate, we were instructed to open our window shades and look for Santa Claus.  There he was running around the airplane outside.  He then made his way on the plane.  It was the coolest event EVER!  We all enjoyed helping out at this event. 

The Girls in First Class!

A, E, K worked the fishing pole booth and loaded up the cups with candy for all the kids.  They did a great job and we were so proud of them for helping out.  We also got to see where Jon's new office is and we met some of his new co-workers.  It was great and he really works with a lot of great people. 

We hope to be involved again next year for this very cool event.  Merry Christmas!

Wordless Wednesday - Ski Season has Begun!

Gracie and Jon

Halloween 2012

My Handsome Crew!

E with Bella the pig!

Halloween this year was so much fun.  We truly live in a great neighborhood for so many reasons but Halloween is one of them.  Jon had the day off of work so he decked out the front yard with tombstones, lights, fog machines and he added this year the coffin that we inherited when our neighbors Tim and Perry moved.

The whole crew!

Beverage Cart Drivers!

The kids were thrilled when they came home from school that day to find all the decorations out in the yard.  Gracie sure liked all the new stuff to and one sign of her growing up is that she only wanted one fake arm to chew versus EVERYTHING in sight like last year.

K with his friends.

A with her friends.

The kids dressed up as a bumble bee, Super Girl, and a Zombie skate border.  We had our annual pizza dinner with Jane and Bella and then we headed down to the neighbors to catch a ride on the hay ride that goes through the neighborhood.  This year it got even bigger with 25 plus kids.  Jon was in charge of driving the beverage cart and he was in high demand most of the night.  Jane stayed back at the house to hand out candy and hang out with the dogs.  Both Bella and Gracie did great all night long.

The Wagon in motion!

Super Girl E and Gracie

Overall it was a wonderful Halloween.  We all had fun.  Good friends, good treats, and great memories. 

Gracie the Hunter

Gracie finally put all of her training to use a few weeks back.  The guys took her with on their trip...the moment they have all been waiting for...to hunt with their very own hunting dog. 

From what I hear she did an awesome job.  She listened, retrieved, and did all that hunting stuff a dog is supposed to do. 

I could not be any more happy for Jon.  He has wanted this for a very long time.  I kept getting updates all weekend about what an awesome job Gracie has been doing. 

Grandpa Al and Uncle T with Gracie

The bummer was that when she got home on Monday night, her feet were very beat up.  I have been told that this is normal but our poor Gracie has an exceptionally bad case and therefore I took her to the vet the next day. 

We have learned that Gracie is allergic to something in the hunting fields.  We have not declared what that is exactly but her feet have not been 100% since August.  We now have it pinned down to the "field" environment and have her on the right medications but she was banned from hunting last weekend so that was a huge bummer for Jon.  Her feet did get healthy enough that she was able to go out again this weekend. 

We all love Gracie so much.  She is more than a hunting dog she is a our family pet.  Gracie is a very big part of our lives! She even comes to Sunday night dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's house each week. I never would have imagined how much we would all grow to love and adore her.  She is a great dog and I just told the Vet that what surprises me is that I worry about her just as much as I worry about my kids.  The Vet smiled and agreed that they are easy to love!

I have no regrets with getting a dog.  I was warned that a family pet could not be a good hunting dog.  However, I beg to differ on that.

Jon with Gracie Mae 1st Hunting Trip

The other night Jon was getting ready for his big trip.  He got his gun and case out and once Gracie saw that she went crazy.  Fast forward to the next morning when I was awoken at 5:15 AM to Gracie standing in our bedroom whimpering because she thought that Jon was going to leave her behind as he was outside loading the car.  She does love to hunt.

So there you have it....as most of you already know, I have become a dog lover.  I am sure you all knew that would happen....I guess I was just in the dark.


So here's to our Gracie Mae and many fun years of hunting and family time ahead.