I really love this time of the year. We aren't big into decorating for pretty much any holiday other than Christmas. We do love Christmas decorations! This year we decided we needed a bigger tree than the "slim" fake tree I've been using for the last decade. Don't get me wrong, I love that tree but as far as available real estate, it was lacking on room. I adore all the homemade ornaments the kids bring home and there wasn't anymore room so when my parents offered me the use of their large fake tree I took them up on it. It's a lovely fat tree compared to our old one and there is so much room for ornaments.
This year I set the kids lose decorating while I made dinner and fed animals. I'm trying to lighten up on my controlling nature. :)
I put Sean in charge of managing the decorating (making sure glass ornaments didn't get broken and such) and came inside after feeding the livestock to find this.
Poor guy was exhausted. I hope everyone reading this has a wonderful Holiday season!
We were so thrilled that Granny Randi and Papa Rich came to visit early in the month. We really miss them as we live several states apart. The kids could hardly wait! Randi brought her knitting gear and taught Greta to knit. Greta had been asking me to teach her for ages and I have no idea how to knit, so this was perfect!
We broke out the WiiU and did a little Mario Kart too. Which provided some hilarious entertainment. :)
We took them to the air and space museum while the kids were in school (the kids and I went not too long ago, so I was fine going while they were at school). It was an enjoyable day.
We had some really beautiful weather while they were here and we enjoyed it by going to the park and playing around like monkeys. They kids adore their silly granny.
My folks wanted to see them while they were visiting so we all went out to dinner one night and had a nice time. My kids have some wonderful grandparents.
We haven't had a puppy in the house since Sean and I got our very first dog together right after we got married in 2001. It's amazing how little I remember about that puppy stage. Winston is growing like crazy, packing on about a pound a week. He is ornery and sweet at the same time. Loves to lick my chin for some reason and then bite it with his tiny piranha teeth. He's lovingly gained the name "piranha pup" because he chomps on anything and everyone he encounters.
He sleeps all the time. Usually on his back. I find it hilarious. His favorite place to sleep upside down right behind me on the computer chair while snoring loudly. He's doing it right now.
I'd like to say the potty training is coming along, but it's not. He must poop eight times a day and at least 2-3 of those are in the house. Unfortunately he likes to poo on the rug by the back door. The rug that is fairly busy in print and camouflages the poo nicely until someone comes along and steps in it. That someone has been me, twice. First time I was wearing shoes and didn't realize I had stepped in it and then proceeded to walk all over the house with my poo shoe. Sigh. This too shall pass. Good thing he's cute.
Since discovering that my old college roommate had taken up photography we've been having family pictures taken, and I love em! I don't think you can ever have too many pictures of your cute kids. She moved out of state a couple of years ago but still comes back to visit family and keep a few local clients photographed.
This time of the year stresses me out! I can never quite put my finger on it but it's a super busy time. I think it might be the impending winter and frigid temperatures that drives us to accomplish all the little tasks that didn't get done over the summer.
I've had "staining the deck" on my to do list the entire summer and now that it's cooling down I was able to finally mark it off this past weekend. Sean put stairs on the deck a few weeks ago and replaced a few deck boards that were warping. It needed a nice staining to make everything look uniform. It looks beautiful, if I do say so myself.
Here is the before:
Here is the after:
I had the best helpers to help me clean off the deck and pry acorns from between the boards.
Sean got the seals replaced on the hydraulics on the skid loader and located the battery drain so it's in tip top shape now. First order of business is scooping out the horse pen. It did great! We're so happy to have some way of actually picking up the manure rather than just pushing it out of the way.
Sean is still figuring out how to drive it and maneuver the bucket and had a little accident with the fence. Oops. Thankfully it was an easy fix.
Since we live out in the country we are forced to use the only semi-fast internet service provider around. We have a dish on our room which has a line of sight with a giant tower several miles away. The down side to this kind of internet is that trees grow and obscure the line of sight causing our internet to slow to a crawl. Our options were to put up a free standing tower in the yard or increase the height of the pole on our roof. We went with the cheaper option and increased the pole on the roof to a 10 foot pole. Ten foot required guy wires to keep it on the roof for when the wind picks up....and the wind picks up a lot around here. Sean went out last weekend and put it all up and I'm happy to say our internet is better. Not perfect but good enough to delay a tower in the yard.
Halloween is one of my kids top favorite holidays. They really love it. This year we got to go trunk or treating a couple of times, one of which is to our new church. Wesley is Harry Potter (he just got done reading the 4th book and loves it!) and Greta is a strawberry Shopkin (shocking!). I was buying the items needed to transform Wesley into Harry and didn't want to shell out $12 for a cheap wand. My friend Jessica suggested that I just sculpt one and so I did. Took about half an hour to sculpt, bake and fire it and I didn't have to buy a single thing to make it. He loves it.
Pastor John and Wesley
We love Gwen and her adorable dogs.
We don't get balmy 87 degree Halloweens very often. It's just lovely! The kids had a nice parade to show off their costumes at school. I'm going to miss our elementary school when Wesley goes to middle school.
His buddy Alex went as Steve from Minecraft in a very cool homemade costume.
I did not sign up to be room mom for Wesley or Greta this year but rather to just help out with the parties. It's so nice not adding that stress. I was in charge of fruit for Wesley's party and found this cute fruit kabob idea. Kids loved it!
Every year for as long as I can remember we've been going to our towns Fall Festival. I wasn't going to bring the camera this year because we go every year what's new? Why put pictures up on the blog about something we do each year? Then I thought, why not. I've been posting this stuff for eight years now, why stop? So here are the pictures. The kids love the parade and all the candy and the craft fair has become a favorite with Greta and I.
It's been three months since we said goodbye to Sophie and I've got to say it's been quiet. Too quiet. She was the instigator with the other two dogs. She ran in the backyard with Cody. She and Chance were best buds too, he thought she was his girlfriend (if you know what I mean). So for these past three months we've had two moping, depressed dogs. They just lay around and sleep all day.
So I started telling Sean we needed a puppy. The conversations started like this:
Me: "I think we might need a puppy around here." Sean: "No way, no how. There will be no more dogs, two is plenty." Me: "Come on Sean, it would be fun! The kids would love it, it would liven up the other dogs." Sean: "It's so calm around here, I like calm." Me: :(
So it went on like this for about a month. I'd keep inserting a puppy into conversations, wearing him down. It finally worked. It took a lot of convincing but finally I got a "if it would make you happy, then get a puppy." I have the best husband ever!
So I signed up for all the local puppy pages on facebook and looked up breeders in the area. Finally, two weeks ago a local lady posted a litter of Boston Terrier pups on facebook and I fell in love. I've always had a soft spot for Boston Terriers. Not sure where it comes from as I've never known anyone with that breed. But I've always loved their squished noses and compact little bodies. They are the perfect size, right around 20 pounds.
So last Sunday I took my Mom and picked out a puppy. Meet Winston, the eight week old terror.
He is a five pound ball of energy. He runs and runs around the house with a kids sock in his mouth and then crashes and sleeps upside down for 2 hours.
I love photographing him when he's sleeping. It's the only time he's still. Every picture I have of him awake is blurry, he's constantly in motion.
Potty training is easier than I thought it would be. He does pretty good about holding it in his kennel at night and when I have an errand to run. Problem is when I do take him outside he's so distracted by everything outdoors that he forgets to potty. There are cats to chase and leaves to eat. The wood chips around the trees are a constant source of enjoyment as are the chickens. He doesn't know what to make of the chickens yet.
I'd like to say that he's made friends with Chance and Cody but they can't stand him. He chews on Cody's tail and chases Chance around the house. They've given him plenty of warning barks and snaps but he's not getting the drift. I hope time will help their relationship.
Here is a video of the night they all met. Chance was pretty playful that night. Since then, not so much.
