Christmas 2014 overview

our homeschool group Xmas party (minus 5 anti-photo kids) 

dried orange & cranberry garland. so beautiful in the sun!

Santa came!!

 Santa didn't forget Sergeant!

Kindle Fires (kids edition) are a big hit from the get-go!

Santa surprised the boy with his very own ax. He's been talking about one forever and it wasn't on his list this year but Santa knows our hearts :)

We are lucky enough to stay put on Christmas with both sets of grandparents making the trip over at some point in the day!

 Uncle Mike was stuck in Maryland this year but we got to Facetime with him :)

two less wheels (for each of them!)

I remember my dad teaching me to ride my brand new (big) purple bike. I was probably 7 or 8 I guess. I remember falling and scraping my knee soooooooo my philosophy with teaching my kids to ride bikes w/o training wheels was very "they'll learn when they're ready".... which didn't really work because they seemed to be content w/ training wheels. We took the training wheels off one evening and then the next day they were back on.  

Until one sleep-over at my mom's house.....

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I half joked that I'd bring their bikes so she could teach them to ride. and she did :)

From what I hear it was pretty painless... I guess they were (more than) ready! By the time we came to pick them up they were super excited to show off their new skill! That was 4-6 weeks ago and they've been using their bikes heavily ever since. FINALLY, at ages 8 & 6 they are training wheel free!

WE GOT A DOG!!!

WE GOT A DOG a year and a 1/2 ago

Here's the story:

Occasionally I'll peruse the local animal shelter's website. I'm not sure why because while having a dog was always something we wanted to do in the future it's not something that we thought was going to happen anytime soon. 

think again.

I found this guy: 

I showed Chris. We both fell in love instantly. I thought it was great that he was 3-4 years old so I didn't have to housebreak him or deal with puppy stuff, yay! Soooooo we went to check him out. 

our very first meeting at the shelter!

We took the kids and they were very excited. We couldn't find him at first but then asked someone and he took us to him. The guy there let us take him out of his cage. Chris had him on the leash and the kids got to pet him. He was very calm and interested in what was going on around him. We also learned that he wasn't 3-4 years old, but 3-4 MONTHS old..... there goes my no puppy perk! Before we left we impulsively put an application in for him. He already had another app in for him which made us sad. They typically wait a couple weeks or until 3 applications are in on a dog until they make a decision. 

Part of the application asked about a fenced in yard (which we don't have) and kids (which we do have) and other pets (which we do have) I listed our cat who mostly lives outside/garage. They also asked for the cats vet info which I provided. We haven't taken our cat to the vet in years.....

We left the shelter hopeful but the more we thought and talked about it the more worried we became. We were already so invested in this dog. The thought of not getting him was heartbreaking. 

We put in the application on a Saturday and the next Thursday (during a newborn session) I got a call that we were chosen to be his family! I can't tell you how giddy I was receiving that call! I called Chris and the kids right away, ran to target to grab a few necessities and met them at the shelter to pick up OUR DOG!!

10/11/12 --on our way home!

At the shelter his name was 'Smiley' because of the "smiling" he does when he greets people (which we later learned is a sign of submission). We quickly changed his name to Sergeant (and in Sgt. Pepper) and left Smiley as his middle name :)

renewal

I've missed documenting a lot over last few years. Things got busy. really busy. Blogs got unpopular. Facebook took over. 

I'd like to get back to this space though. This is my journal of my children's early years and I need to keep it up! I'll go back and cover the important evens (this time for real) and then try to at least blog here weekly. That seems reasonable.