One of MY Favorite things!!

Cassidy’s Baptism

      Cassidy was baptized on November 7th.  She has been looking forward to this day all year.  She’s watched each of her friends get baptized, waiting for HER day.  Cassidy looked so pretty on her baptism day.  She even let me put curls in her hair.  She was so excited she was glowing.  Cassidy shares her birthday with her friend Julia, so they got to share their baptism.  (there were several other children in the stake baptism but Julie and Cassidy were the only two from our ward.)  I’m sure she will always remember her special day, especially because her Grandparents and Great Grandmother Shelley were able to attend. 

Halloween

The kids had decided what to be for halloween months ago. Actually, Ryan has been talking about his costume for a couple years. This year I gave in. We made Ryan a headless horseman costume. It took a lot of time and a lot of effort but it was well worth it. We used football pads to build up his shoulders. For the "neck" we took an old baseball hat and used spray foam on the top of it, then Ryan painted it gray. I made the vest and we used one of Nathan's white shirts. Ryan was so proud of his costume and was able to wear it for 3 events.


Cassidy's costume, on the other hand was super easy. After watching a new Pipi Longstockings, she decided to be Pipi. She was darling. We were able to get a jumper and a striped shirt off e-bay for less than 8 dollars, including shipping. She wore striped socks and we sprayed her hair orange and braided it around a hanger. A few freckles on her cheeks and she was ready to go.

Welcome Buddy!!

  

Well, we finally caved.  After being begged for years and several comments like “When Dad and Ryan die, can we get a dog?”  Cassidy got her way and we brought home a little puppy.  Buddy (which happens to be his name, as of publication) is a yorkie-poo.  That means he’s half Yorkie and half poodle.  He is tiny, darling and black as black can be.  He will only grow to be 10- 12 pounds.  The kids, (yes, even Ryan) are loving having a dog.  They have even remembered to thank us several times since we brought him home.

 

The pursuit of a dog began as a pursuit for a small animal, like a hamster or gerbil, but I just couldn’t see myself trying to catch the little rodent, if or rather, when it escaped out of it’s cage.  I was seriously looking at guinea pigs.  In fact, Cassidy and I went to the pet store to check out the guinea pigs.   The guinea pigs at the pet store were HUGE!!  I didn’t want cage something so pig.  Then we saw Buddy.  Buddy was the same size as the guinea pig.  He was so cute and seemed rather mellow.

We went home and told Nathan and Ryan about the dog we saw.  They wanted to see it too, so back to the pet store we went.  We had Ryan and Nathan hold the dog then touch their faces so we could see if they had any allergic reaction.  (Yorkies and Poodles are known to be good non-allergenic dogs)  We left and waited several hours with no reaction from either of them.  At that point Cassidy was sold – as if she wasn’t before.  After much consideration we decided this was the dog for us. 

Nathan and I were very concerned about Buddy’s first night in our home.  We had lots of thoughts of the first few nights with a new baby.  But surprisingly, Buddy went to sleep around 11:00 pm and didn’t want to get up when we woke up at 6:00 am.  Cassidy on the other hand didn’t go to sleep until 2:30am.  She kept coming downstairs to see if Buddy was awake.  It was worse than Christmas Eve for her.  I have to admit I am surprised at how willing the kids have been to help.  The poor dog can’t get a minute alone.  But he loves the attention and follows everyone around like a little shadow. (another name we considered)

Projects, Projects, Projects!!!

Moving into a new house always means a few projects but I don’t think we comprehended how many projects were in store.  There are lists of things we’d like to update and change in the house.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great house but it just doesn’t feel like ours yet. If feel like the last month of my life has been spent waiting for a contractor, painter, cabinet guy or flooring guy to come give me a bid. (Okay, I was out of town for two weeks but besides that….)  In the meantime I feel I am living amongst a half finished project which is enough to make me batty!  The good new is I’ve remembered to take before pictures so when all the work is finished I’ll have some great before and after blogging to do.