My birthday!

Today is my 29th (and now holding for the next few years!) birthday! 

My husband brought home a Reese Ice Cream cake (he speaks my love language: peanut butter and chocolate!) and took me to eat at one of our favorite Tex Mex restaurants!



Who needs presents one day of the year when you have this EVERY day of the year??


My heart is SO full!

After Dave went to work, Mom brought over a little sweet gift!



I also got a charm for my Pandora bracelet!

Later that night, Poppy and Ben took me and the girls to eat sushi!!!

Me and the girls with Pops; Ben and our favorite waiter, Hong!


Tuna tataki to start!


Salmon and super white tuna sashimi, and a Candy cane roll!


My birthday dessert!


As much as I am not really digging getting older, my family sure makes it a little less painful!

We have TWO teefs!

I knew it was coming, but tonight at dinner I noticed Finley’s bottom, front two teeth have made their appearance!

Hence the constant-drooling-hands-in-mouth look…



And yet, this baby is STILL smiling!


My girl is growing so fast!

Sammy is HOME!

So as some of you know, we sent Sam away for a month to be boarded and trained. 

Although she is great with her little “pack” (consisting of Dave, me, the girl, Meme, Poppy and Ben), she doesn’t like other people, and despises other dogs. She is highly aggressive and overly protective.  In the beginning, we just chalked it up to her being protective and that’s just how she was going to be, and the way GSD’s are.  She is super sweet with the baby and Mia and her are playmates, rough playmates, but playmates nonetheless. 

If anyone (besides her pack) tried to walk in the house, we had to have her on a leash, and she still barked and growled and acted like she was going to tear into them.  We most of the time would put her outside or in her crate during these times.

Our next door neighbor has a bulldog.  I don’t know what it is with that dog in particular, but she HATES it.  Even though we have a physical fence, AND an electric fence, Sam would still put herself IN the electric fence and would literally attack the chain link fence, trying to get to that dog.  It was always worse if Mia was outside, or if she went up to the fence by that bulldog.  Our neighbors, as you could probably guess, HATE Sam.  I can’t exactly blame them, but I was at a loss.  Sam is our family member, so I didn’t know what to do.  It was really starting to be a problem.

We researched and investigated some dog trainers, in particular, a trainer with specific experience with GSD’s.  We found one about an hour away, so I contacted him and we went for an assessment.  I had told him over the phone how she was, but I don’t think he knew HOW aggressive she was.  When we arrived for the observation, before Dave could even grab her leash, Sam jumped out of the car, ran toward the trainer and bit his pant leg!  Thank God she didn’t get any skin.  I was so shocked and embarrassed.

We knew immediately, at that point, something had to give.  I love my dog, but I couldn’t handle that behavior any longer.  The trainer was even hesitant to take her.

During the month she was there,  I called and checked on her like an over protective mother!  I missed her so much!  Every time I would call, the trainer would report that she was “the weirdest case he’d ever seen.” 

Freaking great.

Long story short, once her month was up, we went to get her and we still have 8 private lessons with her, the trainer and us.  She is a bit better as far as obedience.  However, when we brought her home, she went outside, saw the bulldog and her switch flipped.  She went right back into the aggressive dog  (we were right there to correct her) that we tried to fix.  I know it is all a work in progress, but I am so sad.  I so badly want her to know when she needs to protect and when to chill out. 

The day we picked her up….


So excited to be on her way home!!


Think she’s happy to be on her couch??



I am glad to have my fur baby home, but I would like to have her behave.  It’s making our living situation with the neighbor VERY uncomfortable. 

Anyone have any experience with this??  Tips??

Just FYI:  We use the pronged/choke collar that we “pop” to correct her.  Also, thoughts on muzzles?

A successful day!

I was supposed to work this morning, but got cancelled/put on call.  Basically get paid $4/hr. to sit at home, hang with the fam, do laundry, etc.  I’ll take it!

 

So, I got paid $32 dollars today to spend time with my family, whip this house into shape and get ALL of my laundry DONE.  Now I will just sign up to work those same hours on Thursday and not miss out on any money.  Win win for this mama!

 

After daddy left for work, the girls napped, I got bills (yuck) done, calendar filled out, appointments made, etc.  On top of all that and the house, I even got to shower, before bedtime!!!

 

Once the girls got up, they ate, played some (minus my stage 5 clinger I had.  FinnyQ was super whiny and clingy to mama today!) and then had a THIRTY minute bath!  I let them play and giggle and splash and they loved every minute of it.  After bath, I decided to break some rules, and we went outside, squeaky clean, in our PJ’s!!

 

Because, why not?

 

We did some drawing/writing with chalk!

 

 

Watching her sister!

 

 

Mia said “Look!  It’s Rapunzel, with her LONG hair!”  Good imagination little girl!!

 

 

Totally posed, but whatev.  Mia’s super cheesy grin is a dead giveaway!

 

 

All by herself!!!

 

Her balloon!

 

 

Wet hair, don’t care.  This one had some small mommy assistance.  But still.  So proud!

Zoo day with the little

I rarely get to do stuff alone with each of my girls, so when I do, I love it!  I love to invest in each of their lives, in a one-on-one way.  They need that.  So today, while Mia was in school, I took Finley to the zoo with a good friend!



It was great to catch up and just focus on Finley!

She LOVED the splash park, just like her big sister.






The water would come up and hit her in the face and she would just smile!!


McKemie and Finley




Thankful for quality time with friends and our babies!

A Sunday of new beginnings

This morning was “promotion Sunday” at church, where all of the kids got “promoted” or moved up in classes.  Mia is now upstairs, with the big kids.  We also put Finley in the nursery for the first time.  As we walked away, with both children in class/nursery, Dave looked at me and said “Wow!  That’s rough!”  I think we both just kind of realized how big our kids were getting and it made us sad!  After that, we joked that we would keep having kids, just to make sure we always had one in the nursery! HAHA

Their security tags.  Now I have TWO of them to keep up with.


Per the norm, Finley went to the nursery ladies with a huge smile.  Mommy was smiling on the outside, the inside was screaming NOOOOO, not yet!

We are currently looking into a new ABF class, so we got out of church early today.  Our old ABF class was great, and we love all of our friends, but it has come time to move on and be in a class with people more in our life stage. We also want to be in a class with lots of older couples, preferably, for the wisdom in marriage and child rearing. Although we value our parents wisdom, advice and opinions, we also would like some UNbiased advice and Godly counsel.  Hopefully we will find our fit SOON!

When we went to get Finley, this is what we saw…


My always smiling, happy baby, playing contently!  They told us “She is such a JOY to have. So happy and sweet!”  Seriously, we get told that by everyone.  Such a great girl!

Next, we went to get Mia and her new teacher told us how good she was and told her “Thank you for being a good girl and listening!”  Wow!  I’m a proud mommy!  Thank you Lord for these wonderful children!!

After church, some sweet friends came to have lunch and spend the day with us.  And just DO LIFE together!  We had a great time.

Mia and sweet Gracie playing on the water table.


So happy to have people to invest in our lives, and us in theirs.  Thankful for great friends tonight!

Growing up and letting go-State Fair 2013

My heart is so full and proud, yet breaking, all at the same time.

Lets just start from the beginning.  We go to the fair every year.  We love it, esp. the food! 

My loves, ready for some fun!


The first mission of our fair trip is always the food.  Then fun.  Priorities people. Priorities.

I had a polish sausage (Mia eating.  Ate half!), and Dave got the huge turkey leg (Mia ate as well)!  I’m telling you, there is not much that kid won’t eat!


Once our bellies were full, Mia decided she wanted to ride the rides first.  And that is exactly what we did!  The fair is all about the kids, and seeing her happy, makes my happy. There is NOTHING at the fair more fun than seeing my baby have a blast :)

She wasn’t quite tall enough for everything she wanted to ride, but she did get to do a LOT!
First up, SWINGS!

Nailed it.

Then a kiddy roller coaster!  Nothing but smiles :)


We decided to go in for a bit to take a break from the heat, get a drink, look at some booths/exhibits and I had to feed Fin.

Looking at the baby chicks with Pops…


They have this station set up called the “Rock and Relax” room. It is a room with multiple changing stations on the left, and on the right, behind a curtain, lots of rocking chairs set up for breastfeeding moms!  I was so thankful for that!  It was nice to be able to nurse your baby, without an audience, and actually be encouraged with breastfeeding! The lady working that room was a lactation consultant.  Definitely impressed by that!
Mama and Fin taking a break!


Back outside it is!



Mia and Meme on the carousel!


Since when is she big enough to go stand in line, all by herself?  Like she’s some kind of big kid or something!

So amazed by this gorgeous kid that is MY daughter.

She walked right up on the crazy bus, sat right down beside a sweet little boy and was happy as a clam. 



This is the slide we usually do with her every year.  This year she did it all by herself.  So proud and so sad, all wrapped in to one crazy emotion!



I’m quite certain it went a lot faster than she was expecting and it tickled her tummy!  Look at that face and those arms!!!!  HAHAHA!  She still got off and “I wanna do it again!!!”

These pictures make her still look like the baby she is to me!

Up, up and away!


Truck ride and an obstacle course!


Next up, my mom FAIL and WIN. Mia walked right up to this super tall-drastically-drop-you-at-a-fast-speed ride and wanted to get on.  I thought for sure she wouldn’t get on it, nor would she be tall enough.  So I allowed her to walk up there and they let her on!!!!

::Insert mommy FREAK OUT::

She hopped right on next to this sweet boy and I my palms immediately started sweating.  I was almost in tears and was telling my mom “ I can’t do this, get her OFF!”  My dad was pretty freaked out too, so he asked the boy if he would “hang on to her.” My fear was that her little booty would come up off of the seat because she is so light.


Would you know that sweet boy held on to her ankle for me?? 

I can not believe my baby girl is way up there.  On that big kid ride.


I think at this point my eyes were full of tears. I was a nervous wreck.  I just knew that when, or if, she got off the ride safely, she would cry and hate it.  But low and behold, she surprised me again.  She was smiling and laughing hysterically, and WANTED TO DO IT AGAIN!! 
Honestly, that girls NEVER ceases to amaze me!!

Round 2!!  And final round, mommy couldn’t take it again!!




Successful fair trip!