New family member

We welcomed a new family member on May 1, 2013 and finally brought him home June 29.

This is Rocky and he is a Boston Terrier.

This was taken when he was around 10 weeks old and he was still not so wild. His personality has popped and he is sweet and lovable one minute and wild and crazy the next.

We are working with him on his behavior and I think it's going to take him a little while to learn to behave.

He gets excited and then can't contain himself and runs around like a wild dog and then wants to jump and grab you with his mouth. 

The girls love him to the moon and back a million times and most of the time I do too!

Sissy

August 1999 we got a call from some people from the SPCA in Greenville, North Carolina.  There was a litter of pups that were not with their Mom anymore and needed homes. We were told the Mom was a beagle and the pups were born in June.  We headed over to one of the foster families' homes to check them out because we were looking for a small friend for our wild min pin, Butch.
I can't remember how many puppies were in the back yard, but I do remember a child was putting the puppies down a plastic slide. One got away and headed over to greet me. I like to think this was when Sissy picked me to be her new Mom!!  All the puppies were in bad shape and patches of hair were missing and they were tiny. I told Rob we couldn't leave her, so that is where our story with Sissy begins.
We took her to the vet the next day and were told she was a beagle-lab mix. She had webbed paws, but never liked to get them wet! She had worms and was not well. We spent money we didn't have, to make her well and then some more money.
She was easy to house train and got along great with Butch....but he didn't always want to get along with her. She was easy going and loved to cuddle. Her and Butch did get into some trouble in the early years....they tried to remove the carpet in our townhome. After that fun adventure we started crating them while we were at school and work.
She was so happy when the girls were all born and she watched over each and every one of them as if they were her own.
Sissy lived in North Carolina, California, (When we moved to England for three years, she stayed with her Memom and Papa back in North Carolina) then she moved to South Carolina and Ohio. She has been to the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. She also flew on an airplane twice.  I think our home in Ohio was perfect for my sweet old girl. No stairs and a dog door from the sunroom to the fenced back yard.
I could go on and on about this sweet girl, but I would be typing for a few days.
On March 15, 2013 we lost our sweet Sissy girl to old age and congestive heart failure. She will be loved and missed forever.  I'm so glad she picked me that August afternoon and we were able to spend over 13 years with her in our lives.
Sissy was 13 years 9 months old the day she passed away.....

Merry Christmas 2012

Merry Christmas!!   We had a fabulous day and really enjoyed spending the day together.

Santa and family were all very nice with gift giving and we all are very thankful for all of it.

We are enjoying a snow day and will try and post a picture or two from it soon. 

Happy Thanksgiving 2012

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!   

 I had a few pictures to post, but I will need to figure out how to share them. I have maxed out my picture storage for my blog.  I did not think it was just 1gb of storage...not sure if I want to pay a monthly fee to have more pictures.  (I may try and make a book out of the earlier years and then delete them)...but that will be a while before I do that).  

This was our second annual Thanksgiving in Ohio. It was just the six of us (that includes Sissy)!  We had a nice relaxing day of eating and watching movies. The girls also played really hard, which means they messed up there rooms big time...but they cleaned them up too.

We talked and skyped to family and miss all of them.

Well, I will post updates every so often, but sorry to say pictures won't be included for a while.

Hope you all have a wonderful holiday season!!

Fall Weather

We spent a lot of time outside this weekend. The weather was gorgeous and we couldn't pass up on what might be our warmest weekend for a few months.

We raked leaves and the girls jumped in them (until I showed them spiders lived in them). 

Jenna and Rob headed to the park to play some b-ball.

Sissy got in on the sunshine and walked around the backyard for a while.

She doesn't like to be bothered by us outside and by the look of her face in this picture...she doesn't want her picture taken outside either!haha

I got some good shots of Meghan too.

The girls striking a pose for me. 

 I get a lot of grunts when I pull out the camera...but I don't care.

I love taking their pictures.

They are growing up so fast and I want to capture as much of each year as I can in photos.

We went to Yellow Springs to walk around today and I wish I had taken the camera.  I love that town. It has so much character and so relaxing to hang out in.

Best Friends

My oldest girl (dog) is 13....my baby girl is almost 3.

I love that Sissy has been a best friend to all my girls.

Love these girls

I'm working on photos for my Christmas card.

I love how Jenna and Sarah jump at the idea of getting their pictures taken.

My sweet 8 year old.

My sweet and sassy almost 3 year old.

Meghan my lovable 10 year old was not interested in getting her picture taken.

I will have to try again soon.  

Sissy has been feeling better lately and has walked all over the yard. 

I decided she needed her picture taken too. She was too busy sniffing around to smile for the camera!

Trick or Treating 2012

Due to the Hurricane that decided to stop by the east coast, our area postponed trick or treating until today.

We didn't get bad bad weather from the storm, but it sure did rain a lot.

I think they should have kept trick or treating on the 31st...but I didn't get to voice my opinion.

The rain showed up this afternoon and started right before the girls and Rob headed out to trick or treat.

Rob dressed up as an ECU fan. haha    

He dresses up like this a lot.

I love when I tell them to look the part, Jenna always looks so serious.

Sarah wanted to show me her pillow case...aka candy bag.

haha   I love this picture of Jenna in action.

A close up of Meghan's makeup.

Sarah wanted a close up too. hahaha

Sarah wanted a picture of Sissy too.  Sissy just wanted dinner.

All ready to go!

 They headed out and I stayed home to hand out candy. Rob said Meghan was the first one to say she was cold.  It was freezing rain and they were all soaking wet when they got home. 

They lasted about 40 minutes. 

Sarah helped hand out candy and I need to remember next year to only buy like one bag (or two) of candy. We didn't have but about 20 or 30 kids show up.

Next up....Thanksgiving!!

Monster Cupcakes

Any reason to make cupcakes is a good reason to make cupcakes!

The big girls are always asking what they can make, cook, fix, create.

They loved the idea of making monster cupcakes as part of our Halloween celebration.

We party it up for Halloween for weeks!

Sarah's first decorated cupcake didn't make it into the final picture....it almost didn't get decorated because Sarah kept eating the decorations.

Meghan and Jenna had a lot of fun! They could have probably decorated a few dozen more.

We even saved a few for Rob to decorate.

We are enjoying eating them just as much as decorating them.

Happy Haunting!

Trunk or Treat

2012 Trunk or Treat time at our church!

The girls had a great time and I love all three of their costumes.

Minnie Mouse was thinking of being a princess, but she loved being Minnie.

Jenna the pirate was so excited to dress up and act the part of a tough pirate. 

Cleopatra was beautiful and looked so grown up today.

I told her a little history about Cleopatra, so she learned a little about her character.

My three girls posing for the camera! haha

They had a cupcake walk for the kids.

Bobbing for apples.

And of course going around to the cars to trunk or treat was great fun!

I caught them all in a funny expression in this hayride picture!

We all had fun and the girls ate way too much candy and cupcakes. 

We have enough candy for the rest of the year (well...for a long time anyway)...but the girls are planning to head out on Trick or Treating night in our neighborhood too.

Name and Crafts

I wanted to share Sarah's name tracing paper. I dotted her name the other day (as I've done before) and told her to trace it. I showed her how to do it and then left her to work. I didn't think she would be able to trace it, but she loves to spell her name out loud. She has started signing her name to things and makes sure she has a mark for each letter of her name.

I was so surprised to see how well she traced! It is not perfect, but she is a few months under age 3.  I gave her one of my happy crazy Mom cheers!

She loves to craft. She loves glue, stickers, and all things messy!

I guess this is kinda like home schooling but for my pre- preschooler.

She is such a smart little girl and I love showing her new things and watching her learn.

As we move closer to her third birthday, I see daily how she is changing and growing more and more into a "big girl".

Little Bit of Crafting

Sarah and I had a great week and she is really starting to get more and more into crafts!

I love it and we have tons of fun!

We collected leaves the other day and made a wreath!

She has a love for glue and if you are not careful she will empty a bottle for one little dot!

She decided to hang the wreath in her room and the leaves might not be around much longer because they are drying out fast.

Not only am I just hanging out with Sarah I'm teaching her about colors, shapes and other preschool things.

She is a smart little lady and I love spending the days with her while the big girls are in school.

A First for the First

A few years ago we told the girls when they turned 10 they would be allowed to sleep at a friends house (certain conditions will apply).

Well, Meghan is about 3 weeks older than one of her really good friends, so it worked out great when she received the invite to the sleep over party. Rob and I were a little nervous and we told her it was OK if she didn't want to stay after being there for a while.   I really think we were just saying that to make ourselves feel better...because Meghan was so excited about the over night trip. She mentioned to me a few times that she would be fine because she had stayed at Memom and Papa's without us before (kinda different, huh?!).

She had a BLAST!!  I'm so happy she went and had a great time.

They decorated cupcakes to bring home!

I know Meghan was beyond excited about cupcake decorating and she even has some ideas to share with us.

We took Jenna and Sarah to Ritters (ice cream spot) after we dropped off Meghan at A's house.

We had a quiet evening at home until Sarah started coughing too much and threw up all over the couch.

I'm still working on getting the smell out. Baking Soda is my friend!

Sunday afternoon the girls crafted and we all had a nice relaxing day at home.

Sarah said she didn't want a relaxing day...she wanted a happy day!

And finally...I wanted to post a little of our fall colors. Well, this is actually the neighbors tree..but still the beautiful color from our area.