A Winter walk

I got a new camera for Christmas and I've been having lots of fun playing around with it. Here are some photos we took on a walk yesterday. Most of them were taken by Ian.

Update

Sorry, no posts in so long. The longer I put off posting the more things I had to say in order to update everyone and the longer I knew it would take to sit down and post, so I just kept putting it off. Everything is going really well for us. The girls are both growing and we enjoy them so much. Luca is smiling now and cooing at us. She loves to be talked to and held but what baby doesn't. She is really a very content little girl. Nollie is growing and changing like crazy she talks so much now, repeating everything we say. She loves reading and looking at books, we probably spend half of her awake time doing this. Her second favorite activity is taking care of her babies, she likes rocking them, walking them and changing their diapers. Nollie lies to watch out for Luca, and wants to know where she is, asking "Aka? go?" (Translation: Where did Luca go?) She is now sleeping in a "big girl bed" and we've had no trouble at all with the transition into it. I can hear her playing in her room for a bit before she goes to sleep but she always goes back to her bed to sleep. The girls & I go to play groups several days a week in the mornings. Nollie gets to run and play with other kids and I get to sit and have coffee with other moms while we supervise. Both Nollie and I look enjoy it and Luca's along for the ride.

We have finally started construction on our house. Both Curt & I hoped it would get started sooner but of course everything takes longer that you think it will. We have the basement dug, footings poured and they are working on building the basement walls right now. Our house package has been ordered and we hope to get it by the end of January. Once we get the walls pushed up we can start working away inside, so exciting.

I'm getting ready for Christmas but I still have lots to do. I'd probably fall over from shock if I was actually ready for Christmas early one year. Here are some photos.

Halloween

New Bed


Luca Smile


I've been trying to get some photos of the girls together, not having much luck at getting a good one. I had to give Nollie a cracker in this one to keep her happy.

Luca Lynn Buchan

We had our baby girl Luca Lynn Buchan Saturday at 3:30 am. She was 8lb 8oz and 20 inches long. She has lots of auburn hair an is just cute as a button. Nollie is doing well and doesn't seem to have a problem with this baby in the house. She needs lots of extra cuddles from mom and has to cough when Luca coughs & cry when Luca cries but otherwise just keeps playing and doing her thing.

Family Photos

We took a few photos this weekend. Likely the last photos of our family of three. I am getting anxious to deliver. It could be any day, or it could be 5 weeks. I've been busy trying to get all the baby clothes washed and organized so that I'm ready to go. Nollie has been so much fun. Her vocabulary is growing every day and she is always attempting new words. And we got an offer on our house in Provost. It's not sold yet but there's an offer, yea!

Nollie Photo Shoot

Here are some new photos of Nollie playing in the yard. Notice the apple in her hand in nearly all of them. Every time we are outside she needs to eat an apple off the tree and they are the perfect size for her.





Our house in Provost is still on the market, but we have an accepted offer on 5 acres of land by the Whitby Hall about 10 miles from town. The land should be ours October 1st or shortly after if everything goes as planned.

Here's a photo of the land from the road (above) and from the back of the property (below)

Only 5 weeks left until baby number 2 is due to arrive so sometime in the next 7 weeks we will have the newest addition to our family. Pretty exciting!

Life in DV

We've been in DV now for about a week and I think we're settling in. We only really brought what we need to live at this point and luckily there haven't been many things yet that are still in Provost but I need here. Curtis is enjoying his new job though it looks like he will be quite busy. He's really excited about the people he's working with and what he is doing. Nollie seems to be adjusted quite well. I think it helps that she was used to Grandma & Grandpa's house already. Her crib and all her toys are here too so I'm sure that makes a difference. Besides it's pretty hard to be upset about living somewhere new when you get so much attention there. I am looking forward to seeing more of the family but it will take a while to get used to having everyone around and being able to hop over for a visit any time. I've gotten quite used to just hanging out alone and I'm not exactly the social butterfly that my sister is. Curt & I are still trying to gather information and make decisions on the house build but we need to wait to find out more about the land we have an offer on and our Realtor is out of the country until next week. The Provost home is on the market and just went in the paper this week, hopefully that helps move things along. We have a feeling it won't exactly be a quick sell. One sad thing that came from all this moving is we decided that we had to get rid or Rufis, he was just too high energy to be tied up all day so on the drive out I dropped him off at the SPCA. I hope that they are able to find him a good home with no cats to kill. Simon is doing well, since we keep him tied up I've been walking him twice a day and that is keeping me in good shape. We've been playing alot of fetch, I think he could just fetch all day long and not get tired of it. I realized that I haven't taken may pictures of Nollie lately and she's changing so much. I will be sure to take some this week and post them.

Things are Moving Along

We've been quite busy getting ready for the move back home. We spent a week cleaning and fixing up the house and yard. Our house is now on the market, hopefully it sells well. Last week we went to Drayton & Edmonton. We took our first load of stuff, put an offer on some land, did a bunch of home building research and went to a wedding. We are now back in Provost for another week of packing and cleaning up. This week shouldn't be as hectic as the previous couple, hopefully, we were starting to burn out. This weekend we will head back to Drayton again with another load and start living there. Curt will start his new job the following Monday. We will worry about moving the bulk of our furniture and belongings after the house sells since we will just have to store it anyway. That's the update, there's lots going on but my mind can't sort it all out to write a decent post.

We're Moving Home

Yes, that's right, we're moving back to DV. Curtis accepted a purchasing job with Apex while we were away on holidays. Now that we are back in Provost we have a lot of planning and organizing to do. We don't have an exact plan yet but we should be in Drayton before September. Curtis has left his notice here and will work the next 2 weeks, we want to do a little work on our place and then get it on the market to sell, hopefully that goes smoothly. The plan then is to move to Curt's parents, buy some land and build our own house. Yes, we are crazy, but is anyone really surprised by this? So our life right now is full of chaos and excitement. I will be busy organizing, cleaning, packing, doing projects around here, harvesting my garden, planning the purchase and development of land and building of a new house, taking care of Nollie and of course being pregnant. We are both excited to be back close to family, and before the baby is born too.

We had a great holiday, had some really hot weather and some rainy weather. Nollie traveled pretty well for a 1 year old that just wants to move all over the place. We tried to travel at night so that she would sleep. While we were away she perfected getting off the couch or bed backwards, she decided that she is now a walker, started saying more words, up, hot etc. and she has started grunting uh, uh, uh when she wants something. This is a little annoying but how else does she have to communicate? I'm trying to give her words to use (up and help) but it's not always easy and I don't always know what she wants. She enjoyed playing in the shallow water and sand at the beach but got scared and clung really tight if I held her in the deeper water. She wasn't too fond of her life jacket but I think she realized that she had to have it on in the boat because she didn't complain so much after a little while. Curt got lots of wake boarding and surfing in and I got to so swimming. Vacationing with family is great, with so many people to watch and entertain Nollie it actually felt like a break for me. Curt & I even took one night to go out for supper alone.

And, we caught the mouse while we were away, hopefully that is the only one, I haven't seen any signs of another.

A Mouse In The House

That's right, we have a mouse, the first on in the house in almost 2 years of living here. Monday I thought I saw a streak move across the kitchen, I passed it off as my imagination. Tuesday there was mouse poop on the counter, I guess he liked the leftover cake sitting out. I went to town that day and got some traps and poison. Last night we were watching a movie and it was running across the living room. We brought the cats into the house but no luck there, they just wanted to run around and play with eachother. Hopefully something works soon, it's kind-of grossing me out. I've been cleaning up like crazy both to get rid of the mouse poop and to get rid of any crumbs that it may be feasting on. I won't worry about it too much though, we're leaving on holidays tomorrow and that's way more exciting to think about.

Where is our happy little girl?

Curt & I have been wondering this last week where our happy little girl has gone. Nollie normally has a great big smile on her face, will play happily alone, eats well, and is easy going. This last week she has been needy, crabby, sensitive not eating much and crying all the time. She is working on her eye teeth and her molars all at the same time here so I'm assuming that is what's bothering her. I have tried out the teething tablets (thanks Michelle) and they do seen to help. I find myself counting down until nap time so I can have a break. It's made us realize how lucky we have been with Nollie and makes us worry how we will cope if we get a high needs, sensitive baby (if you have enough kids you're likely to get at least one.) For now we're just giving her lots of cuddles and lots of attention and crossing our fingers that it will pass before we go on vacation in a couple weeks.

On a more positive note this long weekend we had amazing weather. It was the first weekend in a long time that both Curt & I were home and didn't have other plans. Curt was on call, so we had to stick around but that worked well for us. We were able to get a few things done around the ranch that we've been meaning to do. Curt got a chance to work on his bike. He bought this motorbike about 3 years ago and has been taking it all apart, fixing it up and putting it back together. We got all the grass cut and got the weeds sprayed. Our driveway was starting to look like part of our lawn with the amount of weeds growing in it. I did some weeding in the garden (this is endless, I feel like I mention it every post), with the heat and Nollie this is a slow process. We even took a break to go to the lake for a swim. It was Curt's Birthday on Friday so Happy 27th Birthday to him.

The previous weekend was a busy one for us. It was the "Smash & Splash" in town (monster trucks, mud bogs, etc). This is the town's big event and also the place that Curt's Lawn Tractor races were to take place. On Friday we went to a free BBQ put on by the town, watched some mud bogs, Nollie saw her first Fireworks. It was a late night since the Lawn Tractor races were not until after midnight. The races were well worth the wait, the whole crowd loved them. I wish I would have video taped them but I thought it would be too dark to really capture it. Mud bogs is not a great place for an little girl to sleep but she finally did at about 11:30, much past her bedtime. Saturday Morning we had a pancake breakfast & then Curt was driving his Lawn Tractor in the Parade. After the parade we rushed out of town and drove out to the DV area. My grandparents were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. We got to join in the celebration and spend a bunch of time with family. The slide show that I prepared for them went off without a hitch. More family time the next day and Curt took an extra day off work so that we could go visit with his parents. It was great to finally get out to see everyone.

So that's what's been happening in our life lately. Baby number two is doing well and I am enjoying all the kicks. I am now 26 weeks, almost in my 3rd trimester and feeling great.

Rainy Days

There's nothing like a couple rainy days to work on inside projects. Sunday it rained hard and steady all day long and yesterday it started raining after lunch (seconds after I got my clothes off the line) and rained into the evening. I used this time to finish up a few tasks that needed to be completed in the house, a slide show for my grandparents 50th anniversary, some scrapbooking etc. If it wern't for the computer I could have been so much more productive though. We've decided to turn off the satellite for the summer because really who needs to be sitting inside watching TV when it's nice out. My extra time has however been spent on the computer, not exactly what I had in mind. While I'm on the computer Nollie keeps herself busy pulling books off the shelf, taking CD's out of cases, flipping through magazines, pulling anything off the desk she can reach and if I let her she'd be chewing on the computer cords under the desk, so when computer time is over I usually have a monster mess to clean up in the computer room. That's my payment I guess, plus Nollie can only handle so much of me being on the computer before she gets antsy so she prevents me from getting stuck for too long.

I went to Wainwright for groceries yesterday and stuck to my budget. I knew exactly what I needed to buy and had a good idea of how much everything would cost and at the end of the trip my total was dead on. Nollie stayed happy through both Walmart & Extra Foods and my $15 off coupon covered my gas to get there so all in all it was a great trip. It's too sad that a trip to Walmart & Extra Foods is an exciting day out for me.

Conscious Living

I've been trying to live more consciously lately. Conscious of the energy I'm using, conscious of the money I'm spending, of the chemicals I'm using, etc. I already use cloth diapers, hang my clothes to dry when I can, plant a vegetable garden, replace burnt out bulbs with CFL's and I'm not a big spender for the most part. There is however always room for improvement. I've since gone through the house and unplugged anything not in use, I put the TV, DVD Player, Nintendo, satellite on a power bar and turn it off when not in use (they all use power even when their off.) I'm cutting back on my trips to town to save on gas, I bought cloth bags for grocery shopping, I subscribed for e-billing on any bills that I could to cut down on paper, I've been looking into natural cleaners. I've started a price book to keep better track of grocery prices (I can never remember what items cost so when I see a sale or see it at another store I'm not sure if it's a good deal). Just today I took out a needle and thread and sewed up the seam on my slippers that had come apart rather than ditching them for a new pair. I'm always looking for new ways to save money or cut down on waste, energy, gas etc. but I'm always looking for the easy way I'm not willing to go out and make big change like some of the people who's blogs I've been reading. The "No Impact Man" has shut off his electricity, given up all plastic (I still haven't figured that one out I mean it's virtually everywhere), eats only items grown locally, doesn't drive or even take public transit anywhere, and I believe he's given up toilet paper, the list goes on. It's only for a year but how many other people would do it. There's another group trying to reduce their carbon emissions to 90% below the American average. Less electricity, water, garbage, gas, eating locally, less consumer goods. I'm not going that far but reading about their journey inspires me to make my own small changes.

Dog Dish

Here's a new photo of Nollie from yesterday. She was crawling around at my feet as I hung the clothes on the line and she crawled right into the dog dish and sat down. Too cute.

Summer Fun

We've been enjoying the sunshine and trying out some new activities. We picked up an old swing set from some friends who were moving. Nollie just loves the swing and giggles away as we push her. I'm not sure if I should be worried by this but she tries to climb up the slide already. She doesn't like the feeling of the grass so she doesn't go far off her blanket outside but I'm sure that when she figures out this walking thing she'll move around alot more. She still tries out walking but doesn't get more than one or two steps without falling. We got a little pool and enjoyed some splash time on the deck. Nollie also got to try her first corn on the cob. You should have seen the look on her face when she bit into it and it tasted good, she got quite excited.

Curt is still spending lots of time with the "Provost County Lawn Choppers" fixing up his machine. Maybe he's just hanging out b.s.'ing with the guys, but he's enjoying himself so that's ok with me. I'm continually working on the yard, it seems to be an endless task on an acreage. My garden is coming up, but so are the weeds, so I'll have to work on them before they get out of control. I started many flowers and plants from seeds again this year. The plants have done better than last year but I've still got a long way to go. I look at all the plants at the garden centers and green houses and they just look so much better. Mine look so week and many of them don't survive the transplant to the outside. Oh well, I'm learning alot and watching the seedlings sprout up inside is my favorite part. No one really sees my flower beds anyway so it's not a big deal. I'll just keep trying and learning. I'd really like to have a greenhouse to start my plants. Maybe for next year.

So much to do in the spring

I've not posted lately because I've been outside enjoying the weather. My to do list is about 3 pages long and I'm slowly working through it. My garden has been tilled up and I have most of it in. If it drys up enough I should get the last of it in tomorrow. I've been starting plants indoors pruning and edging around trees, fixing flower beds, cutting the lawn and just sitting outside enjoying the weather. We were able to burn the old quansit that blew over rather than hauling all the wood to the dump and we're trying to keep the yard clean from all the garbage the dogs haul into it.

Despite the gloomy weather forecast we decided to go camping this long weekend. We had a good time although it was quite cold in the tent on Friday night, I'm sure it dipped below zero. Getting Nollie to sleep in the tent was a little tricky, all she wanted to do was crawl around and explore not lay down and sleep. Nollie had fun playing in the park and being entertained by all the other kids but she was so excited to get home and be free to just crawl around and play, too much time in the stroller.

Nollie has decided that she is brave enough to start taking steps. So far it's only been one step and then she falls over but I know it won't be long. Se kept trying several times last night just letting go of the couch and taking a step. We got 3 new kittens a little while ago. We are hoping to get Rufis trained so that he doesn't get them. He's much better now than with the last batch but I know that if they were running free he would snap them up. Curt's been busy working on his lawn tractor. He and a couple other guys decided that their project for the summer would be to fix up and race old lawn tractors. We've found a use for our corals as they will become the new race track for the tractors. Curt's been in town several nights a week working on the tractors and they've been out here to try them out once. So life has been pretty busy and entertaining around the ranch lately. Oh and this baby moves around like crazy, always flipping around in my belly. Hope you're enjoying your spring time.

Facebook Addiction

I Think I may be addicted to Facebook.com. For those of you who aren't on Facebook it's just another way to find and stay connected with your friends. Share photos, information about yourself etc. I am constantly checking to see if there are any new people on or any updates. Plus with the thought of my 10 year high school reunion coming up next year I'm getting a little curious about what everyone has been up to. Maybe I should ease off a little though. I'm sure there haven't been any updates in the last 5 minutes.

West Ed on a Saturday

These words alone should be enough to send shivers up your spine, then lets add a little girl into the mix YIKES. Curt had a hockey tournament for his work at West Ed on Saturday. There was a family skate at one point, I needed to get some sandals, and I wanted to just wander around the mall since Curt hates the place and we would never come otherwise. Nollie and I only went for about 3 1/2 hours. We had a skate, went for lunch and I got my sandals but that was really it. I think it would have been better with the stroller than the carrier because that way she would have likely fallen asleep, but I didn't want to have to worry about maneuvering with my big stroller. Thank goodness Linda & Andre live so close to the mall because I was able to hang out there for the rest of the day. Thanks to Andre & Linda for watching Nollie during the supper. I was happy to know that she didn't scream bloody murder without her mom there.

Biking

I was so excited to pick up a new bike seat for Nollie last weekend in the city. I now have no excuses and I should be out biking every day. Nollie and I have taken a few bike rides in the last few days, I think she likes it. I'm a little out of shape though so I have to slowly work up to going any distance. I'll have to get Curt to take a picture of us on the bike, I'll bet we look pretty cute.

Spring Gardening Bug

I've got the gardening bug and the weather yesterday just amplified it. This week I started some seeds and bulbs inside the house. I tried this last year and it didn't work out as well as I had envisioned but I think I have a better idea of what I'm doing this year. Nollie adds a new challenge because I have to keep all the plants in a sunny window but out of her reach. Yesterday I went out to stir up my front bed and add some peat moss, this was slightly challenging since I'm not quite sure where all of the bulbs I planted last year are and I don't want to disturb them, maybe I should just wait a bit. While playing in my front bed thought I noticed that some of my tulips are coming up. I wasn't sure if the bulbs were good or not so this is very exciting, plus tulips are my favorite flower. I'm excited for this nice weather in the next week. I hope to get the yard cleaned up (the dogs are continually dragging garbage, animal carcasses and bones etc into the yard, not to mention the poop everywhere) and start to work on my garden. Curtis is going to try to fix up an old rototiller that was left in one of the sheds and then we can till up the garden and be ready for planting. Oh I love spring! Now I have to find some things to keep Nollie occupied and out of trouble while I work/play outside. Yesterday we went for a walk after lunch and then she slept in her stroller for a couple hours while I worked away outside. When she woke up I let her play in the grass but I have to worry about what she's picking up and eating off the lawn and she doesn't seem to stay entertained for that long on the grass. I think it's tough for her to move around with wet pants, coat, hat, outdoor shoes etc on. We'll have to figure it out because we will be spending lots of time outside this summer. The sun is shining, there is no wind and Nollie is having a nap, what am I doing on the computer. Ciao

Happy Easter

I hope everyone had a great Easter weekend. We stayed around the ranch, Curt was on call and Grandma & Grandpa Buchan came down. Nollie had a fun time playing with her easter eggs and bucket and even got a few tastes of chocolate. We spent most of Saturday outside tearing apart the old quansit that blew over. It felt awesome to be outside, get some exercise, fresh air and complete the task.

A Full Nights Sleep

We've had four full nights in a row of Nollie sleeping in her crib with no waking up. She never did sleep through the night from the time she was born but lately it seemed to be getting worse. She was waking up more often and wanting to eat for longer. As much as I wanted to avoid formula I started giving her a bottle at night before bed and it seems to be doing the trick.

Quinn has been down visiting us for the week. It's good to get a chance to visit with him. Nollie has a good time playing with him and makes the sign for puppy when she see's him, maybe it's his hair. There has been lots of Nintendo Wii playing and of course I have to get in a board game or two.

Nollie is crawling all over, following me from room to room and pulling herself up to walk along the furniture. She plays really well by herself and can sit for an hour playing with her toy or looking at her books. She is such a happy little girl, always smiling and laughing. I must say we got off pretty easy so far with her. What will the next one bring???

Here's a new video to check out

Baby Number Two

It's official, baby number two is on the way. I went for my ultrasound this week and we could see the little heart beat. I'm about 10 weeks now and will be due October 11thish. This puts Nollie and the baby 15 months apart. We are really quite excited.
I've been feeling pretty good, a little blah, and tired and Curt might say a little moody but otherwise good.

Nollie is turning into a busy little girl, She wants to see and touch everything. She crawls around all over now, sometimes on her hands and knees and othertimes just dragging and pushing herself on her stomach. She has pulled herself up on things but not too often although if she is standing on the edge of the couch she can move along it pretty easily. You can not just hold her on your lap on the couch anymore, she has got to be crawling all over everything and checking things out, I think we're going to have a climber. The cutest thing is that when the phone rings she looks around and says "hewow". She also did her first baby sign the other day. She signed dog when they were at the window. This is the sign I have been most consistent about doing so it has encouraged me to work a little more on some of the other signs. Anyway we are having fun here on the ranch. Have a great day!

Dawson Photos

I'm an Aunty

Congrats to Courtney & Ryan on the birth of their baby girl.
Dawson Ryan
Born March 2, 2007
6Lb 14oz
18" long

I'm going out to see the little angel tomorrow so the pictures will be coming.

1'st shirt for Nollie

I finally took a picture of the first shirt that I sewed for Nollie. It was a little sloppy on the ribbing around the neck and arms but it was my first time trying this so that's OK. I think the embroidery fancies it up though. I haven't had a chance to sit down and sew anything else yet, where does the time go? Hopefully in the next few weeks I can get down to the sewing room again. I should take advantage of the remainder of winter before it's warm out and I want to spend all of my time in the garden.

Happy Birthday to Me!!

26 Years old today. I don't have any plans for the day maybe I'll read a little bit, play with my daughter and hang out with the family.

Swimming

This weekend we decided we wanted to get out of the house and do something different so we drove to Wainwright to go swimming. It was Nollie's first time swimming and I think she had a good time. It also gave me a chance to swim a few lengths of the pool. That is one thing I really miss living in Provost is access to an indoor pool. With Walmart opening up in Wainwright though I may be taking a few more trips that way, so Nollie and I can go swimming again. I forgot my camera, so no photos of Nollie in her swimsuit. Here is a Picture of Nollie with her hair done for the first time. She looks like such a little girl.

Been a long time

I'm back home now after visiting my family last week. It was great to get a visit with everyone. It's crazy how much Nollie changed in just a few days. We had so many new tricks to show dad when we got home. Nollie learned how to wave "hi", how to clap "yeah" and has been walking around holding our hands. She popped another tooth (that makes 6). And in the last week she got to try cookies and donuts (thanks to the grandparents). I'm working on getting another video to put up. It will be coming soon. I'm making bread today and it smells so good, I can't wait until it is ready. And I'm getting sick and tired of the winter. I just want it to be nice out so I can go outside.

Nollie's New Potty

Here's Nollie hanging out on her new potty. She seems to like this better than the big toilet.

A Week In The Bathroom

Caution! Some may find this to be too much information.

It all started on Tuesday. I was watching Nollie concentrating quite hard obviously having a bowel movement and I wondered why was watching her go in her diaper only to clean it up later. In an instant I scooped her up and off we went to the toilet. She had already started in her diaper but she finished her poop in the toilet. How awesome is this, pooping in the toilet is much better to clean up than poop that has been squished around in a diaper for some time. Two days later I caught her next bm before she had even started to go and it all went in the toilet, virtually no clean up. I've been trying to catch her pee's as well but that's a little more tricky. By the time I notice she's usually done. I have been sucessful however at catching some pee's, usually the one's right after she wakes up. For the most part she gets a kick out of going both #1 & #2 in the toilet giving a big smile afterwords.

I've since spent some time doing research on infant potty training (aka elimination communication, natural infant hygiene or going diaper free). This method is used in many cultures from birth and involves watching for cues that your baby has to go and then holding them over the toilet. It is something I heard about before but never saw myself doing. It really does take alot of time and attention. I've spent much of my week either holding Nollie over the toilet or watching her to see if she's going to go. Now I don't think I will go all out diaper free but if I can catch a few poops and pees in the toilet that would be great. So I have a little toilet on order and Nollie's spending alot of time with no clothes on her lower half. We will teach her the sign for toilet and try to catch as much as we can. We just caught another pee & poo in the toilet while writing this.

56 km/h

56 km/h, not really all that fast. Just above the speed limit in town, half of highway speed. But I'm not talking about driving speed, I'm talking about wind speed. That is what it was like on the ranch this morning. You could hear the wind blowing all night. Even the locals thought it was windy today. Our patio furniture was slowly moving across our deck and I was starting to feel like Dorthy on the Wizard of Oz. Oh how I miss the protection of trees. I guess it will be an inside day.

The sun is shining bright though. All of this sunshine lately has got me thinking of Spring. I have been getting inspired to spring clean, organize and decorate. It's like I know that we're over the hump of winter and on the way back to long warm sunny days. It seems to have boosted my energy level, but maybe it's just the espresso maker I got from Jeff for Christmas that's boosting my energy, zzzing.

Laughter

I was playing around today. Check this Video of Nollie out. It's pretty cute, I wouldn't pass it up.

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas season. That you ate lots and spent time with your families. We had a great trip home. It was very busy running from one place to the next. Thank you to everyone who housed us, fed us, cleaned up after us and put up with our dogs. Yes, we brought our dogs with us, it was just too long to leave them alone. I became one of the people that I would look at and think "what is their problem?" I sat in the back seat while my Rufis rode shotgun. Wouldn't you just look into a car like that and shake your head. I just didn't trust him to sit next to Nollie the whole way. Nollie got a big kick out of Simon sitting next to her in the car, she giggled and gave him some pokes and hair pulls. Bringing the dogs along was a great way to keep active over the holidays though. We tried to walk them two to three times a day since they were tied up the whole time. There is no way I ever would have gone out that much without them. And I'm so glad the weather was so wonderfull, it would not have been fun if it was -30 outside. Nollie grew and changed so much in the time that we were gone. She started giving hugs and kisses (open mouth slobbers on the face), she started putting her arms up when she wanted to be picked up, she started eating solid food. So much fun. I've spent this week trying to get the house all put back together, laundry done, etc. It's only been partially successful but I'm getting there. I can see the entire kitchen table, completey cleaned off, its a wonderful sight. Happy Weekend to all.
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Congrats to Court & Ryan on their engagement