Pine-wood Derby

Another pine-wood derby has come & gone (thank goodness!!) This year Chase's idea was a great white shark. It turned out awesome. I took a million photos of the dang thing, and my camera kept focusing on the crap behind the car, so you can't see a clean shot, but it's mouth has nails for teeth, that Chase painted red, cause he wanted it to be bloody!  I'm not sure what he placed, (not 1st-3rd) but he had a blast, and that's all that matters.

A new addition

I saw this cute dog at the park one day and made the mistake of talking about it at dinner. We had a new puppy by lunch the next day. When we get an idea in our heads {ahem... Scott's head} we don't mess around.

This is ANNIE!

 She is half Labrador Retriever, half Shetlin Sheep Dog. So far she's favoring the sheep dog in size and stature, but the Lab in hair (thank goodness)! We got her from the humane society, her and 4 of her siblings were brought in because their owner was very old and couldn't take care of them (or so they said) they said she was approximately 10 weeks old.  She is the sweetest little thing and for the most part very calm (a very welcome trait after having crazy Cooper for the last 11 years!)

 She pretty much rules the roost around here!

 And she's got everyone wrapped around her little finger (well if she had a little finger that is) and is it just my imagination or is she smiling here?

She has nearly doubled in size since we brought her home a month ago. She is now the size of Cooper although much thinner, and is not afraid to take him on. He treats her like a pesky little sister, but I think he enjoys having her around.

 She has started overlapping her ears when she's thinking, it's kindof strange but cute.  This picture here, she sat with Sienna and read a whole book. She kept cocking her head, while looking at the pictures, like she was really understanding, it was quite hilarious.

I've already seen her "heard" the kids while playing in the yard with them. I hope that she'll be a good dog to take camping, one that will help keep the kiddos out of danger.  

She's really smart, and has almost mastered going potty outside, although we have to respond quite quick. She doesn't have much bladder capacity yet!  But she's sleeping through the night and i couldn't ask for more than that. The first 4 nights I felt like she was worse than having a newborn around.  She loves Scott and just sits and cuddles with him. He babies her and takes care of her, and tends to all her needs. I figure he is welcome to do that, I have to do that to the 3 human children living with us, I don't need another person on my lap!

Tanner's birthday!

Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures, but Tanner also had a birthday. He turned the big 7!  I hid 7 presents throughout the house and sent him on a scavenger hunt, each with a clue that told something we love about him. It’s probably just middle child syndrome, but he really needs to hear how and why we love him often (I mean, everyone want to hear they are loved, but Tanner needs it a little more often) I think he had a good day, and I found the last clue (a big sign that said We love love love you) taped to his wall later. He got several little things, but the highlights were water color paints from Grandma Dial, money from Grandma Mortensen, and a remote control truck from us (that he broke with-in 4 hours of owning- Thank goodness for a good return policy, we are now on our 3^rd, they just don’t make those things like they used to)

There are a lot of things we love about Tanner. He can be the most kind, loving, helpful brother & friend. But tick him off and you will see a little Demon come out. He is very sensitive to the needs of others, and will often times give up something he wanted, to make someone happy. Other days though, you can’t mess with him. We had an incident the other day where he was sent to the principal for hitting. My first reaction was like “What the heck??!?” But after talking to him, this little punk cut in line at recess and stole his swing, he refused to get off and so he punched him.  I wasn’t necessarily praising it, but he stood up for himself, instead of being a doormat, so I guess for that I’m grateful!

Tanner doesn’t have very many things that he is passionate about. Baseball was boring, Karate was lame, Basketball was just ok. But ART on the other hand, he lives for. He loves to draw, color, paint, craft, etc. Any of it. And ALL DAY LONG!  I recently found out about one of the schools in our district that starts a pretty heavy art program in 5^th grade. They have to submit their portfolio and all that crazy business to get in. If he continues in this path, I’m going to seriously consider moving him there when the time comes.

He’s doing good in school and I’ve seen a huge improvement in the last few months. Reading finally just clicked in his head and his confidence while doing it has grown by leaps and bounds.  

Baseball season

 In the last two months Tanner started machine pitch baseball. I think he had fun, it's always hard to tell. He hit the ball EVERY TIME he got up to bat, which was totally awesome, but the rest of it, the waiting for other people to hit the ball so that he could run the bases, and the being in out field, about bored him to death. Once he got to be catcher, which he was really excited for, until he got up there, and kept getting hit by the ball. He told me after that if he had to do that again, he was never coming back to baseball again.  His team was the Golden Knights, and he got a trophy and a pizza party at the end, so all in all I think he enjoyed the season. We'll see if he wants to do it again next year.

What's been going on...

Apparently, I don't update my blog frequently enough for my dad. I mean, come on. It's only been 2 months!

A lot has happened in the last 2 months, so let's get caught up, shall we?

This little girl turned the big 3!

 Her new "Princess Dress" from Grandma

 Her new babies, which both make way too much noise. This was prior to the much needed haircut in the previous post.

 She also got a big girl bed. I hadn't really planned on moving her to a big girl bed quite yet, but I had a mattress fall into my hands so we figured why not. She loves it!  Also, the blanket was one that my Grandma made for my mom. I used to use it too. She loves it!

Don't forget the cake!  I made her the yummiest "poke" cake. It was red velvet cake, I poked holes through out the cake and poured cheesecake pudding on top, then after that set up, we topped it with cool whip and crushed oreo's. It was divine! (Thank you pinterest)

And in honor of her 3rd birthday, I finally printed her baby picture and put it on the wall. So she's official now!  I have a little feet cross stitch thing in the works for the top half of the frame. I promise to have that done by her 4th birthday!

Sienna is such a fun part of our family. She is feisty, and loves to tease. She loves to fight (wrestle) and is quick to jump in to save someone if they are being attacked. I think we can say she's 99% potty trained. I can't say 100% yet because she refuses to use ANYONE elses toilet but our own.  It makes it challenging because we can't go anywhere for any length of time. She hasn't really had any accidents while we've been out though, cause she can hold it for hours!! We did have a small victory when she used the potty at the park last week. It involved alot of crying and threatening on my part. But she finally did it, clinging to me like she was going to be flushed away.   

She's starting to talk a little more clearly, although she WILL NOT talk to anyone but us. They say in Nursery she's never said a word and she's been in there now for 20 months, every Sunday.   I have friends who promise me their kids were that anti-social as little ones too and they grew out of it, I'll just hold to that promise, praying that she isn't clung to my leg for the rest of her life!   Her newest phrases are "Meet you there" (when I tell her to go play in her room) and "Phew! That was a close one!" (when she barely makes it to the potty). She's also my little shadow and won't let ANYONE do ANYTHING for her. Only MOMMY!  It's getting a little old. People say she'll grow out of that too, and I can only pray that it happens sooner than later. 

She has this quirky thing that she says that we can not figure out for the life of us. She's done it for a while now, but she'll say "2-5-6". She says it when she wants to know where we are, or when she seems to be tired. She'll say it when it seems like she wants to tell us hello, or that she loves us. It seems like she's using it as a term of endearment.  We just respond back "2-5-6" and she walks away happy. It's one of those things that I'll probably never understand but want to remember as one of her quirky ways. Scott has taken to teasing her now, responding "No, 3-5-7" She looks at him like he's absolutely crazy and then makes him say it right. She's an odd duck, that one! But, oh how we love her!!