Puppies!

These sweet puppies are so stinking cute!

They love to snuggle with each other- and love to ride with me to pick up the kids from school.  It's interesting the very distinct personalities they have...

Knight seems to be more playful and adventurous- the jump-before-he-looks type...

Duke is much more reserved and cautious, he was the one who wouldn't come out of the kennel when we picked them up- he is always unsure about going through a doorway, whereas Knight just bounds right through...

It really has done a lot to heal our hearts after losing "Old" Knight to have these pups!

We took a walk with the kids and puppies (and Buddy- we were dog sitting) on Mother's Day:

Ha ha, it's so funny to see buddy try to be dominant, he's got no spine though!

 Fortunately, they figured out their kennels and sleeping through the night fairly quickly!  They spend most of their time outside and happily chew on each other rather than the kids- which makes it much easier for the kids to play with them *phew*.  For now, they hang out near the house and don't explore too far, but I know we've got to get our underground fence in before they become more adventurous...

Just keepin' it real

Sometimes, this is just my life:

Laundry.

It's a task that is never done.  There is always more.  As my family has grown, the laundry has grown exponentially.  Ridiculous as it sounds, most days, I measure my fitfulness as a wife, mother, home maker by the level of completion of the laundry.  If I can get the clothes washed, dried, folded AND put away in a single day, it was a successful day.  Unfortunately, there are a lot of unsuccessful days *sigh*

Tea Anyone?

Wonderful Aunt Waveney sent Hailee an adorable little ceramic tea set for her birthday.  Initially, Hailee had some mixed emotions...

It was certainly girly looking... would her brothers accept it?  Or would they turn her against it...

Fortunately, they totally embraced it...

Even Bryson got in on the action:

They (Hailee AND her brothers) have initiated MANY tea parties since too *grin*  Thanks Waveney!

Hailee at age 5

Hailee was very confident that her birthday meant that she got special treatment!  She was pretty sure that McDonald's would definitely be on the agenda *grin*  I didn't disappoint:

Even though it was an overcast and windy day, she also requested going to the park:

We celebrated her birthday at home, which she was just fine with- she decided on french toast (with heavenly syrup!) for dinner, which is becoming quite the theme for birthday dinners amongst my kids.  She "helped" me frost her cake *grin*

This girl of mine keeps me on my toes- she sure doesn't fit into anyone Else's mold, that's for sure!  She loves to dress up, but not as a princess... she's rather be a wooka {construction worker}, a dentist, a pirate, a policeman, any of the Avengers, or someone really tough and strong- it cracks me up!  She is drawn to girl things, but really just admires them from a distance- no real desire to actually play with girly toys, especially if her brothers are around.

Hailee's favorites at age five- 
Favorite Color: Blue
Favorite Restaurant: McDonald's
Favorite Food: Apple, a sandwich and bisketti {spaghetti}
Favorite Drink: water
Favorite thing to do: play Elmo games {sesamestreet.com}
Best Friend: Bekah {her cousin Rebekah}
Favorite Movie: Veggie Tales
Favorite TV Show:  Veggie Tales
Favorite Toy: my Bilent {violin}
Favorite Animal: horse
Favorite Book: Star Wars
What she wants to be when she grows up: a mom {awwwww!}

Healing Broken Hearts

I don't know what spurred me to call, but the day after Knight died, I called the breeder that we got him from.  Through tears, I told her what had happened, she was sympathetic, and to my surprise, said that she had puppies that were 10 weeks old- Knights 1/2 brothers- and they were actually coming to Spokane from Seattle on Saturday to make things even more meant to be.  I really wanted to get two puppies.  Nathan really didn't.  My rationale was that they would keep each other company, get their puppy aggression and play biting out on each other (instead of our kids!) and sheesh, if I was potty training one, I may as well potty train two- get the puppy phase over for two puppies at the same time, right?!?  Nathan didn't agree... he didn't outright say no, just that he needed time to think about it.  So when I picked up 3 very sad boys from school on Thursday and told them that Knight didn't make it, I was so so happy to be able to tell them that we were getting another puppy... I didn't mention two, and I didn't tell them when, just "soon".  It went a long ways to help the healing process along.

Saturday came, and we piled the kids into the car because we needed to go to Walmart and then we were going to see some piglets- the breeders were bringing some piglets over to sell.  When we got out of the car and came around the side of the trailer, the breeder knew what we were there for.  He directed us to the front cargo area where we saw the kennel- the kids were in disbelief- we pulled out the first puppy (the kids later named him Knight), Eli actually had to climb into the kennel to pull the second one out, the poor puppy was so scared!  Nathan finally relented and agreed to both puppies- the kids couldn't believe it, so so happy!  The quickly all decided to name one Knight, and the other Duke.

We had to give them baths as soon as we got home because boy did they stink!  Like a pig farm... *ewwww*  But after they were clean we all just loved on them.

Bryson is holding Knight, Eli has Duke

Our "first" Knight (the kids now refer to him as "Old Knight") spent the first week away from his family with Scott and Dayna, and then with Sandy and Perry... by the time we got him, he slept in his kennel independently with little fuss.  But these pups were fresh from their mama- they whined for a good portion of the night.... hopefully they'll get over it quickly :\

Broken hearted

It was a busy day.  I had all the kids and we rushing out to them off at Eli's soccer practice then I had an appointment with Katrin to get pedicures for her birthday.  Knight, as usual was chasing the car... I never could decide if he was just a car chaser, or if he wanted to come along because he was lonely at home by himself.  Many many times I had to speed down the driveway trying to outrun him... this time, sadly, it didn't end well.

Bryson mentioned as we were rounding the corner onto the road, "mom, I think you hit Knight..."  I looked in my rear view mirror, and there he was, lying on the driveway... he didn't necessarily look hurt, but when I opened my door, I could hear him...  without going into more painful detail, he didn't make it.

My poor, broken hearted children.  I think every one of us cried ourselves to sleep that night.  I'm thankful that they don't blame me or that they aren't angry with me.  He really was a sweet puppy- was just starting to really settle down, and content to be where ever we were.  He was loved, he had a sweet life, albeit too short.

Nathan buried him the next day while the kids were at school. When they got home, they wrote messages to him on the back of the piece of granite that was left from our stove cut out and helped put rocks around it to preserve and mark his grave site.

It's just so hard to see my kids hurt like this- I know it's good for them to experience these emotions and we've had some really good discussions about love and life and death and Heavenly Father's plan for us.  I know that time will heal our broken hearts...

Marmaduke

Okay, so maybe he's not as big as a great dane, but Knight has gotten so big!  I guess he's out grown his bed?

He's becoming more 'manageable'- in that he's not so nippy on the kids- never has he been aggressive with them, but puppies need to chew and if that ends up being on my kids hand or ears, so be it :\

He graduated from puppy kindergarten a few weeks ago and pretty much has 'sit' and 'down' commands mastered... we still need to work on the rest.

Dallin had me bring him in for show and tell a few weeks ago- he did really well with all the kids!

April

THIS little girl is a hoot:

Spring soccer turned out just as uninspiring for her as fall was... she plays a fierce game, but only against herself!  On occasion, the ball would coincidentally roll in her general direction and she would suddenly spring to action and go after it... until the pack of girls came chasing the ball, then she would just veer off into her own game again.

Nathan coached Eli's soccer team again:

We're pretty sure this is Eli's last year playing- we try to limit the number of sports the kids play and Eli said he'd rather do baseball and wrestling.  This April was c.r.a.z.y and May is shaping up to be even busier with 2 kids in soccer, 2 in baseball and 1 in track...

Jace has become my big helper!  On mornings that Hailee has school, he is my little buddy and loves to mimic whatever I'm doing- this particular morning, I was folding laundry... he took it upon himself to help me by hanging some stuff up...

(it's Bryson's underwear *grin*)

Eli brought this treasure home from school:

{I love the drawing of our family!}

I have such good luck!

I know I am lucky because I love my family so muth.  I love Jace and Hailee and Dallin and Bryson and Jani and Nathan and my cousins.  My favrit cousins are Matt and Ryan and Jesse and Carson.

We discussed that it's not luck that Eli has, it's blessings from Heavenly Father!!