Life if Beautiful!

Hello Everybody! I haven't written an up-date in a long time! My last post was about our new dog Drake. Well, he's gone. We traded him for a new model because he was slightly aggressive with the children; although, I did like him. He was a very intelligent dog! We now have a "French Alaskan" as Grandma Rae put it. His name is Sunday, which is our favorite day of the week, and he's a thirteen week old Pookimo. Now you're wondering "What in the world is a Pookimo?" Well...he's an Poodle Eskimo mix - hence the "French Alaskan." Sunday's a good puppy, but he's going to start thinking the block's his territory if we don't do something about the yard soon. Supposedly, he's really smart, but we'll see. I just hope he stops chewing on things soon!

Since my camera is broken, I pulled this picture of Sunday from his add on ksl. He's the little guy on the right. I think his sister, little black dog on the left, is still for sale. She's a cutie and I'm considering getting her too. But, if you want to buy her, go for it!

O.K., so enough about the dog. We are all doing really good!

Christina has been potty training this week. Hooray! She's afraid to pee pee in the potty, but she still tries. Today, she was sitting on the potty trying and trying and trying. You could tell. She looked down, looked up at me a little confused, and looked back down exclaiming "It's stuck in there!" Then she paused for a second and said "It's coming!" and jumped down. She never went. She loves the dog and is training him. "Sit, stay, come, down, don't jump!, don't bite!, good boy are all things she says to him. She's also teaching him to jump up to her hand. Christina likes giving him treats when he is good. They get each other so riled up, which would be fine, except Sunday has the teeth of a wolf; and being a puppy, likes to nip.

Alex is figuring all sorts of things out. He loves being out side, playing with his sisters, going down the slide, and playing with cars. He likes the dog, as long as it's not licking his face. We got him off his binki this week! Yeah! No more binkis! (It's just one less thing for the dog to chew). What a brave little boy!

Mercedes is a social butterfly that only comes home when her friends come over. Actually, they're here a lot, so I'm glad. She enjoys her bike, playing at the Bee Hive Home, and visiting with Grandpa Rod. She is also an extremely big helper, and is very excited to start Kindergarden on Monday. Oh the joys of homeschooling! She will begin Kindergarden and Christina will begin Preschool! Hooray!

Jake was up all night with a migraine. Poor guy! It started coming on last night when we were on the way to Arby's for a Unit Check and a lawn mow. (I mow their lawn). Mercedes did her best to help him though. She got him stuffed animals to sleep with, a "Puke Bucket," and sang him songs while he laid on the bed. Besides that, he is doing good. Work is getting slow, but what can you expect right now. He bought some posts to put up a simple fence for me. I can't wait! He's also really enjoying his calling right now. It's nice that he has scouts that actually want to work on scouts. He loves it! And, he's excited for basket ball to start in two weeks, because he'll get to go play with his "brothers." The other thing Jake's going to do is start school next semester. For now, he's going to continue his degree in Accounting and Business Management. I'm excited for him.

I've been busy too! I started Institute this last week. I'm not going to lie, it was a little weird. Five years ago, when I was in college, that was just life. I want to graduate from Institute, which is why I'm going, but I don't really fit in with the other students because a lot changes in five years. I'm hoping to go to school next semester, too. We'll just have to see. I've been busy canning tomatoes and green beans, 'cause that's what we have. We've eaten zucchini, watermelon, pumpkin, corn, tomatoes, beans, peppers, green onion, and raspberries from our garden this year. They are so yummy! The neighbor behind us said they were surprised at how well our "first attempt at gardening" has gone. Actually, last year was our first attempt, and we won't even go there. Jake and I also planted an apple and a pear tree. I made a grid on our side yard. Do you know how many fruit trees we can plant there? 14! It'll be AWESOME!!! We'll have our own little orchard!

So that's it...the kids are good. Canning is good. The dog is good, sort of. Jake will be better tomorrow for sure. Life is good - definitely has it's challenges - but it's good.

I hope everything's good for you too!