Princess Chirp!

So we’ve been chicken sitting for the past week.  Not just any chicken mind you….we’ve had the honor of watching Miss Princess Chirp, our “dog walker’s” pet.  This is a  long story that goes back to this summer and I can only say so much because I don’t really know who reads this blog.  Yes, we’ve had a dog walker (Chase’s new best friend really) since last summer.  We were not looking for one….. I think she basically hired herself!  Sophia, a very sweet and unique 11 year old neighbor friend, loves animals and adores Chase and comes over several times a week to walk him.  Well, a couple of months ago, she asked me if we could watch her chicken while she was out of town.  I guess I said yes, sort of hoping she would forget or find someone else to chicken sit over the next several weeks.  She didn’t forget and we’ve had the messy pleasure of watching “Princess” for over a week now.  Sophia is a very dedicated pet owner too and gave us a meticulous list of chores that went along with watching Princess.  These included changing out her cage daily (which by the way was non-existent…..we ended up using Chase’s old kennel!), changing her food and water daily, giving her daily exercise (but be careful by the pool b/c she can’t swim!), baths on Wednesdays and feathers blown dry, as she is susceptible to the chicken flu.  If she does develop a cough, we must take her to the vet right away and she also told us where we can buy more food, as the amount she brought wouldn’t last.  Thanks to Buddy, who has several chickens of his own, we were able to get a hold of some more chicken food.  I told her that I wasn’t comfortable giving her chicken a bath and would call her if she got sick, but agreed to the rest.  Princess has really made herself at home here and the kids have enjoyed having her around.

Chasing after Princess and playing in their fort.

Daddy painting Colbie’s nails!  He actually did a pretty good job!

We took the kids to the Fun Factory last night and had a blast.  We rode the bumper boats and Grayson & Blaine road the go carts.  These two monkeys were wrestling here in the play area.

Running around the miniature golf coarse.

My parents had us over for dinner a couple of weekends ago and I still can’t remember why or how this happened, but my mom came up with this crazy sticky-marshmallow-hands-MESS, and Grayson was clearly enjoying every minute of it!

We took my parents out to the desert last weekend to celebrate my Dad’s 64th Birthday!  Aside from the wind, it was an awesome weekend.  Happy Birthday Papa!

Blaine showed us all how to shoot clay pigeons, and we all got one!!  This was my mom’s and my first time ever shooting a shot gun!

Grayson got a chance to shoot his BB Gun.

We’ve begun the potty training process with Colbie this past week, and so far, she is doing really  well.  Having already done this once before, I don’t have any huge expectations and realize that it’s not going to happen overnight, but I have to admit, it is really nice having only used 4 diapers since Wednesday!  She likes wearing her “big girl panties” around the house, wears pull-ups when we go out and we still put her in a diaper at night.  Way to go Miss Colbie! 

Happy Campers!

Never say never!  This has to be my favorite motto, as it has proven true time and time again in my life!  But NEVER did I imagine that I would be the proud new owner of a camper trailer!  Blaine would correct me…. it is actually a toy hauler.  Most of you that know me know that camping is not and has never really been my thing.  Blaine has talked about getting a trailer for several years now, only to meet my many objections.  Well, he either caught me on a really good day or after a few glasses of wine, but I finally caved in to the idea, and I have to be honest, I am super excited about it now!  This brings camping to a whole new level with warm beds, a BATHROOM, warm baths at night for the kids, a kitchen to to cook in, heating, cooling…. you name it!  We have come a long ways from the summer in the sweet little Love Chariot!

Blaine brought it home at 2pm the Saturday before New Year’s and announced “we’re going camping!”  We packed it with everything we could think of, grabbed some food at the store and were out the door by 5!  We joined a group of friends out in the desert, luckily only about an hour from the house.  We ended up spending New Year’s out there and had a blast!  It definitely forced all of us to just SLOW DOWN, relax and enjoy each other’s company.  It was so fun for the kids to run around and explore, play with the other kids and roast marshmallows by the camp fire.  We’re looking forward to using it in the white mountains this summer and who knows where else we will take it! 

So never say never…..I am one happy camper now!

It was so nice not to have to worry about any cars out here.  The kids had a ball driving around the wide open spaces!

Chasers made himself right at home in the new camper!  Grayson buddied up with Chris, the son of one of the family’s that we camped with.

Uncle Ryan and Aunt Kim joined us for a day.  Colbie sharing her lunch with Aunt Kimmie!

I can’t believe I actually let my kids swing around a real coyote tail!  Looking back at these sort of makes me sick!  Could we get any more redneck?!

Playing with his new tablet before bed.

Checking out the beautiful sunrise!

…And just looking cute!

Grayson had his first couple of soccer games the past two Saturdays!  I wish I could say he loved it and it was going awesome, but I can’t lie.  To cut to the chase, we have a total drama mama on our hands, who loves to play at home and has fun at practice, but completely falls apart come game day!  He is so brutally shy at times and takes life so seriously already, so a part of me feels terrible and I wish so badly that I could make things easier for him.  On the flip side, he can be SO STUBBORN and so overly dramatic about things, he makes me want to pull my hair out!  While he did stay on the field for the whole game, it was painful to watch…. it was almost comical….. for anyone other than Blaine and I that is!  He looked so completely miserable….hands clasped, head down, pretend crying every time he caught our eye, and basically just pouting and shuffling around the field the entire time.  He had absolutely no interest in ever touching the ball.  Every once in a while, he would forget he was upset and for a moment, he would almost look like he was having fun, but then he would see us again and remember that he was supposed to be miserable.  If he wasn’t this way about everything, then we would probably just pull him and try again next year.  However, we STILL have melt downs every day we take him to school or to church or to anywhere we have to leave him on his own.  We’re going to finish the season out, continue the pep talks and positive thoughts and pray that by the end of it all, we will get to see our little guy loosen up and have SOME FUN! 

Family Pictures

I just wanted to get these in before I print my book.  We had some pictures taken in November for a Christmas card and I don’t think I ever posted them.

Colbie’s two year pictures! 

Fun to look back…. these were Grayson’s two year pictures ;)

And this is the handsome little man now!