Puppy Play

Two of our favorite friends have a seeing-eye dog.

And we love her. She is such a good dog!

More importantly, Ava and her are great pals too!

It was great entertainment to watch them play,

one would putter out,

the other encourage her on,

tug of war with the rope-ball,

puppy-boxing,

and Emi (the black lab) even pounded her paw on the floor to tease Ava to get up and play again!

Two smart dogs.  I wonder what they said to eachother all night.

What personalities!

And they are SO much alike, too.

Monster Mash

Our family was invited to a Halloween Party!

One of the games was to make a monster out of a bag of leftover things they had around the house.

Dane and his group thought to use the bag itself!

Pretty crazy, eh?

(I'm wishing I knew what Ava was thinking in this picture... ha ha ha)

Snow is Actually Catnip for Dogs

As soon as we let Ava out for the morning to relieve herself after all night,

Ava had more gusto than normal...

There was SNOW!  She did her business and then ran and galloped in the snow!

And ate the snow!

All day, she'd keep whining at the door wanting to go back out to play again once she warmed up enough inside.

Ooooh.. and when she found her toy under the snow, it was double the fun!

She's sooo cute!

Winter Fun!

Our first snow of the season!!!

And great snow man snow, to boot!

Myanna and Porter didn't let the cold and wet keep them from enjoying it!

They came in and asked for things to make their snow'girl'.

Pink scarf means girl, see?

Tumbling Tumble Weeds

Maybe I haven't mentioned this before.

It is WINDY here in Saratoga Springs.

(It does seem to ring a bell, though.)

And the latest wind storm brought tons of tumble weeds around the neighborhood.

(Ava's favorite toy!)

The kids told me to come and see the garage...

I said, "That's crazy!  Now go clean it up!"

(Would you believe that the kids actually grabbed the weeds and put them in there themselves?!  Good thing I made them clean it up! ha ha)

Ava, Take Your Pill!

Ever wonder how to get your dog to take a pill?

I didn't think it'd be a big deal...

Peanut butter? - 

(creamy PB, she still chewed up the pill)

Maybe chunky would've been better.

Shove it in the side of her mouth and hold her head up...

nope.

Okay, maybe the receptionist at the Vet's Office knew something about it.

Cottage Cheese.

Down like a dream.

Porter's First Lost Tooth

For a while now, we've noticed a tooth popping in behind Porter's bottom front teeth.

(I'm thinking 'Great.  All three kids are going to need braces.)

And wouldn't you know it!

Out pops Porter's FIRST loose tooth!

ECSTATIC!

(He's finally BIG like his sisters!)

:)

Green Swamp Juice

Our latest craze on the road to HEALTH!

We're trying to eat more vegetables and fiber,

so we started drinking some green smoothies.

We've dubbed them 'Swamp Juice'

and are waiting to turn into ogres like Shrek!
(Porter has quite a way to go! he he)

'Dew' Dogs Need Extra Claws?

We took Ava in to the Vet in Provo to get her Dew Claws taken care of.

(Happy Birthday, Ava!

Sorry, not your favorite present, eh?)

It was funny when she came out of surgery.

She was all wobbly and mopey.

(I don't think she liked us for the next few days.)

Her first bandages were actually blue.

She licked them right down her hock.

But it was the third day when they said we could take them off, so lucky us - It was ok.

Ava had been so sad and mopey but she was healing well, so I let her go play with Tootsie, Ava's neighbor pal.  

Well, Ava was quite spirited after being cooped up for so long,

and I think she tore out one of her stitches.

I put on some butterfly stitches (which was awkward with her fur) and bandaged them up again.

The problem was she kept licking the bandages right off!

ERGH.

So I finally put some chili powder paste on it.

Kept it on well enough, it did.

Tomorrow, she goes to get her stitches out.

BUT...

No crazy running still, little miss over-achiever.

Debany, the Star!

Debany and her first presentation

for her theater class was

on the 5th of November!

Presenting Dotty Duck

(Debany's on the left)

and Tonya Turtle

(Debany's on the right)

She did a GREAT job!

(I'm biased, what are ya going to do about it.)

:)

Hee Haw Farms 2012

We took a field trip to the farm!

Our first stop was the petting area...

The goats had a special place in my heart. 

I used to raise them in high school.

:)

Especially the pregnant pygmi.

The girls were so fascinated by the fact there was a baby goat in there!  

he he he 

There was a lot going on all the time...

here this goat is trying to say its prayers while the other goat is trying to take away the food of this unsuspecting girl.

("Do I want the 'corn cob ' or the 'corn dog'... 

they sound so much alike, I wish I paid more attention in nutrition class.")

And the little piggies were SOOO cute!

(Can I take one home?! )

There were the big pigs too!  

Not my kids... they were looking at ginormopig in the pen.

That is Myanna on the left. 

(More on her red hair later...) 

See?  Aren't the piglets just CUTE???

Now we just need to grease them!

Porter made quite a few friends to pet.

And now I am pleased to say...

I am the surprised parent of Debany the pig, Porter the horse, and Myanna the sheep.

Thank you Hee Haw Farms.

Myanna shows off the 3 slides:

Burlap sack slide

rolling PVC pipe slide

and the

tube slide.

And no farm trip is complete without the tractor hay ride.

Again, that's Myanna in the red hair, and Debany in the purple hat.

We tried to get lost in the corn field... 

But someone told us to keep turning right and we ended up back where we started.

I see Porter wanting one of these in the near future.

Ditto for Debany.  

:)

On Myanna's Hair...

She asked me if she could wear the wig on our field trip.

At first it was an obvious and resounding, 

"NO.  Why in the world would you ask me that kid?"

Then I was thinking, she does look really cute in that wig.

Then my 'no' became: 

"You know, you are pretty cute in that wig... ok.

Just this once." 

The funny part was that we knew some of the people there at the farm.

And they kept saying, "I LOVE you're daughter's red hair!"

Then they realized who she was.

That was fun!

Debany's Theater Teacher!!!

For those of you young'uns who recognize the book

'Flat Stanley'...

We got to go to the Scera Theater where they put together a 

musical play about it!

What a treat!  

And we got some sweet kettle corn, too!

So Stanley was flat because of a wish...

Makes you more careful of what you wish for, eh?

After the show, you got to write your very own wish and put it on the wish board.

 CAN'T pass up chatting with the actors afterwards!

And the BEST part of it all...

Debany knew the main actor.

Her theater teacher!!!

And to top it all off, she was doing all the dance moves her teacher showed her from class all through the show.

(He told her to.  News to us!)

(P.S.  They were VERY creative on making him flat!)