Squirrel's declaration

It is I, the Squirrel cat. While they are all goo-gooing all over the crying poop machine, I have been working on my ability to type, therefore I am taking over the blog. (not like she is on here that often, anyway....what is this "facebook" crap??) Upon initial glance, I see very little reference to me on this here blog, while the stupid blond mutt is named in the title. This angers the Squirrel cat. I must leave to go defile something of hers now. (and forget receiving any of my "gifts" for awhile too, lady - it is too cold to hunt and they are obviously not appreciated).

And the little blond terror chasing me around, claiming "I am not going to get you, cat"??? NOT cool.

and then there were 4

Somebunny is in LOVE

with being a big sister.

an important announcement

Introducing the newest member of our family, Maxwell James. Maxwell joined our family on December 28, 2011 at 9 lbs, 6 ozs and 20.5 inches long. Contrary to the picture shows, Max is a good, content baby but he does have a hearty head of blond hair and some strong lungs, when he chooses to exercise them. Our hearts are full of joy as we welcome Max and get to know each other.

We might not be around on the blog so much, but when we do make our appearance - we do it in style. Halloween 2011 style, as pictured below with our western themed family members.

"I am not your mom. Wrigley ate your mom."

I am hoping I can find a picture to upload to enhance this wrigley/mackenzie interaction. Mackenzie has recently fallen in love with Barbies and plays with them frequently. Alas, this means that there are often Barbie's laying around our house. And this leaves plenty of opportunity for a certain orally fixated dog to engage in some munching on Barbie. Therefore, we have an overly abundant population of "special need" Barbie's in our car. Barbie's that are missing one or both arms and/or legs. And every time another Barbie suffers a major catastrophe, they are mourned by a certain little girl. Loss of the one and only Ken doll - aka her boyfriend, "Justin Beaver" warranted crying ourselves to sleep one night. However, all Barbies are still loved and played with around here and therefore lead to overhearing the sound byte conversation of one Barbie to another: "hi mom!" "I am not your mom - Wrigley ate your mom. I am your aunt."

sweet feet

a sneak peak at the cute little toes of newest member of our family, set to arrive this winter.

This is specially for Val....

So rewind with me a few monthes back, to spring time preparations.....Grandma Jane decided to try her hand at an Easter egg color schemed tutu. In attempting to perfect the final product, she needed a model.....see photo. The opportunity to march around in a tutu is reminiscent of the classic movie Ace Ventura, as in the touring the mental hospital facility when he plays foot ball with himself, then yells "halftime!" and goes to take a nap on a bench. Parts of that may have been reacted during the tutu finalization......
Fast forward to this past week, when Ace Ventura quotes have been flying around rampatently. Many of the world's problems could be solved simply by quoting good ol' Ace - "if I am not back in 5 minutes.....just wait longer!"

change in domain name??

Introducing Wrigley,
aka Wrigs, Wriggles, Mrs. Wrigglesworth, Wrigley Rue, Damnit NO Wrigley.

We will not be changing the domain name, but it is important to note we have welcomed Wrigley into our family with open arms. Wrigley is a 10 month old pure bred German Shephard and came to us with a unique story.

Solider returns from Middle East in summer of 2010, decides to adopt dog with brother, who he lives with - gets female German Shepherd puppy. Names her Wrigley, due to their allegiance to Cubs baseball. Fast forward a few monthes and brother gets deployed, leaving one brother in college and living college life to tend to well loved and adored Wrigley. However, enough hours in the day do not allow for adequate focus on puppy Wrigley and school studies, so new home was sought. Enter Jamey. We had given some distant thought to getting another dog "someday". Jamey has always loved German Shepherds. We are quite content with Foster and our busy lives, but when email reached me about German Shepherd puppy needing a home - I forwarded it. Jamey and Mac were the first people to call about WRigley and first to go and meet her. And they were smitten with her immediately. Including Mackenzie praying that night for Wrigley to come live at our house. :) Foster and I went to make introductions and Wrigely joined the family. Adjusting to life with a puppy, albeit a large one, is a bit of a challenge, especially because we have become so spoiled by what a mellow, laid back, low maintenance and EASY dog Foster has grown into. Wrigley has most certainly "puppy-ed up" the Fos-man!! We joked about the alpha battle raging upon her entry into the family and too bad she is trying to battle Foster, who is Zeta, the farthest thing from the alpha. Jamey and I are learnign how to deal with the nature of the German Shepherd breed, which is a learning experience. Especially for the cats. And when we introduce Wriggles to the new electric fence (and shock collar) later this week. :) I would be amiss to not point out that the animals in our family now outnumber the people by one. Proof positive we are animal lovers, but we are done for now!!

I do NOT need a reminder about just how long it is has been since I posted anything. Blogger took care of that for all of you when they wouldn't let me in my account due to long period of inactivity. But have no fear, we are back!!! And if you are a facebook friend, you know we are doing just fine around here, simply busy. But the blog, aka digital scrapbook for busy mom, needs to be updated to reflect the current happenings in our family. See above. The other good news is that I am doing really well and enjoying my graduate classes (knock on wood), which are the main interuption to blog service. :)

Happy Halloween 2010

she shoots, she scores

A new boyfriend

So hopefully you all remember Mackenzie's "main man", aka the local meterologist. Well, come this October - he has some stiff competition. Meet Mr. Bones - the newest boyfriend. Mackenzie had originally told Grandma Jane that she needed to buy a skeleton to "freak Grandpa out". Ask and ye shall receive, young little Jane - as Walmart had a wonderful 3 foot one in stock. (And we all know how Grandma Jane LOVES Walmart.)

So next time Mackenzie visits - true love is born. Mr. Bones is incredibly well loved & cared for, and can even makes phone calls to me!!

Grandma reports that the young lovers ate a nice private dinner together, sharing some quaint conversation, then Mr. Bones sat on the stool to watch Mackenzie take a bath before they snuggled in for a quiet night in bed. The next morning, the adventure continued - including some driving lessons. (One lesson did include how NOT to be the roadkill)

Apparently, Mr. Bones is quite a delicate fellow,as so much love for him did cause him some leg break.

But a quick kiss (& return trip to Walmart) fixed it.

That Mr. Bones - what a chap! Only sorry I didn't get pics of Mr. Bones posed in teh chair, wearing a hat - courtesy of Grandpa.

a whole bunch of favorites!

It is that time of year again!! yes, I have gone away and been locked away scrapbooking all weekend!! Which means I have finished products to showcase for my scrapbooking friends & other interested parties, but that also means I make you play my idea of a fun game. I will tell you a little bit behind each of the challenges presented to create the following layouts, to help you better judge them. I will also tell you that there was one selected winner in the bunch. I am curious as to what YOUR guess is re: the winner!!!! Without further adiu.....

not really a challenge, but 2 of the pages I created to showcase Mackenzie's Gma Jane tendicies.

The "mystery" challenge included having to use a mystery item - which turned out to be the large red heart doilie you see as the photo frame. On the small coordinating page to the left, the large red heart is also cut from the inside of the doilie that I carefully removed to make the photo frame.

a layout about love that does NOT use traditional love colors

dust off your stash - no using of anything new to produce a 2 page layout - must be items from your stash. I even broke out the old cutting system. :)

Not so ordinary usages for items - use items in a unique way, such as the snow flake as the letter "o". Use of the word "snow" for "so" may also be argued....

"All you need is Love" - a page incorporating this title and theme

Line it up - straight lines are key and must include 6 chipboard letters, 5 buttons, 2 journaling spots and 3 pictures.

Author inspired - a page borrowing a quote or line from a favorite song or author.

I will be anxiously awaiting your guesses!!! :) - Cara

"Eye Donut No"

I don't know where she comes up with these things, but here are a few of my personal faves from the past week.

**Mackenzie offered me one of her mini donuts for breakfast. I politely declined and explained that donuts are not a regular part of my diet. She responded "only the donuts at the gas station are on your diet." Yes, she is speaking of my addiction to Casey's donuts, that I didn't think was that obvious (especially because I can't remember the last time I had one!!!!)

**When Grandma Jane bid her farewell, she commented "I sure enjoy having you around Mackenzie". To which she received teh response "I know - it is because I don't die much" Thank goodness for that, although part of me wonders where she got this idea.....

re-enrolling

Oh my - I know it has been a while since I forgot the password to log in to the blog. :( But have no fear - we are all re-enrolled and ready to go. And not just for blogging either!! Grad class for me is in full swing and keeping me busy busy busy on top of the other daily responsiblities of life, work & family. Adding to those responsiblities was "re-enrolling" Mackenzie in daycare, after she decided to UNENROLL HERSELF - including telling all of her friends good-bye!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Suffice to say, that one was a shocker. However, everyone does get a good chuckle out of the story and have I been told I need to document it to make sure to have it for later - so here-in a perfect blog entry is born......

Awhile back, Mackenzie accompanied me to drop some things off at her former daycare provider (and my friend)'s house and was in 7th heaven. We stayed, chatted, etc but resumed normal daily activities, which included the super busy start to back to school for me. Due to that and the previously noted graduate classes - Grandma Jane has been getting LOTS of quality time with her blond girlfriend. This does include some drop-offs and pick-ups at daycare, depending on my schedule. One such morning, I was calling in to daycare to report a later drop-off from Grandma Jane when the conversation turned to the "well....I was hoping we could talk about this in person", where Mackenzie's current (& wonderful) day care provider inquired as to our current level of satisfaction, then making mention of Mackenzie's impending move from her car.

?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!??????????????????????!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

That pretty much accurately sums up my thoughts upon hearing that and I inquired what she was refering to, while deeply fearing that we may be being asked to leave. :( After some discussions, we learned that dear little Mackenzie had taken it upon herself to inform everyone at daycare of her intent to depart their company and return to her previous provider. Sadly, she did not consult any of the powers that be in that decision - but did wisely bait & switch her current provider by saying "my mommy says she will talk to you about it real soon". Which played in perfectly with my overly busy schedule and could help explain my lack of appearances at daycare. So after a few minutes of discussions - this was all cleared up and Mackenzie was assured to maintain her current daycare placement while we all had a few laughs. However, her father & I SHUDDER to think that she attempted to drop out of daycare before she is even 4!

Meet "Smarthy'

You may remembe him by a different name, but in Mackenzie's world - he is Smarthy. and she loves him. Mac & Smarthy became acquainted awhile ago when she fell in love with a rhinestone studded shirt with Smarthy's picture on it and HAD TO HAVE IT. Guess you could say it was love @ first fashion. :) Hoping to get a pic of Mac in said shirt soon as well to share. Until then, enjoy Smarthy.

Once in a lifetime: zoo experience

"Look at the turtles wrestle! I think they are fighting."

During our trip to the zoo in Des Moines, we were all a little surprised to witness the turtle wrestling and listen to the accompanying turtle moaning. But it was an educational experience, as up until that point, I was unaware of the reproductive procedures for tortoises. And it definitely made its mark on Mackenzie, as not pictured is her ACTING IT OUT for Grandma Jane, complete with sound effects.

Camel Toe

"Aunt Kate's favorite part of the camel is it's toe. And I rode on a camel that had one hump." She has no idea the hidden meanings that can be gathered from these statements.

Incognito

Yes, I imagine after delay in bloggging you suspected we were incognito around here.

Not really - just busy but now back to blogging.

Some of the incognito words overheard from Mackenzie recently:

• "My daddy GLITTERS all the time." - no, he does not sparkle and shine but instead not get his trash into proper recepticales.
• "Someone had dropped a GOOSE." - reported from a recent trip to the men's room with her father - there was not a literal goose in the toilet, but a #2 sometimes referred to as a deuce.
• "I wish I had SKUNK beds like Gracie." - I suspect Gracie's bed smells fresh and clean but Mackenzie is instead referring to a set of beds that sits one on top of the other, aka top & bottom bunks.

thanks for holding

"Parents hold their children's hands for a little while, and their hearts forever." (One of Grandma Jane's fave quotes)