The Sweetest Dog Ever

Piper is our dog that we got as a puppy right after Cady was born. I will admit that was my idea and it was definitely a "what in the world was I thinking?" moment! I really thought that house training her wouldn't be hard while I was home on maternity leave with Cady! I chuckle everytime I think about that! I can also still hear Colin saying, "I told you so".

Part Black Lab, part Border Collie, Piper was given to us by a friend of mine. I remember her being the prettiest one there with the white socks on her feet and the white on her chest. She was also very playful. We let Colton pick her out and were glad when he chose her. We were actually supposed to get her before we had Cady, but since Cady came 2 weeks early, things got put on hold until after I was settled at home with her.

Poor thing didn't get much attention at first, though. I know puppies are adorable, but it is pretty hard to compete with a newborn baby girl!! That may be why she was so difficult at first. She didn't catch on to the house training as quickly as our other dog, Stormie, had. She also seemed to dig and chew way more than any other dog (looking back, I am sure that was a cry for attention). When she got bigger, she also began getting out of our yard and wandering through the neighborhood, even running into a skunk and getting sprayed a couple of times. All of this caused Colin and I to decide to try and give her away to a family who could give her more attention. Once, I even went as far as to send an email out to everyone I could think of who might want her. I got one family very interested in her, but neither Colin nor I could bring ourselves to get rid of her. We knew she was a very sweet dog and that she really belonged with us.

Piper will turn 3-years old the end of May, and we are so thankful that she is still part of our family. We have never seen a dog want to cuddle like she does! When she comes in at night, she will lay her chin on your lap and just look at you with her loving eyes. She also likes to lift a paw and set it on us, too. As long as she is touching one of us, or one of us is touching her, she is a happy dog. She still digs in the backyard, but not as much as she used to. She stays in the yard now and the house training has not been an issue for a couple of years. She loves the kids and tolerates Cady putting her blankets on her and laying on her a lot better than our older dog, Stormie, who just gets up and goes to the back bedroom. Colton also spends more time loving on her and throwing balls for her in the backyard now, and she finally grew on Stormie, too.

We are thankful that we kept Piper around and look forward to having her here with us for many more years, especially seeing Stormie age and knowing that, at almost 11 years, we don't have a whole lot more time with her. I will try and get some good pictures of Stormie this week. She wasn't feeling the "Kodak Moment" like Piper was the other day!!

Our Butterfly and Angel Garden

I don't know what it is, but now that I am staying home with the kids, I am really into gardening!! I have always enjoyed planting flowers in the spring, but I usually would forget or not want to water them. Thanks to Colin, they always survived the summer!! This year, I am on the ball! I look forward to going out and watering them - especially in the morning before it gets hot. Spending mid-morning outdoors just feels good to me, and of course, anytime outdoors is fine with Cady.

A few weeks ago, the kids and I spent a Sunday afternoon and transformed a small area in our front yard into a Butterfly and Angel Garden. We researched plants that attract butterflies and added two more lantanas (I planted 2 a few years ago that come back each spring). We also used the whiskey barrels and old metal bucket that were already there, and two new pots from Sam's and filled them with zinnias, marigolds, pansies and petunias. We purchased 3 strawberry plants and planted them in some old clay pots. The kids' favorite part was helping fill the new planters halfway with dirt before filling the rest up with soil!

I took both of them shopping to Hobby Lobby (a place I normally prefer to visit alone) and let them help pick out some garden picks and a birdhouse. They chose 4 different butterflies for the smaller pots and a large flower pick to go straight in the ground. For the larger planters, Cady and I were excited to find angel picks at Dollar Tree, where I also found wooden birdhouses for each of them to paint. Colton made his look like a barn, while Cady stuck with pastel colors. They had fun painting them, and I like how they look in the garden.

Colton added his rock ladybug he painted at school, and I added the one I made about 8 years ago, that I had used as a paper weight when I was working. They look really cute sitting on the big rocks out there!

The next day, we painted a cute caterpillar (idea from Family Fun) using decorative garden bricks. The stripes were a little tricky for them, but they really got into painting the body yellow! It came out real cute. In fact, when my grandma first saw it, she asked if we got it from Hobby Lobby!!

I bought Cady her own little watering can and she helps me keep everything watered - especially the smaller planters that dry out faster.

We have several more ideas for decorations that we will work on soon, and I am planning to get a birdbath to add sometime. I will post pics of the new decorations as we complete them! The lantana are just beginning to bloom, so hopefully we will begin to see butterflies soon. I will have my camera waiting! What I love most, is that others seem to be enjoying it as well. Last week, our mail carrier gave us lots of compliments on it when she dropped off a package and said it makes her day everytime she sees it. Even if we don't see a single butterfly, it was all worth it if it makes people smile!!

Great Times Spent with Family and Friends

Another weekend come and gone, but it was a good one! As many of you know, we enjoy shooting our bows at 3D Archery Shoots, along with my parents and brother and his family. Now that I am not the 4-H Agent anymore and have more time, we are excited to be getting more serious about it!

This weekend was the annual shoot at Leasburg State Park, just 20 minutes from our house. Not only were my parents here, but my brother and sister-in-law and niece and nephew came from Tucson, along with my parent's neighbor and our good friend, Dave. My uncle owns a beautiful piece of property right across from the shoot and said my parents and Dave could set up their campers there. Colin and I decided we would, too, so we could spend more time with everyone. It felt a little silly to haul our trailer 20 minutes down the road, but it was definitely worth it!!

There was a huge pile of sand there next to the campers and the kids really had a ball there, and so did my dad and brother! They buried Colton up to his armpits on Friday night, and then buried him again, along with Mckaela on Saturday night, this time up to their necks almost!

Cady has always loved to play in the sand, and you could find her there most of the time while we were at the camp. We brought buckets and shovels from the house and her cousin, Trevor, would join her from time to time. Cady is really in her element when we are doing things outdoors. She really enjoys it and doesn't care that she is filthy dirty, as you can tell from the picture! She still likes girly things like painted toe nails and dresses, too, though, and I like that she is a "happy medium"!

Trevor turns 2 on Monday, so on Saturday, we had a birthday party at the campsite for him. His other grandparents (my brother's in-laws, Waynette and Leroy) came and joined us for most of the weekend and it is always nice to see them. Grandma Mary came out on Saturday night for the party, as well as friends of Jeff's and Tammi's from college, and Michael, Sherri and the girls (Michael had been out there with us all day, as he shot with us for the first time) - so we really had quite a party!! I cannot believe he is already 2!! It was a lot of fun to help him celebrate! Here are a few pictures from the party. In the second one, he is trying to hide in the tablecloth while we are all singing "Happy Birthday" to him! It was pretty cute!

We also had a cake to celebrate my mom's birthday in mid-April, Tammi's dad's birthday this next week, and my gramma's and dad's birthdays in a couple of weeks. I don't think anyone minded having two cakes to choose from!!

Another great thing about the weekend was, of course, seeing our new niece/cousin, Jaycelyn, again! She has grown so much and was 8 weeks old today! Still has those chubby cheeks and is just beautiful. She is also a very happy and easy going baby. Colton was very excited to be able to hold her again!

As for the shoot itself, we all shot well, but more importantly, had a great time. It was fun to have Michael with us and he did great for his first shoot!! We look forward to having him shoot with us again and are excited to know that Mckaela would like to start shooting as well. I will keep working on Sherri, but I know not to hold my breath!! She has said she might like to walk some of the courses with us, so that is better than nothing, but I will keep bugging!!

Colton shoots as a PeeWee which I believe usually starts at age 2 and goes to around 9. They always give all the PeeWee's some sort of recognition and in the past he has won ribbons, toys and medals from the various bow shoots he's competed in. Today, though, he won his first archery trophy!! All the PeeWee's recieved one, but there were 3 different sizes and he won one of the middle ones, which must have meant his score was about the middle. Pretty good for a 6-year old. You can tell from the picture that he is pretty pleased! We have all enjoyed watching him progress from the simple, little, red bow that Jeff shot as a kid, to his very first compound bow that his Papa Jimmy and Gramma Suzy gave him for Christmas. Now the old red bow is being passed down to Cady and Trevor and in a couple of years, Jaycelyn. How exciting!!

Thanks to all my wonderful family and friends for making it such a great weekend. It is always so hard to say goodbye, but with this just being the start of "bow shoot season", we have lots more to look forward too!!

A Major Breakthrough!!

As some of you may know, I have been having a very hard time potty-training Cady. Not that I had been pushing it very hard - she hasn't been remotely interested in it at all and I have always heard not to push them too hard. Well, she is only three months away from turning 3 and this week I decided to get serious! Colton was so easy, even though they say boys are harder. He was potty trained in a week, right after turning two. I guess that is why I am having such a hard time with Cady, huh?

Yesterday morning was rough!! I wouldn't let her wear a Pull-Up (disposable training pants for those of you who may not ever have had to deal with this) and instead, made her wear regular panties. She hated it. She wouldn't leave the potty out of fear of wetting without a Pull-Up to catch it. That wouldn't have been bad, except that she wouldn't go in the potty chair either, even after almost 3 hours of sitting on it off and on (mostly on). Finally, at 11, I checked and there was a tiny drop in there and I made a huge deal about it and told her to finish and how proud I was. She, instead of being excited, started crying. Hard. It was like torture to her to pee in her potty!! She was deliberately holding it in - how crazy was that?? Well, I started to cry, too, because I felt so bad for her. After a few minutes of us both sobbing (and no more pee), I let her get up and much to her relief, I put a Pull-Up on her and then I held her and rocked her and told her how proud I was of her (remember the tiny drop?) Not even a minute after putting on her Pull-Up, she finally let the rest of it go. After her nap, it was back to panties for the rest of the day and we had accident after accident, but nothing exciting in the potty.

Well, as hard as it was, I knew I needed to stick with it today, so first thing this morning I put her on her potty chair. Much to my surprise, she didn't fight it! After Monday, I wasn't sure it would be that easy. Five minutes later she called me and with a lot of excitement in her voice, told me she went. I checked, and sure enough - she did and it was much, much more than the drop the day before!! I was SO EXCITED and we started doing a happy dance all around the living room and I gave her lots of hugs and kisses and let her pick a treat from the "Big Girl Bag" as I named it 2 months ago when I thought bribery might help. In the two months since I had the bag, this was the first time she got to pick a prize. Colton was still home at that time, and I have to tell you how proud I was of him - without me saying anything, he told Cady, "Good girl, Sister" a few times and gave her a big hug. I think I was as proud of him for helping to make a big deal out of it as I was that she finally went to the bathroom in her potty chair!! A few minutes later, as we made our way to the Tahoe to take Colton to school, Cady told me, "I'm so happy, Mama!"

Well, it is now 4:30 and although there have been 2 accidents, she has gone in her potty chair 9 Times today!!!! By George, I think she finally has it figured out!! Plus, we were gone for two hours this morning for our weekly shopping trip and she managed to keep her panties bone dry, even with a Pull-Up over it (hey - we were out and about - I'm not crazy)! She picked out new Tinkerbell panties at Wal-Mart as a treat!!

As you can tell from the length of this post, I am one very excited Mama!! For those of you who stuck it out and read it to the very end - Thank You! I will try to steer clear of the words "pee," "panties," and "potty chair" in future posts!!

I really hate to post without pictures, so here is one of our "big girl" taken before church earlier this month.

FINALLY! A Loose Tooth!

Up until today, Colton has been feeling like he was the only 6-year old in the world who hasn't lost a tooth yet. He even has witnessed 2 of his friends pull teeth - one at his 6th birthday sleepover (yes - in his very own house) and one yesterday at baseball camp. Just about every day he asks one of us to wiggle his teeth and every day we tell him the same thing, "Just keep wiggling them, kiddo. You will lose one soon!" That is not very comforting to a 6-year -old!

All that changed today, I am happy to announce!! While sitting at the dining room table, eating a wonderful Sunday dinner of steaks and corn-on-the-cob, Colton said his tooth was hurting. A few minutes later he got real excited and said his tooth was loose and told me to check. Sure enough - it moved! I think Colin and I were as excited as he was!! Needless to say, he didn't finish the rest of his dinner because his finger was in his mouth just a wiggling away!

I will keep everyone posted on the status of his tooth (I am sure you will all be on pins and needles until you hear it comes out - ha! ha!). In the meantime, I thought I would share this picture with you that I snapped immediately after the "big discovery". It may be one of the last photos of Colton with all his baby teeth for a while!! Enjoy!!

T-Ball Camp

On Saturday, Colton and 8 of his other t-ball teammates, participated in a t-ball camp at Mesilla Valley Christian Schools. The baseball players took time out of their weekend to give the kids a few pointers on the game and play with them. They all had fun and learned a lot, but it was a long, hot day, as I am sure you can tell by the pictures of Colton. I took these at about 1:30 or 2 in the afternoon, and they had been there since 9 that morning! I am sure they were all dragging the rest of the day! I know Colton was!

For The Birds!

Those who know me well know that I love to do crafts. I grew up with a crafty mom and I am grateful to her for all the things she taught me, but mostly all the time we spent together making things. I am trying to pass that love for crafts on to my children, too. I am addicted to the magazine, Family Fun, and like it even more than my scrapbooking and celebrity gossip magazines, which is saying a lot!! It is full of great craft ideas, recipes, games, party ideas and vacation tips and suggestions. I go through each issue and tear out all the great ideas and put them into a huge 3-ring binder (their website is great, too)! Last week, I began going through and picking out all the things I want to do with the kids when Colton gets out of school this summer and I am so excited! In fact, I was so excited that I picked some to do now, most of which go along with our gardening projects and are perfect for Spring.


Colton had the day off of school yesterday (a snow day, that unfortunately didn't get used during the winter) and after going to watch Nim's Island (wonderful movie, by the way) with their Nana and some friends, we came home and made 2 of these cool birdfeeders I found in Family Fun. They are made from a 1-liter bottle and wooden spoons. It didn't say to paint the spoons, but we thought they would look better with more color. We hung them up right away in the front yard, worried that the dogs would scare the birds away in the back. All evening, until it got dark, we watched for birds, but much to our disappointment (mainly mine) we never saw any dining on our birdfeeder.

Today, however, while Cady was eating her lunch, I looked out the front window and saw not one, but two, little birds feasting on the birdseed. I picked Cady up and showed her and we were so excited and moved so quickly, that they saw us and flew away before I could grab my camera. After putting her down for a nap, though, I saw that the pretty one with the red head and chest was there eating again, so I quietly grabbed my camera and snuck up to the window and snapped some shots. As I am writing this, there is already 1/3 of the birdseed missing out of one of the feeders, so hopefully that means that we will keep having birds visit. I will take more pictures if we have any different kinds!

Thanks to all who check my blog regularly! The kids and I love reading your comments!!

Tombaugh Kinder Invades White Sands!

On Friday, Cady and I accompanied Colton on a field trip to White Sands. All 6 Kinder classes went, so you can imagine how many 5 and 6 year olds were there, not to mention all the younger siblings. It was a lot of fun, though, and the weather was perfect! They had many discs there for them to slide down the dunes on and even Cady joined in on the fun. She would ride with Colton and have a smile on her face about half way down and then, by the time they got to the bottom, would start crying. By the time she had climbed half-way up the hill, she would tell Colton, "Let's do it again, Bubba"! It was the funniest thing.



Colton had a great time sliding down with his best friend at school, Taylor. They wiped out several times, but their smiles never left their faces!!

I am thankful I was able to join him and look forward to many more field trips with him and Cady in the future!!

Friday Night with the Wiggles!

On Friday evening we, along with the Hamricks, took the kids to El Paso to see the Wiggles' in their Pop Goes the Wiggles show. We mainly did it for Cady and Mckynze because Colton and Mckaela have it in their heads that they are too old to like the Wiggles. Colin wasn't really looking forward to it, either, to tell you the truth, but he even said it was fun, although I don't think he would admit that to anyone else!

The evening got off to a rocky start, though, because they wouldn't let Sherri and I take our cameras in! They classified all dSLR cameras as professional, which is really dumb!! I did snap this one of Mckynze and Cady right before going in, though (Colton and Mckaela didn't want their pictures taken, little turkeys)!



Then, when we got in and were waiting for Colin and Michael to take the cameras back to the vehicle, Cady, who was very excited, was jumping up and down and slipped, hitting her chin on the hard concrete floor. It started bleeding and I ran her into the bathroom to try and get it to stop. It was just a scrape, but it wouldn't stop bleeding so Michael went to the medic's station and got us a band-aid. It might have been better that I didn't have my camera, because she looked silly with that huge fabric bandage over her chin!!

Finally, the show started and we had great seats (thanks, Sherri)! They sang all of our favorites ("Hot Potato, Hot Potato," "Fruit Salad," and "The Big Red Car" just to name a few) and we saw Dorothy the Dinosaur, Wags the Dog, Henry the Octopus, Captain Feathersword and the Wiggly Dancers. We really liked Sam, the new yellow Wiggle (Greg's replacement, for those of you who know "Wiggle-talk"). Those guys really enjoy what they do and the neat thing is a lot of the show was ad-libbed which kept it fresh and new. There were a few times when one of them would crack up at something and wouldn't be able to talk right away! Cady, Mckynze and even Mckaela were singing, clapping and dancing along, and even though he wouldn't admit it, we did catch Colton singing along, too!!

Since I don't have any pictures from the actual concert, I took some of Cady with her Dorothy the Dinosaur bucket hat that she got as a souvenir. She loves hats, anyway, but especially this one since it has Dorothy on it. She has already gotten a lot of use out of it this weekend as we worked out in the garden. She burns so easily, even with sunscreen, that I know it was money well spent!! Not only that, but she looks so darn cute in it (sorry, that was a "Mama Moment")!!

April Fool's!!

I decided to pull an April Fool's trick on Colton this year! I know - what a mean Mama, huh? He actually got something out of it, though, so it really wasn't that mean. On Tuesday, when we returned home after picking him up from school, I told him that I had a surprise for him and Cady. I handed him a gift bag and tried not to snicker as he pulled out a thing of wipes, a bar of soap, two bottles of water and a roll of toilet paper!! By the time he got to the toilet paper, though, he figured it out and with a little amusement and a lot of annoyance in his voice, he said, "April Fool's".




He seemed a little disappointed so I then pulled out another bag and told him to try that one and watched his face light up when he found a new book and the new Alvin and the Chipmunk's movie!

Don't worry, I would have never done it if I hadn't have had a real present to give him! I am not that cruel. Hope all of you survived April Fool's Day without anyone tricking you too bad!!