Two Years

Well, I was listening to my little girl chattering away today, and I don't know why but I thought "I need to get some pictures of her at this age." I have a picture of Wyatt and Lila at age two, but when Piper turned two in December, there just wasn't time on the schedule for a trip to the Target portrait studio (where we normally go). So here they are - her "official" two year pics... no waiting to get to a studio... let's just go out on the back patio. It's worked for us before. 

I told her she could bring along "Tay Bear" as she calls him. It looks like this little furry friend is going to be her George... he goes EVERYWHERE with her. She looks kind of indignant in this picture, but I think I just caught her talking. She talks constantly. Not all of her sounds are correct yet, but that just adds to the cuteness :) Like today when she tried to squeeze through the dining room chair, and I heard, "Mommy! Me tuck! Help me! Me tuck!" (She got herself free before I could assist - or get my camera!)

So sweet.

This is one happy camper. I mean, she can be so (very) stubborn sometimes and gets upset occasionally when she doesn't get her way, but in general, her mood is always happy. Happy when she wakes up, happy in the car when we take Lila and Wyatt to school and back, happy as she chatters constantly around the house, happy when it's bedtime. 

Just happy!

This is the face I get if I ask her to smile.

This bucket has been a great photo prop... not sure I'll be able to squeeze her in there next year though :)

Back to the Blog

Wow, it's been a long time since I updated this blog. Four months! A lot has happened since I was on here... Wyatt's birthday; State Fair; Preschool Fall Festival; Thanksgiving; Piper's birthday; Christmas (including a trip to Wichita); Christmas school parties... not to mention a few international trips for Ben during that time. And then a few days ago, our Maggie dog died. It was both unexpected (she's had issues with nervousness and upset tummy for a few years) but also kind of sudden. She suddenly stopped eating and then a week later, she was gone. The vet discovered she had a tumor in her intestine and removed it, but she just never recovered.

It will be awhile before I stop referring to our "dogs" and get used to being a one dog family. Kelsey doesn't seem to miss Maggie very much. Maggie was "the boss" so maybe Kelsey is enjoying her new freedom. I am relieved; I don't think I could handle it if she seemed depressed or sad. Here are some pictures of Maggie at the Rescue organization when they first found her. The organization, StrayDog, kept a blog, so I copied the entries about Maggie and Kelsey and thought I'd share them on here. (They had different names for the dogs, but I changed them to make it less confusing.)

"When we rescued little stray puppy, Maggie, from the hands of Angry Neighbor, who had boasted he would have killed the little “chicken killer” had we not immediately gone to get her, Maggie took over our little puppy kennel. Now another little stray puppy is in need of a home, and this little pup can share the puppy kennel with Maggie. They will both be in quarantine together and will enjoy having each other to play with. Six-week-old Shepherd/Chow mix Kelsey is much smaller than 10-week-old Retriever mix, Maggie, and it was really cute to watch these two little puppies as they got to know each other. Maggie danced all around Kelsey, happy to have a little playmate, while Kelsey wanted to sniff around her new big kennel first. Then she began playing with Maggie. Now the pups are curled up back to back sleeping in Maggie’s favorite scoopy snoozy hole beneath the shade of her shelter porch top.

At our Adoption Day today a couple inquired as to whether we had any little puppies. We had with our group at Canine Commissary cute Black Lab sisters, five-month-old Kathy and Amber, but the couple wanted much younger pups and what is so neat is that they wanted to adopt two puppies so the pups could grow up together, and they wanted happy, playful little puppies who get along well with each other. This fit the description of newest little arrivals, Maggie and Kelsey! They are adorable and are best buddies, and they play constantly and sleep curled up on each other. Shannon came this morning to take the pups on their “home visit,” and by 11:00 a.m. she had little Maggie and Kelsey in her car ready for long trip to Allen, Texas (about two hours from Straydog) to meet their new mom and dad. At 2:30 p.m. Shannon called and said “Yea! The puppies have been adopted!” The new mom and dad are a wonderful couple, and they fell instantly in love with the pups. (How could anyone not love these cuties instantly?!) Now Maggie and Kelsey have a wonderful mom and dad, a nice big house to investigate and a large, securely fenced yard to play in. Such pampered little house pets they will be, and how wonderful to have them be adopted together!"

Kind of neat to have their back story, huh? Maggie was a playful puppy... loved playing fetch and getting attention. As she got older, she loved to just lay outside and watch for someone to run or walk by. The kids weren't really upset when she died...probably because she wasn't playing as much by the time they were old enough to play with her. And she had gotten kind of growly (sp?) in the past couple years. I thought it was her getting older and less tolerant, but maybe it had to do with her sickness. We are glad you are no longer suffering, but we'll miss you, Mags.

I'm hoping to get some pictures up for all of our past events, but we shall see. Life keeps me busy around here. I'll try to stay current at least :)