Where to start.. We flew Derek's parents into town for Thankgiving, we had wanted to get away but couldnt leave the animals. They came to town during the coldest Thanksgiving week Western WA has seen in over 40 years I think it was! We had a small Thankgiving gathering with some of Derek's family at our house, it was cozy and HOT! With the heat cranked up to 75+ while Bob & Nouna were in town, we all were sweating as we ate down our dinner. Dawn had to borrow a pair of Derek's shorts, she was so warm. We normally keep the heat at 62, so 75 was a pretty big adjustment for us.. BUT, it was worth it to have them with us for a week.
I got these great pics of Bob with all 3 kids!
Speaking of kids, Cooper is growing... rapidly!!! he has outgrown his small crate and has to curl up to sleep in it now, until we can get a larger one for him to sleep in. He's getting a tiny bit better at slowing down, but I do mean tiny! :) He sits on command, thats about it for now.. He has far too much energy and too short attention span to work on much else. We could force him to start listening but I think it's okay for him to be a puppy for a little while longer because in just over 3 months, he'll be sent off for some real hardcore training. We keep him on leash in the house now, a training technique we learned at my obedience siminar we went to. He still has the occassional poddy mistake (pee only) but he's now up to about 20 minutes between poddy breaks.. He also is now treated like a little man and gets to spend his days with Ellie and Russell in the front yard! He learned the doggy door in about 2 minutes and so far after 2 days of him having access to our entry way and the yard, he has not poddied in the entryway. :)
This method is also helping to mellow him out because now he has Ellie to play with and run around the yard, all-day-long.... So at the end of the day when we get home, he no longer has this built up energy. We are finally getting into a rhythm and schedule with him, makes it a bit easier to handle it all.
The horses still sit untouched for the most part.. drowning rats is all they are with the record rain we've been getting! We have our christmas tree up, although it's not 100% straight, we just cant seem to get it to not be crooked.. oh well, makes it more unique I guess. lol and its a big damn tree, it has quirkly lights with 2 colored light sections and 2 white sections... segregated tree apparently! And a small section of lights went out.. but ya know what, I dont care. I am not going to get worked up becase my lights are not perfect, I think I finally have realized little things like that are not so big a deal... there was a time when I would have been fanatic about having perfect lights on a perfect tree!
Ellie is really doing great too.. we are almost done with obedience, I think just 2 classes left, or maybe just 1.. hmm tonight might be graduation :( She did really well with her pre-test and scored 100%! Yeah!!
I am very excited for christmas, I got Derek some really cool gifts, I love to give presents, and always wish I could do more for my family and friends. I'm fairly certain my December mortgage is going to be late this month, well crap its the 13th and I havent paid it yet, so I guess it's late.. :(
My cousin Jesse just got engaged this past weekend as did his sister Jennifer 2 weeks before that! Very exciting and happy for them all, not to mention their mom, my aunt Dena has been engaged for over a year now.. sounds kinda funny when you type it out.. maybe they should plan a triple wedding.... haha
I know for having gone 3 weeks, it should be a more exciting post but other than taking care of Cooper and having the folks in town, its just been hustle and bustle to prepare for christmas.
We got a new camera so I've got some random pics of the kids..
This is Russell just hangin out in Derek's chair.. no he's not being grumpy, he just lays that way sometimes with a snarl.
Here are a couple of Ellie
Cooper running (his face looks kinda animated in this pic, like a cartoon puppy!)
Oh and then Derek and the kids all hangin out together.. Cooper is probably about 2 seconds from attempting to squirm his way out of being held.. :)
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