puppies and their crate

We are crate training Beulah in part because we believe she deserves a safe place away from the bustle in our household sometimes. She is very happy in her crate and goes in on her own quite often.

Lydia, too, apparently feels that it's a safe place for her. When I was running the vacuum the other day, I turned to find Lydia herding Beulah into the crate, climbing in with her and closing the door.

(We are discouraging Lydia from playing in the crate, but these pictures were too cute not to share. Oh, and that box in the crate is to make it smaller and more cozy for Beulah, and help make it less attractive to soil in there.)

stress

How do you cope with stress? Over at Prevention, I wrote a post about dealing with stress and some of the things that help me lower my stress levels. Now, if only I could put those things into practice . . .

This picture is from one of our trips to California. I love the sounds of the surf and the soothing water. Can't wait until we visit again!

16 months

At 16 months, Lydia is loud, spunky, independent, gregarious, and an absolute delight!

3 Kids and a Dog

family visit

2 of my aunts and 1 of my cousins visited recently to celebrate my Dad's 60th birthday. It was wonderful to see all of them, and made me wish we could visit more often! (My mom took these pictures. Thanks to her for letting me post them on my blog!)

Pizza?

Bo loves to cook, which makes me a pretty lucky woman! He makes an awesome grilled pizza that everyone enjoys. Check out my post over at Prevention to read more about it!

good friends

It's taken these 2 six years to get along this well!

Traci's youngest -- Rebecca. She was such a laid back baby that day!

8 kids and 3 moms made for a busy pool!

Beulah was worn out by all the excitement.

A couple weeks ago we had a little pool party. I met Tammy and Traci about 6 years ago in a mom's group. Tammy is now living in Ohio, but she & her family were in town and we were lucky enough to get to spend some time with them. It was great fun to see all the kids playing together!

busy busy days

We've been busy around here, and I haven't taken any pictures in the last few days. Hopefully I'll take some time this weekend and update with more of the cuteness that is my family :)

Until then -- here's links to 2 more posts over at the Prevention Buzz Blog.

One is about my take on helping kids have healthy habits!

And the 2nd is about exercising in the Arizona heat.

There's lots of great info on that site if you haven't had the chance to visit. They've just started letting readers leave comments on the buzz blogs, so say "HI!" over there.

1st Day of School

Today was the first day of the boys' enrichment program. We're still homeschooling, but they'll once again attend the enrichment program once a week throughout the school year.

Looking at the pictures, I bet you think that Colin wasn't too thrilled about going this morning. Actually, he was just annoyed that I had "that camera" out again and why did I have to "harass him this way??" Nate would have preferred to stay home and avoid the whole thing.

Lydia liked the fact that she could play in their room all she wanted while I cleaned them up and they couldn't stop her from touching their stuff.

Remember how they looked last year?

motivation

Over at Prevention.com, I wrote about tips to keep motivated about an exercise program!

While there, check out some of the other great buzz bloggers . . . there's tons of interesting writers on the site!

napping

I've never hidden my love of naps. Over at Prevention.com, I wrote about how to take a good nap! There's a pretty cute picture there of Lydia napping . . . even though she probably doesn't appreciate a good nap as much as I do!

Meet Beulah!

Because I apparently don't have enough to do . . . we got a new puppy last night. We'd like to introduce Beulah, an Australian cattle dog that is only about 6 weeks old. Yes, we know that is very young (too young!) to be removed from her mama, but her mama was killed by a rattlesnake so the owner needed to find her litter new homes ASAP.

When Julianna died right before Lydia's birth, I told the boys that we couldn't consider another dog until Lydia was at least a year old. I then stated that I would only bring a puppy into the house and didn't want to bring a full grown dog into the house. Lydia is 15 months old, and this puppy literally showed up on our doorstep. Now, if only I could say that we were going to win the lottery and that would come true as well. LOL!

She's a sweet thing, typical puppy excited play followed by deep sleep. She is named Beulah after Hank's girlfriend in the Hank the Cowdog series. If you have young boys and haven't read any of those books, the boys tell me to tell you that you really should!

This isn't the best picture from our wedding day. This picture was taken at the end of the night -- and you might be able to see how tired we were. Eleven years ago, we married at a beautiful church in West Allis, WI and then had our reception at Mykono's Restaurant (no longer there) which was across from State Fair Park. Our day was filled with family, friends and tons of love -- just as we wanted.

We chose to marry this week because the State Fair was going on and we thought it would give out of town guests something else to do while they visited. Just as dinner was being served, Bo leaned over to me and said we should run across to the Fair. I looked around at all the people with their dinners and thought "How could we leave?" Bo insisted and we decided to run out the door. My brother came with us and we ran across the street to many calls of "Congratulations!!" from complete strangers. They let us into the fair for free, and then they let us ride the ferris wheel for free as well.

It is a magical memory! After the ride, we went back across the street and nobody even missed us!

Eleven years later, and my dear husband still encourages me to push myself and not hold back for fear of what others might think. It's been a wonderful ride, and I can't wait to see what the next eleven years has in store for us!

snacks

I've got another post up over at Prevention.com about packing snacks while traveling.

I don't have any new pictures right now, but some of my aunts are coming to visit this weekend, so I should have some new ones soon!

OH! And check back tomorrow for a picture from our wedding . . . we'll be celebrating 11 years tomorrow!

Getting Healthy

I'm blogging over at Prevention.com about health and fitness and how it relates to me and my family. Check me out if you're inclined! It should be fun :)