It's Baseball Season!

Hooray! I love baseball season! I have so many good memories of summers at the diamond, and it's so fun to watch my little boy play! Today was his first practice, and here's what he did:

Here's Gavin in his "baseball ready" pose.

Chasing the ball (yeah...we're going to have to work on grounders).

Having Coach Bobby's help with the mitt.

Getting a batting lesson from Coach Bill.

Rosy got to come to practice too. Jamie did a little training and let her off leash for a while. She ran around like a maniac.

And then came home and fell asleep in a puddle of sunshine...with a little buddy nearby. Laynie can't leave Rosy alone!

Great Clips Does it Again

So I decided NOT to chop Laynie's hair off, just get a trim. I held two fingers up to the lady at Great Clips and said, "Just two inches." She nodded and smiled. And then....

Chopped off a lot more than two inches...I'm guessing more like five.

It's a good thing that it's just hair and that Laynie is so cute.

And has so much personality...

And hates to pose for pictures...

But someone in my house loves to have her picture taken.

And she's pretty cute too.

Birthday Bummer

As some of you may know, Laynie's third birthday was not a good one. At 2:37 a.m., she fell out of her bed and broke her collarbone. So the day started with a visit to the ER instead of opening gifts and eating cake.

Luckily I bought her a cardigan, so I didn't have to pull anything over her head. We did open up presents on the 13th, but waited until the next day to have cake.

She loves Jessie from Toy Story, so her "party" had that theme. Do you love that Jessie is knee-deep in frosting? And her hat...yeah. I had to use frosting to get it to stay on her head.

Laynie got a lot of wonderful gifts. SPOILED!

Including the Snow White dress (thanks Bri!) she insisted on wearing while we ate cake.

She spends a lot of time on the counter now. Rosy is exactly Laynie-collarbone-height. Jumping puppy+broken bones=sad little girl.

Don't mind that she's not wearing pants. Those are hard to put on one-handed.

Even though it wasn't a perfect birthday, Laynie was spoiled by lots of friends and family. Thank you all for your sweet and thoughtful gifts!

When My Kids Get My Camera...

You get stuff like this:

Laynie took all those. They were much more...polite...than the pics Gavin took. None of you really needed a close-up of his nostrils or of my throat, right?

Visit with Gugs

Everyday in the Wallace House is an adventure. Rosy is darling, cuddly, and a total handful. I get nothing done because I spend 90 percent of my day pulling things out of her mouth. Having a dog eat toys is one thing. Having a dog eat your children...well that's an entirely different matter. So when Jamie told me he had to take a "quick trip" to Asia, I felt a little hesitant about doing it all by myself.

But he had a really great surprise in store for me.

Yep! Jamie flew his mom in for a visit. We had a really great time and the kids (and Rosy)loved the attention. I loved being able to: empty the dishwasher without a dog licking the plates, change the laundry without a dog stealing the socks, and take a shower without a dog getting in with me...although that did happen one time. Rosy is very smart.

Warden was also a huge blessing when the snow fell. Together (yep, the pregnant lady and the grandma) shoveled half-a-driveway of the heaviest snow in history. Then some kind gentlemen from our church finished the rest the next day.

Here's the snowman Gav and Gugs built on our deck...which they later knocked down with snowballs.

And here is devil dog (psycho mutt, the evil creature...you get the idea).

While Warden was here we did a quick pre-birthday celebration for Laynie. It was fun!

Even though she left exhausted (Rosy has that effect on people), I think she enjoyed her trip. We were sure glad she came!

Thanks Warden!!

True Love

True love is rocking your dog to sleep.

True love is hanging out with the puppy instead of your friends. (Rosy's in there too...look at the bottom of the picture).

True love is tucking your puppy in and sharing a scripture story.

True love is never having to sleep alone.

A Ruff Holiday

Welcome Rosy Olivia to the family! We picked up our sweet puppy on January 2nd, and she is wonderful. The kids are in love...and so is Jamie. He carries her around like a burping baby. Rosy is a seven-week-old Vizsla, a Hungarian pointer. She's very mild for her breed, and has a gentle temperament.

She loves her animal toys, and acts like she's some sort of killer, growling and shaking them into submission.

But all that play makes her exhausted. She's a good sleeper, and hasn't had a single accident yet. Even during the night, she woke us up to take her potty.

The only ROUGH thing about our trip to Pittsburgh was Laynie and her horrible cold. I took her to the ER on New Year's Eve (which was a total waste of time and money) and followed up with her pediatrician today. We are now proud owners of a nebulizer! She just had her first treatment and sounds much better.