Deconstruction

I know I've mentioned before what an amazing woodworker my Dad is.  He's built us many things.  He built this dresser originally for my Mom about 5 or 6 years ago.  She decided it was too big in the room so she gave it to us for the girls.  It's always been a little scary to me because it's tall and deep and really, really heavy.  The "what ifs" of this dresser falling on someone are too much.  I secure most of our furniture to the wall, and this big boy is #1 on my list as soon as we move in.

I'm not quite sure why we started talking about cutting the two top drawers off, but we did.  My Dad brought a box full of tools to tackle the project over Thanksgiving. 

Now the top is connected...

Now it's not.

The project isn't quite finished.  The job requires a router, which is at home in Pensacola.  We'll bring the new top back after Christmas and attached up.  I  love the new height.  It's going to be perfect for Jaelyn and it won't be so scary for me. 

Jaelyn isn't too keen on the faux top made out of moving boxes :p.

My Parents are Here

I love Thanksgiving.  I think it might be my favorite holiday.  I especially love it when my parents come for Thanksgiving.  They got here on Thursday and Dan came home from Texas on Friday.  I am breathing easier.  Taking care of three kids and a puppy who likes to poop and pee in the floor and cries at night makes for a lll-oooo-nnnn-ggg week.

Everyone loves Gracie.

My family is slightly addicted to technology.  These were the scenes this morning.

Instead of sitting inside, I took Gracie outside to play.  Her favorite thing to do is bite my legs.

She is scared to death of cars.  I can't walk her passed the side of the house which is very disappointing.  She plants her bottom and short of dragging her, she's not moving.  I'll work on it after the potty training.  :)  Until then, she loves to run around the backyard and roll in the grass. 

First Bath

My biggest pet peeve about other people's dogs has been their smell.  Stinky dog smell.  Yuck.  I am bound and determined that Gracie will not be a stinky, smelly dog.  Jaelyn helped me give Gracie her first bath last weekend.  It started off a little rocky because Zac was drinking in the tub.  Once he cleared out, Jaelyn hopped in the tub and helped hold Gracie will I lathered and scrubbed.  She smelled so good afterward.

Gracie didn't love the bath, but she din't hate it either.  She absolutely loves the blow dryer though.  I had to fight her to keep her from biting the end.

The Leaf Pile

Camouflaged

Well That was Crazy

Gracie has been doing better.  I feel like we are getting her on a schedule.  She's sleeping for longer periods at night.  Yesterday was crazy though.

Dan took Gracie geo-caching.  I got Frontline to put her on at her vet appointment on Wednesday.  I'm freaked out about ticks so we put that on her before he left.  Dan said she was restless while he was gone and then she was crazy all afternoon and evening.  She chirped (she sounds exactly like a bird when she cries) continuously even when she was in our laps.  She wouldn't nap and she seemed wired...like one of the kids when they'd had too much sugar.  I googled Frontline reactions and saw that it can cause depression, anxiety and aggression.  It takes 24 hours to absorb in so at 7:30 last night, Gracie got a bath to wash her neck.  It took a while for her to settle down, but once she did, she slept seven hours straight.  That's her longest run so far, but she had to have been exhausted because she only had one nap yesterday morning.  She's back to her calm normal self this morning.  I called the vet and they said that's not a normal reaction, but I'm going to think twice about putting it on her again.

Finally Found a Favorite Toy

It's Official

Yes, another post about my dog.  That's my life for right now so get used to it :).

I took Gracie to the vet today and it's official, she is the cutest puppy in the world.  Three other pet owners and 2 receptionists all said so, so it must be true.  How fun is that?!  She didn't like her shot very much, but she got a clean bill of health.  She was so calm.  I was impressed.  She stayed curled in my arms and fell asleep or maybe she was just playing possum.

She had a better day today.  No soiling in her crate and she only had one accident this morning.  I should probably blame myself for it.  I took her out.  After she peed, I grabbed her up, praised her and brought her in.  She went straight into the superyard where she pooped.  I should have given her longer outside.  I guess we both have a learning curve to overcome.

Night Three

Thank you for all the advice.  I'm taking it all to heart (well, except for the advice that her royal highness didn't give.  I ain't doing that and I don't use ain't lightly :p)

Gracie is getting much more comfortable with her crate.  She goes in quickly, sniffing for her treat, and settles quicker after crying.  We draped material over her crate last.  Dan downloaded a heartbeat/white noise app and I put a box fan in the hallway.  All those things combined made for a much better night.  Gracie passes out around six at night and Dan and I do everything we can to keep her awake until we go to bed.  We only managed nine last night.  I actually laid her next to Zac.  She raised her head to look at him, yawned and went right back to sleep with a sigh.  Zac was not thrilled.  I heard crying around 1ish.  Dan said it was closer to 2, but I didn't focus too closely on the clock.  I had planned to just calm her down, but in my drug induced stupor (have I mentioned my sinus infection?), I had her outside going potty before I remembered.  She went right back to sleep and slept till five, then six and I finally got her up at 6:30.

I feel like we are close to getting night times worked out.  Now for the potty training.  Can I just say praise the Lord for wood floors?

So Cute But...

She has a cry that's killing me.  She misses her brother, sisters and Mommy something awful.  We've had two long nights.  I'm really hoping night three is better.

Saturday Scavenger

I intend to participate every week...but life seems to get the better of me.  I'm wasting no time finding and posting pictures this week.  BTW Thelma, I like the star system.  My perfectionist, over achieving personality responds well to that sort of thing :)!

Your favourite footwear

Not very stylish, but they sure are cozy and warm.

An open door

I definitely think I should win with this one since not only is the picture of an open door, there's also the world's cutest puppy in the frame.

Something that changes shape

Who Likes Sleeping Through the Night?

Not our Graciedoodle.  Many of my friends told me puppies are like babies and they were right.  I went to bed at 9 last night.  I was up at 10:30, 12:00, 1:30ish, Dan got up at 4-something and then I got back up at 6:00.  We started our day about 6:30.  She sounded so sad with her crying and whimpering. I've done enough sleep training with the kids that I knew to not let her out of them crate when she was crying. (Dan on the other hand let her right out to lay on his chest last night - pushover) I sat on the floor outside the crate and rubbed her sweet little head through the bars.  It only took about 10-15 minutes each time to settle her down and get her back to sleep.  Holly told me she was sleeping through the night and it should only take about 3 days to get her back to that.  I sure am hoping she's right because I'm too old to be doing this long term.  I'm glad our fourth child turned out to be a furbaby instead of a real one!

Even though she kept me up a lot last night, I still think she's the cutest thing around! 

Gracie's Homecoming

What a fun day today turned out to be.  We left bright and early (tangent - the kids got up really really really early - darn daylight savings time) to drive to Nevada, Missouri.  It's a little tiny town with one McDonald's on the border between Missouri and Kansas.  Gracie and her breeder were already there waiting for us. 

We were so excited.  Gracie is the cutest, sweetest puppy.  She's tiny.  It was love at first sight for all of us.

Gracie sat between me and Jaelyn on the way home.  She went back and forth between our laps taking little cat naps.  She was a great car traveler.  I was worried since we have a 15 hour drive to get home at Christmas.

Once home, we set up her superyard.  I had many people telling me having a puppy was just like having a baby.  With babies and toddlers, the key to my sanity was containment.  We had gates, bouncy seats,  playpens, strollers, high chairs.  Our kids were never loose to get into trouble.  I'm following the same line of thinking with Gracie Mae.  She will live in her superyard and crate until she's potty trained and I can trust her not to chew. 

We introduced Zac to Gracie right away and neither was too interested in the other.  I'm sure eventually they'll be good friends.  For now, I'm happy Zac didn't get upset or be mean to her.

It's Gracie Day

Who Needs a Sunbeam!

Not Zac.  He has his favorite heater vent instead.

Unbelievable

It's November 3rd.  The forecast for this morning was cold and rainy.  The forecast was mostly right. It left out the part about snow mixed in with the rain.  These weren't huge flakes.  They weren't pretty flakes.  They weren't sticky flakes.  But make no mistake, they were snowflakes! 

A Room Divided...Further

One of the reasons for our Springfield trip on Friday was the purchase of a second pink room divider.  We hinged the two together and ta-da...the girls have a great divided space that we can open up if we want to.  The best part is the second divider was clearanced about $20 cheaper than the first.  The difference covered our gas money :).  We had been considered an Ikea bookshelf, but I'm happier with this solution.  We don't have the storage, but we really didn't need it.  This will be easier to store or use in another house in two years.  It's sad, but with our transient life, you have to think about those things.

Dan's Find is My Gain

I'm not quite sure why Dan opened the drawer he opened or looked in my old envelope wallet, but he did and I'm so thrilled.  It's fun to find a dollar or two in a pocket.  Once in a blue money, maybe you'll discover twenty, but I was shocked when Dan showed me this. 

Eighty three dollars!

I have no idea where it came from, why I stuck it where I did or how long it's been in this envelope.  The packers probably packed it with all the money in it.  I should probably do something fun with the money, but most likely it'll go towards groceries or maybe a Christmas present or three (it's almost that time).

Our Night as Halloween Scrooges

Have I mentioned that I absolutely hate Halloween?  It's not my fault.  I inherited it from my mom.  She'd have to tell you why she hates it, but I'd guess it is the sugar and candy.  She was a dental hygenist when I was little and I can remember one year that she passed out toothbrushes and small tubes of toothpaste.  I can only imagine how popular our house was.  Most of my memories of Halloween are of going out to dinner and getting $20 to spend at Target.  $20 in the 70s was a lot of money.

I hate the evilness and spookiness of Halloween.  It seems like the decorations get worse with every passing year.  Thankfully, we had none of the scary stuff around us this year.  I also hate the pounds and pounds of candy.  Does anyone really need that much sugar?  It's bad for their teeth and their attitudes.  We have enough attitude issues without the extra sugar and artificial food coloring. We also teach our kids to not talk to strangers and then one night a year, we let them knock on door and have strangers give them candy???  Seriously!  Where's the logic there?

We have chosen to follow my family's tradition.  We let the kids dress up if they want or not if they don't want and we go out to dinner.  We drove to Rolla (so we'd get home later) and ate at Colton's Steakhouse.  It was pretty good.  The kids all really enjoyed it.  Allie is branching out and ate sirloin tips. The yeast rolls were better than Longhorn.  The steaks and salads were close.  They are building a Colton's right outside the gate; so I'm sure it'll be some place we'll eat at again.

Next instead of buying costumes, I gave the kids the money and they bought new toys at Walmart.  New toys are always fun and will last the whole year through.  I should back up and tell you I do offer a new costume and trick-or-treating, but if they choose that, they get one piece of candy and the rest goes in the garbage.  I think they picked trick-or-treating once in Maryland.

We wrapped up our evening at A Slice of Pie.  It's a little whole in the wall place next to a late night laundrymat.  Dan ordered a whole piece of pie and the kids and I ordered half pieces.  Dan's piece was 1/3 of a pie (no lie).  Ours were huge at 1/6.  The homemade cherry pie was divine.  If you are ever near Rolla, MO, you should stop and have a slice!

And parents...if you do choose to trick-or-treat, a porch with the light off means no candy.  Don't let your kids ring the doorbell at 8:45.  Two little girls got a lecture from me last night.  I hope they don't come back and egg my house tonight.

The Hat Parade

I am so glad we made hats and participated in the Hat Parade.  It was a big deal.  I bet 75% of the kids had hats.  The parade marched around and around the halls.  Some kids (and parents) were very creative.  Others slapped "safety" on a bicycle helmet and called it finished.

Jaelyn's class was walking too fast.  All my pictures of her are either blurry or her head is down or purposely looking the other way.

My favorite hat of the day was worn by one of Caden's friends.  His word was "Humongous."  I'm not quite sure how he kept it on his head!

They had an award ceremony at the end of the day.  Jaelyn and I won!  I know, I know, it was "her" hat, but I put a lot of thought and effort into it.  She won a $15 Walmart gift card for the most unusual word.  I loved hearing her teach the grown-ups her to pronounce lepidopterophobia.  It was awesome.