She's Here!

We drove out to Denver, PA this past Saturday to pick up our new addition Jazz(y).  She is settling in nicely.  At 8 weeks old she needs to be taught everything from potty training to the rules of the house but she is so cute we are all in love with her and love working with her.  She is quite the chewer however so even though we have some pretty heavy duty chew toys for her we may need to get some more.  I took half days this past Monday and Tuesday so she could get used to the kennel a bit but she was not able to hold her bladder either morning so today our neighbor Jill has offered to come and check on her every morning sometime between 9 and 10am for us and then I will get home at lunch to let her out and from there she has to make it for 3 more hours. 

She sleeps in her crate in our room at night and wakes us up by whining when she needs to go out so overnights are not a problem and in fact she can go almost 6 hours overnight with no problems but still needs to work on her daytime training.

She has met Fez next door and they are already best friends who will hopefully play together every day assuming the weather is nice.

She will never replace our beloved Zoey but it is so nice to have another Lab in the house again - we have missed having that.

Jazz at 7 1/2 weeks

The breeder sent me some updated pictures of our new little girl.  She is a gorgeous bundle of fluff!

Everyone needs a little Jazz in their lives

That's the name we have all agreed to on the newest little member of our family who will be joining us this coming Saturday when we go to pick her up!!  She will be 8 weeks old when we get her and we all cannot wait to meet little Jazz :)

Pennypack

What better way to spend a beautiful late summer day, and your youngest's 3rd birthday, than to head to a walking/nature area that has woods, hills, meadows, ponds and a creek and go for a two hour hike with your family?  No better way!

Lily Turns 3!

That's right - our little baby Lily is now three years old!  Seems like yesterday she was born.  How our lives have changed since she came along and how I wouldn't change a minute of it for the world.

We celebrated with Joe and Diane on Saturday.  They came down early to watch Rowan's soccer game and then came back to the house for presents and dinner and most importantly - cake!

When I asked Lily what she wanted for dinner on her birthday she told me mashed potatoes.  For the record, Lily does not like mashed potatoes - we had spaghetti bolognase.

However the item she was most adamant about was not wanting a cake but wanting cupcakes instead - imagine my glee at finding a Rapunzel cake made out of cupcakes!

Sunday was her actual birthday so we saved our presents and Nana and Pappa's presents for then.  Lily was the first one up and saw her presents on the table right away but I told her she had to wait for Parker to wake up until she could open them.  She asked a couple of times but I insisted we had to wait for Parker.  She did not argue - in fact did not even ask if she could go wake him up which I totally would have done - but instead waited patiently.  When Parker did wake up she went running to hug him and move on with her morning and then it hit her - "Yay I can open my presents now" she yelled and ran to get them.

And so another birthday for one of my babies....this one we call the Imp.

Goooooaaaaalllll

Well - not quite, in fact the final score was 4-0 for the other team but I don't think they keep track of these things again like in t-ball.

So yes, Rowan has embarked on a soccer adventure.  I don't think she was prepared for the amount of running that is involved as for 4 - 10 minute quarters she only had the stamina for about a quarter and a half but hopefully some conditioning will occur over the course of the season.  Either way it was fun to watch and the season can only get better!

An Apple for the Teacher

So summer has unofficially come to an end with the Labour Day weekend behind us now.  We celebrated Parker's 41st birthday on Sunday and on Monday went apple picking at Styer's Orchard with the Kembles.  Nice crisp fresh apples and some peaches as well came home with all of us.

Tuesday was Rowan's first day of school in Grade One!  Her teacher this year is Mrs Stoddart and I have been lucky enough to change my work hours so I can meet her at the bus stop every afternoon instead of putting her in after care.  I get home nice and early and she gets to ride the bus with her friends - a win win situation for all of us!