Happy Thanksgiving!

We spent Thanksgiving lunch at home with just the four of us, during which our ham mysteriously disappeared from our kitchen island. I put it in a Pyrex dish and left to take a shower, and when I came back it was gone. It's very baffling as we thought Griffin had been sleeping at Daniel's feet the whole time. But who knows...maybe he became a stealthy ninja when we weren't looking? Anyway, we enjoyed our mashed potatoes, dressing, fruit salad, green beans, rolls, and dessert anyway and Daniel heated up some deer sausage :) The day before, Jason and Kelly came over with their dog Bandit. Griffin did NOT do well. He got very territorial when Bandit wandered over past his food dish, and barked pretty aggressively most of the night (and had to spend some time in the garage). They eventually warmed up a little and played outside. I think we should have taken them outside first. Daniel is convinced Griffin thought Bandit looked more like a fox mixed with a raccoon than a dog :)

We left that afternoon to take Griffin to Crawford to stay there while we went on to Comanche. We were worried about taking such a huge dog to Gigi's house. Griffin did great in Crawford and LOVED having all the land to run around on, and was fascinated by the cows and horses. He got along with Kathleen's dog Marla and didn't seem fazed at all by Pippen the poodle, but they kept Kathleen's other dog Theo closed off since he doesn't like other dogs.

We had a great time in Comanche with Gigi, Cookie, Jeff, and the Dixon family. We were glad to get home yesterday and are ready to dive into the busy-ness of Christmas!

And Otto was waiting for us when we got home!

Staying Busy

The kids have been staying busy this fall! Avery is involved in dance (ballet/tap combo) and girl scouts, and Aidan just started piano! I bought an awesome keyboard from someone in my neighborhood for $15...I just wasn't sure if I wanted to drop hundreds on a piano yet. He also signed up for winter basketball which starts in a few weeks. He'll be on a team with about four classmates so it should be a fun season :) Both kids are still doing church choir, and Aidan expressed an interest in doing another session of Young Rembrandts art lessons at school after Christmas!

Pics from both of the kids' Thanksgiving parties on Friday:

Griffin got The Surgery last week and had to wear this cone. But while we were at church yesterday he decided he'd had enough and tore it to shreds. I don't blame him. Can you tell we're still in love with him?

The kids have the entire week off school for Thanksgiving and we are LOVING it! Especially because it's been so cold outside. Daniel is working for the next couple of days, but the kids and I are hunkering down and enjoying some pajama days :)

Griffin's Shenanigans

We've had Griffin for two weeks and are in love with him...it feels like he's been part of our family forever :) Tracey brought her dog Molly over for a doggie playdate and they did fantastic together! No barking or aggressive behavior. Just lots of rear-sniffing, territory-marking, and playing together. I was thrilled that he gets along with other dogs, such a relief!

He does have some separation anxiety issues and does not like to be alone. We started off crating but he tore up every piece of fabric we put in there:

and even started chewing on the bars. We started to worry that he'd been neglected by his past home and kept confined for long periods of time so we've been trying to let him run free. For the most part, it's been okay. But he did this to our front blinds (someone may have come to our door to pick something up while we were at church, and he freaked out):

He's knocked my spice rack off the counter (yes, he's that tall), gone through the trash once, and has shut himself in the laundry room three times now...but miraculously hasn't touched any of our coats and shoes in there, knock on wood. I've been trying to shut that door when I leave and lock our trashcan lid (who knew we'd actually need to use that feature?) and that seems to help a little bit. But his temperament when he's around us is just so perfect that they outweigh his issues, which I'm hoping will improve with time :)

In the meantime, Aidan and Avery have a brand new chore! Enjoy, kids :)

Introducing Griffin!!

We have a new family member! I am not a huge dog person, but Aidan and Avery (and Daniel, a little) had been begging for a dog for YEARS and I was out of excuses. Griffin is named him after Baylor Heisman winner Robert Griffin III, and he won me over from the minute I saw him. A few days ago I randomly saw a post on our neighborhood Facebook page about a rescue dog at the local animal shelter. I asked my friend Tracey (dog lover and owner of one of the best dogs in the world, Molly) to come with me. She and I both thought he was gorgeous and although he almost yanked me off my feet when I tried to walk him, he was very calm and laid-back. The shelter people say he's a Rhodesian Ridgeback with possibly some lab in him, and they think he's about two years old. They let me "test-drive" him for the weekend, so Daniel and I decided we'd just tell the kids we were dog-sitting, in case it didn't work out. But it did. By Saturday morning, we decided he was ours so we told the kids we were keeping him and they were SO excited. He was a little nervous his first day but he has a fantastic temperament...totally house-trained, hardly any barking, no chewing on anything he's not supposed to, and he doesn't jump up on stuff. He is my shadow right now and follows me everywhere, but he loves Daniel and is warming up to the kids. Avery is a little TOO excited and we're trying to get her to ease up on him a bit, but he's been very patient. I couldn't have picked a better dog for our family...Griffin has stolen our hearts :)

Happy Halloween!!

Our Halloween is always a multi-day event. We kicked off this year's celebration by going to our church's Fall Festival. Our ninja and Merida (from the movie Brave) had a great time playing the games and seeing their friends.

On Tuesday we went to Daniel and Cody's office for their 2nd annual trick-or-treat. My camera settings were off so most of my pictures were blurry :(

We had the Denneys over for dinner and trick-or-treating on Halloween night! Kaelyn was Elphaba from the musical Wicked (which I just saw this summer with Tracey)...loved it!!!