the reason...

Come, Let Us Anew

Our life as a dream, our time as a stream
Glide swiftly away, and the fugitive moment refuses to stay;
For the arrow is flown and the moments are gone.
The millennial year presses on to our view, and eternity's here.

We sang this hymn in Church a few weeks ago, and I loved the words.  The fugitive moment is the reason I take so many pictures.  It is the reason I do the blog.  The pictures help remind me of the precious moments that we have, and how quickly they pass.  These kids are growing up so fast, and time is flying by.

When I had babies and toddlers, I related to the quote, "the days are long, but the years are short." Now I feel like both the days and the years are short.

for the love of Pinterest

Whenever she's off track, Bev searches Pinterest for projects.  This time she decided to make Jessi a farm.  She collected toilet paper rolls and a Petco box, paint and pipe cleaners and went to work.

week 6

During Sacrament Meeting, Bev made all the kids a personalized crossword puzzle.

After church, Bev and Mike made Grandma Huff a candy bar poster card for her birthday.

We celebrated at Randy and Camille's.

We also celebrated Jack and Henry's birthdays and watched the Superbowl.  Camille made the football cake.  We just love those cute boys.

Monday morning we woke up to frost.  I'm feeling so done with this winter.

Jessi made these signs on my craft room.  "Dejunkin. Don't go in. Ask Mom to get something. Can I set up the tet (tent) but I like to call it Ruekad (arcade) srkl (circle) yes or no."

Whenever she has free time Jessi either plays Barbies, draws or colors, or does play-doh.

Wednesday, Bev had ingrown toenail surgery.  The shots were the worst part, and boy howdy were they painful.  I held her hand and she screamed so loud that the doctor came in to see who was dying.  She survived, but barely.  As we were leaving, the ladies at the front desk asked how everything went.  I said, "I suppose you heard."  They said that they had indeed heard, and so did everyone in the waiting room.  I wonder how many patients she scared away.

Friday was the Chinese New Year celebration at school.  The kids performed in an assembly and then we did a big party.

I was in charge of the food station.  The girls were off track, so they helped me. Jessi helped serve the food.

Bev did the drinks.

Dad bought a pig, and shared with us.  Poor, delicious pig.

Sunday was my cousin McKenna's missionary farewell.  She is off to Texas.

We then went to Courtney's farewell party.  She is off to China to teach English.  I don't know what we will do without her.

Bev loves trying on high heels.  Courtney's closet was heaven.

The Biebs was on SNL.  We let the kids watch and kept our finger on the remote--you never know when it could go really wrong on that show.

Drew inherited a clown fish and little aquarium from his boss.  What's one more pet?

he's back

Ten plus years ago, Mike brought a puppy home.  It was September 2002.  We had an 18 month-old and a three year-old and I wasn't sure about adding another 4-legged baby to the mix.  One look at Freddy, and I was a little less apprehensive.

Mike had first seen him in the bed of a truck at Sportsman's Warehouse.  He breeder was showing them off.  Mike got his number and then took Andrew to see the puppies.  He took me back to see them, and they were darling.  Mike particularly liked the runt.  He was a friendly, adorable Chocolate Lab with a tiny white dot on his chest.  We brought him home.

Mike and Andrew took him to obedience school, and Mike spent a lot of time training him.  He was such a good dog.  

We had just brought Jessica home from Africa and were getting ready to sell hour house and build a new one.  Our house sold more quickly than expected and we had to move into an apartment.  We also knew that we would be in our new house for several months without a fence or grass.  We made the decision to try to find him a new home.  Mike sent an e-mail out to his co-workers.  A woman responded and said that she and her family had recently moved to Salt Lake and had left a dog where they moved from.  She was very interested.  It was a tough decision, but we felt really good about it.  Over the next few years, we stayed in touch with her.  The kids went to visit Freddy, and we received pictures showing us how well he was doing.

  

Over the last year, the family's circumstances have changed and they are unable to care for him.  We had microchipped him, and he still wore the tag.  We got several calls that he was found by concerned citizens.  Mike picked him up once in December and we kept him overnight.  We decided that if it happened again, we would keep him.

Well, on Valentine's Day, Mike got another call. Freddy had been found.  Mike left work and picked him up.  He stopped at my Uncle Gill's for a leash and took him to Grandma and Grandpa Peel's.  Courtney then took him home with her and later took him to meet Mike at the vet.  The vet said that he had pink eye, glaucoma, toenail issues and joint problems.

Mike stopped at Costco for a dog bed, dog food and the cutest food dish I had just seen the week before.  I called to get him into the groomer, only to discover that his shots had to be current.  So I took him back to the vet to get his shots, then to the groomer.

After he was groomed he promptly went and rolled in the snow.

We got him some glucosamine and drops for his eyes.  We got a new collar and leash, some dog treats and milk bones.  It seems like it has been a full-time job over the last three days.

He is ten and a half.  He has a bunch of white hair and sad, puppy-dog eyes.  He splashes water when he laps it up and drools a lot.  He struggles standing up in the morning and is especially hesitant about the stairs because going down is hard.  He is calm and obedient and we are pretty much in love with him.  He wants to be wherever we are, so my rule about him staying on the tile and hardwood went out the window after about 8 hours.

The kids are taking turns feeding him, walking him and cleaning up on potty duty.  He slept the first night in the laundry room, but now sleeps on a blanket in one of the kid's rooms at night.

The only issue we have had is with Tiger.  The only time we have heard him bark is when he saw her.  She is interested in him, but he avoids eye contact and looks away when she is near.  We make them be near each other a little every day.  I don't see them being in one of those darling pictures on Pinterest where a dog and cat are cuddling, but hopefully they can tolerate one another.

Technically, this dog brings our pet total to eleven.  One dog, two cats, two frogs (which were raised from tadpoles and are in the big aquarium in the picture,) one hamster (in the picture,) one frog and three fish in a small aquarium in Christian's room and one clown fish in a small aquarium in Drew's room.  You know that movie, We Bought a Zoo?  Well, it feels like we live in a zoo.

I would never be able to handle this many pets alone.  The kids do most of the feeding, Mike keeps the aquariums clean, and I am pretty much responsible for the mammals.  I love a lot things about having pets.  It teaches the kids responsibility.  It teaches about death and love and kindness.  I think we now have to teach about setting limits, cause we are at our pet limit.

Jessica's Baptism

Jessica was baptized on February 2.  It was a great day. She was so happy to see all of her family and friends who came to support her.

Grandma and Grandpa gave her a hymnal to match her new scriptures.  Nothing can match that hot pink glittery case.

I took the opportunity to get a picture with Bev and both of her grandmothers. She is named after both of these amazing women.

I tried getting pictures of everyone, but I missed a few people, including Mimi and her family :(