It's Christmas Time in the City

Thanksgiving is over...now it's time for Christmas!! Trey spent, I don't know how long trying to get Tank to keep these antlers on his head long enough to snap a shot while the kids and I trimmed the tree.
Each year Grandma Klier gives the kids some ornaments and each year the kids are excited to open the boxes and hang their own personal decorations.
We also have a nice amount of old ornaments from Trey's childhood. Hazel was thrilled to find this red reindeer that had her daddy's name on it along with the year- 1980...and she read it!
We listened to the new Rosie Christmas record while we Christmafied the house. Hazel sang along with the songs she knew while August kept pushing the button on the At-At ornament.

Tales of Tank

Tank has been really enjoying our time together now that the kids are back in school. We walk to school and then around the neighborhood until almost 10am. Then we head to the dog park where he gets to run and play and wade. He's a happy dog these days.
Last night he was in a funk. He stayed in his kennel when everyone came home only coming out to ring the bell to go outside. I figured that he's probably pretty worn out from all our activities of late and just left him alone. Around 10:30pm he started making a strange noise from our room. He s.l.o.w.l.y. crept out of the kennel and into the hall huffing and growling at the same time. The hair on his back stood straight up. He made is way from the hallway to the dining room, then to the kitchen, then to the back door all the while making this crazy rumbling sound mixed with some strange breathing thing that dogs do when they're tracking something. I quietly followed him through the house and silently opened the back door.
Once out of the house he tore through the backyard making more aggressive sounds disappearing into the lavender bushes then barking into the neighbors yard. This continued for a number of minutes and I just couldn't watch for fear that he'd get whatever it was that was invading our yard. I waited, listening, until he was done. A few minutes later he scratched the door, signaling me that he's ready to come in. I ran back and opened the door but he didn't want to come in...he turned and ran back to the middle of the yard, turned the side of his body to me, looked at the lavender bush and pointed. Like a bird dog, my Jack Russell pointed towards whatever it was!
I thanked him kindly for alerting me but declined his invitation to check it out.
He huffed and came back into the house, got a quick drink of water and returned to his kennel.

In a Nut Shell

Big news at the school: that's Ichiro in the green cap! Not sure how we ended up having some Mariners come to do an assembly, but we did...and it was amazing to see how the students reacted...I think a few of them needed to change their pants when it was all over.
On Tuesday we took Tank to the dog park after a long day of kennel time...Hazel found a heart in the pavement.
On Wednesday after school the kids and I returned to teach Hazel how to ride a two wheeler.
I think she's got the coasting pretty good...it's the stopping that gets her all worked up.
and brings a few tears.

August got his eyes checked for the first time. He's got better than 20/20 vision...phew!
And well, the weather has been HOT and August is a little heater as it is and you see...I felt bad because he was just sitting out back and his hair was wet with sweat...so I cut it. And he hates it. But it should be noted that he agreed to the cut, I think he just hasn't seen his hair this short in a long while.
We had a little visitor today. Tanks mom, Irving came by to hang out in the sun. How huge is my dog? That's his MOM people! He came out of her!
Trey has been out of town on a work retreat. He comes home tonight and then leaves again on Wednesday morning to take August to 3rd grade camp, they come home on Friday and then Trey and I leave on Saturday to go to Sasquatch. I can not wait.

Play Date for Dogs

Let me just start this little blog by commenting on the weather today:
it was both sunny and warm. The kids and I had an engagement in Bellevue at 10 this morning but by the time we returned to Seattle at 1 the breeze was even warm! It's been a long time since we've left the house without a coat...we kept thinking that we'd forgotten them somewhere.
Once we were home we spent some time in our backyard enjoying our neighbors and our neighbor dog, Niko, the Sheba Inu.
Tank and Niko play along the fence and call for each other when they are outside. Every once in a while we are able to throw one over the fence for a full fledged play date.

Hazel got the bubbles out and taunted the dogs with the floating soapy balls of fun while August sat at the patio table reading the 5th installment of Harry Potter. It was a nice afternoon. Later we walked to doggie playtime at our local dog store and wore Tank out further. He's now totally asleep on the couch.

Here's hoping for another nice day tomorrow when we'll get to have August's favorite friend over for a few hours after church.
Let's hope we can make it to the park so the boys can play basketball or soccer or throw the ball around.

grumpy

Everyone has been talking about it...the fact that it was 80 on Saturday and then promptly turns to 45 and rainy the very next day. It is driving me bananas! I can't even plan what to wear for each day because who knows, it may start out sunny and then turn into a thunder storm. I did manage to take Tank to the dog park during the one hour of sun we were blessed with today...

Yesterday it began to hail in the evening. Tank needed to go out back so he rang the bells on the back door. So what usually happens is that I'll open the door and he'll leap out to see if any of our dog neighbors are out, then he'll sniff around for the exact spot to unload on, then he'll run around and then he'll lean on the door to come back inside. Not this night. This dark and stormy night caused Tank much distress. I opened the door, he walked outside and stood on the little entry step and listened to the hail. Then, he began to inform the whole neighborhood just how pissed he was that it was hailing. He barked and barked and barked and the hair on his neck stood up and he bounced around with stiff legs. It was such a great way to end the night because I felt the exact same way. Stinking Weather!

My Own Little Cupcake

Trey spirited the kids away this morning saying that they were going to get bagels. I took the opportunity to pick up around the house and enjoy a nice quiet breakfast and then walk the dog. It was wonderful. As Tank and I were rounding the corner back to our house we noticed that everyone was back so we ran up the stairs to greet them. August had this very excited look on his face and Hazel was giddy on the couch...
Me:
"What did you guys do?"
Kids:
"What??? Nothing! We just went to Trophy and got cupcakes, that's all!"
Me (wide eyed):
"For real? Did you LOVE THEM Trey? Weren't they great?"
Trey:
"We haven't eaten them yet...we brought them all home to have with you."

All together now, AWWWWWW! What a good man.

Spring Break

Man, oh man! Spring break is over and we don't have even a hint of a tan to show for it!
I think we successfully stayed busy but we really didn't do much. There was the trip to our old stomping ground with Francis and Rachel. We brought Tank who showed off his sense of smell by tracking a super fast squirrel:
And the rest of the days were filled with weeding and watching TV and playing with the dog and seeing the Dr...
But today we met up with friends for cupcakes. Holy Cow! They were good...you should check out these gals blogs to see what they had to say about them...I'm sure they'll blog about them in the next few days.
One day during the break I walked around the yard and found that we were growing random daffodils all over the yard. What's a girl to do with all that lovely yellow? Well, I'll tell you: I ran into the house and grabbed my kitchen scissors and went a cutting!It's amazing how just having these in the kitchen brightens my day.

Mud, Mud Everywhere!

Today was the first day of Track team for August and Hazel. August has been asking for this for a while so when I picked them up from school with the news of this evenings events he went crazy. Hazel was happily surprised to learn that she could participate as well.
The team meets twice a week near a dog park so we brought Tank along for an hour of play time while the kids ran themselves silly.
I had never been to this particular dog park before...and I may not go to it again! It was much smaller than the one we usually go to and it was oh, so muddy!

Now I know these pictures look ferocious but Tank and this 7 month old puppy were having the best time ever! They spent the bulk of the hour chasing each other and would occasionally stop to catch their breaths only to wrestle in the mud bearing their impressive teeth.
Tank came a way from his play time dirtier than I've ever seen him...He was a happy (and very stinky) dog.
August and Hazel were happy to tell me all about their hour of running. I could see them both as they ran drills and did jumping jacks and played "sharks and minnows". We raced home to have spaghetti and meatballs but not before we took Tank out back to spray the layers of mud off him.

Not Much

I've been busy getting ready for the Hootenanny and haven't had much time to post anything. I've found myself checking up on everyone else out there in bloggerville and thought that maybe I should post a little something just in case any of you were trying to pass the time on line.

So...Hazel is sick again. She had her teacher call Trey this morning to have him come pick her up. I had my doubts that she was actually sick...until she started vomiting...then I believed her...and started cleaning the bathroom to get the stink out. While I wait for the next round of projectile puke I've been snapping some pictures:Tank has been really cute lately. He's farting A LOT and those farts have been clearing the room. I've got 4 candles going right now in an effort to combat the stank...ha, tank-stank!
He will sometimes even look at his back end after letting one fly as if to suggest that it couldn't possibly be from him.

That last picture is one of my favorite new things. I can't remember what online store I found it on but it's super cute. Hazel enjoys drinking "ice cold water" from it when she's sick.

My Silly Valentine

Happy Birthday Tank! You've driven me crazy, you've made me laugh, you've made me cry. Here's hoping things calm down a bit now that you're one year old.
***a girl can dream can't she***

Oh Come On!

Yes, he jumps around like a crazy beast when people come over, but he does calm down...he may even warm guests feet if needed!







Yes, he follows me around like a an animal shadow, but I've got warm feet when I'm sitting.



This dog is so cute. You've got to admit it!

This is Halloween

The kids were very excited to get the house ready for all their friends to ring our bell.
Trey tried this outfit out but decided to go as sponge bob instead. He's a big hit with the kids!
Trey bought me this A-MAZING vest from k-mart. I'm dressed up as an elementary students mom (see earlier blog about the field trip with H). The sick thing is that I saw 2 moms sporting this rad vest for real! They liked it! They bought it to wear!
A is an injured skateboarder while H when as a cowgirl. I really liked these costumes because...well...they didn't cost me a dime!
And Tank...well...Tank went as a cute little pumpkin dog...well, I guess that's not true. He made it around the block with the kids and Trey but really couldn't handle the dark, the cold, or the idea of his humans walking up to houses without him...then Trey ran him back to me to greet all the neighborhood kids at our door.

Family Reunion

For Tank!

Tank wasn't sure where we were going...he was just excited to be included:
Once we got to his mom's yard he was a bit shy but then his brother woke up all was well with the world. Tank is twice as big as his litter mates...he's a stinking giant!