All about the puppies: my furbabies update.

The pups...Jackjack and Abigail are doing good! They are adjusting to their new life with 2 sisters well. They love their sister Carmen and are enjoying the baby sniffs they get. Here are some of my favorite recent pictures of my 2 furbabies! Hope you enjoy! I know once I had Carmen they stopped showing up on the blog as much but we are going to work on bringing them back into a Thursday post.

That last picture is a rarity! We had to throw out Abby's bed and this was before we got her a new one. They now have their own beds again and all are happy. Jackjack doesn't like being THAT close to this sister. :) Love these pups! Happy Thursday!

How are your puppies/kitties/pets doing?

This moment: Our week via Instagram

{this moment} – A Friday ritual from Soule Mama.  A single photo (or several)  – no words – capturing a moment from the week.  A simple, special, extraordinary moment.  A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.  If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your “moment” in the comments for all to find and see.

DOT: Walking, walking, and more walking.

The pups have adjusted pretty well to the new house.  It has helped that they are now getting morning walks before I head to work.  As I have mentioned...several times, we moved 3 blocks from where we used to live.  My sister now lives across the street and she has always walked her dogs at 6 am every morning.  I often thought it would be great to walk with her but when my alarm goes off and the idea of walking those 3 blocks before I even met up with her...I would hit the snooze and sleep until I had to get up.

Monday morning, I heard Special K's alarm, which goes off way before mine and I got out of bed and went for a walk.  I beat my sister out that day but I realized I could do it.  So, now she texts me when she is about to head out and I meet her out there with the pups.  It's great for the dogs and it's nice to start my day with a morning walk with my sister.

I have even managed to go home for lunch a couple times this week to meet up with Special K and walked them after he heads back to work.  Special K has been so busy with cleaning the old house after work that I haven't really had a lot of time with him.  It's been nice to catch up at lunch for a little bit and then walk the pups before heading back to the ice box called my office.  It will be nice to have 4 days off this weekend to get our lives in order and get some rest.

The dogs are also enjoying the new house.  We got a new (to us) couch and we've decided to keep them off of it.  Jackjack has always been allowed to get on a couch so this is a new concept for him but he has done really well with it!  When we leave the house, we put the pillows up and blankets over them to block them from being able to get on it.  I have seen both of them jump up on it to bark at a passing dog when I've been out front but they can't get comfortable on it so they get down!  SCORE!  I love our new couch and I'd like it to be for human use...unlike Jackjack's loveseat at the old house which has been taken to the dump.  I am thankful I'll never see that thing again!

Our backyard at the new house is a tad bit smaller than the old house but with all the new smells the pups are enjoying going out there as well.  We don't have a doggie door and no plans to put one in as Abby likes to dig if not supervised.  With all the walks plus being let out back, I think the pups are doing good!

Hope you enjoyed the pup update!  Those two silly dogs are mischevious but thankfully we haven't come home to them getting into anything....YET!

Happy Dogs on Thursday!

DOT: love these pups!

My pups are so crazy but I love them! They get into everything they can find, especially Jackjack, and keep us on our toes but they are loved.

I have figured out that the doggie training in our house has been a little lax.  We still incorporate training skills into our everyday activities.  They know they have to sit and look at us before they can get their food.  They can't barrel through us to go outside but wait patiently.  I think they are missing the fun training sessions we used to do.  We used to do these sessions almost everyday, however, lately we are down to maybe once a week.  For everyone's sanity, it's time to start them up again and teach Carmen early how training pups can be fun!

Carmen is a big fan of giving the dogs treats so I think she will have fun with training!  She knows to give one treat to one pup and then one to the other.  She gets a big smile on her face afterwards when she's got a slobbery hand that then needs to be cleaned.  I want to teach her that dogs are there to be pet, loved on, but also that they need their brain stimulated and direction.  I'll try to get some video of our sessions for you!  Here's to some more happy fun training sessions to come!

Now for pictures...

How could you not just want to hold this girls hand?

I love Jackjack's eyes in this one.  He is such a sweetheart.

After walks, they often find the closest spot they can to just lay down and rest for a bit.

They both still act like puppies but they aren't puppies anymore.  Jackjack is greying before my very eyes and Abbygirl, she will always be a puppy to me.

Happy Dogs on Thursday!

DOT: Sleepy clean puppies!

Happy Dogs on Thursday!  Hope you all had a great day yesterday.  Oh how I wish I had the rest of the week off but off to work I go.

Yesterday, the pups got baths and I LOVE bath day for them!  They both get dirty so quickly and I love to snuggle them but not a fan of snuggling stinky puppies, even though I still do. :)  So after getting baths, last night Miss Abbygirl knows she's not going to get kicked off the bed immediately so she snuggled with me on the bed for a while.  And Jackjack, the non-snuggler, let me pet him a bit before he was ready to be left alone.

I am thankful they are fine with the firework noises but Abbygirl always becomes my shadow when they start going off.  She's a clingy puppy.

Happy Dogs on Thursday!!!

How did your pups do with the fireworks?

Keeping it Real: rain, time, and flowers

Keeping it Real - is a weekly meme from ink + chair where bloggers share the ups-downs, lows-highs, hits-misses, dark-light, peaks-valleys, plusses-minuses...of their week - acknowledging wholeness.

frogging -  lows
- being patient and trying to focus on God's timing and not my own. 
- seeing all the damage that has been done to our beaches by Tropical Storm Debby
- having to walk the pups in a torrential downpour because they refuse to go out in the rain without us.
- life gets busy and we often don't have time to spend with everyone we'd like to.

 tail-wagging -  highs
- new glasses after wearing my old ones with scratches and the wrong prescription for so long! (I used to wear contacts full time so my glasses weren't a priority, now that I do, I needed new ones!)
- spending lots of quality time at home with my little family because of TS Debby.
- having good friends and family who love me despite my crazy.
- excited about having dinner with two friends of ours, who we miss and don't see as often as we'd like.

- the simple yet complex beauty of flowers and remembering to stop and really see them.
- hearing new words come out of my daughter and understanding what she's saying!

 Happy Friday!

This Moment - A Man and 2 of his 3 babies...

{this moment} – A Friday ritual from Soule Mama.  A single photo(or maybe 2)  – no words – capturing a moment from the week.  A simple, special, extraordinary moment.  A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.  If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your “moment” in the comments for all to find and see.

Dogs on Thurday: A pup and her ball!

Abbygirl LOVES to play fetch!  If you are willing, she would fetch a ball for you for as long as you let her!  When we first got her, she was frustrating because she wouldn't drop it and so the game ended quickly.  Once she figured out that if she drops the ball the game can then go on, it got to be more fun to play with her. :)  It took treats and lots of training but she figured it out!

I found this video on my iPhone that was taken back in late February when I first got it.  It's super cute! Abby is really good about not stealing the ball from CGR...even though it's killing her not to just grab it!  I'm working on teaching her to play fetch with Abbygirl.  I think they will love that game!

This next video is from yesterday at lunch.  When it's a nice day and I have time during lunch, I like to play fetch with Abby.  I usually use our Chuckit Ball Launcher so my hands don't get all dirty but wasn't sure where it was yesterday.  The launcher is awesome because it also helped with getting Abby to drop the ball.  I could get to the ball faster before she picked it back up again.  Jackjack as you can tell is not interested and just wants to be left to his own devices.

Hope you enjoyed the fun videos of my golden girl!

Happy Dogs on Thursday!!

Does your pup like to play fetch?  Or do you have a pup like Jackjack who is just not that into it?

Dogs on Thurday: Pictures, pictures and more pictures!

For today's DOT post...we are going to catch up on some cute pictures of the pups Jackjack and Abigail! Here are some of my favorite recent pics of them....some of them from instagram. Starting with the most recent...

Abbygirl needing me to hold her hand while I knit.

My spinning buddy Jackjack.

Another Spinning buddy Abbygirl.

Carmen thought it was time to take the pups for a walk....so we did! :)

Carmen trying to put my knit sock on Jackjack.

A slobbery doggie kiss!  One of the best kind!

The pups keeping me company while I knit and watch tv.

My Jackjack turning grey before my eyes. My old grummy man.

Wearing Carmen on a walk with the dogs.

Giving Jackjack a wipe down. She's ever the little helper.

My absolute favorite picture of my girls!  Wet kisses!

Hope you enjoy all these pictures!  I am bias but these two pups are just so adorable and I love them so!  They sometimes get into trouble like my Jackjack who has learned that highchair swiping is a new art form of his and Abbygirl who is always wanting more love that little miss Carmen can handle sometimes.  They are still the best dogs I could ask for and I love them dearly!

Happy Dogs on Thursday!

Stash Diving...a tale of survival.

I have sort of been in a knitting rut. I think it's because I didn't finish the two big projects before the end of last term of the HPKCHC. On one hand I know that in order for me to feel prepared and ready for next term which starts in May, I have to get these two projects close if not all the way done but for some reason the more I want to the less time I have found to knit. I will share some of those distractions shortly but mainly I just haven't done it. So tonight instead of knitting on the lace shawl for my SIL that I am SO close to finishing...I think...or knitting on the vanilla sock that I have had as a side project for months...I decided to dive into my stash to just see what's there and reorganize.

Here is a picture of what it was to what it is now!




I took it all out before I took pictures or you would have seen a closet full of mess!! Now to be completely open, this isn't all my stash as some of it lives in another closet and some of it lives in a bin along with tools of the trade but this is the majority of my stash.

It might not look like it but it's organized. :). I have it in different big bags organized by fiber, sock yarn, other project yarn, and then lots of my first handspun which I am not entirely sure what to do with. I have the handspun that will be knit along with the other project yarns.

I love my stash. I know that sounds weird but I do. I wish I had more sweater worths of yarn but some day I hope to get there. I also wish I had a safe place to put it where I could see if more. There are some pretty yarn and fiber in there but I don't get to see it unless I dive in. Diving into the stash isn't something I do often as its just not reasonable. But I have it mostly listed on ravelry so I know what I have when thinking about a new project.

Speaking of new projects, I knit differently now than when I first started building my stash. So a lot of it reflects where I was as a knitter than where I am now. Hence the lack of sweater worths of yarn because I have just started knitting bigger projects like cardigans regularly. I do try to stick to knitting from the stash at every opportunity though.

And for the record I am a string believer that sock yarn and fiver do not count towards stash! :)

What are my distractions you ask? Well...work as usually prevents me from knitting during those hours. Then we have this little miss...she's just too cute to not spend every waking moment of hers being with her.




And then we have visitors. It started with CGR's grandma and grant who were pictured in the last post to now we have Grandpa!! My dad is here for a full month but he lives in panama and we don't get to see him often so we have to take full advantage!!




Other than that...the pups, house, and my family are big distractions but as you can probably tell all of these are good distractions so this gal is a happy camper! Might not be a productive crafter but a happy camper is good in my book!!

Happy Stashing!!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

DOT: Napping with momma.

Nothing like napping with momma...

This was taken last Friday when momma was home with our sick baby and while little Miss CGR napped, we took naps too!

Love that nose!

Happy Dogs on Thursday!

PS.  One of Carmen's new words we've heard was Abigail!  I thought I called her Abby more but I guess I call her Abigail enough for Miss Carmen to point to her golden puppy and said "Abigail!"  Was so adorable!

The Holidays in Pictures...

I had big plans of blogging while on my vacation but it just didn't happen!  Along with finishing the Calligraphy Cardigan, which all I have left to do is finish the last 3rd of the 2nd sleeve and then do the button bands, it just didn't happen!   I have a guest blog post that will go up tomorrow but for today we are going to catch up with pictures from our 10 day trip to visit Special K's family up in Ohio!


I couldn't have asked for a better behaved baby while on vacation!  She did great on the flight up and only cried because her bobo aka pacifier came out of her mouth and her ears were hurting her on the decent.  She was also SO good with her 2 week old cousin Braxton.  She would check on him if he cried while in his rocker, she even ROCKED him when I asked her to,  and yes she also tried to take his bobo!

 She gave him kisses and LOTS of hugs!!!

She got to hold him and she was a bit concerned because he cried but she gave him a hug none the less.

She also tolerated all the hand knits that I covered her in love with!  We brought her Toddler coat that I had used handspun to knit as well as her aviator hat with more of my handspun!  In this picture she even had handknit socks on!

 Even though it was way colder than we are used to, we made sure if we didn't go somewhere during the day that we went for a walk.  Carmen wasn't about keeping gloves on so her hands were frigid when we got done with our walk but she loved going for walks!  (YES, Special K is crazy in shorts!!)

We had a snow suit that Special K's aunt got her but it never really snowed enough for it to be used.  We tried it on her once and she instantly just fell back.  I caught her but then she just laid there immobile! I took a quick picture and then freed her from the suit!  

 More handspun love!  Her grandma got her a stroller for up there because she saw one of her 2nd cousin's at Christmas and she just had to have one of her own! :)

 Special K's Aunt got both babies some cute Christmas outfits and it was NOT easy to get a picture but this is the best one we got! :)

 And momma had to pose with her and some Christmas cheer!

 She loved opening presents and even like to wear the gift bag!  I just LOVE this picture...both of them smiling so big!!

 She didn't think Daddy was opening her gift fast enough!

 Daddy spend some time with his new nephew...

 We visited with Special K's childhood friend and got to play with their daughter.  She had a purse that Carmen just HAD to wear around!

 Here she is sitting with her two crazy boy cousins!!  She just thought they were too cool but SO CRAZY!!  (Notice the new dad PASSED out on the couch!)

 Every time we go to visit up north, we ALWAYS stop at Primanti Bros for some yummy sammiches!  Carmen couldn't eat the sammich but she definitely ate!

We had a great time but we were all ready to come home.  We missed our puppies and our own bed.  We miss our family up there and we didn't get to see snow...but it was a great trip.  On our way out of town, we ate at Friday's while waiting for our plane.

 We posed...

 And then we came home to some puppies who could not have been more excited to see their family!  They were well taken care of by their aunties and family! 

Hope you enjoyed our Christmas/New Year trip in pictures!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!