Day 2

Today is the second day that Chase is gone. I find myself sleeping either on the couch or the barker lounger instead of my large over sized empty bed. It's not that large of a bed, but with my husbands absence, it seems like there is just too much space. Last night I fell asleep in the barker lounger after I was done editing some photos. This morning, I awoke to the two of my dogs playing rather loudly at 5:00 am. Because I was editing photos last night, I had my camera siting on our side table right beside me.

(please excuse the feet shots)

I find it a little odd myself, that I can manage to think of only one thing after being awake for less then one minute - Where is my camera?

Needless to say, these two provided to be the alarm clock for the whole entire house. By 5:30, Jordan was down stairs making his breakfast, his lunch for the day, and getting dressed. The babies had also awoke, but they were very content playing in their room for a couple of hours before I went to fetch them at around 7:00.

This morning, I had made french toast, with a side of grapes and bananas. Charlotte found it delicious, while William was a little finicky, only wanting his grapes.

By this time, the animals had settled down, and allowed the house to have some peace while the babies ate there morning nourishment.

I usually leave the food sitting on their table for a little while, to allow the babies to come back to it, just in case they were not feeling the hunger quite at that moment I fed them originally. As our backs were turned only for a few moments, we caught Jackie being a "naughty girl".

Of course Charlotte thought it was fantastic, and took the opportunity to run over there, and feed Jackie a piece by piece breakfast like she was feeding one of her own dolls. She thought it was grand.

Puppy Love

A week gone bye..

We have been so busy this past week with so many different things, and it's not over yet! My last post, I gave you a recipe for some home made manicotti that I was making. To follow up on that blog, I made it, we ate it, and it was a HUGE hit! Manicotti is one of my husbands all time favorite foods, so of course, I had to learn how to make it! All the kids even liked it, and asked for seconds. I ended up making so much of it (two huge pans full) that Chase had some of his friends come over for dinner, and we still ended up with left overs!!

About a week ago, we went on a family cruise where I was able to see my husband in action at work! WOW!!! It was amazing to see him working so hard. One would not believe how many people talking with each other face to face, over intercom, and through head-sets it takes to get a huge Navy ship out of the harbor. It was non-stop until that ship was in the clear and out in the big wide pacific. My sweet husband also, re-enlisted on that day. It was a great and wonderful day. We also had the Father of our Church, and some other church members/friends come aboard for the experience. I have to admit, that SLOW rocking of a huge steal mass was giving me somewhat of the sea sickness. I was able to cure that with some food in the belly, and lots of crackers. I also learned if you stare out into the horizon from the deck, it helps!

(Chase Putting up the American Flag)

(Untangling the ropes)

Just Yesterday, we said our goodbyes to Happy, the bunny as he left our house for good and went to some friends of ours home.

And welcomed our baby girl Jackie to the family! We were so excited to get her, we were counting down the minutes all day long until we had her in our possession. She is a sweet, fairly calm, and playful little Golden.

As of right now, she has had no accidents in the house, and seems to be completely potty trained. Punkin, our other Golden, has taken rather a maternal manner towards her. She loves her duck, and loves the kids. The kids just can't seem to get enough of her. Already, at eight weeks, she is showing so many signs of the wonderful nature that Punkin has, and we feel completely blessed.

I will blog more about her soon, but for right now, I will leave you with one more photo.

We are adopting!!!

For the past (almost) four years, we have been blessed with a great marriage, exceptional children, and the joys and loyalty of our dog, Punkin. We have been debating back and forth now for about six months (maybe longer) in bringing in another addition to our family. We have had fun looking, and we finally found a baby girl that is perfect for us. We thought and thought on the idea for three days straight about this decision, with our up and coming move and everything in between (to include Chase's deployment). We wondered if it was the right time, if it was smart, and what we truly wanted.

Meet Jackie

(Chase named her, after jack-o'-lantern to go with "Punkin")

We have been wanting to bring in another dog to the family four almost two years now, and only have been seriously considering it for a little over six months. We were going to wait until we were moved and settled, but then we ran into this sweet girl. She is a full blooded Golden Retriever just like Punkin, and is a little over 8 weeks old.

We are so excited to get her! We will have her home on the 17th of this month, ready to surprise Punkin with his new wife, and the kids with the new addition. Our sweet girl, as of the moment lives in south Kona on the big Island, and will be arriving by Plane. Her parents, Happy, and Pua have a wonderful home, where they are never caged or kenneled, swim in the ocean, and go on long walks all the time. This environment has been the best we would wish upon a little puppy. Being from Hawaii, they are required to have so much more health check ups and vaccines when they are puppies, due to the "no rabies" here in Hawaii.

Meet Happy and Pua, the mom and dad of our Jackie.

We are keeping our fingers crossed at the moment that everything goes smoothly (as I am sure that it will!)

The Best Dog on Earth!

If there were ever a prize for best dog, I would nominate our dog, Punkin.  

Type: Golden Retriever

Size: Large

Skills: fits two balls in mouth at one time, climbs up and down the stairs at parks and slides down the slides with kids, intuitive to EVERYTHING (he has never been trained, but he will do what ever you want with out having to ask twice), Perfect alerter, and a wonderful snuggle bug. Great with the kids, and takes more beatings from them then any other dog would. Has never bitten anyone, and will not steal food from the babies, and wait until food is given to him.

Eccentricities: Scared of vacuums, plastic bags  and would rather jump over a gate then push through a cracked door. Meets you at the door with his "Bobo"(a large size stuffed wiener dog) or one of his babies, and if you start to talk to him more then a couple of minutes, he rushes to find one of his toys to bring to you, and at bed time, if you are taking to long, he will mope and whine until you finally start to make it up the stairs. 

"Punkin"