Wow...its been a while!

I have sadly been neglecting this blog is favor for my other one lately, I knew that...but I didnt realize it has been almost 2 months since I have written here.

That is sad really.

So without further ado...

Taylor is doing wonderfully her Sophomore year. She is quite occupied with color guard, competitions, baby sitting and of course her social life. We celebrated her sweet 16 with a few friends and a fun shopping trip to Chi-town. We all had a ball and hopefully it was quite a memorable experience for her and her friends. She and I have also gotten involved in actively participating in the animal rescue organization that we got Luigi from. Perfect Paws is a non profit group that gets pets out of shelters and into foster families until they can be adopted. We stumbled into being a foster family to a border collie that was going to be put down the next day and have fallen in love with it. From day to day care and adoption events...Tay is quite involved. Our border collie found a new home, and currently we have the cutest little cocker spaniel...Super sweet if you are interested :-)

Emily is one busy lady. For one who doesnt participate in sports, she is my busiest child next to her sister. She scored a role in the Winter play, got a spot on the school newspaper, started voice lessons, is active in Campus Life (school Christian organization) and is trying out for a middle school choir group that is similar to show choir. Whew...that and all the neighborhood friends and she is hardly home at all! She does spend the majority of her home time with her baby brother. She is still totally his second mommy and she just loves him to pieces! It is amazing to watch the bond between them.

Zach....little Mr popular for sure. He has been enjoying his 4th grade year with a simply amazing teacher and making great strides. This is the same teacher that worked wonders with Em after her stroke, so I am excited to see what will be accomplished this year. He has a few of his best buddies in his class and that certainly doesnt hurt things :-) He's rockin it out on the football field, running cross country (did the mile in 8.26) and taking an after school karate class. Soon he will be taking Judo in the off season as well. He is still the clown around here...making everyone laugh and already the phone calls from friends are starting. I think I am in serious trouble with that one!

Sammy is doing great and becoming more and more like his goofy brother every day. He was throuroughly disgusted that the kids all went to school and left him just with mom after the fun summer! Poor Baby... One huge thing is that we are POTTY TRAINED! WOOT! Even at night. Can you say excited???????????? Still has an accident here or there, but he's got it goin on. He also started Chinese school last week. Right now it is still pretty painful to watch. He is a really busy 4 year old and excels at trying to slide under the desk rather than pay attention in class, BUT what I do find significant is that this week he has been singing chinese songs again from memory and saying more chinese words, where as before NO chinese was spoken. We will see how it all plays out with that one. He has lots of friends (or his ladies) since almost all are girls, that we try to meet up with on a regular basis and that is a ton of fun....but he still isnt happy that he doesnt go to regular school yet :-)

Tim and I are tag-teaming the munchkins as usual! We are super busy, but try to sneak away for a date every now and then. Even with 2 kiddos who are babysitting age, it still is complicated to arrange a date night sometimes :) Tims new job is going great, but he is putting in a ton of hours, and believe it or not, I am working some again at PC. After being off completely for 6 months, it is kind of nice to be back in a occasional sort of way.. My schedule is flexible so it is easy to work it around the taxi schedule I have, but many times I dont get much sleep :)
All in all, it works for us as hectic as it might be. Other than work, we are busy with church, small group, adoption ministry and all the numerous fall activities.

Whew...am I making you tired yet?

So that is whats up in our household...oh, and there is a reason for the lack of pix in this post...I BROKE MY CAMERA!

Yup. I cried I tell ya.

Its going to cost more to repair than it is for me to buy a new one, so until I find a good one, you may not get to see us for a while :-) In case you were wondering and all.

Blessings!

We adopted again!

Surprise! We have extended our family once again!




We adopted Luigi (name still pending...) from Perfect Paws animal rescue. I swear we will never do anything else again! Luigi is the best dog EVER! He lived with a foster family until he came home to us and they were wonderful! He is housebroken, crate trained, sits, lays and heels. He even goes potty on command. Super smart and pretty small in comparison to our Jabba dog, it is a welcome change.



Dont get me wrong, we love Midas to pieces, but after dog school twice I can honestly say he doesnt have it all going on upstairs! Cuddly, loveable, 100+lb wanna be lapdog....but totally incorrigible. Lets just say that we are hopin that Luigi can help teach his elder some manners :-)



We were not planning on adopting a new dog so shortly after Caseys passing, but we all felt the significant abscence of a second dog.



We had decided that we would get another dog, and that it would be Zach's. He had been taking care of Casey for the past several months and took her passing especially hard.



Originally, the time frame was the spring. Ever practical, we didnt want to housebreak in the winter and thought it would a better time of year for training and the like.



Of course I was an idiot and asked Zach if he wanted to start researching dogs and different breeds he may like. We did so for a while, but it was a lost cause. Luigi caught Zach's eye and heart in a second on the computer and it has been love at first sight ever since.




I find myself just watching the two...inseperable to say the least and just thinking that this is exactly how it should be :-) Zach even slept on the living room floor next to his dog bed so Luigi wouldnt be scared at night.



I even find myself breaking my hard and fast rules....he is just too stinkin cute. How can I make him get off the couch when he is snuggled up to my son with his head in his lap? And last night when he woke up unsettled in the middle of the night? Lets just say that there is plenty of room in my king sized bed for a boy AND his dog.

Traveling through Thursdays

<center><a href="http://www.livingonloveandcents.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="http://i406.photobucket.com/albums/pp142/happygirlivy/TTT-1.jpg" /></a></center>Welcome to the Traveling Through Thursday  Blog Hop, hosted by Living on Love and Cents, Mom On Dealz, Prenda Le Stelle, and  Clipping for Cash! Traveling Through Thursday and a new kind of blog hop! We will be traveling to a new destination each week!
THIS WEEK WE ARE VISITING FACEBOOK PAGES!




Join us on our journey as we discover new blogs and gain new followers every week!

The rules are super simple!


1. Follow the Thraveling Through Thursday Hosts (Listed as # 1-4) as well as the  Spotlighted Blog of the Week (listed as #5)
2. Link up ONLY THE NETWORK being featured this week (FACEBOOK)-Others will be deleted.
3. Grab our Traveling Through button and include it in a post about the event on your blog. (Use the code)
4. Visit as many pages as you would like and follow them.  Be sure to tell them you are a new follower from Traveling Through Thursday!
5. Follow back as many followers as you would like from Traveling Through Thursday. Following back is appreciated!


Help spread the word and get more followers:
-Put the same linky list code on your blog and you'll have the exact same list!
- Your blog visitors can add their blog to your list and it will show up on all lists!
-Don't forget to add this button to your blog so that you can participate in a our "Spotlight Blog of the Week"!


THIS WEEK WE ARE VISITING BLOGS AND FOLLOWING VIA FACEBOOK! Have Fun!

Sucess???

Believe it or not, I am pretty sure we have potty training sucess...or atleast one more step toward it anyway :-)

Yesterday I took the masses to get their back to school shots. YUCK!

What was memorable amongst the pitiful cries of my 3 year old was that even in the PACKED waiting room, the long car ride, the shot itself and the celebratory pizza dinner afterward. SAM STAYED DRY! woo hooo

Underpants were worn, no change of clothes needed!

Could it really be?????

Traveling through Thursday

<center><a href="http://www.livingonloveandcents.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="http://i406.photobucket.com/albums/pp142/happygirlivy/TTT-1.jpg" /></a></center>Welcome to the Traveling Through Thursday  Blog Hop, hosted by Living on Love and Cents, Mom On Dealz, Prenda Le Stelle, and  Clipping for Cash! Traveling Through Thursday and a new kind of blog hop! We will be traveling to a new destination each week!

1st week -Google Friend Connect

2nd week - Facebook

3rd week - Twitter

4th week - Networked Blogs

Each week we will randomly pick a Spotlight Blog of the Week! To be choosen you must follow the rules and have our button somewhere on your blog. (We have to be able to find it!)
Join us on our journey as we discover new blogs and gain new followers every week!

The rules are super simple!

1. Follow the Thraveling Through Thursday Hosts (Listed as # 1-4) as well as the  Spotlighted Blog of the Week (listed as #5)

2. Link up ONLY THE NETWORK being featured this week (twitter, facebook, google, or network blog)-Others will be deleted.
3. Grab our Traveling Through button and include it in a post about the event on your blog.

4. Visit as many blogs as you would like and follow them.  Be sure to tell them you are a new follower from Traveling Through Thursday!
5. Follow back as many followers as you would like from Traveling Through Thursday. Following back is appreciated!


Help spread the word and get more followers:
-Put the same linky list code on your blog and you'll have the exact same list!
- Your blog visitors can add their blog to your list and it will show up on all lists!
-Don't forget to add this button to your blog so that you can participate in a our "Spotlight Blog of the Week"!

THIS WEEK WE ARE VISITING BLOGS AND FOLLOWING VIA GOOGLE FRIEND CONNECT! Have Fun!

Potty Training Update!

So I posted a while ago about the beginnings of our potty training adventure...

I have to say that it has been going exceptionally well. We have been hitting it hard the last week (only underware during the day) and Sam has done wonderfully!

I can seriously count on one hand the amount of accidents that he has had. Yay! I am SO done with buying diapers...and even worse, those super expensive swim diapers.

I still feel like I am asking him all the time if he needs to go, but still it means only one or 2 diapers a day right?

I have to say I havent been brave enough to actually take him out anywhere without a diaper on though....

After 4 kids, I am not sure if I am being smart or just lazy in that decision :-)

More Bella

I got the incredible pleasure of babysitting my sweet neice while they were visiting. Just so I can share the cuteness with you all, I thought I would post some of the pictures I took that night.









This is only 4 out of over a hundred....isnt she just beautiful?