Hounds, DS, and skirts

Just a little of this and that...

Nolan. He really enjoys his Nintendo DS. The kids get limited time on electronics, so when they do get to play, they take it pretty seriously. This particular day, I found him sitting in the laundry basket playing his DS. Probably more amazing than the fact he enjoys sitting in a cramped basket, is the fact that he actually found an empty laundry basket to sit in. Those are a rare sighting around these parts these days!

And speaking of laundry...

Nat thinks it's super fun to sit in the washer.... another thing that is rarely empty!

When Grandma Bauer came to North Dakota to visit, she made the girls a couple of Hello Kitty skirts. They are super cute, and the girls love them!

Kaitlyn wanted to wear her skirt and have a special hair do to go with it.

And Nat was more concerned that she had cute bows to put in her hair than what her hair really looked like.

And the hounds...

Yes, they need a haircut, but are kinda cute with the shaggy look going on.

A dog and her boy

The kids were running around being super loud while Anthony was on an important phone call, and wouldn't heed my warning to quiet down.  I finally told them to sit on the floor in the living room until he was off.  Talon plopped down on the floor, looking like the world was about to end, and Kallie promptly came over to comfort her friend.

She loves the kids, but Talon is her favorite. It might have a little something to do with the fact that it is his chore to feed them, but she has always been fond of him.

Cami

Papa and Daddy have been scheming lately to get hunting dogs, so they can hunt pheasants. They got Granny to buy into it, and this week, they brought home a bouncing baby girl. Literally. 

She is part German Shorthair, and part Weimaraner. She is about 7 weeks old, spunky, extremely cuddly, and so adorable! They named her "Cami" (mostly because she looks like she is camouflaged). 

Papa taking her for a walk.

She's already getting a bit spoiled. I don't know how many treats Papa gave to her the first day, but she sure enjoyed them.

She decided to start her hunting career with something a little easier to catch than pheasants.

Here she has captured herself some dandelions.

I rolled her over on her back to rub her tummy. She really liked it, but would look around periodically as if to say, "Is this okay?".

Welcome, to the family, Cami-girl!

The hounds

Our fearless hounds... Kiki and Kallie.  The furry members of the family.

Gettin' Cozy

Kiki loves to be comfortable.  She goes to great lengths to make sure she has a cozy place to lay down and go to sleep.  Tonight, she repositioned the couch cushion so she could lay on it.  Apparently, just laying on the couch itself wasn't soft enough!

Furry friends

Last night, I walked into the living room, and found Natalie sitting on the couch petting the dogs. It was so cute!  Natie loves her doggies!

A boy and his dog

Talon loves Kallie.  Kallie loves Talon.  She will put up with almost anything from him.  It's pretty sweet!

Friends

Natalie has become very fond of the dogs....especially Kallie.  She lays all over their bed and tends to crowd them out sometimes.  Kiki puts up with it for a while, then finds another place to sit. Kallie loves it.

Kallie even cuddles with Natalie's blanket when she leaves it laying around on the floor.  Kallie has always been so good with the kids.  It's pretty sweet!

Sleepy Schnauzers

These are our fearless hounds, all snuggled down for the evening.  Once Natalie goes to bed, they know they can finally have their own bed back- without being bothered constantly, and they cozy up and go to sleep.  She absolutely loves to play on their bed.  During the day, they often resort to laying under the coffee table, or on the couch, until the coast is clear.  They are such great family dogs.  They put up with so much around our unpredictable kids.  

Kiki saw the camera flash, and thought she better get up to see what was going on.

Kallie lifted her head for a moment, but was a little too comfy to bother repositioning herself.  Crazy, lazy dogs!

Kiki and Kallie

These two are all about comfort. They love pushing the couch pillows over and laying on them. This is a very common sight in the evening as it gets close to bed time... cuddling up together on the couch and snoozing. So cute!

Wood Chipper

I could have seriously injured me a Schnauzer last night. Kallie has a fetish with Talon's wooden blocks- she loves to chew them up. Last night it looked like someone had used a wood chipper all over the downstairs. There were tiny wood pieces everywhere! This is the 4th or 5th one she's completely demolished.
She then proceeded to wet all over the carpet when I got her in trouble.
If that wasn't enough...
After I got the floors swept and vacuumed, I let both of the dogs out to go to the bathroom before I went to bed, and they tracked in fresh cut grass all over my clean floors. Urrrrrgh!

Schnauzerville

Anthony's parents have 2 Schnauzers as well, and we've been dog sitting for them while they are in North Dakota. It's been quite the circus around our house, let me tell ya! Talon loves it. They start running around and playing, and he wants to be right in the middle of it!

In the dog house

Talon is attempting to hold Kallie down so he can play with her. She has different ideas... RUN!! He just can't understand why they don't want to play with him and get mauled all the time!

I thought Talon had gone upstairs with Grandma because he was nowhere in sight and it got really quiet. Then I heard some rattling around by Kiki's kennel. I couldn't figure out why she would be locked in her kennel, until I looked inside...

He had shut himself in the kennel with Kallie! Odd... she was the only one that wanted out! I had to take some pictures because it was so funny. I then had to get him out and explain to him that he couldn't play in there. He threw a fit! He still needs reminded from time to time that it is off limits.

"I'm king of the mountain! I'm king of the mountain!"

Meet Kallie!

We've adopted another miniature Schnauzer. Her name is Kallie. We got her from Anthony's sister, Cora. She is about 2 months younger than Kiki, and they are the best of friends. Their seems to be no end to their energy. They love to chase each other all around the house; and, of course, Kiki made sure to introduce Kallie to Talon's toys right away! (Now I'm in real trouble. Between Kaitlyn, Kayla, Kiki, and Kallie, I'm never gonna get any of the names right!!)

A few pictures of the new best friends

"Good-bye, Reese!"

This is a very sad day! We just sold Reese, our Australian Cattle Dog. We bought her when she was 8 weeks old, and have had her for about 2 1/2 yrs. We lived in Oregon and ran cattle on 50 acres, and Anthony had just started working with her when we moved. She did really well with the cattle... that is, until she got distracted by all the cow pies! We brought her with us to Idaho, hoping to buy some property in the future where she could run. Unfortunately, we live in a small neighborhood right now without a fully fenced yard, and it seems unfair to keep her locked up in a small pen, so we made the decision to sell her. She's beautiful, and has been such a good dog with a great personality, and we are going to miss her so much!

Remote control car

This is the remote control car that Talon got for Christmas. He loves for someone else to operate it so he can watch, then run away if it gets too close. For the longest time, he was too scared of it to pick it up, so when it got stuck somewhere he got frustrated. Now, he's just really cautious if he has to move it for some reason. Kiki goes into 'attack' mode with it. They crack me up!

Blanket thief

Kiki has become quite the blanket thief. If she sees one of the kids' blankets laying around and not being used, she lays claim on it, cuddles up and goes to sleep. She makes the most pitiful face and looks at you with such sad eyes when you take it away from her.

Talon is such a little bookworm. He LOVES to be read to, and he will sit and entertain himself for the longest time just looking at books.

More snow!

Yipee... it snowed! We woke up to about 6 inches of snow yesterday morning, and it continued to snow off and on throughout the day. Talon got to try out his new sled and snowsuit. I took him for a ride around the neighborhood yesterday evening and he loved it! He would drag his hand on the side of the sled and collect snow in his glove, then eat it as we went. Kiki went along with us and had a blast. We even let Reese into the front lawn to play in it. Of course, Talon couldn't stand just riding in the sled, he eventually had to get out and play in the snow. We tried making a snowman again, but the snow was too dry. Daddy came outside to throw snowballs with us. Usually Talon loves it when he gets hit with a snowball, so Daddy threw one at him and hit him on the top of the head. He giggled until it fell down onto his face and neck and started melting. He then broke out into tears. It was kind of funny to watch it all take place. You could almost see it register in his brain that the snow was actually cold! I took him into the garage to shake the snow off, and I thought he would want to head inside. Nope! He wanted right back outside, and didn't even want to wait for me to put his hat and gloves back on.

It was garbage day today, so I decided last night that it was probably time to take down the tree. I don't think the needles would have lasted on there another week. I took it out into the garage to strip the lights off, and was so glad I didn't do it in the living room. After I was done, there were probably more needles on the ground than on the tree. I can only imagine the fun in trying to get that mess out of the carpet! For some reason, it's just not quite as exciting taking down the decorations as it is putting them up! It's like, "Hmmm, now where am I going to store all this stuff until next year?".

Talon was a little sad to put up his singing reindeer stocking that grandma got him. I just don't know if we could handle too many more days of "...just hear those sleigh bells jinglin', ring- ting- tinglin' too...". Anthony asked me yesterday to PLEASE put it up. I told him I would after Talon went to bed so he wouldn't see me take it. Well, guess what Talon wanted to play with first thing this morning when he got up and saw it laying on the living room floor. YUP! I had forgotten to put it away last night. So, to save my marriage (wink!) and our sanity, I quickly redirected Talon to another toy and made the stocking disappear! Isn't it amazing how you have to replace the batteries in toys almost weekly, but stuff like that will last forever?!?! I'm sure it will still be going strong for years to come! Love you, Mom!!! :)

(Yeah, the after-Christmas effect just isn't quite as festive!)

Blind Spinner

While I've been attempting to get some things done for Christmas (baking, cleaning, decorating, etc.), Talon has been finding different ways to entertain himself. Usually, it means another mess for Mommy to clean up (as you can see from the condition of the living room).

He came up to me, handed me his hat, and wanted me to put it on him. A minute or two later, I heard something that sounded like a head hitting the wall, then Talon falling down. I turned around to see him with his hat pulled completely over his head and face, and he was running throughout the house slamming into walls, doors, the garbage can, Kiki .... and was giggling louder and louder with everything he hit. I started laughing so hard I was almost crying. It was hilarious! Alas, I did make him uncover his eyes so he wouldn't get hurt (after I took a few pictures, of course!).

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Keep away

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