Zoe

An early birthday present for Hope - her very own, REAL doggy.

Hope has become quite the lil momma over the last 72-ish hours. She holds Zoe almost constantly and carries her around like a baby. It reminds me of the relationship I had with Pepper Sr. when I was about Hope's age.

{Love the boots.}

Before we got Zoe, I told Hope that she would have to take the puppy to go potty and clean up after her and feed and play with her. Of course she agreed. She has held up her end surprisingly well. I thought for sure she would disregard what ever instruction I may have given to her before the puppy and just assume that "mom would handle it". However, she's taken ownership quite nicely, and I see some pride in her eyes as she takes care of her puppy. If only she was old enough I could hand off the night time puppy responsibility to her. That would be great.

Zoe is wonderfully patient and rolls over on her back when she sees Hope coming like she knows she's about to be picked up. She is playful, but not overwhelmingly so and she is small enough that she can't knock the girls over.

Ever since "the incident" several years ago, involving a puppy, Hope's ear, and a few stitches...*sigh*...Hope has been a little skittish around dogs. I was concerned that she might be too scared of any dog that we adopt and it would take some time for her to get used to it, but she took to Zoe right away.

One of Zoe's favorite things to do is chase the kids around the backyard. At first Eden was scared, but then she realized they were playing and couldn't stop giggling.

Zoe likes to bury her nose in the grass and pull clumps of it out at the roots. The kids think this is rather silly, but I think I may teach her to weed the garden. :)

Eden picked some flower weeds for the dog. I think she might have eaten the top off one. Zoe...not Eden.

Zoe enjoys being outside but isn't out for long before looking for shade to rest in. The trampoline is the perfect place. Also perfect cause the kids like to play under there already.

She's a snugly little thing. On the way home from picking her up she sat in Noah's lap and fell asleep while Hope sang her a lullaby. So far she has been sleeping with me at night, simply because I am not used to waking up several times during the night anymore and I don't want her whining to wake Ben and the kids. The good news is that Eden slept with me for at least the first year and a half of her life so I am accustomed to sleeping with little wiggly beings. I'm devising a plan on getting Zoe to sleep in her kennel throughout the night though. I just have to psych myself up to lose some sleep or perhaps sleep on the couch for a few nights. Hm, why did we get a dog again???

Originally we were looking to get a Border Collie. After a couple weeks of looking they just seemed too expensive and we were worried about their herding instincts especially around Miss Chevious who could actually use some herding. Anyway, I finally found this little puppy. The mother is a husky mix and the father is a chihuahua/dachshund mix. Ben wasn't thrilled with the idea of a small breed dog, but I think after seeing Hope with her he is more than fine with it.

She has multi-colored eyes. One of them is mostly blue with a brown spot on the bottom and the other is half green/brown half blue. It is a little weird, but also pretty cool. I've never seen a dog with multi-colored eyes before. Hopefully, it isn't something to be worried about.

Noah lovingly gave Zoe one of his stuffed animals to use as a chew toy. She also likes to chew on our carpet and anything else that might be lying on the floor. So are the puppy days, I suppose. On the other hand, Muffin has barely shown his face since Zoe's arrival. Guess we'll have to work on that.

An Afternoon in the Canyon

I'm a pretty spontaneous person. It's in my nature to just do something instead of planning things out. I've always been that way. Then I had children. It isn't exactly easy or comfortable, let alone enjoyable to do spontaneous things when you have infants. For me, there was far too much planning, packing and interruptions to bother with it. Now my children are a little older and I am finding that spontaneous is something that I can consider once again. Not completely mind you, I still have a two year old. But since she is starting to refuse naps, now is a good time to reintroduce the thought of casual outings.

I've been wanting to check out the Deer Creek beaches since before summer started, so yesterday was the day. I packed up the kids in the van, grabbed a treat for the road and away we went. There is a fee for the beach, but since we just wanted to check it out the lady gave us a 20 minute waiver.

I was disappointed at how rocky it was, but the kids actually quite enjoyed the rocks.

I finally had to pick Eden up to get her away from the rocks.

It was a great day for exploring. It was warm but not hot and there were enough clouds in the sky to give an occasional break from the sun.

When our pass expired we weren't ready to go home, so we decided to stop at Bridal Veil Falls for more adventuring.

We had lots of fun getting dirty and wet in the stream and of course playing with more rocks.

Noah found a stick and a flat-ish rock and tried to make a Tomahawk. When he was done with the rock Hope decided it was pretty special and wanted to bring it home for her rock collection.

On the way back down the trail Noah spotted a snake off to the side and caused all the people behind to stop and watch the snake as it slithered away. At one point Eden layed down on the trail to play with rocks. I tried getting a picture but by the time it was ready she had sat up.

It was a fun day and one we'll try to recreate soon.



To Nap or Not To Nap

It's here. I new it would be sooner or later. I was rather hoping it would be later though. When I say "it" I mean that time in a toddler's life when they decide you no longer need to gather the shreds of whats left your sanity a mommy break and they throw their nap time out the window like it means nothing to them. If I could get back my afternoon naps, I would take them in a heartbeat. Just as a side note, I would take back a lot of things from toddlerhood, like no responsibility, ENERGY!, naivety, having the world be so small and simple. *Sigh* I've had a particularly emotionally trying day today and thinking about childhood simplicity helps a little. Don't get me wrong, the trials I've overcome and am currently facing have given me all that I have and will have and for that I am grateful, but every once in a while I feel picked on and want to clinch my fists, stomp my feet, scream and shout and then cry for a good hour.
Somehow I've gotten completely off track with this post.

There she is. Sweet, naive, Miss Chevious who thought she didn't need a nap on this particular day. Mommy thought she did need a nap. She loves to watch movies on my bed so I put one on and made her all snugly and Oops...look what happened. She fell asleep. I guess she needed a nap after all. ;) This doesn't work all the time though - yeah, I try it EVERY time she refuses to nap cause she can be quite cranky come 4 o'clock. I am not ready for nap time to go. However, I am ready for that pillow to go. Hello, stains!

Giraff-ES

Remember that post that I made several months ago about how Hope isn't really interested in drawing and just scribbles around the page? All that has changed. She spent about a week and a half where all she wanted to do was draw. Mostly giraffes, though she calls them "giraff-es". She has suddenly burst into a tiny creative genius.

The big guy waving his hands in the back is Alex the lion. There is also Gloria, Melman and Marty, so obviously this is a scene from Madagascar which is among her favorite movies. I'm not exaggerating when I say she would draw all day. It is the first thing she asked to do in the morning and she was still talking about things to draw while I would put her to bed.

She got better and better with each new masterpiece and surprisingly detailed. In fact, disturbingly detailed. Can someone tell me WHY my not even five year old is drawing anatomically correct animals???? Though I must admit the detail is impressive. I asked her about it after she proudly showed me the picture and she giggled and said it was "milk". Her pictures are almost always of a mommy and baby whatever so that relieved me a little, but still shocking. I didn't include any of those pictures and that is too bad because they were excellent, minus the "details".

This is one of the first pictures she drew. As you can plainly see, it is a family of giraffes. The story that accompanies this piece of art goes as follows: The daddy giraffe almost knocked into the tree because he was looking out for the dogs (who apparently can fly), but instead the dog knocked into him. She had a specific story line with each new picture.

Finally daddy went out and bought her an extra special drawing tablet just for her pictures. This is the first picture she drew in it. She loves rainbows right now and is always sure to get the order of the colors right. Little smarty pants.

Grandma Bosley, I will have you know that during her week of artistry she kept saying that she was making a book of drawings for you for when you come home. After I would tell her how much I liked one of her pieces she would say, "I think gma will like it too."

Also in Hopie news: the other day she was playing with some wiki stix and turned her dog into a pirate. I thought it was pretty funny so I had to take a picture.

When Eden saw me get the camera out she snuck into the picture and took a picture of me taking a picture. What little cuties I have. It helps to reflect on these moments during the MANY tantrums and sibling rivalry they participate in daily.

Snow Bird

A couple of weeks ago Ben's work had their company party up at Snow Bird. Noah was here for once so he got to come to. They had a taco bar which was actually pretty good and afterwards they had a raffle. This year Ben won something! Unfortunately, the prize was two tickets to The Stadium of Fire and we felt like the timing was just wrong for us considering we have two small children who would need to be in bed and Ben had to work the next day. So he sold them on Craigslist for $75.

We rode a tram to the top of the mountains where you can barely see SLC in the valley below. The kids thought the tram ride was pretty cool, especially when it would swing back and forth.

There were several other things to do too. Noah rode a mechanical bull and thought that was cool.

He stayed like that (half on half off) for just about the whole time he was riding.

Then he climbed the rock wall.

And Hope and Eden tried out the bouncy houses.

Then Hope and I rode the alpine slide while Noah did the bungy trampoline and Eden took a little nap on daddy's shoulder. :) Noah was very proud of himself because he did two flips in a row and the crowd of people waiting in line all cheered and clapped for him.

We saw lots of squirrels which Hope and I were very excited about. She was very concerned while driving through the canyon because there was no fence to keep us from falling off the road. Finally on the way back dad convinced her that he knew what he was doing.

Say What?

Hope: Dadda, um, what, um. Dadda? Um, What's that? Um, Dadda, What. Oh....whatever.

Hope as she's taking the first bite of her taco: Banana in the hole! (From Horton Hear's a Who)

Hope: Dadda, do you smell stinky?
Ben: That's not very nice.
Hope: No. I'm just asking if you smell stinky.
Ben: Why?
Hope: Cause I think you smell stinky.

Hope thinks I am in the pantry. She says: Mommy, I want juice!
Noah walks out of the pantry.
Hope: Mommy, I want juice....whoever you are.


Hope talking to the gummy worm in her pudding dessert: Are you gonna move? Why aren't you moving?

Hope to mommy while I am tucking her in at night: I want my stuffed animals talking to each other.
Mommy spends a few minutes arranges her MANY stuffed animals in small groups as if they are having important discussions.
Mom: How's that?
Hope: Uh...a little to the left please.

Hope: Can I have another muffin?
Mom: Did you throw the other one away?
Hope: I wanted to cause I didn't want it.
Mom: Why?
Hope: Cause it had blueberries in it. Can I have another blueberry muffin?