Dutchess.
1.03.2016
Winter afternoon
Dress that boy in warm clothes and give him room to roam ... he's got trees to climb and dirt to dig.
Birthdays & Dutchess
In an effort to distinguish Della & Huck's birthdays from Thanksgiving and Christmas we decided to celebrate them jointly on a random December weekend. To be honest, Huck had two birthday's this year. A spontaneous early morning celebration back in November to open a few presents and then this December 'balloons and all' party.
He unwrapped the present tiny piece by tiny piece,
carefully setting each piece of paper neatly to the side.
Although he really likes the book I think the birthday card was his favorite ...
it had an awesome front-end loader on it!
Ultimately the Helicopter won out. He'd chosen it himself the night before and didn't set it down for nearly a week. He would bring it up to us and tell us that it was the Octonauts Helicopter flown by Special Agent Oso (kids TV references).
On a random Sunday we put together a formal birthday party complete with balloons, cake, presents, and a couple distinguished guests -- Nana, Scott & Rene
Happy 4th Birthday Della Cascade!
Beautiful super smart-strong-sassy-sneaky boundary-testing big little girl
Or as Della would inform you ... "I'm not a little girl! I'm baby Della"
Our baby Della is a social happy creature who loves to make friends. If you smile at her then expect to be invited to join her in a game of chase, hide-n-seek, climbing, candyland, or duplos.
She's incredibly observant, kind hearted, and yet so very independent. Don't even try to tell her what color socks to wear!
This beautiful girl is quite the poser ...
... and still working on controlling her thumb.
Happy 2nd Birthday Huck Rainier!
This handsome lad is working so hard on his talking skills. Every morning he wakes up and starts rattling of the names of all his favorite toys. Recently he started pointing at or holding up items and asking "What'z Thiz?" then repeating the object's name. He says funny things like "Oh My Goodness!" and "Darn It!" and he knows his Please & Thank You. He's really good at "More Please" and "Go Away" and "Leave Me Alone". Don't get distracted by your phone or he'll crawl up in your lap, put his hand on your cheek and turn your face towards him until he has your full and complete attention. Smart boy.
This year's unplanned theme was Trucks and Dolls
Della recieved her first Barbie.
Huck introduced Scott to Duplo's
Nana's farm tractor and trailer was a HUGE hit. Huck took it into the bathtub to shovel bubbles. He didn't put down that tractor for at least a week.
We'd reached out to a local rescue group regarding a puppy who fortunately had already been placed but they were expecting to receive a chocolate lab later that day which might be the perfect fit.! Stark stepped out after the party, completed his rescue interview, and brought home Duchess!
She's a 2 year old chocolate lab surrendered by a military couple deploying oversees and unable to rehome her. She's a very well trained apartment dog who's learning quickly to love our large backyard. She lost an eye to glacoma a year ago but aside from preventing her from snatching balls out of the air, the lack of vision doesn't slow her down at all. She eased into our family as if she'd always been there ... we couldn't have asked for a better dog.
That very first evening we learned that she LOVES bubbles.
With kids in mind I've grown to love the Labrador breed. They are fantastically tolerant of kids.
Dutchess's crate still provides a lot of entertainment in our home. We've never had a crate trained dog and learned quickly that Duchess relies on her crate for security ... although she's quickly learning what sleeping on the couch is all about.
Our home is a bit more crowded but still full of love ... and hungry mouths ... and dirty feet.
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