The story of Comet

Comet 8 1/2 weeks. Her ears weren't sticking up yet.

Max learned how to draw pictures over the summer. He started drawing pictures of us and then he moved onto drawings of a dog who he named Comet. He just kept talking about this dog Comet who would be his "doggy friend". After going to many rescues and having no luck we ended up finding a backyard breeder who had just had their first litter of white german shepherd puppies. We drove two hours to Sacramento to "look" at the puppies and of course walked away with Comet.

After a few days of getting her, her ears perked up. Here she is trying to sleep with her "littermates".

There were two puppies left and the kids were running around and playing with them. Max came to me and whispered in my ear that one of them had given him a hug and that he wanted to take that one home. So we did! I held the puppy in my arms as we drove home and we shared our first bonding experience when she became car sick and threw up on me. Not very fun then but funny now :).

Still small enough to sit with us on our laps. On our way to Target and Petco for socialization.

Since then life has been amusing, hectic and frustrating at times. Its hard to raise two small kids with a puppy around. Now that I have the hang of it I like it. You know how when you have a newborn your life revolves around their nap schedule, well for me it kind of revolves around Comet's play schedule. Whats great about it is that I get plenty of excercise. I have a companion with me when we take the kids to the park and that when she is tired she is a cute cuddle bug. Whats not so great about it is when she doesn't get enough exercise she gets bored and she chews up our shoes, clothes, trash, door mat, dead grasshoppers, hands, toes and basically anything that will fit in her mouth.  But she keeps my life interesting and I have met a ton of people because of her. We have a doggy playgroup we go to every night. We have made friends with other herding dogs and go on trails. We had the chance to meet an Irish fellow who let Comet become familiar with horses and let Max sit on this beautiful horse. It was awesome. The kids are learning (slowly) to care for something. We teach them to think of her feelings and wants and to be gentle and loving. We have been to some beautiful places because of her. Rodeo Beach is a dog beach, Indian Valley Trail is for hikers, mountain bikers, dog people, and horse back riding. We love Comet and are so happy to have her in our lives. I never would have thought that I would love a dog like I love Comet. I actually wish the kids weren't around sometimes just so I could explore some more advance hikes and do other cool activities like flyball, agility...even just to watch her do what she was bred to do: herd sheep.

At Rodeo Beach. Comet loves to help the kids dig in the sand.

The only time Comet can run alongside Max. Other times she tries to herd him.

Indian Valley Trail is really close to our house and Comet LOVES this place.

I have recently started letting Comet off the leash at the park when no one else is around. She likes to think she is one of the kids by climbing up the playground :)

Max and Comet exploring in the woods.

Comet has been on the trail with horses before but she has never met one until now.

Max meeting the horse.

As Max was being placed on the horse he started to become scared but we encouraged him anyway and then he loved being on the horse.

The beautiful horse named Dodge.

A trip to the Oakland Temple

Its been a long time since my last post. Here's a brief summary: We moved to Novato, Ca which is in the north bay part of San Francisco. Its about 20 minutes from the Golden Gate Bridge. At first we were excited to be in our new area and its totally beautiful up here. We have made some great friends too.

Well its been a rough few weeks for me lately. Its been a long time since I've been nostalgic about my family. I just wish my mom were alive and that my sister were here with me. Sometimes I just feel really alone and that I don't have anyone to share my feelings with. I love my grandmother and am very close to her but I don't want to worry a 99yr. old with my problems. I think about the times I would have wished to have my mom with me like when I was getting married and when I had my kids. Those are moments I'll always wonder what it would have been like with my mom around.

Not having a husband around doesn't help either haha. I think thats the main culprit for my "lonely" feelings. We hardly ever have dinner together, he has only one day off a week. His hours are crazy, I'm talking from 5 am to 9 pm. Next month his schedule gets crazier because aside from his working hours he is on call everyday of the month except for two days. This schedule drives me insane! I can't plan for anything. No time for myself, can't take any classes, can't have any cool family outings because he might get called in or he does get called in and our plans are cancelled.

On top of that I think my kids have been picking up on all these stress vibes because they are irritable and edgy.

So with all this I decided to take the three of us to our stake's Temple Day. It was the best thing I could do for myself. They had activities for the kids and a devotional. I was able to do a session and some other stuff which was cool. A friend of mine received her endownments that day and that was inspiring and uplifting. I left feeling refreshed and renewed.

I love these two little monkeys!
Bridge! They get so excited about bridges, I guess because we're always crossing one bridge or another.

I told them "Beautiful smiles! We're at the temple." This is Max's version of a smile.

Pobrecita Isela

Isela has been quite a character lately. She loves loves to wear Max's shoes especially his new vans. She has also been keen on wearing his clothes and underwear. She is so cute as she babbles about stuff. When our new cat came over she chased it around barking because she thought it was a dog. Then I told her that it was a cat and that it meows. Now she likes to say Sacha Sacha whenever we talk about cats.

Today however tops all her shenanigans. Max and Isela were so cute and innocent when they came down that I couldn't get mad at them. I just had to laugh. Max and Isela had gone up to their Nana's room to visit like they always do. Only problem was is that I didn't know that she wasn't there. Isela grabbed hold of the markers and went to town on all the walls. But Max had an even better idea. He saw some scissors that looked exactly like the scissors the hairdresser used on him the day before (his first professional hair cut.) He decided to give Isela a hair cut, a really bad hair cut. They came down the stairs together and Max very innocently tells me how Isela's hair was getting long, so long that it was getting past her ears. And he thought he would help by giving her a hair cut just like his.

Isela has no clue of what happened. I can imagine her sitting perfectly still with a smile on her face as her big brother carefully clipped off huge chunks of hair. The back looks the worse. It looks like someone took a weed wacker to her hair. Afterwards we spoke sternly to Max about how you don't use scissors without our permission and we gave some examples of hurting someone's eye with scissors. To which he replied, "Good thing we have two eyes." I tried not to laugh as Blair explained that we wanted to keep both our eyes.

Well now I'm off too look for some hats for Isela because I've decided that we will not shave her head. We're going to let the bald spots grow in and then figure something out.

Our first cruise ever!

My very generous in-laws surprised us last Christmas by telling us they were sending us on a cruise. We were accompanied by my brother in law and his family along with their friends from Texas. After moving out of our apartment in Philly we drove straight to Dallas, Texas. I spent a week with my sister in law but we didn't get to do any sight seeing. Unfortunately the freezing temperatures seemed to have followed us down there. It got so cold in Dallas it was in the teens plus all the roads were icy. Luckily the weather cleared up just time for the cruise. I drove down to Galveston, Texas where we met up with the rest of our party.

We took a 7 night cruise to the carribean. We stopped at Montego Bay, Jamaica, Grand Cayman Island, and Cozumel, Mexico. We sent the kids to Camp Carnival every day. Unfortunately these kiddos were too young and had to sit with us during dinner. They entertained eachother half of the time. The other half our danicing waiters would entertain. Isela loved to clap as the Maitre D would sing and the restaurant staff would get on tables and dance. I really enjoyed that part.

All dressed up for one of the fancy nights.

Just about to dock in Jamaica. You can see all the people looking out to the beautiful islands. It kind of reminded of a third world Hawaii; mountainous, turqouise waters but very poor.

Okay so the pictures are a little out of order. Cozumel was our last stop and we weren't really sure about what to do there. Right when we got there it started to pour but we decided to venture out anyway. We rented a car a drove to the south side of the island. Blair caught this picture of an iguana perched on top of this structure. There were iguanas everywhere!

This was part of a preservation park. Its a look out point and an area inhabited by crocodiles.

If you look behind Isela you can see the back of a crocodile. I was really scared they were going to snap at the kids but they were just hanging out. As we were leaving the guy at the post warned us not to get out of the car until we got to our next stop because the forest was full of wild crocodiles and they would attack. That was a little scary!

Our next stop was El Faro or lighthouse. It was really hard going up all those steps with an 18 month old in your arms but P90X helped out in that department. This was the view from the top. On one side you have the lagoon full of crocodiles and the other side was pristine waters of the ocean.

Mayan ruins! I wanted to see the actual pyramids but that was an all day excursion and we really wanted to snorkel. According to our guide, this structure was a house and the entrances were so small as to make it hard for predators (i.e. crocodiles!) get inside.

The beach we went to was private and they had tons of these hammocks which the kids loved.

Jamaica! Since this was our first port day ( we had been at sea for 2 days) we decided to head to a beach known for snorkeling.

The kids had a blast playing in the water and sand.

One of the fishes that we saw as we went snorkeling was Lionfish. These fishies were hanging out by the pier.

If you look in the background you see a big floating island. That had a trampoline in the middle that allowed you to do tricks into the water. Max was brave to go out there and jump off once but he wouldn't do it again afterwards. Blair and I went out there a few times because it was so much fun.

Okay so this is a pic of us on our way to swim with sting rays in Grand Cayman.

After watching everybody else not get killed like Steve Erwin, I decided that I would have a go at swiming with the sting rays. And just so you know their stings are not removed. These animals are big especially to me since I'm short but I even mustered up the courage to kiss one of them, eeks!

Afterwards we did some more snorkeling and then the kids were exhausted. Here they are sleeping on the boat.

We definately enjoyed ourselves. The kids had a blast even though it was hard some times with the motion sickness and the cabin fever on sea days, it was a trip to remember. Now we are in Utah enjoying ourselves with family and just waiting to hear where we will end up for the next three years.

Christmas in Philly

Christmas was a busy day for us. In my family Christmas eve is the big day. Thats when you have the big dinner and stay up til midnight and celebrate Christmas. So this year I decided that we should go out and get into the Christmas spirit but skip the big dinner.

Christmas eve we went to Longwood Gardens. It was beautiful. It was freezing but it was so worth it. We got there right before it got dark and we were able to see a train exhibit that the kids loved. Then we stepped inside and looked at the Christmas trees and decorations. Once it got dark we took a short stroll outside and then headed home.

Earlier that day we made a quick stop at the Comcast Center for their Christmas Spectacular. We found close parking and ran over and we were lucky enough to catch most of the show (a 15 min show). At the very end they blew fake snow from the ceiling and it just made it extra special.

The first thing we did on Christmas eve was visit Macy's Holiday Light Show and Dickens Village. The lines were long but it was a lot of fun. We also stopped at Reading Terminal Market for a yummy lunch and their Christmas train exhibit. My kids love trains.

After all the excitement the kids got a long nap on the way home and so they were ready to stay up till midnight. We had hot chocolate and read about the true story of Christmas. Right before bed Max and Isela opened one present. Playdough!

Christmas morning was wonderful! Max had asked Santa for a scooter and Stinky the Garbage Truck which he received and loves. Isela received a pink princess shopping cart, two baby dolls and girl trains: Lady and Rosie.

Blair just finished up a week's worth of residency interviews. Now we have to play the waiting game and cross our fingers we get into one of the top five.