Showing posts with label thanksgiving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label thanksgiving. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 13, 2016
Thanksgiving 2015 plus the last of November
Thanksgiving 2015 plus the last of November
(Im going to try my hardest to refrain from going on about how far behind I am in blogging and just pretend that Im on top of things and posting as events happen.)
We were invited to the kids daycare to celebrate Thanksgiving at a special lunch event. The kids think its pretty cool when they get to see us in the middle of the day. Except for the part when we leave to go back to work and dont take them with us.
There is really no reason to ever get the kids anything but cardboard boxes and trash - its really all they ever want to play with (and fight over).
Thanksgiving with the Basham clan was a hoot.
And the Fonner side was pretty fun too....noisy in our small house....but fun.
The kids helped make some brownies for the Thanksgiving festivities and by "help" I mean clean the bowl.
Sometimes they play so good together... here they are hiding in the corner playing tablets side-by-side.
These half-moon eyes belong to Papaw Jim. I cant look at this face and not see his Papaw.
If I didnt know any better, Id think this girl was meant to be a dancer. And then I have flashbacks to last January where this child went to dance class and cried every time.
Ty initially freaked out when he felt bubbles on his face - God forbid BUBBLES get on ones face! But then Joel convinced him to put even MORE bubbles so hed look like Santa. Only THEN was Tyler cool with it and not clawing crazily at his face attempting to remove bubbles.
It was kind of a big month for Lily - she moved up to her big girl car seat. I wasnt really ready for this yet, but her other carseat was giving us fits. The straps werent moving freely anymore and it was time to get rid of it. Rather than spring for another 5-point harness carseat that she would use for 6 months or less, we went ahead and got the booster style. Youd have thought Christmas came early, the child was so excited.
Tyler was back seat driving / navigating.
download now
Monday, November 28, 2016
Thanksgiving 2014
Thanksgiving 2014
I loved Thanksgiving this year! I woke up, got ready and it was just one of those days where I felt fabulous. On the way to my Grandmas house, I did a little selfie session (which is extremely rare.) (Except the make-up photos I attempt to take and then give up and never post them.) (Or the ones I send Denise.)
Dont you just love those days!
Right before dessert at my grandmas, I was getting ready to send a snapchat to Jamie, and my mom and Kari jumped in the picture. Alison turned around just as we were done and she made us go back to the same position to recreate the picture with her in it. It was highly amusing. I decided to choose the one WITH Alison to post on Instagram. Since Im nice.
I wasnt going to see my Dad and Delia since they were at the coast, so I quickly snapped this picture of Shep and I and sent it over to him. It turned out pretty cute.
That night, we started a new tradition with Bryans cousins on his moms side. It was so much fun sitting around the table and talking about life! Im bummed I didnt get any pictures. Next year!
download now
Wednesday, October 19, 2016
Happy Thanksgiving
Happy Thanksgiving
Ok, Ill smile now! :)
Connor looked like such a handsome big boy in his striped collared shirt for Thanksgiving!
download now
Thursday, September 8, 2016
Yay for Thanksgiving Break!
Yay for Thanksgiving Break!
.jpg)
I only wish I could go back and have him be bare-butted. How cute would that be?!
Maybe Ill try again, although this was literally the only image I captured before he tackled them.
download now
The flu Thanksgiving and trips out of town have waylaid my blogging efforts
The flu Thanksgiving and trips out of town have waylaid my blogging efforts
Its been a couple long weeks since I last wrote - when I looked at the date of my last blog entry, I was stunned by how long its been. And yet, there really hasnt been lots of noteworthy Hardy news over this time period. At 7 1/2 months, he is still an adolescent and hence, still has those butt head moments. But considering how boring it was for him the week I had the flu, he was actually very well behaved and found generally good things with which to stay busy.
When I felt up to it, I did take Hardy on some short public access trips - we went to Costco a couple times and now, depending on how well hes doing, we are venturing into the food areas. He has also been to Target, Office Max, and World Market recently. He is doing well with these trips but they are still primarily for his benefit and I watch him carefully for appropriate behavior and for any signs of stress or his being overwhelmed.
We attended APDT Rally trials the weekend after Thanksgiving. Laurel got her first Level 2 Championship (RL2X) and her APDT Rally Champion Excellent (ARCHX ) titles, which makes 6 rally or obedience championship titles this year.
In part because it got suddenly cold over the weekend, we put Laurel and Hardy into the same crate in our van; something they handled beautifully. Im not sure that will still work when Hardy reaches full-size but for now, they settle in and snuggle together. Once again, we were thrilled with how well Hardy handled hanging around in his crate at the trials and then coming out to meet people and do some behaviors with me. Hes also starting to appreciate one of Laurels favorite activities - hanging out with us at hotels!
Unfortunately, Brent slammed his back into our kitchen island on Thanksgiving day and although he felt okay through Friday, on Saturday morning, he was absolutely miserable with muscle spasms and radiating pain down his leg. He feels okay as long as he is sitting or laying down but the minute he gets up to do anything, he is just hobbling and hunched over again. This is the worst he has felt in a long time and it is reminding me how much of the physical things he does around the house. He is using Laurel to pick things up for him and do some of the other tasks she does for me. Hardy loves to join in but he is not real consistent ... he might pick the item up but that doesnt mean hes going to bring it to you - not yet.
He is doing very well learning (and now that hes an adolescent, relearning) basic obedience skills and loves his classes - conformation, obedience and agility foundations! I know there are many people who say that dogs cant learn more than one thing at a time (which is the reason many people wont train conformation dogs in obedience - because then they might sit in the breed ring; and why some people wont do obedience with dogs they are training in agility - thinking that the dogs wont want to leave their sides to do obstacles away from them).
I know from my experience with Laurel that she has, in fact, been able to learn exactly what is expected with whatever activity we are doing. When she is "dressed" and out as my full public access service dog, she is very different than she is when we are doing those activities in which she is allowed to "just" be a dog - obedience, rally, agility and now, freestyle. Not only does she know the appropriate behavior when she is "working" and needs to be serious, focused on me and not overly enthusiastic or friendly; but she knows and understands what we are doing when she sees the rally signs, agility equipment, an obedience or a freestyle ring. I truly believe that Laurel is much better able to do her job as my service dog because she does have all these other opportunities to be her energetic, enthusiastic and incredibly friendly-self! Plus, it helps build our relationship - our connection, communication and level of teamwork.
Even at 6 - 7 months, Hardy has been showing the same ability to discriminate what behavior is appropriate when he is dressed and working; when we are doing conformation or obedience or when he sees the agility equipment. And, working together in these different ways is also building our relationship. In our agility class, for instance, we work off-lead and Hardy is learning to work away from me a bit plus, in addition to learning all the jumps and obstacles (with the teeter board on the ground), we are learning how to work together to get from one to another which is all about teamwork.
I include training and competing in various dog sports in my training plans which, I believe, keeps me from getting too serious or focused on the ultimate goal of having a full public access service dog when they are just puppies or service dogs in training . Also, I think that for me, doing the different dog sports gives me opportunities to do fun things with my service dogs as well as continuing to train and be tested as a team.
Im including some of the photos Jack Powers took at the beginning of November below. One change since the photos, however - Hardy is now as big as Laurel!
download now
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)