Meet Carson

Time to meet the newest member of our family, Carson! We've been talking about getting a dog for a long time and even fostered a friend's dog for a while to try it out. Dan was always showing me pictures of cute dogs from the local Humane Society website, we went to some open adoption times at PetSmart, and still just couldn't decide.

Then the other day he showed me this adorable poodle that was at the Humane society and I said, let's go meet him! You're allowed to view 2 dogs per day so we picked another likely candidate to meet as well. The poodle came in the room and was super super cute, but super super shy. He wouldn't respond to us and just wanted to leave the room. Then you wonder if it would be fine once it got home, would it play with our kids, or just be shy.  So they brought Carson in and he was full of energy but super sweet and submissive at the same time. I was initially against buying Carson, partially because the poodle reminded me a lot of my first dog, and probably because it was going to be a big decision whenever we made THE choice. But, after watching him for a little while longer, we decided that he would be great for our family, and boy he hasn't let us down. Here is our 8 month old miniature schnauzer, Carson!

We've had him for about 3 days now, and he's only had one accident in the house, loves to cuddle, loves to play (with us AND the kids), and has been great around others. He is still a puppy and has some behaviors to learn, but he has been very trainable so far. Dan mad a great choice in Carson and I feel like our little family is complete now. We took him to the Garden of the Gods today and he got pretty excited around other dogs, but loved going on the trails and climbing the rocks with us. I'm sure he'll show up in many pictures to come!

Bucket List progress

Remember my bucket list for 2013? I have some progress to report

• Pay off the minivan (hoping for a good tax refund!)
• Obtain an animal, cat or dog
• See the new elephant exhibit at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo
• Play with friends more
• Go camping at least 5 times
• Go hiking at least 10 times
• Go to the top of Pikes Peak either by driving or by the cog railway
• See my Dad
• McBride family reunion!
• Yes, I would like to lose weight...

I'd say that since it's only April, being able to cross off FOUR things from my list already is awesome!

I don't have any pictures of paying off my minivan, or of the elephant exhibit (oops!)

BUT, I did get to see my dad for the first time in about 2 1/2 years while I was visiting Valerie in Phoenix for Emma's baptism. 

I just had to take this picture of all of Valerie's kids with their bikes upside down pretending they were making ice cream. This is something we would do as kids and she has passed it onto them. Kyle is the best at making pretend ice cream!

Now for some photo-ops!

Me and Valerie

Dad and his girls

Mom and her girls

It's too bad Kevin couldn't make it, or we would have all been together for the first time in 6 years! But now we've all had the chance to be together at some point or another since we've been back from Korea.

And here's the special girl on her baptism day. It was a wonderful baptism and I was so glad to be there!

Now you may have noticed that another bucket list item was crossed off; getting a dog. Stay tuned for my next post!

Golden Birthday

Yesterday Cade had his golden birthday! He turned 7 on April 7th, and we had a wonderful weekend celebrating. I really mean that, because we had hardly any tantrums and truly enjoyed spending time together. Hooray!

Since his birthday was on a Sunday (which Cade noticed like 6 months before his birthday and was super bummed that he'd have to go to church on HIS day...lol), we celebrated some on Saturday and some on Sunday.

Saturday daddy surprised Cade with his first present, the jumbo ball. What kid wouldn't love one of these??

Then that afternoon Grandma Kathy and Uncle Kevin arrived to keep the party going. Colorado has a place called ITZ, which is a cross between Chuck E. Cheese's and Dave and Busters. It is nice and spacious, has a pizza buffet, pasta, salads, desserts, actual rides like bumper cars, a little roller coaster, ticket games and lots of other cool stuff. We all had a great time.

He was excited that he had gotten ahold of Dan's air hockey paddle, hahaha...

 You can't tell from the pictures, but in this game you picked a color, and whenever your color showed up on the wall you had to hit it before it disappeared. The person who hits the most of their color wins. Fun!

Uncle Kevin is Alex's best friend. The rest of us get NO attention when Kevin is around :)

Now it was the actual birthday! We let him pick his meals for the day and of course had cake and presents. After chocolate chip waffles, the present opening began. He got a blanket and a birdhouse kit from Grandma Kathy, Spiderman sticker book from Uncle Kevin, Spiderman sunglasses and goggles from Alex, and water guns, Snap Circuits and some new bath toys (and that jumbo ball!) from Mom and Dad.

Here's Cade playing with the Snap Circuits. These things are COOL. You build your own circuit board and make lights turn on, sound effects, even making a propeller blade launch into the air. 

The finished birdhouse!

The weather was just gorgeous so we spent the day playing with his new presents, playing outside, and then ended with a BBQ dinner and a pazookie for his birthday dessert. What a great day and great to spend it with family. 

Happy 7th Birthday Cade!!!

This week I am headed to Phoenix for my niece's baptism, and considering that it's supposed to snow here tomorrow, I'll take that Phoenix heat!