December has arrived....

I've been less than a good blogger as of late - it's just been easier to add things to Facebook, but I realize that I won't have my own little Chronicle of Life if I don't add things here too....  

It's December, which gives me yet another reason to embarrass my kids :)  

 And the stockings were hung by the......  well.....  they were hung with care.  :)  We all have matching stockings this year.  I got the 'big dogs' theirs at the After Christmas sales last year, and picked up the ones for the puppies a couple of weeks ago.  There was no D when I went shopping last year, so K it was for Kota :)  They have pretty little rhinestones on the letters as well... they're quite pretty actually.  :)

It's been raining off and on today so I didn't get the lights hung outside.  That's on the list for tomorrow, I hope.  I'll get my tree after my birthday.

Happy December :)

Happy Fall, 2011

As you've probably already seen by the header, I took a nice little fall picture of the crew today.  :)  Had to make sure I got it on the blog so it was saved here as well :)
Chance : 4 years 9 months
Sedona : 5 years 5 months
Mia : 6 months
Dakota : 8 years 5 months
Mason: 7 months
and 2.5 seconds after this photo was snapped they scattered like little bugs!  LOL
This was taken under one of the peach trees in our back yard...  :)  As fall like as I can get in my back yard for now :)

Happy Halloween 2011

Mia (5 mo), Dakota (8 yr), Chance (4 yr), Mason (6 mo), Sedona (5 yr) celebrate (reluctantly) Halloween while their mom (me) laughs hilariously while snapping pictures.
Our version of a picnic.  :)  Tee hee hee hee hee.  I can't stop giggling at them.  They don't appreciate it as much as I do..  LOL

catching up with the crew

Mason relaxing on the path

Chance, taking his yard guard duty seriously.

The goon squad (minus one goon)

my beautiful, beautiful girls.  

Monkey (Mason) in the middle

part of Mia's day consists of sunbathing

The dogs are all loving their new digs...  the kids are getting so big!  Mia is 5 months old and Mason will be 6 months old on Monday!  I have new pictures of them to post in another post (tomorrow?).  

Welcome to our new back yard....

Looking straight out the back door

looking slightly to my left (hello lovely Lemon tree!)

Looking slightly to my right (the puppy frolicking is an added bonus to this tour ;-) )

all the way to my right

walking down that path you see - insert spa (in the future).

turning to my left to look out onto the yard

turning left, toward the house

Looking back at the patio and back door (Hi Sedona!)

At the gate to the coup, looking back at the house

turning to my right, note the lovely over grown fruit trees of unknown type next  to the huge Lemon tree.  If anyone cares to help me figure it out, I'd love to know just how to care for these obviously unhappy trees.  

turning all the way to my right, shed in very back corner and these two trees.  This front one is peach (it has a tag) but I have no idea about the one in the back.  The kids LOVE to run figure 8's back here.  I think they might have finally found peace with the neighbor dog whose nose we've seen a lot of through the holes in the cinder block.  :)  

example of above said hole.  In this case, the person who owned this place put some mesh up over some of the blocks...  and in some cases, the neighbor has also blocked their side (everyone has dogs out here).  In others, there is nothing, so we see noses.  It's taking my dogs some time to get used to this.  

At the corner of the coup and the neighboring fence looking back at the 'nook' between the fence and the house.  The wires you see on the right are for the spa.  (yes, seriously). :) 

The big monster Lemon tree.  Oh glorious over grown lemon tree.  I will have many lemons soon...  :) 

and behind the Lemon tree, I have a Pomegranate tree (and an RV gate).  

walking back to the path you see between the Lemon tree and Pomegranate tree - greeted by the Cardi crew :)  

At some point we'll get it all landscaped and looking a little more together.  There's lots of space and lots of potential.  And lots more to clean up! ;-)  I love the patio and the trees (despite not knowing how to care for the poor things).  The dogs aren't as against spending time outside now.  :) I'm not either.  :)  

New sunrises and sunsets, a front yard tour and happiness

The first sunrise I woke up to in my new house. :-)

one of the first sunsets in the new house

Another lovely sunset from the backyard

The dogs moved in with no problems.  They LOVE having the extra space in the back yard, and they often do figure 8's between these two trees.  :)  When we first moved in, the grass was very long (as seen here).  Now it's cut back - they can't hide back there now ;-)  

I've always wanted a front yard.  I finally have one!
~A front yard tour~

Stepping out of the front door, looking to my left (north).  On the other side of the block wall here is a bird farm.

turning slightly to my right towards my 'umbrella' tree.  

Again, slightly to my right, end of 'street' (aka - extra parking) and driveway to extreme right.  This is facing east now, and on the other side of this block wall is someone's back yard.  

again, to my slight right.  You can see the house on the other side of the block wall there in front of my house and you can see my neighbors front yard fence near the recycle can (which cannot be picked up there, as I learned that day).  

 

It rained.  A lot.  I need to get the gutters looked at.  

The furry ones are happy in their new environment :)

I owe more updates.  I will work on it.  I promise.  :)

I'm loving it though! :)

New Home Owners

Not the greatest picture of me, but it's all 5 babies AND me...  how often does THIS happen?!  :)  Probably never again!  LOL 
All were tired and warm (the house had been shut tight for several days with no a/c until we got there).  Sedona was being a punk (goof), but this only adds to the memory :)
Two of my great friends came out to help me clean the house and get it ready for me to move in...  in 3 hours, the three of us knocked out every room in the house.  :) 
As the sun was setting, I went out back (west facing backyard) to let the dogs out.  I stood out there and listened to the neighboring bird farm and watched the sun go down at our new house.  The dogs seemed happy...  their mom is happy...  all is well. 

and we're closed!

:)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)

I get the keys tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Life update

Life has been on high speed these last few weeks...  I signed at the title company on Friday.  Bringing home that big packet of paper was kinda cool.  I sat it up on the stairs and glanced at it here and there, reminding myself what it was...  Seems crazy.  :)  The boxes are stacking up all over the house. 
The sellers go and do their paperwork tomorrow, so I should get my keys on Tuesday.  TUESDAY.  Like as in... the day after tomorrow.  *happy dance*
I have a couple of awesome friends coming on Tuesday to help me clean the new house.  It's been vacant for 10 months, and we've had some serious dust storms come through the valley this summer...  I will go over every day after work to finish and will start taking things over.  The dogs will begin to go back and forth on Tuesday too! :)  I have Two Men and a Truck coming on Saturday to help with the contents of the upstairs, the appliances, the furniture and as many boxes as I can get them to take in the time I have them for...  :)  Whatever is left, I will transport for the next week.  :)  I will be coming back to THIS house next week to clean THIS place up. 
Just a few more days of carrying the puppies down the stairs.  :)  HOORAY!
Speaking of the puppies ~ they are awesome.  :)  All of em.  :)  Dakota and Chance have had a few nasty little squabbles lately - not sure what's causing them, so I'm watching very carefully.  They're good most of the time though, so it's not causing too much stress.  Sedona is good - she's noticing something is going on and is being a little more clingy than typical.  Mason is getting SO big.  He's got a big lions mane already!  He knows sit pretty reliably and choses to ignore me when I say "come".  He might find himself enrolled in a puppy class.  Mia started handling class today - and she was 'push button'.  Gaited effortlessly, was happy happy happy, stood tall and proud on the table and stood nicely when I asked her to.  She started out looking at me a lot, and by the end, I had her able to look ahead as she gaited next to me.  Push. Button. Little. Show. Dog.  :)
School started for me this week - it's not nearly as overwhelming as last semester.  :)  Two semesters of coursework left, and then my internship.  I'm ALMOST there! :) 

Corgi butts....

drive me nuts...
:)

Mia - 12 weeks

Coedwig Tanalyn All Eyes On Me - "Mia" at 12 weeks old. 
Gotta love a puppy who looks great even at the awkward stages...  :) 
Mia is a Jett x Geisha daughter, making her a Carbon and Luther grand daughter - both of whom I am EXCITED to have behind this lovely girl.  She has a lovely shoulder, beautiful front, short hocks, nice turn of stifle, long elegant neck and ADORABLE head. 
She has litter mates who are slated to hit the show rings in Idaho, Texas and Colorado.  We're taking the West by storm!!! :) 
I cannot wait to hit the rings with this lovely girl at the end of my leash... 
I didn't realize until I was done that I only got her non show side...  oh well. :)  She's just as lovely on the other side too, I promise :) 

*pant pant pant* whew!

I'm in the last two weeks of my last summer session for grad school (can I get an AMEN!?), I have two puppies under 4 months, I have a bitch in season, I started back to work and I'm buying a house.  Um.  Yea. 

So I'm buying a house.  Finally.  Renting was just getting too confining - despite having a great landlord.  The home inspection is today, so wish me luck...  it looked great when I saw it Tuesday and I can't wait to see it again today! :)

The puppies are GREAT.  It's truly what I imagined having littermates would be like.  These two kids play and fight and do everything I would imagine littermates doing.  They're getting big.  Mason weighed 19.8 pounds and Mia was 13.0 pounds at the vet yesterday.  Mia's weight might be a bit off because she ate like a cow yesterday afternoon (remember the posts about Dakota and Piper indulging themselves a few months back?? Yea.  I put some kibble down for the two puppies at lunch and she ate ALL of it evidently.  LOL). 

Work started for me on the 22nd, and the kids started back on the 27th (same day I went under contract on the house).  I quickly realized that I had gotten all too used to sitting on the couch doing NOTHING (except school work) all day long.  I was TIRED by Friday!!!  I love being back though.  The kids make me smile.  Even the naughty ones! ;-) 

School (for me) has been a bear this semester.  I managed to squeak out of my Geology class with a C (the bare minimum) and am doing my best to get by my core classes.  It's a tough tough semester.  Good classes, but HARD.  The teachers piled just as many assignments in the last 3 weeks of the semester as they did the whole rest of the semester.  Does that make sense?  For example: the semester is 12 weeks long.  the first 9 weeks we had (hypothetically) 6 assignments and the last three weeks we had 6 assignments.  It's insane.  It's over next week - thank GOODNESS!!  3 new classes start 8/15.  I have the fall and spring semesters left, my 12 week internship over next summer, and then I'M DONE WITH SCHOOL.  Well ok, I have a Clinical Fellowship Year after that, but it's not a major school deal. It's basically just a clinical check in time - to make sure you're competent I think.  Since I've already been working and have proven myself competent, I can't imagine my CFY being TOO horribly difficult.  :) 

Sedona is on day 15 today.  She should be done soon.  Thank goodness.  That's all I can muster to say about that - other than I have somehow managed NOT to kill Chance in these last 15 days.  I'm proud of myself.  :) 

Dakota is great - I love my neutered boy.  Chance on the other hand makes me want to neuter him by hand right about now. 

I thought having been bred might have changed Sedona's cycles some, but it doesn't appear that it has.  She came in at 5.5 months after the last time she came in.  Normally she's 4.5-5 months, so I got an extra couple of weeks out of it, I guess.  ;-) 

That's my most recent update.  Life with 5 is nuts, but fun.  The puppies are easy to live with, and the big dogs would be too, if Sedona weren't in season subsequently making Chance insane.  :) 

I should close on the house no later than 8/24 provided all goes smoothly (which we see no reason why it wouldn't), so wish me luck.  I will keep the blog updated as I can....  :) 

2 minutes of my life....

Just two minutes...  two minutes of what I see for many many more minutes a day.  Enjoy the cuteness of it all.  :) 

my last few hours of freedom

In my last few hours of freedom before having to return to work, I chose to spend as much time as possible watching these little things grow up... 

Thing 1 and Thing 2

Oh my what great ears you have....

Coffee time on the couch with the kids...

Oh Kota...  my sweet, loyal Kota :)

doing what they do best...  play.  :) 

I go back to work Friday.  I would ask where it went, but I know where it was spent - on my couch, in front of this very laptop.  Summer school Kicked. My. Butt.  It's just what it was.  Geology is done, I got a C.  The other classes (3) run into August. 

I've been trying to buy a house - STILL am trying to buy a house, I guess this should read.  LOL. 

So along with all this busy-ness, I'm also ASKING to move.  I think I should be committed.  :) 

catching up a little

So life has been a little on the crazier side of normal the last few weeks...  School has been wolloping me on the side of the head repeatedly AND I have 2 puppies.  AND I'm trying to buy a house.  Yes.  I should be committed.  :)

In the mean time, I am taking pictures and I thought maybe the crew's fan club would like to see their antics... 

Enjoy!

"You called?"

Mia watches her BFF (Mason) in the distance

"HI!!"

"Oh hey, Mom!!" -Mason

Mia just trying to win Sedona over. 

too much cute

high centered Mason

couch baby

Really?  is that comfy?

 The beginning of a story....

One fine day, Princess Mia was thoroughly enjoying the puppy sized ball when suddenly and unbeknownst to her, her evil brother was sneaking in behind her....

Princess Mia, always one to share was showing her brother the fine toy she found. 

"Ah yes, that IS a fine ball" said Mason, as he told his little sister of the history of the puppy sized ball...  all the while plotting and planning against her....

"I'm really enjoying this puppy sized ball, Mason!" "yea, I bet you are, my dearest sister" thought Mason.

"Nom nom nom"

And the siblings begin to play wildly on the ground with the ball

Mia: "Hey!  I lost my ball!!"
Mason: "It's mine... at last!!!"

"I got my toy.. I got my toy!"

 In the short time that Mia has been here, she has already earned the title "Princess Mia" - always ready for her photoshoot too....

The big dogs are loving her, and Mason thinks she's the best thing ever (most the time). 
I choose to think about the dogs more often than not....  school raises my blood pressure and real estate makes me dizzy.  Summer semester is almost done, summer break is almost over and I go back to reality on Friday.  Where has the time gone???