How much is therapy going to cost me?

I can't call anyone to vent and help me through this because our crappy phone I need to replace won't work but that is another story so i am going to talk about it on my blog.

Remember that cute brown puppy we got back in March... it has grown in to a big dog my kids won't play with, won't clean up after and it is a fight to get them to feed her. The poor dog is alone outside all by herself 24/7. She is now big and is so excited when anyone goes outside that she jumps on the girls and ends up hurting them so they go outside even less. Meanwhile we have a brand new swing set no one plays on because it is out by the dog and the dog is trying to entertain herself by digging up half the yard, chewing everything and anything up to shreds including the insulation to our AC unit, bike seats and bags, etc. In the last week she had decided she doesn't want to stay in our yard alone and is making escapes where ever she can by hoping over out 5' gate, climbing on the shed and sliding into the neighbors yard to be with their dogs. I have been on dog duty to make sure she isn't escaping which means getting up at 2:00 or 4:00 in the morning when I hear her on the shed to stop her before she jumps.

I gave the girls a warning that if I didn't see an improvement in them interacting with the dog I was going to find her a new home where people wanted to be with her. The girls have not changed their interaction so we found out the person who adopted one of her brothers would like her too. I have made arrangements for her to go tomorrow. The girls heard about it and began crying at bedtime how much they love her and such. I feel evil because I don't feel bad she is leaving. I feel bad we put the dog through such a crappy beginning of her life and really hope she will be happy learning to be a bird dog. I think she will like it a lot better than laying on our patio getting depressed. My girls don't see it that way. I have explained it takes more than love to have a dog and she deserves to have people who will interact with her.

Pray for me all goes well tomorrow and my kids are able to deal with it and will eventually understand. If I ever mentioning getting a dog again come hit me along side the head with a 2x4.

His new thing.....

Harrison is really into diapers right now. (clean ones!!) He loves to play with them and make them make noise. He gets REALLY mad when you take them away too. That is why we are going on an errand with him holding 2 diapers. He isn't bias either swim or regular work for him. It just made me laugh today to see him sitting there happy with a death grip on the diapers so I took a picture.

Harrison walking video

Harrison is SO close to walking on his own. He can stand by himself keeping his balance for quite a while. He has taken one or two steps a couple times. You can tell he is really thinking about it sometimes as he stand by furniture. He has figured out he can get some places quicker walking with his walker toy. He has even figured out how to move it to walk again when he runs into things. I love to see him learning new things. He has gotten better since this video was taken, this was one of his first attempts. i love it!

First day of school

Emily and Abby started school on Monday and Claire had her first day on Tuesday. I have 3 children going to 3 different schools. Luckily I have a good friend in the neighborhood in the same situation so we are carpooling. It is kind of a major coordination effort but once we get it down it will be very helpful!!! The girls had a great first day and are happy with their teachers and school. When I picked up Emily from the new Charter school she is going to she asked me, "When can I go back?" I am taking that as a REALLY good sign her new school is good. I just wish I could get Abby there sooner than next year! the group shot is actually from Em and Ab's second day of school. They are loving wearing their new clothes. Claire had one mishap at school. I had a Dr appt for Harrison and thought I might run over picking up Claire so I had my friend pick her up and sent a lunch so Claire wouldn't be hungry. Claire thought she was going to eat at school and was very upset when she didn't get to. She told me her teacher was mean because she wouldn't let her eat her lunch. She calmed down and they told me about her good day.

Memory tag

Something new with no pictures!!!

Here are the rules:

1. Add a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses.

If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments. I can't wait to see what people remember!

soaked

Here is a picture in the Shamu "believe" show after they all got soaked during the show. It was a great show and really nice arena to watch.

more seaworld pictures

pointing at the fish


the kids loving being with dad

I love this profile of Harrison against the fish tank!!!

My boy and the fish.

Harrison's favorite part was the coral reefs and shark encounter. He loved seeing all the fish swimming right in front of him. It was great to watch his reaction and see him try to touch the fish. We spent a lot of time there because he liked it so much. Abby was anxious to leave the tank area. She was worried the tanks were going to break and sharks would get her. No matter how much I reassured her she still kept asking to leave. I am glad we took the time to be together and have the kids see some neat things even though they were spazes at the hotel room. You would have thought they had never stayed in a hotel before by how amazed they were by everything and it was a standard inexpensive chain hotel!!!! Emily and Abby loved to go get ice from the ice maker! They fought over the mini shampoo, lotions and soaps. Claire carried around the insolated cups for the coffee maker for two days pretending to give all of us cocoa.

Seaworld

We had two day passes to Seaworld. We were planning to go Monday and Tuesday but it rained really bad on Tuesday so we were at Seaworld on Monday and Wednesday. On Monday we went to the shows and on the rides. The girls really loved feeding the dolphins. It was cool how close you could get to them. We bought the food to feed them a few fish and they girls got to touch the dolphins. We saw the Shamu show twice because the girls really liked it. On the second time John sat in the "splash zone" with the girls. Harrison and I stayed up high and dry. The girls loved getting all wet by the whales. On the second day we went to their water park called Lost Lagoon for most of the day. I didn't get any pictures because I didn't want to get the camera out in all the water. Everyone had a great time and it went by too quickly. Harrison was very brave and played around this foam turtle in the baby pool area all by himself, the water was about 6 " deep. Claire really liked the splash maker area with water spraying out of everywhere. She even went in the wave pool and down a waterslide with dad. Emily and Abby loved the wave pool and slides also. Overall it was a great trip and super nice to be with dad for 4 whole days!!!!!

The Alamo!!!!

John has been working over 60 hours a week for the last month. He is lucky to not work on Sunday so we decided to take a mini trip to San Antonio to Seaworld. Of course we had to go see the Alamo too. The girls weren't too excited to go and kept asking why we were there. I told them you can't go to San Antonio without seeing the Alamo and if we didn't have the Alamo we would be living in Mexico right now instead of the USA. It was very cool to see a part of history. Luckily it had rained early that day so it wasn't very hot. The kids still got tired of all the walking and all four of them piled into the double stroller. They did have fun posing with the cannons. Claire is our little supermodel in training. We were planning to go see the river walk after the Alamo but we reached the kids breaking point at the Alamo so we headed back to the hotel. We will have to see the river walk on our next trip to San Antonio.

My boy is getting BIG!

This is one of my recent favorite pictures of Harrison. He was looking like a big boy and in a happy mood so I took advantage with a few pictures of him. I love to see his sweet face looking over his crib when he wakes up from a nap. Claire and Harrison have a sweet little relationship, it will be fun to watch them grow up together.

Claire with baby raccoon

We recently had a new family move into our ward. They live in a home slightly in the woods. Their 13 year old daughter found an abandoned baby raccoon in their yard. When the mother hadn't come for it in a few hours they took it in and have been feeding it themselves with puppy formula. When I went to visit them I took the kids with me so Claire could see her beloved favorite animal, the raccoon. She held it for a short time but was kind of unsure about it. It was teeny and made little squeaky sounds. Claire was excited to tell Dad all about holding a "rat-toon" when he came home from work. Notice her dress up outfit her dress up radar found immediately at their home. She had on about 3-4 outfits in the hour we were there.

Face Paint.....

Emily has been begging me for face paint forever. I thought you could only get it during Halloween until Emily found it at Hobby Lobby the other day. I finally gave in and bought it as something for the girls to do to keep them busy. Emily went home immediately and made Claire her first victim. Note the raccoon on the forehead, Claire's favorite animal. I took a double take when I looked at Claire all day because the glasses almost looked real.