12 Years

“Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when you look back, everything is different.”    – C. S. Lewis

I came across the above quote when reading an article this past week, and it really stuck with me perhaps because I believe it’s so true.  I immediately thought back to the days when the girls were very young.  Mark was still travelling a lot then, and the days with a baby and a toddler, then a toddler and a toddler, could definitely be long and seemingly not that different from one day to the next.  The changes were mostly gradual, so when you’re immersed in the routine of life as you know it, those changes are hard to see.  It’s not until I would look back that I would really realize that so much had changed.

Mark and I celebrated our 12th anniversary on January 19th, and I’m confident that we would both say our marriage is very different after 12 years than it was after 1 year or 5 years or 7 years.  I suspect that I can expect the same of the future.  There haven’t been any earthshattering milestones that document a change in who we are or in how we approach our marriage and family, but rather the changes have been gradual, and when I look back, everything really is different.  My hope for this marriage year 12 is that we live each day to appreciate what it has to offer – not just looking forward to what’s in the future. I don’t want to rush our kids to grow up, our plans to be more stable (well, maybe), or more things crossed off our list of “to-dos.”  I hope when we look back on year 12, it’s a year that we learned to love God more, love the people around us more, love each other and our family more, and appreciated each day as a gift – doing our best to make the most of it, even in the routine of life because I know at some point in the future, I’ll look back and realize once again that everything is different.

Another Snow Day

Well, after spending some of yesterday playing outside without jackets, today brought us snow by the inches.  The kids had off school yesterday because of MLK holiday, today because of the snow, and school is call off tomorrow due to snow.  Needless to say, they’re not too disappointed.  Since the snow started around 9am, after lunch there was quite a bit to play in, so we headed out first to the back yard then sledding on the hills at their school.

The girls started building a “snow fort” next to the deck which really was just a big mound of snow that they piled up and Cayenne would run and jump through.  Snow play is exhausting work!

 

Like the last big snowfall, Cayenne loved being outside.  Despite her short hair, the snow doesn’t seem to bother her, and she played outside the whole time we were out there.

She even got into a little game of “who’s stalking who” with Mark and Lyla.  She gets in stalk mode, gets down low, and starts rocking back and forth.  Then she points, then she pounces!

After some play in the back yard, we went sledding, Cayenne got to run in the snow at the dog park with some other dogs, and we all enjoyed some hot chocolate and a hot dinner.  I think we’ll all sleep well tonight!

The Highs and Lows

Here I am thinking that life with this dog is awesome.  The sun is shining, I’m riding my bike on the trails and she is running next to me, I can’t help thinking what a cool and smart dog she is.  I love Cayenne.

Here I am not much later thinking that this dog better RUN FOR HER LIFE!  While left unattended for a few minutes, she simply chewed through the cord of my most favorite vacuum (thankfully for her which was unplugged at the moment) who I have a very longstanding and committed relationship with.  Yes, that would be the vacuum that I’m speaking of.  I love my vacuum – currently not so much the dog. 

Ugg.  The highs and lows of having a puppy…

Six Months

Yesterday Cayenne turned six months old.  It’s hard to believe that she’s been in our family for over four months!  Mark and I were commenting recently that most of all the puppy training is really behind us.  She is a super super dog as long as she gets exercise, so we keep her exercise at the top of the priority list.  We’ve gone for a walk in the pouring rain, in the snow, in the wind, etc., and it’s a very very rare day that she doesn’t get a long walk or a run outside.

She’s a very loving puppy, and if it were up to her, she’d probably want to sit on someone’s lap all day.  She is great with the kids, and they both really love her a lot.

She sits nicely and chews her bone while they comb her hair, she plays their silly chase games, and she always makes it up in the bed for books at bedtime.  Normally she falls asleep before the book is finished, and although it would be sweet to let her stay there, we don’t think she’s quite ready to sleep in the bed yet.  Maybe in another six months…

 

Some of her favorite activities include stalking squirrels, going on walks, snuggling on her dog bed with some member of the family, and one of her top favorite activities is going to the neighborhood dog park.  We’ve generally had good experiences there (some better than others), but Cayenne always seeks out dogs to play chase with her.  She loves to be chased up and down the dog park, around and around the trees, over the dirt mounds, etc.  Even at six months, she’s speedier than most dogs at the park, so chase is a fun game for her.  Once when we were there, a year old Vizsla was also there, and then she had finally met her speed match.  The year old’s legs were obviously longer, but when the two of them took off chasing each other, it was like a blur of brown.

While dogs definitely are a lot of responsibility, we’re really glad we have Cayenne, and she’s been a great addition to our family!

A Visit to PB

The day after Christmas, Shen and I took four of the five girls to visit PB. The girls are lucky to have their great grandfather living close enough to visit several times a year, and each time they go, they get a full photo session worth of pictures taken. Normally PB is always the one behind the camera, but we pulled him out from behind his camera long enough to get a cute photo of him with the girls!  As you can see, they got matching sweater/scarves for Christmas and were excited to wear them for their visit to PB! 

We all had some lunch, PB took a lot of portraits of the girls, I snapped a few photos of them hanging out, then it was time to get back on the road.  Even though our visit was just for the afternoon, it was great to see PB and spend some time with him this holiday.

Christmas 2013

Well, Christmas has come and gone, and I’m now getting around to an update.  Unfortunately, we were hit with the stomach flu the week before Christmas, and it pretty much took over the house for four or five days.  With lots of little preparations left to be done before Christmas, we were at home with two sick little girls who were hoping and praying to be well before Christmas arrived.  Their prayers were answered, and by Christmas Eve, both seemed to be mostly back to normal.  Mark and I were scrambling a bit to get the last of things done, but we were just thankful that everyone was healthy and happy for Christmas. 

We spent Christmas Eve over at my parents’ house for the annual Christmas Eve dinner with family.  It’s always an evening we look forward to, and we traditionally get home late and set up for Christmas morning when we get back.  This Christmas was much of the same.  As you can see from this picture of our tree that night, almost all of our ornaments, lights, etc. are located on the top half of the tree thanks to Cayenne. 

Christmas morning got started at a pretty decent hour.  Lyla came into our room at 7:00 very excited and ready to get things started.  We let her wake up Nina, and the fun began.  We opened gifts at our house then by ten, we were over at my parents’ house for Christmas morning with the rest of the family.

Over at my parents, the girls got to open presents with their cousins and we enjoyed an awesome Christmas breakfast together.

  

   

Back at our house Christmas afternoon, the girls played with their new Lego sets, tried rollerblading, and generally kept busy with their new acquisitions.  While we were thankful for all the fun gifts, good food, etc., we are so grateful for another year of health for our family, the Lord’s provision, and another year to celebrate the birth of Jesus at this special time of year.  Merry Christmas!

Snow Day 2

Here are some more pictures from our snow days.  The kids ended up being out of school for two days, so this was day two – snowman building day.

   

These were the snowmen that the girls made.  Nina’s is on the left and Lyla’s is on the right.  Here in the Simpson house we seem to focus on the “character” of the snowmen not their proportion, beauty, or resemblance to anything that actually looks like a snowman!  They had fun building them though.

 

As I stated in my previous post, our Christmas decorations have taken quite a hit this year courtesy of the pup.  Just after taking this picture, I left her alone for about 10 minutes and lost another handful of ornaments.  Ahh, the joys of a puppy at Christmas…

In other happenings, Mark and I got the chance to head out for a date night (his work Christmas party), at the Ironbridge Restaurant and Wine Company.  We enjoyed a lovely evening of some good food, wine, and hanging with adults.  Meanwhile, back at the house, Mousey had an evening with a sick Lyla, a crazy dog, and after the kids went to bed she couldn’t even get the TV to change channels, so she ended up folding laundry.  Thankful for a grandma babysitter that night who put up with all the craziness and didn’t call us to come home early!

All She Wants for Christmas…

…is her two front teeth!  Actually, that’s not true, but that’s the song we were singing today since we’re pretty sure Nina won’t have either of her front teeth come in before Christmas. I think it makes for a cute smile!

 

In the world of dog, ours turned five months old last week.  She’s five months old and still super sweet and very affectionate but still a bit of a rascal at times too.  She’s a very good puppy, but she is, in fact, a puppy, and she loves to get into things she’s not supposed to.  Right now, the Christmas decorations around the house are a big temptation.  Our Christmas tree never looks fancy, but this year it looks even more homely than normal.  Most of our ornaments are on the top 2/3rds of our tree.  We’re down about three or four ornaments and one baby Jesus, plus the Christmas Mouse has been rescued from Cayenne’s grip at least five times, and the doorknob Santa’s beard has taken a serious hit (then eventually got moved to the inside of the bathroom door – sad). She loves running right under the Christmas tree or laying below it on the tree skirt, so we vacuum countless needles up every day.  The joys of a puppy’s first Christmas!!  On a side note, check out those paws.  This pup has a lot of growing to do!

First Snow

With today’s first snow of the season, we got to see Cayenne experience snow for the first time.  When she went outside initially, she wasn’t quite sure about the snow, then we quickly realized that snow made her quite frisky!  She seemed to like being out there as long as the girls were playing in the backyard with her.  And for those family members lobbying for us to get her a sweater, I’m happy to report that she did just fine with good old dog fur to keep her warm!  Well, that and some snuggling in a dry towel when she got inside…

Thanksgiving 2013

As we do every year, we spent Thanksgiving down at Hartfield.  This was Cayenne’s first trip to Hartfield, so we were anxious to see how she’d do at a new place without being on her leash.  She really enjoyed the room to run, the new things to investigate, the neighborhood dog, Marbles, and lots of couch time.

As is tradition, the guys shucked a bushel of oysters on Thanksgiving morning.  This year, however, they got some surprise takers on raw oyster eating.

Ryleigh, Lyla, and Emme all took the bet from the guys to eat a raw oyster, earning themselves $15 for the effort.  Each of the girls ate the raw oyster (with no cracker or sauce) and kept it down, so they were pretty proud of themselves after the fact. 

 

 

 

The rain had cleared out by Thanksgiving, so while it was still chilly, it was bright and sunny and a great day for a little family kickball game to work off all the food from lunch.  If only I hadn’t been too invested in quite a serious kickball game, I could have gotten some hysterical pictures that afternoon.  As usual with family sporting games, at least one of the children was crying. (Disclaimer: Poppy is getting thrown under the bus here) This time it was Lyla – watching Emme get pinged in the head with the ball at the hands of Poppy, then having her kicks called “foul” one too many times by Poppy turned her off to kickball.  Thankfully, her protective sister convinced her to come back out and play, and all was well.  Even though we probably only worked off a few forkfulls of lunch, we had some great laughs, and kickball might have to be another Thanksgiving tradition to add to the mix.

Like I mentioned earlier, Cayenne got lots of couch time at Hartfield and loved every minute of it!

 

Other than kickball, the girls had a mix of crafty activities and “make your own fun” outdoor activities.

They spent hours racing around the yard with a “leash” tied around one of them while the other held the reins (and Cayenne chased them)…

 

…they built a fort in the trees…

…and they made Thanksgiving and Christmas piñatas.  The piñatas were part of a Thanksgiving versus Christmas party theme that Mousey came up with, so Ryleigh and Lyla made a reindeer piñata while Nina and Emme made a turkey piñata.

 

 

We are thankful to be blessed with good family, a nice place to get away to, good food, laughs, and memories made.  We have much to be thankful for!