Once upon a time there was a Brachiosaraus that came to stay with us....

This is Brachiosaurus.  

Not to be confused with this....  They don't even look similar people!

She is just visiting our house.  I promise! We do not need another puppy around these parts, but, apparently, she thought we did.

Are you feeling a little lost? Or maybe you are wondering where in the world we got a name like Brachiosaurus for a dog.  Or you might even be thinking to yourself, "With two kids 2 and under, a 9 month old puppy named Sam, and a lot on your plate in general, why are you having another puppy stay with you?"

Well folks, I am going to answer those questions, and a few more that you may have in the following story.  It's a doozey, and I am just not sure that you are likely to believe it, but it is true.

My kiddos have been sick.  I know...Big. Huge. Surprise!  Yesterday was the first nice day in a little while that the weather was decent.  Shiloh was feeling some cabin fever, so, while I was cooking dinner and Eli was sleeping, I let Shiloh go on the back deck with Sammy. (Lest you think I am a bad mom for sending my two year out by himself, I didn't put his shoes on and the grass was muddy, and if you know Shiloh and his slightly OCD tendencies, then you know he would not want to get his socks muddy, so he stays on the deck. Haha)  I left the door open, and Sammy always barks if someone comes up the drive way, so I thought it a good idea for him to get some fresh air.

All of a sudden I hear Sammy barking ferociously.  I actually hadn't heard him bark like this before.  I go running out the back door to see what is the matter and Shiloh exclaims, "OOOOOOHHHHHHH! Big white puppy.  Little black puppy! Cumere!  Cumere!"

Sam was barking at a really big white dog.  There was a little black dog, i.e. Brachiosaurus, under the truck.  I try to tell Sammy to be quiet and come in the house, but now that I am outside with Shiloh, Sammy is not worried, he wants to PLAY!  Before I can really get my wits about me, the little black dog comes bounding right past me and towards Shiloh.  I hadn't realized it was a puppy yet. I about face and head towards Shiloh to make sure he isn't knocked over.  Do you remember how I told you the grass was muddy and soggy?  Do you also remember how I mentioned that I had left the back door open while Shiloh played?  Well, soggy, muddy, bouncy, black puppy runs right past Shiloh and in through my open door and into my house.  I am trying to catch the dog.  It is jumping on my couch and picking up every toy, which there were quite a few to chose from, along the way.  I finally catch it and put itxz out.

This is when it dawns on me.  Sam....Where is Sam?  He didn't come chase the puppy in my house?  Where is white dog?

Well, people...He and white dog were no where to be found.

How did I end up with a black puppy and no Sam?

Well in this little time of reflection, Shiloh starts screaming at the door.  He wants to go outside and play with black puppy! Was black puppy still there.  I had put her out a few minutes ago. Surely she had run off by now.  NOPE.  She was sleeping on the deck, basking in sunlight.  To try and keep Eli asleep, and to make the Shiloh screaming stop, I opened the door and let Shiloh go outside with the puppy.  I played with them for a bit to make sure the puppy was nice, and she was very nice.

I went back inside, but Shiloh didn't want me to shut the door.  So I opened the door a little,  Shiloh knew that it was open, but the dog didn't.  I call Kenny and tell him to keep his eyes open for Sam on his drive home. Then I hear Shi talking to the puppy, In The House.

 The puppy had made itself at home in the back of Sam's cage.  Just then, through the open back door, Sam comes bounding in, covered in mud from head to tail.  He runs for his cage and sits with Brackie.  Now I cannot get either of them out.

Well I finally get the puppy out.  She lays on the deck.  She won't leave.  She keep             s scratching at the door.  She thinks she belongs with us.  After dinner we drive up and down our road, knocking on random doors, asking if anybody recognizes this puppy. No surprise, nobody does.  While we are in the car Shiloh continues to ask what black puppy's name is.  He says black, brack.  So we started saying Brack or Brackie.  Then Shiloh, pulling from his incredible memory of a dinosaur show we watched  and says Brachiosaurus. From there on out he wouldn't call her anything else.  She wouldn't leave our house.  She stayed here all night.  I called the Humane society and they are going to try and find a foster family for her.  So I guess she is here until Monday.  I have a thing against pounds I won't take her there.

I promise she is just visiting!  This was a really crazy afternoon, and I promise that it all happened.

You know how life gets crazy? ....yeah me too

*WARNING* This is a photo dump, and a post that doesn't have much to do with anything in particular.

Now that the warnings and clarifications are out of the way, on to the good stuff.  Things have been a bit crazy around our parts.  There are many reasons, but probably the main reason is that I have a two year old and a 9 month old.  I don't think that I really need anymore reason than that.

Amid all of the doctors appointments and scans and hospital visits,(for myself...to be discussed in a future post when I am ready to talk about my health and all that it involves) we have been having fun as a family.  We somehow have managed to fit in.  We have done everything from play in the snow to playing on the swing set in that backyard to playing follow the leader in the snow when it was 55 degrees.

The two pictures above are Shiloh and I playing following the leader in the tire tracks in the snow.  Kenny and Eli are taking the picture.  Shiloh had the hardest time understanding the concept of staying in the tire tracks.  He ended up very snowy indeed.

 Here are my two cutie pies.  They love this little swing set that we happened to get for FREE. Our friends manage and apartment and the tenants were evicted.  The tenants were mad and so they didn't clean up anything and left everything they didn't want, which was A LOT!  We helped our friends clean out the apartment and in return we got anything we wanted that was left behind.  The previous tenants had a little boy and we got some cool stuff, but this little swing set was tops by far!  It is just the perfect size and is used all of the time.

These were such funny little pictures that I had to post them.  I would have to say that dinner time is one of our family's favorite times.  Shiloh always has a story and, for the most part, we are all happy.  Kenny and I always have at least one laugh out loud moment because of one of these two little goof balls.

Here is my little ball of energy.  Eli keeps me on my toes, people!  He is into everything.  He has been crawling for about a month and a half now.  I have nicknamed him my little tornado.  There is just no keeping up with him or his messes, but for the most part he is pretty happy.  He is also very loud.  He never stops jabbering and most of the time it is definitely in "outdoor voice" decibels.  He is also pulling himself up to everything.  He is starting to stand on his own and love to hold onto my fingers and walk around.  Sometimes he just lets go and tries on his own.  He hasn't started walking, but he can't wait to be able to pester Shiloh even more than he already does.  He adores Shiloh and anything that Shiloh is playing with.  He has also turned into such a social bug, not in the same way as Shiloh, but he does love other people and to be picked up by anybody who will let him slobber all over them.

Oh my Shiloh!  He is such a funny, unique, and sweet little guy.  He loves, loves, loves to read.  He could sit in my lap for and hour or more straight and just have me read books to him. Often, if you can't find him, Shiloh is in some odd place (such as my closet laying on clothes, just lounging, seen in the above picture) reading a book.  He definitely got the reading gene from me.  He loves to love.  He can make anybody his best friend within a matter of seconds.  He will also talk anybody's ear off.  He also is a really great tantrum thrower.  Although they do not happen as often some other kids' tantrums might, his are epic!  They start over really small things and they last FOR.EV.ER.  Like the other day we had one last for 2 hours!  I am not exaggerating.  There was not a moment of silence from the screaming and the kicking and hitting and such.  It all started over a little craft pom pom that the dog licked.  At least once it is over he goes back to being his cute little self.

Congrats if you got to the end of this.  Hopefully you gleaned some of the updates that you wanted amid the chaos.

A Pantry...Finally

 In my house in Provo, there was not a pantry.  There also was not a utility closet or a linen closet or anything besides the teeny tiny closets in the bedroom.  We did have an attic space, but it wasn't always a convenient storage spot for things that we used frequently but wanted hid out of sight.  We lived in that house for a little over 4 years.  I dealt with it okay, but I didn't have two children in that house either.  I had one... for the last six months of living in that house.  I swore up and down that the next house that we bought would have storage closets galore and for sure, at bare minimum, it would have a great kitchen pantry.

 Fast-forward to about a year and half ago.  We are looking for houses.  We decide on this one.  Guess what?  There wasn't a pantry.  There wasn't a coat closet or a linen closet.  There is a small utility closet, which is more than the Provo house had, but not much.  Granted, this house a huge master closet and 1500 square foot barn, but I am not going to store my towels in the outside barn, or my chips for that matter.

Kenny built a pantry.  He hasn't ever framed before.  He did a great job!  We still need to put on the door and the trim and to paint it the same as the rest of the kitchen, but I am so excited about this, that I don't even care it if isn't finished.  I have been using since the shelves were put in!  Here are some pics of the process.

Kenny's first framed wall.

  Both framed walls up.

Shiloh sweeping the floor.

First piece of drywall hung.

 Inspector Eli checking out daddy's handy work.

  Two walls up.

The shelving process.

Kenny having to literally lay in the shelves to screw some of the things in.  He wanted to use whole pieces of mdf cut to the shape of the pantry for the shelves to make it stronger.  Therefore, he had to get creative in the way he put it in.  He has a mathematical mind and had the process all figured out before he even began.  All I have to say to that is WOW.  I never would have been able to think that way.

 Here are the boys demonstrating how strong the shelves are and Kenny was also taking a much needed break from his hard work.

Tada!

Pics to come when the door is hung and the walls are painted.

I know that this is a bit of a photo dump, but I was really proud of Kenny and I was really excited to have this new pantry.  As you can tell by the pics, the children, for better or for worse, were very involved in "helping" mommy and daddy out.

The Bee Hurt My Nose

Shiloh talks...A LOT..especially when we sit down to eat!  He is very into telling stories and tall tales.  Almost everything that comes out of his mouth is some story or creative imaginative tale.  He also has an impeccable memory.  He will recall things from months ago, even a year ago.  He likes to add these little details into his stories....

Here is one example that happened a few mornings ago at breakfast.  Keep in mind that we were not in any way shape or form talking about this story or anything like it.  It just came to him.

Shiloh:  The bee hurt my nose and it rand away.  It flewd. and and and I am freakeen out in the backyard      That bee it hurt my nose. I'm really happened in the backyard. (I think he meant "it" as opposed to    

"I'm" but I wrote it verbatim)

Kenny: Where is the bee now?

Shiloh:  The mommy bee had a baby in the nest.  The baby was crying in the nest in the mom's body.  That baby had wings.  Those babies most of the time have wings.  Those bees have wings all day.  

Yeah...Yes!

We were laughing so hard.  The truth to the story is that about a week after Eli was born, we were sitting on the back deck.  A bee landed on Shiloh's nose.  He tried to wipe it away.  It stung him on the nose and the arm.  As you can see he loves to embellish!