Man's Best Friend?

A dog may be man's best friend, but at least at this point, he isn't a little girls best friend :) Abby is adjusting and I know this is good for her, but it is still hard! Being an only child, she is used to getting her way, having her space, and not having to consider others. That has all changed! 

We did have fun giving him a bow tie to match his little collar. We are girls after all and accessories are part of our core! We moved to one large water bottle for both animals and that seems to be working well.

Captain likes to be around Abby because she always has little toys around her. He loves to take her stuffed animals, drag them under her bed and chew on them. She is learning to forgive and to pick up her room!

He loves his new bed I made and we are slowly learning "go to your bed" as a command so that he leaves Abby alone. He loves to chew on her pants and ends up biting her leg all too often. It doesn't help their little relationship :)

This picture sums up the cat's feelings. She knows where he is at all times and watches him closely. If he gets close, she stands firm and he often backs down.  When he barks, she can flinch and he will run. It is pretty fun to watch!

We have had a couple of quiet weeks, but this week is filled with fun! Bounce house with friends, Sea World with friends, Nana comes to visit, Thanksgiving with lots of family, a new room for Abby and watching the Red Raiders and Baylor Bears in Dallas! The blog should come alive again soon ;)

Our Weekend

We have spent much of our weekend at home with this little guy. Abby is excited to be home with him and we are crate training (although luckily my sister really did most of this for us!) so we didn't want to be gone much. We are all adjusting- his version of play is a little rough for Abby. Lots of tears for simple things and lots of learning about taking toys away and what growling means. 

We did leave the house on Saturday morning for our cousin Bella's birthday party. Abby was watching Signing Time and just signing away. She has always loved and learned sign language so easily. I would love to know if God will use this with her later in life. I happened to snap a picture as she finished a "word". 

Bella had an American Girl 6th birthday party on Saturday morning. Kristi (her Mom, my cousin) did a great job with the theme. She did American colors of red, white, and blue, and served foods that coordinated. She also had a cute little craft for the girls- they made American flags using small squares or red and blue paper, and they dipped marshmallows in red and blue sugar.

Isn't this real life? Everyone was watching Bella open gifts and Abby was pouting since I would not let her go upstairs and play. She loves doll houses anywhere she goes and she just knew theirs was upstairs!

Bella opened all her presents and really loved this Pooh bear. She apparently loves Winnie and has a bit of a collection! We picked up some American Girl items for her when I was in Dallas last weekend.

Happy Birthday Bella!

Today we did church, football, naps and hopefully a nice quiet dinner at home!

Meet Captain

Meet Captain, our new 12 week old Boston Terrier puppy.

My sister's dog is her Mama and Tiffany wanted to give him to Abby Lu for Christmas, but he was ready early so we picked him up yesterday! He is cute and fun and I am learning how to be a dog mama since I have a little girl that LOVES dogs!

I can already see how this is good for Abby. She does not want Captain to get her toys, so she cleans her room constantly and keeps the door shut.

He requires patience from us all- it truly is like having a newborn. He  doesn't listen and has pooped on every rug I own. I was up at 5:15 for a potty break. 

But, he is also fun! Our poor cat is old and snaps easily, so Abby is thrilled to have someone to run and play with. She also gets the title of big sister which she has asked about before. 

I hope he calms down, learns the rules quickly, and is part of our family for a long time!

Hawaii: Our Last Day in Paradise

I seriously need to close out our Hawaii trip, a few weeks later. But for posterity, here is the last day of our glorious vacation!

We ate a big nice breakfast at the Hyatt before beginning to check out of the hotel. My last big serving of pineapple and yummy warm homemade Hawaiian doughnuts.

We took the long way back to our room to take a few more pictures of the resort. They have an area where you leave your leis before you leave the island in place of people who have passed away. 

Isn't this beautiful- wooden crosses at the ocean!

I love the black of the lava rocks, the greenery and the blue of the ocean!

We left the hotel and headed to lunch at the nearby Beach House restaurant. It had wonderful views and yummy food!

The rest of the day (we had a 10 PM flight) was devoted to seeing parts of the south side of the island that we hadn't seen yet including Waimea Canyon.

In the little town of Waimea, we had snow cones at our favorite little hole in the wall!

This picture with my coconut snow cone topped with coconut cream and macadamia nut ice cream is a duplicate of my snow cones there in 2008.

We also visited the Kauai Coffee company. They have samples, a movie about making coffee, and tours where you can see the beans develop into ripe beans for making coffee.

I believe you pick them when they are red... the turn brown as they are roasted for coffee.

The yellow beans are not ready yet and the brown ones are "overcooked".

Marcus loves his coffee and hugged the trees!

We had a wonderful vacation on a beautiful island with each other and a company that knows how to reward their employees beyond measure!

His company goes annually, so they is hope that we will win one of the years they go to Maui! We would love to see that island, too!

My Little Halloween Pirate

Abby loves watching Jake and the Neverland Pirates on Disney Jr. So, being Izzy, the good girl pirate was a natural fit for her for Halloween this year. We purchased her costume in August and gratefully she didn't change her mind!

She makes a great mean pirate face!

In keeping with tradition, Marcus was Jake the friendly-boy pirate!

Abby got to wear her costume three times this year- Fall festival, school, and Halloween night. She loves being Izzy and even slept with her necklace of pixie dust (used to fly) on Halloween night.

We went trick or treating with our little friends Eva and Lilia and their families. It was fun to see sweet little girls taking in the sights of Halloween. I do think Abby was the least scared of the little girls.

Here are a few examples of her spunk and bravery...

For the most part, the girls walked the neighborhood. Then, Abby sat down and didn't want to walk anymore. Little toot! So, we grabbed the wagon and did a few more houses.

 A wagon and a lollipop made for a happy girl!

After the girls tired out, Eva and her family went home and the rest of us sat in the driveway passing out candy, juggling, and eating way too much chips and dip!

Happy Halloween!