Red Dot!

Most of you whom have dogs, or have friends with dogs, know that many of them love to chase laser pointers. Not all dogs; Halo wants nothing to do with them. She'd rather chew on Xena's ear while Xena chases the laser all over the house. We started the Red Dot with Xena a couple years ago. She's absolutely obsessed with it. If any one mentions the words "Red Dot" Xena immediately starts to look for it. On the floor, furniture, even up on the ceiling, as she searches, sniffs and barks in anticipation.

Since Halo and Xena act completely different toward the little red dot, our inquiring minds wanted to know how Lyra would react. Of course we had to put the other two dogs into their kennels. Otherwise Lyra would have had a Halo attached to her and Xena would probably trample her to death. Take a look below...



Lyra's head movements crack me up! At times she looks like a robot. We don't get the laser pointer out often, once a month if the dogs are lucky, but we enjoy watching their reactions. So now that we know how Lyra reacts to the laser pointer, I wonder what she'll think of the Clicker?!

The Pits

Lyra has had a rough week. Monday started with the whole body break out of hives. We still don't know what caused them, but we are continuing to give her Benedryl through today. We want to see if she will break out again of it was in fact just a spider bite (or something similar). Found out today that white dogs (those with little to no pigment in their skin) are high risks for allergies, both food and environmental. We knew that already, but hearing the vet say it made us realize this free dog is going to cost us a lot more than anticipated. She is going to end up an Allergy Girl just like Xena!

Lyra's bad luck doesn't stop at the hives break out on Monday. Poor girl is going to have three rough weeks in a row. First the hives/Benedryl treatment, last boost shot today (makes dogs feel a bit under the weather for a couple days), and Wednesday she goes in to get spayed. Don't forget the recovery time after surgery... the first few days afterward she will have to be kenneled. Play time and a chance to stretch her legs will have to be separated from Halo and Xena for at least a week. Then she'll be put on a leash for a few days when it is time to introduce her back to the other girls. All to keep her from getting her stitches ripped open or causing internal bleeding. She is going to think her life is the pits, no pun intended (she is a pit bull), for the next few weeks!!

Guess Who?!???

Do you remember the game "Guess Who?" It was a favorite of mine when I was a kid. Apparently they now have other editions besides the regular Guess Who game. There is Disney, Marvel Heroes, and the beloved Star Wars!!! Quinton is quite obsessed with Stars Wars; he has been for a good year. As much as he knows about the characters, movies and what not, you'd think he had seen every movie and tv series made multiple times. Not so much. He has seen a few episodes of Star Wars the Clone Wars tv series, but that is about it. All his other information has come from books, Wii game, and what friends and family have told him about the movie.

Q has been doing really well with all the hectic chaos that surrounded him at the first of the year with the move and living at Papa's. Mom found him the Guess Who Star Wars game, either at Walmart or TJ Maxx, along with Star Wars Trouble (I'm personally not a fan of that game, never have been). We broke into the Guess Who game last week and have played it each day for a good 30-40 minutes. Q is really good at it. We have fun thinking up crazy yes or no questions that haven't been asked before. Q's silly thing today was to pick the card that I had chosen for the previous game. Didn't take me long to catch on, but he thought he was pretty funny. He gets that little sparkle in his eye and grin across his face, which always gives him away! :)

Time Fillers

With the S family living in Morton for the time being and driving Q into Peoria for school, there are days when Sloan and I need to find things to do until it is time to pick Q up from school. Those days are when mom or Papa can't drop off or pick Q up so I have to do both. We go to the library, gymnastics, Motor Mites (open gym), Barns and Noble, Toys R Us, and other time fillers that will allow Sloan to run around and stretch her legs.

Sloan absolutely loves books. You rarely see her without at least one book in her hand. She carries them around all day, reading them to herself and her baby dolls. Sloan get quite upset if anyone, and I do me ANYONE, touches them. She refuses to let you read her the books unless it is nap/bedtime. Just one of her quirks! Below are some pictures of Sloan at the Peoria Heights Library. They have nice mats, table top activities,giant animal pillows, etc for the children to play and read on. She loves it here!

Open Gyms are perfect for Sloan. Whether it is at the Morton Soccer Forum or "Motor Mites" at the Franciscan Center in Peoria; Sloan loves to run and play with other kids. Just today we went to Motor Mites. She just roamed around for nearly 20 minutes, completely overwhelmed, until she finally started to join in the multitude of activities. She made a few friends with girls that were 3 and 4 years old. She even got brave enough to try and scare a little boy just a few month younger than her. Sloan walked right up to him, got in his face and yelled "BOO!" I explained that we need to say hi to new friends, not scare them. Sloan proceed to tell him sorry and then hugged him. Of course the hug is what scared him and he began to cry. That upset Sloan and then she started to cry and wanted a hug from me. The emotions of little ones and how they feed off of each other is so cute. Enjoy the pics!

Puppy Development

A puppy's development is just as interesting and enjoyable to me as a child's. I have lucked out watching Q, his friends and Sloan develop over the years as well as many other before them. I am glad I have had the chance to see the little things as well as the big accomplishments. Animals have developmental milestones just as human children do. Now that we have a puppy in the household again, seeing her change before our eyes made me more conscience of Lyra's puppy development.

Our youngest, Lyra, has grown a ton since we got her about just three weeks ago. At the time of her arrival she had just turned four months old. Lyra had accidents only the first two days, but after that we recognized her signs and she knew to ring the bell on the door when she needed outside to do her business. Since we got Lyra, she has lost all her baby teeth. We actually found four of them which we saved, just like we did with Halo's. Yes, Matt and I are those crazy "parents" that save their kids' baby teeth! :) Lyra has also learned many commands. She knows 'sit', "stay" (for the most part) 'kennel', 'go potty' (makes it quick especially during the cold winter months), 'outside', 'leave it' (waiting to eat her food), 'stop' (when playing too rough with Halo), and many more commands. She has caught on quickly mainly in part since she has two older trained dogs to show her the ropes.

This weekend I noticed that there were some small risen areas of fur on Lyra's coat. I thought she had just pressed up against the kennel which resulted in crimping of her hair. Not so much. This morning I woke up to see her with about 30 small spots of fur doing the same thing. I hadn't even considered she was getting her adult coat until then. She looked so funny with these "welt" looking areas all over her body I just had to take pictures! Her goofy personality in combination with what I thought was a goofy transition look makes me laugh every time I look at her. When I got home this evening her body was covered with even more and bigger areas of longer & thicker hair. She looks as though she had leprosy! I fed the girls and by the time Matt got home Lyra looked even worse. Come to find out she has hives. Not sure if she has developed a food allergy or if she got bit by a spider or something. So she'll be taking Benedryl for the next few days. She is itchy, but not acting sick or weird. Just her puppy self :) Hopefully it is a spider bite and not allergies. Not sure I can handle another money pit dog like Xena. Here are some pictures from this morning. Click on them to see the picture bigger. Hopefully you can see just how silly she looks poor baby :)

Lyra has two favorite activities. The first is playing with Halo, whom she absolutely adores! She loves to rough house with her, fight over the same bone when there are five different ones to choose from and cuddle up in the kennel with her best friend when they are both tired. Lyra's second favorite thing to do it cuddle with dad when he gets home from work. The second he sit on the floor she is in his lap as high and as close as she can get. It only takes her seconds to fall asleep is some weird position. You can see how much she loves Matt. I have kept my distance so to speak so that Matt and Lyra could bond. She is his dog so I rarely sit on the floor with her to help with their bonding.

Just a quick run down... Xena is both Matt and I's dog. She likes us equal and makes sure she gets equal attention from the us both. She doesn't favor anyone like the other two do. Halo is my girl. When she is scared and shaking uncontrollably she runs to my lap. I am her human of chose when she wants to cuddle. As discussed above, Lyra is Matt's princess. She listen better to him than she does Lonnie and I. Funny how those things work out.

Go Go Go

In my book, the weekend is suppose to be a time to relax and enjoy yourself. Not to say that I have not enjoyed myself this weekend, because I have. In part because it has just been the "kids" (dogs), Matt and I. However, Matt got his tax return on Friday which was burning a hole in his pocket just seconds after he got it. So Saturday we went shopping... all day!!! I absolutely hate shopping which stems for the hours upon hours my mom use to subject me to as a kid. Matt wanted one of three things; a new bed, flat screen TV, or a gun. Pretty sure I was okay with anything, but the gun. Seriously how many do you really need? Better yet, how often do you actually use it? So after comparing stats and prices of a number of TVs and bed mattresses & frames, we decided on a BED!!!

I'm ecstatic! Getting a new bed is long over due. Our current bed is in great shape and super comfortable, but it is only a full size. It is the bed Matt got himself before we were together which was all he needed. With me being six feet tall, that means my feet have been hanging over the edge of the bed when stretched out for nearly four years! The little bit of extra room that the queen will give us will be much appreciated. We went to furniture stores, Sears, UFS and the beloved Big Lots. In the end the frame we agreed on came from Big Lots as did the mattress. They had their Serta mattress sale where you buy a mattress and get the foundation for only $10. Saturday was the last day of the sale so the mattress was bought a day prior to the frame. Why you may ask? Well Bog Lots is having their "Family and Friend Day" today where you get 20% off your entire purchase. So by waiting we got 20% off the bed frame!! I refuse to pay full price for something if I don't have to.

Unfortunately, we will not have access to a truck until Thursday, so we have to wait to bring the bed home. But it is comforting knowing that we will have something new that Matt and I both want, can use and enjoy. After all the store to store shopping and the back and forth from city to city I am officially exhausted! Once we get the new bed set up and out new bedding gets here I will put up a picture of our big purchase!! :) Oh and if you read this today, go to Bog Lots and get 20% off your entire purchase. They stay open late until 10:00pm tonight for the occasion!

I Got a Feeling...

A little music, a little singing, a little dancing and a whole LOT of fun was happening this afternoon at Papa's. Q wanted to listen to Black Eyed Peas "I Got a Feeling" but I couldn't find it on the computer's iTunes. Of course I went to my old stand by Google, and found the video on YouTube. At first the video was loading faster than it played so there were no pauses, but half way through the "buffering" started to occur. For those of you who aren't sure what buffering is, it is when the video or song is in the process of loading so it pauses the audio/image.

Although the pausing every 5-10 seconds was annoying, for both Q and I, we turned it into a game that got Sloan laughing hysterically. Since we were dancing like crazy anyway, each time the music paused, Q and I would freeze. It was the simplest and most logical thing to do. Q and I had fun being silly and stopping in weird poses while Sloan laughed so hard I don't think she could breath! She eventually caught on to what we were doing and started to freeze too! Which made her laugh even harder if that was even possible?! The song which is about five minutes long ended up taking close to 15 min. Of course we had to listen to it a second time. Since the loading was complete no pauses. Yay!!

Here is the video below. Hopefully it is a different one than the one we had playing so you don't have to deal with the buffering. FYI... I always minimize the screen when videos are playing since I never know what sort of content will be shown. The kids like certain songs and that is okay, but that doesn't mean the videos are always appropriate. Like I said we were dancing to the music not watching this video. And now that I think about it I don't think I have ever seen this particular video. Hmmm... Enjoy!!

Snow Day at Papa's

Although Tuesday technically wasn't a snow day for Quinton's pre-school, there was no way I was going to drive him into Peoria from Morton after the snow and ice we got Monday night. I decided to take the interstate into Morton knowing it would be more clear than the highway. Although it was mostly clear there were enough patchy spots and accidents to deter me from taking Q to school.

With our unexpected time off Q and I filled the day working on a few activity kits. One was a Crayola Flip Flop Kit. It came with fabric markers. Q colored the flip flops with the special markers and then we threw them in the dryer on high for 10 minutes to set the colors (no running or wearing off... pretty cool!). Q has trouble walking in them which most kids do. He wore them for about 10 minutes pretending he was at the beach before he gave up on them.


The other activity kit we started was a model car kit. You cut foam core pieces out, glue, then paint them. Well we started it a bit backward. Q wanted to paint them first so I let him. Once he finishes painting them, perhaps on another snow day, I'll take them home and cut them out. Then he will be able to glue them together and add stickers :) We'll see how long it takes us to get them complete.

Lastly, Q had pajama day for the snow day. Him and Sloan both. Not that I could blame them. Since he had good behavior he was able to play the Wii for 30 minutes as a reward. Just look how he concentrates!

This is how we spent Q's snow day at Papa's house!

Polka Dots and Pig Tails

Such a cutie saying "Cheese!"

Newest Little Addition!

Our little family grew by one this weekend. Her name is Lyra and she is 4 months old. Matt and I were not planning on getting another dog. Honestly two WAS our limit. Then my sister called saying they had a FREE white female pit bull. Apparently the person who bought her ($450) in December didn't have time for her. She basically was living in a small kennel. They realized it wasn't fair to her so instead of trying to sell her they were just giving her away. Matt has always wanted a pit bull (mixes apparently don't count; poor Halo) of his very own so it was up to him whether we agreed to take on another responsibility or not. Matt asked for a picture to be sent before he made his decision. Once we got the text, Matt of course replied "That's my dog?! She's mine! I want her... tell them I say YES!!"

With that answer we thought it would be a couple weeks before we actually got Lyra. My mom was/is planning on coming out mid February so we figured that's when she'd come home. You know, allow me some time to get puppy food and other necessities. If you know my sister she is very spontaneous so with a phone call Sunday morning announcing they were on their way to Illinois I was a bit shocked. Matt and I both had to work this morning so I didn't understand why they'd drive 7 1/2 hours from Nebraska to stay only one night. Honestly I still don't understand why they made the trip, but I am glad they did.

Road trip to Illinois!

I was mainly thrilled to see some of my family; Kim, Jayden, Billy and Will all came out. Matt was happy to get a birthday gift. Yes the dog was free, but all her vaccinations, heart-worm preventatives, and getting her spade is NOT! Xena and Halo are doing okay with the new puppy. Today it is setting in that she isn't going anywhere. Xena growls and is very vocal with Lyra letting her know her place. Halo on the other hand is depressed. At first she was excited about the playmate, but after the puppy set the couch alarm (keeps dogs off the furniture) off a couple times today she is now scared that Lyra will make it go off again. Basically, Halo is staying as far away from her as possible. Poor baby. Matt and I have made it a point to sit on the floor and give all doggies lovin's. Xena and Halo will learn to love just as we will. It takes time. Bringing a new baby home is hard for the other kids you know ;)