Addie's Gifts

There is no denying that I love animals. We've naturally paired down our four legged friends from the 2 dogs, 3 cats, 2 rabbits, and uncountable number of gerbils we once had to a mere 1 dog and 2 cats. Then again, we've added 3 two legged children to that mix in the process!

But our love of animals has already been passed onto our girls. They each have a slight obsession with pets and wild animals alike. A few months ago, we visited the Elmore County Humane Shelter to drop off some food after they'd shared a need for on the news. They let the girls pet a few kittens, and I avoided eye contact with any an all 4 legged creatures, lest we come home with one! But it made a tremendous impact on Addie. She knew we went to a shelter to get Finn, that he didn't have a home until we adopted him, and that there were many, many other animals needing homes. She doesn't know the rest of the story, and I don't plan on telling her that anytime soon; but we are committed to teaching about why we spay and neuter our animals, because that's the only way we can save so many of these already in the shelters!

So when we created Addie's birthday party invitation, she agreed to let me include this on the back:

I'll admit, she kinda got cold feet after I'd mailed them; but when I assured her that she could hold a kitten when we delivered the food, it was all better!

I wasn't entirely sure how Addie's friends would react to it though, if people would just not bring a gift or bring dog/cat food; and the response was utterly overwhelming:

After a Walmart run, we had (approximately) 3 ginormous, 6 huge, 6 medium, 7 small, and 8 tiny bags of cat & dog food, 8 cans, 2 bags of treats, 5 jugs of clorox, and 3 very happy little girls!

 It took quite a while to load the car, but I had the best help around!

We were so happy to have DiDi, Tyler, Ellie, Bri, Ms. Anna, Thomas, and Kennedy meet us at the shelter to deliver everything, which filled up half of the lobby area!

Of course my girls went straight for the kittens!

And Ms. Rea let Addie hold a special sweet one.

Look at that precious face!

We walked around a gave the dogs and kitties in the back a little love until my heart could take it no more. So many puppies. So many sad eyes. So many animals needing homes!

Since the little girl's birthday party theme is going to be kitties and puppies, we're planning to ask people to bring canned cat and dog food. Ms. Rea said they start to have so many entire litters of kittens and puppies show up, only days or weeks old; and they need soft food for those babies!

Happy girls!

Wordless Wednesday: Sleep Where You Can

The Dreaded 4 Letter "F" Word...

No, not that one! We don't say that word in our house (for real)!

So which four letter "f" word am I referring to?
 
f-l-e-a

In our case: fleaS!

We treat our animals each month, every month with heartworm/flea medicine!

But Fuzz, our outside cat, is apparently bringing them home after her
little jaunts in the neighborhood...in addition to the squirrels that
live (& die at the paw of said cat) in our yard.

{random squirrel}

They {the fleas} weren't going away. 

I kept trying to wish them away.

I kept thinking they would cycle through & quit reproducing because
that's what the medicine does to them...when they bite your animal.

I didn't want the chemicals in our house.

I didn't want to have to wash e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g all at once. 

Every sheet, blanket, bedspread, pillow case, pillow sham, mattress pad, &
towel in addition to all the dirty clothes.

I didn't want to have to hide swing & bouncy seat covers, toys,
baskets off the shelves, diaper bags, stuffed animals, and diapers all
in the closets and take off bumper pads, fold up the pack-n-play, &
put every utensil, knife, bottle and paper towel in a cabinet.

I didn't want to have to take all 3 animals to the vet for checkups &
flea treatments at.the.same.time!

I didn't want to admit we our animals had f.l.e.a.S.

Um...because who would?

but more than anything, I didn't want f.l.e.a.S.

And in the middle of all of this, I dropped a metal rod from the
pack-n-play bassinet ON MY TOE. I couldn't breathe it hurt so badly!

But we vacated and fogged the house yesterday.

Today we will have the backyard drenched in chemicals to kill the
fleas in addition to mosquitoes.

Have I mentioned I'm anti-chemicals?

We will vacuum everyday for the next 7 days.

We will PRAY that this round kills everything. 

Otherwise we get to do this all over again in 10 days.

Seriously...

Then and Now: Day 21

All our babies...

Creativity Abounds

Who knew how creative our baby could be...

And then there's Miles, our geriatric cat, who found the top of my camera bag to be an ideal location to relax!

Gotta love all those creative creatures!

Way Behind...

These were some additional pictures that I took one weekend when Addie was sick. This was before they found the ear infections! You can actually see her pulling at her ear there. I thought they were sweet though so I figured I'd go ahead and post them now. Better late than never!

I love seeing Addie with my mom. She adores her Rie Rie, and she's one of the few people that she'll let hold her besides her Mommy and Daddy when she's sick. (Her Rie Rie is one of the few people that her Mommy will let hold her when she's sick too!) (I should probably clarify that. Too many "hers" in that sentence. Addie's Rie Rie is one of the few people that Addie's Mommy will let hold Addie when Addie's sick too!)

sitting with her Rie Rie watching Praise Baby just resting...

This is my childhood cat, Oreo. She's over 14 years old now and decided to take up residency on Addie's fuzzy blanket that was left on the kitchen counter. Yes, we washed it before we let Addie use it again! :)

"Not Me!" Monday

It's Monday...so make sure to check out MckMama's blog here and play along.

Our week has been full of taking care of a sick baby...a full time job in and of itself. But not to worry...we still had plenty of time to not do several things this week!

Our cat did not kill a mouse rat and leave it for us on the deck. The mouse's rat's tail was not at least 6 inches long. The only thing left of the mouse rat was not it's hind quarters and it's tail. Where'd the rest of it go? We don't have mice rats in our backyard, on our street, in our neighborhood, or anywhere in the vicinity of our house. And our pets are not killers...

I did not realize that I have taken over 11,000 pictures in a mere 10 months of my child (or something to do with my child). I did not realize this and decide that I must start deleting some. I mean...at least the ones that are completely blurred or duplicates or the same exact shot taken three times! It did not make me sad to delete anything...even the ones that could hardly be seen. I'm not that sentimental and I'm certainly not that obsessive.

Saturday night when we opened the door to let our ONE dog in, TWO dogs did not run through the door so quickly that we didn't know what the black streak was that shot through our living room. We have ONE dog now, only ONE! It was not somewhat interesting that Abbey is golden in color and this animal following closely behind her was completely black. This said animal is not the one that spent hours with us one night because he had escaped from his own yard in the afternoon. And it is not ironic that our golden was followed by a black dog named Shadow.

And our precious baby was not sick all week. We did not wait until Friday to take her to the doctor because we knew it was just a cold that had to run its course. But for fear that she would be sick throughout the weekend, we went. She does not have a double ear infection instead of a mere cold. We are not extremely thankful we went ahead and took her to the doctor because not only did she continue coughing, she started pulling vigorously at her ears. She is not almost back to sleeping through the night...almost!

And of course...Daddy and I are not now sick. Mommy's especially are immune...right? Not!

When Addie fell and bopped her head in the nursery, I did not say "It's ok." only to have the other volunteer reply as she slowly picked up my screaming child, "No it's not Mommy!" I was not telling my child "It's ok." Instead I was trying to be nice and tell the other volunteer "it was ok that she did NOT catch my child before she fell and hit her head even though she was close enough to do so!!!!" I did, however, bite my tongue and in all actuality not say anything as I held another crying child instead of my own. I did not quickly decide to take my child from this woman and hand the other crying child to her so I could comfort mine. Nope...not me!

So what did you not do this week!?!?!? Your comments always make me laugh...I mean, don't make me laugh. So, do share!

Happy Monday!

Presents, Play, and Puppy Dog Tails

I'm SO far behind on my blog posts. As you can see, I've been slightly focused on redesigning our blog layout and header, and I've practically forgotten to post! Well, last weekend we got to spend some time with our sweet friends the Castros. We had fun exchanging slightly delayed Christmas presents, playing games, and eating yummy homemade macaroni and cheese that Paul made! Here are some pictures from the the night:

Addie loves tissue paper...but plastic paper is way more fun!

watching Tyler

Tyler and Walter (they were dogsitting)

watching Ellie, who was furiously running back and forth from one side of the living room to the other, entertaining Addie. As you can see though, Addie was almost frantic that she's couldnt even begin to keep up with Ellie! She will one day...too soon I'm afraid!

Ellie being a sweet helper.

Apples to Apples anyone?

And of course I couldnt resist taking pictures of Walter, who is a 6 week old American Mastiff puppy

sweet puppy eyes!

getting sleepy...

sacked out!

...and so was Addie by the time we got home!

New Years

Although I'm a little late posting these, here are some pictures from New Years Eve and Day.