Camping

My friend, Amy, gave us a tent the other day.  The kind for indoors.  The kids loved it.

Because of the lighting, I only got one decent picture:

But this picture shows a little better what was actually going on:

I count 3 kids and a dog in that tent.  How about you?

Career Goals

Olivia decided today that she wanted to be an animal photographer.  She thought Trixie would be a good place to start.  I gave my consent, and then found this series of pictures on my camera - in this order.

A picture is worth a thousand words...

The Stalker

In silent anticipation she crouches slightly, quivering with suppressed energy.

The movement catches my eye, and I quietly open the sliding glass door.  She slips through and pauses a moment to survey the terrain.  Spotting her quarry, she takes slow, graceful steps across the lawn towards the object of her desire.

Pause.  Her target seems to sense the danger and takes a quick glace around the area.  She freezes mid-stride.  Five seconds.  Ten seconds.  Thirty seconds.  There is no danger here.

The prey has relaxed.  It was a false alarm.

Once again confident in her anonymity, she begins the deliberate, stealthy movement which takes her ever closer to her goal.  Within seconds, the critical moment has arrived.

ATTACK!

In a heartbeat, it is over.  Her prize has escaped, and mocks her from a distance, chittering in scorn.  The operation may have ended in defeat, but she will never succumb in her heart.  She is a hunter, and she will get her prey.

She is patient.  She will wait.  Her day will come.

Santa Baby

I can't believe how long it's been since I've uploaded pictures from my camera!  No, we haven't gotten a new one yet - our old one gave one last "hurrah" so I've put it off.  But I have my eye on what I want...

Anyhow, I uploaded the pics today and found Olivia had been taking a bunch of goofy pictures.  This one is obviously from about a month ago.  Poor, poor Trixie.

Let Sleepings Dogs Lie

Apparently our dog likes to sleep with her tongue hanging out from time to time...

The "Furminator"

I'm not making it up.  That's really what this thing is called.  And let me tell you, it's a gem.  If you had told me 2 weeks ago that I would have spent almost $60 on a brush for my dog, I would have asked you what you had been smoking.  But then my neighbor loaned me hers to try out.  Oh. My. Goodness.

We've been brushing her with this thing every day for the past week.  And yet still, every day, we get out piles of hair like this:

No wonder I was turning into "that person" that had dog hair all over her house no matter how much she vacuumed.

Grossed Out

Connor has figured out a new way to share his food with Trixie.  First he eats it.  Then he swallows it.  Then he goes over and opens his mouth and Trixie licks inside it.  I'm so disgusted.

Click!

For the past month or so I feel like I've been really slack in keeping up with this blog.  I have been dealing with some personal things and have felt pretty disconnected from the "bloggerverse" in general.  Looking back I can see that I've posted quite a bit of fluff, but I still feel like I haven't kept up with the family stuff that's been going on.  And we HAVE had a good bit going on that I haven't blogged about: Christmas parties, Christmas Cantatas, family visits, making new homeschool friends, and much, much more.  But since I hate having to play "catch-up", I'm going to play "snapshot" instead.

BEN took off about a week around Christmas, which we thoroughly enjoyed for the first 5 days.  By that time the effects of being cooped up together, snowed in, and unable to get out much (even outside) and not seeing anyone else (they even canceled church!) started getting on our nerves.  Stir Crazy doesn't even begin to cover it.  Now he's back to working hard and bringing home the Big Bucks.  And now that the weather has finally started getting back to normal ranges, I might even be able to convince him to get up the ladder and take the Christmas lights down from the house with me.  He's also growing his Annual Facial Hair.  He is cultivating quite the nice beard.  He's quite dashing in it, don't you think?

ANITA (i.e. ME) is working hard at maintaining her sanity.  She is taking Julie's advice and getting up most mornings extra-early for some quiet time to read the scriptures and work on music.  She's not making it much further than mascara most days, and is in desperate need of a haircut.  Fortunately, her most favorite and talented hair stylist/therapist (aka Brandi) has finally gotten her shop back up and running after moving this summer.  She is scheduled for a cut tonight! As you can see from the way he strategically placed the chandelier behind her head in this photo, her husband thinks she's an angel and close to perfection.

 OLIVIA is back in the groove of schooling at home after Christmas break.  She was able to have a play date this week with another 4th grader and they did crafts and played games.  She also joined the chess club at the library on Monday.  She's really starting to get to know other kids her age and have a great time.  She also found a pair of roller blades this week at the local thrift store.  Now for a whopping $3 she has a great new hobby.  She can't get enough of them and doesn't understand why I won't let her ride them around the neighborhood by herself.  Maybe it's just me, but I'm thinking she needs more than a few days practice before I let her go off alone.

KELSEY is reading like crazy.  She was just given some beginner reader books by one of our neighbors and she feels brilliant being able to read all by herself.  We think she's brilliant, too.  She got a $3 pair of roller blades along with Olivia.  However, she doesn't have a helmet yet so she's required to wear her Christmas hat that Aunt Kristi made for her to help cushion her head if she falls.  She's also not allowed further than our back porch till we get her one.  As you can see, her favorite thing to so is roll forward into a split.  Very talented.

CONNOR is growing like a weed: tall and skinny.  At his check-up yesterday he weighed 23 pounds and was 33 inches tall.  He's started running up to Ben every day when he gets home from work and giving him a big hug around the legs.  Unfortunately, he's also started whining to get what he wants.  Mom's trying to curb that bad habit before it goes too far.  Most of the time he just wants to draw and love on Trixie.  Trixie generally tolerates it pretty well, but sometimes in the evening she's had enough and will growl lightly when he climbs on her.  Connor thinks this is funny and keeps going back for more, which causes us stress.  That's another thing we're working on.  One thing is for sure - he's sure keeping us on our toes!

TRIXIE gets a spot in the update just because we have a great picture of her and Connor in her crate.  She'd gone in there for some quiet time and to gnaw on her bone, and Connor decided to follow her in and shut the door.  He cried when I took him out.  Trixie's probably the most excited out of all of us that the weather is finally gotten back to normal.  We've been covered in half-melted snow and ice since Christmas Eve, and the weather as finally warmed up enough to melt the snow and dry out the sidewalks.  We've started walking again regularly, and you can tell she's ecstatic.

Huh?!

This is our dog, Trixie.  It was taken back in October at the dog park near our home.  Doesn't she look so sleek and graceful?  Don't let her fool you.

This afternoon as I was walking with Trixie and Connor to pick Kelsey up from school, I had to swerve off the sidewalk to avoid a pile of icy snow in my way.  As I went around onto the grass, something caught Trixie's attention and she turned back to look at it as she walked.  She turned around just in time to run head-first into a metal pole.  This is becoming a family trait - I've done it, Olivia's done it, and now Trixie!  Apparently, klutziness is catching.  And here I thought it was just in the DNA...

The Beggar

Yep. 

Every time we feed Connor. 

This is what we have to deal with. 

She'd stop if she didn't get rewarded so much, but she knows...

Sooner or later he'll think it's more fun to feed her than to eat it himself.

Things That Make You Go "Hmm..."

I think my dog might be spoiled.

Really spoiled.

Scratch Me, Please!

Our dog, Trixie, is always laying on her back begging for a belly rub. Sometimes she takes it a bit too far. Like Sunday night. There was I was, lying on the couch for just a minute... and before I knew it I was joined by a 40-pound dog begging for the belly rub.

PUH-LEASE!

(And please pardon the attire - it was pajama Sunday, remember? That meant no make-up, either!)

A Dog and a Boy

I've gotten some cute pictures lately that I wanted to share.

Every afternoon we walk up to the elementary school to get the girls. There's a grassy spot where all the parents of "walkers" wait, and if we are there early enough, Connor insists on getting out of his stroller to play. This is usually what he ends up doing.

Try as he might, he can't figure out how to get the blasted thing back together. But he does enjoy trying!

His other favorite thing to do outside is hang out on our back patio. There's a broom out there from when we were sweeping it last Saturday after Ben mowed. It was never put back out in the shed, and Connor's favorite thing to do is housework. (Yes, I'm training him early!)

He would stay out there for hours sweeping the porch if I would let him!

Our newest addition seems to be adjusting to life with the Ervins pretty well. She loves to walk with us to take the girls to school and pick them up, too. The trickiest part is teaching her not to hog the sidewalk.

And while we wait at the school, she's busy doing things that dogs like to do.

She also loves to hang out in our backyard while Connor sweeps.

And she climbs willingly into her crate every night to sleep. She's so well-behaved in the house, we trust her enough to leave the door open at night. Good for you, Trixie!

Our Growing Family

Today was a big day! We have always planned to expand our family once we bought a house here in Oklahoma. I had such a hard time parting with our dogs in South Carolina, and still feel guilty for not bringing them with us, even though I know it was what we needed to do. Therefore, we didn't want to get any more pets until we were sure we could give them a "forever" home.

For the past weeks, Ben has been scouring petfinder.com and occasionally sending me links. This past week he got lucky. There was this one dog that captured my heart. So yesterday Connor and I went to Yukon (about 30 minutes away) to meet her while the girls were in school and Ben was working. She stole my heart in about 2 seconds! She's a pretty mellow dog, and a mix between a Brittany Spaniel and a Blue Heeler (Australian Cattle Dog). Ben wanted to get the whole family together to go pick her up to make sure it was the right choice before bringing her home. So this afternoon, we headed out.

We had some varied reactions in the car on the way to the shelter:

Olivia couldn't stop grinning...

Connor took a nap...

Ben didn't want his picture taken...

And Kelsey thought the trip was taking too long.

Once we got there, the rest of the family fell in love, too. So we decided to bring her home. The car ride home was a lot more exciting!

This is apparently her favorite position. She loves a good belly scratch!
The name the shelter had given her was "Sundance", but once we got her home we felt like she didn't like it very much. So of course we had to pick a new one. We came up with a few suggestions to see which she liked most and let the girls be the judge.

So what's her name?
Trixie!

She's not the only one enjoying her new digs, either...