Chicks and their chickens

Our chickens have got to be the luckiest chickens ever! They have a nice home built by Clay, they have a guard dog Cassius to watch over them and protect them, they have me to feed and water and clean up after them, and they have Sydney and Alex to play with them and hold them, and love them! Our rooster started crowing this week. Our neighbors say they don't mind, but just wait. There will come a day off when they want to sleep in and they won't be able too because the Doziers have a stinkin rooster! Clay wants me to learn how to clean and cook it. Yeah, I don't think so! The kids want to hear nothing of eating their buddy! He is huge and probably would taste really good but, that's beside the point!
The chickens run when the girls chase them but once they've been caught they're very calm and content being held by the girls. I for one am afraid of them, I think they're ugly, they look like dinosaurs, they have scary beady little eyes. They always chase me when I go out. They think I'm always going to have food for them the minute I walk out the door. They charge and attack and I run in the house scarred. It may be my bright orange toe nails too, I mean how can you miss them! They always try to peck them.

The girls are not afraid of them in the least, they love them. Carry them around, play farmer with them, collect feathers, I usually ask the girls to take the food container out to them once I have filled it because they aren't mean to the girls. I like to take care of them at night, after their roosting.

Awww, isn't he cute. Cassius is an awesome dog. He has only tried once to play with the chickens, that's when they were chicks and brand new to him. Now, the rooster thinks he is a dog and they all get along very well. He doesn't even notice they're around anymore. Good boy Cassius!

Cassius and his BFF playing together. Clay walks outside and Cassius starts hopping around, he knows it's play time. He's very calm and sweet when the girls around, when he sees me he just wants food, but when Clay is around..... wow he is one happy hyper dog!

We love our pets!

Party Time!

This past weekend we went to My Aunt Debbie's to help her celebrate her birthday. It was so much fun. It was more like a mini vacation than anything. We got to stay at our own place with nice beds, cooler cranked down to 72, refrigerator stocked with beverages, and no one waking us up early in the morning (except the ghost). You can't go to Aunt Debbie's without meeting the kids. The girls loved all the dogs but I think their favorites were the weenies. Shhh, don't tell the others. This is Sydney with Lucy! After breakfast one morning Uncle Jim took us for a short little walk in the 115 degree weather. I tell ya, I almost melted going those 20 steps!! It was worth it. During the night this cactus had bloomed. This cactus, a cirrus (sp?), blooms once a year and at night. We walked back by later that day and all the petals were gone, you couldn't even tell it had bloomed. It looks like a pile of sticks when it isn't blooming. I thought it was really cool.
Then you have the BFF's. Yes, yes, I know, Debbie is going to love me for posting this picture. Well too bad!! Since I was born, Aunt Debbie has always been there. At my birthday parties, baptism, wedding, kids birthday's, you name it she was there! She's amazing. I was so glad we got to go to her house for a change and help her celebrate, even if she had to make her own home made ice cream, it was one fun party. It made me smile seeing my mom have so much fun with her childhood friend and BFF. The green shirt that Debbie is wearing was made by her sister. It says Today is my birthday! Loved it!

We ate a huge lunch with lots of yummy food. The girls liked the corn on the cob the best. It was so fresh and juicy. Yum!

Then it was time for games. My mom was put in charge of party activities. What is a party without Minute to win it games? In my opinion, not a very fun party without them! Here is Sydney trying to blow the cups off the table with a balloon.

Alex was in charge of handing out medals. She did a great job! Go Alex!!

We played stack the apples too. No one could get it done in a minute but my Uncle Jim finally did get them stacked!

Sorting M&M's with one hand behind your back. Always is more challenging than it looks!

I'm not sure who was able to finish this challenge. It was probably Shirley, she won the most!

This one is fun. You have to roll the ping pong ball down the tape measure into a shot glass. Once again, more challenging than it looks, and Shirley won.....again!

Shirley blowing cards off. You have to blow the whole deck of cards off the stack but leave only the very last card on. Shirley won.

Shirley with her medals, like I said, she was the top performer. She smoked us all!! We had so much fun playing with everyone. I love these games at a get together.

Here is a picture of all the party animals! We had a blast. We're already training for next years bash so we can take some of those medals from Shirley! After games, we had cake and ice cream and ventured outside to the pool. Even though the party didn't start until 2:45, by the time it was over I think it was close to 8:00pm, we were beat! We grabbed a snack and went off to bed. We all slept good that night (no ghosts this time, maybe I was too tired to hear them but I did freeze my tootsies off, thank you mom)! We must really know how to party, I don't think we got up the next morning until 9Am. Then it was time to pack up our stuff and head home, what a fun weekend!

Happy Birthday Aunt Debbie!

Family Day!

Yesterday we spent the day as a family, celebrating our anniversary. Clay had to work on our anniversary so we loaded up the car and went to Aunt Debbie's to help her celebrate her birthday. I'll post pictures of that soon. There was lots of good food, minute to win it games, and swimming! We had a blast. Clay had yesterday off so we decided to celebrate our anniversary. First, we went to the dentist. We got an A+ on our teeth, no cavities, then we were ready to do something fun! We went to the movies and saw Despicable Me! We absolutely loved it. We all have our favorite parts. I love the minion guys, they're hilarious. Knowing that Steve Carrell's voice is being used makes it super funny! I even cried, that's how you know if a movie is good or not, Roxy cries if it is. I want to go see it again. The kids loved it as much as I did. Yes, we took the kids with us to celebrate our wedding anniversary, we're not big on celebrating without them. After the movie we were off to Home Depot to get a few things. The girls were super hungry but we all hung in there while Dad shopped around. Then we did a little school shopping. We picked out backpacks (I didn't know it would take a second grader and a fourth grader almost an hour to pick out a backpack!). By the time everyone was happy with their selections we were all a bit testy and super hungry. We went to Chili's to eat. The kids ate all their food, and we all left full, it was super yummy!

Then, with our tummy's full, we hit more stores for school shopping! We shopped till we dropped. We had a fun filled day as a family and got lots of pretty new things for school. Going school shopping helped us realize the ugly truth.........school starts in less than a month :( We aren't ready to go back as of right now but hopefully that changes soon.

Happy 12th Anniversary!

We've come a long way in 12 years.

We started out as friends. One day you found a rock, got down on one knee, popped the question and I said yes!

Then we became best friends and eternal companions. We were so excited to be husband and wife. No pet names like baby or sweetie for us. Since the day we have been married you have called me wife and I have called you husband. My tummy still does flip flops when I see you!!

We went from a family of two to a family of three in a few short years......
then before we knew it we were a happy little family of four.
Years later we're still a happy little family of four but so much has changed. We live for our kids rather than ourselves. You've become an amazing husband and father of the sweetest two little girls we know. I've become a great (if I do say so myself) wife and mother. Our favorite and most enjoyable times are those spent together with our children, family and friends ( and some may think it's odd that you love your job so much (in fact if you aren't at work you can only be found one other place, HOME!), but you're a happy guy when you get home from work, so keep bringing home the bacon!. )
Thank you for 12 amazing and fun years of marriage, I look forward to our lifetime full of memories yet to come.
To my best friend....... my eternal companion........... father of my children..........husband........

I LOVE YOU!

(sappy and mushy I know, but it's all true!)

Victoria

Last week Victoria got to come to our house and play!! On our way home from my Dad's on the fourth, we stopped and picked Victoria up at her Grandma Thompson's. It was at the perfect time. The girls were getting a little tired of playing with each other all summer long. They loved having someone else to play with. Their toys got a real work out. Their littlest pet shop haven't been played with that much in a long time! Victoria seemed to really enjoy them.
We swam A LOT. We were in the pool the majority of the time she was visiting. It was ok with us, I'm just glad she likes to swim or she may have been pretty bored!

The girls have been missing her since she left. Since she lives in Vegas we don't get to see her all that often. I'm so glad we got to spend a week with her. The girls have been very BORED since she left. Mom just doesn't play right! Victoria made the girls summer so much fun. We miss you Victoria, thanks for coming to play!!

My new guilty pleasure!

Meet my wonderful sister in-law Amy (on the left), and her sister, ummm I can't remember her real name, I never can, but everyone calls her Bean. So, meet Amy and Bean. Then there is Melissa (on the left as well), Amy's older sister and me! We all had the pleasure of hanging out with Amy for her Birthday. Amy's mom and of course Harry joined us after this pit stop. Where were we and what were we doing for this pit stop you ask?
I was getting my first ever pedicure! I loved it. I'm pretty sure it's my new secret guilty pleasure. My toes and feet never felt so good. My toes are the orange polka dot ones. Clay even liked my toes, he thought they were very pretty.

We had one heck of a busy day. We cram packed it with fun things to do. We got our toes done, went fabric shopping, ate a Bahama Bucks, had Cafe Rio for lunch, more fabric shopping, and ended up at Black Angus for dinner with the whole family. I love steak! I'm already looking forward to Amy's next birthday and spending the day with my adoptive, all sisters family. I don't have sisters, sorry James and Will but this beats playing G.I. Joe's with you guys any day. I had a blast Amy, thanks for inviting me and.....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Summer Quilting Fun!

My poor poor family. I have been quilting like crazy and have left them to fend for themselves. In between swimming and vacationing I have done little else than quilt. Here are a couple of my recently finished quilts. I did post these on Facebook but for those of you who don't use that application here you go! I LOVE this polka Dot quilt! For the time being, this quilt is my new all time favorite!

I machine quilted the x's (a major pain on my little machine but we both survived).

Thanks to Pat French, I get how to bind now! I need a ton more practise but I'm getting better with every quilt. I haven't attempted to hand quilt the binding on (which I probably should since that's how it is supposed to be done) so the binding jobs haven't been that great. I'm just so proud I can actually finish the quilts on my own.

Alex enjoying the new quilt Mommy made. If I had to quit quilting tomorrow I could and be happy about it. I LOVE this quilt, and I made it! The girls enjoy watching and helping. I'll make quilters out of them yet!

Ever since my Aunt Judy helped me out by finishing a quilt I started three years ago, I have wanted to finish one on my own. I love the quilt Aunt Judy did. It is a beautiful thing to look at, and snuggle up with, and sped out on the bed and admire! I'll have to post pictures of it. It's amazing! This quilt (below) I started at the same time as the one Judy finished. So.... years ago. I finally got so sick of walking past a half done quilt hanging on a hanger, that I just had to finish it.

I finished it!! It took four years but hey it's done! The material is a little ummm, ugly? Together it looks OK I guess. The kids had a blast handing me strips and watching me sew them all together to make this wonderful quilt.

Thanks again to Pat French for taking the time to walk me through binding. I'll get it one of these days! I have two more quilts cut and ready to sew, I just have to find some time now.

I have to say, I have accomplished more this summer than any other summer I can remember. I went through every room in the house and de-cluttered everything. The kids went through clothes and toys and junk. Our house feels so roomy and clean now! We're having a huge garage sale on the 23rd and with the profits we're going to CALI on the 26Th. Woooohoooo for a clean house and a fun vacation!! Not to mention the quilts I have finished, the trips we've been on, all the time we've spent together as a family. WHY, oh why does summer ever have to end. The school bell ringing on August 9th is getting louder and louder every day. Whether we like it or not, school will be starting soon. For those of you who haven't heard. I will no longer be working in the Special Education department. I got my contract and this year I will be librarian for both Greenway and Lowell school. WOOOHOOOOOO! Now that I can get out of the pool for!

We will rock you!

Ok, how many of you have seen the movie Coneheads? Remember the part where the Dad conehead was driving his daughter and her friends around. The girls hear a song they love, they scream, turn up the volume, and belt out every word at the top of their lungs. This song came on while we were on our way home from my Dads on the Fourth. We stopped and picked up Victoria at Grandma's and headed home. The girls were singing, Clay looked just like Daddy conehead and I busted up laughing. A Kodak moment for sure!

4th of July 2010

Happy Birthday to my Dad, who turned 60 on the fourth! Happy Independence day to America too! It's been a while since I blogged. I thought this would be a good post to get my blog juices flowing! Can't have fun at Nana's without Bonzo cat!

Parker is always around at dinner time for some reason. He's a good dog.

We had a fun shindig with lots of my Dads friends. Lots of yummy food, with an ice cream cake to follow!

Clay amazingly was able to attend this party. We had to take pictures to document the event. I'm sure he'll love this picture, lucky for me he thinks I don't blog anymore :) What a handsome guy!

And then there's the Doziers! We love hanging out as a family, especially when Daddy gets to be there! We had a really good time together.

By the time I thought of getting a family picture Uncle Will had already left :( Here is the whole gang. Happy Birthday Dad, we love you!!

Happy Fourth of July!