We Got a PUPPY!!

Juliet's cute preschool had her send letters to Santa.

Hanging out with friends! Fun story: she was getting mad and running away from a little boy at her gymnastics class and he kept just following her around until his nanny came in to tell him to leave her alone. I apologized when she came out and said I didn't know why Juliet had decided she wanted nothing to do with the little boy. She said, "Ohhhh, that's Juliet! They are in preschool together and he talks about her all the time." So not surprisingly, Juliet has a strong fan club for which she could not care less. I pick her up from school and there's always a boy or two there being sweet and Juliet just accepts it as her due. Ahh, to be the youngest. 

Cousin Katie was still here at the beginning of December and she remains Juliet's favorite buddy. They had a really nice time together for the entire time Katie was here.

Although Katie is often concerned that Juliet plays games with no regard or respect for the rules.

My mom came over to help me make some cookies for my cookie swap and I think I made about a dozen total before more capable people took over. Patrick did such a good job!

Juliet wanted to draw a cat and honestly, I don't think this is too shabby for a three year old!

Platform swing!

There was enthusiastic assistance helping me dip Oreos in chocolate and sprinkles for our cookie swap party. 

Then I went to a church advent tea and scored by sitting at a table with some of my favorite ladies.

Then it was cookie party time! We handed out spatula prizes for those who won for best cookies. Estalita Svab took first with a ridiculous chocolate tart with strawberry mousse on the top.

Theresa Heller took second for macaroons!

And Jodee Cloud made about four different types of cookies, all of which were delicious, and got third place.

Our annual Juliet, Julie, and Julia picture. 

Nathan and Juliet were both very tired after the party.

I got some rest time the next day and Meg was kind enough to help cuddle me.

We took the kids to see Charlie Brown Christmas the next day and got to play around with the decor outside of Crown Center Plaza.

Katie and Grandma came with us. My dad was sick and we went during Ethan's nap time so Daniel stayed home with him. 

The two oldest kids insist they are too old to sit in the kiddie area so they sat with Grandma in actual real seats. I spent most of the show with two squirmy 3 year olds in my lap. It was very cozy. The show was so fun, we love the Coterie theatre!

Group picture at the end! Juliet thinks Katie should be included in all our family pics. 

Grandma with cute grandkids!

Hugs!

And we stopped by Panera for dinner on the way home. Yummy!

Ethan was awake and happy to see us when we took Katie and Grandma home. He loves Bradley quite a bit.

The next day I took Katie and Juliet to the dinosaur museum.

They're such a cute duo these days. They bustled around and Katie showed off her puzzle skills. 

This is actually quite the tricky puzzle, I was rather impressed.

Then they dug for fossils.

But a tea party followed by building a fort is really what we're all about when we go to the museum.

My dad and I were working on a preschool Christmas video for church and Ethan came upstairs to help us so I put an apron on him that he was playing with.

Um, how adorable is this kid?

I went to watch Eleanor's choir performance at school. She did so well!

And to balance out that, here is what it looks like when I pick the kids up after school. Bradley is dragging Juliet away from the tree she's trying to climb and Patrick is grabbing his friend's dad's leg and refusing to let go. Ahh, I look so glamorous wherever I go.

After school swing fun. The beginning of December was really warm!

The kitties still prefer to huddle together for warmth.

Patrick helped decorate cookies over at my parents' house. Katie kept on asking why he wasn't wearing any clothes and I had to tell her it was a common occurrence at our house. And also, this way his shirt wouldn't get dirty while decorating cookies! She remained unconvinced. 

And now - the biggest news for December. We got a puppy! I started looking at puppies while we were in Boise for Thanksgiving and we weren't able to get the first batch of puppies they had available. We would have had to pick the one we liked up on December 2nd, the day before our Christmas party, and there was just no way way we were going to be able to swing that. I was so worried about telling the kids we weren't going to be able to get their first pick for a puppy but they had sent me info and pictures of another few puppies that were going to be available soon and Nathan said he liked one of them. And when I told Eleanor asked, "Does this mean we get Cider instead?" I asked how she even knew the name of the dogs and apparently she had remembered from the one time I had shown her the photos of the bonus puppies. And yes, she and Nathan liked the same dog. Then Eleanor pointed out that the dog bore a strong resemblance to her dad's cat. It is a bit uncanny ...

So we got to go and visit Cider and see if the children liked the puppy. In shocking news, yes, four children liked a puppy. They had told us she had a lot of energy and nipped a bit so I was a little nervous but she was perhaps 1/10 of Rigby, one of the dogs Patrick had played with in Idaho. So we left the meeting in love and signed adoption papers and then just had to wait for adoption day! The incredibly nice young couple had agreed to hold on to the dog for a week and a half for us and we are so lucky they agreed to this. Eleanor was a genius and called the dog Callie the entire time we were playing with her at the first meeting and so her name won out over Meadow, the name Patrick had been campaigning for prior to this.

We had to wait to get the puppy because we had so many activities in early December and we needed to be home a bit if we had a new puppy. Juliet loves gymnastics and seeing all the festive decorations at the community center. 

Nathan worked from home on the day his mom and Kerry came to visit us. Lucky him, he had some help.

Colleen was so happy to get right into grandchild time.

And Kerry got lots of cuddles.

Saying goodnight. 

The next day we decided to make gingerbread houses.

Nathan helped Juliet.

Grandma Colleen said she would be Eleanor's assistant

And Bradley and Patrick each did their own thing. It worked out pretty well! I've opted against the kits for the past year or two because I think the kids just like making their own thing and the graham crackers are pretty yummy.

Finished product!

Finished product.

Colleen and Kerry got to see Patrick in action for one of his basketball games. He looked good!

He also looked good changing into his shirt for the Christmas program the next morning. He opted to change in the hallway and wouldn't stop kissing his muscles. I deserve this, I was the one to tell him to kiss his muscles whenever his shirt was off during the summer. But I did not anticipate this moment. 

Eleanor got ready in her fancy costume!

And then - play time! They all did so well.

They began with the preschool video that I interviewed the preschoolers for and then my dad edited the clips and put the video together.

Juliet had a couple songs she sang with the big group before joining us in the audience.

Patrick got a little goofy during the opening song and then got it together. We thought this meant he wouldn't pull any repeats of his silly behavior from the Christmas program the year before when he yelled the lyrics to Joy to the World and acted in a rather ridiculous manner. However, I forgot that he had a 2nd grade musical coming up at school (this is called foreshadowing).

I like that the pastor's son is easily led astray by my child. It's good for him. 

Patrick did a stellar job reciting his lines.

Meanwhile, Juliet was cuddling with her fan club in the audience. 

Bradley also did an excellent job on his lines.

And Eleanor had a main part and rocked it! So fun to watch.

Please find Bradley near the top right of this photo. A friend sent me this picture. Apparently Bradley was really feeling the music. 

There was a shadow theatre portion of the evening and the boys were both shepherds. Patrick was the shepherd in the middle of the picture, Bradley was far right. They thought it was so neat and Eleanor was a little jealous that she didn't get to be a part of it.

Picture at the end with Grandma Colleen and Kerry!

Nathan with his folks. Kerry is quite ill these days, we were really happy that we all got to have this time together.

I filmed a guest spot on a board game channel that afternoon and we had a rare evening with nothing to do after Colleen and Kerry headed home. So Nathan took the kids to the store 5 Below where everything is $5 or less so they could buy Christmas presents for each other. 

It was a very successful trip and happy children came home and wrapped up treasures. There were a lot of packages that had Mom/Dad/Callie written on them. There was a lot of anticipation for the new puppy, the kids could hardly wait. 

The poor kitties had no idea what was coming. We all tried to give them extra cuddles.

My dad had his standard Monday outing with Juliet and then they came back home a bit early so they could play some games together. Juliet was a great help while playing Busytown Eye Found it!

After the next game. There were a lot of complaints when Grandpa had to go home.

But joy upon tackling Patrick later that day. Juliet gets away with a fair bit.

We went out to Panera together with my folks before going out to Electric Lightwire Christmas at the Lied Center in Lawrence. 

We had pretty nice seats up close to the stage!

I even got to sit by Nathan for the performance. A rare thing to get to sit together while out at an event with children! It was so much fun, everyone was into it, even Juliet. Patrick was cracking up for half the performance and Bradley kept talking about his favorite bits of the show after we left. I'm so glad the goal for a little culture for Christmas worked out so well!

Group shot before we left!

And more kitty time. The doggy talk was virtually nonstop at this point because it was so close to when we were going to bring Callie home.

Patrick had a bad cough and stayed home from school that Friday so I didn't have my parents babysit for us and Nathan had to go to Eleanor's choir concert solo. 

He was dressed up fancy because he was also going out to his work holiday party immediately following her performance. 

It was at Crown Center and it looked like everyone had a very nice time!

She got to stay with friends and go ice skating afterwards while Nathan went on to his party. 

She had quite the excellent time. I love that she gets to do things like this.

The next morning we just had a basketball game before going to pick up our puppy!

I thought we weren't going to have anything this weekend but we had a basketball tournament and Patrick ended up playing four games. Oh well. That's almost like nothing in our house these days. It was still our best window of time to get a new puppy. And Nathan did such a nice job coaching and the boys played really well, it was fun to watch. 

Patrick and his 2nd grade team.

Then - it was puppy time! We went and picked up Callie to come home with us!

She was extremely nervous in the car and cried most of the way home.

But she perked up when we stopped at Petco and got her a leash and name tag and some treats and toys!

And she was so happy once she was at our house and playing with the kids!

Meeting the kitties was very exciting and a little scary for her. 

The cats weren't as upset as we thought they might be. They just looked at her and then sauntered away even though Callie made many enthusiastic leaps about the room to show how fun and friendly she could be.

It was almost immediately apparent that Callie's favorite place to be was in someone's lap.

Oh hurray, a cozy doggie bed!

Lap is better.

Another attempt at kitty friendship. Callie was trying so hard!

Layla is perhaps the most interested in Callie of all the cats. But she's also the only one that has hissed and bopped Callie on the nose so we'll see how things go. 

More lap time. It was pretty lovely to see her bond with all the kids so quickly.

She loved exploring the backyard.

Lots of smooches for her new favorite people!

We picked her up at 11AM on Saturday, December 17th and this dog didn't take a nap until 4PM. Poor baby!

Eleanor went shopping with Nathan that evening for some bigger doggie beds for Callie because it was clear that the little one we had was not going to cut it.

So much joy and cuddles.

The next morning I sat the kids on the stairs with Callie so we could get a picture with all of them together. Again, there were so many kisses.

I love how everyone is looking at the dog here. Patrick was the sure dog lover and Eleanor was a bit of a surprise but she came on strong as soon as we met Callie, even before we brought her home. Bradley had always been a bit nervous around dogs and it's already been nice to see how much more comfortable he's gotten with all dogs since we got one of our own. And Juliet - she's doing well but she's getting a little tired of being a target of all the kisses to the face anytime Callie sees her. She loves cuddling her once she's calmed down a bit though. 

Patrick had church, two basketball games, and a birthday party this day. He barely saw the dog. This was supposed to be our quiet, calm weekend. 

Fortunately, Callie is a very good doggy. 

And Eleanor did a great job as the babysitter while I was gone at both of the basketball games.

Lots more rest for Callie on day two.

And no weird behavior from the cats after adopting a puppy, nope, nothing out of the ordinary at all ...

Juliet took a bath and came out and gave a little show for Eleanor. Juliet is way too into showing off her little booty.

Patrick getting in some Callie time before bed. So weird that the dog ended up in Eleanor's room ...

If Eleanor liked having Callie on her bed, the puppy liked it even more. 

Bliss!

Then Nathan left on a work trip and the kids went back to school and I was on solo puppy duty for three days. It was a bit chaotic. I hadn't realized that puppies needed to go out literally every thirty minutes when they were little or they would have accidents. And that sometimes they would still have accidents, even with going out so often.

In the midst of this, I went to Patrick's 2nd grade choir concert at his school, where he made it his mission to perform for me. 

It was ... quite the performance. 

If you're going to pick one video to watch of his performance, it's this one.

I laughed until I cried. Oh Patrick.

And I mean, he just kept on giving. I posted only one of these videos to Facebook but I was losing it for most of the musical.

I got a lot of compliments on Patrick's performance at the event after the performance where the kids got to share their research projects about the ocean.

Then I got to drop in on Christmas parties!

Juliet was with me and she was very popular.

Patrick had a craft and did not particularly care we were there but my friend Estalita was very excited to see Juliet and fed her a bunch of the ridiculously fancy snacks she had made for the class party.

The rest of the day was chaos, I tried to take Callie out a bunch but she still had a fair number of accidents. So we confined her to a smaller section of the hardwoods while we got things sorted out for her. She is very happy with the new arrangement, she has a nice setup and generally she has a kid or two in there with her to cuddle her.

What a cute doggy.

The next day I waged war against potty accidents and literally took Callie out every thirty minutes. She did so well, only one accident at the very end of the day and that was because I rushed her back inside after taking her out because it was time to get Juliet in bed. She's a smart dog and she's doing really well. I got in 31 flights of stairs that day according to my Apple Watch fitness tracker. 

We also took her out on her first official walk because the kids had a half day at school and were around for most of the day.

Juliet thought it was hilarious to have her in the wagon until she got kissed too much and then she though Callie could walk again.

Eleanor was on leash duty while the boys ran around and had stick battles. Callie REALLY likes stick battles and the boys were cackling while she jumped after all the sticks. We also took her over to the Farleys' house and discovered that she was terrified of fire hydrants. She had to be carried past one. 

The worn out puppy was very happy at bedtime.

So many cuddles from her buddies.

Patrick and Bradley accompanied me to Juliet's gymnastics class to see Juliet graduate to the next level. Eleanor took care of Callie. I don't know how I would have made it through those few days without Eleanor. It was a bit rough.

Patrick cuddling the dog who cries and tries to escape from her penned in area if she is left alone for literally two seconds. No exaggeration. 

Nathan made it home and about five minutes after he arrived my cousin Stephen and his wife Chelsea arrived with their three little kids. They all loved Callie, even though one of the girls was allergic to dogs.

I was really happy that we had Callie out of the way of the tiny kids while they were here because it made it so they weren't being constantly harassed by a puppy. She still got plenty of loves though.

A storm came through and it hit -7 and Stephen and Chelsea were stuck with us for an extra day. Fortunately for me, Nathan took care of all the outdoor potty trips for Callie. Phew!

The kids really wanted to play in the snow and I suggested that I bring some in for them rather than have us go out when it reached a balmy 3 degrees ...

Juliet and Clementine are such good buddies. I can't believe they both remembered these masks from the last visit over the summer. Juliet literally never touches them except for when Clementine is here. But then they stay on for the entire time they're playing. So cute.

Callie was pretty tired after having to go out in the cold a bunch.

We're also working on her becoming slightly less terrified of car rides and she did okay riding with Eleanor and Nathan to go get the oil changed on my car. 

Playing Dice Throne with a puppy helper. It did not help.

We have so many pictures like this one.

I got to play Sleeping Queens 2 with all the kids! It was the nicest part of Christmas Eve Eve (the 23rd).

And Eleanor and Juliet were really excited to finish our nativity advent calendar the next morning. All of the older kids had agreed that it made sense of Juliet to get the final day and to get to place baby Jesus in the manger. I manage nothing with the advent calendar, I just put it out and the kids take care of the rest. It's pretty wonderful.

We also finished up our final day of our family secret Santa! This year Juliet had me, Patrick had Eleanor, Eleanor had Nathan, Bradley had Patrick, Nathan had Bradley, and I had Juliet. We only did it for three days and Eleanor had everyone's buddy figured out by the end of the first day. Oh well, I always make sure the kids know that it's supposed to just be a fun thing and it's okay if people figure out who their buddy is.

My buddy didn't really care for the secret part of her mission and told me and repeat that she was doing nice things for me.

We had the Watts over for Christmas Eve to watch the Chiefs play the Seahawks and I ditched out on the football game immediately in order to play Dice Throne with their teenage son. 

And then we had the Christmas Eve service at church. Juliet was fixated on the danger of the candles for the entire service and by the time we sang Silent Night and lit them she got really excited and stole mine.

No candle for me. I'm just happy my hair didn't catch on fire, she was waving the candles around quite enthusiastically for a while. 

Callie was so happy when we came home.

We have been talked into a tradition of letting the kids open a present on Christmas Eve.

I'm a huge sucker and let Eleanor talk me into stuffed animals for all of them. They're fun though - they flip inside out and one side is a cute happy side and the other side is a grouchy or angry side.

And then Santa Puppy visited!

And a Christmas tree! Callie was deeply unsure about why we would do this to her.

A reindeer! The cats should be grateful to the dog that they aren't the ones getting dressed up for once.

Christmas morning!

It was a pretty fantastic Christmas.

Callie picture of the day. She's already grown so much since we got her, I'm trying to make sure I get lots of puppy pictures!

The crew opening presents. I don't really keep track to make sure things are exactly fair, we just explain to the kids that we don't keep track of the exact cost or number of gifts because we figure they will share most of them. And in general, they do really well with this, except when Patrick realized everyone got a Lego except for him and was irate. We then told him Juliet needed help with her Lego and would love it if he built it for her and he couldn't be bothered. Ahhh, Christmas magic. 

Good thing he's cute.

They're all cute.

Callie got to sit by Nathan in the corner of the room while gifts were opened because there was no way she was going to tolerate not sitting with us for this.

It was so much fun for a sweet and tired doggy.

Bradley loved the fossil toy we got him and covered my island counter in debris as he immediately went to work removing it with special paleontology tools from the plaster it came in.

My parents came for dinner and brought pie!

Oh Juliet.

Juliet got Grandpa this book. Isn't she lovely?

Then my mom had the kids go down to the basement to practice and then come upstairs to perform a truly amazing play.

There were some casting changes because Patrick insisted he wasn't going to be a grandma and he wanted to be the wolf and Bradley was gracious enough to go along with this. Smart move on his part - Juliet got a bit hyped up by the end of the play and actually landed a fair number of blows on the wolf!

The video of the performance is rated PG due to violence. An accurate rating.

Then we did a piano recital for Patrick and Eleanor.

Nathan and I had missed their official piano recital because he had a work dinner that same night. Here's the video my dad took of it! Patrick decided to go up with no sheet music and then play with his eyes closed which is why he had a few mistakes. Oh that kid.

And the next day Eleanor and I got to go out for the morning as part of our celebration time for being the keepers of the puppy in the first few days we got her.

Eleanor insisted on going to the Cardboard Corner board game cafe and we ended up playing a nice game of Tokaido so we both had a fairly marvelous morning.

I had Eleanor try her first coffee drink at Costco after this when I got her a mocha freeze. Her first reaction was "yum!" followed by "bleh!" due to the aftertaste. Of coffee. Looks like we still have a little ways to go before I have a coffee drinking buddy in the family.

Then we went home and played with Callie out in the snow for a bit. 

Juliet loved the snow more than anyone. She was the only child to bother putting on snow pants in order to fully enjoy the outdoors. 

I got cuddle time with Layla that afternoon in our room. I like the dog a lot, but it's hard to beat cuddles like these.

Callie cuddles are rather more enthusiastic and we're trying to work on Patrick so he'll stop cackling with glee when she starts licking him all over his face and climbing all over him in order to best show her love for him.

Meanwhile, me and Bradley and a sweet kitty on the couch.

Nathan and I got in some culture with attention starved animals that night and tested out The Shakespeare Game.

Until Eleanor came down and took over the Callie cuddles. This dog loves the kids so much. Nathan was complaining about spending so much time with her and then being ditched immediately upon Callie spotting any child. I say that I'm her sixth favorite person unless one of our kids has a friend over and then I immediately drop down another number because this dog loves kids so much.

Bradley read his first real chapter book of his own free will! We got the kids a graphic novel version of And Then There Were None with bugs as the main characters (I know) and Bradley expressed interested in reading the real version of the story, which I don't have. But I do have Murder on the Orient Express so I gave that to him instead! He blazed through it in about a day. He was so happy.

Patrick comes down first thing in the morning to get in cuddle time with Callie.

It's become a bit of a set thing, grab a book and cuddle the puppy. So cozy and happy.

Sookie came by to peruse the doggy setup and it seems she is still not interested in making friends despite the rather enthusiastic attempts from Callie at showing off how fun she is.

The most comfortable reading position?

Juliet really likes the little bench in there and sits on it as a safe space from Callie smooches. But it makes it so she can be in on the fun if she wants to be!

I taught two days of board game classes with the older three kids as my helpers.

They went really well. I had a lot of repeat kids from my summer camps which makes me really happy, it's a good sign that I'm doing things right if they're coming back!

Then Nathan and I had a fancy makeup date at Chaz because I had missed out on going to his holiday party with him. It's a nice restaurant and they have local jazz musicians come perform. It was lovely and easy and I really want to go back.

The next morning Patrick and I attempted to take Callie on her first run. It took 17 minutes to run a mile. There were a lot of stops to sniff things, make new friends, and sometimes one member of our party even tried to retrace her own steps. We've tried to go again once or twice since this and it looks like it may take a while to break or 17 minute mile record because Callie isn't getting less interested in all the smells and sights of the park anytime soon.

Nathan took Eleanor to a makeup swim class that night and the boys mostly seemed interested in reading in their rooms so it was just me and Juliet playing games with my folks after we had our normal Friday night family dinner. Juliet rather enjoyed when we all played Pretty Pretty Princess with her.

She told Grandpa he wasn't pretty enough and she thought he looked like a pirate. She gets away with quite a bit. 

Patrick crashed hard that night with a sweet Sookie for cuddles. 

When he woke up in the morning he went down for Callie cuddles and started cracking up when she licked him while he had his mouth open and so he tried to see if he could get her to lick his tongue again. First of all, ew, second of all, it's bad when even the puppy judges you for taking things too far. 

Fortunately she is the forgiving type.

I took Eleanor and her friend Liberty out ice skating on New Years Eve as a final thank you for all the help she provided with the puppy while Nathan was away on his work trip. She loves ice skating so much and this is only her third time going ever.

It was in the upper 50's and sunny and warm and these girls quickly ditched their coats. I was super fancy and even got them hot cocoa and some tater tots to munch on as an ice skating snack. 

The ice was definitely a bit puddly because it was so warm but the girls were good sports, even when Eleanor took a big fall one time and was sopping wet for a little bit. This was at Chicken n Pickle, I really like it there and want to go back!

That night we went to the Rutherfords' house and decided to bring Callie over after we had been there for a while so we could stay for longer. Their dog Bear was enthusiastic about this decision.

What followed was two hours of nonstop puppy love.

This is perhaps my favorite picture of the two dogs together. Callie is trying to play with Bear and Bear's eyes are so white!

The eventually settled down. But it took two hours.

With our cute little puppy. Also known as baby #5. Although I think a fifth child may have been less work. Happy New Year!