Lego Robotics Competition and Juliet Scheel's Birthday Party

Here are some puppy videos and pictures we got from Callie's foster family while we were in the process of adopting her. Such a cute puppy!!

 

A picture of Callie's mom with two of her brothers from the same litter.

Callie's dad

January started out cozy.

Callie is a huge whiny mess in the car so we've been trying to get her used to car rides.

The kitties still come around but Layla is terrible and has made it known to Callie that she would like to murder her.

Lots of walks in the park for the puppy!

Callie's favorite position for cuddles in on her bed between someone's legs.

I got to meet my friend Rachel's new baby Abigail. I'm a godparent, which is quite the honor!

Although as sweet as Abigail is, Caroline knows she's still my buddy!

When Patrick is put in charge of doggy toys Callie is well tended to.

We were told this was quite the energetic breed but I've mostly taken that as a challenge and Callie is pretty tuckered out most days. We went to the playground one afternoon and then met Juliet's friend Charli on the way home. 

Callie had a lot of work to do to keep up.

So tired!

I felt bad about her small terrain in the house at first but she certainly didn't lack for attention.

Sookie is really glad that Callie doesn't get full run of the house. She still gets her cuddles too.

But then we expanded Callie's space once we got some new, nice gates that didn't require us to lift Juliet over them. And it was nice, because prior to this Juliet had very little Callie cuddle time but now her favorite time with the dog is after the kids head off to school and the tired dog just wants to take a nap.

There has been a fair amount of TLC for the dog. Nathan worked from home for a few days after school started back up after the break and I would try to drive the kids to school while leaving Callie alone in her penned in area. She would cry until Nathan would scoop her up for cuddles by his desk.

She made friends with the neighbor's dog, Norbert. 

Eleanor won a Star Student prize at school and we got to go to the assembly where she got the award!

My parents came too. We had quite the support crew for her!

Patrick has been into fancy hair lately and is trying to grow his hair long enough that I can braid it. We started small with one little ponytail but I've been getting fancier.

I went on a January overnight camp with Eleanor's Girl Scout troop. They are very active and have a lot of activities, it's good Eleanor loves it so much.

On a photography scavenger hunt. They spelled out LOVE with sticks and then did the letters behind them for a picture.

I believe this was a picture of something red Eleanor was supposed to find in nature.

The highlight of the morning hike I took with a group of the girls was when we went off trail into a dry creek bed that was filled with a giant amount of leaves. I repeatedly told the girls they were on very dangerous footing and to be careful and they were delighted to be doing a dangerous thing. 

We lost a pencil in the leaves and almost a shoe but no one fell and injured themselves so we're calling it a success.

I love getting to go do activities like this with my wonderful daughter!

Meanwhile, Juliet took good care of Callie

Patrick's hair leveled up. Both he and I are enjoying playing around with it.

And he grew a mustache that night! So grown up!

Sookie has been a bit attention deprived due to the dog and harassed me while I was trying to read a book.

Level three of awesome hair. My dad was worried about Patrick being made fun of at school for looking silly and I informed him that was the least of my concerns. It's difficult to make fun of someone who loves the attention.

We discovered that Callie is an accomplished digger and are a little nervous about a fence containing her at this point.

She has been in heaven with the number of playdates and kids who have been running around the backyard with her.

Juliet has been helping me with Callie walks.

At the end of each walk Callie likes to run through a big leaf pile on the side of the house. So cute!

Tires a sweet doggy out

Hard to see but Patrick has four pony tails in this picture. Harper is duly impressed. And I know Harper and Patrick are looking cozy in this picture but Emily is Patrick's current girlfriend at school. I have been informed that they both took a turn kissing each other at school a few days ago. I told him that he can't really kiss at school, he needs to do that not at school. Now he wants to have a playdate with Emily. 

Meg yowls loudly at me every evening to go in and hang out in Eleanor's bed with her for a bit. I have no idea why she loves it so much but I've taken to bringing a book in there so we all get a little extra cuddle time.

Meanwhile, everyone's main cuddle buddy these days. I really love that all four kids love the dog so much.

Juliet is on a Frozen kick and was delighted to discover that we have an Elsa dress that fits her.

She's such a little princess ...

Eleanor loves Callie so much but also likes to play silly games with her.

The Seahawks made the playoffs so we had PriceChopper add "Go Hawks" to an appropriately colored cookie cake we found at the store.

And then we skipped the school movie night in favor of a friend movie night for Eleanor and Bradley at home. Each group mostly did their own thing although there was almost a spicy food eating contest in the middle involving tablespoons of hot sauce that I had to put the kibosh on. Nathan and I were both fighting some pretty bad colds at this point, I have no idea how we pulled off having an extra seven kids in the house for the night.

Juliet and her tablet time buddy.

Yeah, the girls were complaining that Callie was in Eleanor's spot and I pointed out that both the girls were in fact on the dog bed ... so we got a backup dog bed out for Callie to be on.

While we waited for a fence to be installed we would hook Callie onto her dog run and let her run around while kids would play in the back. It worked so well.

Bradley would hold Callie up to smooch on Juliet

This is often one tired puppy

We started Eleanor on swim lessons in December and she's already in the highest swim lesson level at the swim school. She's so close to making it onto the swim team!

And the final stage of cool Patrick hair - I've started doing a line of little pony tails and hooking them together. I think he looks like a cool little soccer stud!

Layla is scary

I also did beads for Eleanor's hair. I did Patrick's hair, Eleanor's hair, and fully braided Juliet's hair on this particular morning. It took 20 minutes to do everyone's hair!

Juliet's hair has been in full French braids ever since she watched Frozen. I love it on her!

How cute is this little girl?

Meg was desperate and cuddled me at lunch one day even though it meant we were visited by a overly friendly puppy.

Callie loves leaf piles and was so happy to help Juliet and her friend Charli play in the leaves.

She is allowed closely supervised time in carpeted area because we have discovered that she likes to chew and dig at carpet. Yay ...

Layla giving Sookie some much-needed snuggles in the midst of the trying times the kitties are finding themselves in. Honestly it isn't too bad for them, they just have to avoid the kitchen in order to not have the puppy bother them. 

More cuddles for Callie!

We had a little bit of snow and a surprise snow day where the kids didn't have school. Callie was such a good buddy playing in the backyard with the kids! She loves to chase snowballs!

Cuddle time with a show afterwards.

And cuddles during tablet time

Patrick is very excited about the prospect of playing drums in middle school and so he made his own drum set with plastic containers he got from school.

Girl Scout game night! Eleanor and Evie enjoyed playing Royal Visit together.

And then it was time for our next level of competition for Lego Robotics!

We spent the day at Crown Center. And by the day, I mean we showed up at 7:15 and left at 6:15. It was a very long day. The kids did so well though! 

Only 2 teams of the 39 in attendance moved on to the next round. But it was an honor to even make it to this level.

The highlight of the day for the kids might have been the shopping instead of the competition. Oh well!

Eleanor got to try out her first vanilla Frappuccino thanks to her friend Liberty's influence. 

The whole team on the third floor!

Plus coaches!

Tired crew the next day. Many thanks to my dad who watch both of the younger kids and the puppy for the 12 hours we were gone on Saturday.

Another failed attempt at kitty friendship.

The month ended with the fence being built! We were so happy! Callie loves being able to run around outside without a leash!

And we also had Juliet's friend party at Scheel's on the last day of the month! It was a magical My Little Pony themed party!

They played in the play area, had cake in the cafe, rode the ferris wheel, bowled, and saw the fish in the aquarium by the entrance to finish things off. A perfect 4 year old party!

Juliet loves her buddy Carmen but also loves being naughty for pictures. Shocker!

And in case anyone thinks I'm a mean parent, let it be known that Juliet plans on making her children eat sushi and isn't going to let them have a bed or toys. Also, she announced on a car ride home from school that she wanted to marry me and her daddy someday. The kids all eagerly told her that she couldn't marry a family member. Then Juliet said she would marry Katie. More bad news was shared. We suggested her friend Brendan from the party and she sighed and said, "I guess" but then she was worried that he might marry someone else first. And she wanted to know what color his house is. All important considerations upon finding a life partner!