Our family is growing

Good morning from my back yard! 

We have had our first snowfall of the year, however it quickly melt and we returned to the season of fall.  Temperatures certainly are dropping and the snow will return before we know it.

Until the white stuff flies again, we'll enjoy the beautiful leaves falling to the ground 

 

 and make leaf angels instead!  This happy little soul just warms my heart each and every day

and bedtime too!  I use to sleep perpendicular to my mattress too with my feet on the wall. So to walk in to turn the light off and see her sleeping this way with a book open in her lap, oh I had to tell my heart to be still and just take a few moments to soak in the moment. 

Not to be out done with cuteness - Brother has had his moments too, which we are thankful for because we were beginning to wonder if after turning 3 our sweet little guy disappeared.  Terrible 3's is no joke in this house - but it's fun to see him having moments of complete silliness.

Look mom I'm a baby -

 Yep - totally wrapped himself up in the blanket - how he did it so perfectly - who knows...

Or moments of 

I think I'll try to wear Papa's snow boots to play outside.  

As these two continue to grow so quickly before my eyes, we decided our family was missing a member.  

Meet Iridessa - Dessa (for short)! Her given name was Dazzle, but could you honestly imagine Papa with a dog named Dazzle.  So, we were thinking Maggie, or Chloe, when Sister spoke up and said, "I like Iridessa and we can call her Dessa for short."  And so it is...

Dessa loves everyone

and everyone loves her.

We adopted her from a local rescue organization called AARF (Alaska Animal Rescue Friends). Her back story is that she is from San Fransisco and the rescue place there loved her so much they couldn't bare the thought of having to put her down because she wasn't be adopted.  So they flew her to Alaska to our local organization to see if she could be adopted up here.  

Dessa is a 2 year old Husky Mix (we think maybe some white shepard).  She definitely needed the right home to help her with some of her behaviors.  She is amazing with people - even strangers can pet her and she's as happy as can be.  However, if a dog approaches her on leash, she goes a little crazy with barking and aggression towards the dog.  So we've got a little work to do with her on that, but otherwise she is a pretty special dog.  Very trainable -  after only 2 dinners, she learned she is not allowed in the dining area while we eat and only one potty accident in the house and she learned to tell us when she needs out by going to the door.  So we are hopeful with the love and security of her new home, she will overcome her dog aggression. 

I have to laugh because I deal with behavior modification all day long at school, come home to a 3 year old in need of behavior modification and now Dessa.  I'm destined to be a behavior modification specialist this year I guess! Ha, ha!!!   All joking aside, its so nice to have a dog in the house again and now I have a walking buddy on these dark mornings.  I'm hoping to get her out for her first hike this weekend - so we'll see how that goes. 

Until our next adventure - we wish you all a wonderful week! 

It's the end of the 1st quarter of school for us - how can that be?!?! 

Cherish the moments - life is going by too fast!

Loving our community

Every fall our church does an outreach called Impact Eagle River.  We cancel, yes cancel church for the day and go out into our community to serve one another.  Our church parking lot turns into a free oil change station for families' with unique needs such as caring for foster children or having a child with disability.  Other team members from the church go and rake yards or help local agencies like the Pregnancy Center, organize donated items.   When I asked Sister what we should do for Impact Eagle River she said, "Momma, there's a lot of trash by the school. Maybe we could go clean it up."  So, with a friend and her children, we bundled up and picked up trash in the rain.  We had a great time and I love that our church gets out and demonstrates our belief of caring for one another in a very visible way. 

With this event being on Sunday, 2 days later we had...

our first snow fall!!

Oh my the kids couldn't wait to get out and play.  It's already all melted as the temperatures warmed up and we have rain again.  However, this was a glimpse of the fun to come this winter. One thing I'm enjoying very much about the kids being a little bit older is the cooperative and imaginative play they engage in.   Warms my heart to hear them create a game or situation and play it out. 

Not much else to share from this week - Papa has finished his football season the same day his wrestling season started.  So we make the shift from football fields to wrestling mats without a break.  Thankfully there's a little break after wrestling before track starts.  This Momma is continuing to find healthy ways to balance the demands in her life.  I'm so thankful for friendships I have and the quirky little gifts that mean so much - such as...

 The design of these socks holds such a special meaning and I love being able to wear them under my boots because we all know 7th and 8th graders would not be able to focus if these were in plain site ;) 

Wishing you all a great start to a new month! Hard to believe it's October!