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!