Kendall's Dance Party

This is a hilarious video from the night of Kendall's birthday party of the girls doing their "talent show" which was really just dance and acting goofy.  You can't hear the music very well.  Mostly you hear me herding them, trying to keep them from falling into furniture and getting bloody noses from flailing body parts...

Kendall's 6th Birthday Party

This year for Kendall's party we decided to do a Pajama party (not sleepover - made sure to stress that one the invitation!).  When it comes to 6 year old girls there is a huge difference between 2 and 3 hours, let alone an entire night.  The thing about 5 and 6 year olds is that well, they are still just so little.  There was a lot of goo-goo-gaa-gaas going on.  They aren't yet old enough to really have that in-depth imagination, so there were times that they were literally just being insanely silly. And what one does, the others ALL follow.  It was more than entertaining.

All in all there were 8 girls that came over and whew - wow it was loud.  It was our first drop-off party so the parents left which was probably good because there was so much commotion in this house with all of these girls!

All of the girls!
From L to R: Hannah, Cambree, Lainey, Hayley, Kendall, Kinsley, Alex, Avery F., Lauren and our Avery

Kendall doesn't really like cake so we decided to do a donut party.  One of our local stores happened to have some cute fleece pajama pants with donuts on them and then we actually found a shirt at the same store that said "Donuts are the new cupcakes".  It was perfect!!!

We made our own bubble bath, painted nails, played "Sleeping Beauty" ate chicken nuggets and filled up on sweets, opened presents, played dress up...  Oh and at one point the girls wanted to have a "talent" show which mainly consisted of them CR-A-ZY dancing in the middle of the living room.  But then there were too many girls so we made the take turns and oh. my. gosh.  It was HILARIOUS.  My sister in law got video of it so I promise to post it as soon as I can.  The look on Kendall's face - I'll never forget it!  It was AWESOME.  She was so intense and I have no idea where she picked up those moves.  We were trying to not cry laughing because it was funny.  The best entertainment of the night.

The girls playing Sleeping Beauty game

Avery being Sleeping Beauty.  She was the last one to go so she was really ready.

The girls had a wonderful time. However I made the mistake of making it a 3 hour party, thinking that the last hour we'd wind the girls down with watching a movie.  Yeah, they laid down for all of 5 minutes and then were up again, playing, laughing, and running.

Taking a break.  For five whole minutes
See Hayley in the bottom left covering Avery's mouth when she was coughing.

At one point Mike heard girls at the top of the stairs so he went to check on them and 2 of them were trying to figure out a way to carry Avery down the stairs.  Most of these girls weigh 40-45 pounds and Avery is 30 pounds.  Tragedy. Narrowly. Averted.

Luckily I had reinforcements and Grandma Nancy and Aunt Becca came over to help.  And I was shuffling the girls out of the house my sweet husband cleaned up the whole kitchen.  I am truly blessed!  Although it might have been more him trying to stay out of the way of all of the screaming girls.  Needless to say we were exhausted after all was said and done though.  We exchanged exasperated looks and heaved sighs as the clock slowly crept towards 8 pm.  Kendall had a really great time which was our main objective. But all in all it was a wonderful time.

And I am so so so glad I don't have to do anything else until next year.

The spread.
All on top of my grandma Lenore's beautiful lace tablecloth that fits my table perfectly.

Oh donuts...how I doth love thee...

The birthday girl about to blow out her candles

my sister in law has a better picture from the side...without the girls head in the picture

Opening presents

Thanksgiving

And on we go to Thanksgiving!  The girls only get Wednesday through Friday off so right after school on Tuesday we drove up to Dallas.  Traffic was awful.  That stretch of 35 from Waco to Hillsboro is a death trap but we made it and had a great time as usual.

The first day my sister and her boys Nick and Ryland came over.  Mom sent them out to rake leaves and they had so much fun jumping and playing in them.  I'm not sure that they actually ever picked any up, but well, we got some good shots of the kids anyway.

Avery had a great time in them

action shot!

Avery climbing the tree.  Well, kind of.

Best picture ever of my girls!

Kendall can finally climb the tree all by herself and she's quite pleased as you can tell by the look on her face!

Crazy kiddos.  They were supposed to look like turkeys with leaves as their tail feathers

action shot of Ryland and Kendall

I took some time to take pictures of my sister's family so we grabbed a quick shot of the grandkids.
Minus Piper but maybe someday we'll get one with all of them!

Grandma Tori and her grandkids

Thanksgiving dinner - the kiddos table

helping Grandma Tori decorate her Christmas tree

So behind!

I'm so behind on blogging I don't even know where to start!  I think I did the pumpkin patch - not sure about Halloween so I'll start there I guess!  I'll mostly just do pictures as there isn't time to be quippy and funny.  Is quippy a word?  Guess not since there's a red line under both of them...oh well.  you get my drift!

As usual, we just did a little party at the end of the cul-de-sac.  It was fun and there are a lot of neighbors that come out that we don't usually see (and they don't really speak English either - we have a lot of Chinese neighbors!)  But we all enjoyed the camaraderie anyway and just nodded and said "Hello!"

Kendall and Catherine

Pat Letson and Holly Price

Daphne, Leslie and Holly

Holly and her sweet TALL son Daniel

Avery and one of her favorite girls on the street, Grace

Some of the kiddos just playing!

Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

We have a local church that does a quaint little pumpkin patch every year with loads of pumpkins.  We debated taking the girls to the huge 70 acre one that is out of town but I keep hearing what chaos it is (not too mention how pricey) so last Saturday evening we just decided to keep it simple.  We let the girls dress up in their costumes and headed out.

They had so much fun just walking around and even let me take some pictures.  I know!  EVEN AVERY if you can believe it.  Of course in most of the pictures she had a spaced out look in her eyes and "the camera smile" plastered on her face but its better than last year when she just ran away and pouted.  She's really getting into it this year so it makes it a lot more fun.

Secrets

Sweet Kendall,

Last night at dinner Kendall said “mommy can I tell you a secret?”  Now just to let you know this normally consists of something said at the playground like “Parker said his dad had diarrhea.  What’s diarrhea?” 

But last night completely unrelated to anything we’d been talking about she said “mommy, do you know what breaks my heart?  When people are sad.  That’s why I like to help people.” 

Me.  

puddle. 

on the floor. 

I am so proud of my sweet girl and the gentle sweet spirit that God has given her.  She's truly an old soul.  And I just love her.  

Oh Oh Oh....Sweet Ty-bo

Ty Hurlbut

aka Ty-Ty, Ty-bo

1999 - September 8, 2011

The details of why...(warning long sordid explanation...skip to "why we loved" if uninterested or just want to see pictures)

This has been a rough week.  Well, a rough couple of weeks.  When we were in Dallas a few weeks back, Ty, our 12 year old dog, lunged at Avery and got her pretty good on her cheek.  It didn't break the skin but it was a 4 toothed stripe down her face, bruised and raised.  He's a really nervous dog, and the situation was just that - he was uncomfortable and just went for her.  It gave us a scare.  But this wasn't the first time it had happened.  He was not hurt, he was not in any pain, he was simply uncomfortable that she was on his right, Mike was on his left and mom was behind him.  We've never allowed our girls to roll around with, hug, lay on the dog.  They have a healthy respect for Ty. I've always stressed that you don't hug dogs, you scratch them.  That's how a dog knows that you love them.  But for whatever reason, he flipped on Avery this particular time.

So after this happened we knew we had to really talk about it.  It was an awful decision.  One I never wanted to make.  Ty was pretty darn healthy for a 12 year old dog.  His blood-work was impeccable.  Sure his back right leg dragged a little when we went walking or running. And the throwing up.  Ahhh...I thought for sure he must have a tumor or something.  It was an occurrence every 1-2 weeks.  For seemingly no reason at all - upchuck, all over my carpet (because really - puking on the tile would just be too easy.)  Other than that, he was really healthy.  This made it that much harder for us to decide.

I know deep down that Ty isn't a vicious dog. However he was unpredictable and had gotten really nervous around kids.  He lunged at my neighbors son a few weeks ago when they were over.  Again, I am 100% certain that Tywas not injured because he was sitting right next to me on the floor.  The boy is a sweet boy who I know has nothing but respect and love for animals.  It just freaked Ty out that the boy started counting (playing hide and seek) right next to his hind legs.

I feel like I'm defending myself and I know that there isn't a need to but at the same time, I'm just getting it all off of my chest.  In the end it came down to if and when.  Could I guarantee that it wouldn't happen again.   No.  In fact I could guarantee that it would happen again. But the question was, would it be a worse bite?  Would it disfigure my child or another? In the end that's just what haunted us.  I loved Ty and I know he wasn't trying to be mean, he was just getting old and even more nervous than normal.

We met with the vet last Saturday and talked about possibilities like:
1)  finding another home for him. But we didn't know of anyone that would take a dog that barks at everything, sheds like mad, and throws up all the time. And even then, how could we give him to someone with the possibility that he might bite them or their child/grandchild.   I know it was a big "if" but still.  Not too mention we didn't know anyone that would take him. And...
2) taking him to a shelter would have been a more cruel way for him to die and I know this dog - he would have shriveled up and died.  Back when he was younger we boarded him at a really nice place in Richmond and I remember the girl saying "He's very timid.  He seemed really depressed."  Yep, that's my dog.  The one that's a nervous wreck.  Slowly over time it's gotten so much worse.  Anyway, the vet doubted that a shelter would even take him anyway.

If you ever knew Ty, you knew I called him my chicken in dog's clothing.  He barked when a car door slammed, when the FedEx truck drove by, the garbage truck passed, a leaf fell,  and God forbid someone knock on the door.  Every night when Mike would come home at the same time, in the same car, in the same way, Ty would bark like someone was about to break down the door. Seriously - it was more than annoying.

I've joked for years about giving him away and how quiet the house is going to be when he went, but I don't think you are ever really ready for the reality.

why we loved him so much...


He loved to run.  He was my running buddy and went berserk when he saw me pull out my sports bra, running shorts, socks and then tennis shoes.  Each piece of clothing sent him spinning and spinning into hopeful oblivion.  However, he really did slow me down with all of his pee stops.  I guess now I'll have no one to blame but myself for long runs times.

He loved chasing squirrels at mom and dad's house.  Just running free in general.  Mom and dad have an acre, no fences, he'd just run and run and then come back in the house, and then want to immediately go back outside, and then come back in, and then go back outside, inside, outside, inside, outside until we made him lay down.  Then two hours later he'd puke on mom's carpet.  Every.  time.  Now it's funny, then - not so much.

He was definitely an inside dog.  He didn't want to lay on laps or snuggle too much but a good brushing and tummy rub were always his favorites.  Especially the spots on either side of his neck.  He'd go out, do his business and only stay out on occasion when the weather was just perfect - in the 70s or 80s.  He'd roll in the grass for a few minutes, soak up the sun.  If Jack (our cat) was out, he'd stay out and enjoy the company a bit longer but usually he was back to the door within 5 minutes.  

He never played fetch with a ball or a frisbee but pull out his stuffed squeeky squirrel from Target and he'd get riled up and ready to fetch, play, run.  Throw a ball and he'd look at you like "well, what'd you do that for?"  But throw the squirrel?  He was ready to kill! I'm surprised he didn't shred the carpet tearing across the room.  There was NO toy that got him as excited.

He loved chewing on bones too but his poor gums would just bleed.  Not to mention that he'd gnaw it down to nothing, eat it and then throw it right back up.  We gave him one for his last couple of days.  He barely chewed it at all, I'm sure his teeth hurt too much but he'd carry it around and sleep next to it.

I always felt safe with him around.  I knew that no one would mess with a house with a 50 pound mean sounding dog.  Anytime Mike was gone - no worries.  Was that the wind or a bear?  Who cares!  Ty will scare them away!  Comcast?  Lawn guys?  Yep - be afraid, be very afraid!   I'd tell them he was nice but they rarely believed me.  And that was ok.  

what we won't miss...

Let's be honest, every dog has their thing.  Crotch sniffing, drooling, barking, peeing, jumping...I'm convinced there is no perfect dog.  Ty's thing was barking.  I swear I hear him still barking two days later.  The backyard is so quiet. He'd have a bark off with the dogs behind, diagonal and to the left of us every day.  You'd often hear me yelling "TY SHUT UP!!!!!"  Yep, that's me, setting the great example for my children.

He'd bark when we pulled into the garage. Bark if he saw us walk out the garage door and then pass in front of our front door.  He'd bark if I left the house to go check the mail.  I could hear him all the way down the street.   Talk to a neighbor "bark bark bark bark bark bark bark."  It was something that we lived with but now looking back, we shouldn't have.  No bark collar or deterrent worked.  And we tried them!  

The hair...oh, the hair.  Enough said.  I could gently run my fingers through his hair and get a huge clump.  It's amazing that he wasn't hairless.  Good grief!  Note to self: next time you adopt a dog, research their breed and rate of hair loss.  What can I say?  12 years ago I was young and he was just too cute.

But...

love this dog I did.  For all of the nuisances, irritations, and inconveniences, he was my dog.  And I loved him.  I knew that this day would come but it was harder than I ever imagined.  We were with him but it was still horrible.  It was just so fast.  I know that he died with dignity, he wasn't in any pain that I am aware of, but I still have the guilty feeling that we somehow robbed him of a full life.  Deep down, I know that we did what was right but I am just still so heartbroken.  He was my companion for so long.  He was there for me in really bad times and really good times, he's been with me through it all.  He will forever hold a place in my heart.

And now....for one million pictures...

 Ty sleeping on my bed the day before he died.  

One the of the only luxuries he got when it was storming outside.  He hated storms!  

But on the last few days he was on it as much as he wanted although I really had to coerce him to get up there.  Of course he'd be all over it the minute we were out of the house but at least he wouldn't do it to our face.  

Everyone was so excited when it snowed in 2010.  

Everyone but Ty.

I took these pictures of Ty back when we were in our old house on Havenfield Court.  

12.16.2002

The best running buddy ever
April 7, 2011

This is how we expressed our love for Ty and said goodbye with the girls.  

We put together a list of all the things we loved about Ty.  

I laminated it and we put it in a book "Dog Heaven".

Then we each wrote on a card or drew a picture and we attached it to a balloon and let them go out in the backyard.  

Daddy drew a bone, I wrote a note, Kendall drew Ty in a heart and Avery just scribble-scrabbled.

Ty, you are forever in our hearts and I miss you terribly.  

Thank you for 12 years of your companionship, loyalty and love.