We Love to Dance!

Ella loves to dance to music and Colby is really getting into it as well. Here is a fun video from the other morning. I love how Colby imitates Ella's dance moves :)

Meet Chloe - The Newest Member of Our Family!

Meet Chloe - the newest member of our family! We adopted her from the group Friends of Retrievers here in Huntsville. As soon as Fenway met her he really liked her and immediately wanted to play! The rest of us was struck by her beauty and sweetness. She loves attention and affection and is doing a wonderful job with obedience. She is a 2 year old pure bred golden retriever that came to the rescue group as a stray. We took her into our home as a foster with the option to adopt. She is officially our dog now and in the month that we have had her she has settled right in. We all love her so much and can not imagine her living anywhere else.

In Chloe's previous life we don't think she received much attention. Here she is letting Casey and Ella pack her into a box that had been mailed to us earlier in the day. She loved every minute of it!

This is Chloe's first hike on Rainbow Mountain. She was a little jealous that Fenway got to be off leash but had a wonderful time!

Fenway and Chloe are best buddies. They are always near one another and have a blast playing in the backyard every day.

Chloe came to us with the name Autumn. Casey and I liked the name Casco (from Casco Bay in Portland Maine) but Ella LOVED the name Chloe and was the one in the family to officially name her.

Ella Sings!

Every Wednesday night Ella goes to choir at church. Last week her teachers had a parent night. Ella had a great time singing the songs they have been working on all fall.

Ooops!

For some reason I could not add this video to my Halloween post after I had published it. It is a video of Colby playing a game at the Fall Festival at Ella's school. It was so cute I had to share it.

Winter Hats

Do you like our winter hats? "Roar" "Hoo-hoo"

Colby's First Hair Cut

Two weeks ago Colby had his first hair cut. He is becoming such a big boy! We trimmed alot of his hair on the side and back of of his head and left most of the length on top.

BEFORE

I am not so sure of this . . .

I like this toy!

AFTER

Colby really wanted to sit in the seat all by himself :)

Happy Halloween

For Halloween this year Ella was a kitty cat and Colby was a dalmatian. We also loved that Auntie C.C. came to visit us during such a fun time of year. We carved pumpkins, went to a Fall Festival at Ella's school and had a great time trick or treating!

Carving pumpkins with Auntie C.C.

"Trick or Treat"

Colby the dalmatian.

Ella the cat.

Picking the "Just Right" Pumpkin

Last week we went to Isom's Orchard to pick out some pumpkins for Halloween. There were so many different shapes and sizes to pick from. It took quite a while to pick out the "just right" pumpkin for each child. We came home with six pumpkins! One large, one medium, one small and three mini pumpkins :) One mini pumpkin was for Ella, one was for Colby and the other for Bitty Baby. Stay tuned for pictures of us painting and carving our pumpkins.

Fenway the Love

Fenway has come along way since Ella was born. When Ella was little he used to get nervous when she would approach him with a hug or a snuggle. Over the years he has grown to love snuggle time with the kids! Here are some pictures I captured just this week :)

Sleepy time with Ella

Colby loves petting Fenway!

A big hug from Ella :)

New Tables

In the process of cleaning out some baby gear from storage Ella discovered a Disney Princess table a dear friend in New York had given her. After some thought she decided the best place to put it would be in her bedroom. She also wanted Colby to have a table in his room so we moved the one we had in the play room into his room. Both tables look great and the kids couldn't be happier. Ella loves coloring in her room and reading stories to her babies while Colby is working on actually sitting at his table instead of climbing all over it. ;)

Colby Learns to Brush His Teeth

Colby has been watching his big sister brush her teeth every morning and night for a long time. When he finally got his "big boy" toothbrush he was eager to try it himself. Below is a video of Colby brushing his teeth - spitting and all! :)

Ella and Fenway

On September 24th we went to Monte Sano State Park for a dog fair. There were lots of exhibitors, agility/free style demonstrations, adoptable dogs on display and various kids events. We all had a great time, especially Fenway! Ella signed up to show Fenway in the "Parade of Breeds." Ella presented Fenway to the crowd while the announcer stated the reasons why Ella loves Fenway.

Ella presenting Fenway to the crowd.

Fenway was very excited to meet other dogs.

Look Who is Walking Now!

Look who is walking!!!!! Yeah Colby!!!!!

Colby's Alabama Birthday Party

Colby celebrated his birthday with all his Alabama friends on August 28th. We had fun playing in the sprinklers and kiddie pool in the backyard and ate yummy cake and ice cream. Once again Colby LOVED his cake! He loved it so much that he cried when I took it away.

Our big boy!

Colby's birthday cakes.

Colby Turns 1

While we were in Maine we celebrated Colby's first birthday with family. Auntie C.C. made a beautiful car cake and a small personal cake just for Colby to dig into. He LOVED his cake and had fun opening presents with his cousins.

Colby's birthday cake.

Thank you Auntie C.C. for the great cakes!

Yummm!

I LOVE this cake!

Colby ate cake by the handful!

Ella's First Day of School

Ella started preschool this fall. She goes twice a week from 9:00-1:00 and loves every minute of it. She is learning her letters, how to write her name, various themes along with Spanish and music. Her are some pictures from her first day of school.

Ella just put her backpack and lunch box in her cubby and was very excited to go into her classroom.

Below are pictures of Ella standing so proud with her back pack and lunch box on our front porch before school. She even picked out her own dress!

Colby Takes His First Steps

Colby has practiced walking with the help of Mommy and Daddy for several weeks now. In the past when I have tried to get him to walk with this toy he has sat right back down and crawled away. Saturday night was different - he walked right across the room with it. Yeah Colby!!! His big sister started walking the day after her first birthday. I wonder when Colby will take his first steps?

An Evening in the Driveway

Tonight after dinner we spent some time outside. Ella LOVES riding her new bike and Colby likes to watch :)

Bird Nests

This week Ella and I discovered several birds nests around our house. Each nest has eggs right now so we are excited for when they hatch. It should happen in about a week or so. I will do another post if I can showing you the babies. :) Ella told me today she can't wait to hear the babies chirping. It will be fun to see them flying all around.

There is a nest in the middle of each one of my hanging plants. This makes it a little difficult to water my plants every day. The momma birds usually are not happy with me at all.

These are finch eggs.

Ella wanted to show you the dove eggs. You can see them in the bottom left corner of the picture.

Momma dove sitting on her eggs.

These are the robin eggs in our backyard on the rose trellis.

Fishing with Daddy

Out of the blue on Sunday Ella asked Casey if he could take her fishing at the pond in our neighborhood. Due to rain we were not able to go until tonight. We all had a great time and even were successful catching a fish.

Ella was eager to start fishing.

Daddy helped Ella cast the line.

Still fishing!

Ella's appetite is finally starting to come back after her surgery. She was hungry so she decided to eat some of the bate.

Yeah! Daddy caught a fish!!!

Ella checking out the fish - cautiously!

Looking a little closer.

After a wave goodbye we let our fish go back into the pond. Ella named him Boo and really hopes to see him again someday.