I think doing this kind of project is awesome because if you are like me you mostly take pictures and scrapbook (if that is your thing) just the events in our lives like Birthdays, vacations, holidays etc.  I have tried to incorporate more every day stuff as I have started taking more pictures because I think it’s important to document just the normal things we do as well as the special things.

Anyway here is a link to Ali’s Blog (click here) (and here).  It tells what she is doing, but you can pretty much do whatever you want I think.  I haven’t really decided exactly what kind of album set up I will do, but I will be thinking about it this week.  I’ve been really excited about the digital/hybrid scrapping I’ve been doing so I may go buy Ali’s templates from Designer Digitals and just follow her example.  We’ll see!  Who knows, maybe I’ll get busy this week with other things and just end up with the pictures and stories I put on my blog, and you know what?  That will be just fine too!

This is basically her day -

Wake up and whine until someone lets her out of the kennel (usually at 6:00 a.m., which is fine on weekdays, but weekends?  Sheesh!)

Go out and go potty, then come in and eat a few pieces of dog food.

Decide people food smells better than dog food, so she leaves most of her food and runs around the kitchen searching for crumbs and whatever anyone might drop of the floor.

Doesn’t find much food so she decides to eat the dog food after all!

Then it is cat chasing/chewing time.  Our big black cat Max hasn’t much tolerance for her so she doesn’t bug him too much, but her and our yellow tabby, Jasper, go the rounds off and on all day.  They chew on each other and roll each other around on the floor.  I don’t understand why they seem to enjoy it.  Both of them spend most of their “play” time yowling, crying or yipping in pain!

The rest of her day is spent with her other obsessions.

1.  Food:  Searching for some scrap of food she thinks you may have dropped, some food you are eating she thinks you might give to her, or some food residue left on your fingers she thinks she can lick off.  She acts like she is starving, and really she is not.  She has a little butterball tummy!

2.  Chewing:  Chewing everything she can get her teeth on!  Dillan has a book about a little black puppy called Chewie Louie.  Chewie Louie chews up everything and basically destroys the house until he finally isn’t a puppy anymore and starts to play fetch.  Well, lets just say I hope Gypsy learns to fetch soon or no one will have any socks, shoes, electronic cords, or anything left!  I am exaggerating a little here, but we have had to learn to close all our bedroom doors and not leave anything on the floor or where she can reach.

Then there is the potty training.  I am so glad we have all tile and hardwood floors because everything I have read about how it is difficult to potty train a Yorkie seems to be true.  I think we are mostly to blame for this and need to be more vigilant with her.

When she does fall asleep next to me or Dave or on our laps on the couch at night I remember that the puppy stage will be gone someday (hopefully!).

So is it worth it you ask?  Yes!  She has brought joy, fun and love into our home.  She has wiggled her way into our hearts and we love her.  Of course we love all our animals and now she is a part of that!

Here’s a sample of some of the stuff I’ve done.  Just click on the picture and it will enlarge it.

(Layouts and concepts provided by Cathy Zielske Design Your Life workshop at BigPictureScrapbooking.com)

The kids think it is awesome of course. The maniacal cats can’t decide if she is some sort of larger rodent or what! They look at her with “what eez this thing. What eez it and why eez it here. No one askez our opeenion.” Tucker, the German Shorthair, is like “puppies….I am not the sort of dog that has patience for puppies” and he walks away and won’t even look at her. Chance, the slobbery big black lab (who thinks HE is the lap dog of the family) just licks her and looks at Dave and you can tell he is thinking “cool, cute puppy. Can we play now huh, huh? I’ll go get my ball. C’mon Dad. Huh Huh?” And Dave? Wow, who would have thought my manly man would have been so sucked in by this cute little ball of fluff! The kids are calling him a puppy hog! She is probably going to be a spoiled girl indeed!

So that is the start of our new puppy adventures! I’m not looking forward so much to all the potty training and all that, and it was a somewhat sleepless night with the little sweetie in the kennel for the 1st time and her crying off and on. But, look at that cute little face! You would do a lot for that cute little face and a little snuggle or two from her, right?!

Yeah I know, I’ve been completely taken in too!

We spent time this fall with Dillan doing wrestling and Hayley playing basketball. I am kicking myself for not get pictures of Dillan wrestling, but then it really wasn’t his thing I don’t think so the pictures wouldn’t have been that exciting. He mostly just had fun messing around.

Hayley had and is still having a great basketball season. After their regular community basketball season the girls were able to participate in a 5th grade team to play in the Idaho Falls community leagues on Saturdays. So she is practicing 2 days a week and going to a game every Saturday. She loves basketball, and is getting to be good! Sugar girls basketball is very competitive! They always have good teams and the high school girls usually go to state every year. It makes you feel like if you want your daughter to make the team in junior high and high school you need to get her all the experience you can. They took two 5th grade teams to the Idaho Falls games this year. Hayley will have a lot of competition I think trying out for teams as they get older.

Sydnie has been in choir this year and had several performances. She is also still taking piano lessons and getting really good at that. She is going to be a lot better piano player than me! She LOVES junior high! She is also enjoying young women activities in our ward. She is driving me crazy with the email and chatting stuff though! She keeps hijacking my phone or the computer whenever she gets a chance so she can check her email or see who is on messenger so she can chat. She really wants a cell phone of her own, but mom and dad have borrowed the idea from Uncle Nate and Aunt Anna that she has to have straight A’s first. It has been some good motivation for her!

Dave is working away as usual. Nothing too exciting going on lately. He’s just trying to get through winter, which he hates. He is ready to go camping already!

I’ve been just going along like usual. I’ve been busy reading, taking an on-line scrapbooking class, trying to keep up with running kids around to stuff, working, keeping up with house cleaning (NOT!). We have also moved into new ward. They made some changes and re-arranged the wards here and created a new one. So we were moved into a different ward. The change has been good and we are enjoying the new ward, but we have never went to church at the 1:00 time before so that has been different. I have been called to team teach the 8-9 year old primary class. It’s been great to teach kids a little bit older, since I’ve been teaching 4 year olds for a couple of years now. I also have been called to be the ward camp director. I am so excited! Sydnie is so excited too! I am really looking forward to going to camp and getting to know the girls. I loved camp as a young woman.

We had a good Christmas and holidays. Pretty calm and laid back which was very nice!

We’ll that’s my update. We are just so exciting aren’t we!

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was an another awesome book by Brandon Sanderson. Not quite as good as the Mistborn Series, but still a very entertaining read. Sanderson has such a talent for creating wonderful characters. He also keeps you guessing until the end of the book (again!) about how the story will end. Another original, not run of the mill, fantasy book!

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My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I am still thinking about this book even though it’s been a few weeks since I’ve finished it. It is a very thought-provoking story. I liked how the different chapters were the voice of the different characters. It took me out of my own little sheltered world into Africa and reminded me how fortunate I am. We just don’t really think about people and how they live in other parts of the world.

If what this book says about the politics of our country and others it makes you wonder what you really know about what goes on and if international politics is really based as much on money as Barbara Kingsolver leads you to believe. Human beings can be so cruel to each other; even our own families, like the indifferent, unkind father in this book. This book will stay with me for a while.

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My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I loved this book. It is such a great story with great characters! I love Dickens subtle humor and moral lessons. Listened to this on my commute back and forth every day and it made the drive enjoyable!

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Anyway, here’s a couple of books that I finished reading.  Feels good to say that “finished”.  See I do finish some things!  Although it’s taking me longer to read books as I just have to snatch a minute or two here and there.  And I have this annoying habit of reading more than one book at a time.  Here’s a couple I have actually finished:

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Loved this book! Charming, witty, funny, and I loved the way it is written as letters back and forth between different characters.  Takes place just after WWII and the German occupation of the island of Guernsey off the coast of England.  A fictional story with a historical fiction setting.

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My Antonia by Willa Cather
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I think what I loved most about this book was the lovely descriptions of nature and the awareness of the main character. I also liked the whole growing up story of Jim and his recollections and memories of things later in life as he looks back to tell the story.

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I’ve also been listening to some books on tape in the car driving to work. I sure does help the time pass faster. There are actually quite a few free ones if they are public domain books. Right now I am listening to Charles Dickens Great Expectations. My awesome hubby got me a FM transmitter that works with my Blackberry and my Ipod so I can listen to either one. So cool!

Just a quick little update. I’ll be posting more soon about our Christmas and other things we have going on.

I am enjoying working in the company’s Idaho Falls office.  The Rexburg office was so quiet and I was there a lot of times by myself which got really boring.  I have a lot more to do now and it makes the days go by much faster, and there are people to talk to and it’s much more interesting.  So, I guess it’s a trade off.  I’m enjoying my job better I just have to driver farther to do it!  Working from home on Fridays is wonderful!  I really look forward to it a lot and it keeps me going throughout the week knowing that’s how I can end it.

The kids are just going along with school and the usual.  Sydnie is working hard and improving her grades.  She always really struggles the 1st few months of school and then finally finds her groove and starts to do a lot better.  She loves Jr. High and all the new, exciting happenings there.  She’s had a couple of dances and is having fun with those.  Hayley just finished her regular basketball season and then got asked to be on a team that will play in the Idaho Falls leagues in January and February.  (Just what I needed…another trip to Idaho Falls during the week!)  She is excited and we are enjoying watching her play and improve!  Dillan just finished wrestling.  He had fun but we didn’t do any tournaments or anything.  He just liked learning some moves – probably so he could try them on his sisters!

We were moved into a new ward with some rearranging here in our little community.  We are enjoying it!  We have some good friends here already and excited to make some new ones too!  The 2nd Sunday we were there I had to stand in Sacrament Meeting to be confirmed for my new callings.  My little Dillan was trying to figure out when he should raise his hand in support, and I was trying to help him.  He was being a little silly and kept trying to raise his hand in opposition.  Well, I stood up for my sustaining and of course you can imagine what happened.  He raised his hand in opposition to my calling of being ward camp director.  Everyone had a good laugh about that!

That same Sunday he wanted to bear his testimony.  This is the 1st time he’s ever done that!  Anyway… he goes up and gives his testimony and then when he sits down he looks up at me and says, “now I don’t have a testimony anymore!”  I said why not, you always have a testimony in your heart and head.  He said he didn’t because he buried it!  He thought that’s what people were doing when they got up.  They were “burying” their testimony!  So funny!  What a goof!   (He must have had too much sugar for breakfast that morning or something).