Skittles!

I know my friends were a little caught off guard when I announced that we were expecting, but our little bundle of joy has finally arrived--meet Skittles!

Our family has been suffering from an acute case of dog-lessness since Crumpet passed away in September. Our hearts were broken and it took us awhile to heal enough to open them up again. Then, I knew that I would be training in Salt Lake full-time through the month of March and part-time most of April. I had been looking through the KSL Classified Ads for the last few years and hadn't seen many Yorkie puppies of the quality and breeding that I was looking for. I was seriously considering looking on the internet for one out of state this summer and using my new flight privileges to pick it up. I was so certain, in fact, that our future family member wouldn't be on KSL any time soon, that when Faith whined about needing a dog on April 6th  I logged on to prove my point.

Instead, I saw a post about this darling baby:

 With this gorgeous mama:

 And this studly daddy:

And they weren't even far away (lived in Uintah). And there was one little girl left. And she wouldn't be ready until May. Tony got home from work just as Faith and I were ogling the ad, and when he saw it, he called immediately. Next thing you know, we were piling in the car and driving out there at 8:00 pm on a Friday night!

The mama, Sasha, was even prettier in person and reminded us so much of our beloved Dutchess. But it was her personality that was the main selling point. She is so friendly and sweet, and just loves her some tummy tickles!

We left the house so quickly, I forgot my camera! But I did manage one crappy pic with my phone of our first meeting:

We put a deposit down, on the spot and set about trying to get through the next four weeks of the kids' (and our own) crazy anticipation.

The next day we started discussing names and had it narrowed down to three faves: Sasha (Tony had forgotten that was her mom's name), Precious (Christian loved that he could call her "my Precious" in his best Gollum voice), or Roxy (Faith and I just liked this one. Faith thinks this would be a good name for her if she had a "rocker girl" attitude). While getting votes from our extended family members, we mentioned that the Breeder's three-year-old daughter had named her "Skittles" and so many of them asked why that name wasn't in the running. It was their favorite! Pretty soon, it grew on us, as well, and we decided that she would be our little Skittles. Faith even ordered her an i.d. tag online that is a rainbow with sparkly clouds because the candy's tagline "taste the rainbow" is forever connected to our puppy.

We went to visit her on the 14th,

 and the 23rd,

 and the 28th,

and finally picked her up on May 3rd!

 We stopped at a nearby church for her to potty before heading home,

 and she had a blast chewing on a twig she found.

After attending Faith's final ballroom dance party/competition, we took her to meet both sets of grandparents. Somehow, I must have been too distracted to get a great picture of her with them, but Faith got this shot of me:

Here is some cuteness from May 4th,

and the 6th. The kids have been sleeping on our floor or the family room floor every night so that she can sleep with them. She must have remembered us from our visits, because she didn't even cry the first night home!

 On our visits after church, she wore a bow in her hair and met two of her great-grandmas.

 May 8th

 May 9th

May 12th. We took her to the Davis School District 100 Year Celebration and Kaysville's Baby Animal Days. She has been toted along with us to 95% of the places we've gone. We even sneak her into the grocery store in her purse/carrier!

 May 13th. Faith dressed her up in a matching polka dot dress.

 May 14th

May 16th

So there is our newest family member. We are having a ball with her and she is getting plenty of love (as you can only imagine). Let us know if you want to visit this little fluffball!

March 2012

On March 2nd we had Ann and her kids come over for a get-together. It was Dr.Seuss's birthday, so we snacked on green (deviled) eggs and ham,

 and made Cat in the Hat hats out of marshmallows and fruit roll-ups.

I had the idea for another craft/treat that the kids could make lamb or lion decorated cookies because it was the beginning of March. Here is my pitiful lamb example cookie:

 Christian wanted a lamb, too,

 but the other kids had their own ideas, which were really fun!

On the 3rd we took a trip down south and visited Ikea for the first time. We didn't buy much, but had fun looking around and ate some delicious meatballs, chicken fingers and shared a slice of THE MOST AWESOME CAKE EVER.

We ate overlooking the kids' play area. Unfortunately, we didn't know that there was a waiting list and we missed out on getting a spot for Buddy. Faith was too tall, anyway. Maybe next time, Bud!

 We also visited our favorite sporting goods store, Cabellas.

 Here is some artwork. Faith made this cute pouch for her Mountain Man activity day,

 and wrote this great story.

 Christian drew this Darth Maul pen that he got in a cereal box with that same pen.

 Faith was designing a fashion dress one day,

 and she continues her obsession with pandas.

 I loved this Starry Night inspired artwork of hers from school.

 And her name drawn with animals.

The craziest thing that happened in March was that I started back to work! I had been trying to get hired on at Jet Blue Airline for about a year because several ladies in my neighborhood work for them, including my friend Brandi. I did a phone interview and then an interview in person and had to send in a recommendation letter in December. Shortly after Christmas, I found out I was hired! I was to start with two days of orientation on March 7th & 8th during the day, and then four weeks of training Monday through Friday from 4 pm to midnight starting March 9th. After that, I had to work in the center for two weeks, and then could start working from home.

I'm doing phone reservations and assistance and I have to say that the training was fairly difficult. The computer program that the airlines use is not user friendly at all! I did really enjoy spending time with other adults at a job and didn't realize how much I've missed that. I had to have sooooo much help with my kids and owe a huge debt of gratitude to my mom, Joy, Lana and Tammy, and even my dad took a morning. It made it so much easier to leave knowing my children were in excellent hands; but kind of hurt that they didn't miss me because they were too busy having fun :)

My regular schedule (until the end of August when we re-bid) is Wednesday and Friday from 2:45 pm to 8:45 pm and Saturday and Sunday from 8:45 am to 2:45 pm. I'm sad to be missing church, but I love having  weekend afternoons and evenings with my family. I'll post more about my job on my April blog.

Christian's preschool teacher, Kelly Beck, gifted me two tickets to a film production of  "Love Never Dies" which is the sequel to "Phantom of the Opera." She is so crazy to give me such a huge gift (these tickets were $16 each)! She gave Buddy a scholarship to her preschool and I owe her sooooo much. She said that she just wanted to thank me for my help because I volunteer every Friday and she loved the show so much that she knew she wouldn't find anything nearly as good if she waited until the end of the school year.

So, on March 7th, after my first day of orientation at Jet Blue, Tammy picked me up and we went over to the new theater in Farmington. I've seen filmed Broadway shows before, but this spectacle was made with new movie technology and felt just like a film except that the music was all recorded live and not dubbed afterword. The story and music were creepier and more haunting than Phantom, and I think Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber outdid himself on this sequel! I truly love it even more than the first. It was an amazing night and I am so grateful for the gift!!!

(For the two or three people who actually read my blog (two of which don't even live in Utah, so, bummer)--there will be a final big screen showing on May 23rd! Here is the link. I'm sure they'll have to someday bring it out on video, too.)

St. Patrick's Day fell on a Saturday this year, so my kids did it up big on the 16th instead.

 Faith even got shamrock hair!

Christian finger painted a "magic shamrock" at preschool. Miss Kelly just put blue and yellow paint on them, but it quickly mixed to make green.

Saturday night we had our traditional meal of corned beef and cabbage. I was too exhausted from my new work schedule to celebrate as crazily as I wanted!

On the 24th we went to the park to fly kites.

 There was also some tackle football going on!

 That night, while we were watching Tin Tin, Christian lost his top tooth. Sorry about the gory photo:

 The 31st was the Braegger Easter hunt! Faith and Buddy donned their bunny ears and searched for their twelve plastic eggs in the yard.

Tina's stepdaughter was there with her boyfriend, Brian, and their adorable baby, Liam.

 Jason was a good sport and posed for pictures with the kids :)

 They got lots of Easter candy, bubbles, and darling outfits.

They each immediately changed into some of their new clothes to play with their stuffed bunnies.

We ate their traditional ham and potato salad dinner and had fun just hanging out. It was an awesome Easter party!