Life as a Leach

Yes, that is a Boxer Angel on our tree.  I think she is delightful.  After all, Boxers are God's favorite dog... :)

Last week, on Thanksgiving, I told you I was thankful for the love that these two have for each other.   Here's the proof. This week, I'm still thankful for that.  They are so sweet together! In other, unrelated news, my lack of posting has been due to an issue I've been having with Google saying I have used up my photo storage allotment.  After a week of trying to figure out a way around it (without deleting precious photos from my blog!), I broke down and paid for the cheapest subscription.  Since it took me 5 years to fill up the free allotment, this storage should last me a while!  It's still frustrating though.  :(

We have a beautiful lace-leaf weeping Japanese Maple in our backyard that is a deep purple in the summer and a bright red in the fall.  I thought it the perfect place to get a few pictures of the kids. Caleb and Abby thought otherwise.   Caleb flat-out refused to sit there. Abby sat because she's too  young to realize she can just run away she's compliant like that, but she fussed the whole time.  Fussy Faces don't make for pretty pictures. I took one of myself, because I sit still and smile when I'm told.

These two sweet faces. They love each other so  much.  It is so heartwarming to see the way Caleb bounds off the bus in the afternoon and runs right to Abby, or the way Abby throws her arms around Caleb and gives him a kiss when she wakes up in the morning.  They are truly best friends, and I hope this lasts through the years! Happy Thanksgiving!

I had such grandiose ideas of my kids playing in big piles of leaves and capturing those silly grins on camera.  Hey, maybe I'll even take a video so that I can record their shrieks of laughter. That was great...except that they really didn't want anything to do with the leaf-jumping.  Caleb did jump in once, and thought it was fun.  But he didn't want to do it again. He did enjoy throwing the leaves... ...especially at me! They spent the vast majority of their time digging in the dirt, but they played very nicely together! So much for beautiful fall pictures, but I'll trade them in for fun playing in the dirt pictures!

I registered our family for The Red Shoe Shuffle last night.  I'm so excited to raise awareness and support for an organization that we love so much. If you are interested in joining our team, The Joy Runners, we would love to have you!!!  You can register at the link above.  Make sure that you click on our team when you're registering.   Not into doing a 5K, or not local?  Please consider donating to our team .  All funds raised will go toward the purchase of a new bus for the House so that families can get to the nearby hospitals. My goal is to raise at least $1,000 myself, and I'd love to see the team be at least 40 members!  That would be amazing! I wrote this last year after we finished the Shuffle.  I hope it gives you a glimpse into why this is so important to us. You see, for us, it wasn’t just a 5K to raise money for a great charity. Being there, standing outside of the House that we lived in for so long, walking on streets t...

Abby's Grammy made her a really sweet little purple nightgown...and a matching one for her doll Joy!  It is the cutest nightgown that totally makes Abby look like she is right out of Little House on the Prairie. She pretty much wants to wear the nightgown every night.  :) Grammy also made Joy her very own little quilt and matching pillow...using scraps from the quilts that she has made for Abby!  They are the cutest things!  Abby likes to wrap Joy up in the quilt and rock her to sleep. She tried her hardest to put that little quilt around both of them! Sweetness.