Domino the frog

One of the weekends we went out of town for all our Christmas celebrations, it was going to be in the teens at our house. That's a big deal around here so I spent hours preparing a place for the dogs to keep warm under a heat lamp while we were gone. And if you knew Belle and her attraction to electrical wires you'd know this was no easy feat. I also spent quite a bit of time wrapping outdoor faucets, and getting the indoor faucets to drip so we wouldn't come home to busted pipes. All this preparation, and I forgot about the fish. Yep, we didn't come home to frozen dogs or busted pipes, but we did come home to two tanks of floating Chiclids. Not a pretty sight. We were sad to see Blue2 and Rooster go, Rooster was part of my graduation gift from Zach, but every ending is a new beginning. We cleaned up the tanks and after a few batted eyelashes, Darren and I drug Zach to PetCo.

Here is the finished product. We came home with guppy's, neon's, two shrimp, and Darren's favorite, Domino the frog. Darren and I love feeding them and then watching them all eat. Sounds like a good time I know, but it really is fun. The shrimp turned out to be my favorite. If you look closely under what we call "the bridge" to the left of the white shell, there is Domino. Now he has made that shell his home.

Here is a closer shot of Domino.

He is brown with black spots.

He swims around a little and he spends some time just floating like this. I Googled it, and it's normal. One of my favorite things about Domino the frog is that Darren named him Domino, but Darren doesn't pronounce Domino correctly. He switches the "m" and the "n". Donimo. We have tried to help him pronounce it correctly, but he hasn't quite got it yet. I love Donimo though.

Undertaker

The Monster Truck Rally came to town a while back, and Undertaker was doing a promotion about a block from the daycare, so we stopped on our way home and let Darren get up close and personal. He was mesmerized of course. Made me take his picture standing in front, to the side, and behind it. He wanted to climb inside, but thankfully they didn't allow that.
I don't know why he insists on throwing up the hook 'em horns...

The huge tires were his favorite.

Pretty interesting to see up close even for Zach and I. And I got a new purse while we were there, so Darren and I were both all grins!

Well, it has been a while hasn't it? I'm sorry I haven't posted in a couple months. Life with two kids can be a little much at times. All a blessing, but busy none the less.

But here's the deal, my munchkins have been very busy and I plan to catch all you guys up. So here we go...

Let's start where we left off, Christmas! Christmas in Victoria to be more specific. The grand kids had a blast, and the new addition to Meme and Pawpaw's offered plenty of room to cause a ruckus with all the new toys. Everyone got LOTS of great stuff, but I think my favorite part was that everyone got new pajamas. I love that. I told Mom, "we had a pajama Christmas!" Too cool. We opened gifts really early one morning, so the picture in front of the tree is only of the grand kids. There was no way I was going to get caught on camera in that "just rolled out of bed" look.

1st Ponytail

Mrs. Diane at the daycare gave Kamryn her first ponytail.

Overload

Darren was playing his Wii, Zach was fixing supper, and I was finishing up some dishes, when Kamryn started to get a little fussy in her exersaucer. So I told Darren, "She probably knocked off some of her toys, can you pick them up for her please? I'm almost done, I'll be there in a minute." He says "OK" and I here him talking to her and she's not fussing anymore, so I finished up the dishes, and went to hang out with them in the living room. When I saw Kam in her exersaucer I just laughed. Darren had picked up ALL her toys and had somehow managed to put them all in the exersaucer around her. It looked so funny.

A Couple of Firsts

This weekend at our Christmas in Victoria we discovered that Kamryn got her first tooth! I was so excited. Mainly because her first tooth is an exciting thing, and it is a beautiful tooth, but also because it proved that I was right! And I hear that proving who is right is very important in a healthy marriage... It's just what I've heard.

You see, Zach has been giving me grief for a few weeks now over whether or not Kamryn was truly teething. I first told Zach she was teething around 4 months, she is now 7 months. So you can see his point. But, in my defense, the ever important and always right "books" say teething can start months before you actually see any teeth. And I told him this, but Zach was still like "yea right Karrie. She's been "teething" since she was born, and she is still all gums!" So, all I have to say is that the proof is in the puddin' buddy!

Below are some pictures of Kamryn workin' on her new tooth! She's a cutie pie!!

Darren checked out his first book from the library! He was so excited and I was too. The book is called Daddy is a Doodlebug. Zach read it to him before bed, and he took it right back to school the next morning and checked out another one. Mondays are the only days that he can't check out books, but just about every day he comes home with a new book. It's been a lot of fun.

Darren's 1st Deer

PawPaw and Darren with Darren's first deer.

The last weekend of deer season our family, Aunt Tracie, Uncle Jody, and JC, met Mimi and PawPaw at the deer lease for one last hurrah. The first evening hunt, Darren used a 223 to get his first deer. It was very exciting for everyone. The only help PawPaw gave was to put his hand behind the gun to absorb most of the recoil, Darren did the rest on his own.

The story:

"Darren, do you have the X on the head or neck?"

"Yes PawPaw."

"OK. Well whenever you get ready, you can squeeze the trig..."

BOOM! and there was two very happy boys and one dead deer.

There is a large hill at the Deer lease, and all the boys were determined to climb to the top of it. It's a guy thing I guess. Anyway, mission accomplished. The view was worth it.
Daddy and Darren "On Top of the World".