Welcome Willow

 We picked up Willow this afternoon, and let me just tell you, this kennel is thorough!  All the shots and deworming are done, microchip implanted, and paperwork to register for the AKC is filled out.  All we had to do was write a check and meet our new puppy.  Willow got to pick out one of the chew toys from the puppy area to take home with her to "help with transition".

car ride home

Emily demanded the camera.  About 48 of the 63 pictures on the camera look exactly like this one.

Willow took a turn on everyone's laps.  It's a long ride home!

Happy girl

Daddy's hunting buddy

Willow sniffed out the most expensive shoes in the house immediately.

Even Jason found her fascinating and tried to grab her face.

Jason: Six Months Old

 Yes, you are reading that correctly:  18 pounds, 3 oz!  Jason's growing up fast!  We went to the doctor yesterday on Jason's official "half birthday".  Here are his stats below:

 Height:  27 inches (75th percentile)
Weight:  18 pounds, 3 oz (75th percentile)
Head circumference: 18 inches (75th percentile)
Basically, I have a very well proportioned baby!  He is wearing size 12 months clothes and size 3 diapers, which are getting pretty snug on him.

Stole Dr. B's giraffe reflex hammer for teething purposes.

He wanted to show off his rolling skills, so he basically spun himself around 180 degrees then flopped on his belly.

See?  Got all the way around!

I want that camera....

Say cheese!

When J gets on his belly, he does this Superman thing where he puts his arms behind him.

Dr.  B wasn't too worried and said at least it was a good ab workout.

We're Expecting....a Puppy!

Calm down, people, Timmy and I do know how to prevent Baby #5.  I have been ready to get another dog for about 6 months now (Sable will be a hard act to follow, believe me), but I was waiting until Tim said something about getting one.  Once he did, I knew we were ready to start looking.  Tim went hunting with his friend Joe and Joe's black lab Piper and Tim was so impressed by how Piper went after the ducks.  He came home and couldn't stop talking about getting a lab.  So we did some research and found a wonderful kennel right down the road in Caroline County:  Cresthill Kennels.

The place is amazing.  They treat the dogs like family!  Skylights, heated radiant flooring, the works.  When Tim and I drove out there to meet the dogs, there was a litter of yellow labs going home that day.  Emily was so happy to play with eight puppies at once!  We met Sitka, a beautiful chocolate lab who was very pregnant.  She had Sable's same block head, which is such a familiar characteristic of labs.  So meet the parents below:

Sitka Spruce

Mick

Sitka's litter was born March 5 (Sable's birthday was March 4, so I took this as a sign), and she had ELEVEN!  Yes, that was one big litter!  Carrie was visiting the following weekend for her baby shower, so we all drove out to see the 5 day old puppies.

Carrie has been considering adding another dog to her household, so we decided to get litter mates!  We are both getting chocolate females from this litter, and we are so excited!  The puppies are ready to go home April 27th, so look for a post in a couple of weeks showing our new family pet!

Sock Monkey!

 I have been getting quite a few emails through my Etsy site about doing custom listings, so in between creating customer-specific hats (Yankees, Sabres, blue and gray, etc.) I have been trying to "diversify" my hat collection.  I like to make hats that I would like (I think this is only natural) but I realize that not everyone out there thinks that what I think is cute is actually cute.  (convoluted sentence, but I hope you get my main message)  So I did a search of "baby knit hats" and noticed some common themes--blue and brown together, stripes, bear hats with ears, and believe it or not, sock monkey!  I decided that sock monkey didn't look too difficult and gave it a whirl.  I did my basic ear flap hat in a beautiful yarn called "Barley" which is a mixture of browns, tans, and a little black.  I used ivory for the top and mouth, and I pulled out my basic red for the details.  I did braids in the three main colors.  I found some black buttons at Hobby Lobby on clearance (score!) and added those right before my photo shoot with Jay Bird.
And Jason was great!  He's really getting to be expressive in my hat photo shoots.  It's hard to put him in every listing I add to my site, but his head is getting bigger by the day, and bigger hats take longer to make!

Breakfast Buddies

 I guess one of the good things about Spring Break is that we had plenty of time to hang out in the morning.  Emily usually gets a granola bar in the van on her drive to day care when we're in school, but for the past week, one might say she's been enjoying a breakfast buffet every day.  First, it's a bowl of cereal, then a waffle with peanut butter AND jelly.  Then she sometimes throws in a granola bar or yogurt.  She's usually pretty good about eating most of it, so I can't complain.
One morning, she said "Mommy, go get the camera and take our picture.  Say 'cheese' Jay!"  I love that her language is coming along so quickly, and it feels like she talks "more adult" every day.  Her vocabulary was already pretty good, but now she makes longer and more complex sentences and it's a lot easier to figure out what she wants.  I think it helps make all of us less frustrated.
So Emmy said "Say cheese Jay!  Why you not saying cheese Jay?"  Then a few minutes later Jason grabbed an envelope off the table and waved it around.  Emily screeched "No Jay, we don't play with the mail!"  It's a good look at what my summer is going to look like.