Caught up.

Ack! The cuteness that is my child. Mismatched clothing, sitting in a laundry basket and "reading" The Witches by Roald Dahl. While her reading has progressed by leaps and bounds, she is not quite to the this reading level yet.

Showing off her braids (like Pippi!)
I don't know if Pippi would walk like an Egyptian, but this does combine two of Hazel's current loves.
Oh, and our washer clogged. It was foul and horrible and I am so glad I was doing night laundry instead of the normal day laundry, Geoff was strong and capable and is a lot less gagging about stink water than I am.
Trixie is still a much loved part of the family. She snuggles up to Hazel every night.
The end!

Maybe now that I am not so overwhelmed with work, I can stay a little more caught up (ha!). Or, I could work on my taxes, double-ha!

Misc. Including Halloween

Family was in town last weekend, which meant lots and lots of swimming at Grandma's house (aka the hotel)*

And even more splashing. The boys had cannonball contests and I think everyone was a winner, except for the hotel.
Hazel and Geoff went to Texas a couple weeks ago for Alex's birthday. I had to work and stayed home, but asked Geoff to take pictures. This is what I got:

A picture of Geoff on the airplane, taken by Hazel.
A picture of Hazel at Alex's party. Where's Alex? Not pictured. Thanks, babe. I just needed a good picture of the cousins together.
Oh, wait I have another one. Of the sky. Because we don't have a million sky pictures.
At least they had a nice time in Texas...

So, we bought a membership to the Natural History museum, mostly because they are reciprocal with museums in other states (Exploratorium!) but also because Hazel loves dinosaurs. They had the What's in the Basement event at some point in the not so distant past so we went up with a couple of friends.
Halloween!! Hazel was little Bo Peep and Trixie was the sheep.


Oh, and we have this much done on our deck.
*The last time we went up to Wyoming, Hazel asked when we were going to "Grandma's other house, the one with the pool." Mostly we just see my mom at hotels. I can see how it would be confusing.

Introducing......Trixie!

So, we got a new dog. It belonged to a neighbor of my mom's but they were done with it so we got it. And it is a fabulous addition to our house. It is a tiny white toy poodle named Trixie (formerly, Cotton, but we thought that was lame).

As you can see, she got along with Hazel almost immediately.
As her name suggests, she is one tricky dog. Or, at least a tolerant one.

A few days after we got her (she came down with my mom for Labor Day weekend), it was her birthday (September 8, for those keeping track at home). We couldn't let her first birthday with our family pass without a birthday party. Hazel made hats.
And we had cupcakes. And we had guests (the aunties). And presents (bones). And a lovely song, which I should find and upload because it was awesome.
Trixie was quite pleased with the celebration.
The cupcakes were still delicious the next day.

So, there you go. New dog. She is awesome. I will never* again get a puppy. An older dog (she is four now) is the best. House broken, kennel trained, shots up-to-date, tolerant with the mauling of children. We just need to get her fixed.

We LOVE Trixie! Thanks, mom. And mom's neighbors.

*Not a guarantee.