August 2021 Photo Dump

August 2021 

Probably the most momentous part of August was moving into our new house. We had put a lot of work in to prepare for this day the paint had barely dried, the carpets were just cleaned and the new carpet was just barely installed, although improperly so that had to be fixed at a later date before we could set up our living room. Anyway. The first week of August (after we got back from Danika and Paul's wedding) we spent tons of time packing and cleaning and painting etc. Sometimes it was really hard to pack with these wild things. 

Thanks to my cousins and Grandpa Don. The boys' space themed bedroom got painted. 

August 7th was moving day. It was a Saturday morning. For those of you that don't know, Max works 12+ hour night shifts and he was just getting off a shift and went straight to pick up the moving van. We should have gotten a larger one but we weren't sure if it would make it up the driveway to our old house. 

So many good people came to load up the van AND unload at our new house. I know Saturdays are so precious and it still amazes me that so many were there to help. 

When we got over to the new house there were tons of people there helping clean out cabinets, putting together beds (My mom had taken my boys to my grandma's house so that was incredibly helpful too.) I was pretty busy so I didn't take too many photos but we just felt so blessed. After the first load was done and many of the helpers went home. We wanted to go take a nap so bad but realized we still had the truck and my youngest brother was available and willing to help so we went to get another load. We are so glad we did because over the next two weeks we still had plenty to move over and clean before the new tenants moved into our old house 

Anyway, we are just grateful. We hadn't moved since Charlie was almost 1 year old so we had accumulated a lot of stuff since then. 

The boys have loved having a lot more space, though we didn't leave it set up like this for long. 

The next day we went to church and I enjoyed seeing my boys have quiet sunday playtime in the afternoon. 

We still had so much work to do on the house and unpacking but instead we went to pick up our brand new puppy.  (More on that in my previous post) 

So we had fun getting use to a new puppy and thankfully Max had the next couple of days off work for us to get situated. 

We still had a lot of back and forth between both houses so we could get our old house ready for the new tenants. Maisy joined in a lot of the fun. 

Our little fence that was eventually for our chickens but we had to try it on the baby first. 

Grandma likes dogs so Maisy gets to come when we visit her. 

Another exciting thing about August is SquirrelFest held in the city my mom lives in. This was our first time going so we had fun watching a magic show and visiting all the vendors. 

Edwin grabbing his brothers' booties.

After Squirrel Fest we made it back home and our ward was having an end of Summer party so we went to enjoy that and were so happy that it was just a couple blocks away. 

So blurry but a good glimpse into how much ivy was in our yard. We're still working on it but we've made great progress. 

Always checking on his puppy. 

We found that the chicken gates were great at keeping the puppy off the new carpet and keeping the baby on the new carpet. 

She got tired on our little walk. 

We were watching Charlie shoot off rockets at the church. 

Max does 95% of the house repairs here but I was super proud of myself for these little plug switcheroos.

Celebrating moving and getting all our crap out of our old house. 

Farewell little house...although we are still technically the Landlord here so we still visit it time to time. 

Taking some preschool photos before school started.

Backberries were coming in strong

We had a spontaneous park play date with cousins. 

And I had an IKEA date with Edwin to pick up book shelves. 

Which he then helped me assemble. 

And I found this picture of my brother James and I in my Green Grandma's house. 

 

 And that was our crazy August. I'm tired just thinking about it. 

Getting Maisy the Whoodle

I was pretty sure I never wanted a dog...I'm not what you would call an animal person. I knew I would end up caring for the dog the most and I already had a lot of other people to take care of. But when I was pregnant with Walter I started yearning for a dog. I began to see what it could add to our family and to our boys' lives. I figured that was just my mind, preparing me to nurture the baby that was about to be born and that my desire for a dog would go away.  Well, Walter was born and my desire to have a dog grew stronger. I felt that Walter needed to grow up with a dog. We had a list of criteria and my niece Gwenevere, even made a survey to help us find the right dog for us. She would also send me links to dogs she found for sale. She was the perfect Dog Matchmaker. Our dog requirements included: Good with kids, no-shedding, hypoallergenic, smart, trainable and medium sized (didn't want it to knock our children down but didn't want a dog so tiny that we would trample it) We looked at Golden doodles and Labradoodle and Bordoodles and some Aussie Doodles a lot but they were a bit bigger than I was wanting and I felt like they looked too much like poodles. 

Then one day Max was talking with a co-worker about what kind of dog we were wishing for. She mentioned her sister had bred a couple batches of whoodles (Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier and Poodle) 

After further research, we realized this dog met all of our requirements and was even less likely to shed than other doodle mixes because both breeds are non-shedding. Vanessa, the breeder, already had a batch a couple weeks old and there wasn't a waiting list. We decided to just go look and see how we felt when playing with these dogs. Famous last words of course, because who can resist a group of playful puppies? We fell in love with a little puppy they called Baby Blue because she had a blue collar. She jumped and played in the water and let us hold and cuddle her. She was good with my boys and even our baby who was only 8 months at the time. 

On our first visit, we kinda laughed because the boys really didn't pay much attention to the dogs. Vanessa had an 8 year old daughter and they were having so much fun making a new friend that they barely noticed the dogs. So we didn't officially decide to get her on that first visit. Over the next week or two we seriously contemplated if we were crazy or if we should wait. We would need to pick up the puppy the same weekend we were moving into our new house. Also, Walter was still a little baby. After lots of thoughts and prayers we just felt right about bringing Baby Blue to our family. Once we officially decided we scheduled to go back for another visit. Just to really make sure. 

These photos were from our second visit. The boys still had fun playing with their new friend but they also had a little puppy bonding time. 

 

Baby Blue and her brother. 

Walking her around our yard for the first time. 

And for anyone wondering, these are Maisy's parents. Both are whoodles but the dad (Straight hair) has more wheaten terrier genetics and the mom (curly hair) has more poodle genetics which brings Maisy to about 50/50 poodle and wheaten terrier. 

Anyway, I don't even know why we named her Maisy. I thought it was a cute dog name. Also, in the movie Uncle Buck, there's a brother and sister named Miles and Maisy and I thought those names sounded good together. 

And as I keep thinking I'm done typing, I continue. The first couple of weeks were a bit rough with the potty training and having a baby to keep occupied while I took the puppy out frequently, especially while Max was at work.(nights) but thankfully she slept through the night right from the beginning. The big boys were quite helpful.

And now that we've had her for almost a year, I am so grateful. My absolute favorite thing about her is the comfort and unconditional love she give to my boys.