Actions shots

With my new camera, I can take burst of photos, all in a row. Here are some of the cooler pictures that I've taken. Sorry that the slide show is so slow. It's on "fast" speed, but I guess I need a "faster" speed.

Two months later...

So, this is my excuse: my computer is in my bedroom, which is upstairs, away from playing children and dogs. All my free time is spent with them, so it leaves no time with the computer. Therefore, I have no time to update my blog. That being said, I promise to try harder.

In the past two months, Izzy has changed a ton. She now talks in (almost) full sentences, and her vocabulary is expansive. Her hair has also grown really long, and if I don't give her pigtails, she just looks like a rag-a-muffin.

The dogs still don't have an electric fence, but that's because I haven't figured out what is wrong with one of the receivers, which randomly sends shocks. So, they are still living out of the back room, and the pen outside. But they aren't too sad, so that is good.

In other news, my beloved camera died. The lens got off track, and stuck in the extended position (after Izzy punched it in the nose). My sister had that problem, too, and couldn't get it fixed, so I didn't even try (other than to shove the lens halfway in). I bought a new one (Nikon Coolpix s630), but I'm going to return it, because I can't get a single good picture, and I know it's not me. (It never is.) I did research, and want to buy a Fuji Finepix F200exr, but it's out of stock at the reliable online retailers, so I have to wait for it to come back into stock.

I know, all you really want to see are pictures, so here they are.

Poor Eden


Could Rai look any more pathetic?


This was on Izzy's 2nd birthday. We went to the zoo with her cousins (not pictured is Cade).


Izzy loved opening birthday presents. She adores cards that play music. She dances with them.


So, I'm upstairs, and as I come downstairs, I think, Wow, it's quiet down here. Then I think, Where are the girls? And I find them in the entry way...with all of their toys.


Ragamuffin and her cousin couldn't get into the sandbox, so they played with the sand that they had thrown out of the sandbox on previous occasions. At least we now know why they do that.


This past weekend, Grandma Boo and Grandpa Don came to visit. Izzy loved showing them her "jump jump" (as she calls it...aka trampoline) skills.


Right now, Izzy loves playing with dolls. She puts them down for naps, and feeds them, and takes them on walks. She also makes Rai move over so that there is room for her and her baby on the pillow. Poor Rai.

Montage

Hey, I've been busy!

It's been a busy month in the Pack household. Chris left for Afghanistan at the end of May, and then I moved to Wisconsin. We're finally getting settled in, so here I am, blogging again.

Izzy is doing well. There was and is still an adjustment period, but she really loves her Papa and Yaya (my Dad and Mom), so that helps. She's had a language explosion, and can say tons of new words now, including please, go, help, Papa, Yaya, Paul, Chrissy, Raisin and Eden(definitely more understandable), and shoes. I'm sure there are more, but I can't remember them all. She is always saying Puppy, and knows that it means all dogs, not just ours. So, it's been crazy, but good.

Chris is doing well. He's really busy, and it's hot over there, so he's having a hard time finding chances to run, but I'm sure he'll work it out.

Here is Izzy and Emily in Colorado Springs. My Dad and Em came out to help me move. We spent a few days packing and sight seeing, then drove straight through to get home. Izzy did really well in the car, only getting fussy in the middle of the night because she wasn't comfortable sleeping in her car seat.


While we were in Colorado Springs, we went to Garden of the Gods, which was beautiful.


When we got to Wisconsin, we went to the zoo with my sister and her 4 kids. Fortunately, 3 of the 4 were really into Izzy, so they would chase her when she ran away. They had tons of fun!


My parents have tons of toys, so Izzy is enjoying trying them all out.


Here Izzy is, singing songs before bed, with Papa and Yaya. She can do patty cake, and the watermelon song, but her favorite is Itsy Bitsy Spider (Which she calls Bitsy Bitsy).


And here Izzy is listening to a rain stick with my Dad. She thought it was really cool, and listened to it at least 3 times!

Photo Montage update

New Words

Lately, Izzy has been coming up with new words that Chris and I have not taught her. By that, I mean she is learning them on her own without prompting from either of us to say them. The first one she threw out there was "Cupcake", after hearing it on a TV commercial. After that, she came up with "Buh-bye" when she says good-bye to the dogs as we leave the house. In the car, she said "Shake It" (or a mushy version of it) when we were dancing to the radio. I haven't heard that one since. And yesterday, she started saying "Puppy", which we call the dogs sometimes. So, she is definitely having a verbal growth spurt!

Izzy loves her some Flo Rida

Raisin and Maggie Sitting in a Tree

Well, apartment living has been **RUFF** on the pups (hehehe). They have had little time to run and play, because we only take them out when they are on their leashes. So, the other day, we sent them to Doggie Day Camp at Petsmart, so that they could have a day of playing and socializing, while we had a nice day of no dogs, and a nice evening of sleepy dogs. When we pick them up from Day Camp, they get "Pawgress Reports" to keep us updated on how they did.

This is a typical report, with both dogs on one report, and the boxes checked off. This one is from last Friday, when Chris's parents were here. The dogs had a good, if uneventful, day.

It says "Raisin and Eden did awesome! They loved playing and made a lot of friends!"

And this is the report from last Tuesday, when we took them, just because.

If you couldn't read it, it says "These two pups are total sweeties! Raifin (yes, they called him Raifin all day) was a little shy at first, but, when he became more comfortable, he played a lot with "Maggie" (a very pretty girl retriever (heart)).

So, we guess that Raisin fell in love. Which, to us, is pretty hilarious. Also hilarious was what happened when we picked them up from day camp. We were greeted by a very nice woman. Chris thinks she was 70, but I think she was only mid-40s. Regardless, she was small, and not very muscular looking. When she went back to get the dogs, another girl came out to see if we were taken care of. This girl was extremely unassertive, and went to help the other woman get the dogs. So, the desk at the Petsmart is in it's own room. There is a glass door behind the desk, and to the right of the desk is a big glass window that looks into the kennel area. As we're waiting for the dogs, we look in the kennel area through the glass window, and what do we see? Each girl holding a dog, getting PULLED all the way down the hallway, towards the window. I mean, the best way to describe it, is water skiing without the skis or the water. That in itself was pretty funny, but to top it off, we look over to the glass door, where the dogs are supposed to come out, and all the sudden we see Raisin run past the door. Seconds later, there goes the woman, trying to pull him back, but getting pulled past the door, too. Oh, this description doesn't do it justice, but it was so hilarious that I am laughing as I type this. Anyways, the woman gets Raisin in reverse, and hands him over. Then she says to us "We have a wonderful trainer here." Well, we mumble something about him already being trained, and then Chris, who has Rai, tells him to sit. And Rai just sat. The woman looked stunned. And while both dogs didn't walk great out the door, they weren't pulling us all over the place. Clearly, the dogs had recognized someone who was not the Alpha, or even the Beta. I'd guess that those two were probably Llamdas, if not Sigmas. And our dogs, seeing that, took full advantage. To those readers who are now saying, "well, your dogs seem out of control", the answer is, yes, sometimes they are. We recognize that. We're working on it. But why would anyone work at Petsmart, if they don't know how to give a sharp tug and establish dominance? Anyways, it was pretty funny to see, and even funnier to remember. And most of all, we're pretty sure that at night, Raisin now dreams of his perfect day with Maggie.

Our First Snow storm in Colorado

We had a pretty big snow storm last Thursday. Chris got to come home early from work, and Fort Carson was closed on Friday. On Saturday, when the weather started to warm up, we headed over to the park to experience the snow. Since we moved here from Arizona, Izzy had NO real winter clothes, so we had to improvise.

This is Izzy in her winter outfit.


Here she is walking on the snow...oh to be light enough to walk on the top of the snow, and not sink ankle deep...


This is Chris and Izzy making weird faces (what we call "going crazy").


This video is with our new video camera, and is edited because this is a family blog. I cut the last 20 seconds off, where the rope wraps around Izzy's ankles, and pulls her over. Fortunately, she landed on her shoulder, not her head, but it still looked pretty scary.


Here is Izzy in her winter outfit. We're going to go backwards, and see all the layers.


And under the jacket was another sweatshirt jacket.


Under the jacket and fleece pants was another outfit. And notice that her mittens and boots were taped on. She likes to pull her mittens off, and her boots were too big, so the tape held them on, too.


Under that, were her leggings and socks pulled up to her knees and a long sleeve shirt.


Under the socks were plastic bags on her feet. Yes, they were taped to her leggings.


And this was her base layer. Not her base base layer (which would have been her diaper, but we all know what diapers look like.).


All in all, she stayed warm. Next winter, she'll have all the cool gear.

Our Apartment

Per special request, here are some pictures of our apartment. We will only be here for a few months, as I am moving in with my parents (seriously) when Chris deploys.

This is our living room. Instead of investing/moving our furniture, we decided to buy bean bags when we got here. Then we found out that bean bags are expensive, so we thought about a futon. Then we found out futons were expensive, so we went back to bean bags and got some nice ones at Wal-Mart. These two were the only ones left, which is why we look like Steelers fans. Also, there is a dog bed to the right, and Eden is laying on the other one. Next to the dog bed is a door out to our small patio. Our windows look out over a grassy area that the deer and pooping dogs are fond of. And at night, we can see the city lights, which is pretty. This picture was taken from in front of the kitchen area.



Here is our kitchen area, and the dog area. The dog area is actually the dining area, but we don't have a table or anything, so the dogs got it. To the right is our front door. To the left, you can see an open space, which is the beginning of the hallway to Izzy's room. Immediately to the left, you can see half a door, which is the water heater/closet door. Perpendicular to that door is the door to our bedroom, which you'll see in a minute. This picture was taken from the living room.


This is a picture of our bedroom, which also serves as a "changing Izzy" room, and a general "stick your mess in a corner" room. That's our old queen bed, not the tempurpedic, which is a bear to move. Our night stands are our tubs that we used to move. To the right is our bathroom/closet area. To the left are windows and a door that lead onto that small patio area. The blinds to our room are often up, because Izzy loves to play with them. This picture was taken from the door to our bedroom.



This is the hallway to Izzy's room. On the left are the laundry area and the guest bath. This picture was taken from the beginning of the hallway, which is in the dining/dog/kitchen area.



This is Izzy's room. Her crib is canted, because we have to protect the nightlight, of which she has learned to remove the light cover. To the right is her closet, where she throws her clothes all over. The TV box holds her fan and humidifier when she is awake, because she knows how to turn on and unplug, and tries to plug back in.


And that's our apartment in 5 pictures. Not that big. Not too bad. It'll do for a few months.