and now there are 9 mouths to feed...

Introducing...

HICKORY

the newest member of the Oyakawa clan/pack/family

named after the Tin Man

The day we adopted him we couldn't take him home because he was already scheduled for his "big snip" We spent the morning getting ready to go get him spring cleaning, puppy proofing, and looking at videos of dog getting neutered on you tube, (Benjamin couldn't watch)

When we got there to get him there had been confusion and our collar was missing and they didn't know which dog was ours - good thing he has the mis-coloring on his nose so we were sure it was him.

He has a microchip now

We have been thinking and talking about a dog for a while - and had nixed the idea 99.9999999% of the time, until we made the mistake of actually looking at the cute puppies up for adoption at Petsmart - this little guy stole our hearts. Especially Kyle's!

He's a gentle soul - and PJ is completely intrigued

They say he's a boxer/black mouth curr mix - we see the blackmouth curr thing (they are cow herding dogs - very loyal and smart) - and no we'd never heard of that breed either.

We don't so much see the boxer in him - he doesn't have the kinda scary boxed mouth thing going on... yet.

He is fitting right in and already learning to sit and go potty outside.

We have taken him with us just about anywhere we could so far, except the pinewood derby and church but other than that he's come along for the ride

he's slept in the bed with Kyle and I every night and we are sort of crate training during the day

We loved taking him to the leash free dog park in Allen and see ourselves making that drive quite often. I wish I could have taken Zeke there but with his arthritis it would have been too much. When we were there the other night there were two great danes playing and it sounded like horses bounding up behind me.

Cheers to life with a dog again - and thanks to my mom for encouraging me. I asked her several times what she thought (thinking she'd be the voice of reason to talk me out of it right now) and she said and I agree:

Every kid needs a dog!

P.S. - He was in a litter of seven that were abandoned in a ditch with their momma - 5 siblings are still up for adoption from here and they come to Petsmart every weekend... you know just in case you are crazy and thinking about a dog too.

giggles

I saw a baby be born!! I saw a baby be born!!

Introducing imagesfromoz birth photography:

It was such an amazing experience to be there for this little angel's birth! And a week later for her newborn shoot:

Ella's Living Museum

happenings

Ella was elected for spring student council!!!

We're in the process of planting a garden

Benjamin was Francis Scott Key for a school project

We made a mardi gras cake from scratch, the pic makes the color look terrible, but its purple green and gold...

Maiya got a new haircut, it made her mom and daddy sad, but she loves it

And so much for recording every little thing...

Mr. PJ is kicking, rolling, grabbing, babbling and starting to rock on his knees every once in a while... I don't expect him to be nearly as mellow as his sister Cora is...

go ahead and JUMP

to the boy who wouldn't hold my hand the other day

I still love you more than you'll ever know

Electronic Mail... Home movie version

In honor of valentine's day I present a short glimpse of Kyle and I where we met... Longwood College. Its now Longwood University. A small AWESOME school right smack dab in the middle of Virginia. We reminisce about it all the time. There are HOURS of embarrassing footage from longwood now on my computer. We did SNL type skits and they are so horrible they make your teeth hurt and your sides ache from laughter. One day when I am senile enough to not be embarrassed maybe I'll put them up.

Anyway, check out that stellar computer lab in the video. Remember when you printed out emails to save them? or was that just me??

I remember when I was about to leave longwood the talk was they were going to require each incoming student to own a computer. No way we said that is an undue financial hardship - I mean not everyone can afford a computer!!!

funny to imagine now..I wonder what they did with the old computer lab...

ps. feel free to tease Kyle about the posters on his walls - I am sure he'll say they were Jonny's

Picture pages...

There is a giveaway going on over at PREPARE & PROSPER, check it out

Ella placed 5th out of 30 something kids in the UIL Storytelling Competition - I am so proud of my animated storyteller !!!

I take a lot of pictures with ipod, they are not always the best but its fun to have a "camera" on had most of the time. I tend to annoy Benjamin - who is hard to get a picture of with the real camera because is actively evasive.

We were iced in most of last week. I loved almost every minute. But its was nice to finally get out of the house on Saturday.

We had a fire going almost the whole time. - Thanks to me bringing in about 45 logs before the storm and then chipping more wood out of the ice later.

I caught up on all my reading.

I HIGHLY recommend this book:

Getting More

and will probably post more about it later

When boredom sunk in I texted pictures of my zit to my sister:

PJ cozy by the fire - I swear this baby is so cute he gives me chest pains.