Penn State Chics Dig Nerds

Sunday afternoon, we went up to camp to plant flowers where Meg was buried.  I envision Meg at our former house in Washington state laying in the grass beside my flower garden.  So, I wanted to plant some flowers to remember her.  After all, she was like my first child.   It's funny how we become so attached to animals. She was spoiled rotten, but so faithful and loving! Meg would have loved the sunshine today.  Saturday I had bought a twinleaf at the PA Native Plant Festival and then I added a bleeding heart and a black eyed susan from my own garden.  I hope to add a red columbine, too. 3 plants + 3 kids = one plant per kid Amie had a lot of fun digging.  In fact, I had to force her to give up the garden spade when we were done! Amie helped to plant the black eyed susan.  We couldn't really do anything at the site back in December.  The day she passed away was very cold and rainy.  It was the muddiest day possible. I kno...

This activity happened Friday, December 7th, about two weeks ago.  I just haven't been able to write about it.   I was having a difficult time, particularly since the weekend before Thanksgiving.  That's when Meg stopped eating her dry dog food.  She lost her interest in eating.  If you know Meg, you know that's not normal!  We were forcing her to eat by bribing her with wet dog food.  She was still coughing, showing signs of congestive heart failure.  Plus, she was starting to fall a lot and quite easily.  Her back legs lost all of their strength.  One morning on her way out to the bathroom, she lost her footing and fell three different times on the way to the door.  Of course, I had to help her get back up. Then, she could not jump up one step to get back to the driveway.  Her risk of falling and injuring herself was extremely high.   Her one back leg was obviously in pain. In the middle of the night before ...

I've been trying to get a good picture of all three kids together, and I think I finally took a decent one!  On our way to Belleville on Sunday, we stopped at Greenwood Furnace for a photo opportunity.  Of course, this is where I took the great picture.  Unfortunately, it is with the camera that I don't like as much because I was not planning to stop here (1@$#!:*) Grrr. I think this is the winner! This is okay, too!  After taking these pictures, I decided that I still wanted a decent picture of all three kids with Meg. All three kids plus Meg So cute! Beautiful leaves

Monday morning we attended the parade in Belleville.  It is a really small parade, but it is a good parade for little kids.  The kids still received PLENTY of candy! Brady, Grammy, and Natalee Todd and Zen Meg and Zen.  Both dogs enjoyed the parade entertainment. After the experience with fire trucks in Tennessee , Natalee was relieved the fire trucks did not sound their horns or alarm :)  In fact, I don't think she was looking forward to the parade because she was thinking about fire trucks being in the parade.  Brady was fascinated with all of the big trucks we saw. Unfortunately, when I tried to take a picture of Jake walking with the Belleville baseball team, my camera turned off.  It was out of battery power :(

Yesterday, we stayed at my parent's house after Bible Study.  This week, they have been dog sitting Zen, Todd and Kate's dog.  Natalee is still not so sure about Zen, but Brady thinks she is rather funny.  Although, Brady did get annoyed that Zen followed him everywhere he went.  Brady had a hard time remembering to walk instead of run.  Zen was definitely in their faces a lot and very excitable.  The kids are not used to a puppy that has a lot of energy! The kids accidentally found out that Zen liked to jump up and "eat" the water.  Natalee initially tossed water in Zen's direction (she wouldn't get too close!).  She was pretending to give Zen a bath.  Then, she and Brady discovered that this was a fun game!

Last night, we took all of the dogs for a walk be fore dinner.  We are dog sitting for this next week.  Both of the kids are really enthralled about having the two extra dogs around.  Brady, especially, is awed by the fact that Napoleon will chase a ball-- Meg has never done that! Natalee insisted on walking Josie. Brady wanted to walk Napoleon.  Napoleon is kind of funny because his name suits him-- He is definitely the dominate dog!  Of course, he tried to use Brady to get his own way, but we ended up walking on either side of Napoleon so that he could not stray off the road anymore. Of course, I was walking Meg. This afternoon, I took all 3 dogs for a walk by myself!  Now, they are all sitting by me snoring.

We received just a little bit more snow this morning.   Enough to cancel play day at the Community Center--AGAIN.  And, enough that we went outside to clear off the driveway.    However, that appears to have been in vain because it is now snowing again! My helper.  Don't you love her shoveling path methods? I think my kids are ready for spring. Mowing the snow.  Well, our college professor neighbors tried this last year and it failed miserably. Making Pumpkin Pie in the little house.  Ingredients: stones, leaves, dirt. Meg:  "If only all this white stuff would melt so that I could just lay down in the sunshine." I found a cardinal. We did go sled riding for a little bit again.  As you can see from her mittens, scarf, coat, and face, she got quite muddy outside this morning.  These were immediately thrown in the washer! One night last week, Natalee's imagination was going wild, as usual.  She...

Meet the newest member of our family.  Her name is Zen.  She is Todd and Kate's new puppy.  She is such a cute dog and is a bundle of energy!

Natalee was fortunate to recieve two harmonicas for Christmas. (but unfortunate for Meg).  She got one harmonica from my Aunt Bev and one from her Uncle Todd.  The good thing about getting two harmonicas is that she can easily share one with Brady.  They have had a blast playing this instrument.

Brady was really excited because he could eat something outside and not get in trouble for it.  And did he ever eat a lot of snow!   Last night at the dinner table.... Natalee:  "Mom, Will had his eyes open while we were praying!"

Natalee really loves when Meg is in the mood to run, which is rare. She cannot stop giggling. Jesse chases Meg and Natalee tries to. You can see her gesturing to her to come or just go and bump into her at random times during the day. Well, tonight we got her to run a bit. It was a nice distraction for Natalee since she has not been dealing with getting her eye teeth very well. The eye teeth are far worse than the molars.

The other evening, I gave Meg a bath. This started some mega shedding, which is normal for December. After she dried, I started to pet her and came away with a mega pile of hair: Putting the "vintage" Fisher Price Little People on her fingers is the thing to do again. All five fingers need a person on them, then she shakes them off and does it again. I sure wish that Fisher Price would make their Little People like this again since they are a lot more fun than the current version (she never plays with those ones). But, the vintage barn yard, animals, people, and school house are a lot of fun! Here are more pictures from Friday's Chuck E. Cheese's adventure. The girls had a great time (as did their parents :). Possibly the favorite game of the evening--the water gun target race. Natalee found a lot of fun in putting the tokens in the games for us. She did not want to play Skee-Ball, but she wanted to "help" us play. She became quite good at putting th...

When we bring the dog bed out to the living room for Meg, Natalee thinks it's really fun to play and sit on. She likes to cozy up close to Meg. The dog mostly tries really hard to ignore Natalee. I caught Natalee reading her book to Meg. I know the volume is hard to hear in the video. At the "end" of the book, Natalee announced, "All done!" (or all da)

Natalee: "Grammy is here to paint!" Meg: "Get out of my way little girl!!!"