Time to Put it Back On

For those of you who know... yes... I was going to try and sell Zoey. She was driving me up the wall, and it wasn't fair to her, she's only 1. I just didn't have time, what with everything going on, to try and fix what I didn't like. Like her Barking for one. She is such a good family dog... but when anyone comes over that she doesn't know... the Barking starts, and doesn't stop until she knows that person is miles away from the house. Heaven forbid that person comes in and wants to hold or hug one of the boys. She turns supper protective.
I thought I was either going to have to sell her or just plain give her away. She was "banished" outside where I couldn't hear her... and was only getting visited when I fed her, or D and I needed to do something in the back yard. That's no way to treat a dog. Given that it was only this way after D's second surgery... I knew something needed to change. I battled for a long time with wanting to give her away or not. And I did have a bunch of people interested... I just didn't know. She was my dog. My responsibility.
So yesterday... I decided I needed to change. I took her in to the Dog Groomers in the morning. Got her all nice and cleaned up. I looked on the internet about how to train a Miniature Schnauzer how not to bark. It was down to... Spraying her in the face with water every time she Barked out of line, or, a shock collar. I figured out that I didn't want to have to follow her around with a thing of water... plus I know I'd miss a few times she'd bark and I didn't get her. Her training has to be consistent. So, Bark Collar it was.
Bought fresh new batteries, and when she got home, I put it back on.
She's being pretty stubborn about it. But she's old enough to learn. She'll have to.
Took her to the park last night. Figured that I need the walks and so does she. And she about had it. Came home and she threw a fit by trying multiple times to knock over her food bowl... and she didn't stop growling. lol.
And today I felt bad when my friend came over to drop me of something and she was Barking and Shocking herself... she started crying. I ended up holding her so she'd calm down :( felt so bad. So I decided to look this video up... I'm sure everyone's seen it... now I can kinda guess what she's going threw :( 
But it has really come down to this... she has to be trained not to bark so much... especially when i know there are going to be people over here a ton when I have the baby. 
She is old enough to understand. She's just so freakin stubborn! My mother-in-law's dog had a shock collar on for just a while... and he got it! My mother-in-law is sure that if I keep up with this collar thing, Zoey will get it sooner or later. On her own time I guess. Ugh. 

"Ni-Night"

This is how I put Zay down for his Naps now-a-days. He's so cute. He knows that he takes a Nap right after Lunch... I sit down on the bed with him, sing him some Nursery Rhymes... then he tells me,

"Ni-night".

Then he lays down and puts his legs on my legs and says, 

"Feet, feet, feet". 

So I sing to him and rub his feet until he falls asleep. Which doesn't really take that long.

J's Fav List:

So after I put Zay down for his nap... I asked J what his favorite things are... This is what he said:

Cheetos

Dad

Mom

Zay

(in that order)

Outside

Texting

Sandwiches

Singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

and....

Green Lantern!!

"Mommy, I'm Green Lantern. I can be him" - J

This is his now Fav Movie. He always asks me to watch it. 

Him and I both know that there are some scary parts, but J knows where all of them are... so he's good about covering his eyes when a scary part comes on. 

He also watches out for his brother. He tells me sometimes, 

"Mom, I want to watch Green Lantern, but Zay is awake. I'll wait till he takes a nap".

He's too cute!

If you haven't seen this movie yet... You should! I don't care what people say, I personally thought it was awesome!

Day at the Lake!

Now that we know that the boat runs good... We're goin for it!

We started off nice and easy. Zay was sittin with Grandpa. He was pretty relaxed. 

But then Dad decided to go a little faster. Haha. You can see how crazy Zays hair got!

J - just loving every minute of being back out on the lake

D's so happy. I'm really glad we decided to get the boat.

Time for Zay's First Tube Ride with Dad. We started them off on the beach.

Here we go!

Now their Cookin!

Zay loved it. Grandpa even went fast with them a little.

J's turn!

Just waiting around for the their ride to start.

Now these guys were REALLY goin!

Made it outside the Wake a few times.

Mom was freakin out a bit!

"Whew!" - D

J was silent. 

Haha

He didn't even say he had a good time until his feet both inside the boat. Haha

Drink Break

Dad's just checkin on the Boys, making sure they're ok and had fun on their tube rides.

Grandpa's Turn! Wake Boarding this time.

"Grandpa, I saw you jumping the waves. You're so Awesome!" - J

Zay's new favorite thing to do - Drive the Boat!

J's just happy where ever.

Relief Society Girls Night!

We were to bring a finger food, and I chose to make little Fruit Cookies

Everyone really liked them. Because we got back kinda late from the Lake, I only had like 45 min to make these and get ready to go. Plus I had to go to the store to buy all the ingredients. So I made the cookies and the dressing and D helped cut up the fruit... We just packed them all up and I made them at the party. I made a whole plate full. And later that night, I had people telling me how good they were. I offered to make more because I brought everything.... and they all said "Yes Please". So I made a whole other plate full. 

Yay!

Then after treats and finger foods... we all played games.

Some went swimming.

I had had a full day of swimming, but my toes were so swollen and sore... I just dipped my feet in.

Over all it was a fun, yet exhausting day. Zay had a few close calls where I had to run out and get him... but he learned, by the end of the day, that he needed to be a little bit more careful when he's in the water. J had such a good time, he cried pretty bad when we were leaving. I think he thinks that we wont go again for a while. But I told him... "J - this is our boat, we can go to the lake whenever you and Dad want to." Then he got all happy again. 

Good day, Good day

Making Lunch with My Boys
and
Fun Family Night Plans...

Pepperoni String Cheese Roll Ups

Ingredients:
1 (8 ounce) package refrigerated crescent roll dough
4 cheese sticks, halved
1 (3.5 ounce) package sliced pepperoni
optional - marinara or ranch sauce for dipping

Garlic Butter Glaze:
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasonings
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 Tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Take each triangle of crencent roll dough and place about 6 pepperoni on the bottom of the triangle. Place half of a cheese stick on top and roll up. Place seam side down on a cookie sheet and bake for 10-14 minutes or until golden brown.

While rolls are cooking, combine the melted butter, Italian seasonings, garlic powder and Parmesan cheese in a small bowl. 

When rolls are done remove from the oven and brush with the garlic butter glaze. Serve with marinara or ranch for dipping.

Family Night...

I'm pretty excited about this Family night, not going to lie. 

***For those who don't know*** 

D wanted to sale his bike to get something that the family would benefit from more. For the longest time, when we had the bike for sale on craigslist, we said $2500 or trade for a boat. No one would trade a boat with us. Well, not one that we liked anyways... they were always coming up with things that needed a little work. Too much work for us.

But we ended up selling the bike for $2500 to a nice, appreciative guy a little bit ago.

D's always looking on craigslist, and he found a guy with a pretty nice deal for a boat. D said it wasn't going to last that much longer on craigslist... so we talked about it, and we decided we would get it. 

So pretty much we did what we wanted, traded the bike for a boat. D said he prob wasn't going to ride his bike for a while... and why not have something that we could do together as a family. Sure the boys could go on rides one at a time on the bike, but a boat just has so many more possibilities for fun. 

All of the other stuff (toys) that D's gotten over the past little while, are nice, but we know we have to sale them soon... but this boat is Ours! 

We are actually better off with having the boat instead of the bike because we only payed $2000 for it. So we came out $500 on top. 

Can't wait till tonight to go try it out. I'm glad though that D's Dad is coming with us... because if something did go wrong... he would prob be a lot more help then some 7+ month pregnant women HaHa.

Anyways... here are some pics of our new little addition...

D says the boat is an Older (don't ask me what year, I don't know) Ski Centurion.

Look how Happy and Proud D looks :) 

Makes me even that more happy that he's happy.

I'll take some pictures tonight when we're out.... post them later

So excited!

Happy Birthday Grandma!

7/5 

This is the cake I made for my Grandma's Birthday. 

We traveled over to Truckee CA to go spend a Birthday Dinner with her and her two sisters.

It was a lot of fun. 

Except when Zay threw up right when we got there....

Everyone's Sick and an ER Scare...

Little did D and I know... Zay caught the 24 hour flue from the kids at Grandma Roxy's house the day before. So it wasn't too long until J got sick too. The poor guy threw up right when we got home. And then did it again in the middle of the night all over his bed. Threw up the rest of the night too. 

Then it was my turn to catch the bug.

I started throwing up a ton. And then I started feeling like I was having contractions.

D started to get worried so he called his mom over at 4am and we went to the ER.

I had drank enough water... but when I threw it all up, I got supper dehydrated.

They had to put an IV in me. 3 bags. They said that if they didn't get my throwing up under control, my body would make me go into serious contractions and have the baby. 

So I was having contractions, just small ones. And consistent. 

I had to take 2 shots of Zofran and 1 heavy duty shot in the butt before I started feeling any kind of better.

I was able to leave the hospital around 4 that afternoon. With a prescription of 12 hr Zofran.

But I'm doing good now... kinda.

Still feel week and dizzy. I'm trying to drink as much as I can. 

Now D is starting to feel the bug. He hasn't thrown up yet, but he says he feels sick. I'm hoping he doesn't get it, but if he does, I'm just glad he didn't get sick when I was in the hospital and the boys were at home sick too. 

Things are stressful at the house. I think this is the longest D has been forced to watch the kids without my help. He's not that use to dealing with them as I am, so when I hear him yelling, I wonder if that's what I sound like all the time to him. I don't dare correct him when he's disciplining the kids because I know that will just make him even more upset. I feel bad... makes me want to get better sooner. 

But I'm thankful D is doing a good job with the kids in the situation we're in. He's still hurting a ton. Says he knee spikes and pinches a lot. Now more then ever because he's getting up a lot more then he's use to, having to chase the kids around and stuff. 

UGH, I'm tired of the trials and tribulations! Seems like one thing right after the other.

But I shouldn't complain too much... at least we have had help when we needed it. Better these things happen here where we have family and friends that are reliable enough to come to our aid, rather then back where we had no family... I don't want to even think about what could of happened to us under the same circumstances.  

Thank Heavens for Family

Happy 4th of July!

This is the cake I made for the 4th. Made home made Buttercream frosting. SOO GOOD! 

AND...

My first Fondant Roses!

I'm happy with the way they turned out.

The cake got eaten up pretty fast. D doesn't normally like cake. (I switched making cakes for his birthday to pie and ice cream). Anyways, he had 2 huge slices! Says he loved the frosting. 

Funny story:

When we went to go see the fireworks, we just left right from the house... so we brought the left over cake. I ate a little on the way to where we were going to watch them. So, we were sitting down in the back of our jeep waiting for the fireworks... D comes walking over with the left over cake and starts eating it. He almost would have finished it off if I hadn't said anything. But when he got up, the rest of my awesome cake rolled off the plate :( And then, he put the roses and cardboard plate on the top of the car while we watched the fireworks. Guess who forgot to take them down when we left. lol

So I can't reuse the flowers for the cake I'm going to make today. I wasn't going to use them anyways, but I Could have tee hee

LoL  

We decided to do some Poppers and other kid friendly stuff before it got too dark.

D and Grandpa were in charge.

Poor Zay missed all of it. But was there when it got a little darker... for Sparklers and such. 

Cute little picture of J and his cousin.

Here she is showing J where the Sparkler got her.

And now I think she's telling him that she doesn't want to do that ever again haha. 

J and his Grandma blowing bubbles at each other.

I love Zays hair. Too bad I know the real reason why his hair sticks up like that. It never does that when JUST water is on it. With 8 kids being in that water, and only half of them being potty trained....

Ya, I guess you can say that there's deff something in the water that makes it stand up like that. 

The boys played all day. Swimming, and then a fun game of baseball. BBQ and watermelon. Little fireworks and Poppers... and then the Big Fireworks. 

It was a pretty busy day.

The sunsets here are soo pretty!

This was the last at-home firework we did before we went out to see the Big Fireworks. 

All and all, the 4th was stressful and crazy, but worth it when I saw the look on the Boy's faces when they were having fun. 

I love my family and am so thankful for all the good times. 

Hope everyone else had a good 4th too.