Chauncey the Chauncinator and the Chloe Bug

Our new babies (English Springer Spaniels).... boy did we sign on for a wild ride with these two!

We have Chloe... she's such a love bug!

And we have our Chauncey! He is a survivor... the runt... now a chunk!

Madeline loves them! When they are out in the entry way, she goes up to her baby gate and says "Up! Up!" She wants to get in there and race around with them!

She tells them to sit, too and enjoys giving them biscuits. I once caught her feeding them mass quantities of biscuits through their pen. She thought she was doing such a good thing by feeding those hungry puppies. They probably thought this little short girl is alright!


The pictures with Madeline on Grammy and Papa's couch were taken before we brought them home. They were still so sweet and not getting into nearly the amount of trouble that they get into nowadays.

Just the other night, Tuesday, as a matter of fact, Aaron had to search for 50 minutes for Chauncey because he decided to chase a rabbit. Chloe was bopping around the neighbors yard... she must have lost her brother in the chase. They were only out for about 5 minutes by themselves when they decided to boogie.... Wonderful, right?

We were freaked!


But anyways, we're all in love with them...

Madeline has been doing really good with them chewing and biting - she tells them "NO!" And she gets right up if they try to lick her in the face... Eww! Mommy freaks out about that... (as shown in the top picture, blaaaah... yucky!)


These little ones certainly are something... A chore, awesome, fun, trouble, hilarious, irritating but ya gotta love 'em.

I'd do that day all over again

November 7 was just a plain ol' good day. Nothing special happened, but it was nice - just nice.

As the snow begins to fly and the mercury dips, I can't help but think of how nice that particular fall day was. The three of us just simply hung out in the back yard... well it was just Aaron and I staining our wood trim (which is still not up yet) in the back yard until Miss Madely Poo decided to awaken from her afternoon slumber. And then, she just had to be outside with Mommy and Daddy!!!

Of course, the camera came too and I am so glad because I got a chance to take some really sweet fall pictures of my lil peanut butter baby.

Isn't she a doll face in her peachy keen coat and hat?

Dandelion baby...

You have to blow on dandelions, right?

Places to go, people to see... Is that pretty flower for Mommy?

Helping daddy stain the trim was so much fun!

Mommy made daddy put Madeline in the tree... He he he...
You LOVED it, baby girl!

Peeeeking around a bush. Is daddy over there?

Oh how mommy tried to get this baby OUT OF THE ROCKS! Didn't work too well. She's a stubborn little German... just like her mommy AND daddy!

Vrooooom goes the airplane baby!

Off into the sunset...

What a great day we had doing nothing together! Yup, I'd do that day all over again!

Sheeya later, tater

Tonight at the Kingdom Hall, Madeline started to fuss a little bit so Aaron offered to take her out and walk with her for a little bit to calm her down.
As he picked her up, she looked back at me, waved big with a smile and said "Sheeya"...
Mom looked at me laughing and said: "She said,'See ya!'"

Oh no she didn't, you may be saying... Oh yes, she did.

Sheeya... My little tater tot has a lot to say. And it won't be long before she can!

Time to curl up with a good book

We don't do cold weather. Instead, we do fun stuff inside the nice, warm house... like read on the couch.

By the looks of things, this is just one of those days at Grammy and Papa's house... sitting around on the Dora couch, reading a good book. (Notice the "Let's Party" bib - what do they do over there all day until I come to get her???)

And also by the looks of things... we didn't comb that baby's hair that particular day!

Dear blog:

I have missed you, blogspot. I have neglected you and I admit this.
There was a time when I thought Facebook was the "new you." Again, I admit I was was wrong.
Where else can a ramble on and on about myself without the fear of others scolding me with their all-knowing comments and words of wisdom?
'Tis only you, blogger. You complete me... (well not really, but it's a cheesy phrase that I like and it fits).

Reasons why blogspot is cooler than Facebook:

1.) I've missed writing more than just status updates.
2.) I need a creative outlet and FB does not allow any fiddling around with backgrounds and so forth.
3.) I don't have time to paint or draw and frankly, I probably can't any more.
4.) FB messed up too much.
5.) I don't want to reconnect with people from high school.
6.) This blog is for my baby girl to look at some day and FB isn't too good at archiving stuff.
7.) I don't care to read other people's status updates and FB pretty much makes you do that.
8.) Most importantly, FB was a time-consuming black hole of bad association.

And there you have it, I am back - this blogger is back in full force. I have many, many ideas rolling around in my head, begging to be put on this blog.

And I will...

So far, I have added a new background and putzed around with a "Our Sweet Madeline" header for wayyyy too long, but the end result was pretty cute.

'Til next time...

Coming soon!

An update... I promise!

A summer together

We didn't really do anything too extravagant this summer, but we did have a little fun here and there (weather permitting).

The day after we went to Huckleberry Railroad to see Thomas, we took Madeline to eat some real Huckleberries at the Wilderness Arboretum near Caseville. It is located on 120 acres and was dedicated in 1941 on donated property. Our tour guide was Lynn Lenar (a true nature chick... well more like a science teacher).

Along the way we learned about mushrooms and trees that Lynn pointed out with her eagle eye precision, startled a little deer and swatted pesky bugs like mad! There were also some tree frogs here and there, a cool bridge over the marshy area and lots of pretty plants and trees to see.

Here is Madeline enjoying a scrumptious huckleberry along the trail. She ate about a dozen of them and probably would have continued, but she fell asleep.

Lynn also pointed out wintergreen, which we sampled. It was a little leaf that tasted just like the Wrigley's chewing gum... Madeline did not sample the leaf.

And we kicked up our heels, too!

When we got back to Lenar's house, she did sample Dan's grilled chicken and Lynn's whipped cream and blueberries, which she (and we) really enjoyed.

Madeline is definitely an outside-kind-of girl. She loves to be outside and really, really likes riding on the mower with her dad.

So she took a ride on dad's tractor....

And a spin on Papa's 4-wheeler...

And made funny faces beneath the tree after eating tomatoes out of the garden

And we spent time together, which made my heart happy
because she is growing so fast!

We enjoyed the sun and shade, just the girls, giggling and goofing around.

Our favorite summer spot is beneath the old tree in our yard, next to the garden. Next year, we'll make sure there's a slide or sandbox there... something cool!

Even though it was short, summer wasn't too bad afterall for the Ewalds!