Twitcher

Saturday was an exciting day around here. Marnie and I spent the day putting on a lovely baby shower for my SIL Kaitlynn (pictures soon to come), and Justin & Britt took a day-trip to Phoenix with Justin's brothers to have a boys' day (among other things). They returned home with this little ball of fur.

She's a Russian dwarf hamster. Britt called her She-rah for the first day (as in, He-man and She-rah), but lately he's decided that Twitcher is a more fitting name. I was a little surprised when they walked in with a hamster that day, but Britt quickly informed me that it is his responsibility, and he will be the one who takes care of it. He's done an amazing job so far. He feeds her, changes her bedding, gives her lots of love and exercise (with a little help from Marnie), and even cleans her running ball if she poops in it.


We all sort of love the fluffy little thing. :) Even though she has to sleep in the laundry room. As we learned, hamsters don't actually sleep at night. They run on their exercise wheels, which can be insanely loud and annoying.


Our sweet puppy is pretty cute with her. He lays down next to her ball and just stares at her. He'll sneak up on her and lick the ball, as if to say, "my instinct tells me you might taste good, but I just want to play with you." Last night Britt told me that he still can't believe he has his own dog AND hamster. He's pretty sure he has the best daddy in the world. (I happen to share his opinion.) :) He's pretty excited that our family is even now: 3 boys and 3 girls. 3 mellow, smart, and easy boys; and 3 loud, cute, and somewhat demanding girls. :)

never a dull moment

Tuesday:
Took Griz for his 1 year check-up (even though his actual birthday isn't for a few weeks). He got his first rabies shot, and was diagnosed as a bi-lateral cryptorchid (Meaning that his testes never traveled from his abdomen to where they're supposed to be, so not only can he never be a daddy, but his cancer risk would be way higher unless we had surgery done to locate and remove them.) Easy decision; we scheduled surgery for the next day.
{In our defense, we'd never had a male dog before, and we just thought he was a late-bloomer.}

Wednesday:
Woke up around 4AM to Griz whimpering at my side of the bed. Thought it was odd that he'd need out, since the pre-op orders dictated that he not have anything to eat or drink after 10PM, but let him out into the dark yard anyway. When he came back inside, I went back to bed but could never fall asleep again because I could hear him running around the living room and jumping onto and off of the couch. A while later, I went to check on him and found him covered in hives, with his face swollen and peppered with bleeding scratches (from him trying to alleviate his itching).
I thought, "OK...one more thing he's allergic to- rabies vaccines."
{snapped this picture on my phone as we were leaving for the vet's office}

How could you not feel awful for the poor guy??

The vet gave him a shot to help his hives/swelling go down, then went on with the surgery as planned. The kids worried about him all day. Britt couldn't stand the thought of his puppy being cut open and having to get stitches.

Griz was loopy (as you can CLEARLY see) when we brought him home, so Marnie helped him relax so he could get some rest.




It's not usually a big deal when dogs get neutered, but this poor guy's neuter scar will put any female's spay scar to shame.
Britt asked me if this means Griz can't get married now (hehe...the sweet things kids think of), and I told him that one day, Griz may meet the perfect girl dog, and she won't care that he has a scar, and she won't care that he can't have puppies, and he said, "because maybe they could adopt a puppy, right?" :)

I love my little people and my little animal. They keep things interesting.
They are SO worth all the trouble, all the worry, all the stress, and all the sleepless nights that I endure for them.

slugger/hugger

Britt is loving his TeeBall adventures. He's getting over his fear of running in front of an audience, and has been getting some good hits too. In yesterday's game he chased down a grounder and was so proud to get it that he just held it until the coach came and got it from him. It's hilarious to watch. :)







Oh, and he got a haircut. I love this summer hair, but I always miss the long, curly, winter hair.

what makes us laugh

I cleaned out Britt's closet, and created a space inside for him to use as his "bat cave." It wasn't till a few days later that I was putting clothes away and noticed he had scratched this into the wall inside his closet.

Marnie's tired of her fairy costume. She likes to try out bits of Britt's costumes and make new superheroes. This one is called, "Spider-girl-with-a-regular-glove-too."

Easter left Britt with blue hands for 3 days. {Egg dying was an adventure this year.}

A few days ago, Marnie walked up to me like this and said, "oh nooooo...I don't have that other hand anymoooore!"

{and yes, she wears those bunny pajamas constantly.}

A few more funnies that we've heard recently...

Britt to Marnie: "I know it's a hard life, but ya just have to live it."

Britt: "Marnie, when you say you're the fastest yogurt eater, that's actually tooting your own horn...and that's what is called rude."

Britt: "Hey, the library has an avstract painting! I just love avstracts {abstracts}."

Me to Marnie: "You. Are. Cute."
Marnie: "You are fat."
Me: {sad face}
Marnie: "Actually, you are ninny {skinny}."
Me: {happy face}
Marnie: "Is that your girl? I say you are fat and that is not your girl, but if I say you are ninny then that is your girl?"
Me: "Yup."

Me: "Marnie, why is the shampoo bottle in the corner?"
Marnie: "Beeztuzz. I was dust trying to smell it and it wouldn't open...it's bein' a neenkah! {stinker}"


Me: "Britt, did you notice how nicely Marnie put her dirty dishes in the sink?"
Britt: "Yeah...but I'm just not really a put-stuff-in-the-sink kinda guy."
{Then I guess I'm not really a let-you-watch-cartoons kinda gal.}

{While driving to Phoenix and looking for the perfect cactus.}
Me: "Let's try looking in that big field of cactus."
Britt: "Actually, it there is more than one cactus, I believe they're called...cactupi. Like octopi? Or is it just cacti?...Yeah, cacti."

Marnie: "Puppy, you have to focus. You am wild and it's making me nervous."

4 refreshing days of fun

First off...is it me, or are these kids ridiculously good looking? :)

His freckles make me swoon.

Bands #254 and 255 (just guessing) on our list:
Local Natives...

Arcade Fire

Kaitlynn's baby bump looked too adorable at the concert, so I had to snap a picture. :) We can't wait to meet the sweet little boy living inside there. Less than 3 months till we do! :)

After the concert, we got to meet and chat with the guys in Local Natives. Definitely a highlight of the trip.
Kaitlynn and I with Ryan and Taylor

And with Kelcey

We enjoyed another half-day of sunshine and shopping, then Justin and I drove back to the mountains to pick the kids up from Grandma's so we could go back to Phoenix for...


Record Store Day!

It's the best holiday around for music nerds like us. Tons of bands issue limited edition (sometimes as little as 200 made) albums, and there are bands playing free shows at most all of the record stores. We went with our favorite record store, Stinkweeds. We got lucky and found the limited releases we wanted most. Britt got a Record Store Day action figure, which comes with his own record. :)

Britt checked out some new tunes at the listening stations in Stinkweeds.

Marnie and Dad watching Menomena set up onstage.


Music's playing...time to dance! :)

After picking up a freshly printed T-shirt from the screen printing tent, Britt used it for a little shade during Menomena's set.

Check it out next year. It's seriously a blast. It was basically like a barbecue (did I mention the complimentary hamburgers, hotdogs, veggie burgers, nachos, organic cookies, and ice chests full of drinks?) with a bunch of new friends, where some of the friends put down their nachos and play live music. Thanks for coming with us, Jordan and Kaitlynn! It was non-stop fun: from the funny guy on the light-rail who told us, "you two married very beautiful men...you betta watch yo backs!", to watching MJ's awesome dance moves, to when I slipped in the lilac oil at that one store and simultaneously ruined my favorite shoes AND got the loveliest purple knees I've had in years. :)


One more thing...
Today the puppy found a bug (we don't know what), and apparently it stung him. He was playing in our backyard for a while, then he looked into our living room window and I saw the beginnings of this swelling...

For reference, here is what he looks like normally.

Poor puppy...

the new leaf on our family tree

Nearly a week ago, my sister Brooke and her husband Elliott added another adorable baby girl to their family. Echo Noelle Hinckley was welcomed with (extremely eager and loving) open arms, by her big sisters Ellee and Emelyn. Who would have thought that their dad, who grew up in a house full of {tall, tough} boys, would one day have 3 sweet little girls to teach him to play Barbies and dress-up? :)



Britt and Marnie were anxious to meet Echo. Marnie has been getting over a cough, so we weren't able to introduce her to Echo until yesterday. The moment we walked in, she took her coat off and said, "where's baby Echo? I wanna hold her." Britt's enthusiasm surprised me a little. He was always excited to hold Marnie as a baby, but I didn't know how "into it" he would be as a too-cool 5 year old. He begged to hold her first, softly smoothed her hair {there's a lot of it to smooth!}, and sang his Great-Grandpa Jones's lullabies to her. It makes me grin just remembering how tender he was with her. He needed to ask me a secret right after he held her...the secret?..."can we take her home with us?...just for a while?" :)
He did clarify that he has no real desire to permanently have a baby at his own house. I believe his words were, "ya know, they grow into little sisters." He merely wanted to borrow his cousin's baby sister while she's still too small to get into his stuff or knock over his block tower.