One man's trash...

Several folks have been asking for an update on our newest addition, Diesel. We rescued him (he was abandoned with his sisters) this fall because we just didn't have enough living things in our house. Good thing he's a great dog.

He's 9 months old now and at last weigh-in about 85 lbs. Half-way to full grown. His shoulder blades come up to my hip when he leans on me, which is something he loves to do.

I've been trying to get good pictures of him for a while, but he loves his people and doesn't know the word "stay" when he'd rather be in your lap. He also likes to spoon, so if you ever take a nap in the living room and wake up with a warm body behind you and a bony arm around you, it's probably not human. probably.


He and Leilea are good buddies and they're both scavengers. They were on the hunt for the rest of the marshmallows we had for snack that day.
Leilea found them and I gave her one. I gave him a doggy treat but he wanted that marshmallow so bad....

Christmas recap

Two posts in one week. I'm steppin' it up a bit, eh?

I misplaced my camera sometime during the great confusion that is Christmas in the Frisky Family. Now that things are getting back to normal, I found it. I hope it's not too late to post this, but here are some good ones from Christmas Eve.

Iwa was a little excited- Leilea... well... she's always excited.
This next one was the last of a bunch of group shots I tried to get. It's also the best by conventional standards. Everyone's being good, smiling, and looking straight ahead. Truly a Kodak moment.
These next three, however, are the kids I recognize.
Cheese! By the way, that's not a safe word to say in my house unless you have a fridge full of it. They don't take it lightly. I had to pass some out after we took this picture. It was like telling an alcoholic to say "Burbon!" before taking a picture. (they come by it honestly)

Do unto others

My father is a very loving man. When I was younger, and even today, he is very good at being a dad and being affectionate. I love that about him. What a good example for a daughter to see a man hugging and kissing us and telling us how much he loves us. Not everyone gets that and he definitely set a standard for my choice for a husband and father of my kids.

I remember specifically when he'd have the task of waking me up for school in the morning, I'd wake up with him talking to me and touching my face or hair or something. I wasn't a parent, and I wasn't keen on being awakened at all, but today I cherish the memory and find the urge irresistible with my own kids as they're sleeping.

I love to watch them sleep. I love to touch their soft angelic faces and wonder what they're dreaming and if they can possibly know how much I love them. If I tried to do this during their consciousness, at least the older ones would say, "Oh, mommy!!" in embarrassment.

Kawika and Iwalani have been sneaking in bed with us. John and I are both sound sleepers so it's not unusual to wake up with two extra people in the bed (thank goodness we upgraded to the king size last year).

Last week I woke up and Iwa was four inches from my face, wide awake. She only spoke to say, "I just love you mommy," and went back to sleep. I woke up this morning at about 3a.m. for whatever reason and found that Kawika was awake, looking at me, stroking my face from temple to jaw and playing with my hair.

I know that over the years they will pick up many traits and habits from us- some good, some bad- but for what it's worth, I wouldn't trade this one for the world.

Merry Winter Solstice

As I spend my last day at work before Christmas break, listening to some random guy on the intercom singing Oh Holy Night, I'm thinking about all of the things I need to do. Updating this blog is not one of them so it seemed like a fitting way to procrastinate the rest. Seriously, it's been a while. We haven't done much "blog worthy" stuff, and if we did I haven't taken pictures.

Iwa rode with Grandpa Tony in the Millington Christmas parade. Now that she has her riding helmet and child-saddle, she's been riding quite a bit. After Thanksgiving (like the day after), we went on a trail ride at Village Creek for the weekend. We all did quite a bit of riding and manure shoveling that weekend and it was awesome. I have pictures of the parade, not on this computer, and I took one picture on the weekend of the ride. Fail.

We have been getting ready for Christmas! Once I get home tonight and leave work far behind me, I can focus on REALLY getting ready for Christmas but for now, I'm mega-multitasking and only about half present anywhere I am.

Until then, I'd like to leave you with a picture one of my Kindergartners made. It's a great example of why I love my job so much: kids are awesome and even more so when they have no idea.
(she originally had the largest circle as the head and I told her to turn it around and make the smallest one the head. Instead of taking the carrot off an gluing it on his face, she left the carrot and just drew her own nose)

My parents ARE awesome

I have this weird fascination (nosiness) with other peoples' family albums and this website has just what I crave. My Parents Were Awesome is a great place to park it and waste a bunch of time indulging your voyeuristic side.... or maybe it's just me.

It's crazy to think that these people are someones parents and to think about what kinds of pictures my kids would post in 10 to 20 years. Yikes.

Busted!!

Nani has been taking pictures of our family so we can give out family photos for Christmas this year. The Blog header is one of hers. Getting these kids to cooperate for photos must be much like nailing jello to the wall but the quirky outtakes are my favorite pictures by far.

I was dumping her memory stick onto our computer and looking at the pictures. It's neat because her shutter speed is set so fast so it takes pictures really quickly on the off-chance there was a split second to be captured where everyone had normal faces pointed in a relatively similar direction. As a result, when you flip through the pictures quickly, it plays like a movie.

Here's what I found (check out Kawika):Keepin' it classy.

Here's some other good ones:

Happy Halloween

Okay, okay... so it's been a while since Halloween, but at least the pictures are up before Thanksgiving and they've been on Facebook since Halloween so....

Nani always goes all-out for Halloween and this year she took us with her- only to stay behind. We all dressed up as characters from Alice in Wonderland (with the exception of the inmate and cop in this pic). Nani was going to be the Queen of Hearts but her last minute preparations didn't work out so we were on our own. This is a crumby picture of John but a great one of the Mad Hatter and White Rabbit.

You've gotta love a man who will wear a purple women's sweatsuit and pink cat ears. I do.

A better picture of John and a good example of why he doesn't normally smile in pictures.
Nani- no costume. :(
The kids getting ready to go out trick-or-treating. Iwa, Tessa (Megan's daughter- my college roommate), Kawika, and Leilea
My two big kids. We had to hide Kawika's costume from him after he got it. He wore it EVERYWHERE one day. He loves Woody!
Iwa and Tessa were so cute trick or treating. Who would have thought that our daughters would be such good friends. So cute!
...and this is how the night ended. Iwa passed out, Kawika in a self-induced coma. This is Halloween in it's truest form.