Following the Compass

We've been using the Gospel Art kit in our family scripture reading to make the association and understanding of the story a little more real and personal for Kaitlyn. Last night we were reading about the Liahona. We discussed the purpose of the Liahona and the efficiency (how and why it worked and why it wouldn't work). To help apply the lesson to her, I asked Kaitlyn what types of "Liahona's" do we have in our lives? She mentioned scriptures, following the prophet, listening to our teachers. Trace and I mentioned listening to our Mom's and Dad's. Kaitlyn's response....

"That is so hard for a little girl to do!"

Kaitism...

"When I'm good, I'm good. When I'm bad, I'm bad!"

(Kait's philosophy on life as we were doing her hair for church!)

Seven Down....Eternity to Go

"An eternal marriage is eternal. Eternal implies continuing growth and improvement. It means that man and wife will honestly try to perfect themselves. It means that the marriage relationship is not to be frivolously discarded at the first sign of disagreement or when times get hard. It signifies that love will grow stronger with time and that it extends beyond the grave. It means that each partner will be blessed with the company of the other partner forever and that problems and differences might as well be resolved because they are not going to go away. Eternal signifies repentance, forgiveness, long-suffering, patience, hope, charity, love, and humility. All of these things are involved in anything that is eternal, and surely we must learn and practice them if we intend to claim an eternal marriage." (I found this quote somewhere and the source wasn't quoted.)

Has it really been seven years?! As you said the other night, it doesn't seem like seven years to me, but I'm sure it feels like 100 to you! Maybe some days!!! There have been lots of facets of life in the past seven years - a beautiful little girl, job challenges and changes, tears, laughter, moves, our first house and some tragic moments too. Thanks for being by my side. I love you today more than I did seven years ago! Happy Anniversary! I'm looking forward to forever.

To Mutt or Not to Mutt

I drove by Home Depot on Saturday and saw the cutest puppies. We are thinking about getting another dog in the near future (yes, we are crazy) and are starting to "shop around". I picked up Trace and Kaitlyn at home and headed back that direction. I insisted on stopping to look at the pups. (We had to stop in HD to buy the bee spray anyway!) They were loading up the puppies, but left a little girl our for our enjoyment. These puppies were huge!!! I mean HUGE!!!! Their paws were almost as big as our Puff's head! Trace asked what they were. We were informed they are "blastiff", blood hound and mastiff. That right there was our queue to exit stage right. According to the very nice lady, the dad weighs 180 lbs and the mom weights 100 lbs! She informed us these are hybrid dogs.

My question is, what happened to the good ole' days of just mutts? I can only remember ever having one pure bred dog growing up. The rest were just run of the mill mutts. Don't get me wrong, we had awesome dogs. They just didn't have to be pure to be awesome.

After our date night (more on that later) and as we were lying in bed we started talking about these special "hybrid". We heard of labradoodle - lab and poodle, labradinger - lab and springer spaniel, cockapoo - cocker spaniel and poodle, borderjack - border collie and jack russell terrier, etc. So we decided to make up some of our own, using our doxie of course! Here you go:

doxer - doxen and boxer
dorev- doxen and retriever
doxtiff - doxen and mastiff

and Trace's input (drum roll please)

coxen - cocker and doxen

Obviously, I mean no offense to the dog breeders and lovers of these hybrid dogs. But, I would think they need to admit some of these name are quite hilarious. Especially after a long day, laying in bed, talking nonsense, leading to you and your spouse collapsing in giggle fits!

In other words...

Kait
Kaikin
Bitz
Bitzer
Bug
Grumpet (yes-for all of those no nap days long ago!)
Munchkin
Mo-Mo
Chunks
Mama Baby
Monkety-MoMo
Princess
Crabit - (see Grumpet)
Love Bug
Love (I "accidentally" called Trace this once and the tears welled up. "I thought I was your love!")

Just Kaitlyn!

Respectin' da Rulz

While we were eating dinner tonight, our doxie Belle was outside protecting her "hood" with her very boisterous bark! It seems the kids next door were playing outside. I let Belle in and Kaitlyn insisted on knowing what she was barking at. "Just the kids playing outside". "Oh no Mommy! The kids are playing outside on Sunday?!!" "Yes Kait." "Mommy, I don't play outside on Sunday, cuz I respect the rules!"

Score! She does listen to us. Thank you, respect and rules!!!

Bathtime

Tonight after dinner, I started a bath for Kaitlyn and went downstairs to finish up dishes before washing her hair. (Yes, I know this can be dangerous.) Trace went in to check on her and as he opened the door she said, "Get out of here!". He asked her why and she said, "because, you can't see my business!" First.......when did this start and second.......when did she start having "business"?!!!