Brief Mocha update

Two updates in one day?? WOW!!

Several people have asked me for Mocha pictures lately so I thought I would throw a few in here for a quick update. These were taken a few weeks ago when Mocha was about 5 1/2 Months old. Mocha just recently lost her bottom 2 canine teeth - oh we feel so proud :)

Mocha is a constant source of energy in our family. You can certainly tell when she doesn't get enough exercise - she gets a bit mischievious. She has been a pretty easy dog to train so far - she has mastered sit, drop, shaking with both paws and is currently working on stay, come, fetch, and roll over

A Pretty Princess and a Disco Diva!!

Maybe someday I wil get better about updating this thing more frequently. It seems like I only get a chance to update it when I am traveling - it is a good way to pass time when I am away from the family.

You just have to love fall - the change of seasons, the fall colors, the cool mornings, the first frost, the disappearance of bugs!, and of course halloween. One of the first things to mark the season is the annual pilgrimage to the pumpkin patch and maze. Everyone has to pick out their own pumpkin for Jim to carve. Here are a few photos of the girls enjoying the pumpkin patch and maze.

The next major event is the trip to Night Eyes at the Zoo. The kids absolutly love it - I am not sure why though. You stand in line for 45 minutes to get into the zoo, then you walk in line from station to station for what seems like 90 minutes for about 15 pieces of candy. Oh well - they love it and I guess that is all that matters. Here are some photos of Kiersten as the Pretty Cat Princess and of Madison as the Disco Diva.

The last major event before trick or treating is for everyone in the family to decide what they want on their pumpkin. Everyone decides and then Jim designs the pumpkins and draws the design on the pumpkin for approval. Then the night before Halloween I carve the pumpkins. A couple of my favorite tips for carving a pumkin. I use a dremel power tool for carving. This is so much easier and faster. Also, instead of using candles in the pumpkins I usually throw in the battery powered light sticks that kids where around their neck. These are kind of nice because they are available in different colors, they are safer, and are reusable from year to year. Here are photos of this years designs:

Kiersten's Pumpkin

Angie's Pumpkin

Madison's Pumpkin

Jim's Pumpkin

Well needed break - probably not deserved though :)

My job usually requires me to travel quite a bit from August thru mid-November. Usually around mid to late Sept I am ready for a little break to recharge the brain. For the past 7 yrs I have taken a long weekend to go fishing near Brainerd, MN with a couple of friends. This is definitely one of the more relaxing weekends for me during the year. The agenda usually involves lots of eating, fishing, sleeping, drinking - with no email or phone.

A typical agenda:

Thursday
Depart Ankeny at about 8am.
Stop at Cabelas around 10:30am
Arrive at Gull Lake at around 4pm.
The rest of the evening involves getting beer and food, cooking a huge chicago style pizza and then watching college football.
We usually cap the night off with a trip to the pool and hot tub.

Friday
Sleep until at least 10am, then shower and eat a good brunch.
Take a walk and then sit around and read until 3pm.
Fish from 3pm to 7pm.
Then we clean the fish and eat lots of fish and fried potatoes.

Here are a couple of nice sunsets from Friday Night.




Saturday
Fish from about 7am to 6pm.
Catch lots of fish, then clean them and package to take home so the wife and kids can enjoy some good walleye.
Then we cook a huge 3-4lb beef loin, baked potatoes, fresh iowa sweet corn, and again pig out.
The rest of the night usually just involves digesting food and watching college football games.

Here are a couple more nice sunsets from Saturday Night.




Sunday
Fish from about 7am to 5pm
Then we clean the fish again and usually just eat leftovers for dinner.
The rest of the night is then spent cleaning, packing, visiting the pool/hot tub, and then watching NFL football games.

Here are 3 nice fish - 23-24" walleyes from Sunday morning.


Monday
Leave for home aroun 6am.
Arrive in Ankeny around 1pm and if I feel like it I will work for a few hours :(

The Squids are Both in School

Well it is hard to believe that both girls are finally in school. Madison started 2nd grade on August 14th - I can't hardly believe that she has been in school for 3 weeks already. Kiersten started preschool today (September 3rd) and it is equally hard to believe that she is starting school already. It is great watching them grow up, but difficult at the same time. Madison is growing into this mature little girl, while Kiersten always makes us smile with her spunk, spirit, and determination.



Here is Madison getting ready to go to the first day of 2nd grade. I think that they are going to miss each other a lot. Kiersten really looks up to her big sister and was very proud of her starting 2nd grade.








Here is Kiersten getting ready for preschool today. She was very excited for preschool. She has been talking about it for weeks and last night she couldn't sleep and kept saying she was too excited for preschool to sleep. She did great today, she didn't act nervous or emotional. She was pretty excited to see the balance beam and the indoor slide that they have.

First Blog Post

A friend showed me his blog the other day that he uses as a way to keep friends and family updated on their newborn child. I thought that this might be a convenient and easy way to keep everyone updated on our busy lives and maybe have a little fun at the same time.

Since much of our free time right now is being spent training and playing with our new dog, Mocha, I thought that it would be an appropriate first post topic. She is 14 wks old now and we have had her for about 6wks. She is a miniature Australian Shepherd. She is proving to be an intelligent dog and I think she will be a good family pet for many years to come.

Over the 4th of July weekend our girls were at Grandma and Grandpa's house so I drove to LeMars, IA and picked the dog out and then we surprised them with it the next day. They were excited to say the least. I don't think their smiles disappeared for a week.

It was a hard decision to get another dog. Our last dog, Boomer, died about 2 yrs ago and we just have not been able to bring ourselves to get another dog. Boomer was about 14 when he died, for many years he was like a surogate child to us. I work in the petfood industry and we often talk about the humanization of pets - well we definitely considered Boomer a member of our family. However, I felt like I was letting my emotions get in the way of our 2 children, Madison and Kiersten, growing up with a pet so we decided to take the plunge. At this point all I can say is house training sucks - but she is slowly getting the hang of things now at 14wks old.

I think that Madison is extremely anxious to start puppy training classes. She seems to have a gift with animals so we are going to let her take Mocha through puppy training classes and then some agility classes (I think she is really excited about that).

Here is a picture of Boomer in 2004 - RIP.

Here are some photos of Mocha at 8wks old - she is quite photogenic :)

Here are 3 more photos of her at 12wks old. She is already quite athletic and if you look close enough you will see she is already a Hawkeye fan!!

This past weekend she turned 14wks old and we decided it was time for a bath.