Family Pics

We had a not so great family photo session...summer is not a great time for these types of shoots...even in the morning it was hot and sticky which made for non-compliant kids and a bad hair day.  The photographer (whom we were using for the first - and last - time) took us to a barn...which sounded like a good idea, except there were probably 50 cats and kittens roaming about...which meant that the kids went in to a kitten-chasing trance and we couldn't get them to stay still or even look at the camera.  So, needless to say, it was a wasted effort...but there were a few shots that weren't awful...I guess...

This might have been the only family picture where we are all looking at the camera

Yep...that's about it...maybe one year we will get a good family shot for the Christmas Card!

Summer in Pictures

Well, we are officially in to Fall now so I guess it is time I caught up on my summer posts...since a full rehash of all of the summer events might be more than I can accomplish I will just put up some pics to recount some of the highlights...

We did a lot of playing around town this summer...this pic was from the Butterfly Festival at the Chattahoochee Nature Center.

Michael and I had a little getaway to Santa Fe in July.  I had to attend a conference for work but it was very spouse friendly so we got to spend a lot of time together in between sessions...and luckily the insurance carriers hosted some really nice events for us.  The picture below was from a vineyard where we had wine tastings and also attended a cooking demonstration with The Santa Fe Cooking School where we prepared our meal.  It was a really nice (hot) afternoon.

 And, we spent an extra day out there to explore the scenery a little more...we hiked up to a lake at 11,000 ft which was really beautiful.  I wasn't prepared to be cold in Santa Fe in July though!

 And, while it was really nice to get away, it was just as great to come home and play with these little monkeys.  The slip and slide got a lot of action this summer...

And oh yeah...we have a cute puppy too...  :)

The Furry Little Reason for My Lack of Blogging

I have lots of excuses for not blogging in over a month:

1) We just got a MacBook and I am oddly terrified of it...it feels so different from my normal Windows world that I just haven't taken the time to figure things out.
2) I always expect summer to be relaxing and lowkey but really it is just crazy and lacking structure (which brings about exhaustion!)
3) This little monkey joined our family almost 2 weeks ago and it has turned my household upside down (and brought about further exhaustion!):

This is Max (for now...Nate named him but we aren't quite sold on it yet).  He is the sweetest little guy and he won us over from the start.  But, as we knew, puppies are a challenge...I think house training a puppy is harder than sleep training a newborn!  The good news is, after our first couple of nights where Michael and I took turns sleeping in front of his crate to keep him settled, he sleeps through the night!  And he is happy in his crate so that part is going well...now if I could just housebreak him overnight....

He was a rescue so we aren't quite sure what he is (mom was Australia Sheppard but that's all we know) or how big he will be.  

They boys are getting used to him...they love taking him for walks and playing with him...and it has been a great motivator for keeping toys picked up!  But the occasional puppy nip or scratch can set them off...Matthew has gotten very good at yelling "No Max!  Bad Puppy!"

As crazy as puppy life is, it is still nice to have a dog back in our lives.