Puppies and kittens and Christmas . . .Oh My!

You've probably noticed I haven't blogged in quite a while. The reason for this is that I am not good at keeping secrets - especially when those secrets involve my daily life.

Shortly after Thanksgiving, Erik & I drove North and picked out a puppy to give to Travis's family for Christmas.

Meet Holly. She was named on Christmas after her family officially received her. During her three week stay at our house she was referred to as "puppy," "blackie" and "Sissy." She may also believe her name is "Treat" because I was always yelling that when I wanted her to return to the house.

About a week after we picked up Holly, Erik, his mom & the kids travelled to Ohio to get another puppy for Erik's dad. Here is Maggie holding the yet to be named puppy. He was called "Brownie" for the time he was at my house.I could fib and tell you these puppies overtook my life and I spent every moment caring for, cleaning up after and training these two beasts. But, that would be an obvious lie. As evidenced by this picture.

The pups quickly adapted to crate training and this became the normal state of puppiness at our house. Can't you tell they were just horrid? I don't know how I got anything decorated, baked or bought for Christmas because all of my time was spent caring for puppies. Yeah, right. My kids were harder to wrangle this month!

Holly's first night with us we were afraid she would be lonely, so we brought Roscoe/Hank in to live with her. He was not so thrilled about learning to crate train two years into his life. His expression here is: I AM NOT A PUPPY!

Little "Brownie" is about 7 weeks younger than Holly so he had a lot to learn. Holly was an angel, never making a mess on the floor, eating her food properly and lady like, leaving her crate and heading right out the door and promptly scratching the door when she wanted back in. Brownie would take two steps out of the crate and would mess on the floor. (Did I mention how grateful I am for the concrete floor in my sunroom?) He also liked to use his paw to tip his food bowl over and spill food all over the floor to eat it. Messy. We had to carry him to the door, shove him outside, and hurridly shut the door on him so he wouldn't sneak back in. He was not fond of the snow and cold.
I don't think we were able to pull our secrets off. Travis saw the pups one night after I tried SO hard to keep them secret. I had threatened the kids within an inch of their lives about keeping the puppies a secret. I didn't blog because I was afraid I would accidentally say something about the puppies in a post. One night while Erik & Travis were helping a friend with some car problems, I left the pups out for their final bathroom break before bed and I didn't know that Travis was coming back to the house and he saw them outside. Bill also saw the pups before the big day, but we tried to convince him that we got two puppies - one for Taylor and one for Chet.

Bill seemed pretty surprised Christmas morning and most of the other Schwalm's were excited to receive Holly. We also gave Taylor a kitten, so she was way more interested in that little ball of fur.

Thus ends the story of why I didn't post for over a month. Things are going to change! I've got lots of pictures and even some video to post of our Christmas activities. Lots of fun! Here are some preview pictures. My little angels had a wonderful Christmas and we're looking forward to an amazing New Year as we anticipate the arrival of baby #4 in June. I'm already 17 weeks!

Thanksgiving weekend at the Lezzer Farm

Christmas Morning waiting on the stairs for Mimi & Papa Ralph and Donna & Danny to arrive to watch us open our gifts.

Christmas morning after the gift opening and all the gifts shoved under the tree.