Thanksgiving Eve

While I should be cooking and cleaning, preparing for TWO Thanksgiving meals over the next two days (one tomorrow at Jake's sister's house and one Friday at our house) I have decided to sit and blog while Owen naps.
After about 2 1/2 months of living in a constant state of sleep deprivation Jake and I finally decided to try the Ferber method for Owen's sleep schedule. After our trip to Oregon where we let him sleep with us in the bed and my bad habit of napping with him (in our bed) during the day he decided that he liked sleeping next to us better than alone in his crib...for some strange reason... but we tried keeping him in his crib and by the end of the night...every night...he ended up in our bed. None of us were sleeping well and all of us were cranky. So a little over a week ago we started the 'progressive-waiting approach' and although extremely hard for the first few days, I must say that we are all sleeping MUCH better for longer periods of time (instead of waking up 4-6 times a night he only wakes up once a night)...so yes, my sanity is still within reach, at least for now.

We don't have much time to do anything other than work and do the basic 'stuff' around the house because of our alternating schedules. We are in hopes that by next year, or so, we will have enough saved that we can start looking for land to purchase. We still don't know how we will support ourselves once said land is bought, but there's still plenty of time to figure that out, right??   
Well, I should probably go do something while the little man is still sleeping...

Grandma visits every week!!!

Owen loves new kitty Samas

And then there were none

After many, many months of going back and forth we finally found a new home for our dog Happy. Our greyhound, Eli, has been living with my sister and her family in Oregon for about 3 months because of his non-childfriendly characteristics...aka: I like to bite baby's faces... It has been a really hard decision since in essence, these two dogs were basically our kids for the last few years; we've picked up their poop, cleaned up their vomit, cuddled with them, played with them, arranged our schedules to make sure they get fed and let out on their schedule, arranged for dog sitters when we travel or take them with us...the list goes on and on...they have been our 4-legged kids...no question... but then comes our very own little man who is tiny and fragile and precious...and the decision had to be made to put him and his safety first. It took a couple of months to find a good fit for Happy, someone who could give her more attention and love than we have the ability to do now and when we saw how really happy Happy was with her and her family we knew we had made the right decision. In looking back (and hopefully not just trying to make myself feel better) I think it was almost selfish in keeping Happy because of the fact that we couldn't give her the love and attention that she was used to, she knew that she had been put on the back burner and that she wasn't our priority any more. That and the fact that she had also been known to try eating small children...
We love and miss our puppies, and will always treasure the time that they were in our lives and hopefully one day when our little man is older and bigger we can introduce him to the love that a dog can give (and the love you can give a dog), but for now we are just focusing on raising him, and giving him all of the love in our hearts.

Eli's 1st day home

Family pic

Puppy hug

Happy's homemade bed

Hiking dogs