Baby Duck...OUT!

One of our neighbors was here playing over the weekend and Joe saw that she was carrying a walkie talkie and thought that was a pretty cool idea to have so I can find Hope when she is playing in the neighborhood.

Hope's "handle" is Baby Duck, although she started out using Hopester.  Joe and Hope came up with  my "handle" of Mama D.  We have initially been calling Joe Daddy J, but not sure if that is what we have settled on.

So yesterday Hope carried it around the house and gave me a play by play of everything she was doing and ended everything with...baby duck, OUT!  Cracks me up.

I will admit, they are coming in quite handy as we are chatting right now as I type that I am heading down to get her in just a few minutes.

Not much else, so just a few cute Taylor/Hope pictures.  :)  I just can't help myself.

Taylor likes to lay on her back like this on Hope's legs.  So cute.

Hope took Taylor outside the other day in her slippers.  LOL!

Alright, and here a few miscellaneous cards to share too...

I love this card...one of my recent favorites.

The color on this one is a little crazy, so not sure what happened.  Oh well.

Alright, I need to go get Baby Duck.  This is Mama D, over and out!

Happy Birthday JOE!

Today is Joe's birthday.  We started celebrating earlier this week when his mom came to visit.  I found a recipe on Pinterest for mini pineapple upside down cakes.  They turned out great!  MMMMM!  I will be making this one again someday.

This morning we finally let him open his presents.  :)  Taylor was there helping unwrap them too (see her by Joe's knee).  LOL!

We got him a remote helicopter.

Joe and Hope tried it out inside the house this morning to see how it worked.  They had a lot of fun and nothing got broke (yet).  LOL!

Hope and I worked together to make this custom card just for Joe.  He thought it was actually a large gift card from the apple store.  :)

Alright...and now for more Taylor cuteness!  :)  You were warned...

My two (lucky) charms on St. Patrick's Day.

One night after Hope went to bed Taylor was missing her new bestie and hopped up on her pillow to cuddle. 

Grandma Karen had fun snuggling with Taylor.

And Taylor put Hope to bed one night for us too.  :)

Me and Taylor...oh what a cutie!  I can't get enough of her.  I might have to sneak her into my office tomorrow because I am not sure I can leave her home.  LOL!

Other Spring Break fun...Hope and I made play doh.  

Our neighbor came over to play too.

We went to Incredible Pizza and had fun there too.

...And Taylor had her first play date with the neighbor dog Max.  They had fun and we discovered that Taylor likes chew sticks.  :)

Wow, picture heavy post but we did a lot of stuff on Spring Break.  I wish I could take another week off, but I will have to settle for maybe taking a few days off over the next few months.

In honor of Joe's birthday, here are a few birthday cards to share...

Until next time...

Darla

7 years...

...ago today dad died from lung cancer.  As each year passes it is still hard to believe it has been another year.  So many things I have wanted to talk to him about.  I know he is watching Hope and is getting a kick out of everything she does.  And now our newest member of the family...Taylor.  He would have loved his newest grand puppy!  I am sure she would have bit him on the nose just like Reilly did when he was a puppy.  Makes me giggle thinking of when that happened.  :)

So we drove up to get our puppy Taylor.  She is a mini golden doodle.  We are in LOVE!!!!

Hope and Taylor are best buds already!

She has only had a few accidents the first night and day and since then has been letting us know by walking over to the front door.  We freaked out the first time we figured out what she was trying to tell us.  We laughed and said we have a genius dog!  LOL!

She is getting braver and doing more exploring and she REALLY likes to chew and bite our toes.  OUCH!

She is the perfect addition to our family and I think our house is truly a HOME now.  I can't believe I went that long without a dog.  I am loving it, even taking her outside in the middle of the night when it is snowing (it is March for crying out loud).  Spring can get here anytime.

Luckily, we are on spring break this week, so we are enjoying our time with Taylor and hanging out with Hope.  So far it has been a pretty great week, except Hope came down with Strep throat, so off to the doctor we went for meds.  Taylor had to go to for a general well check and get our schedule for the rest of her shots.

Anyway, here is a mixture of cards on the emotional roller coaster I have been on this week.  Enjoy!

Until next time...

Darla