A Musical Happy New Year

I was looking for a unique way to wish all our Blogging buddies a Happy New Year

YouTube - dog lang syne

Not to be out-done "Bart" most certainly does his racing name "Broadway" proud- he is quite the singer!
But note how he stops on a dime when Mark says "I think that's enough".
If you need a nice rich baritone to add to your choir, please contact VAGA.

Broadway in Virginia

I can tell that there will be LOTS of photo ops. with our new friend Broadway Bark. This big, SOLID, fellow, is so friendly !, And he seems to be up for anything!
During our first walk he wanted to climb all the snow banks- making us think he must be a New Yorker ( & familiar with snow) rather than a Florida boy.
I do have a confession though- when we told Will that his name was Broadway Bark- Will started calling him "Bart" so now we are all calling him "Bart"- sorry.
"Bart" is a very confident boy.
Toys and video games that make loud odd noises are interesting to him-

and on occasion we even catch him watching television.
I don't have a picture of it yet, but as the kids were playing Wii- and flailing their arms around- instead of being afraid, "Bart" was right there in the middle of them leaning up against them and asking to be petted.
He did WONDERFULLY on our trip to PetCO yesterday charming everyone he met-we predict he will be a STELLAR Meet and Greet ambassadog (but it still takes a little convincing to actually get him into the car).
I think it is pretty obvious that he has no personal space issues (though Hero does not seem thrilled about the idea of having a room mate :).- The silly boy just followed Hero into his crate.
He has started hoarding toys, and will pick up the toys we throw for him and stash them in his (or Hero's) crate. I bet in time this will be a greyhound that actually plays fetch!

Did I mention that he is a BIG Goofy boy?

If you think "Bart" is the dog for you and your family please contact VAGA
www.virginiagreyhounds.org

How are y'all doin?

This has been quite an exciting week.
While we did not have lots of company for Christmas, when you have 5 kids (+ my oldest son's girlfriend) the house is already full.
One of the favorite gifts this year is the Wii :

One small drawback is after 3 days of playing- none of us can raise our arms (Wii-itis)

Last night the guys of the family went to the Capitals hockey game :

(yay- they won!)

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This morning the girls and I got an early start and headed down to Fredericksburg to pick up a house guest. It was really cold and foggy.

Lucky for us Optimus Prime decided to show us the way :)

The hauler arriving in the parking lot.
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This is Boc's Jet Leg (aka Jean)

And this Handsome fellow is Broadway Bark.

Broadway Bark will be visiting with us for a while.

Alaina whispers sweet nothings in Broadway's Ear.

There are lots of hands more than ready to do some petting at our house

But right now, I think we could all use a nap.
More updates soon....

Merry Christmas

We wish all our "Blogger Buddies" a Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy, New Year!
Here's hoping you get everything you're wishing for.....

Blizzard of 2009

Yup- I went there... I called it a blizzard.

This is what greets us at the back door.

16 + inches and it is still falling

Hero says "what the Heck is this nonsense?"

Can you find Pepsi in this picture?
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And the required Alaina Facebook shots :)

Happy Birthday !

Happy Birthday to my Best Friend.
(No, not Hero.)

A walk in the park

This could almost be a wordless post- I think the pictures pretty much speak for themselves :)

A Beautiful day, with Gorgeous Dogs:

Sky
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Hero
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Mia
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Sirius
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Abby
(but who let Abby watch "New Moon"?)
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The next few pictures are so sweet they make my teeth hurt :)

Will and 10 week old puppy Jack
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Hero greets Jack

Being Artsy

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.
One of the things I gave the children to do to keep them busy while I was cooking dinner, was to decorate cupcakes as turkeys.
I think they are almost recognizable as turkeys....
but as time went on, and fingers got messy- well.....

yum, huh?, I think they may be worthy of www.cakewrecks.com .

I would like to share my newest "painting" project with you, but being that it is planned as a Christmas gift, I guess it must stay under wraps for a while longer....

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

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A day of Good-byes

Saturday was a pretty emotional day at our household.
First we drove Rumor down to Glen Allen to meet her prospective new family.
She seemed quite taken with her potential new "parents" and sibling Marley (a very sweet retriever mix). Unfortunately, she and the feline member of the family seemed less sure of one another. Thus Rumor is attending the Ridlon's feline boot-camp this week (you can follow her progress at their blog- Life's little Moments- ) We are confident that they (and their kitty) will convince her that house cats are friends and not food :)
While we are glad that our sweet girl is that much closer to her forever couch (a couch that she will be welcome to lie on, we were told- good thing, because evidently we didn't totally break her of that habit :)
It is always hard to say good-bye...
The other good bye has a less positive end.
Titan, the green American tree frog that Alaina raised from a tadpole for her science class, died Saturday.
I have to admit that when Alaina started the project I did not actually expect him to survive long enough to finish his metamorphosis.
But he did. We got to watch him sprout legs, lose his tail, etc.
Thanks for sharing your short life with us Titan...

What a pair!

Between the rainy weather, and all the viruses going around, it has been over a month since we have met up with any of our friends for a hike.
(We have been working up to it with our park outings, however)
Sunday all the planets aligned, everyone was healthy, and we were able to enjoy Amazing fall weather for a 3 mile hike.
Hero showed Rumor the ropes...

they almost look like conjoined twins - joined at the shoulder :)
They may walk alike and bark alike, but they do NOT think alike !
Rumor gets very excited seeing rabbits, squirrels, cats, (and falling leaves ;)
Hero finds those things; boring, mundane, totally beneath him- literally, (considering how large our Hero is). But he certainly got very excited when we saw horses and deer (which Rumor completely ignored-)
(Sorry, I tried to get a picture of the large herd of deer (8? maybe) we saw crossing the field, but by the time I got my camera out and turned on, they were gone)

After our hike, I decided that between sharing the trail with horses (use your imagination) and the fact that the dogs have had drier/ flakier skin lately ( I blame it on the crazy weather ) a bath/spa was in order (complete with oatmeal shampoo and conditioner).
I did not take a picture in the tub (I had my hands full between shampooing, rinsing and keeping the greyhounds from getting wobbly :)

Here is bathing beauty Rumor after her bath- note the front legs...

Halloween (in review)

Halloween did not go quite as expected this year.

I came down with the flu, so my dear husband, Doug, had to pitch-hit when it came to some of the regular activities:

Such as pumpkin picking...
and carving:

That is how we ended up with this very scary jack-o-lantern , sporting the Redskins' record :)

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I recovered enough to bring the kids (those with fur and those without) to the ASPCA's Halloween celebration. But the cloudy/ drizzly weather caused their turn out to be pretty disappointing.

Rumor being Alaina's shadow.

Rumor did get to meet a few new friends.

We were a little concerned about the amount of interest she showed in the "pocket" sized pups.

But in the end she did very well.

Hero being dignified (as always).

Homemade Lady Finger cookies - lol.

No not an angel and a devil- Genna is Galadriel from Lord of the Rings and Will is a dragon.

- check out the ears.