Happy Halloween

Bri did a great job at carving her pumpkin almost by herself this year, I think she did a great job!

She loves to trick-or-treat with her cousin Courtney. They had so much fun being dressed as spies together!

Puppy training

My friend Jodi just got a new dog and I was sending her an email about how we trained Yeager. As I got going I decided this would be a fun blog post.

When we first got Yeager he was only 8 weeks old and I was fortunate to be home all day with him. I took him outside about every 1 to 1-1/2 hours for the first few weeks, then stretched up to 2 and 3 hours. He goes out first thing in the morning and last thing at night.

When he is taken outside we actually have a "potty spot" that he has to go to the bathroom in. His urine burns our lawn and JT doesn't want to clean his messes before daring to walk around the lawn! When we trained him outside I would put his leash on him and take him directly to his potty spot. He had to stay there until he had gone to the bathroom, after that I would let him off the leash and let him run around and play. It took about 2 months of taking him on his leash to the potty spot until he finally got it, then probably another six months or so of me going outside with him and making sure he went to the right spot, otherwise he would find a "naughty potty" spot to use, and that would just negate all of the work we had done.
Inside if he was not right with me he was in his crate. I have little beds or blankets in the main rooms that I spend time in for him to lay on when he is with me. As a puppy I would put him on his leash and hook his leash to my belt so that he had to follow me around. I didn't have to do that too much until he got used to it and he is 3-1/2 now and still loves to follow me around. It sometimes drives Bri crazy because she will be playing with him and he will stop to follow me if I leave the room!

His crate is his own space where he slept for about two years and would spend time when we were tired of dealing with him, had visitors or were gone. We tried not to put him in his crate as a punishment if he was naughty. He didn't prove himself until about a year ago when we went up to Rexburg to see the new temple. We left at 4:00 on a Friday afternoon and asked our neighbor to come over and let him outside before they went to bed and put him in his crate, then come back when they got up in the morning and let him out of his crate and let him go outside to use the bathroom. (We were letting him stay out of his crate because we were going to be gone so long and it was too cold for him to spend the day outside.) Well, the next morning I called at about 10:30 to see how he did and she frieked out because she totally forgot about him. He hadn't been out since 4:00 the day before and he hadn't chewed up anything or gone even to the bathroom on my carpet! He is now officially a GOOD DOG!

We also decided on clear and simple commands to train him. Things that the entire family knows and can be consistent with. Just saying "NO" doesn't get the point across, you have to say "no chew", "no bark", "no bite", etc. Likewise, you have to praise the good things with "good sit", "good chew" (when he chews on his toy instead of something naughty!), etc. We actually decided all of the things that were important for us to train him not to do and the things that we would praise him for and made a list and put it on the fridge so we could all see it and remember it.

When we decided to train Yeager to do tricks we had a lot of fun. We got some small cracker treats (they are about the size of a dime) and we would say "roll over", then have to physically roll him over so that he could feel the motion, then say "good roll over" and give him a treat. We did that over and over for about 15 minutes at a time. He eventually got to where he would try to do it on his own because he really wanted the treat. Now he will do it even if there isn't a treat waiting for him. He can play dead (We say "bang" and he plays dead). He can also do "high five" and "circle" where he turns in a circle. To teach him circle we would just swing the treat around his head and he would turn around trying to keep his eye on it, then we would say "good circle" and he would get the treat. It was actually the easiest one to teach!

It was frustrating at times, but actually became fun as I became more attatched to Yeager. Now he is so much fun and we are grateful for the time we spent at the beginning to train him to be a GOOD DOG!

Impromptu family reunion!

We had an impromptu family reunion this weekend. JT's brother and his family moved to Colorado two years ago and they have not been able to come for a visit until this weekend. We were so happy to see them! We were able to get the entire family together and spend the afternoon visiting!

(Just for the record, it was not my idea to stand in front of JT, I was one step down but kept saying that I was blocking him and he said that I was fine...so why is he peeking around from BEHIND me!)

More fun with the family

We had fun just hanging out and visiting! This is a few fun pics that I took.

Katie-Bug has grown up way too much! (Fourteen and BEAUTIFUL!)

Kyle

Jeremy and JT

Shaunaleen, Jeremy, Christina and Bri

Keely and Vanessa

Lisa(Andrew's new fiance), Andrew and Je'Leen

Geocaching

James and Chris and their family have started Geocaching, he wanted to check out a few caches near where we were. It was fun to tag along and see what fun it can be!

Bri really enjoyed the hunt...

Yeager did not...

A tiny find hidden inside a drilled out bolt!

Christmas in October

We exchanged Christmas gifts before heading home. Bri loves her new Karaoke machine! Even Yeager got into the spirit of things, chewing and shredding all of the wrapping paper. Bri had such a fun day playing with her cousins Katie, Kyson and Kyle!

Pumpkin Patch

Tonight we were invited by a brother in our ward to visit his family's farm and pick pumpkins. The farm is just a few miles down the road and we had a lot of fun visiting and Bri got to ride his horse, Lady. We picked some fun pumpkins and gourds, I am excited to decorate the house with them! I didn't get pictures of the pumpkin patch because my hands were full of gourds!

Something is missing

Every year since Bri was a one-year-old I have been sewing her Halloween costume. This year she decided she wanted to be a spy and it ended up that there is nothing to sew....so....I feel a little unfulfilled. Here is a look back at all the fun we have had with her costumes.

This is the only costume that we have bought, but she made such a cute pumpkin!

Witches, with her cousins Courtney and Alex

Snow White (Marf had to help me a little with this one)

Cheerleader (must be U of U, we had to be faithful to JT's school!)

Daphne from Scooby Doo (She had a very long Scooby Doo phase)

A beautiful bride (I even did some bead work on the top, but you can't see it in the picture)

Princess Leah (Loved the BUNS!)

Violet Incredible

A 50's girl with a poodle skirt (Okay, Marf had to make the white leotard because my sewing machine wouldn't sew on the fabric...thanks Marf!)

A genie...this is one of my favorites and was a lot of fun to make, check out the lamp...that was her candy bag!

Poor dog...

Yeager is my furry child, so he gets costumes too. But even this year he is going to have to do without a new costume, he will have to wear one of his old ones. Last year JT wanted him to be a cow and I wanted him to be Underdog, so I made him two costumes but I ended up liking the cow better...check out the UDDERS! : ) It may look humiliating for him...but he really likes to wear them. He gets super excited when we get out anything for him to wear, even his costumes!