Home made bird feeders

I was needing an indoor activity to do with Morgan because it has been so cold out lately. I wanted to find something simple that she could basically do by herself with just a little coaching. So I thought a bird feeder would be great.

I think everyone has made one of these in their life. You just take a empty toilet paper roll and then cover the outside with peanut butter. After that, you roll it in bird seed and hang it in a tree. Voila! You're done. :) So simple.

Christmas/catch up

I took a total of three pictures on Christmas. It started off with Morgan sleeping in. Which NEVER happens. All I can think is that it took her forever to fall asleep the night before in anticipation of Santa coming that she wore herself out.  It was actually a good thing she did though because I had to prepare food for later on at my sister's house. I originally thought I would do it the night before, but I didn't get around to it.

Morgan's Santa present was a play kitchen. She was pretty excited about that which was fun to see. She also got a floor puzzle, candyland, a leapster game, 3 gabba gabba beanie babies to complete her collection, my little pony bubble bath and several other little things that I am forgetting.

That's it! Those are the three pictures I took. I can't believe it. I guess  I was just caught up in Morgan's first real "Santa" Christmas and watching her enjoy it.

After we opened presents we went to my sister's house and had lunch and played board games. It was all pretty relaxing except for towards the end when both Kevin and my sister started feeling sick :(.

Morgan has grown so much since we have moved to Tn. She really loves when she has opportunities to help. I asked her if she wanted to help me wash the pots and pans and she jumped at the chance.

I have also noticed a little bit of "sibling rivalry" since wet Ruca. Morgan has noticed that we have to give Ruca quite a bit of attention because she is so young and because of it she a lot more interested in things like having her picture taken.

Lastly, here are a couple of pictures to show you how quickly this pup has grown.

Gotta love those ears!

Well here we are at a brand new year. I can't wait to see what 2013 has in store for the Shaw's. Happy new year everyone!

Morgan's 3rd

For Morgan's third birthday, I couldn't decide if I was going to have a big party for her and invite her little church friends or if I was going to just do a low key family thing. Her birthday falls right among all of the Christmas chaos and I found out our ward Christmas party was actually ON her birthday. SO....I decided for the low key family option. I think maybe next year I will have a bigger party, but plan to have it before thanksgiving so she doesn't get lost among the hustle and bustle.

My sister, her grandkids, my sister-in-law and nieces and nephew came over from Cookeville to help us celebrate. We met up at the Opryland hotel and checked out all of the Christmas decorations that they had up. Then after that we came back to our house for dinner, cake and ice cream.

I was pretty proud of my number 3 cake. It is made out of two bundt cakes put together. Morgan picked strawberry and funfetti as her two flavors. The version of this I saw on pinterest had stripes all down the cake made out of m&m's. I just didn't have to patience for something like that :).

I'm really glad I went with a small family party. She had a blast! I know we have plenty of b'day parties in our future, but I'm ok with getting away with the small ones while I can.

Meet Ruca!

This is our new puppy Ruca.

She is an Australian Blue Heeler (cattle dog) and she is super energetic!

Kevin and I have been married for 6 yrs and we have always wanted a dog, but we always lived in apartments and felt like it just wouldn't be fair to keep a dog in such a small place. Now we  have a yard and a little more room so we thought we could make it work.

We love going to pet stores and making a date night out of playing with puppies and seeing which breed we like the most, but pet stores can be really expensive and if you buy from a breeder they will definitely be expensive. So we looked on CRAIGSLIST :). First time looking we found an ad with pictures of these adorable puppies and we had to check it out.

They were 6 weeks old which is the very earliest you can take a pup from their mama and they man who was selling them said their was only 1 female left out of 5! I think I would have talked myself out of getting her just for a different reason or another, but Kevin gave me a push because I have always wanted a dog. So we got her.

We named her Ruca and you are not alone if you are questioning why. I think almost everyone we tell her name to responds with "How did you come up with that?" Well, originally I liked Veruca like Veruca salt from Willy Wonka, but Kevin vetoed that and I think I'm glad he did. I like just Ruca so much better. Ok, I will also admit that in high school I had a Sublime phase and I really liked that song "Waiting for my Ruca". Either way,  Ruca it is.

I think it was on the 3rd day we had her I was ready to give her back. I have never potty trained a puppy before and they have bladders the size of grapes. I felt like I was constantly in and out and in and out of the house. If I was a second too long I was getting out the carpet cleaner. I also felt like I was being used as a chew toy. I was ready to throw in the towel, but Kevin wouldn't let me. Instead, I checked out some books from the library that the vet recommended to me and started getting educated on just what I should do. It helped A LOT. Now she goes to the door every time she needs to potty and gives us a little more than a second to respond. She still likes to nibble, but it is getting better.

Morgan is her biggest fan. Even if Ruca is jumping up trying to bite her or steal a toy, if I get mad at her, Morgan always tries to tell me it's ok. She says Ruca is her best friend. They are more like siblings with a love/hate relationship at this point, but I know once Ruca matures a little bit and knows how she is expected to behave it will be love only.

Family photos

This year we actually had professional pictures taken. Hooray!! My mother has been sending me coupons to JC Penney and Olan Mills as long as Morgan has been alive, but I have never used them. I know both she and my mother-in-law will be happy to get some nice pictures.

Our photographer was great! She was really good and working with Morgan and getting her to sit still long enough to get some good shots. I was really happy with how everything turned out.

Thanksgivng 2012

This year for thanksgiving a lot of my family drove up to my sister Melissa's house in North Carolina. Kevin had never been there before so we had planned with Melissa to stay a few days and visit.

 All of Morgan's cousins from the Archer side minus two. Lezleas's kids couldn't make it.

 Gingerbread Train

Collin is learning how to play the guitar. Something that I have always wanted to do. He is pretty good too :)

Morgan and Adam watching a movie.

On our extended visit we did a little sight seeing. We drove over to Mt. Airy, the home town of Mr. Andy Griffith. We checked out Mayberry , the Andy Griffith museum, and ate at Andy's favorite little hole in the wall. Everyone kept talking about this amazing pork chop sandwich and there was a line out the door. Well I tried it and Eh, but when in Rome right?

After we left Mayberry we drove of to Pilot Mountain and checked out the view and take these silly pictures on rocks because we do that :).

The next day Ted, my brother-in-law, took us shooting. This was kind of a big deal for me because I have never shot a gun before and frankly, I have been scared of them. I was ready to get over that and I really enjoyed myself.

Blaine is so much cooler than me!

We had a really nice visit. It went by super quickly.I sure do love my family.