Winnie's Got Spunk!

A couple of months ago we adopted a little calico kitten from the Salt Lake Humane Society, whom we named Winnie. Winnie has been a great kitten so far and has really tolerated all the love and attention each of the kids have given her. She even gets along with our other, much older cat, Pandora. Now that all of her shots are up-to-date the next step for her was to get declawed. Now I know most people think this is inhumane, but she's mostly an indoor cat and we don't want our furniture or carpet destroyed. Plus, we will have a newborn here next week! Our other cats had the procedure done when they were kittens and were fine.

Yesterday we dropped Winnie off at the Banfield clinic (located inside Petsmart) and returned this morning to pick her up. Before the nurse brought her back out to us, she warned us that Winnie was wearing a cone. I thought that was a little weird since none of our other cats ever had that, but then she informed us that when they arrived this morning, Winnie's cage was covered in blood and she was wagging her front paws at the nurses. Apparently, Winnie didn't like her bandages and had ripped them off sometime during the night. This resulted in her getting a cone put on to help ensure her paws would heal. (I think she actually hates the cone worse than the bandages!)

On the way home we had to stop off at Wal-Mart so Noah could use the bathroom ("Mom, it's an emergency!") and I had to purchase a different type of cat litter for Winnie. I left the windows cracked a couple of inches each and ran inside with the kids. We were seriously only in there about 10 minutes. When we returned, we found that Winnie had somehow managed to get out of the cone and she was panting super heavy. She was also making some weird sort of gagging noise. Freaking out a little, I quickly drove over to a different PetsMart, located in the Wal-Mart parking lot, and ran her inside. The nurses, even though on a lunch break, took her in the back and checked her temperature. It was over 105 degrees. They called our vet (at the other PetsMart) and were informed that if it didn't go back down in 10 minutes I'd have to take her back to them. Luckily, it dropped to about 103.4 and I was able to take her back. They assumed that she had just become stressed out from the ride home and maybe even freaked out a little when we left her alone to run inside Wal-Mart for a couple of minutes. Poor kitty! At least I can feel better knowing it wasn't strictly the heat. Now that she's home, she's devoured an entire can of Fancy Feast and has drank almost half a bowl of water. The poor cat is already being chased around by the kids who claim they are "watching her to be safe."

Scooters and a Princess Bike

The past few months we have trying to get the boys to ride their bikes without their training wheels. Seeing little kids, some as young as 3-years old, riding their bikes should have been initiative enough, but it wasn't. After taking off both training wheels, putting one back on, and lots of frustration, we gave up for a while. Jeremy then decided that once the new baby was born, he'd use some of his PTO to really get the boys to ride. After all, they are five and seven! It's about time!

One of the websites we researched agreed with what some of our other neighbors had told us- let them learn to ride on a scooter first. Both boys had scooters since that's what their Grandpa and Grandma Frye gave them for Christmas, but we wanted them to learn to ride their bikes first. We thought the scooters would hinder, not help. Boy, were we wrong! We broke out their scooters a couple of weeks ago and they've been riding them almost everyday. Then, last night on our walk to the school playground, we ran into our neighbors, the Perez's. Their one daughter was riding a smaller bike without training wheels and had sat it down. Noah went over to it, picked it up, and without a second thought, began riding all over the playground. We were utterly shocked! When did this happen?! After Noah rode a few minutes on her bike, Jackson wanted to try. He, too, was able to do it! We were completely amazed. Both of our boys were actually riding a bike without training wheels! It didn't matter that it was smaller or that it was a Princess bike, they were riding, all on their own! We quickly returned home to try out their own bikes and sure enough they could still do it. The scooters must have paid off. If only we had really known!

Both of the boys wanted to ride their bikes this morning. They have discovered more freedom now since we don't make them just stick to the sidewalk in front of our house.

Watch out for these speed demons!

Our Little Green Thumbs

The kids and I started planting our tiny 4x4 square foot garden back in April. Despite crummy temperatures, lots of June rain and a few minor "replants", our garden has finally taken off. It would be nice to have more space, but for now, this little garden box is the perfect size for the kids to handle and enjoy. This year the kids and I changed out our Junebearing strawberries for the everbearing type. These crazy strawberries definitely have a mind of their own as we have runners everywhere (I am constantly trimming these back)! They also planted sweet peas, blue lake green beans, bush zuchinni, bush cucumbers, marigolds, beefsteak tomatoes, grape tomatoes, a couple of raspberry bushes (the bushes are actually located in the planters on the side yard) and a bunch of various flowers. The kids have been enjoying finding and devouring the strawberries and we ate some of the peas about two weeks ago. We picked some beans today, the tomatoes are starting to turn colors, and we have some little zuchinni that should be ready in a couple of days. Too bad our kids won't even eat (let alone try) most of what we've planted!

Noah with the peas he and Jackson picked

Jackson with the peas he and Noah picked

Heritage Park

A little over a month ago, when a bunch of family members visited, we all went up to Heritage Park in Salt Lake City to tour the pioneer sites. The kids' favorite area was the small petting zoo where lots of brand new baby animals roamed that they could touch and hold. They also enjoyed the pony rides.

Also during our visit to the park, we adopted our newest family member. The Humane Society of Utah was having an adoption fair and the kids fell in love with many of the kittens available. We begrudingly settled on a small, 3-month old, shorthair calico kitten which we named Winnie. This poor kitten didn't know what she was in for at the time...