Quinn Winter Wonderland

About a year ago I posted a picture of these two, and Rizzo was greatly dwarfed by Osgood. Now its not so. Rizzo and Osgood are the best of pals, and Rizzo and Franklin are really great pals too. Lucky for us that Osgood tolerates Franklin for the most part.

I started having more allergy problems with our cats so we finally gave them baths. Rizzo was extremely upset, and didn't cooperate very well. He sure looks cool when he's wet though because you can see that his fur is actually white underneath. We've realized that if we ever shaved Rizzo he really would be an all white cat when it grew back. Some fur fell off his toes when he was declawed and it grew back completely white. Weird, huh?!












Osgood is a good sport when it comes to baths. Early on he's learned that if he just lets us wash him, its over with sooner. Because they are officially indoor cats they don't get baths very often. I'm just glad he's remembered to cooperate.


I have been so bad at getting pictures lately. It didn't help that I lost the charger for the camera, and its not powered by regular batteries. Thanks to Franklin it ended up behind the couch, and I just had this feeling to look there. We went out on Sunday to get some pictures. If you go back to older posts you'll see some pictures taken from this same area; I think its from May, and June.



I've also realized that I'm usually the one holding the camera so it was nice to have a turn on the others side of the shot.

Franklin is awed by the snow. He has picked it up, and we've been prepared for him to get upset by the cold, but he has yet to cry, or get mad.

Even as I write this we are getting a fresh blanket of snow. I know most of you who read this are used to the desert, and may even love the desert. I just have to say there is something so beautiful, peaceful, and pure about snow. It really makes it feel even more like Christmas to us. We truly love it here, and having the snow really seals the deal. We would love to have any/all of you come to visit us, and get to be a part of what we live in everyday.

Video's Below

I finally got those videos to load. They are at the bottom of our blog. You might want to turn off the christmas music, especially if you want to hear Franklin's chatter on the drawing video.

1st video: We went to a friends apartment for dinner this last Sunday, and we didn't bring enough of his own toys to occupy him, so they brought out at pinwheel. He tried to blow on it to make it spin like daddy was doing.

2nd video: Rizzo (and Franklin for that matter, but he's not in this video) loves the tree, and the decorations. Rizzo even tries to eat the tree, after all he likes to eat plastic; he's definitely not the brightest cat, but at least he makes us laugh.

3rd video: This is the one of Franklin drawing. He LOVES to draw! He talks as he draws, so listen closely. I will warn you it is a long video.

If you haven't read our latest blog that I posted yesterday make sure you read it!
Merry Christmas!

Looking back

Today is December 9th, 2008. For the past few weeks I've been remembering a lot of events, and occurances over the past few years that have taken place about this time of year. So here's a few thoughts from me.

A few months ago this BBQ Pit restraunt opened on the north side of town. When I drive by it reminds me of when my family lived in Martinez, Georgia while my dad was stationed at Ft. Gordon. Driving home from school everyday on the bus I smelled that same smell. As a child I always thought it was some one grilling, and never bothered to think "Why would a person grill every day?" So this smell took me back 20 years, and now I know why it smelled like that every day.

It's almost 8 years since I twisted my knee, and had to use crutches for a month, and drive using my left leg. I did get to use a handi-capped card for parking. Just to fill you in I was playing freeze tag with a bunch of guys (and only one other girl who they wouldn't tackle, just me, go figure) at the city park, and when I jumped off the merry-go-round I landed badly, and tore some cartilage in my right knee. I didn't hurt till the next morning.

5 years ago Stephen and I had just begun dating. I knew right away he was the one and instead of me being the one persuing him, who never had a girlfriend before, I let him take things at his own pace. On Christmas Night we kissed for the first time, and nearly two weeks later I was in the hospital with a kidney stone. (No, he didn't give me a kidney stone, the city water did) Stephen was being warned by many relatives that this is how things would be if he stayed with me (ironically they weren't too far from the truth).

4 years ago I fainted during a concert in Colonial Juarez, Mexico, and still don't know why that had been happening to me. I should have listened to my band director, who told me not to go on this tour, but I was afraid of being kicked out of choir and choraleers. Tom was right, and my health did get worse. A few months later it went away, and I never have had fainting problems again.

3 years ago we lost our dear Noxie, and in Generals grief we adopted Osgood. Its actually an interesting story on how we found him; we were driving around looking for a pet store. We started arguing because I couldn't stand how Stephen was driving and that we weren't anywhere near where I wanted to be. We pulled over so we could switch drivers and lo and behold there was a pet store we never knew about. At that point Osgood chose us by jumping into Stephen's arms and would NOT let go.

2 years ago we lost General. That was the worst thing that could happen at that time. I was in a very dangerous place even when he was there, and losing him was more devastating than any of you will ever know. General was nearly just as human as he was a cat. He was our little boy, and had a lot of child-like traits. Unless you knew him it isn't possible for me to explain what his loss meant to us. But in a matter of days (and almost to the day today) we found out we were pregnant.

Last year, after moving up here, we saw how lonely Osgood was. Back in Sierra Vista he still had playmates, but he was our only cat, so he moved up here alone. We were determined to get a female cat, and didn't even bother looking at any males. Luckily for Rizzo he was believed to be female, and his paper work said so. We didn't think we were quite ready to bring home another cat, but something made us decide this kitten was it. We brought home Daphne, and a month later renamed him Rizzo.

Now that the year is coming to a close it is definitely ending better than it began for us. For the many of you who don't know I am pregnant again. I am 12 weeks along, and due June 23rd. Today I listened to the heart beat, and Franklin was a little concerned about what he was hearing and became upset when they took the doppler off and we stopped hearing it.

We were also hoping we could announce that we were moving (staying in Utah County) but we've decided to wait a little while longer. I called our primary president and she was thrilled we weren't moving. She also confessed that she didn't know what to do about our class next year because they were the only class she couldn't find a teacher for. Our class has been very sad, and upset when we originally told them we were going to move. One of them was actually very mad and said he won't come to church anymore when we leave. Now that we are going to stay where we are we keep our class, and even move up to teaching just valiant 12, instead of 11 and 12. I think I'll bring them something nice on Sunday to tell them we're staying.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Minus the snow it's really looking like Christmas around here. We put up our tree earlier this week and Rizzo and Franklin are facinated. Don't forget, Rizzo likes to eat plastic, and we have a fake tree; are you getting the picture? Decorations on the tree are an added extra, especially for Franklin. I love fake trees, especially when they are pre-lit, like ours, but for years I've had trouble with them. After we put the tree up and fruffed it out I broke out in a rash on my arms soon followed by welts.

Thanksgiving was very calm and quiet. Greta allowed us to use her home with her large kitchen, and it made cooking very easy. Our turkey was done before I thought it would be so I had to quickly heat up the rest of the meal; good thing I put it all together, ready to be heated up. Afterward Stephen told me it was the best tasting feast yet. We had some leftovers, but it didn't take us long to finish it off. It still took a few days, but not all that's left is turkey legs. I did find an awesome recipe for apple pie; definitely the best I've found yet!

I had some videos of Franklin but I've been frustrated because they won't finish downloading to YouTube. One video is of Franklin drawing. He LOVES to draw. He had been walking around with a marker (yay for washable markers) and found some paper. I took the cap off so he could draw, and he went at it. He'd make a few marks, and then stop to talk about it, then draw some more. He did this for a very long time, and he stayed on the paper. Also at my birthday dinner we tried to get Franklin to nod his head because he always shakes his head. He ended up rocking his whole body and laughing. He was extremely cute!

Franklin is also cutting more teeth right now. About 4 or 5 at once, poor thing, but I'm excited for him to have more teeth, and be able to chew a lot more things. But because of his teething, not only has he been drooling a lot, he's lost his appetite. I'm trying to keep his belly full, so luckily he loves his milk, and occasionally will munch on something.