Too cute for words...

More documentation...

Today was another beautiful day (80 degrees) which made for some great weather for taking more photos of the flowers in March...for "documentation" purposes. ;-)  Fortunately, I wasn't attacked by the two birds that randomly decided to fly into the very spot where I was taking photos - they were engaged in a pretty big feather battle.  I let out such a loud war-hoop that I'm surprised the neighbors didn't come running.  Dang birds!

I decided to ditch some of the artistic flare that I used on the photos from yesterday and just keep it a little more simple.  In addition, these photos were taken at 8:00 a.m. this morning which made for really nice lighting.  Simple is good!

I really like this photo with the dew still on the leaves!

If you look closely at this, you can actually see some

cobwebs between the leaves!

Love, love, love this one!

Tim-Buck-Too...

I know that EVERYONE does the flower thing when they get a new camera or they're new to photography but I'm here to tell you that I'm NOT part of that crowd!  ;-)  I am, however, part of the crowd who likes to document the flowers in bloom in MARCH... in Pennsylvania, no less!  The same PA where we normally would see piles of snirt (snow that looks more like dirt than snow), we have beautiful buds and blossoms on every flowering bush from here to Tim-Buck-Too!

Just so we're clear, the following photos are provided as "documentation" but if you find other value in them, that's fine too!  ;-)

Happy Early Spring Everyone!

Practice, practice, practice...

I think I had as much practice taking photos during our visit with Owen (and his parents) on Sunday as he did with playing softball, football and even riding his motorcycle!  He has plenty of energy - something I wish I could bottle up and take home with me! (Talk about a handsome kiddo!!)

Thanks for being such a great sport, Owen, while I acted like the crazy paparazzi! 

HBD Owen!

Happy, happy birthday, Owen!  I remember the day very well, Friday, March 19, 2004!  Your dad was a nervous wreck and your mom was more than ready for you to make your entrance into the world!  We had a great time last night with you on the eve of your birthday - the very last time you will ever be AGE 7! 

Hope you had a great day today, buddy!

Diving for dog food...

On occasion, our little friend takes great pleasure in diving for dog food in his water bowl! This little 'episode' happened last night around 9:00 p.m. just as we were trying to wind the Q dog down for the evening.  And yes, there was water everywhere but in the bowl as you might imagine!

Seems he was having NO part of settling down OR bedtime. You take a look and decide...

 

The very last photo screams to me, "Seriously, is it really bedtime!?".

The Rock...

Today was SO exceptionally warm (temps in the 70s) that I bugged my neighbor, Jenny, to see if I could "borrow" her daughter, Annaliese, to practice taking some photos.  Here is a snippet of some of the shots I was able to capture before this busy little three year old ran as far away as she could get from me and my camera!

The last one of "The Rock" is my favorite - I love that she wasn't 'posed' (she wasn't a big fan of posing, she had much better things to do, like play on the swing set!).

They say that practice makes perfect!  I'm not sure who they are but I do know that I LOVE to practice! ;-)  Thanks Jenny and Annaliese!

TICKS me right off!

I guess it's that time of year again when we need to be extremely vigilant about scanning our bodies and the bodies of our family (and family pets) for, you guessed it...TICKS!  Unfortunately, Quincy had his very first encounter with a tick this morning!  I'm SO thankful that I decided to bend over and pet him this a.m. when he meandered my way and placed his front paws up on my leg waiting for me to pet him. 

THIS is the remnants of the spot approximately six hours after Bob carefully pulled the disgusting tick out of Q's shoulder blade (just typing those words gives me the heeby jeebies!)  I didn't want to thoroughly gross you out by showing you the nasty crater right after the tick removal so I purposely waited til now to show you!

A little dab of Frontline should help to deter those pesky ticks - too bad they don't make Frontline for humans - maybe we'd have less Lyme Disease to worry about!  I'm so glad they make a Lyme vaccination for pets but unfortunately, you can never be too careful when it comes to ticks!

Houdini...

This morning as I awoke, I heard Quincy stirring around in his crate at the foot of our bed (literally on top of the covers on my side since I'm so short)!  He decided to get out of bed around midnight and ended up having to spend the night in his crate after he went outside for some fresh air (translation...he did his business).  He's normally a very good sleeper and makes it through the entire night without waking up.

So this morning, I didn't want him to think that I was awake yet so I carefully opened my eyes ever so slightly to see what he was doing.  Much to my surprise, in a moment of great frustration, he slammed his paw against the inside door of the crate causing the latch to flip up in the air AND slide to the open position...all in one paw stroke!  Next thing I know, he was out like Houdini and jumping on me to make sure I was fully awake!  Bob saw the whole thing too from his vantage point and neither of us could believe our eyes!

If that wasn't surprising enough, Quincy decided to head back into his crate a short while later but the door of the crate was completely closed (unlatched but closed).  One might think that he would simply move on and forget the crate thing.  Nope, not Q - I kid you NOT, he grabbed the latch with his teeth, opened the door and scooted into his crate for a little nap!!! (Similar to the photo below.)

I swear, if I had video of each of those special moments, it probably would go viral in NO TIME!  Hmmmm, maybe we'll make those our next tricks since I'm slowly running out of tricks to train him (sit, shake left, shake right, chase your tail left, chase your tail right, roll over, play dead, high 10, and lastly, take a bow!).

Stay tuned...

Little Baby Angel...

So this weekend we had a visit from one of Quincy's favorite playmates (that is, when she's in the mood to play and when she deems Quincy worthy of her time)!  My eyebrow raised when my mom pulled up a chair at our dinner table for her "Little Baby Angel" and I about choked on my food as my mom hand-fed Abby chicken and potato wedges.  Then later, Abby sat on mom’s lap…at the counter, no less.  

 

 

 

She’s quite spoiled as you can imagine!  I’m not sure if they’re sharing the same glass yet but that’s where I draw the line! ;-)

Wordless Wednesday...

Spencer

March 7, 1997 - March 7, 2011

Quincy in training...

So, I got the bright idea last week that since Quincy is so darn smart and he has plenty of energy, that he would probably make a great candidate for agility training. 

Here's our make-shift attempt at it, just testing Q's abilities.  Yeah, I know, it's a pretty pathetic looking agility course!

So it appears that our furry little friend got game, I mean, has some really good jumping skills!  Now, that we've confirmed that he can do it and appears to enjoy it, we thought we'd put together a better series of jumps for him, challenging him a little more...

Ok, how funny is that!?  After several runs through, he finally got the hang of it.

Can't wait to take him outside to practice this in the spring!