Anthony's First Band Concert

In Goldendale, when you reach Middle School, you are required to either take band or choir. Anthony's not much of a singer, so band was the obvious choice for him! Much to our delight, he chose the saxaphone. 

Along with band class in school, he's been taking lessons from James, Molly' voice coach, for about two months now. He's progressing quite well and it's so fun to listen to him! 

He had his very first band concert last night and my oh my, does that boy clean up well! That bow tie just gets me. I love it! 

Anthony and the rest of his 5th grade played first. They played two songs. Now, we might not have been able to tell exactly what songs they were playing, hahaha, BUT there were a few times when it was just the saxophones playing, and I must say, they sounded superb! 

We did wind up staying for the whole concert, listening to the 6th grade band, 7th and 8th combined band, the jazz band, and the High School band. Everyone played beautifully, it was awesome. 

Something to look forward to in a year or so for Anthony and his classmates. lol

Great work, Anthony! Keep it up! What a fun evening! 

With love,
Mama Hauck

Deck the Halls

We decorated our tree and officially decked the Hauck Homestead halls a week ago! We use to wait until December 1st, but a few years back, we started doing it as soon as we got home from our Thanksgiving trip to CA so we could get the most amount of time enjoying our beautifully decorated house!  Haha 

Tradition has us laying all of our chosen ornaments out and fighting over favorites and who gets to hang which one up, all while enjoying the traditional holiday music channel on TV. I love looking at all the ornaments the kids have made and gifted us over the past few years. They are always my favorite. This year, for added fun, Sam and I spent 40 minutes stringing lights on the tree, only to realize half the lights went out.....or half were fliker lights while the other half wasn't.....or that we did it too loose....or too tight. Good times. HA!! 

Great work, family! 

With the tree done, it was time to see about the rest of the house! We didn't put up as many lights as we normally do around the house, but it still feels pretty jolly in here! The puppy gets into everything, so we've tried to limit what we put out that would be within her reach, including an overabundance of dangling lights! So far we haven't had too many issues with her, just some trampled presents and a few chews on a Santa figurine. But you know, as naughty as the puppy can be, the kittens are just as bad!! They haven't climbed the tree yet, thank goodness, but I will be surprised if we get away without any such event!

 

The countdown is on! We've got the advent calendar I had growing up hanging in the living room for the kids to take turns moving the mouse, and the mitten advent calendar I got 2 years back hanging up in the kitchen! The mittens are filled with fun things to do, and so far we've enjoyed an evening out with Santa (at the kids' school doing crafts and such), worked on Christmas cards for the office ladies at the Primary School and the kids' bus driver, watched a Christmas movie while eating popcorn, and then today's mitten was filled with a fruit leather treat for each kiddo's lunch! FUN! 

Last on the Christmas decoration check list.....the fun stuff ! Our Christmas books, snowball fight basket, Santa puzzle, and Christmas Bingo!  

Decking the halls is now complete! I love our home at Christmas time! We are totally ready for some December fun now!! 

With love,
Mama Hauck 

Hello, Daisy

This past weekend, Anthony received his Christmas gift from us!  

For two years, Anthony has wanted a puppy. It's been on his mind and on his lips pretty consistently the past year. We told him if he did the work to save up the money, he could get himself a puppy. And so he's been saving and saving and saving. 

A few weeks back, Sam and I saw a post on our town's FB page about black and chocolate labs for sale. The very last available chocolate lab caught my eye. Something in my gut told me we needed to jump on this opportunity now, before it passed us by. 

Sam and I went to meet her and knew instantly she would be ours. We talked it over and decided this would be Anthony's one and only Christmas gift this year, with one condition.....since we were paying for the puppy, he would pay for everything else. 

It was the plan for him to purchase a puppy himself when he had enough money saved up, but my heart really wanted to do this for him. He's done so well saving up, we are very proud of him. And like I said, we couldn't pass this opportunity up, so the puppy is our gift to him, and his saved money will cover the rest. 

And so we payed half, then headed out on our Thanksgiving vacation to CA, with Anthony none the wiser! A few days before we were to head home, we let the kids in on the surprise while sitting outside of a Petco. Anthony was sooooo ecstatic!! With his own money, he picked out and purchased a bed, dog bowls, collar and leash, toys, treats, food, and name tag. 

I'm pretty sure he was the happiest boy alive when we rolled back into town and picked up his puppy, paying the second 1/2 and getting all of her vet papers.  

Hello, Daisy Mae! 

Now, I know nothing about puppies. And I will be honest, I didn't really know what we were getting ourselves into. I didn't necessarily go out of my way to prepare myself.  The first night was awful. Simply dreadful. Right then and there I was thinking fuck this. Hahaha I slept two hours that whole night. Two hours! It was like having a newborn baby in the house. If I'm going to be kept awake the whole night and put that much work into something, it better be a damned human baby, not a puppy!! 

I get it though. New house, new people, taken away from her mom and litter mates. She was a sad girl and whined and stayed awake the whole night. Ugh. 

Ok, day Two. I was tired and grumpy, but confident things would get better. I googled puppy crap all day and filled my head with so much puppy info. Commence puppy training! I talked with the kids about how important it is to take her out often to avoid lots of accidents...especially first thing in the morning, after her meals, and last time out at night. We use the word "potty" and have a bell on the door we jingle when we say it....we're hoping to eventually train her to jingle the bell herself when she needs to go out. We use other key words and are consistent with them like, "Daisy in," "Daisy out," "no chew," "down," "drop," in bed" etc. etc. So far it's going ok, I think consistency is the key. It'll take a while, but we'll get there. 

We've got a gate coming for the kitchen/living room entrance so when needed, she can be kept in the kitchen when gone. I received a kennel yesterday and she's already taken a liking to it and goes in it willingly. That will be helpful when I just need her contained and out of the way for any reason. I just think it's a good thing to be crate trained. She's loving her bed for sure and goes to it when we tell her too, which is great. That's her typical hang out spot. She's also started to play tug of war with her tug toy, and will also run after her ball and bring it back to you. Anthony was tickled pink when she did that! 

Sleep wise, things have been much better. Ultimately we decided she was going to sleep in the boy's room so Anthony would wake up when she wakes up and he can take her out. So far so good and I am thankful for that!! I definitely do not want a repeat of night one!! She's already sleeping through the night, or at the very least, waking up one time to go out. Perhaps it has something to do with snuggling with Anthony! Maybe she just needed a snuggle buddy. 

Amber isn't her biggest fan, but she tolerates her. Poor Daisy wants her to play so bad, but Amber's like nope. Not happening. They'll be friends soon.  Oreo (Mama kitty) despise her and hisses if she gets close. She just stays away. Chloe and Bear (kittens) are so-so. I think they don't know what to think. Daisy wants to play with them so bad and chases them around the house. At times it seems like they are playing back, but Daisy is big and clumsy and quickly overwhelms them. Bear gets brave and will come up onto my lap when Daisy is also there, but keeps a safe distance. We'll see how things go. 

We've had Daisy just shy of a week now and she's settling in nicely. Just a couple of accidents, but that's to be expected. The kids are doing well with her, including Timothy....the boy who is scared of dogs. So that's great! 

We take her to the vet on the 11th. She's due for another round of shots (she got the first round before we got her). Anthony will be paying for this vet visit. 

Welcome to the family, Miss. Daisy. Merry Christmas, Anthony. We love you. 

With love,
Mama Hauck