Perfect Pet Piggy

We've been debating getting a pet for a while now.  It is hard.  You have to commit to a lot.  After a lot of research and exploration we finally decided a micro mini pig is the pet for us.  We started searching for breeders in our area and were disappointed when we found out how expensive the little buggers are!! We're talking 2,000 and up.  Crazy.  Plain Crazy to spend two grand on a pet.  We didn't.  We lucked out and found the perfect breeder who only charged us 500$.  Still a little too pricey for my liking but, I'll take it.  We got there and fell in love right away with the sweetest (though deathly frightened) little piggy.  We brought him home that day. On the way home we tried to come up with the perfect piggy name.. Bruce, Zeus, Pink Sparkle, Sizzle, Lex, Mit, chinny, Moley, and many more.  Zeus was the winner due to veto power by Dad.

All three kids are OBSESSED with her... Obviously.  I guess Ty and I are pretty fond of her too.  

This girl holds Zeus all day long!!

He loves Addie.  Addie liked holding the leash until he came up to her... then she was so scared and tried to crawl away as fast as she could looking at me with pleading eyes. 

Zeus doesn't love the harness yet... but soon, I'm sure he'll get used to it.  He's already making such great progress.  He isn't scared of us as much anymore and goes potty.  He's had only two accidents yesterday and one today.  Making progress.

Gauge just keeps saying, "where pig?" "Hi pig!!" "I lugh (love) you pig."  He's very sweet to it.

Addie, 9 Months

I feel so lucky to have this gorgeous little girl in our family.  She is so cheerful and bright every single day.  At nine months she has her FIRST TOOTH.  It is down on the bottom left side.  She is getting really quick at crawling and can now go from crawling to sitting, laying, and standing.  She can crawl on her hands knees, but still thinks its faster to army crawl and let her legs flail un-moving behind her.

She loves to eat!! She'll eat anything.  She's pretty into people food right now, but will still eat baby food.  A few weeks ago I have her pieces of a hamburger (meat only) and she loved it.  She loves meat!  She also loves cheerios.  She gets so excited whenever I pull out the box.  It's super cute.. She starts clapping and breathing hard, loud, and fast, almost snorting. 

She has started to love being read to and watching live shows at Disneyland or the library.  

She loves to wave.  She does it at anyone she makes eye-contact with.  Let me tell you, it is quite dramatic.  She raises her hand as high as it can go... then gives a little twirl with her hand.  It is ADORABLE.  Speaking of adorable, she started making this kissing noise with her mouth today that is the cutest.  I love my girl.

And so does everyone else.  These guys were begging for a picture with the little bug.  I love this picture.  This is real life.  This is my life. I am so blessed.

Exploring

Living in Southern California, with millions of other people, it seems like there would be a lack free land to let the kids go out and explore, but the opposite it true.  Even with its fast-pasted, free-way ridden ways, California offers multiple places to go out and enjoy nature.  We are fortunate enough to have one literally within walking distance of our house.  The Lake-bed is an open area, surrounded by big houses, with ample trails, blackberry bushes, trees, flowers, and wildlife.  My kids never get home from the Lake-bed without being totally and completely wore out... just the way I like em'. ;) 

About a month ago now (I am so behind on posting!!) we decided to have a little picnic and collect things to  do our "nature paintings" my children are so fond of.  We packed up a picnic lunch, loaded the stroller and headed over.

Addie loves riding in the stroller now.  She feels like a big girl!  I'm not ready to admit that she actually is getting to be quite the big girl now.

Lex loves her sister.  She's always begging for a picture with her.

Yes, that is an Easter bucket we're using to collect our treasure.... Sometimes you just grab the closest thing, I've found myself being more creative than I ever thought possible now that I have three kids.

One outfit change when we got home, and I went to put Gauge and Addie down for naps, came downstairs and found her right there.  She slept there for THREE hours!! Like I said, they come home utterly exhausted, every. single. time.  and I LOVE it.

We saved our painting for the next day... She wanted to paint her like an "IndianWarrior"  so  we did.