Here' to all having a safe and Happy Halloween!
This year we are doing the, " use what you got" Halloween costumes, the kids aren't thrilled because Wyatt wanted to be Boba Fett, Chelsea and Kelly Monster High. The girls we can easily make do, but finding something for Wyatt is a challenge, its like we have helmets but no costumes. We'll see how creative we can be.
Starting tomorrow I'm going to begin a month long blogging series on gratitude and what it means to me.
I haven't been blogging as much as I would like and I would like to change that, so I planned out a months worth of blogging for November, minus the weekends, and next month I will either plan a week at a time of just plan out the month.
As usual, I'm just trying to keep up. :)
*Carrie*

Some long overdue introductions.
Back last December when we got Bella we told the lady we had no intentions on breeding her, and we didn't. We figured we had a couple of months to get her fixed so we waited. I went back to work for the tax season and Bella went into heat. Braxton our un neutered male had been put out to stud once before and the owners never saw him "hook up" with their female, and except for sniffing he didn't show any interest. I just figured he didn't know what to do.
So Bella is in heat and Brax seems to care less. I came home one night after the family had gone to bed

and I found those two hooked up in the living room. It seems Brax was a little shy and only accomplished his deed when know one was around.
Fast forward to May 30th and we are blessed or cursed ;) with 6 beautiful puppies, 3 males 3 females.
Because we never intended for this to happen we were just going to try and sell them for $150. They are pure bred Boxer. Rob stopped by the vet 7-8 days after they were born to see about getting their tails docked. It seems we missed the cutoff date, tails must be docked 3-5 days after birth. We could still get them done but it would require anesthesia and double the amount.

So this is why we have boxers with tails. Come to find out, most countries have outlawed docking tails, except the US and UK.
When it came time to find them families we found it hard to find good homes. One male now called Buddy went to an acquaintance of Robs. My brother Mike and his family took two a male they named Gambino and a female they named Sasha.
The whole family talked my mom into taking the last two girls. So that left us with our one male.
 Bella is now fixed, so we can guarantee to not have a repeat performance. Fast forward to now.

For a short while we had 5 dogs running around our house, 3 in potty training. Then we lose Braxton and from talking to my mom she really doesn't want the girls. I go into grief mode and all of a sudden I have two families wanting the girls, but they are not families that would take good care of them, if you know what I mean. I refuse to let them go and now with moms help the dogs are one big happy family.
The puppies are now 4 1/2 months old and tomorrow our male is getting fixed.
So let me introduce everyone.
From the top you have Bailey, originally named Spazzy, who is now an absolute love but don't get her riled up she looks like she can take a hand off when wrestling with her brother and sister, heck even Bella. Next up we have Ana, short for Anasana. This is the pup that Chelsea has proclaimed as hers and she named her. We shortened it to Ana because it can be a tongue twister. Ana can be the spaz but overall pretty mellow. For a while Ana didn't have a collar and the dogs were tearing up her neck when they played. Now that she has a collar on all her wounds have healed and they just drag each other around by their collars. Also Ana breaks our  B names for our Boxers, we tried to get Chelsea to pick a B name but she loved Ana.
Last up is our boy Bacon. Yep, Rob named him Bacon.
Do you remember the Chevy Chase movie Funny Farm and yellow dog. Bacon is similar to yellow dog. It can be mass dog wrestling chaos and he is lying in bed asleep. Out of all our dogs he seems to be the most introverted and mellow.
It has been so cool to watch them grow and change but right now we are in the process of training them to not jump, dig, to sit (which they do only for treats). We are having to revamp our garden plans because they are all diggers. If you know a way to stop them please pass it on.
Anyway, one day last week I told Rob I needed to get current photos of the "kids" and Ana decided that she couldn't let Bailey have all the fun being on the couch with dad.They are hysterical when they are all excited and jumping on each other to get attention or a treat, but right now I really wish I had a doggie door, see I'm their doggie door opener right now and its getting tiresome, the constant in and out.
Soo this is our clan, one we hope to raise up to be good, obedient dogs that are a pleasure to be around. It sure is interesting to say the least.

*Carrie*

 This is going to be the short, short version of what we have been up to the last couple of weeks.
Wyatt's had a school assembly where he received his award for academic excellence. This is for Reading and Math he scored 71% in reading and 62% (I think) in his class. I just know is numbers were more than double the rest of his classmates.

Spent the weekend with my juniors up at Whispering Pines Girl Scout camp. The girls had a great time. This is Kelly and her bff Madison. These two have been together since Kindy.

 Took a family day trip up to Marshall Gulch on Mt Lemmon. My favorite place to go and one that the kids can roam around for hours. We did this on fall break because...

Uncle Chuck was visiting from Maryland. My absolute favorite brother in law.

We took another day trip down through Sonoita and Patagonia, beautiful views, where we stopped and went through some of the cutest shops.

 These absolutely amazing tree outside a gallery that was closed. A dream tree, just gorgeous.

Uncle Chuck the night before he had to head back home. Bummed us all out, wish he would visit more often or that we could go see him.

And last night we joined the girl scouts and saw Disney on Ice- Princesses Tiana, Cinderella and Rapunzel. I took 343 photos! When I told my mom she asked if I saw the show, of course, each photo is a memory of a beautiful show.

So that is what we've been up to the last couple of weeks as I've tried to get out of my funk, which I think I have.

Now we are geared up for the coming holiday season.
Lord, have mercy on me, lol
*Carrie*

 Its been over two weeks, but with great sadness our boxer Braxton has passed away.
On Sep. 20th we left to go to karate practice and home church not realizing that the back gate hadn't been closed properly. All the dogs got out but thankfully our neighbor on the corner was able to get Bella and the 3 puppies back in the yard. Braxton ran across the street and wouldn't come to the neighbor. That night we didn't get home from home church until after 11pm, we found a note on our door and went out searching. We called for him, drove around the neighborhood, waited at the end of alleys calling for him.
We stopped at midnight but we were right back outside calling at 5:30am. We walked up and down the street, calling him, carrying his lease for when we found him. He was wearing his harness with his name tag on it.
 By mid morning I had called animal control and humane society, posted a picture ad on craigslist.
No one had seen him.
I had driven down every alley in our neighborhood and asked almost every person I saw in their yard.
By Friday night, I was stressed and worried, really worried.
Saturday morning we posted flyers with his picture around our area and then we had to finish getting ready for Kelly's birthday party.
It was during the party, when a friends son walked over that he spotted Braxton.
His body was still across the street where he was last

seen. It looked like he had just laid down and went to sleep, he wasn't hit by a car. We didn't see him because he was between a tree and a rock and with his coloring he blended right into the environment.
I tore myself up over this, thinking that he was within hearing distance of our house that whole time. He was about 4-5 houses away. That he was so close this whole time and how many times had we drove past. When we had done our morning walk on Friday we walked up one side and down the other but just as we reached our street we cut back across the street toward our house, it we had kept going straight we might have seen him.
All we can figure and hope was that he passed before we even got home. It has broken my heart and I have been so angry. I could understand an accept it better if Brax had died in the yard or on his dog bed but not being with us and yet so close just tears me up. As Rob said to me Sunday morning, he lives on in his puppies and I'm not about to let any of them go. They have been around long enough that I'm attached. Its kinda crazy with 4 dogs and our yard will never win any awards but I don't care. I see a little bit of Brax in all of them and they are family. He was a great dog and like most boxers noisey but thankfully not a big licker, just a big lover. He was 7 years old and his age was becoming a factor, his coat had gone from fawn and white to lots of white, he preferred to sleep on his bed or on the floor on my side of the bed. I loved that I could leave him in the house for a few hours without having to worry about anything being eaten or destroyed.
As I've written this, Bella has tried to crawl into my lap a few times, she has been great to hug on when I start to feel really sad. This time has also reminded me to take more pictures with our pets and of our pets. Because they are such a part of our lives they deserve some photo love.
*Carrie*