Our Baby Girl

This is our baby girl, Ame. Never predictable, very spoiled and full of girl attitude. She loves to travel, which is great because so do her parents. Even on moving day she had to be at the front of the truck ( No we didn't actually drive with her up there). Her name means Rain in Japanese, because her silly parents thought what better name for an Oregon dog. Guess what she can't stand the rain, but she does love the snow, wierd huh?
Anyways, I know it might sound strange to some that we are so devoted to our dog, and treat her more as a family member than a pet. But here is the thing, she is.
We adopted Ame at 8 weeks old from the Linn county dog control, at the time we felt we were not going to have children for a while, having tried to get pregnant for some time and not and then living with the in-laws and Ryan was heading for Utah to live away from me for four months while he finished school and I stayed in Portland to get us established (all not very condusive to me getting pregnant). Ame was to stay with me as a companion and a bit of protection. Little did we know that only a few weeks later I would find out I was carrying our little one. So we all packed up and moved to Utah together, and Ame became our little baby girl.
Unfortunately, like all children if you aren't consistent with discipline they become a tad spoiled. So with a new baby in the house we are beginning obiedence training this week, to curb some territorial issues, not with the baby but with the couch. But I have to say for all her craziness she still is one of the sweetest puppies I know.
Oh and that blanket, she put that on all by herself, honest to goodness truth!

My Monkey Men

These are my monkey men. The most important things I have.

I always knew I was destined to take care of monkeys. When I was younger I wanted to be a primatologist. For years I collected stuffed gorillas, chimps, and monkeys. I loved the movie "Congo" (Shocking I know). But then I decided I didn't like science or math enough to actually go to school for that field. Little did I realize that the path before me held my husband, a true science geek.

He is actually called Monkey Ryan by all the nieces and nephews. This is because his oldest niece, Fiona, deemed him so. As a baby she couldn't say My uncle Ryan, so it became Monkey Ryan. And of course as adorable as that sounds we had to encourage it for all those to follow.

The smaller one would be our newest addition. He has the cutest little monkey toes and fingers, and occasionally he actually makes little monkey sounds.

These are my monkey men, and I love the jungle we live in.

Tears and Rainbows

This is from one of my favorite sayings:

"If the Eyes had no Tears the Soul would have no Rainbows" Native American Proverb

Throughout my life I have had to recall this many times and remember that it takes going through some bad to really get the good. I have been blessed many times over and I firmly believe that most of that comes from sticking out the bad, holding my head to the sky and waiting to see the rainbow. It is no coincidence that my name starts with a "T" and my husband (Ryan) is an "R". Together we balance each other out. Admitedly I fall right along with the Tears and he tends to brighten me back up with the rainbows. It has taken some time and by no means have we perfected the yin and yang of it, but neither are the tears and rainbows of life perfect.

Right now we have a rainbow. Our son, Quinn, was born last week on the first day of spring (perfect timing or what) and he is wonderful! I still have a lot of tears, but ask any new mother and they will tell you that is perfectly normal. I would like to say that I developed this blog not for the mere fact that now I have an adorable baby and I want a place to post a ton of his pictures, but because I am an amazing writer with profound insight into life. But that would just be a lie! as you could probably already tell. So be ready for lots of pictures.