Best Buddies

I know I promised my next post was going to be funny, but I couldn't help but post these pictures from the other day.  Finley was laying on the floor, I was next to her.  We were just hanging out, having girl time while Max was napping.  Ace came over and laid down right next to her.  I really think he was trying to get attention from me, but to his surprise, he got it from Finley.

He was laying next to her, as close as he could get without being on top of her.  She was grabbing his fur, his ears and even one time his whiskers.  He just laid there the entire time, loving every minute.

For those of you who have never met our dog Ace let me give you a little introduction.  Ace is an 85 pound boxer/lab mix.  We rescued him as a puppy from a shelter.  At the time we had two dogs, so he grew up in his fur brother's, Bogey, shadow.  We eventually had to put Bogey to sleep because of his severe case of storm and separation anxiety.  We could tell Ace was sad and missed his buddy for a few days afterwards, however, he now loves being the only dog and quite honestly, I don't think we will ever have two dogs at the same time ever again!

So back to Ace....he is every bit of his 85 pounds and thinks he is a lap dog sometimes.  He loves water, going for long walks and barking, at just about anything and everyone!  He likes to jump on our fence so much that we have had to replace and repair it several times now.  He has a long tail that whacks your legs, or kids in the face.  We often call it the "helicopter tail" because when he wags it sometimes it looks like the blades of a helicopter going around and around.  He loves to meet new people and most likely will greet you by jumping on you.  I assure you though that he is the sweetest dog and is really great with kids.  Max adores him and as you are about to see, Finley does too!

Ace sneaking in a kiss on her ear!

Finley pulling his ear

Ace so relaxed!

Best buddies :)

As I will tell anyone, his bark is bigger than his bite.  You can see by these pictures he is a good dog, he just has alot, ok ALOT of energy and likes people.  He is very protective of the kids and we love our Ace-eeeeee (as Max calls him).

New toys!

I had been looking for a jumperoo for Finley and finally found one for only $20 at a garage sale last Saturday!  I also found Max a new toy....his very own vacuum!  It really works too!  They both love their new toys!  Here is a video  (Blogger won't upload my video for some reason) picture of Finley jumping away.  She figured this thing out in only a few minutes!

and Max with his new vacuum!  He seriously hasn't stopped vacuuming since I brought it home!  He likes to help daddy now when he vacuums.  It's so cute!

That's all the excitement I have for now!  I am working on a post that will hopefully leave you laughing the whole time you're reading it!  Stay tuned :)

Jenny

Goats, cows and pigs, Oh My!!!

We recently took the kids to the Lake County Fair in Grayslake, IL.  When we told Max what we would see there, he was set on seeing the cows first!  He even had to make sure he told the parking attendant that we were going to see the cows and hear them "mooooo!"  I swear this kid will talk to anyone!  It worries me a bit.  I think we need to start talking about "stranger danger!"

So our trip to the fair started off by enjoying a jumbo corn dog and lemon shake up.  Then we walked through the 4-H exhibits and exited towards the animals.  On our way we stopped to see the Budweiser  Clydesdales.  We were surprised to see one of them was named "Ace."

Next, we moved on to the goats, followed by the chickens, rabbits, turkeys, cows and lastly the pigs.

"Hi goat!"

After all of the animal excitement, we went in the small petting zoo where Max was able to pet a llama, calf, pigs, chickens and goats.  Max then spotted the carousel ride and said he wanted to ride it.  I knew very well that he was not going to ride it, however, I couldn't tell him no so I proceeded to buy two tickets so he could ride.  We walked around until he picked his horse.  I went to put him on it and the panic set in!  He would not even sit on it.  There was no way he would ride it!  I don't even think the "new bike bribe" would have worked on this one!  So we walked out.  I gave the two tickets to a little girl who was going to ride and we moved on.  By now Finley needed to eat, so we headed back inside.  There Max played in the Ag Adventure where he picked an apple off a tree, a potato out of the dirt (sand), a flower out of a greenhouse, a pumpkin, milked (water) a cow, picked a carrot and finally had to sort all of the items back into the appropriate bin.  It was pretty cute and kept him occupied for a short time.  They also had a sandbox full of corn kernels to play in.  He really liked that.  

Lastly, we had some popcorn for a snack and then headed home.  All in all a great day and everyone was happy (minus carousel freak out) and had fun!  I think we should definitely make this a yearly trip!

Insert Foot Here!

This morning after I fed Finley, she was laying in our bed and decided she was still hungry....for her piggies!  She has been doing this for a few weeks now, but it's just too cute not to share.  

Please forgive the lighting in the picture, I didn't want to blind her with the iphone flash :)

She is just so happy ALL THE TIME! I do not remember Max ever putting his feet in his mouth.  Well to be fair my next post will have to be about Max, so stay tuned!

Jenny

ALOT has changed since my last post!!!!

Ok, so I am really, really, REALLY bad at this blogging thing.  However, lately I have been really thinking about my writing abilities and how they connect with what I "preach" at school as it is becoming more and more important that not only I teach science, but also reading and writing.  SO, that has lead me to think that I need to start blogging again and practice my writing.  I won't necessarily have an "editor" so to speak, but YOU as my audience could give me some constructive criticism and let me know how I am doing!!!  Especially my english teacher friends, you know who you are ;)

Back to the Ersler Family....Last time I posted I think Max was about 18 months old or thereabouts.  Well since then our family has grown +1!!!  On March 6, 2013 @10:10 a.m. we welcomed Finley Jean Ersler into the world!  She weighed in at a whopping 8 pounds and 14 ounces!!!!!!  Even my doctor was shocked.  Finley was also 21 3/4 inches long ( I think...it was so long ago...)  Here are some current pictures of Finley, who is now 4 months old, on the verge of eating cereal, taking almost 8 ounces of formula at each of her four daily feedings and has been sleeping through the night since four weeks old!  She now weighs 15 pounds and 6 ounces and is 24 1/2 inches long.

Max has also changed ALOT!!!  He went from this shaggy head....

to this clean cut little boy!

Besides keeping this blog up to date, I have plans to do another blog.  In my goal to try and be more frugal and cut down my spending on clothes (which I'm told I have too many) and also to hopefully payoff a certain store credit card, I want to start a blog that I will take pictures and use as a way to inspire others on what to wear to work.  I want to really dig deep in my closet and try to use everything I have but come up with different combinations of outfits that I haven't thought of before.  I found a blog through Pinterest with the same idea:

http://allthingskatiemarie.blogspot.com/


I know I am probably like most women who have many clothes of which you find buried in the back of your closet and forgot you even had it or don't know what to wear it with!  I hope to change my habits of hanging on to things when I don't wear them either!  Over the past year or two I have donated so many of my clothes to Goodwill and right now I am happy with what I have it narrowed down to.  So once my new blog is up and running I will share it here and hopefully inspire others to be adventurous in their own closets.

Thanks for reading and please feel free to leave me some feedback :)
Jenny