Luna!

My, Joe's, and Luna's evenings have recently consisted of putting Saylor to bed, putting the ducks in the coop, and coming to our back yard to kick the soccer ball around. The sun is setting and provides an amazing light to our back yard fun. I've been slacking on picture taking recently and decided that last night warranted busting out the camera. 

Luna is almost 8 months old (her birthday is October 27th), she is a black lab, Australian Shepherd mix with a pinch of coon hound. She was originally named Yanna, but it wasn't rolling off the tongue very well, so we changed it to Luna. Naturally, she's already developing variations to her name, however... Such as, Loony, Loon Loon, and Mrs. Loon. She has a VERY friendly disposition, and has that fantastic 'dog smile'. She can also melt your heart with those sad coon hound eyes. 

She is doing a great job integrating into our little family. I can't lie, though. The first few days were VERY stressful. I feel fairly confident in my dog training abilities, however, and am already seeing a tremendous improvement in her listening to our commands. I imagine it will take a few months to get used to our new routine, and for her to really soak in all of the rules and boundaries of our family. 

She has been a great reason to get out and about. If I'm able to tack off all of my 'to-do's, there's never the excuse to sit down and relax! Haha. I'm off to the dog park. I would say the biggest challenge I'm facing thus far is actually with Saylor. At this point, I think she views Luna as a threat. Saylor now has to share attention (and sometimes toys, if Joe and I don't catch Luna chewing on it). But all in all, Joe and I both agree that it's a very beneficial thing for Saylor to learn that she has to share attention, especially since little brother's and sister's are in her semi distant future. 

We are planning on leaving for our crater lake trip in a few days, and are bringing Luna with us. I'll make sure to get lots of pictures and post about it. 

The bottom 2 pictures are of most of my garden (there's an artichoke and bell pepper plant to the right that is not in the picture). I have gourds, peas, broccoli, cauliflour, zucchini, giant pumpkins, corn, spinach, eggplant, tomatoes, lettuce, carrots, artichoke, bell pepper, and bush beans planted. Some of those were just planted a few days ago and have not come up yet. I'm not sure what it is about gardening, but similar to parenting, it is a great feeling to nurture something and see it grow. 

Things around here are changing, but the changes are welcomed. I'm so thankful for everything we are blessed to have, and humbled by the things we can't! Haha. I just love my little (growing) family so much!!