Murphy, Halloween and a couple birthdays

Hello.

Long time no update.

I know, it's been two weeks.

But seriously, y'all, I have no idea where time goes. I'm barely keeping my head above water and I'm soooo hoping that improves soon.

Meanwhile I'm told I need to get some pictures on this blog!!

Update on Murphy: He truly drove me nuts the first two weeks. This dog would pee every time he stopped moving. Luckily it never amounted to more than a teaspoon. But still. Uggh. Now he's improved, however, and is wiggling his way into my heart.

The good things about him? He sleeps quietly through the night - no matter how long - which is awesome. We've never, ever heard him bark. He's a total cuddler - has to be on a lap whenever he's not playing. He totally knows how to fetch and does it endlessly. The highlight of his day is when the kids get home from school. And he LOVES Mark. At the end of the night when we're crashed on the couch watching TV, he has to be on MARK'S lap. Not mine. But his devotion is so cute I don't mind. And lastly, he's kinda cute. Don't ya think? :)

I think part of the reason he drove me nuts was that winter arrived in the Black Hills the same time he did. This has been the coldest, snowiest, windiest, yuckiest October on record according to the meterologists. 'Cept they didn't use the term yucky. Seriously, it's been like January here. And this, of course, happens to be the month we get a puppy who needs to go outside every 5 minutes. Which required donning the full winter regalia every time we went out. And I wonder where my time goes . . .

This was the most recent of several storms this month -

This past week is always a busy one for us - my mom's birthday, Halloween, Mark's birthday and his parents' anniversary. Paul and LaRayne celebrated their 40th anniversary today - that deserves one huge congratulations!! We couldn't be there with them, but we celebrated with them when we went to Vegas in September.

Friday, we headed out to Spearfish for a family dinner to celebrate mom's and Mark's birthdays. We had a really cool Halloween cupcake-cake that you can't see so well in the picture so you'll just have to take my word for it.

Murphy's still trying to figure out what he thinks of my mom and dad's golden retriever Molly. She thinks he's a great new toy, but he's still too little to really play with her. Might get smooshed.

And then we had a great Halloween. The weather cleared up perfectly - it was a balmy 55 all evening, and we trekked all over our neighborhood. Here was Noah's choice for this year (pretty authentic looking, don't you think?):

(had to show off his very cool flashing skull ring - he was all about the accessories).

And Jack made the same choice he did last year. He might be a tad bit obsessed. Our checkbook was happy about that.

And yes, the boys insisted that we get Murphy a costume. A little Frankenstein one. He was not amused. It lasted for about 4 photos.

Today was Mark's first annual 39th birthday. :) He had his perfect day - breakfast at the bagel shop before church, the boys football game after church and then we all hit the couch to watch the Vikings beat the Packers at Lambeau field. He's a happy boy. And now I'm going to start a daily countdown to his 40th. :) Just kiddin, sweetie!

We also managed to finish the soccer season, thank heavens. That could not come quick enough. We are, however, still playing flag football. Their team actually made it into the !!Superbowl!! They are a tad bit !!excited!! about this. The Superbowl does not occur for another two weeks, however, so we'll be dealing with !!strategizing!! and !!discussing!! and !!analyzing!! this upcoming game for many more days.

And here's one more picture of Murphy. Just cause he's a cutie patootie.