My Bella Rae

We sent our Bella girl to a new home last night, where we decided she would be much happier. She now has a new family with five kids, another lab her exact age, forty acres of alfalfa fields full of pheasants and her very own canal.

As her new papa drove her away, I buried my head in Jared's chest and cried. She was our very first baby and it was so hard to see her go. But it was also hard to see her sad and alone in our small backyard, and to not have the time and energy to spend with her free little spirit.

We'll miss you Belly girl. You were the best naughty dog in the world.

Go Papa! It's your birthday!

Dear Papa,
We love you and hope that grandma spoils you
and makes all your favorites for dinner!
Happy Birthday!

Also - happy 3rd birthday to our first child!  

We still love you, even though you are naughty, smelly and dig big holes in our yard. 

Morg can't wait to give you the birthday bones he picked out for you at the store yesterday!

Also -
Happy May! I can now officially say to myself, next month baby will arrive! Whew!

Hot banana bread and fresh snow.

I woke up to Morgan kissing my face, and to fresh snow. About six inches. Freshly fallen snow is beautiful. In a few hours, I will wish it was melted. But for now, it's beautiful.

Morgan wore his 'Birthday Boy' onsie as part of his pajama ensemble last night, along with a mismatched pair of pajama pants. Because that's how we roll when we haven't done wash in two weeks and there isn't anything else left in our drawers except for short sleeved summer shirts.

It's not summer.

We did manage fresh banana bread this morning, and to put together a puzzle with grandma; Morg's new favorite thing.

Today, I think we are really actually going to paint Morg's new room, even though I've been saying that for weeks now. I'm determined it's going to happen. Especially since my mom's here to do the hard parts! Lucky me!


Also in the news - Jared almost took another spill this morning while scraping the windows on his car before work. Guess who was laughing! --- Last weekend we had a rockin birthday party for little miss Raegen and my grandma had all eight of her great grandchildren all lined up for a picture. (It was seriously crazy!) --- Saturday, I got a brand new nephew and he came out looking like a football player! So cute! Congrats Cassie and Wes!!! --- Did you know Big Lots has TONS of really great toys? You should check it out. --- And also, guess whose been saying 'oh, sh*t' way too much.
I'll give you a hint.
It's the youngest member of our family.
So, isn't that lovely?

{Aiden, Cienna, Raegen, Grandma, Baby Faith, Treb, Hadley, Landen and Morg}

PS---
We also opened up an Etsy shop last week.

Want to buy this?

Go here!


Now I'm off.

I {heart} you!

Hrk.

PS...

ohmy goodness....

The fifth (on the sixth).

Yesterday was filled with:

Yard work.
Yard work.
Yard work.

And cleaning up after the young lady pictured above -- filling in holes that she dug, patching the garden up, throwing away chew toys, etc.

She can make quite a mess, as you may already know.

Check out The Bella Rae Chapters for past mischief.

A boy and a puppy.

The puppies were three weeks old yesterday and have now officially mastered how to climb out of their whelping box! They are getting cuter by the minute! In about three weeks, they will be ready for new homes! And I will be sad. Sort of.

Ten Pups.

Ice cream, Bella's Birthday and a Letter to Morg.

Last night, in honor of Bella's birthday, we, (her brave and tolerant owners), went out for ice cream cones at the famous Farr's. It's like one of our city's hidden treasures. You should go. $1.00 for a cone stuffed with delicous ice cream- and all kinds of flavors. Are you kidding me? $1.00?

Before leaving, we wondered why we hadn't gone there before. 

We will definitely go again.

Morgan got his very own cone and I think it was the highlight of his life. 

We sat in their parlor, sharing flavors, and watching Morgan 'oooh' and 'awww' over the delicious goodness dripping through his fingers and onto his jacket and pants. Then a group of prom-goers came and overwhelmed every customer there.

We rolled our eyes (and I thanked the good Lord for us making it through those years a while back.)

One kid was wearing tennis shoes with his white tux and the girls were missing the top halves of their dresses.

When they sat down with their cones, one of the guys pulled the chair out from behind his date when she bent to sit down and she fell on the floor (yes, in her dress and heels). Everyone turned and the room went silent and he just laughed and tried apologizing.

That was our cue.

  

If my ice cream hadn't been just what I needed, I would've smashed my cone on his head as we walked out the door.

I was so offended. (So was Jared.) I tried not to glare. I tried smiling apologetically to the humiliated girl as we went out the door. And as we strapped Morgan into the carseat I was saying things like, "That was really bad...", "That poor girl....", and (while looking at my son), "Don't you ever....".

When we had shook our heads long enough, we turned up the heat full blast (because it was May 1st and East Idaho's cool like that), and we ate the rest of our yummies in the car and giggled at how Morgan was covered from head to toe in melted raspberry cream.

We went straight home. Tubbed, pajama-ed, and rocked our baby, and then snuggled up to each other on the couch. Bella got her birthday bone from Cal Ranch. And we turned on Lovely Bones, which we turned off halfway (not for mothers of the tender nature), then settled for SNL and a few re-runs of NCIS.

Saturday evenings are the best!

------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Morgan:

Please don't ever grow up. And certainly don't grow up to be a stupid teenage boy. Don't wear sneakers with any sort of dressy apparal. Don't take out girls that are immodest and don't you ever pull out chairs from behind anyone thinking it's funny.

Mmm kay?

Just do us all a favor and don't grow up!

Thanks!

Oh, and PS: I'm your mommy forever. Don't forget it! 

TODAY IS A DAY FOR BIRTHDAYS!

I love all of the Mister Kellers in my life. But especially the dad of my sweetheart! And especially today!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CORRIE!

WE LOVE YOU! 

And how lucky can a good man get to share his birthday with his favorite dog ever?

Lucky, lucky, indeed!

Happy Birthday Belly-darlin'! Today I love you, but tomorrow, who knows!

And they call it puppy love.

The time has come!

Bella's bags are packed and she's ready to go on a honeymoon rendezvous tonight to Idaho Falls where she'll meet the man of her dreams, and the father of her future children who should arrive sometime at the end of May!




PS- Anyone want a puppy?

I Call This 'Working Hard'

Good morning.

Best wishes for a delicious Thursday.

Xoxo,

H, M and B

15.

{morgan and bella on a sunday evening}

While Morgan naps,
a list of a few (fifteen) things.

1. I look forward to folding morgan's clean clothes each week.

2. I think Ryan Reynolds is my new crush.

3. Somehow, I've started a collection of small vintage pitchers. I think they are so cute.

4. The thought of Christmas brings me butterflies.

5. In our freezer, we have an entire bag of mint milanos fresh from the folks at pepperidge farm.

6. Up until last weekend, I had never tasted mint milanos.

7. I am a total 'minty' person (junior mints, mint chocolate chip ice cream, mint brownies with green mint buttercream frosting).

8. I have the cutest nephews in recorded world history.

9. We have an old pear tree on the farthest, bottom tier in our backyard that has been trimmed and chopped so much it's little more than a stump. Every spring it still blossoms, then bears yummy (but small) pear-shaped fruit. It's really quite charming. I call it the little tree that could.

10. Every night, as we lay quietly beside one another, Jared and I play footsies until we fall asleep.

11. I think Autumn smells delicious, otherworldly almost.

12. Jared loves Christmas shopping almost as much as I do.

13. My house may appear somewhat clean, but it's major danger to open any cupboard, closet or drawer.

14. Dashboard Confessional's new cd comes out Tuesday, but whose counting down....

Oh, and PS....15. Bella has somehow, very sneakily, found her way back into my heart. Who would have thought.

for breakfast

morgan ate diced pears and kix cereal.

jared had a protein shake.

i ate a bagel.

and bella (our half dog/half goat pet) had an apple she stole from the neighbor's backyard and a tumble weed that blew in last night.

{this morning}

jared is working.
morgan is napping.
i am blogging.
bella is relaxing in my whiskey barrel flower pot....

...you know, the one she dug two sets of flowers out of this summer.

ps: not all dogs go to heaven.

Bella and I got divorced a while back, when she pulled the last bush out that I had planted earlier in the season. She has become Jared's only and I have rid myself of any responsibility for her at all. I haven't blogged about it because she nearly sent me over the edge to insanity. She nearly broke me down. She is the worst. And after many {{choice}} words, and even tears - angry tears, our yard now looks like it did last january. Bare. Flower-less. Hole ridden. Disgusting, really.

Jared is always telling me to be patient. I work on it. Then fail. Then I respond: while you are at work, she is going to the dog pound and she is never returning.

:

I mean it. I always mean it. It's always heartfelt.

:

I never follow through.

This morning, we woke up to a crater-sized hole near the fence line in the backyard.

Jared grumbled, slammed the screen door, looked at Bella and said, "you are ruining my life".

:

:

Perhaps, he's finally come around.