Picture Catch-Up

Sammy is quite the little poser! Actually, as anyone who has ever taken pictures of children can attest to, we have a lot more "bad" pictures than good ones. But sometimes you just hit the jackpot, and Sammy seemed to be in a very mellow mood today (not his speedy little self), so we were able to catch up to him. His new favorite thing... carrying a squeaky toy around in his mouth. No, they weren't originally intended for Gordon, but Gordon thought they were his (the package did say they were dog toys, but I thought they'd be perfect for little boys!), and he gets a little nervous whenever he sees one of the boys with "his" toys. He usually just sticks pretty close by and keeps an eye on the toy to make sure they don't hurt it. He's so sensitive!

The first leaf pile of the year! It was so fun. Griffin loves to play in the leaves, and we got so many good pictures last year that I made a little scrapbook of just one leaf-playing session. This year (at least this time) was a completely different story, since Griffin has decided that he just can't possibly sit still for longer than 2 seconds, and he doesn't like to pose for the camera except to say "cheese" as he runs past it. But when he got buried in the leaf pile, he finally sat still for me. (People say "Your boys have so much energy!" or "They're so active!" but what they are REALLY saying is "I'm so glad that you're the one who has to take them home!!")

I had an impromptu "photo shoot" with Sammy yesterday. I draped this blanket over the couch and stuck him on the floor in front of it. The only problem was that I had to give him a prop to get him to sit still, and the only thing handy was my shoe. So now everyone knows that yes, I have large feet. Wait, I'll just tell them that Sammy is really small! :)

I realized that I hadn't posted any pictures of Gordon yet, so when I was taking pictures of Griffin in his Halloween costume and Gordon kept trying to sniff him because he thought he might actually BE a tiger and he was a bit worried about that, I thought it would be a good opportunity to give him some camera time too. And yes, he really is taller than Griffin, just like it appears in the picture. Griffin really has to watch out for his tail, it's the meanest part of the whole dog. Especially when Gordon gets happy. It's like a steel rod whipping back and forth with incredible force! Okay, maybe not that bad, but it definitely hurts when it hits you. Gordon is just about the sweetest dog I have ever known. He is very sensitive, and it doesn't take much to get him to obey (unless he's hungry, thirsty, or needs to go outside, and then nothing will stop him from getting his point across!). He's a Great Dane/Golden Retriever mix, so he's very gentle and just is overall a really GOOD dog. The only drawback to having a dog this big is the amount of hair he sheds (and the stuff we have to clean up from the yard). He sheds all year long, and if I go a few days without vacuuming, there appears to be a thin film of black dog hair covering the carpet. Yuck!

Griffin loved his Halloween costume this year. I think we might even have Sammy wear it next year since he won't remember Griffin having worn it, and it'll be fun to compare the pictures. Mike took Griffin down the street Trick-or-Treating (his first time!), and he had so much fun! He was so excited when he got home. He even brought his costume to me a couple of days ago, held it up in front of him and said "Have some candy, Mama?" I almost fell to the floor, I was laughing so hard. It's like his ticket to candy now, and every time he sees it (I really need to put it away, come to think of it!) he asks me for candy. Not that he gets candy every time, or even every day, but they are very persistent at that age!