Abi & Izzy - the next 5 years

Bertie gets the short straw on the beds again I'm wondering whether I should start a new blog given the kids are generally off doing their own thing now and normally hate for me to take a photo of them, so it gets harder and harder to write about their antics. The dogs on the other hand love being with me, never complain if I take a photo and with Betty having settled in, there is never a dull moment.  She has become a fully blown member of the family very quickly - accepted by all, even if she has no clue yet about house training and we seem to spend a lot of the day wiping up puddles. How she can go 8 hours over night without a mishap when it seems 8 minutes is a push during the day I do not know. She does understand that when we take her outside (about every 30 mins at the moment, plus when she wakes up and when she has just eaten), its time to pee, but that doesn't stop her from coming in and doing it again. I guess it takes a bit more time for her to realise that doing thi

It's Sunday again - where do the weeks go? This weekend we have mainly been ,making the most of the autumnal weather and doing the things we love. Abi has been at Angie's and has come home tired but happy after having pretty much the run of the yard to herself all weekend. Today she was left to get on with stables and sorting the horses out while Angie left for Cornwall and Claire was not sue until lunchtime. I have said a number of times that the responsibility she has there is quite something and she responds to it brilliantly. It definitely feels like a better set up for her at the moment to go there every other weekend and have all the advantages of a proper yard and decent horses rather than trying to make it work locally.  Izzy has been off with Glenn today motorbiking again. As much as Abi is loving her horses, Izzy is loving her motorbiking. He as booked her in for a days coaching in half term and she cant wait. Today she was making friends with a couple of people at th

Oh we have a new baby in the house and don't we know it. Our world has suddenly spun back into toilet training and nap times, and after one night of our new baby coming home we are already feeling the sleep deprivation!  Betty arrived yesterday after what seemed like the longest wait (and an even longer drive) and already the whole family is in love with her. She is the sweetest little thing and, true to Boxer form, wants to spend all her time with us. Of course while this is lovey, it did make for a bit of a horror show last night.  We had discussed what we should do in respect of sleeping and in the end I decided that the best thing to do would be to pop her in her crate next to Bertie's bed and see how we got on. This didn't get off to the best start as she had already managed to get her jaws stuck around her metal crate (goodness knows how but she did it twice and yelped madly), so we brought out the travel crate instead which is softer and so looked the better option.

This weekend it has mainly rained, and when I say rained, I mean RAINED. We have had about a months worth of rain in 3 days and it has definitely felt like it. Poor Bertie has had wet walk after wet walk (not that he cares) and we have been through any number of towels trying to dry him off afterwards. At least we don't have Betty yet as I imagine she wouldn't be best pleased with all this wet stuff falling from above! The realisation of impending puppy has been dawning on me this weekend as I have been going about my business and thinking "will I be able to easily do this with a puppy?" The reality is of course that once we are past the first few weeks it will be fine, and we only have a couple of weeks until half term when the girls will be around to (possibly) help more, but in the meantime I am a little bit worried / resigned to damp patches everywhere, and not just as a result of the rain. I think I will just have to make sure she is with me - cue shorter confere