MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR

We hope everyone is doing good. We have survived Thanksgiving and Christmas. We didn't have snow for Christmas but we had lots of fun. The kids are enjoying their gifts. They are in West Virginia right now with lots of snow staying with their old babysitter for the week. This gives Danielle and I some R&R for the week. :) Denise and BJ spent Xmas in Florida this year with BJ's family.

Hope everyone has a healthy and great 2010 and we hope to see ya all sometime next year! Enjoy the pictures!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN and Thanksgiving

I have some pretty scary grandchildren!! : ) Kaleb was some scary dude with a Jason mask, Dustin was Rock man and Madison a vampire. Enjoy the pictures, Madison looks a lot like her mom with their vampire get up! : ) Mom got into the dress up too!

We all went to Denise and BJ's for Thanksgiving. BJ's parents and sister were there and a couple of our friends. It was a good time for all.

We are gearing up for and Christmas. The boys want everything they see on TV, imagine that! Everyone stay safe and healthy!
Love

Joyce and the Gang

Fall already!

Where did the summer go? I can't believe we are in the fall season already. Not even Indian summer. The grandkids are still in sports. Madison is doing indoor soccer now, since joining this new group she has learned so much and her skills show it. The boys are in flag foot ball and loving that! It gets a bit tricky sometimes when the games are at the same time different locations, sometimes even if they are at the same location! Talk about a juggling act, whew!

Denise and I attended our annual Dog National and it was actually here in Ohio. Denise could not show because she severely twisted her ankle at another show and is in a boot. However, our puppy, Rihanna (14mons) took her class out of 12 and took Best in Bred by, which was a new award in memory of a big time breeder in Ohio, which it just happened that Rihanna's dad is from this breeder's lines. It was quite an honor. It was great to see beautiful dogs and friends from all over!

Danielle and I are now getting ready for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. I forgot how much work it is to raise kids, Nana gets pretty tired! : ) Wait until you see the neat Halloween pics!! I have some pretty scary grandchildren! : )

Love to ya all

Joyce and the Gang

Fall 2009

Well it is fall already, kids are back to school, soccer has started and Madison is doing very well. She is in a new soccer group and has learned so much this session. The boys will be starting flag football soon, that ought to be interesting. I know we have a line backer in the making and maybe a quarterback as well. Should be fun.

Denise and I have our German Shepherd Dog Nationals coming up and its here in Ohio, yippee!! However, Denise severely sprained her ankle this past weekend showing a dog so we are now holding our breath as to whether she will be able to handle at the National.

I feel that I have my own piece of country in my complex, my yard backs up to a small bird preserve. I have seen deer in my neighbors yard and through out the complex believe it or not. This past winter through the trees I saw a herd of about 6-8 deer in the woods in back of me. Every night at dusk we see a young mom and her THREE fawns, they are so cute. I have heard of deer having twins but triplets!!! The kids get so excited when we see them. My yard is fenced and with the dogs, so they can't get in my yard, but Denise did see one in my front yard. It is so neat! I have my little piece of country! : )

Mom and her triplets

Flag football started Sunday, what a hoot it was, the smaller kids were hysterical! Pictures to follow shortly.

Fall is here!!

Love to all

Joyce and gang

Summer 2009

It has been a busy summer, soccer and T-ball games have ended. Dog shows are continuing. Rihanna our little girl has been shown 12 times and has won 9 Best Puppy and 3 Reserve Winners. I am setting a goal of 10 Best Puppys : ).

Madison after school let out went on vacation with friends to Holden Beach, NC and had a great time. She learned to body surf in the ocean, she was pretty proud of herself. The kids also spent a week in West Virginia, came home jumped in the car and we went for our summer vacation to Rhode Island to see Gramps and Meme and Uncle Donald.

The kids were so excited to ride on Uncle Donald's motorcycle!!! Madison now wants one for her 16th birthday, she is hooked. While in RI we went to Lake Canobie a big amusement and water park in NH. Madison rode her first roller coaster and enjoyed it

immensely. Mom was a little green and Nana knew better then to go. I think Madison is our dare devil! The boys stuck to more calmer rides and had a good time, they enjoyed the bumper cars so they could crash into people, Nana likes them too! : )

Then on to upstate New York where they stayed at the lake with their papa willis and drove his boat, they got to see their great grandfather and great grandmother, aunt Diane and uncle John.

The only down side is that we didn't have enough time to spend with everyone. We took two days to drive up and back, the kids enjoyed swimming at the hotel pools! : )

So that is it for now, soccer and football will be starting soon and school. I know I keep promising but I will try to do better and keeping this blog updated. I just don't have time at the Willis Zoo here! : )

Soccer, T-Ball, Soccer, oh-my!

Hi everyone,

Well we are still on the go with soccer and T-ball. T-ball is boring haha, I enjoy the soccer much better because you can't help but cheer them on. So now weekends are two games on Saturday and one on Sunday and practices sprinkled throughout the week, whew! Madison's team is doing very well this year, they are learning team work and it definately shows in their games. Kaleb's team is still learning, the attention span of 5-6 year olds is 0!!! Kaleb does good when he is not falling on the ground, he loves to hit the ground. However, he is improving on that. : ) He does the same thing in T-ball when he hits homebase he has to slide into home every single time. I am sure they will cure him of that since I heard it is against the rules to slide unless it is necessary! ; )

School will be out for the kids the end of May. We went to a play at the school for Madison, she was a grub, hence why she looks grubby in the picture. It was about bugs and pretty cute.

Well that is it for now, take care everyone, we miss you!

Finally Spring and no Rain

It was such a beautiful day today. As I went from one soccer game to a T-ball practice thinking finally Spring as come. Madison had a soccer game today and they won, she was responsible for one of the goals, last week she had 3 goals. The team really has it together this year, they look awesome.

Kaleb had his second t-ball practice today, I think his games start in May, he actually has quite an arm on him. His soccer game is tomorrow. Keeps us all hopping from one game to another! : )

Dustin just does his own thing at the games, plays in the dirt mostly, we are going to start calling him "pig pen" from snoopy.

Denise and my puppy is down in Mississipi with her breeders and co-owners and we just heard that she she took Best Puppy in Show yesterday, and two more Best puppy awards today plus Reserve Winners for points. She is such a star and loves to show and such a happy fun dog to live with. She lives with Denise and BJ and comes to my house while Denise is working and hangs with the other dogs! :)

Hope everyone is doing good and experiencing warm weather and good health. Until the next time.............

Spring is coming?

It looks like Spring is trying to come, we have had some teaser days of warm weather but a lot more days with rain, hopefully there will not be to many more of those days. I hope everyone's Easter was a good one. Denise and I were in Georgia soaking up the hot sun and enjoying the dog show. Our puppy Rihanna took 1st in her huge class, she is quite the show girl and loves to show. Our sable girl Leah took 3rd in her class. This was an important show so we are quite pleased.



The kids are doing good and here is their Easter picture! Soccer has begun for Madison and Kaleb and T-ball (baseball) for Kaleb in another week too. So I will have more pictures shortly. I bred Abbey but it doesn't look like I will be having puppies this time, which is probably just as well with everything else going on. Still disappointed though. : (


Hope everyone is doing well.

March 5, 2009

Hi everyone,

Well, it looks like we can finally emerge from the frozen tundra here in Ohio. We will be getting temps in the 50s to low 60s for about a week. Big change from the wind chills of below 0. The dogs are happy to be outside again, the kids are anxious to get out as well. This has probably been the worse winter temperature wise. We didn't get a lot of snow thank goodness, not like some states who have received several feet!!! But the cold has been bone chilling.

Hopefully Spring is around the corner and in my next blog, I will have more interesting news and pictures as the grandkids start their sports and we become more active. Hope everyone is doing good.

Freezing in OHIO

Hi everyone,I have decided to start a blog to keep everyone informed of the activities in Ohio. Winter is definately upon us with frigid temps and everyone is going stir crazy in the house and that includes humans and animals.Denise and I are not showing dogs yet, winter months there is not much going on and we take a break. We may venture to Chicago the middle of February for a show. I know we are crazy, you would think they would have shows further south in the winter where it is warmer. However, we did end the year 2008 on a very high note. My Champion girl went to the German Shepherd National and took Select 8 which is a huge honor out of a very quality filled class of 50 Champions. So she now Sel Exc. Ch. Aramist Enchanted of MyJoy, better known as "Abbey". Handled by Denise!!! The grandkids are doing good and will start soccer in March. Everyone has been pretty healthy knock on wood. Well, this ends my first post. Keep checking back and I will try to faithfully update you in a timely manner. Everyone keep warm, we miss you!

L

Joyce and the Ohio Gang