THERE'S A MOUSE IN THE HOUSE!!! THERE'S A MOUSE IN THE HOUSE!!!
Okay, so we've had this mouse problem for the past several months. One time we caught 7 mice in a 2 week period. I was so disgusted with all the "droppings" all over the floor/couch/pantry. Then we had a lul. No mice for about 3 months. Well, they're back. The trap you see in the picture above is actually stuck to the mouse's tail. Doug saw him the night before while he was watching TV till the wee hours of the morning. So, he set a bunch of traps with peanut butter on them. The next morning, there were no mice in any of the traps. Dang! At about 10am, I was sitting on the couch nursing Holly and I saw this mouse come from behind the couch and hobble to the fireplace with the trap stuck to his tail. He jumped into the fireplace and got stuck and started squeeking. Just as he ran across the room, the phone rang. It was my friend Tiffany who loves all animals and doesn't like to see them hurt or killed. So, she came to the rescue...mine and the mouse's.
Tiffany put on gloves and removed the entire grate from the fireplace. You can see the head of the "sweet" little pest! Tiffany brought the mouse to the backyard of the vacant house next door and lifted the trap off the mouse's tail and let it go. She said his tail was a little cut up but he was alive and that's all that mattered. Well, when I told Doug she had let it go next door, he said, "Oh great. He'll be back!" Sure enough, he was back that night. Doug knew it was the same mouse b/c his tail was all cut and bruised from being caught in the trap earlier. This time, Doug chased him into a glue trap and sat on the porch petting his head with gloves on (as the mouse sat stuck in the glue trap) telling him he had a chance to be free but came into our territory again so he was gonna have to go. Doug through the mouse/trap in the trashcan and that was that. I had to call Tiffany and tell her that the mouse came back. She said she had to laugh when she got my message. (Just don't tell her that when I took the garbage out the next morning, he was still alive and suffering...still stuck to the trap.)
As if that weren't fun enough, his friend had to follow his trail 2 days later. So, apparently mice have gotten a lot smarter over the years because we found that the mice would just stand on the side of the traps and lick the peanut butter off of them. To give you an example of their master minds, Doug sat, again, watching TV till the midnight hours and watched as the mouse hung from the fireplace with his back legs/feet, braced himself on the wood part of the trap and sat licking the peanut butter off one of the 6 traps Doug had set. Doug threw a waded up paper towel at the traps hoping to snap one on the little booger. The traps snapped but no catch. But, it was only a matter of time...and a little peanut butter adjustment. Doug placed the peanut butter at the far back of the yellow "cheese" piece and placed the traps, every so gently set, along the fireplace so the mouse had no hope.
The next morning, Savannah called my attention to the ill-fated mouse who had finally been out smarted! (It was pretty gross, half of his tail was missing. Hmmmm.) Let's hope they've learned their lesson. Now to get the carpets/couches cleaned!
Doug's good friend, Patrick Cregan, came to visit us with his girlfriend Cate. We had so much fun and ate GOOD food. We went to the Tree Room at Sundance for dinner one night. Man was it yummy! Expensive...but yummy!
Us at the Tree Room
Patrick helped Doug clean up the entire right side of our yard. It was quite a mess with boards, materials, etc. so Doug was grateful for his help! It looks so nice and clean and spacious now that everything is off the ground!
Crazy boys!
A new favorite of Savannah's is to play Jenga with her Daddy when he gets home from work. Savannah is a master at the game. She is able to get pieces out even when the tower is so off balance and ready to fall at any moment. She likes to chant "Daddy's gonna make it fall. Daddy's gonna make it fall." Thanks for the confidence booster kid!
I think the excitement wore off with the actual game of Jenga, so they resorted to building towers of their own. Daddy makes one and Savannah duplicates it. 
They get very creative with their towers. Some are really tall, others are very intricate. Some of the towers Savannah makes are balanced so perfectly it's crazy. She's amazing! However they play, it sure is good bonding time for Savannah and Daddy, not to mention great for the fine motor and steady hand skills!
Okay, so we've had this mouse problem for the past several months. One time we caught 7 mice in a 2 week period. I was so disgusted with all the "droppings" all over the floor/couch/pantry. Then we had a lul. No mice for about 3 months. Well, they're back. The trap you see in the picture above is actually stuck to the mouse's tail. Doug saw him the night before while he was watching TV till the wee hours of the morning. So, he set a bunch of traps with peanut butter on them. The next morning, there were no mice in any of the traps. Dang! At about 10am, I was sitting on the couch nursing Holly and I saw this mouse come from behind the couch and hobble to the fireplace with the trap stuck to his tail. He jumped into the fireplace and got stuck and started squeeking. Just as he ran across the room, the phone rang. It was my friend Tiffany who loves all animals and doesn't like to see them hurt or killed. So, she came to the rescue...mine and the mouse's.
Tiffany put on gloves and removed the entire grate from the fireplace. You can see the head of the "sweet" little pest! Tiffany brought the mouse to the backyard of the vacant house next door and lifted the trap off the mouse's tail and let it go. She said his tail was a little cut up but he was alive and that's all that mattered. Well, when I told Doug she had let it go next door, he said, "Oh great. He'll be back!" Sure enough, he was back that night. Doug knew it was the same mouse b/c his tail was all cut and bruised from being caught in the trap earlier. This time, Doug chased him into a glue trap and sat on the porch petting his head with gloves on (as the mouse sat stuck in the glue trap) telling him he had a chance to be free but came into our territory again so he was gonna have to go. Doug through the mouse/trap in the trashcan and that was that. I had to call Tiffany and tell her that the mouse came back. She said she had to laugh when she got my message. (Just don't tell her that when I took the garbage out the next morning, he was still alive and suffering...still stuck to the trap.)
As if that weren't fun enough, his friend had to follow his trail 2 days later. So, apparently mice have gotten a lot smarter over the years because we found that the mice would just stand on the side of the traps and lick the peanut butter off of them. To give you an example of their master minds, Doug sat, again, watching TV till the midnight hours and watched as the mouse hung from the fireplace with his back legs/feet, braced himself on the wood part of the trap and sat licking the peanut butter off one of the 6 traps Doug had set. Doug threw a waded up paper towel at the traps hoping to snap one on the little booger. The traps snapped but no catch. But, it was only a matter of time...and a little peanut butter adjustment. Doug placed the peanut butter at the far back of the yellow "cheese" piece and placed the traps, every so gently set, along the fireplace so the mouse had no hope. 
The next morning, Savannah called my attention to the ill-fated mouse who had finally been out smarted! (It was pretty gross, half of his tail was missing. Hmmmm.) Let's hope they've learned their lesson. Now to get the carpets/couches cleaned!
Savannah's hair was all wavy after she took her braids out so she wanted me to take her picture with her wavy hair. She says, "Mom, I look like a different person!"
I tried something different with Savannah's hair for church a few weeks ago and I LOVE the way it turned out. Savannah asked me to do her hair like this for school the next day too! She said everyone at school told her, "Oh Savannah, your hair looks SO pretty!" 
On Saturday, Doug ran out of posts so he was forced to end early (much to my delight...I was glad he got to come in a little earlier than usual and relax some).
He put in 120 posts and has 60 more to go. Once that's done, he'll just have the stairs and the hot tub platform left to do! YAHOO!
I wish we could have left the railing off and just had an open view of the city, lake and mountains, but we figured if we put stool height chairs out on the deck, we'll be able to see over the railing anyway.
It still amazes me that Doug has built this deck himself. For not having done anything like this before, he has done an incredible job! 
