more than clucks and fries.

We are having an onslaught of beautiful birds in our backyard this time of year. Our neighbor has this tree with winter berries on it and it hangs over on our side of the fence. The tree is so pretty and the birds are so interesting to watch. There are tons of them. Tangle, our 6 month old Brittany puppy sits at the back door and stares at them forever without even moving. He is a bird dog by nature so he can spot them from the other side of the house. He is reminiscing over the days when his parents let him play outside for hours on end and didn't have to worry about him being muddy and stepping in wet poopie (ok maybe that is me reminiscing).

I love watching this little birds, and i was interested at what they were so of course I googled it. Looks like we have some Red Robins!

(By Jim Cruce/Audubon Society of Portland)
Even though they look more orange than red to me, its fun knowing what we have. I think I might build a little bird feeder of some kind, here are some ideas for homemade ones from Martha.


gourds.



paper cup molds.



suet? what is that?

I'm not crazy about these. Anyone know where I can find any other interesting/easy ones?

aaaw thanksgiving

These are some of my favorite things which my thanksgiving consisted of...

red velvet cake.

deviled eggs



gravy (my favorite)


and best of all...



elf.



Happy Thanksgiving friends!

i am still in love you with you..

Some of my favorite memories over the years with my lobster..

Butterflies...our first touch :-)



First date..You had me at "I'll buy you that clown fish t-shirt if you wear it to dinner"...



Pictures from across the country to cheer me up...



The great state of Tennessee...



Tiny snow...



Dancing...



Bunnies...



An infant...



I love you Ben! I'm excited for more memories with you. Thank you for making life so much fun.

I love weekends...

Well, it's Sunday night and I (Ben) figured I should write my first post while we got a few minutes. Just finished a wonderful home-cooked meal by my amazing wife - sun-dried tomato chicken sausage with corn on the cob and garlic bread and washed down with a cold Coca Cola Classic (straight out of the glass bottles - Mexico style!).



This weekend was a doozy! Fun but exhausting. Friday night, we had the Reedal's (Jeremy and Katy) over for a BBQ. It was excellent - the guys out in the back grilling with the dog, and the girls inside chatting away. Jeremy and I felt pretty lucky as we sat out on the patio flipping burgers. Life couldn't get any better.

Saturday I was up and at 'em at 4:30 am. Why, you might ask? I was off to Eugene to Autzen stadium where the Ducks took on the Utes thanks to some tickets scored by the big man, Papa Grizz (aka Tom Reedal). It was a jam packed day which started off with breakfast sandwiches at 6 am, then some tailgating at Skinners Butte with pulled pork and coleslaw, and italian sausage. By the time the game started we (me, J, Eric, Papa Grizz, Randy Renfro and John Stady) all could barely move. The game was a good one (Ducks 31, Utes 24). I know you're all wondering, why was Benny the Beaver at a Ducks game? I know, I know it was hard, but can't pass up a ticket to a Pac-10 game. Although I didn't wear any orange, I was certainly rooting for the Utes. After the game we went to yet another BBQ place - Howling Coyote for more pulled pork sandwiches. At this point, we all were sweating and nauseous so we hopped on I-5 for the long ride home. It was a good day which ended falling asleep on the couch with my beautiful wife!

Sunday, we woke up and I took Tangle for a long walk while Amanda got ready for work. Tangle and I hung out for most of the day while we waited for Amanda to get off work. We paid her a little visit on her lunch break where we headed across the street for some delicious Thai Food.

Here's a picture of Tangle eating lunch with us. He didn't have Chicken Pad Thai, of course, but the next best thing - Beneful Puppy Chow - yum!
Finally, after a long workday for Amanda, we shot off to church for the 5 pm service and then home for dinner.

It was a long, jam-packed weekend and this picture about sums up how we're feeling right now - ready for bed...

Well, here's to another Monday and a fun-filled week with my adorable wife and my goofy dog! I love my life! Thank you Lord for blessing me so much!

Introducing Tangle Scout Newell

So, to start things off with our very first blog post ever, I (Amanda) decided to introduce ourselves and our family so far. Including our recent addition: a psycho energetic Brittany puppy named Tangle. I guess we should start with him since he is mostly what consumes our free time these days.

Here he is at 6 weeks old, when we first brought him home on in July after coming home from a camping trip to Scout lake where we saw a very sweet, calm, well behaved little Brittany puppy sitting under a tree.

We had to have one so, very much like ourselves, we said "why not" and found a breeder the day we got home (after some good research on the breed), and decided this was the guy for us. It didn't take long for him to get acquainted with the family, and now he is a gangley awkward ball of energy, with a few slight behavioral issues along the way :-) He's very much a puppy which includes eating everything is sight, and running full speed at my parents screen door and knocking it off the tracks. We're working on channeling the insane amount of energy into training. Here are some more recent pictures of out first trip to the beach with him a couple days ago. He loved it, but had a little too much sand in his shorts...



Looking very handsome on the way there..
A world of free digging awaited him..
This stick went everywhere with him that day...
This pretty much the extent of what took place...giant holes in the beach

...After a couple hours of digging, running around, splashing in the water, chewing on sea shells, triumphantly dragging huge sticks around, and eating half the sand in Lincoln City...someone got a little bit sick. When I say sick, I mean Niagara Falls amount of throwing up 8 or 9 times. Including once on Ben's lap, and twice in the car. Poor guy looked miserable, but we couldn't help but laugh. It was like a little kid who ate way too much candy and played way too hard and just crashed. After about the 6th time throwing up it was pretty much all sand. He slept the whole way home and all through the night.



...The next morning he was back to normal, curious as ever. A hilarious day we will never forget!

Okay, lastly, here is one picture of us from the day at the beach. I'm on the right (obviously), and Ben, looking strapping with his long locks is on the left. We are bestest friends if you cant tell! :-)