I recently made a book of all of Alex’s pre-K artwork, including her artwork from summer camp this past summer. Last year, I made a book containing all of Alex’s preschool artwork! I found making a book of her artwork is a great way to save her artwork without holding onto every piece of her artwork, which can be prone to damage. So, I used some white foam board and used my iPhone and photographed and edited the pieces that I wanted to save, to include in this book. I made a 110 page book of all of her pre-K work, including summer camp, approximately 220 pieces of her artwork, via OnceUpon, and I selected the matte paper option. The book turned out well, it is simple in design, and a little less expensive as compared to some other places.
The best part is — I printed one of these books for Alex, again, as she loves looking at all of the art she created via this book, and it is also a great way to keep encouraging her to keep making her beautiful art, which she loves to make, regularly! She is extremely independently creative little person! The arts are really important, and we hope to keep fostering this love within Alex. I hope to make yearly books of her artwork as a way of preserving her artworks! I am still making our family yearbooks, but I am a year behind, so I will have to find a way to catch up!
Below is a selection of Alex’s artworks from pre-K and summer camp!
October 12, marked ten years since we adopted our sweet dear little Victory! The time is going by much too quickly! We decided to make October 12 Victory’s birthday — the day we went to Michigan and adopted our sweet fur girl.
As such, we recently celebrated Victory’s birthday marking her tenth year with us since her adoption! This also marks six years celebrating as a ‘big sister’ to Alex! This year, for Victory’s birthday, we did a personalized dog and pastel themed birthday! (As shown below, last year, we did a personalized fall theme and pastel theme; two years ago personalized theme and a pastel theme; three years ago pink theme with gold accent; four years we did a pastel rainbow theme with a silver accent; five years ago we did pastel theme with a gold and silver accent; six years ago we did a gold and champagne theme; seven years ago we did a light pink and gold themed birthday; eight years ago we did a pink themed birthday; and nine years ago, we did rainbow themed birthday for Victory!) For this double-digit birthday, we had another cake made with Victory’s likeness — Victory riding in her Hound About, which was formerly Biscuit’s Hound About! It turned out beautifully! We also purchased some fun decorations and balloons, along with a pink sweater for Victory, a tradition, in honor of her birthday! Victory also enjoyed a steak prepared by Doug, along with her very own cupcake (with no icing, of course!) Victory looked absolutely adorable and beautiful on her birthday, as always, shown below! This is the sixth birthday that Victory celebrated with her sidekick, Alex! It is wonderful to witness their relationship blossom as Alex grows older. Alex loves giving Victory treats and hugs! Victory had a fun birthday and she truly enjoyed being over fed and the center of attention! I sincerely believe Victory knows her birthdays are all about her!
We are truly the lucky ones to share our lives with this wonderful, loyal, and loving being. Victory has been such a source of comfort to us all. Victory has also fully embraced her ‘big sister’ role! Victory is very attuned to her little sister and loves to greet Alex in the mornings and evenings! It melts our hearts! Victory continues to join us each morning and evening for play time and story time, in addition to all meals! We also do our best to keep Victory fully integrated in our trips and outings as well, and we had a fun fall together with many outings together, including a trip to Lexington, Kentucky! We are so very grateful and thankful for our Victory. She means the world to us and we love her very much.
For Victory’s birthday, we gave her: a Keeneland leash; a blanket; a toy; assorted treats; and a new pink sweater! Additionally, Alex also made some art for Victory, along with a special card!
A look back at Victory’s birthday celebrations over the years…
Here is a look back at Victory on her birthdays!
If you are considering getting a dog, I hope that you consider adopting a rescue dog. There are so many dogs in need of a good, loving home, especially now. As shown below, Victory, a rescue, has changed so much physically and emotionally over the years since we adopted her, pictured on the left (image from Victory’s foster mom via the Michigan Sheltie Rescue). You really can save a dog’s life, while simultaneously enriching your own life/lives. We cannot imagine not having a rescue dog in our lives!
Happy Halloween! Halloween is one of our favorite times of the year! We love the fall season! This is Alex’s sixth Halloween! Victory is a dinosaur this year for Halloween along with her little sister, Alex, shown below! Victory (along with Alex) was a rainbow last year; peacock two years ago; Crayola red crayon three years ago; Super Woman four years ago; a unicorn five years ago; Wonder Woman six years ago; a fifties girl seven years ago; a lioness eight years ago; a butterfly nine years ago; and a ladybug for her first Halloween, ten years ago. And Alex had a wonderful Halloween celebration and parade at school today! We hope you have a safe Halloween tonight!
Here is Doug and Alex’s pumpkin, which they worked diligently on this year, shown below! Alex picked a spooky design to carve this year, but Doug did most all of the magical pumpkin work!
15 years of marriage. 19 years together, almost two decades together. 5 years of parenting a little human together. 10 years of loving and taking care of our fur girl, Victory, together. You are my favorite human being. You are always by my side, and supportive through everything. You are the greatest gift of my life, and each day spent with you is truly a gift. I look forward to many, many more years together, knowing that we can get through anything together. Most of all, you are an incredible Daddy to our girls! We are all so incredibly blessed and grateful for you. Happy fifteenth wedding anniversary!
And, we recently celebrated this milestone, along with celebrating Victory being with us for 10 years, (tomorrow is the day we adopted Victory 10 years ago from the Michigan Sheltie Rescue), and Alex’s love of horses, in Lexington, Kentucky. It was a really fun time, and the city is very dog friendly, so Victory was able to go with us on most of our outings together, and Victory went nose-to-nose with a Clydesdale horse!
It is almost Victory’s birthday, it is difficult to believe we have had our beloved fur girl for nearly 10 years! She brings so much joy to our lives. We are immensely grateful she is a part our our little family. We have a fun birthday celebration planned for our precious Victory next week! October 12 is the day we adopted her from the Michigan Sheltie Rescue, and that is the day we made her birthday!
We recently attended the Blessing of the Animals at Alex’s school. We first attended this event last year, and it was really fun to witness Victory receive another blessing. Victory did well, and I am certain she knew that this event was all about her! She took the most adorable photograph, shown below, with the Spirit Bear, and then received her blessing while the Spirit Bear held our fur girl! And, we were given a certificate to take home with Victory’s blessing. It was a fun time together!
Happy Friday! I love this passage from Lisa Congdon about being comfortable while feeling uncomfortable, especially during those times you are embarking on something new! I feel like this very often!
Nearly every day, at various moments, we feel uncomfortable. There is no way of avoiding it. Someone says something that makes us feel insecure. We have an awkward interaction with a friend. We fail to achieve something that feels important to us. When we feel discomfort, we naturally want to make it go away. Sometimes we do that by distracting ourselves with food or alcohol or scrolling through our phones. Sometimes we do that by putting on a smiling face, stuffing our feelings down, and pretending that everything is okay. Sometimes we become defensive. But when we ignore discomfort, we ultimately only gain anxiety and obsessive thoughts and we lose out on learning and growth. Conversely, when we sit with the struggle, enter darkness, and get comfortable with feeling uncomfortable — and we ask, “Why am I feeling this way right now?” and “How can I work through it in a way that is kind and gentle to myself and others?” — we are able to see patterns in our behavior or choices that are holding us back or causing us pain. And when we see these patterns clearly instead of ignoring them, we have the opportunity to work on and change them. Get comfortable feeling uncomfortable. It’s what leads us to the light.”
It is almost officially autumn, our favorite time of year! I am back to the blog after taking off part of the spring and the summer, which I had not initially planned on, but it was nice really enjoy our summer together!
Alex finished up pre-K, in June, which she greatly enjoyed. Alex participated in camps this summer, which she also enjoyed! During this spring we did strawberry picking together, which we all loved! We celebrated Father’s Day together! Alex, Victory, and I went to Mackinac Island with my parents, and we we had a great time together staying on the island together, even little Victory loved it! We spent some time with my parents in Michigan as well. Alex had some of her friends over for child-friendly fireworks for the Fourth of July, which she loved; and we made our annual trip to Pennsylvania to procure the fireworks, which Doug always spearheads! Alex continued her horse riding lessons, and we are changing stables, this fall, and we look forward to Alex learning even more, and possibly doing competitions! We celebrated Alex’s fifth birthday with a family birthday celebration, along with a trip to Dutch Wonderland! (Alex’s favorite ride is still the Frog Hopper!) We took our annual family vacation to Rehoboth Beach, which we loved, including Victory, who loved walking on Dewey Beach every evening! Funland was also a hit this summer with Alex! My parents came to visit us just prior to school resuming. We enjoyed time at the pool, and Alex can swim freestyle all on her own now! We enjoyed dinners out together, which included Victory! We recently enjoyed the Anne Arundel County State Fair, and Alex had a great time with a friend, and she enjoyed getting her face painted! Alex enjoyed parties and play dates with her friends throughout the summer! Victory is doing well; and she has two new vets — one in Maryland and one in Michigan, and we are so happy to have these great vets! I spent the summer finishing up my manuscript for the publisher for my book and getting everything turned into the publisher in final form, which is now being copyedited! Now, I am working on the next phase of shepherding this book out into the world next fall! This summer, Doug received a promotion and he began a new leadership position at work; and Alex is now in Kindergarten, which is difficult to believe! She loves her teacher, class, and school — we are very fortunate! A snapshot from this time away from the blog is shown below!
We look forward to apple picking this fall; our annual trip to the pumpkin patch with our beloved Victory; celebrating Victory’s birthday together with a special cake this year; a trip to Lexington, Kentucky; celebrating our 15 year wedding anniversary, and we just celebrated 19 years together this month, which is crazy how quickly the time goes by! And, of course, we look forward to Halloween, especially Alex! And, Alex and Victory already have their coordinating costumes ready!
I hope that your spring is going well! The pools are open and school just let out for the summer! We have been doing a lot of swimming; and Alex has been doing horse riding lessons, which she loves. Victory is doing well, too. I feel like the days are going by way too quickly! How is the year already half over?
I am taking a break from the blog for several weeks to visit family; soak up our days together; rejuvenate; and just be. (I plan to be back here to the blog sometime next month.) I want to thank you, as always, for being here. Whether you are a recent reader or have been following the blog for awhile, I am honored you take time to read the blog. I am truly grateful.
Meanwhile, if you are in a blog-reading mood, you are warmly invited to visit the archives — the links are shown below.
I have some really exciting news — my debut book will be released by the publisher during the fall of 2024, which focuses on a long-term photography project I completed employing dogs as my subject, further studying the relationship between dogs and humans. There has never been a project like mine published; and I worked tirelessly for over a decade, and I am extremely elated to have finished everything to turn into the publisher this month! It was a huge feat, to say the least! There is still much to get done, but I am so grateful to have reached this point in the journey. Importantly, this project would not exist if it were not for our sweet dear Biscuit.
Most of all, I am very excited to have the opportunity to share this work with a wider audience to raise awareness about dog rescue and to hopefully help as many dogs in need as possible. (I had previously mentioned, here on the blog, from time to time, over the years, about working on my project.) There are so many people to thank that have helped me along this journey and made this book a reality; and I have two wonderful people writing the foreword and afterword for the book. Additionally, I hope that this book can serve as inspiration to others to really go for their dream, even if it feels impossible.
This blog community is the first place where I have publicly announced this news. When I am able to share more details, I will! I will also let you know when the book is available for pre-order. Along with sharing here, I also hope to create a newsletter to bring you along on this part of the journey.
Happy Belated Earth Day! Alex created some art for Earth Day at school, shown below, along with some of her other art! Alex is very proud of her artwork, and she told me that she is never going to stop creating her art, which is music to our ears!
biscuit's space | The blog of photographer Katherine Carver 