thatcher in texas, frigid weather, puppy training

 last monday marked 3 weeks with winnie and she turned 11 weeks old. i won't mark these milestones every week, but i will for a little longer. :) her sleep has drastically improved from the early days. she goes to sleep in her crate next to our bed when we go to bed and then sleeps til 5-6am before needing to go out to pee. and often goes back to sleep after if we don't need to get up. whew! but the daytime remains challenging with her. she's so so cute, but so busy! we have to watch her every second. and she gets in some really wild moods with lots of biting (people and furniture). i know it won't last forever. we signed up for puppy training class, and it starts december 7th. monday was also december 1st, so the kids started their advent calendars. they went with chocolate-orange candy this year. 

tuesday i got to go to the gym for the first time in a couple weeks. thatcher worked from home, but i'm looking forward to when i can leave her more regularly. it continued to snow on and off during the week. this is the most wintery start to winter minnesota has had in a while. it has generally felt like a novelty to me, but i forgot about the not fun parts like sitting in a freezing cold car before it warms up and having wet pants if they don't tuck into snow boots. and the insanely dry air! ashford had zoom piano in the evening.

wednesday morning thatcher left for texas for work for two nights: dallas and austin with a flight in between. and thus began my 3 days of solo dog mom duty. the kids are helpful with her, but they are at school during the day. winnie and i had a really nice day together. no potty accidents, she was pretty calm for the most part. 

my mom and brother came over for dinner. my mom brought food, and we heated it up in my oven. winnie was rambunctious all night. peed inside multiple times and was biting everyone and being wild. it was exhausting. we watched 'christmas in rockefeller center'.

thursday morning we woke up to -4 degrees. i haven't felt that kind of cold for a very long time! i drove azalea to school, but the car was covered in ice - even on the inside! 

winnie and i spent the morning together. in the afternoon durant and cheryl came over to hang out with her while i ran some errands, which was super appreciated.

 azalea babysat after school and then we all picked her up and went to 'convention grill' for dinner. so yummy! and so nice to be able to do stuff like that with family again. i don't think i'll ever take it for granted. 

friday winnie and i hung out at home all day. i took some pictures of our holiday decor in the daytime. 

in the evening, the kids and i went to our friends liz, joe, lux, and max's house for their monthly potluck. i let azalea pick what we brought, and she made this reeses dessert dip. it was dangerously good.

we left winnie in her crate for over 2 hours (her longest stretch yet) and she did great. the snow has made our outdoor lights look even more magical. 

the kids and i attempted to watch 'elf' when we got home, but winnie made it almost impossible. thatcher got home from his trip at 10pm. we were so happy to see him (especially me so i have my puppy co-parent back). 

saturday we didn't have any plans, which was nice. we got groceries, worked on holiday cards, i read a bunch. we watched a netflix holiday movie in the evening. 

sunday was another chill day. thatcher made us waffles and bacon for breakfast. azalea's friend sylvia came over for a few hours and i dropped them off at the sledding hill. it was only 9 degrees out, but they stayed for 1.5 hours. i ran some errands, worked on holiday cards, and played with winnie. in the late afternoon winnie had her first puppy training class. azalea and i took her, but we will trade off who goes each week. it's a 6-week class. it went pretty well, but winnie was very excited by all the other dogs and often distracted. i'm sure it will get easier. this was the only picture i got. 

this week my aunt lea and cousin jaclyn come in town from new jersey for a long weekend. i cannot wait for some holiday-filled fun days with them.