What's the protocol here?

I HATE our neighbors dogs. Since the day they moved in their two little dogs bark almost constantly. They live outside 24/7 and they bark at every little thing. Every time someone walks in front of their house, they bark. Every time a car drives down the ally, they bark. Every time we open our garage door, they bark. They bark from 3 to 3:30 pm every afternoon because the middle school is a couple of blocks away and kids walk by on their way home. There is an open field behind our house and when kids play back there the dogs bark constantly.

When they first moved in this past summer Mike was ready to call the cops the first day. I talked him out of it, saying that the dogs were probably just scared because it was a new place and that they would calm down when they got used to it. But they never stopped. They still bark constantly. We've gone over the house to knock on the door but no one ever seems to be home. We've called the police but I'm sure some annoying dogs are not high on their priority list.

I would never dream of disciplining someone else's child at the playground, what's the protocol with other people's dogs? When I was trying to put Olivia down for her nap earlier the dogs were barking like crazy so I stuck my head out the window and told them to hush. These dogs are in their own yard so I can see how it could be a total invasion of privacy for me to yell at someone else's dog but these dogs are obnoxious! Any advice?

Happy Easter

Since Mike was out of town last week we decided to wait until this weekend to celebrate Easter, the wait was well worth it! I didn't go shopping for goodies for the kids Easter baskets until after the real Easter so I got everything for 50-75% off! The weather here this weekend was beautiful! We got to go to mass together then we came home for an egg hunt in our backyard then we had a yummy dinner of honey baked ham, mashed potatoes, asparagus and strawberry shortcake. Here are just a few of my favorite pics from the day.

Bright and Early

Olivia woke up bright and early this morning at 7:10 am. I brought her into bed with me hoping that she'd settle down and sleep for a few more minutes. Yeah, right! Olivia insisted on singing the alphabet somg in its entirety followed by the "wheels on the bus" which included her smacking me in the head several times while she was doing the hand motions. I tell her it's still time to go night night and she responded with "no mama, morning eat cereal." I told her we would go downstairs and eat cereal in just a minute, in response she stood up on the bed and said "no NOW". Then she climbed down from the bed, went downstairs, grabbed the box of cherrios from the pantry and climbed back into bed with me. Before I could tell her that we don't eat cereal in bed she said "share please". I am so excited that used FIVE words all at once that I totally forgive the no food in bed rule and we had a fabulous breakfast in bed together!

Car Envy Reality Check

Since we became a family of 4 several months ago we've been going back and forth about upgrading to a larger car. It's hard to believe that we've had the Durango for almost 6 years now. It's been a good reliable car but it's got almost 200,000 miles on it. We paid the car off a while ago and it's been really nice to just have one car payment. The Audi is a little small though and we've definitely been experiencing some car envy when we see the new energy and fuel efficient SUV's and Crossovers. We've been joking about how we should do our part to stimulate the economy and upgrade to a larger car. For the last week I've been driving the Audi around because of the flat tire situation. I've discovered that it's really not so bad and I'm actually enjoying driving in the little "zoom zoom" car. As if I needed more of a reality check I saw this car in front of me the other day at the Starbucks drive through. It's hard to see but there are 3 car seats in the back of this little car. If they can cram three car seats in the back then we should definitely be able to deal with two! Thanks for the reality check!