Where is the toad!?!?

Shortly after Steve and I brought Mandy home to live with us, we discovered her obsession with toads. When Mandy saw her first toad she was very excited and curious. As time went on and she saw more toads she would nibble on them a little bit and the toad would pee out a gross tasting fluid in self defense. When she first tasted the gross fluid she didn't seem to like it at all, she would shake her mouth and head because of the strong taste, so we thought she would probably not mess with toads anymore and we were happy about it. Too are suprise Mandy still bothered the toads when she saw them and seemed to be less and less bothered by the disgusting fluid they release. Mandy now tries to eat them when she sees them ( its either that or she just thinks that they are like a living squeaky toy ), she has not chewed one up yet thanks to Steve and I stopping her, but then again maybe she has when we were not looking! Mandy actually goes and looks for them quite often. The other day Steve and I found a very strange looking toad in our yard, it was different than the others. This toad was covered in wet slimy stuff. Stephen picked it up to show Mandy, making sure that she couldn't bite it, but she did lick it. Steve and I are almost completely sure that it made her high, because she started acting psycho and kept madly chasing Steve trying to lick the toad in his hand again!! Steve and I wern't scared about it though because the toad didn't seem poisenous at all ( I don't even know if there are poisenous ones in Utah ).
The other day Stephen, Mandy, and I went to Steve's parents house so Steve could help his dad finish building his shop. We all went in the backyard and Mandy went and layed next to the garden where the toads often are. She just sat by that garden watching for toads and every once in a while she would get up and sniff around in the dirt looking for them. She excitedly started kicking around a dirt clump and nibbling at it trying to see if it was a toad. When she wouldn't find a toad in the garden ( it was not a time of day that the toads are usually out ) she would lay back down next to the garden and watch, and then get up and look again later. The pictures with this blog entry are pictures of Mandy laying next to the garden watching for toads.

A new house and a new cat

Stephen and I have finally moved into the house we are buying and we love it! Our house is a nice home, and we have a view of the entire valley and the mountains as our backyard, it is absolutely wonderful! I must also mention that I am very happy to finally have a dishwasher ( an exremely nice one ) , no more hand washing all of the dishes!
A few days before we moved into our new house, my sister-in-law Kriselle came over to help me box stuff up to get ready to move. That night when Kriselle was sitting in her car getting ready to go home, Steve and I saw a kitten sitting behind the wheel of her car ( thank heaven Kriselle hadn't drove off yet )! We got the kitty safetly away from Kriselle's car and she drove off. That following morning I heard desperate meow's outside. I walked out and saw the same kitten up in the top of a very tall tree and he was too frightened to come down. Steve and I kept encouraging him to come down and he eventually got enough courage to climb slowly down the tree. Ever since that he thought that he belonged to us. The kitten would run into our house every time we left our door open and he never left the yard. Since he didn't have a home we decided to keep him. We have named him Stinker because he acts like a little stinker, especially with all the trouble he got himself into! Stinker and Mandy love eachother so so so much! Stinker acts like Mandy is his mom and follows her everywhere, it is realy adorable. I love that they have eachother because they love eachothers company.