Sam

We recently went to California to visit family over our Spring Break (post on that to come). Jared's family was surprised how big Sam had gotten in the last 2 months (they first met him the beginning of January). So I decided to look through the pictures I have of Sam. Here is a little photo collage of him since he was 3 weeks.

As I was looking through photos I found 2 different photos of me holding Sam. Here is where you can really see the size difference.

Here he is at 3 weeks old

And here he is at 3 months old 

(don't mind my sweaty self I had just gotten home from Jazzercise)

Our little boy is growing up so fast. Love him to pieces.

February

I can't believe how fast February went. I am making a goal this year to document our life with photos since I got a great new camera for Christmas. Let's start off with photos of my 3 boys. They really are my whole world.

Bo and Sam. The look of "What are we gonna do now mom?"

Sam loves to go out and play, and knows if he goes to the door I'll let him out so he can go potty. I love this pic of him. Shows how much he is growing.

Sam always wants to play. Bo not so much.

I love this pic of the 3 of them. Bo's look of "This kid is driving me nuts" and Sam's look of "Can we play some more?"

The first Saturday in February I took the 2 boys down to the river because it was a GORGEOUS day. They had so much fun playing in the water and running around.

This was Sam's first time with this kind of water. At first he wasn't sure what to think.

Running along the bank.

I love this pic I took. 

Valentines Day was a lot of fun and full of surprises. Jared bought me flowers the weekend before and then surprised me with a home cooked meal. He made Cajun Chicken Pasta and it was FANTASTIC. We had dinner and enjoyed a night at home together.

Dinner. YUM!

I tried to look nice for my Valentine...

Can I just say how much I love this goof ball. He is so good to me. He pulls me up when I am down. He works very hard for our family. I am so glad he is mine.

We really are so good together. Wouldn't trade our life together for anything.

This month Sam got an abscess and had to go to the vet to get it drained out and get some medication. He came home with a cone, a tube and medication. He healed SUPER fast and all that yucky stuff got out just fine. Here he is the day of...

Towards the end of the month we got hit hard with snow. SO much snow that we had a "Snow Day" and when it melted off we had a "Mud Day" because the buses couldn't make it through the roads here. So 2 less days of school, but we're making up for it by not getting an Easter Break.

 The boys LOVE the snow. They love playing in it and eating it. Silly boys. Sam would get TONS of snow stuck in his "cone of shame."

This may not look like a lot of snow, but they never get THIS much snow here in Mussi.

March is tomorrow. We have lots of things planned for March. Spring Break in California. DisneyLand. 4th Anniversary. It should be a lot of fun.

And then there were 4...

It's about time that this little guy makes his official blog debut. We decided in December that we would add another 4 legged member to our family. Remember those cute puppies??? Well we (ok more like I) fell in love with them especially this one. Meet Sam...

This picture was taken about a month ago. He's much bigger now and his cute sweater wont even go over his head. He's growing really fast.

We were worried about how Bo would handle having a new brother, but he has done well for the most part in adjusting. Bo does get annoyed with his little brother and he's gotten into fights with Sam when he's had enough of this energy full pup. But Bo will play with Sam and he is usually nice to him.
We are planning on taking him into the vet in the next week or so to get the rest of his shots and get checked out by a real veterinarian. We are also going to be starting on doing some formal training thanks to a book I bought on Amazon (thank goodness for Amazon or I'd be lost here in Mussi).
Sam will get these spurts of energy and then runs all over the place as fast as he can. He loves to chew (he destroyed my favorite pair of flip flops) and likes to get into the bathroom garbages (not too thrilled about that one). He's still learning how to let me know when he needs to go potty, but his accidents are minimum. Overall he is a really good puppy.

Christmas 2014

I can't believe how fast Christmas came and went this year. And now it's already in February! We had an interesting Christmas this year. We had 7 little puppies with us this year, and it is an experience we won't every forget (or do again for that matter). Anyway we stayed at home in Mussi this year and enjoyed our time together as a small family.  Onto a photo explosion...

Here are some photos of our home decorated for Christmas...

 We got a new Nativity this year. I absolutely love it!

 We got a new Christmas Tree this year. (It was time to retire the really cheap one that wasn't much taller than Jared.) We love this tree.

We don't have a fireplace/mantle so our bookshelf held our stockings.

Christmas Eve we had our Traditional Christmas Eve Dinner. We had ham, funeral potatoes, salad, rolls, cider, and egg nog. We always pull out the nice tablecloth and the nicer plates, and we added place-mats, REAL napkins with napkin holders and we got some holiday plates. We also had some fancy centerpieces.

I REALLY like these plates (we got the plates with the holly on it at Dollar Tree).

 Jared was very thrilled with our dinner. He says I am the best cook.

We never forget about the dog(s) at Christmas. This year they got special cookies to have on Christmas Eve. Bo also had some tasty wet food (a special treat).

Now onto Christmas Day...

We were very spoiled this year. We got movies, books, and games. The big presents this year were a new tablet (it's mostly Jared's) and a new camera (it's mostly mine). 

We hope you all had a great holiday...

5 years

5 years ago today my life changed FOREVER! 5 years ago was our first date. From that moment on my life was never the same. I think back on that night and can't believe how my life changed because Jared asked me out on a date. I thought I would share a post I did on this date from a blog I had. It makes me laugh to read this now.  I really hadn't dated that much, and was still VL at that time. (Yep I was 22 and never been kissed, and had only been out on a dozen or so dates in my entire life.) Have a read...

"I actually had a date with a guy that I actually like. The last time that happened was... either April or May. I could tell I was a little nervous because my heart was racing and my hands were shaking, hasnt happened in some time.

Jared (my date) came and picked me up at 5:50, we then went to Walmart to ring the bell for the Salvation Army with other people from our ward. Sang Christmas Carols and froze our butts off. It was FREEZING! Honestly didn't feel like I was on a date during this time.

We went to Panda Express to get something to eat before going to The Forgotten Carols at the institute. I guess I just cant take silence, because I kept asking him questions while we were eating. Found out more about him and his family.

We were then off to the institute. The forgotten carols was amazing. He had his arm around me during the entire thing, not to mention held my hand. I certainly didnt mind... :)

We then came back to my apartment to have some hot chocolate. My roommates were watching "He's Just Not That Into You" and we drank hot chocolate. We watched the movie with my roommates until they decided to leave, I hope it was just because they were tired and not because I was there with him.

Once that movie was over I told him our options were that he either goes home or putting in another movie. We then watched "The Muppet Christmas Carol" one of my favorite Christmas movies. We all know what it means when you watch a movie... So I wont get into the details here. I will say this much, it sure was nice... yeah... :)

It was a fun night!"

Anyway now that we have all had a laugh at my 22 year old self... I still remember that night like it was yesterday. I am SO grateful that Jared had the courage to call me up and ask me out on a date. I then found my best friend, my partner in life through everything, a man who loves me more than anything, and the love of my life. 

Here we are 5 years later, more mature (obviously lol) and living a fantastic life together. I am looking forward to more years with this wonderful man who brings SO much to my life.

Puppy Love

At the beginning of November we took in a res/stray dog, who has taken on the name "Sweetie" here in MC that was PREGNANT. On November 4th I was able to witness Sweetie give birth to 8 puppies all on her own without any assistance from me. It was a wonderful experience, one that I won't forget.
As of today these little ones are 3 weeks old! The time has gone fast in some ways. It has been so fun to see them grow over the weeks. We most likely won't be keeping any of them (I REALLY want to though), so we are taking names of people interested in these guys. There are 3 boys and 5 girls. I am already getting attached to some of them, and it kills me to think I am going to be saying goodbye to them in just over a month. Here are a bunch of pictures we took this last Saturday.

 All puppies together!

 

 This is a girl, who we have nicknamed "Soxy"

 This is a girl, we just call her "White Girl" simply because she is all white.

 This is a boy, we've nicknamed him "Mister"

 Another boy, who we nicknamed "Six" because he has six toes on his back feet.

 A girl, she was the smallest for a while so she is known as "Little Girl" and is my favorite of the girls.

 Another girl, we call her "Stripes" because of the white stripe on her face, though she has white on her chest too.

 Boy who we call "Buddy" is my FAVORITE boy/puppy.

 Girl, we call her "Big Girl" she is the biggest girl and is quite the chunk.

 This is momma "Sweetie", honestly one of the sweetest dogs I've met.

 Bo is a little obsessed with these guys, but his motherly instincts have come out. He even tries to play with them. It's quite cute, and has made me feel better about how he will be if we have a baby.

Jared & I with all 8 puppies. We are in love with them.

We are not looking forward to saying goodbye to them, but want them to have wonderful loving homes. We just want someone to love them as much as we do. And the more I hold them, the more I realize that I desperately want to be a mother.