Dog Days!

So the big news in our household recently has been that we are getting a dog!!!  As many of you know, I LOVE dogs and so does Brandon.  My whole life I have wanted a dog....but at the same time I wasn't sure if I would know how to take care of one or if I was ready to "sacrifice" my home. :)  But, that all changed when Brandon suggested that maybe for Christmas we could get a dog.  I was instantly excited.  Now, we didn't just go on that gut reaction....we prayed about it and thought seriously about the responsibility we would be taking on.  After a lot of thought, we decided that we would indeed become dog owners.  And I was SO excited!

Most of you that know me well know that I have always wanted a Golden Retriever.  They are adorable and so friendly....and sometimes ditzy just like me. ;)  But Brandon on the other hand has always wanted a dog who will play soccer with him and who might be good at agility.  He had a Border Collie in mind. 

I honestly knew nothing about Border Collies...that has changed!  He persuaded me that we would love a Border Collie and after showing me a picture of how cute they are, I agreed.  Because I had never seen a Border Collie in real life (that I could recall) we tagged along to a dog show with Brandon's mom.  She owns a kennel and is very familiar with dogs and dog shows.



This is the agility course.  I did not get pictures from the show side.  That is a border collie going into the tunnel!



A lab doing the uprights.  They are much slower than the border collies at this particular stunt.

 

Doing the jumps



The other agility course.  I liked this one.

 

That was a really cool day!  I got to meet a couple of Border Collies and they were wonderful.  Since that day we have found a breeder out of state that is awesome!  We had originally found a breeder that already had pups and was willing to have us get it that weekend but that was waaaay too soon!  We weren't ready!  Since then we have spent a couple of months preparing and slowly stocking up on supplies.  Currently we have everything we need except the food! (and the dog!!!)

Our cute little toy basket from Target's new Spring Collection is on the left and our new dog bed is on the right. :)  Below is our new leash and collar if you can see it. (It's black and white polka dots with bright blue edges)

And here is our basket of practical dog items in the closet and also the new food container (there's a whole story there too....for another time perhaps!) and some pee pee pads.

 

And how about a shot of the closet as a whole.....since I just cleaned the whole thing!  Haha!

And finally, we have my mom's one "dog contribution".  Haha, she's not an animal lover :)  Oh and she got us lint rollers, can't forget that!

Oh and don't forget, one last thing, the puppy cages that Brandon's mom is lending us from the kennel.  (And the pooper scooper...we bought that don't worry!)

And I bet you are wondering about our actual dog now huh?  Well, Zoey is here!  As of today she is 3 weeks and 1 day old. :)  She was born on Superbowl Sunday and given the name Raven originally in honor of the winners of the Superbowl.  We have changed her name to Zoey so our breeder now calls her Zoey so that she can get used to it.  She has 3 brothers and 1 sister. 

Here is the most recent picture of her at 3 weeks:

Adorable.  I can't wait to go get her!  We get to pick her up on March 23rd...right before my Spring Break!  I have been reading puppy and dog books like crazy.  My favorite has been Cesar Millan's: How to Raise the Perfect Dog.  He is a little strange but has really great ideas.  I also love his show, "The Dog Whisperer".  I watch lots of the episodes on youtube.  We will definitely keep you updated on Zoey....in fact, I don't think you'll have a choice. :)  Unless you quit reading of course....haha.

Settled In

Well, I'd say it's official (and maybe has been for a while) that we are "settled in".  Our house feels like home and we love it!  

The winter has brought on a whole different side of home ownership   We are stuck inside a lot more and all of those outdoor projects we had in the fall are on hold.  We did just place an order for flowers however!  Already looking forward to the spring!

Brandon has really embraced his inner handyman in the short time we've had the house!  A little while back I was leaving for work and I noticed some parts lying on the ground when I opened the garage door.  I refer to them as "parts" because I had no idea what they were. :)  A spring thingy and some wires...  :)  After making a couple of trips and some phone calls we got the parts to fix our creaky old door and Brandon went out and fixed it!

Old and new spring "thingies"

This is the other side, but he replaced both :)  Can't have one old and one new.

Hard at work.

One of our indoor projects was cleaning the basement.  We bought a bunch of plastic bins so that we could get rid of all of the cardboard boxes we have.  Our goal is to paint the floors and the walls in the spring or summer so we wanted to clean up in preparation.  We also got some pallets to set our boxes on because we weren't sure if we would get any water/moisture in the basement during the winter.  So far, we haven't (knock on wood)!

All of our stuff stacked up on pallets

A few more things under the stairs

All of our broken down cardboard boxes! (in the box from our new wet vac!)

So that's just a bit of what we've been up to inside.  Outside we've been dealing with all of the SNOW!  We bought a shovel and our neighbor graciously snow blows our drive when it's really nasty.  We share a driveway so usually whoever gets out there first just clears the whole thing.  I will clarify that Brandon does this...not me!  I do however tackle the walking areas with the shovel occasionally...lol

One of our first big snows....Brandon did not have any boots....so.............. 

We went shopping!  New boots for Brandon!  

He loves his new boots so much he shovels for me all the time now...haha! Just kidding, I don't think that's the reason!

Our ever growing pile in the back...it's three times this size now!  

Our pretty tree :)

Such a great guy!

Hope everyone is staying warm!

Let's Take A Look Back

First Christmas in our new house!

 Yes!  Let's take a look back at Christmas!  It may be 2 months gone, but we can still enjoy it :)  Okay, maybe that's just me...but oh well. 

This year was really fun!

We got Tyler a Kinect!  (used...duh)

The LARGE presents have returned now that both kids own houses!!!

Brandon's parents got my dad a goofy little gift:  a box of rocks!  They look like little colorful stones, but they are actually chocolate candy.  It was funny to watch his reaction :)

Both sets of parents went in to get Brandon and me an Ipad!!!  I put one on my Christmas list as a joke, but was super excited when we got one!  Tyler got us the nice smart cover!

We went to Aunt Judy's this year for our extended family Christmas (also on Christmas Day) and we played lots of goofy little games based on the "Minute to Win it" game show!  I found the idea on another blog.  My mom and dad put it all together for the family and we had lots of fun! 

The first game involved getting a Christmas cookie from your forehead to your mouth without using your hands. 

Aunt Judy may or may not have cheated using her glasses... :)

 The second game was super fun!  Everyone had to wear snowmobile gloves and try to unwrap the present until the person rolling the dice rolled doubles....then it was passed on to the next person, etc.  The surprise is that once you got it unwrapped there was another box! (I bet you never would have guessed!)  The last present has a gift in it. :)

The third game involved working with a partner to balance these ornaments....NO TALKING.  I failed miserably at this one.

And finally, the last game was to see who could get the most cups stacked in 30 seconds!

Where did he go? :)

There you go!  Some highlights from Christmas Day!  I promise to be done with Christmas posts for a while now... :)