Zoey ~ Puppy Days

This post may not be everyone's favorite, but some people complained that there were NOT enough puppy pictures in my last post.  So to appease these readers, here is a post dedicated solely to pictures of Zoey.  :)

She is so much bigger now, so it is fun for me to look back at her precious little puppy pictures!

First, here is a picture of her after one of Brandon's soccer games.  She loves Brandon and his soccer gear smelled like him quite a bit after his game.....so she snuggled up to it. :)

Next, we have a picture of her and my brother Tyler on the first night they met.  She was semi-terrified of him (if I'm being nice) and Tyler figured out that if he positioned himself this way she would actually come out of her cage!  Just look at that face!

Nice socks Tyler...  ;)

We took her to Brandon's parents and she got to meet the other dogs and play in their HUGE yard...she loved it!  Here she is walking around the property, following her daddy around.

She also got her first soccer lesson.....she's going to be a soccer player when she grows up!

Since she likes going on trips so much, we took her to see my Grandpa in assisted living.  Everyone in the building, including Grandpa, was excited to see her!  And, it was good for Zoey to get more exposure to strangers.

For a while she could easily tucker herself out with her toys....not so much anymore, but here's a cute picture:

I snagged a picture through the window of Brandon taking her on her first "walk".  She still hates the leash because she knows it's optional...but she is a good walker.

Her favorite item right now is her bone.  She loves to chew on it everywhere!  Here she is chilling on the lawn with it:

One of her most social experiences was when we took her for a long walk downtown to look at all of the flooding.  She met so many new people and dog friends!

And last but not least, a family picture :)

Spring Time

Well, sorry it's been so long for all of my readers....I swear Brandon and I went into some sort of hibernation period until it got warm out again!  But we made it through...the food and the cute new puppy helped. :)

Mmm, a nice ham dinner.

Mini Chicken Pot Pies

Isn't she adorable?!

Zoey came home with us on March 23rd, 2013.  We drove out past Chicago to get her.  It was a fun road trip!  We stopped in Schaumburg to eat at the Cheesecake Factory (my absolute *favorite* restaurant) and then went to the breeder's house to pick our little angel up.  She is so good!

Um, yes please...

 Here she is in the car.  She was so tiny!  (Compared to now at 4 months!)  She cried for about 10 minutes and then was quiet for the last 3 hours of our ride.  And she didn't cry at night either...such a good dog!

She LOVES Brandon.  I should have known from the time I took this picture at a rest stop on the way home!  Haha!

Please note that jumping up is only allowed on day 1....haha! 

When we got home she was still so shy.  We practically had to pull her out of her cage, but, she got used to us pretty quick. :)

So tiny she ate out of the dog food scoop!

First family picture...cheesy but good ;)

Anyways, Zoey is awesome...but I will fill you in on my Spring/Easter decorating now!  (I'm a bit behind I know....the Easter stuff has already been put away for a while!)

I went on a crazy Target shopping spree and found so much cute Spring stuff.  Most of it went in the living room so this will be a short tour:

Cute Easter eggs that are supposed to stack inside each other.....but are painted shut! 

Coffee table centerpiece....Brandon's favorite ;)

My cute little yarn chicks.  These are still out, just in a different spot. 

These are from Pottery Barn.  My mom gave them to me from her old Easter stuff.  I loved having them across my piano, they we so Springy on such cloudy, wintery days.

New WREATH!  I think I have an obsession! 

And, last but not least, my little chick pots that grow grass "hair"!  They have received a nice haircut since that last picture....that hair was a little too wild for me!

Well, I hope you all have enjoyed your time this Spring season!  I feel like it's officially summer based on temperatures alone...but not quite yet.  I have a lot more home updates (and puppy updates) coming so stay tuned!

I'll leave with the most darling picture of baby Zoey:

LOVE.

Small Hallway Project

Our hallway was a little boring so I decided it was time to spruce it up.  I came up with the idea to put up 3 large picture frames that would showcase our families.  One for my family, one for his, and one of us together.  So, we went to Pottery Barn (my favorite store....) and got 3 awesome frames to put up!  It was a nice little Sunday afternoon project.  

Mentally preparing...haha

 I did help out a lot even though I'm not in any pictures. :)  It takes a lot of work to make sure 3 frames are level and evenly spaced!

First one up!

And then there were two!

All three up! Yay!

 Now I just need to get some family pictures!  

Have a great day!

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!