I'm never throwing anything away ever again...

Isn't that how Pinterest makes you feel?? Don't get me wrong...I LOVE Pinterest, but every time I look at it I feel like I should save every coffee container, Crystal light container, spaghetti sauce jar and make my own paint and make up. Seriously? Why would I want to make my own nail polish out of old eye shadow??  Maybe I don't have enough time on my hands and I'm sure all of these things work very well, but at the rate of all these pins I would have to keep everything and have a lifetime supply of modge podge.  I love a good DIY project, but some of these are a little much.  Is it just me that finds some of these things ridiculous? Now I'm going to jump off my soap box for today!  

Pumpkin Patch Torture

 Adrienne and I had a great idea...why don't we meet at the pumpkin patch with our husbands and babies so we can take pictures of our families.  We dressed the kids in cute outfits, picked a time that was good with our work schedules, and picked a time that we thought the kids wouldn't be tired or hungry.  The weather wasn't too hot or cold, the sky was blue, sounds like a perfect day for a good family picture, right?

"Oh, hey I guess this is fun."

 

 

 

We all get to the pumpkin patch excited to get the kids in a wagon together. They just stared at us.  No reaction.

 

We sit Charlotte in the "My First Pumpkin Patch" bucket thing and she just stared at us.

Then she cracked a little smile.

"I know this will be in a photo album some day so I guess I will smile."

We then went to a little area with bails of hay and pumpkins where we thought we could get some good pictures.  The kiddos were not amused.  They weren't unhappy, but they didn't feel like taking pictures.

"Takes Daddy to make me smile sometimes."

 Well, we didn't get a great family picture, but we did get a good picture of Charlotte and I together.  I'm normally the one behind the camera so it is rare to get a picture of the two of us that isn't from my phone. 

It was a fun afternoon hanging out with the Lowrance's but hopefully the kiddos will actually enjoy the pumpkin patch next year. 

Charlotte's Peeps

I have been wanting to buy a book to put pictures in for Charlotte to show her all of our family members.  Charlotte is now understanding what we are saying and repeating a lot of what we say.  I want her to recognize the people we see so often.

Every time I would go to the store would forget to look for a book so today I decided to just make one.  Who doesn't like an easy craft on a Sunday afternoon?  I started out with a board book that didn't have a ton of pages.  The one we had was 5x5 and had 16 pages.  Perfect.

 I used Pages on my Mac (which I LOVE and use all the time) and just made a 5x5 box and put in everything I wanted for each page. I wanted it to be clean and simple and easy to read.

I decided to send the files to be printed on card stock because I didn't want to use all of my printer ink.  They were ready in an hour and after I picked them up I cut out each square and taped them to the book. 

The book needed more than just double stick tape to hold the pages because I know that this book is going straight in Charlotte's mouth.  With 4 teeth poking through this weekend everything goes in her mouth!  Anyway, I decided to use packing take to basically wrap the pages to make it more durable.  It doesn't look the greatest, but it got the job done and I didn't have to go anywhere.

 

I'm going to lay it under something heavy tonight so it will lay flat.  I hope that Charlotte enjoys it!  I'm sure she will read it from cover to cover when she wakes up tomorrow morning. 

A little update on the two lovebirds...we were the ones that started this blog to begin with right?

I know I give monthly updates on Charlotte but I thought maybe I should write some about what's going on with the adults in this house. Fall has quickly arrived and I cannot believe that we are already halfway through October.  This is my absolute favorite time of year.  The weather feels great (supposed to be cooler right?), the leaves change colors (well in some states they do), and best of all...Fall decorations!  It has been a lot of fun decorating our new house this year.  Last weekend we went to the pumpkin patch and bought pumpkins (duh) and then Dan picked up some mums at the store for our front porch.  I love having a porch full of pumpkins even though I cringe every year when November passes and I end up just throwing them away.  It seems like such a waste but I don't know what to do with them.

Our front porch

I'm officially addicted to running and I'm really enjoying training for the half marathon.  I found an awesome group to run with and it has made it so much easier!  Two months ago when I started training I could barely run a minute without feeling winded and now I can breeze through 3 miles with it feeling like a warm up.  I still have 6 weeks until the half marathon and I am no where near running 13.1 miles yet, but I'm determined to do this!  I actually really look forward to my runs each week and I get excited about adding mileage to my long runs.  

Last weekend I made a trip out to California to visit Kade and his girlfriend Maren.  For the first time I went by myself and it was so fun. I told them that I just wanted to relax and that I didn't want them to think I needed to be entertained.  I took a nap, I read a book, we went to Trader Joe's (amazing!), we rode bikes everywhere (including a bar) and just took it easy.  It was an amazing, relaxing weekend and I can't wait to go back to visit.  I missed Dan and Charlotte a ton but they had fun without me I'm sure.  We did a lot of Facetime and picture texts to keep me in the loop.

Kade, Maren and I at Kade's birthday dinner

Bike Riding!

Dan is super busy as usual with work and spending time with us.  He is in a new position at work and for the first time is managing a team of people.  He really enjoys it and I always tease him when he's working late at night that he's probably so excited to be working at that moment because he loves his job so much.  I think for all parents it is a struggle to maintain a healthy work/life balance but that is something that Dan and I work really hard at doing.  We also try to spend time with each other and just slow down.  Between our parents and an awesome babysitter that lives down the street we are still able to have monthly date night.  

My mom got married a couple of weeks ago and we did a dinner at our house last weekend to celebrate their marriage.  After the dinner we lit our fire pit for the first time and roasted s'mores.  As I sat outside by the fire with a s'more and a glass of wine I was reminded why Dan and I love this house so much.  We can host a lot of people of all ages and we have things for everyone to do and enjoy.  I can't wait for it to get cooler so we can light the fire again!

John and Darlene with Charlotte

Thanksgiving we are taking our first long road trip with Charlotte and driving up to Colorado to visit Dan's parents.  Charlotte is always really great in the car so hopefully she will be for 12 hours...I'm nervous about this drive but it will be worth it.

Happy Fall everyone!   I'm off to light my spice candles and make pumpkin bread and pretend it's cool outside. 

10 Months!

Our little C is now 10 months old!  Month 10 has brought on so many changes!  Charlotte is now mobile and ALL over the place!  She had been trying to crawl for a couple of months and finally got it down!  This girl is on the move all the time!  If I moved constantly like that I would need 12 hours of sleep every night too!  Charlotte has been pulling herself up on everything and is becoming interested in taking steps while holding onto things.  Yesterday she was standing at her toy basket and let go to put both hands on her toy and stood there!  I got excited and she looked at me and then sat down.

A couple of weeks ago we looked on the monitor and Charlotte was standing leaning over the crib.  Needless to say, the crib was dropped that night.  Dan and I kept having thoughts of Charlotte tumbling over the side.  She hasn't seem to notice that we dropped her mattress and still gives us big smiles when we go to get her.

Sleepy head

Charlotte says "Mama", "Dada", "Baba" (Bella maybe?) and "gaga". Not sure what that one is either.  She waves bye and will say "bye" sometimes too.  She is giving kisses and loves to clap.  We celebrate a lot in our house to get her excited. 

 Over the weekend we made our first trip to the pumpkin patch.  We plan on going a couple more times but it was fun to pull Charlotte around in the wagon and take pictures.  Dan's parents were in town for the week visiting so they got to tag along to our photo shoot pick out pumpkins.  It seems as though everywhere we go now the camera goes along!  We have to document every family outing right?

Charlotte still has her two top and bottom teeth but she has to be getting more in with the amount of chewing she's been doing on everything.  This baby (or not so baby anymore) is the light of our lives and makes us smile constantly.  Her giggles are contagious and she melts our hearts everyday.
I question often how we got so lucky to have this little girl.

Our Dylan Doodle

It has taken me a few days to get the courage to sit down and write about Dylan.  I have never lost a pet before and this experience has broken my heart.  Dan and I adopted Dylan our first year of marriage.  We originally wanted to get another dog so Bella (our dachshund) would have a friend to play with while we were at work all day.  Little did we know how much we would love our little guy. The first thing we noticed about Dylan was the way he sat.  He would sit straight up with his legs sticking out.  He also had these huge ears that always stood up.  We weren't sure how old he was but they told us he was around 6 months old.  His paws were kind of big for his size so we assumed he would get really big. We didn't necessarily want a bigger dog but his personality was so good we decided we would adopt him.  He ended up being only 22 pounds and never grew into his big ears but that made him so cute.  He also had old man qualities like long hairs growing around his mouth.  When we would get him bathed they would want to trim him hair and we always told him no.  It was too cute.

When we adopted him they told us that he had a small case of mange.  They gave us some medicine and we went on our way.  Over the next few months his hair fell out, he itched all the time and continued to get worse.  He was uncomfortable and looked terrible but still kept his happy personality.  Dan and I were determined to cure him.  We eventually found an amazing vet that helped him and cured him of his mange.  The vet said he had never seen a case as bad as Dylan's.

We thought that the mange was going to be the worse thing we would have to deal with but we were wrong.  Two years ago he threw out his back.  We did back surgery, nursed him back to health and were so thankful that he recovered when we knew that there was a chance that he wouldn't.  This dog was incredible.  He had to sit in a crate for months and could only come out for therapy or going outside.  He never complained and over time recovered.  We had to make sure he didn't jump or run too fast and have always been paranoid about him getting hurt again.  When Dylan would walk he would be a little off.  When he would run his back legs wouldn't follow his front legs.  That didn't stop him from having a good time.

Excuse the large pregnant woman in the picture

A year ago he started limping and I immediately panicked.  Our vet gave him pain meds and we once again crated him for a few weeks and he recovered.  This has happened three times in the past year.  Monday night I was taking out the trash and Dylan was following me and he went up two steps and yelped.  I knew something bad had just happened.  I made him lay down the rest of the night and gave him pain meds.  He was limping but could still walk.  In the middle of the night I woke up at 4 am to Bella sitting by my bed and Dylan underneath the bed panting.  I could tell he was in pain.  I stayed with him and got him into the vet first thing Tuesday morning.  I went to a new vet near our house and explained to him Dylan's history and he immediately said that we needed to do surgery again.  Dan and I decided against surgery because the chance of him recovering was slim and we did not want to put him through that again.  I brought him home Tuesday afternoon with pain meds in hopes with some rest he would recover just like he always had.

Tuesday evening he lost all feeling in his legs and couldn't move.  Wednesday morning he quit wagging his tail and couldn't control his bladder.  I knew then a tough decision would have to be made.  I called our old vet and made an appointment with him for Thursday afternoon.  Wednesday Dylan didn't improve at all and his spirits seemed down.  To top off this really bad week, Dan was out of town for work.

After days of crying and heartache we decided that depending on what our vet said, we would have to say goodbye to Dylan.  We decided that as active as he was he would not be happy laying around all day with no feeling in his back and legs and not being able to control his bladder.  It was an agonizing decision to make and I have to believe that we made the right choice for our pup. 

I didn't have dogs growing up and I always thought that they would just be a fun pet to have.  I didn't realize how much you would actually love them.  Our dogs are our furry kids and they were our babies before we had a baby.  Dogs are always happy to see you, they get excited when you talk to them, they are a constant companion.  Little things like going on a car ride or taking a walk will make their day.  I do know that part of having a pet is knowing that they most likely not outlive you.  Eventually they will go to heaven and you will have to deal with the loss.  I didn't think we would lose Dylan as fast as we did, but I wouldn't change anything about our time with him.  He set the expectations high for our future pets and we miss him dearly. Our house seems quiet and lonely right now.  Bella sleeps all the time and just lifts her head when we walk through the door.  I know that we will get used to the quiet eventually but for now it is a reminder that Dylan is no longer with us. 

I needed to write the story of Dylan for myself for closure.  I want to remember our spunky little man and how much joy he brought to our lives.  I want to remember how Dylan would sit against me every time I would sit on the ground, how he would chew on Bella's ears all the time, how his whiskers hung down past his mouth and how his feet would sit straight out when he sat.  Every morning when I would get ready he would sit next to me.  All of these quirky things made Dylan special and we will miss our favorite boy.  Give your pets extra attention today and pet them a little longer than you normally do because you are just as lucky to have them as they are to have you.