Finally - A quilt for me!

For our engagement party, Bryan's aunt bought us this amazing sheet set with orange and white fish on it. We absolutely LOVED it! The only problem was that it didn't match anything else we owned. So, since we only ever use the fitted sheet anyway, I decided to use the flat sheet to make a quilt! I found this quilt pattern online, and decided to give it a go!

Beagle tested and approved.

We love the way it turned out! Of course, it matches our sheets perfectly, but it also matches the pillow that we bought to match our sheets. Now if only I wasn't a blanket stealer so we could actually have it look this pretty on our bed all the time...

Feeding of the puppies.

Another nephew post. We had the littlest guy over again last weekend. He was over for just a few hours, but it was just enough time for him to make friends with the pups.

He was timid at first. They can be a little crazy when they first see someone. I don't think they've ever seen someone their size. The warming up period.

Jude knows where we keep our goldfish. Then he learned that Marsha likes goldfish too.

She was surprisingly good with him. He even went in and gave Cocoa treats in her cage(she's a little too crazy for little people).

By the time he left he was asking Marsha for her paw in return for treats. It cracked all of us up.

A Spring Tease

Last Friday was supposed to be 70 degrees and Sunny. It was nice out, of course, but the sun didn't come out until noon or just after! Either way, it was a wonderful reminder of what's to come at the end of a blistery winter. We took full advantage of the short break from Winter. Bryan got a clothes line from one of our neighbors who recently moved away, so the night before I asked Bryan to set it up. I remembering hating it when my mother would dry our clothes on the line because they became so stiff and coarse, but Bryan wanted to try it, so I used the nice weather as a trial run. It worked out well because the puppies wanted to stay outside EVERY minute! They played and played until they fell asleep. Then they woke up, and played some more! When Bryan came home, we took the dogs for a walk at the Rt 40 park and he cooked dinner for us on the grill as an homage to the coming of Spring!

The hardest part of it all was trying to keep myself from taking out all of my tank tops and wearing my flip flops for the next week. Of course, Winter bore its ugly head again a few days later with inches of snow just to further break our spirits. It felt like a tease, but it may have been just enough to keep me hopeful that Spring is right around the corner. I'll be rather glad when it's finally here!

The puppies enjoying the weather... and the lack of snow in the backyard

Happy Birthday,Marsha!

Today is Marsha's birthday. Our little girl turned two years old today and it was an event to celebrate!

Bryan and I took a trip to the beach on Friday(just for fun), and in Rehoboth, they have the cutest little dog shop on the main strip. We went in because Bryan told them he'd come back with a toy and treats for making them stay in the cage all day while we were out having fun. He kept his promise - but I also picked up a box of cake mix for dogs knowing that Marsha's birthday was right around the corner

So, Bryan whipped the cake up tonight after work and the dogs devoured it. Of course Cocoa had a piece, too. Though I'm sure if Marsha had a choice she wouldn't have shared...

Here was the cake finished. The kit came with everything except the candle and frosting ingredients(cream cheese and peanut butter).

Marsha's little slice of birthday cake.

"Dad, you don't have to hold me. Look at my face - the epitome of self control."

A short period of time later... "Oh God, it smells so good! How long is this freaking song?"

The birthday girl with her birthday cake :)

I decided this morning to follow the girls outside and take a few picture of them. It was so beautiful out, and since the weather has improved, they've been wanting to be outside CONSTANTLY! This was my favorite one from the morning:



I also found out this morning that Marsha really DOES NOT like the camera. Cocoa was letting me take pictures no matter how close up I was but every time I got near Marsha she purposely started to walk away. Once I stopped using the camera, she came over to play with me and jump on my lap. Strange...

Today was a great day!

Today has been such a productive, yet relaxing, day. I was able to accomplish most of everything I wanted to - Plus some!

I must admit, though, that my favorite thing about days like these is all of the quality time spent with the dogs. I often feel horrible about them spending so much time in the cages while we're at work that having them out all day is a treat for all of us. The day was so beautiful that I spent time here and there outside with them and that hasn't happened for months. I think they were appreciative. In fact, to show their appreciation they decided to sit on and knock over all of the clean clothes I had just folded. Oh well. A great day was had by all, and maybe we'll even be able to squeeze a walk in before the day is up.

Cocoa laying on Daddy's blanket. She's such a Daddy's girl.

Yes, Mommy. I do realize that you just washed these clothes and need to hang them up, but they're so warm and comfortable!

Everyone: Meet Cocoa Puff!

We were supposed to pick her up on the 18th which ended up being the day that we got the largest snow storm we've had since the 90's. Needless to say, we had to reschedule the pick-up for Tuesday since they were actually driving her up from North Carolina. It was heartbreaking, but once the day finally arrived, she was just as wonderful as we had imagined.

Obviously, the name Cocoa won hands down in our poll, so we put our own spin on it and named her Cocoa Puff. Her nicknames currently consist of Cocoa, Cocoa Bean, Cocoa Butter(BTW Alicia, thats what Xzairre calls her and wants to call her "Butters" like her cousin puppy), Cocoa Chanel, Coco Roco, Coconut, Grumps, and Gremlin.

It took Marsha a few days to get used to the fact of not being the only baby in the house(Which is evident in the above photo. Check out the expression on Marsha's face - Priceless.) But before long they cried when one wasn't in the same room as the other and are constantly playing, cuddling, and following each other around. I don't know why we were putting getting a second dog off for so long. Of course there's the problem of having to train another dog, but Marsha is trained well enough to teach Cocoa most of what she needs to know.

This was them last night. They make my heart happy.

96. Get Marsha a brother or sister

Marsha's first vacation/long car ride!

We've had Marsha for about a year and a half, so she was due for her first family vacation/road trip. The weekend after Thanksgiving, Bryan, Marsha, and I went down to visit some of his family down in North Carolina. Marsha made the trip down seem twice as long because she didn't know where she wanted to stand - because she didn't want to sit or lay AT ALL. Her favorite position seemed to be standing on Bryan's lap looking out the windshield which didn't always prove to be the safest.














Up until then, Marsha had only been in the car to go to the park, vet, or some other fairly short ride. As with most dogs, her favorite part of the ride is sticking her head out of the window and sucking in all of the different smells with her powerful hound nose. Unfortunately, going over 70MPH on 95 doesn't exactly make this the most comfortable thing, so she had to settle for doing it only on the small side roads.














The ride home was much better. While in North Carolina, I made Marsha a soft dog bed out of fleece material. So that, mixed with the memory of how long the last car ride was, convinced Marsha that laying down was probably the better alternative for our returning trip. Plus, she was completely exhausted! All in all - a very successful first trip for our little girl(and some much needed alone time before bringing in a #2).

93. Put up fence

Bryan finally got around to finishing our fence yesterday! This project was not so much for us as it was for our darling dog, Marsha... and to keep mischievous kids out of our yard. Our dog is very high strung and has a problem with wanting to use the hallway as her toilet, so it's so relieving to finally have this finished. Plus, both Bryan and I were looking forward to being able to let go of the leash and let her run free!

This is Marsha trying so hard to contain her excitement so that her daddy will throw the toy for her!

Running back to give it a second try... I love it when she lets her ears hang low.

"Well, are you going to throw it, or what?"

She's so cute when she plays tug-o-war. She doesn't understand that a 200 lb man can easily over power a 20 lb dog.

My favorite picture of the night. It shows her true self - wild and crazy. All in all, the fence was well worth the wait.