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...

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

A square is a rectangle. A rectangle is not a square.

So I decided some time in 2009 to make a quilt for my sister. I finally finished it

22. Make a quilt w/o squares

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

Merry Christmas to us!

We're getting a puppy! While looking online we found a litter of beagle puppies from NC that were saved from a full high-kill shelter. We weighed the options, and in the light of the recent horrible death of my family dog(not Marsha - my dads dog), we decided that we should give another dog the chance to live the carefree life that Marsha has. So on the 19th of December, Bryan and I will meet up with the shelter rep to pick up the newest member of our family!

Her name is currently BeBe, but we're not looking to keep that name. We want to have a name picked out for her when she comes home and we're having a tough time picking one.

Here are some of the names that we either considered or are considering still:

Marla (Would be cute with Marsha)

Snowball (Christmas puppy, but doesn't turn into a nickname easily)

Cocoa (Winter name that goes well with Marshmellows.. get it?)

Mokey (From Fraggle Rock... I love muppets)

Wilma (Ok, this ones not serious. But how great would it be to yell WIIILMA when she's done something bad?)

Twinkle (Like christmas lights. Twinkie or Twinks for short)

Unfortunately, that's all we've gotten so far. Any suggestions or likes/dislikes would be appreciated! Poll on the right to vote!