Holiday Season 2013

We have survived and tried to enjoy another busy holiday season! It’s always a bit of a challenge to get everything in order for all of the events - luckily we both had some extra vacation days to use this past week ;)

~ We’ve had lots of snow this year ~ Loving that snowblower ~

We went to the annual Mefford family gingerbread house building activity and celebrated Spencer’s dad’s birthday. Becky and Todd have been in town and were able to enjoy the festivities with us. I decided to play photographer for the seasonal events. I never quite have the photos I want for my scrapbooking, and we have a better lens for these activities so it is easier :)

~ Paul’s family made a cute train ~

 ~ Isn’t my hubby cute?! ~

~ Me surviving the chaos! :) ~

Afterwards we celebrated my dad’s birthday. Everyone was in a goofy mood so we have some silly pictures. These are two of the normal ones! :) 

~ Love my sisters ~

Schoko opened up an early Christmas present so she could use her new shoes in my parents house! She hates wearing her shoes. She acts like her paws are broken; it’s so sad. But what she doesn’t realize is that it’s better than being left outside in the cold! While sitting down putting them on her I noticed the my parent's carpet was wet.  Apparently water had been leaking in from outside and it made quite the mess!

We spent Christmas Eve at the annual Mefford family party. The kids looked so cute all dressed up for the nativity pageant! Too many pics of them to decide what to share! :) Here Spence is showing off his new meat claws for his smoker.

~ My Family ~

We spent the night at my parents house and enjoyed a slow Christmas morning with them. Schoko got toys, treats, and bandanas for Christmas. She’s getting really good at digging into her presents!

~ Love my puppy ~

We then visited with the Meffords that evening before making the trip back home. It has been fun to see family and I have enjoyed being the photographer. I think I like hiding behind the camera. I find it’s a bit less stressful because I have a job to do, and it’s a great excuse to mingle with everyone.

~ Happy Holidays! ~

Chalkboard Herb Pots

I wanted to grow some herbs this year but didn't have any room in our garden. So we decided to plant them in pots. We bought a few inexpensive Terracotta pots and some chalkboard spray paint and got to work!

We masked the top section of the pots and used some tinfoil to cover the top to make sure we didn't accidentally paint the inside lip. Then we put the pots upside down on a tarp and started spaying. We did two full coats and then a light third coat for good measure.

Schoko was a great helper by giving us some moral support :) hehe

We let them dry overnight before taking off the masking and planting.

Here are a few photos of the finished project. I think they look great!

There they are - all lined up :)

It's Cold

It is so cold outside! My poor puppy is so bored - I try to play outside with her but it's way too cold! I'm ready for spring. We were able to go on a hike a few weeks ago after a snowstorm. It was fun to watch Schoko play in the snow. She loves the snow. I wish I could enjoy it the same way she does - look how happy she is :)

Happy Winter Everyone!

Princess Puppy

I haven't posted a scrapbook page in forever and I just love the way this turned out! So, I thought I'd share it with you all.

Last year for Halloween I dressed my cute little puppy up as a princess! She was a rascally little 1 year old and didn't love wearing a dress. (She isn't the most girlie girl, if you know what I mean.) But, she wore it with a smile for her mama. Isn't she cute?! We had to get a little creative with her belts to hold up the dress… it wasn't exactly made for a dog. But, we made it work and I think she looked cute!!

May Recap

This past month has flown by. I really can't believe it's already Memorial Day Weekend! This is a much needed break for me, we've been busy. Here's a quick recap on what we've been up to.

Spencer got a new job. He's now working from home and will more than likely travel a bit. We had to make a few trips down to Ikea for some office furniture, ordered a few things online, visited the office store, etc. He's now all set up and loving working from home. I think this means he'll want to leave the house more and be, you know, social. I'm sure working from home can get lonely so it's a good thing the puppy keeps him company ;)

I've been busy at work trying to figure out what my new job is really going to be. I'm not really sure yet but I know things are changing. I have to take another test. Uhg. I really have no motivation for it but it has to get done. Not fun.

We went to my sister's Utah Symphony/Youth concert where she got to play with the symphony. She was second stand of the first violins. Way to go Bex! She's way better than I ever was :) To put it in perspective, I was in the second violins, second stand (I think?!). SO she #1 - made first violins and #2 was the second best of that group. I'm so proud of her!

(This picture is awesome, for some reason I never know where to look when having my picture taken on a phone?! My eyes always look weird.)

Schoko is being a better dog every day. She still has her little moments when she wants to do what she wants and doesn't care what we want. Those are starting to happen less frequently. We went hiking with her friend Tika and it made me wish she had a buddy to run up the trail with. But we're not ready for that quite yet. I guess Tika will just have to come with us more often! Schoko has learned she doesn't need to meet every dog/kid/person on the hike. She even left some of the dogs alone when I asked her to! Here is a picture of us at our favorite waterfall up Adam's canyon. The water was icy cold. Thanks friends for coming with us!

Mom got her a new collar for outdoors. This way her cute pink collar can stay pink (not grey like it gets after being in the mud) and her new collar can get as dirty as she wants it to be! I think red looks good on her :)

I also went on my first outdoors rock-climbing wall. It was scary. I didn't make it up the first time because I was too scared to continue on. The second climb wasn't quite as scary so I made it to the top. Spencer is a pro and climbed it effortlessly his first time. Thanks Jarge for taking us! Here's a lovely picture of my attempt at rock-climbing.

The weather has been so nice that I busted out Schoko's swimming pool. She likes to scratch at the fish on the bottom of the pool and drink the water. She'll even put her whole nose in the water to cool of her face. It's pretty cute :)

I'm so excited for summer!

Learning New Things

Today after work I looked at my crazy dog who was anxiously waiting to do something. I could tell she needed some attention. So, instead of the usual frisbee game I thought I'd teach her something new. Frisbee is nice because it wears her out physically and it's her favorite thing to do. She is in love with her frisbee. It's kind of cute, she always knows where it is. If it gets lost, like on the neighbors roof, (oops!) she goes crazy running around the house looking up to find it. She will never give up trying to find it because it's her favorite thing in the world. I sometimes think she likes it more than me :) hehehe. Today she looked like she needed a mental challenge, not so much physical exercise. So, after a half hour of working with her she now knows how to "get on the porch" :) When I tell her to get on the porch she runs up and waits. I even threw that favorite toy and she stayed on the porch. What a good girl!

I think she's super smart because of how fast she figured it out! But she is still her sneaky self and tries to put her front paws on the second step, just to test her boundaries. I sometimes think she's too smart for her own good because she tries to find out how she can get away with things. I'm sure we still need to practice but she got the hang of it.

Halloween Princess

So you know I just had to dress up my puppy for Halloween! Why not, right? The Friday before Halloween I had to drag my hubby to the store with me to help pick out a costume. I wanted a second opinion on if it would fit her and other logistical things that I sometimes choose to overlook ;) So, we went to Wal Mart and walked around for a while and ended up in the little girls section. Needless to say, we found the cutest princess-diva combo for this puppy to wear. She got to show off at grandma's house - she was so cute!! Here are some pictures and some narrative of what I think she was thinking... haha...

Mom, I don't want to be dressed up - I really just want to chase something! What is that?

You sure I can't go get that thing?! (Here you can see the dress and her cute belt!)

Okay I'll sit here if you say so...

It's tiring being a princess!

Can I go play already?!

Isn't she super cute?! I thought it turned out great, even if the dress ended up being a bit too small and we had to use that extra belt that came in the 2 pac for a harness type look.. haha.. I think she looked cute and maybe a little silly. But that just made it that much more fun! 

Happy 1st Birthday Schoko!

My puppy turned one last Wednesday, Oct 27th. To celebrate we went to Auntie Kelli's house so she could play with her cousins Quiggley and Fozzy. Here are some fund pictures of her birthday!

Baby Jett was in such a great mood! He loves his brothers!

How can you not love that face?!

Cousin Quiggley - Schoko loves her Quiggs!

Her Birthday Flair :)

Her Birthday Cake :)

 What Is That?! Her paw's up so it must be serious.

Can I eat that yet?!

 It looks so good...Yumm...

The puppies are being so good for their birthday treat!

Quiggley licked the peanut butter off before eating the bone. What a cute boy!

Schoko and Fozzy both ate theirs as fast as they could - almost in one big gulp!

She ate every last crumb! Yummy!

I think she had a good birthday :)

Silly Puppy

We were going through our old videos on our laptop and came across one of her as a puppy playing with her cousin Quiggley. She was going crazy trying to find him in our house! It was too cute and we had a good laugh over her craziness. Here is the video for you all to enjoy :)

Schoko & the Garden

I haven't blogged about the pup in while, I can't believe she's already 10 mos! She's having so much fun this summer playing frisbee and practicing her jumps! Here are some pics...

I love my puppy!! Look at that silly face she looks like she's flying :)

Our garden is doing so well! Our favorite treat lately has been fresh bruschetta using tomatoes and basil from the garden. It's so fun to go out and pick things for dinner.

It looks like a mess and we trim it all the time! It just keeps on growing.

Yummy little tomatillo.