Hello 2014

2013 has been such a huge year for Jim and I. We ended 2012 by visiting South Padre with Jim's family. It was such a relaxing vacation and a great way to start the year. 

In 2013 we had our dream wedding, honeymooned in Maui, visited Victoria, BC (never got around to posting about that amazing vacation, I'm a bad blogger), welcomed 2 new nieces, had a cousin move to Austin, added a new member to our family, visited New York City, and bought a new vehicle! Whew.

2013 has definitely been the best year of my life, and I'm sure 2014 will be even better. I'm not really big on making resolutions because they never seem to stick, but I do have some personal goals and ideas for change in mind for 2014. 

One thing that I know for certain I want to keep doing is blogging. Even though I don't have tons of readers, it is still fun to look back at all the events I've documented over the last year and know that I will want to do the same for this coming year.

Here's to 2014!
Lexi

Have yourself a married little Christmas

Although this is Jim and I's 6th Christmas together, this one is very special because it is our first Christmas as a married couple. One tradition that I waited to start until now was sending out a family Christmas card and here is our first one!

My cousin Laura took this photo and it was the only one out of literally a hundred where both the dogs were looking at the camera. Who knew taking a photo with your pets could be so difficult.

Happy holidays everyone!

Lexi

Giada at 10 weeks

Man raising a puppy is tough. These last 3 weeks have gone by super fast and painfully slow at the same time. I'd like to document her growth and what's new with her every few weeks. Here's what's new with Giada now:

STATS:

Age: 10 weeks old (born on August 16th, we picked her up on October 4th)
Weight: 12lbs (she gained 4lbs in 10 days!)
Food: 1/2 cup three times a day
Favorite thing to do: Wrestle with Rocco
Latest nickname: Giada Frittata (Jim came up with that one, since frittatas are an Italian dish and Giada is an Italian name)

UPDATES: 

-She's been to the vet twice for vaccine boosters, she loves it because she gets lots of kisses and treats while she's there.

-The first 2 weeks we kept her in a crate next to our bed at night and let her outside to go to the bathroom usually twice a night. She never really got used to her crate and seemed to really not like being in it, so this week we've been letting her sleep in her playpen at night.

-She seems to enjoy sleeping in her playpen a lot more. She has a puppy pee pad in there to use and she can sleep on her blanket or on the cool concrete floor. A major plus of this is...

-We no longer have to get up to let her outside during the night! Wahoo. Until she can hold her bladder through the night (she'll probably be about 6 months old when this happens), she can use the pee pad. 

-Her face is slowly starting to get more black spotting and her nose is almost all black now. She's started to get some black around her eyes too. 

-She currently has a little skin infection on her tummy that we're treating with medicated shampoo, and also has an ear infection that we're treating with ear drops. These issues are unfortunately common for bulldogs, and are something we'll have to keep an eye on her entire life.

-She is teething big time right now. She loves to chew on your hand, ankle, face, whatever she can get to. Her evil alter ego name is needle teeth. 

-She loves to wrestle with Rocco. He will be sound asleep, and she'll get a running start and jump on his face. He's been really good about being gentle with her, but sometimes he retreats into his bed for peace and quiet. 

Future Goals:

-We are continuously working on potty training with her, which she is doing well with. Hopefully she'll keep getting better and better until she is fully potty trained before the end of the year.

-We are teaching her the word 'no', so she knows not to chew on cords or Jim's guitar.

-We were taking her on nightly walks, but she broke a nail so the vet told us to hold off on walks until she is a little bit bigger. We're excited to try again soon!

Lexi

Meet our newest edition, Giada

Jim and I have been talking about getting a playmate for Rocco ever since we got him in 2009. At the time Chloe was 10 and Sammie was 11, and they basically wanted nothing to do with him. We knew we wanted to get a puppy but three dogs was our limit, so we enjoyed our dog family for the time being. Chloe suddenly passed away in 2012 and after we got over that shock we started to think about getting a puppy. Well shortly after that happened we started planning our wedding and decided we should wait to get a puppy until we had gone on our honeymoon. 

I had just started leisurely researching breeders when Sammie suddenly passed away in early August. Rocco was noticeably sad and had never been the only dog before. After that I put the pedal to the metal and finally found a breeder I was comfortable using. To be fair, I have to admit that I was being very picky about where this puppy came from. If a breeder's website looked a little sketchy, or they said something I didn't like on it, they were ruled out immediately. I'm not saying I found the perfect breeder (there is no perfect breeder out there), but I found someone who I think can give us the puppy we've been thinking about for years. 

Anyway, this picture if of little Giada, we get to pick her up in 2 weeks and we are beyond excited! We've been searching for her for 4 years and now she's finally almost here. Welcome to our family little Giada!

Lexi

Walkin' Samster, Version 2.0

Last year I wrote this post about walking Sammie, and how she likes to take her time and mosey along. Well her mosey kept getting slower and slower until taking her on mile long walk really wasn't doable anymore. Enter, Sammie's dog stroller. 

When I ordered the stroller I wasn't sure if Sammie would even sit in it, she usually doesn't like being off the ground like that. When it finally got delivered to our house I put Sammie in it just to see how she would react. She loved it. She sat right down in it and seemed very comfortable being pushed around. 

Now going for walks in her dog stroller is her favorite thing! She likes to bark at other dogs from her little chariot. We're looking to upgrade her to a running stroller soon so we can take her to Town Lake, which I'm sure she'll love. 

Lexi

Town Lake

The weather has started to slightly (high of 90 woo!) cool down around here, so the other weekend we decided to go to Town Lake with Rocco, our friends Ty and Liz, and their dog Keeper. 

Playin' in the sprinklers

Austin is such a beautiful city. We are surrounded by nature, yet we're minutes away from skyscrapers and downtown. I'm so glad I happened to end up here.

Lexi

Walkin' Samster

Every night Jim and I take Sammie and Rocco on a walk around our neighborhood. Rocco likes to speed walk and always has to make sure there aren't any ninja cats hanging around, but Sammie likes to mosey along, and take her time. She's never really acted like a typical dog, she doesn't like toys or other dogs. Her favorite things have always been sleeping on someone's lap and eating. I like to think of her more like a cat.

Sammie, AKA Samster, Hamster, Sam, or Hammie

She's a little trooper,just turned 14 and still barks at strangers.

Lexi

Awkward and Awesome Thursday!

Awkward:

• Chloe will not stop eating figs. My dang neighbor has a fig tree in her backyard that is so big that it hangs into our yard and drops figs everywhere. Like seriously, I will let Chloe outside and she will run over to that corner of the backyard and inhale 20 rotten figs. Can you guess how those figs are treating her digestive system?? :( Talk about fatal blowout.
• I finally decided to rake up all the rotting figs and throw them away. 3 trash bags and 2 hands full of blisters later they were finally all picked up. Well the next day we had a downpour and what do you know, there were 50 new figs on the ground! Blerg.
• Jim and I decided to order to go food from La Madeline last night and when we got in the car to pick it up I forgot that I was wearing my pjs. You don't see people in pjs picking up to go food from La Madeline at 6:30 every day people!

Awesome:

• I'm engaged! Yea! It's crazy how much being engaged has already changed Jim and I's relationship in such a great way. Let's keep it up partner in crime!
• There's a new season of Bachelor Pad coming out soon.. I.am.so.excited!!!
• Our friends Ty and Liz got a Boxer puppy named Keeper a few weeks ago. Rocco's in love.

How are you awkward and awesome?

Lexi