Looking forward to...

As spring gets underway, it brings with it so many projects at our house. I can't wait for the weather to warm up again {it snowed last night and has been cold ever since.}

Everything else we're looking forward to is:

1. Getting the trees cut down {Not so happy about} so we can get the gravel in and the shed installed {very happy about}
2. FINALLY getting our taxes done, after waiting for so much paperwork for so long {I'm mostly looking forward to this one being over}
3. Having my first ever Garage Sale...and it's even from my own garage! {We have so much left over STUFF from moving and I just want to get rid of all of it and am too lazy to take it to D.I. so this is the lesser of two evils}
4. After the shed is installed Justin gets to move his truck & all his tools into the new shop, which mostly I am excited for, but still :D
5. I CAN'T wait for softball to start. I kindof dreaded it last year, because I embarrassed myself a lot, but I love being able to spend that time outdoors with Justin and my friends, and getting exercise all at the same time. LOVE IT!
6. It's time to have bon fires again! YAY!
7. We are going to finish the back yard (which I'm MOST excited for) which will include: Fencing it all off, installing a sprinkler system, building a deck, installing sod, planting some new trees and building some new planters and firepit. YAY!

But for now...I'm just counting down the last 2 days of this 9 day 'hitch' so I can have a weekend off with Justin! I can't wait!

YAHOO!!!

I'm so excited. Ever since we moved we've been wanting to hook up the internet at our house. We've just never done it. We've called Bresnan a couple times and they said they weren't sure if they could get service in our area but they would send someone out to check, and they never got back to us. So today I found the local Bresnan office and we will have the internet at our house Wednesday!

Yay! Can't wait!

Puppy Pictures

Here are some pictures of Sophie as promised. Her and Liddy are doing much better today. I am glad to report that she slept for 80% of the night lastnight which was amazing! Justin took her to the vet for her checkup today and Sheila was very impressed. She said she's incredibly solid and from the size of her feet, she's going to be a large dog. Very well bred! She weighed 18.8lbs (holy smokes) and is very healthy!

Welcome to the family Sophie!

Justin and Sophie

The girls were trying to get along on the ride home

My sweet little family!
(Notice Liddy is ignoring Sophie -- she won't even look at her)

Fresh off the plane and SO glad to be out of her kennel.

Sophie....

Alright, the great name debate of the century has finally concluded...haha. I feel like we've been through so many names trying to name "Puppy." Even after we got her, Justin still wasn't sure what to call her. It was so weird because I had Liddy's name picked out way in advance and it just fit her and all was well. Bailey was a little harder, we went through only a few with her and Justin came up with Bailey on the drive home with her but this time...Whew!! I'm glad we've got kids names picked out because "puppy" was so hard to name...haha.

It took Justin until the morning after we got her to totally make up his mind...Kinda funny... So after we went through:

Gunner (we kinda wanted a boy), Ace (still a boy), Acey (when we found a girl), Tilley, Sophie, I kinda liked Cocoa for a minute...Zyrie, Zoey, Back to Tilley, Millie, Myra, Myla, Mya (we went through a quick little M-name phase,)

Then finally the debate between Mya and Sophie phased into

Just...

Sophie.

She is great and wonderful. So submissive and soft and sweet. She loves Justin to death. She won't leave his feet and cries if he leaves the truck or house without her. If he is gone, I'm her second choice, which is how I like it. I love that she is so attached to him. Our only problem so far has been that she WON'T GO TO SLEEP AT NIGHT! We have never had a dog act like she does when it comes to 'bed time.' She cries and whines and howles until she looses her breath and gets the hiccups...but then she just cries inbetween the hiccups.

So far she won't sleep in her kennel, on the floor next to our bed, on our bed, in the garage, or in the outside kennel. If we put her outside on her leash by herself at all she just scratches the paint off the door. It's been interesting. I've been okay to let her cry herself to sleep but Justin's such a softy he has to go rescue her - thereby forefitting any sleep we would have gotten. Tonight's going to be different though. I've already got it all planned out...

A report will follow, as well as lots of pictures of our cute new little girl.

P.S. Liddy always has thought puppies were overrated, even when they were her own. She's warming up to Sophie, but it's not quite love yet...

Patience & Crème Brû·lée

Crème brû·lée ; French for Burnt Cream.

For our try a new recipe party last night, I went out of my normal "comfort foods" zone and made Bruschetta and crème brûlée.

The crème brûlée was good, but if I was ever to 'crave' it again. I would just make Tapioca and it would be even better. It's the same cooked'egg yolk-ey' consintency, minus the tapioca granules. It tastes the same, it smells the same. It's pretty good, if you can get past the texture. All that's in the recipe is half and half, egg yolks, vanilla, sugar and salt. Not complex at all. I might make it again if I ever want to try to be fancy...but Tapioca definately wins that vote.

(Also, if you ever do try it, I would recomment eating it warm...cold gooey baked egg yolks.....hmm)

Brushcetta: An Italian appetizer of toasted bread slices rubbed with olive oil, lemon juiceand garlic and topped with diced tomatoes, basil, salt, and pepper and served warm.

I loved Bruschetta and so did most of my family. Even Justin a non-tomato eater, ate some. We should have topped it with cheese, but I wasn't thinking. We did, however, try it with sliced avacado and that was REALLY good as well. YUM YUM. Definately try this if you ever get a chance. Super easy as well, if I might say. You make your topping (of 5 ingredients) slice and toast your bread, top it off and wa-la.

We are being as patient as possible. We get to meet Tilley tomorrow {puppy} and we are so excited. We are going to bring Liddy with us, just cause I can't wait for them to meet. When Liddy met Bailey, they didn't hit it right off, but by the next morning, they were inseperable. I'm hoping Liddy and Tilley are the same way. Her plane lands at 6:40 tomorrow night, so we're driving to Salt Lake, picking her up and coming back home. So excited!

Also, I can't believe it's been a whole year since Liddy had her puppies. All of those silly, skinny little "kittens" -- seriously, as soon as the C-Section was over, if you walked into the vets office you would have wondered "where is the box of kittens." Those puppies were so loud and tiny. I did not get much sleep for the next three days...trying to bottle feed those little guys. We amazingly only lost the 2 smallest ones before Liddy's milk came in and then they ate like it was nobody's business and grew up strong, healthy and smart...Congrats Liddy! Your babies are growing up!!!

Bye Bye Pear Tree. We were so excited when we bought our house that we already had three full grown trees. We have an apple tree, pear tree and one other kind of tree. We have to cut down the pear and "other" tree today so we can put a shop in the back yard. We had measured it out and mapped it out every other way we could so we didn't have to cut them down, but it wouldn't work or be efficient any other place so....today is going to be a lumber jack party/fish fry at my house as my family helps us say 'bye' to our two in-the-way trees.

What's been going on...

We've been a little busy/ a little not lately. With Bailey gone, we've been on a constant dog hunt to try to find a new friend for our family. Liddy has been doing better lately, but has yet to sleep outside alone.

(This is how she was for a few days strait...wouldn't eat...nothing...Poor girl. )This is how she's been lately...doing better! Just lovin on Justin :DEven though she's doing better, we still want to get another dog to keep her company when we have to work. It has taken us about a week, but we finally found one. She is 9 weeks old and we're flying her in from New Mexico on Monday. We can't wait to meet her, but at the same time..it's so bittersweet. It's been a whole week now without Bailey and it's still hard, but we'll figure this out.

Our new girl is the one in the foreground

This last weekend was a four day weekend for Justin, which was nice. Friday night Monty and Justin got the wiring ran in the room in the basement, so now we only have a few more wires to pull through before we can sheetrock.

Also, Justin got super busy and got the countertop and the shelf up in the laundry room for me. I just love love love it! It is so wonderful to have that be a useful space now! YAHOO!

Saturday Justin and my dad went to Wyoming to go Coyote calling on Little Mountain with my uncle Lon, while I went to Provo with my mom and Trish. It was a fun day. We took Liddy to Melanie's for the day so she wouldn't be alone. Apparently she was a little ornery to the other dogs out there, but I'm sure it was better than leaving her home alone.

Monday night we went and visited Colt and Jess and took them dinner, it was good to visit with them and just hang out. Last night Jess had baby Jaycee at 8:48pm so we are even more excited to go meet their new little girl tomorrow!

Last night, I got a little bored/ambitious and finally put my headboard together that I've been planning out since February. It didn't take as long nor was it as hard as I thought it might have been. I had it finished and in the room in about 20 minutes. We love it! Super easy.

This morning Tiffany and I continued the ritual of taking Hailey and Natalie swimming at toddler time at the rec-center. Super fun! Hailey is obsessed now because she knows if she doesn't go potty in the pool I'll buy her a treat afterwards, so now she's gotten to where she'll be done swimming before it's even over because she wants her treat now. Funny Funny Girl!

All in all a great weekend! Good to spend some time with my hubby, now it's back to work for a few days :D

Bailey...

This past few days have been hard, for what some might consider a silly reason, but for us it is very serious and heartbreaking. Bailey had a terrible accident and had to be put down on Thursday.

I was working when Justin called me to tell me what happened. I was worried for him, she was his first dog, and he felt so responsible. We were trying to decide what to do over the phone and it wasn't working so I told him to go outside and pray about it, and I would pray on the way to the vet. Right after I hung up the phone, I didn't even have to ask, I just 'heard' "Send her home." When I pulled up in front of the vet, Justin was still standing outside and we both knew what was coming. When I went back to see her, she was just as soft as ever! Sweet muddy girl!

The vet said she had broken all four legs, two hips and her back in 2 places. She was paralyzed on her left side, and we basically had no other option, which we already knew.

We buried her in the grave Monty had dug for Bindy, when she was going downhill, in Jensen that night.

Liddy has been so sad ever since. She was so confused at first, she kept searching the house for her, it just broke our hearts. She has been sleeping next to our bed ever since, she doesn't like being alone. We are now struggling to find another Samoyed Puppy to be Justin's dog and Liddy's companion, and my next 'girl'..even though we might get a boy...

Either way...Bailey we miss you so much!!!