St. George

Whew, it seems like we are finally pulling ourselves together. We still miss our big guy. We made a trip to St. George so Drew could tie up some loose ends on trim at my brothers house... More on that later.

It was such a great break. With some much needed sun. Cleo loved having someone to follow around... Even better, someone to follow around who was constantly dropping food... And was more then willing to share licks of suckers.

Mike and Hill are great hosts, especially to people with dogs... We could have stayed there forever! Well, until summer hit, and the I would be miserable.

I love how much these boys love our dogs. We would look over at them, and without fail, one of the boys would be laying on Cleo... It was too cute.

Love it!

Cleo got some major sun, and wind in her hair.

She loves adventures...

Sunday I taught the boys the fine art of duct tape sandals...

They loved it!

So many uses for duct tape...

Love those boys.

We had an awesome bonfire in the backyard, where we roasted some reeses s'mores.

We went on several bike rides, poor Cleo ripped her foot pad open on one of the runs... Hopefully we can build up her pads, she is a great biking companion.

And then we spent a lot of time, lounging in the sun... It was amazing! It was a perfect vacation, except for the sick feelings I would get when I would panic thinking we had forgotten Caesar, or needed to get home to let him out.

Then watched in amazement how much energy this sticky little boy had! We miss them, and the weather already.

Our Guy

This is our buddy... This is the picture we fell in love with and we knew we just had to have him.

We got him for Drew's birthday 3 years ago, and the day after Drew's birthday last week we had to say goodbye to him.

Caesar was there from the start of our little family. We had only been married 2 months before we got him. He went through the good and the bad with us. Happy to be part of the ride.

It was so hard to make the decision to put him down. He got bloat, that's where their stomach twists. It was worse to see him so sick. As many of you know Caesar had a pretty sensitive stomach, and the vet told us even with surgery, he would have even more problems and be more uncomfortable. We couldn't put him through that.

So we had to let him go. I hated it, I am not sure I have ever cried so hard in all my life. Especially not in such a public place. I was a wreck, Drew was a wreck, but while I was alone with Caesar while the vet was preparing the meds, and Drew was signing the papers, Caesar laid next to me while I sobbed. He picked up his paw and put it on my shoulder. I was a goner. I wailed and told him over and over what a good boy he was, and how much he meant to us.

He was probably just happy knowing I wouldn't be making him wear clothes anymore... Ha, he loved it.

We love our fat guy, Big C, Caesar my Naesar, big bear, big bear-o-potomous, big bear with no hair, old Mr. Grey beard, big fat fat fattegan, and will always miss him.

We will miss his snuggles, and we nose in our faces, I'll miss him saving me from moose, and scary dogs at the dog park, I'll miss telling him what a good boy he was for sitting like a gentleman. I'll miss telling him to leave me alone in the bathroom. I'll miss listening to him toot with every step he takes down the stairs. He ate our couches, shoes, got sick in our house, and I would do it all over again. To see his excitement he has in his eyes every time we got home. To see him wake from a dead sleep because he heard Drew's truck before anyone. To see him be so enormous and gentle at the same time. Parents loved him because kids could step,fall, tug and pull all over him without him even batting an eye.

I always had this vision of when we got around to having kids I would hire someone to take Caesar's picture of him looking into the crib, because for sure he would be tall enough and curious enough to take sneaky peeks in a crib.

We are so grateful we have been lucky enough to experience his love for three years. It would be a sad life not knowing the love of an animal.

We are so so so grateful to our friends and family who have made this hard time just a little easier. Friends and family who called or text us letting us know they understand that it wasn't just a loss of a dog, but a member of our family. To my siblings, all I had to do was tell one of you what happened and the news spread, so I didn't have to be the one to repeat it. Thank you for checking in on us everyday to see how we are doing. It means the world to us. Thank you to our friends for the treats, presents and the flowers. Thank you for knowing what a huge part of our life our pooches are. We miss you Caes, and always will!

The Things Fatal End...

We poured a concrete floor in our kitchen/laundry room.

And it looked like "The Thing" (from the Fantastic 4... Thanks for the reference Drewpy!) met his match.

"The Thing" is splattered all over our cabinets.

"Bloody" handprints can be found every. A forensic teams dream.

A final blow to "The Things" carotid artery left cement remains on our ceiling. It was epic...

But seriously... We went with an acid stained concrete floor. Something we hadn't tried before.

We mixed in some, not nearly enough brown dye. Turned out a "St. George, Utah" redd.

This was before the acid stain.

During the acid staining. The clear coat is drying, as well as killing my brain cells while we slept. I'll post after pictures soon!

Felting is My Bag...

I have picked up a new hobby... Felting, I felt, I'm a felter.

With Meghan's baby coming I saw this cute idea from my friend Annie. She made these cute little animals and made a mobile.

So I got to felting. Jabbing my finger many times with the barbed needle, my blood went into this project for my little nephew. You better be grateful little one.

The alligator my mom told me looked like an ant eater.

Lion! Are the captions helping you?

Hippo with his birdy friend on his back to show little one about symbiosis. This baby will be brilliant thanks to me.

Zebra.. Now I just have to figure out how to rig these suckers up...

Tiger and flamingo! I totally burned out in the end. I hope I never have to see wool felt again! I started thinking I was going to sell these on etsy... Give me a week, I'll get felting fever again!

Awesome Blog Stalking Find...

Ever have those days... where your husband is scrambling around your kitchen yelling in his "adult voice"... about the cement that he is pouring... and you decided to take a nice relaxing bath... and he runs in and drops a bucket full of cement water on your leg... making said "relaxing" bath, not so "relaxing"... So you start blog stalking... Because that's probably the greatest use of time EVER! Well I'm here to tell you it was for me! I scored a major blog stalk find! There I was just clicking through links of friends and landed on this one!

Friend of a friend situation here... We grew up in the same neighborhood, etc. etc... And she has just published an album and I LOVE IT! Bought it on itunes and jam to it all the time! Her voice is awesome, lyrics are fun! Fabulous... go check out her blog for yourself... julesmorrow.blogspot.com. Buy her album while you're at it!

Sick

I think I've been sick since December. I got the stomach flu... Twice... And have an awesome cold that has stuck around for two weeks... Blah!

This is how I feel...

These faces sure are cute...

But those little noses sure can hold a lot of germs. That lovingly get passed with boogery kisses, and well placed sneezes into unsuspecting eyes and mouths. Love these two. School has started and took my first test. I was in such a head cold haze I had to read every true and false question 4 or 5 times. Awesome.

Loved waking up to a heart attacked door from the Young Women.

The upside about quarantining myself inside is that Drew and I started Greys Anatomy. Nothing like trashy hospital drama to make you feel better. I think Drew and I are equally in love with Dr. McDreamy.

I get personally offended whenever Drew makes fun of Meredith. I heart her... He says she looks like a platypus. Jerk.

We bought the dog fence and have yet to set it up. (All that set up requires is to plug it in.) What's the point? It's been freezing cold, and the dogs want to be outside as little as we do. Drama queens...

And this one (as seen above) got knocked up, and is here while her husband lives on the coast guard ship until baby is born. I love it, we are about to start hypno birth classes. I'm the stand in for husband. I'll probably make her take some awesome prego pictures, she'll regret it if she doesn't.

We just need to find the perfect tree branch.

This ones a little tricky because Wes isnt here to lurk in the background.

This one has both elegance and fun.

When Wes is here this will be the first thing we do, head straight to Olan Mills and take this classy, yet informative picture. Brilliant. Maybe is shouldn't blog while sick. That should be on the warning label right next to, "do not operate heavy machinery".

Better Office Pictures...

My awesome sister in law took pictures of the office for us. The blurry ones just weren't doing it justice! There are, as always, minor tweaks we are going to make. I am picking out new chairs, that second armoire is being returned and I'm picking out a new couch. It will look awesome, when we're done!

At least now you can see all of the details.

Thanks Katie for the pictures!