Tucker Pictures

Here are some pictures of Tucker:

A favorite place to hang out...except of course if he needs a bath!

Hiding under the bed is also a favorite right now. He sure is tough when under there.

Up close and personal

There he is, our little puppy

Long Weekend

This past weekend Paul and I flew out to Oklahoma. My sister Jana got married on Friday in the OKC temple. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of it since I can never remember to put new batteries in my camera at the right time! I am hoping some people will take pity on me and send me some pictures. :) Anyways, it was a busy busy time. We got in about 11pm on Thursday night. My brother and SIL were so kind to let us stay with them. As we walked into the house 2 of the 3 boys were up crying so they got to deal with that as we got settled in. We went to sleep shortly thereafter.
Friday morning I woke up at about 6:45 and was the first one up. I got some water and Tiff came out to greet me. We were chatting a bit when sleepy eyed Brandon came stumbling in. He didn't even look up and went straight for me. I happily obliged of course. I think my hair was the first thing to tip him off as mine is to my shoulders and Tiff's is getting long. Then he saw his mom, got down and immediately went to her. We got ready, ate some breakfast and headed to the temple. The ceremony was great, it was freezing outside (of course I forgot my sweater!) but luckily pictures didn't take too long. I was one of the bridesmaids with Kathleen my sister and then there were two matrons of honor (Jana's two best friends Jessica and Patsy). We headed to my parent's for some lunch and RockBand. We had some fun hanging with the family and eating some delish sandwiches on homemade rolls (well some of them were and they happened to be the best ones). Then, slackers that we are, headed to get a gift (really, I didn't feel like buying one in Utah and flying it out there). Then it was time for the ring ceremony. We got to the church and everyone got ready. The ceremony was nice and a lot of Jana's friends came to it. She had a nice tribute for them at the end. The reception went well, it was just a long time on my feet in 3-4 inch heels and 5 months pregnant. After standing in the line there were the usual things but luckily I got to sit at the table and eat a bit. It was just a nice time.
Saturday Paul and I spent the morning together. It was nice to spend some time just shopping around. First thing we did buy was some new church shoes for me. I only have heels! We ended up spending some money on some Keens but they were worth every penny, so comfy and cute enough for church. My feet were so swollen the rest of the weekend but they are much better now that I've been wearing "real" shoes. We had a baby shower at noon that my friend Samantha threw for me. It was so nice and Paul was excited to open gifts since he's never gotten to do the baby shower or bridal shower or any of that. It was really nice and great to see some family again as well as good friends and their parents. I got some cute outfits for little Dixie as well as some practical things. Sammy Jo made me a diaper cake (a tiered diaper contraption) and she put in some cute onesies and bibs. I think my favorite came from my mom and dad though. There is a picture of me at about age 1 wearing this little red and white checkered dress. My mom framed it in a double frame, left the other side blank and gave me the dress to put Dixie in when she's old enough. The dress came from her best friend Noelle, who sadly passed away almost a year ago. It was thoughtful and meant a lot. I'm so excited to see how Dixie does or doesn't look like her mom!
The rest of Saturday was spent at my parent's house with helping Jana and John load up the moving truck (she moved to Reno, NV), eating dinner and taking family pictures. Again we played some more RockBand. Sunday morning we left to come back to Utah and I was actually sad to leave. I enjoyed spending time with my nephews, especially Andrew because he is the best baby ever! But now we are back and it even snowed today...it's still October, can't it wait a little longer! I'm glad we had such a nice time in Oklahoma.


Here's some pics from the shower.

My Alabama boy

There's the diaper cake from Sammy Jo

Some toys for the car seat from Luff


Here's the dress from Noelle

THE MOST AWESOME DOG EVER!

So this is what Paul refers to Tucker as, due to the following story. Yesterday Paul called me about 4 or so at work. He told me he had good news and bad news. I like to get bad news out of the way so I told him to tell me the bad news first. He explained he was going to take an invoice over to a client and had Tucker with him in the back of the truck. He was on a semi-busy road going about 30 or 35 miles per hour and the dog fell out of the truck! He hit the ground (mind you his lease was still on so how it didn't get caught on the truck tires amazes me) and proceded to roll across the median then to the oncoming traffic lane UNDER a moving car and finally smashed into the curb on the other side. He was yelping and whining and Paul of course slammed on the brakes and ran across the street. Tucker had a cut on his lip which was bleeding pretty bad and was pretty shaken up. When Paul picked him up he was yelping so he was sure that he was going to have to take him to the vet and maybe even put him out of his misery. He decided to do a little rub down and check ribs and things. To his amazement, it seemed nothing was broken. He took him to a field and let him run and he was going full speed. Not a thing wrong with him! If he shows any signs today, we'll of course take him into the vet. But he seems completely fine. He didn't want to get in the cab of the truck last night when we went to run an errand, yet once he was in and on my lap he was fine and the longer we were there the more comfotable he seemed. So we are VERY HAPPY our puppy is fine! Paul was talking about how much they have in common, seemingly invincible. Paul has sustained many injuries that probably should have killed him, ie ran over by a tractor (not a broken bone), been hit by a car, shot, stabbed, several motorcycle accidents. Glad I have some tough boys. :)

One YEAR!

I can hardly believe that it has been one whole year since Paul and I married. We spent the weekend reflecting and setting goals. Saturday night we went up to Salt Lake to a bed and breakfast and went to dinner at the Roof Restaurant on Temple Square. It was nice to be with him and to talk and just spend some quality time together. I feel like I've known Paul my whole life. I feel my love and appreciation for him growing and growing. He's the best husband a woman could ask for. He's so patient and really tries to help me see all sides of a situation so I can work things out. He's such a wonderful father to Jackson and I can't wait to see him with Dixie. I feel blessed to have him in my life. I'm looking to many many many more years of struggles and accomplishments with the love of my life. Because honestly, I know we are much better together than we ever were apart. I love you honey!

Yet another new puppy...

Well, it's taken me a week to write this because I was so emotional last week. Tuesday Bryant growled then bit Jackson in the face. After that, we knew we couldn't keep him with us. He just didn't fit with our lifestyle and definitely we can't have him biting in the face of our kids.
We did some major research to find out what dogs might best suit us and our kids. Paul did most of the work reading up and searching to find out what might work best. We narrowed it down to a miniature schnauzer or a chocolate lab. As we did more research on the schnauzer we found they are not the best dogs for families with small children, but got a suggestion on English Springer Spaniels. As we looked more into these dogs, we felt more and more confident this would be our choice. So we picked up Jackson on Saturday, drove to see a few litters and let him pick out the one he wanted. We ended up picking him up Sunday since it was our anniversary. We are in love with our 3 month old puppy. His name is Tucker and he's so SMART. Potty training takes lots of patience, yet he is catching on quite quickly. We are realizing what mistakes we are making and correcting them and seeing the difference. We also have begun crate training and that is going well. He's definitely a puppy and wants to be held still and played with and we are happy to oblige. I will post some pictures later.