24th Birthday

Well, I'm officially 24. I had an amazing birthday.

My birthday is on the 23rd. The day before Thanksgiving.

The weekend before my birthday, Lyndon and I spent the night in Boise... alone. :) It was so nice. Alden stayed the night with Lyndon's parents. We left right after he got off work. We went and ate dinner at Red Robin, nothing too fancy. Then, went back and watched TV for a while. The next morning, we ate breakfast and then went shopping. We ate lunch and made our way home. It was nice to have a night away, but it was even nicer to come home to my buggie. :)

On my official birthday, Lyndon invited our families to our house for some cake to celebrate.




I got a few nice simple presents. :)



Lyndon's present to me was a brand new laptop. The one we have is about 6 or 7 years old. The CAPS Lock Key is missing, the screen wiggles, and it has tons of problems. We got it the day before Thanksgiving when Staples was having a big sale.

It was a great birthday! :)

Mills Photo Session

I've always enjoyed photography. I just haven't had the time to go out and shoot.

My friend needed Christmas card pictures, so I told her I would take her family out for a full session of family pictures.

It was cold. But, SO MUCH FUN!

I want to get back into taking portraits.

Recovery

Sophie had her surgery on Wednesday and it went amazing. The stone inside her bladder was the size of a 50 cent piece. It took up pretty much her whole bladder. OUCH! She is still on an antibiotic for an infection, but other than that things are looking good.

Hopefully things around our house will slow down a little before the holidays. I doubt it, but I can wish right?

I thought I would update everyone!

Stacy

10 Months

One of the loves of my life is 10 months today. I can't believe it. Here again are some updates on our little Buggie!

GROWTH: Weight: 24 Pounds (90+ percentile) Height: 30 Inches (90+ Percentile)

EATING: New meats this month. Beef, turkey, and chicken. He's had both canned and homemade cooked. He is now FULLY on dairy based formula. He's drinking around 3 8 ounce bottles daily. He's loving snacks. He has about 2-3 snack times daily.

CLOTHING: 18 Month Size

DIAPERS: Size 4

DEVELOPMENT: Just TODAY! He let go of the couch and stood on his own. What a great milestone for 10 months. If you hold his hands he will kick a ball. He claps his hands and waves Bye-Bye. He's learning more words. He says Hi, Bye, Momma, Dadda, Hannah, No.

We are going through the "Stranger Anxiety" stage. he won't stay in the nursery for the full hour during church. He only wants certain people to hold him, and he's not as friendly as he used to be. He still only has the two bottom teeth. The two on top are trying to come through right now.

More updates next month. :)

Update on the Pup

Things are going a little better around our house. Keep your fingers crossed and say a little prayer for us.

Sophie is doing much better. She is about 3/4 the way back to her normal self. She is again playing with her toys and barking at the neighbor kids as they ride by on their bikes.

We are scheduling her surgery tomorrow for sometime this week. We are hoping this is the only thing we have to do with her for a while. We love this dog dearly, but her medical costs are just piling up on us. Thank goodness for payment plans. It just feels like our whole life is a payment plan.

We aren't quite sure where this money is going to come from to pay for the total surgery for Soph. We are relying a lot on God for all these decisions we are making lately.

I guess this will just teach us how to cut back on expenses even more. Coupons are going to be my friend. No more date nights for a while. Homemade meals from scratch. Buying Alden some used clothes.

We are just down to the wire. I just needed to vent about it. It's amazing how much money can affect your life. It effects it even more when you don't have enough. :(

through it all, we have our beautiful healthy son, our dog, our families who love us and that is all that matters.

Poor Little Puppy

Our poor first born, our Lhasa Apso, Sophie is really sick.

2 nights ago, she was vomiting all night. Around 11 AM I decided to take her in to the vet. Alden was napping, so thankfully my mom drove over so I could take her in. I got there and they looked at her. They said she was very dehydrated and they were going to keep her to give her fluids and do some blood work. Then, they decided to do an XRay on her.

Once the XRay was done, they realized she had a HUGE bladder stone. This is partially why she was so sick. Then, they found a mass on her jaw. They were unsure if it was cancerous. To add to it, her hips were out of socket.. They always have been they said, and they were starting to being arthritic.

This would all make sense if she was an old dog... But, she's only 3.

You have to remember this is my baby girl. She was a gift from Lyndon's parents for our engagement. I've had her since she was 8 weeks old.

Lyndon and I had a hard decision to make. Pay for her to get fluids and then surgery to remove the stone... OR make the decision to put her down. With the condition she was in, I made the choice to put her down, but I couldn't be there. She literally could not stand on her own.

Lyndon went to the vet when he got off work and signed the papers to put her to sleep. Then, they asked if he wanted a few minutes with her. He said Yes. They brought her in, her tail was wagging, she was walking and sniffing everything. Lyndon thought.. I can't put down this dog! So, he called me.

We decided to give her more fluids and bring her home.

She is now on an antibiotic for her bladder and she is scheduled for surgery. We aren't sure how we are ultimately going to pay for it, but we hope it will work out. We are just taking it one day at a time.

It's amazing what you will do for your pets. She is one of our family members. It's nice to have her home. We are hoping this will all take care of her issues and we will have her for a long time to come.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! 2011

HAPPY HALLOWEEN FROM CHARLIE BROWN!



He liked his Halloween Chocolate Chips!



We hope you had a wonderful Halloween!!!

Halloween BBQ At Grandmas

On Sunday, we went out to Lyndon's grandmas for a Halloween BBQ.

We started out on a hay ride. They live out in the country, so we drove down their road to the river and then made our way back. Alden really liked the hay ride. He was amazed at everything he could see.



Then, we had a hot dog BBQ with soups, salads, chili, cupcakes... It was so good!

Then, we all sat around a bon fire. Alden loved it.



This was probably the last time this year that we can be outside like this. It was very enjoyable!

Halloween DANCE PARTY!!!! :)

As I have said before, I now own the dance studio. This year, for the first time, we had a Halloween Dance Party! We had about 40 kids show up. It was so much fun!

Here are the teachers that help me with the studio. I couldn't do it without their help.



To start the party, everyone just ate, and ate, and ATE! There was so much to eat that night.




We also had a pinata. The youngest kids got to hit it first, and then the older kids had a chance. It took about 8 kids to finally get it broken. I put in 7 pounds of candy and 48 different toys. By the time they were finished, it was gone. :)



Since it was a Halloween DANCE party, we couldn't leave without learning THRILLER!




And, we kept on dancing....



We had a great turnout!