Visiting an Oasis

This is Craig's first post ever and maybe his last depending on the amount of comments from friends, family, and strangers (so please comment if you want Craig to ever post anything else ever again.

Today we decided to drive out to the mountains of the desert to look for the San Andreas fault line. You know, the place where earthquakes begin because of the shift in the earth's crust and the point where California will crash into the ocean. It turns out we live 15 minutes on the west side of the fault line (I wish I knew that before we moved here..)

A long story short, Devin, Cyndi, and I were driving through the desert and we saw all of these palm trees grouped together like a mini-tropical rain forest so we decided to venture through the jungle. We practically needed macheties to cut through the dark abyss of brush. We never did find the fault line but next time we will.

Brent's Birthday

Ok so this is long over due, considering Brent's B-day was May 31. OOPS! Got lost in the mix.

So for whatever reason...no one knows...Brent and Devin decided to BIC their heads. They were having so much fun buzzing weird shapes in their head before they cut it ALL off. They really enjoyed there bald heads.
So of course being the SLAVE DRIVERS that we are...everyone worked that day but then afterwards we all went to dinner at...Red Robin (of course). Devin and Brent kept on touching their heads getting use to the baldness. They did enjoy the air conditioning on their heads...kept them nice and cool. Here are the bald boys being silly:
After and enjoyable dinner we had to go buy an ice cream cake for Brent. We got a delicious Peanut butter cup blizzard cake at DQ. And for kicks and giggles we had them write Happy B-day Baldy on it. It was fun.

We took the cake home, dished it up for everyone (after singing to him of course) and then we went out on the patio to enjoy it. A little while later as we are relaxing outside, FIREWORKS start going off right in our back yard. It was an AMAZING show, better than some 4th of July shows. We really enjoyed it, and had fun pretending that we did it for Brent...SURPRISE! We never did find out what they really were for but we had fun watching them. Happy Birthday BRENT!


This is the finally if you can't tell (a million going off at once)

Cricket is HOME

So we picked Cricket up on Friday (7/11-hi mom) from the Vet at 4pm (after he was neutered) he was so scared on the way home but warmed up once we got home. He quickly started to play and wanted to explore. He soon found the edge of the carpet by the fireplace to start to nibble on so we had to put duct tape down to prevent this and he enjoyed playing with the tape!
At first we were trying to keep him near his kennel and we were all sitting on the hard floor so I brought over the bean bag...and lets just say that Cricket loved it. (and loves me)
Potty training is going pretty well...he doesn't understand that he needs to let me know if he needs to go potty BUT if I take him outside often enough he doesn't have many accidents. We are trying to get him to either go potty outside or in his kennel...and he only had 2 accidents on the CARPET today!!!! He does like it outside though....he really likes nibbling on leaves and sniffing dead bugs (pest control WORKS).
Here he is playing in his kennel...he is warming up to it...but only when people are still around. He still hates it when I leave him completely. But I was cleaning yesterday and he did pretty good...except he did not like the sound of the vacuum. The reason why there is a clock in there is because we read that puppies like the white noise of a clock...it relaxes them.
Cricket playing with his DADDY...He is a crazy pup.

Allie ADORES Cricket and was really happy when he came and sat in her lap. After this picture Cricket started to kiss (lick) her face a lot and Allie was LAUGHING! They both loved it.Cricket looks so cute when sleeps.

I like this picture because his tongue is sticking out a little bit.
So the first night we had a huge dilemma of where Cricket should sleep. We read that if they are in a kennel in a separate room that you should put a blanket over their kennel (but his is too big for that) or have them sleep were they can see you. So we first tried him in the bathtub and he did good falling asleep while we were getting ready for bed but then he woke up at 230am CRYING. So we resorted to the laundry basket...the only problem...he can jump out of it so we had to get a board to put on top of it and then put the basket in between us on the bed. So he still sleeps in the basket with a board on top but we have moved it from between us to a table at table at the foot of the bed.
Here he is jumping out...and he has also learned how to jump in...you wouldn't know it by the way he wines at night but he really likes the basket.
Here is his kennel...and see he is in there playing and the door is open so he does like it. Until I leave (and he is a mamma's boy). Today I left for an hour to go and work out with my friend Claudia (we had fun times), Cricket was crying when I left and when I got back....
He was still crying and had made a mess and pushed his kennel walls out like this. He had also left me a nice stinky poop in there too. I am trying to get him use to me leaving for a short time period and not cry the whole time.
All in all we LOVE Cricket! He is a really good puppy, and we are glad he is in our family.

Pound Puppy

Just for fun on Sunday (7/6) Craig and I went to the Animal Shelter to look at CATS and DOGS. Craig and I both LOVE cats and have always wanted one but we didn't know if we should get a cat now or not...for a few reasons, 1-in the future when we start to have kids I hear that prego's are not suppose to be around cats, 2-Also I guess cats are not suppose to be around baby's either, (so that is two huge things), 3-two of the guys who live with us are allergic to them. So, we decided to also look at dogs while we were there too. We have always said that if we ever get a dog we want a small dog...something that can be inside and hopefully not so stinky! So at the shelter there were these cute puppy's only 2 months old and they were mini-Dachshund (weenier dog) and chihuahua mixed together. It was a litter of 5...2 girls and 3 boys. We thought they were really cute and since we got there right before they closed we had to come back on Tuesday (they are closed Mondays). So on Tuesday at about 11 we went back to look at those puppies...We soon found out that there were not adoptable until Wednesday and that the one that we wanted already had one hold on it. So we put the second hold on one of the girl puppies...she is so cute and has a heart on her head. So since we were the second hold we had to be their right at our time block (they give each person a one hour time block for their hold). So this morning we went there and she was already adopted! We were so sad. So both of the girls on one of the boys were adopted by the time we got to the pound, and mind you they have only been open for an hour! That tells you how cute these dogs are. So we asked about the two boys if they had any holds on them. They both had one hold each and one of them was up at NOON. So we stuck around until noon and GUESS WHAT? They never showed up! So we got to play with him and we ADOPTED HIM!!!!
He is so cute and such a fun loving character. His name is CRICKET! and he is 2 months old. We don't actually get him until Friday afternoon (he is getting neutered) but we are so excited to have him in our family!
Also, Tara and Allie went to the pound with us because they have been looking for a dog for a while now and I told her about these puppies so she is trying to get the other brother! But she is the second HOLD on it and the first hold is a ho-bag and made their hold from 5-6pm. So Tara and Allie are going to go back there tonight and try and get Cricket's brother. We are so hoping that it works out because that would be so much fun that Tara and I are sisters and our dogs are BROTHERS!!
After we saw them on Sunday we also started to look up info about both of those breads to find out more about them and when I did a search I found out that this mix is common and it actually had a name...they call them Chiweenie's or aka Mexican Hot Dogs! LOL I like it! So we have a little Chiweenie and he is SO CUTE!

Here is CRICKET! These were taken while we were playing with him at the animal shelter. They have a little room that they put you in with your adoptive puppy to see if you like them...and of course we LOVE him.My puppy loves me...and is already good at playing fetch!
Allie was loving Cricket...she kept on saying "my turn to hold the puppy" and she was talking about how the puppy can come over to her house and watch Ratatouille with her.
Proud papa! Craig loves Cricket. When I was on my way to the Animal Shelter with Tara later to look at puppies again Craig called me and said that he was jealous that I was going to see Cricket and that I should bring him a present..."like a big fluffy pillow" ...Craig is so sweet!
Me and my baby...he is so precious. He thinks that my arms are toys and tries to move them around with his paws.
There is our cute puppy...he loves people and wants you to come and meet him!!!!

You HAVE to BUY THESE!

My new BEST FRIEND is ZIPLOC's Zip & Steam bags! If you have not yet tried them...let me tell you they are HEAVEN sent! It is so easy to use and it even tells you right one the bag how long to cook certain things. (It's a little chart with different meat and veggies and how long to cook it). It is so easy to to cook everything. The BEST recipe I have come up with so far is chicken breast with lemon pepper, Santa Maria seasoning, and lemon slices...it is YUMMY!

Go out and get some! Talk about easy cooking! I think everyone should have these in their cupboards at all times...it's a way to cook quickly without a lot of work...great for the nights that you do NOT want to cook at all...just throw it in a bag and into the microwave. HAPPY STEAMING!

Craft Night

On Wednesday (7/2) Tara and I had our CRAFT NIGHT! We made little book bags for kids (to go to the library with). I was very excited about this craft because let me tell you it is so stinkin' cute. So we first met up at Wal-Mart to buy a few needed supplies...along with some chex cereal to make MUDDY BUDDIES or what we are calling them now (thanks to Jon and Kate plus 8) "Monkey Munch!!!!" So we then went to Tara's house (we are trading off whose home it is at) and we made the DELICIOUS Monkey Munch and a healthy salad to eat before. So we ate while we watched So You Think You Can Dance? which is such a fun show by the way. FINALLY at 10pm we started our craft. Long story short, this craft takes longer than you think and even with staying up until 2AM we still did not get it finished. So I just barely finished mine last night (7/6) Here it is: (Tara took some other pictures as we were working which I will post when I get them)


It was a fun and super cute craft and I recommend it to EVERYONE!

AMAZED

On Friday (6/27) Tara and Allie came over for CRAFT NIGHT and Allie had not been over since we got the projector screen...So she wanted to watch a movie and the TV was sitting on the floor and she was saying "put it up" on the TV stand so she could watch a movie and I told her that I had a new "special TV" and I turned on the movie with the projector and her eyes LIT UP like it was Christmas morning! She loved it!!!! She enjoyed every minute of it. Sitting there with her popcorn. She also liked when she found out that if you walk in front of the projector you make a shadow in the picture...At one point I caught her flexing and looking at her muscles in the shadow. It was so cute. Jon also came over later and we had a little PIZZA party. Which was fun. As for our craft....it did not work out so well.

BUT we have had another craft night since which went a lot better. We are not quite done with it yet so we will be posting about it later.

Here is Allie so excited about the BIG SCREEN!

So excited and SO SILLY!...That is popcorn in her mouth.