Christmas 2008

Every Christmas is great. I get to spend time with my family, eat some good food, celebrate the birth/life/death/resurrection of my Savior, it's my favorite time of the year. This year was especially good for a particular reason. You guessed it! It's Jude's first Christmas. Ok, so I know he's not old enough to be excited about it yet...those years will be super fun, too. But, it was truly amazing to be able to celebrate this season with my wonderful husband and my new son. And Ross and I even got to have a date night, too! There are lots of pictures from the whole weekend, so I'm just going to share as many as I can without being too obnoxious.

On Christmas Eve, we had dinner at Grandma and Granddad Fergus' house. I only got pictures of Jude and his second cousin Maddox.

Then, Christmas morning came. This is what awaited Jude...
Jude got this horsey from his Nanny J and Papa Mike...and he loved it!

Jude in action. He wasn't as into ripping open the paper as I thought he'd be.


We're wearing our lovely scarves that our aunt Meme made for us.This is what our dogs did a lot of the time
Then we went to my mom's to be with them. It was a great time.
Sweet Shawn Shawn

Happy Birthday, Phil!



Arrrrghhhhhh
The gangsta side of my family

Eventually Jude got tuckered out....
And so did Ross...




Then on Friday, it was off to my dad's to spend time with them. We had a lot of fun!


Jude was a leeeetle unhappy here.
He wasn't yelling at Shawn, promise.

We also went to my sister's to hang out with her some. Jude and Shawn were playing together.

And that about wraps it up. We took tons more pictures, but there was no way I could put them all on here. Thank you to everyone in our family who helped make this Christmas a special one for us, and for Jude. We love you all very much!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone! Now onto 2009!

We love our Boxers

Ever since we adopted Fiona, our first Boxer (mix) girl a year and a half ago (from our FAVORITE rescue BoxAR Rescue), we have since fallen in love with that silly, childlike, fun-loving, butt-wagging breed they call Boxers. Then, about a year after having Fiona, we found out that rarely do Boxer owners only have 1. Boxers are a boxer-loving breed too, so we decided to get Boxer #2...enter Chett. (we also adopted him from BoxAR Rescue) He's 65 lbs, very intimidating, but just might be the biggest baby I've ever met. He literally tries to get in our laps when we sit on the floor, with his big 65lb self. I think that's the rescue in him...rescue dogs tend to be more clingy.

So, with all of that being said, here are just a few silly things that make our dogs who they are (therefore the reasons we love them):

Fiona:
-Eats her food one piece at a time. Literally. It takes her like 30 minutes to eat.
-She loves to lay right in front of the plug in heater. I mean right in front, to where she's almost laying on it.
-Runs ridiculously fast and can almost clear an 8ft privacy fence.
-Talks to you when you're not paying attention to her. Not always, but sometimes.
-Is the most gentle dog I've ever known. And she minds so well!
-Was at the top of her obedience class.

And now for Chett:
-He will do anything for you if you throw his toy. Especially if you throw it multiple times.
-He barks every time he hears a noise outside, which is only annoying when the baby is trying to sleep.
-Goes CRAZY over laser pointers, and flashlights. It's pretty funny.
-Has incessantly bad gas, which is audbile...every time. (we do not love this!)
-Likes to eat cats. That does not bode well for Tigger and Rukus.
-Climbs chain link fences.
-Is a huge whiner.
-Hates the cold! He will sit at the back door and whine if we don't let him right back in.

There are so many more, but these are just a few of the reasons why our dogs are so special to us. Now, for pictures of the mongrels.

Chett

This pic is blurry, but you can get the idea of what these 2 do all day long...
They also do this...
Me and Chett Baxter

Chett and Fiona are on a mission
Our pretty girl Fiona
And Chett again

So, yeah, Boxers are the best dogs. If you're thinking about adding a pet to your family (and of course we suggest a Boxer), please consider rescuing one. There are so many dogs out there that need good homes.

These are the rescues we support:
BoxAR
NAFA

Or, if you're not ready to adopt, you can also foster! These rescues desperately need good foster homes to temporarily house their animals that are up for adoption. You can contact the directors of these rescues for information on fostering.

So, I guess that's it for my Boxer/rescue pitch! :)

Christmas Card and Hamper Baby

Here is our Christmas card for this year. I was too cheap to buy real ones. :)

Make a Smilebox greeting

Also, we found out last night that Jude likes the hamper. Soooo, being the silly parents we are, we decided to get pictures of him in his new favorite spot.