Thursday, January 31, 2008

New threads...


Karla knitted Punk a sweater! We were hoping that a sweater would make the bitter cold temps outside not so scary. Yeah, that didn't work. When we open the door and the cold air hits Punk, he backs up as quick as he possibly can! It's just not his thing...yet!

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Heard around our house....(yeah it's about the dogs again)


Conversations heard in our house this week:

"Punk! stop chewing the leg of the chair!"

"Maddoxx, just because Punk is chewing the leg of the chair, it doesn't mean you can do it too!"

At 3 AM in the morning: "Yay Punk!! Good potty, Yay Punk!" (never in my life did I think I would be so happy about poop and pee at 3AM!)

"No Maddoxx, that is Punk's food. No Punk, that is Maddoxx's food." (Go figure, the adult loves the puppy food and the puppy loves the adult food)

"Punk stop chewing on:
my shoes!
the couch!
my pant legs!
my ear phones!
my computer charger!
my belt!
Maddoxx's leg!"

Let the adventures of having 2 toy fox terrier's continue...

Monday, January 28, 2008

Sometimes its hard...

to be a puppy! It's tough work being so cute all the time!

It's been awhile...


since we've been to a concert! So long in fact that the way people sway back and forth to slow songs has changed! That's right! Lighters are a thing of the past my friends...bring on the cell phone lights and sway back and forth holding your phone open over your head. Funny.

We went to the Martina McBride concert last night. Wow, she is AWESOME! How can one person belt out those songs and never miss a beat?!?

Lady Antebellum opened it up, follow by Jack Ingram (Lips of an Angel, Wherever You Are & Love You...any of those ring a bell?) and finally Martina took the stage!



Saturday, January 26, 2008

Punk...



Check it out, Punk already knows about the napping routine! He was snuggled in with Eric and loving it!



And I'm sure you're wondering how Maddoxx is handling all this change. She's doing much better than we thought! Punk is quickly learning all of Maddoxx's favorite toys and picking them up to play as soon as Maddoxx drops them. Then that means that Maddoxx wants to play with it again. It's really funny to watch. Punk is already whipping the fleece around just like Maddoxx does.



Yeah, I have no idea what Punk is doing here...check out those crazy legs!

Attention all readers...

please bear with us while this blog is taken over by the dogs!

Yes, DOGS!! We now have TWO!!!

We welcomed Punk into our family last night! Punk is another Toy Fox Terrier and boy is he CUTE.

Without further ado, I am introducing Punk to you!



Be prepared for a dog posting palooza in the next week, my memory cards are filling up quickly trying to keep up with both of them!

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

A lesson to be learned...


so this morning i was shocked to find the following email from my friend in my inbox....

"Good morning -
If anyone has a Bunn coffee maker be careful or check for recalls.

Our Bunn burst into flames this morning, which made for an exciting morning. I was getting ready for work and heard this loud poof, I thought I forgot to shut off my eggs. Nope. I went into the kitchen and was greeted by two foot flames shooting out of the coffee maker. I forgot my fire fighting 101 and started throwing water on the fire - a no no. Luckily I had unplugged the coffee maker. I yelled for Roy and he did the same thing. Every time we put water on the flames the seemed to go higher. I grabbed the fire extinguisher and couldn't figure out how to make it work. Roy finally threw enough water on the flames to extinguish the fire.

I've cleaned up most of the mess but the bottom of our cupboards are charred and the house stinks."

This TOTALLY seems like one of those forwards that attempts to instill fear and panic in everyone and causes a rash of warnings to be sent to your inbox. Seriously, how many times have you received the email about people in mall parking lots who ask you to sniff their perfume blah, blah, blah...

Unfortunately, this isn't one of those emails! Fortunately, it is one of those emails. HUH? what did I just say? Unfortunately she had to experience this, fortunately, she shared her story and we can all learn from it! :)

So what did I go shopping for tonight? You guessed it, I went fire extinguisher shopping! And guess what folks, a fire extinguisher is not just a fire extinguisher! There are decisions to be made. I had no idea I'd have to make decisions about this purchase! So I just went middle of the road and have never felt so good spending $40!

When I got home, I decided to take a closer look at the one that has been hiding in my closet...it looks ancient, I thought the house must have been built around it. Not quite, but it is dated 1978! Sorry, not going to trust that 30 year old piece of metal should disaster arise! I feel much better about the new shiny red one! :)

Let this be a lesson for all...

1) if you have a Bunn coffeemaker, check it against recalls!
2) if you don't have a fire extinguisher, get one!
3) if you have one, but don't know where it is, find it!
4) if you have one but don't know how to run it, learn it!

Thank you for sharing your story Barb!!

Monday, January 21, 2008

Our resident model...



has been letting us know that we are not paying enough attention to her. (imagine that!) She has resorted to bringing her nobbly to her pillow with her in an attempt to get more attention. Of course it works and this gets us to to say "oh poor Maddoxx must need more fetching time" so what do we do? Stop what we're doing and sit down for the 8,904 game of fetch, and that's just today!
I have never known a dog who thought fetching for hours on end was better than a nap...what kind of dog is she?!?!
We have been noticing that she's going through bags of food fast these days, yet she hasn't seemed to gain a pound. The last time she went to the doctor 2 weeks ago, she was a solid 5.5 lbs., the same as she's been the last year! And then I thought, well duh, how can she gain any weight when she can run 10 miles inside on a daily basis and LOVE every step of it? I think I need to work on adopting that mentality!
Run+Inside+10 miles=Love???? Hmmmmmmm.......

Thursday, January 10, 2008

The perfect Sunday morning...

consists of reading the newspaper, eating a bowl of cereal and then laying down for a nap! It's a beautiful way to spend a morning! It doesn't happen as often as it once did, which makes us enjoy the times it does even more!

Check out Maddoxx and Eric this past Sunday...they were having a great Sunday morning nap and snuggle session!



And I couldn't resist posting another great 8 hour napping session Maddoxx had last week. I came home at lunch to find this! The sweater had turned into a dress and her feet were missing in aftermath! She was so out of it that she stayed on the couch looking that way for awhile, long enough for me to get the camera and take lots of shots!



I think we really need to set up a video camera on time lapse to see how she gets herself in these situations!

Friday, January 4, 2008

C and A's Wedding...

This wedding brought our 2007 wedding season to an end and what a great way to cap off the year! Every winter wedding we go to, the more and more I absolutely love everything about them! From the frosted trees in the morning and the snow covered evergreens to the beautifully decorated churches with no shortage of lights, it all makes for the perfect backdrop!

Check out these sassy shoes of one of the bridesmaids!



Ta da......the bride and groom!



And then there was the super organized personal attendant! I loved the bag she put together....it even included People magazine, does it get any more complete than that?



Yes, you are seeing this right....those are open toed shoes AND she's walking in snow! What a trooper! Loved it!





Thank you for sharing your day with us! It was beautiful and we loved capturing everything! Best wishes to you as you begin your life as husband and wife!

Thursday, January 3, 2008

The "M" family...





Wow! What can I say, what an awesome shoot we had with the M family! Most of this family did not get home from the airport until 5AM the day of this shoot! Everyone was all smiles and laughs you would have never guessed they were lacking in the sleep department. Thank you for hanging with me until "I got just 1 more shot" :) I couldn't resist, you guys were great! And check out this sneak peak, the love for baby M just shines through these photos. Awesome!! And I about jumped out of my socks when you said you guys were all game to go outside for some captures with the fresh snow....loved it! More to come for you soon!

The "H" family...




We captured many families in this shoot! It was a busy one! The families came from Florida, Kansas and Des Moines and all met in NW Iowa, it was a bustling house but tons of fun trying to keep up with all the kids! Among the kids were a princess in training and a budding model. Holy cow, you should have seen the fabulous ideas they had, they were a riot! We were having a blast! Here's a tiny sneak peak for you! I'll have the rest of your images ready shortly!

Its a simple equation...


1 GPS + 1 phone = finding a Wii with little difficulty!

We're still kids at heart and yes, a Wii was on our Christmas list this year! We didn't open a Wii, but we opened cash. That meant I was on a serious mission!

Mom and I were running errands on Dec. 27th when she suggested I call Pamida in a nearby town. So I just looked up the phone number to Pamida on the GPS, called and here's how the conversation went:

Me: Do you have any Wii's?
Pamida: Yes, we do
Me: REALLY? Will you hold it for me?
Pamida: Yes
Me: REALLY? I'll be there in the time it takes to get from here to there!

And that's all there was to it! Easy as 1 phone call and a short drive! The tough part came when wii (hehe!!) tried to find additional controllers! That was another adventure all in itself!

And the Wii is how we spent New Years Eve....6 hours of playing....let me tell you, my body was screaming at me on January 1!! It was a blast!

What a whirlwind!


6 Christmas celebrations
2 photo shoots
1 wedding
and 919 miles later we are back home again (and we never left Iowa)!

What a great time we had the last 2 weeks! It was great to be with family and friends and fun to meet new people too! The time flew by but we are ready to do it all over again! Let's start the countdown until Christmas 2008!