Bailey.......day 2

We have had Bailey here at home with us since Friday nite....the first nite was sad as she barked when we put her in her crate for bedtime......and barked for an hour off and on. Settled down finally, and when I was just about to drift off myself (was like having a baby in the house, I couldnt sleep till I knew she was asleep) an ambulance went by a few block away...and she started up again.....same thing a bit later...quiet for a bit, then it was a helicopter....then a motorcycle...LOL!!!! But eventually we all got to sleep and slept thru the nite. Up the next day, no accidents in the crate overnight...but she got a bit too excited when she saw us come downstairs and before we could get her outside...yup, she peed in the crate. Gotta be quick with this girl! :)

Friday was her first day in the crate while we were at work...Freddy came home on his lunch break to play with her a bit, give her a potty break and feed her. She liked that and then was excited when we all got home that she could be out and playing and what not. Few accidents in the house here and there, all a learning curve for everyone involved, and having to watch her like a hawk...the second you turn your back.....is when she is suddenly squatting. HA! then last nite I had the idea to give her a piece of fleece I hadnt made into a blanket at christmas time...and she LOVED IT......curled up on the living room floor on it, and i also put it in the crate last nite...only 10 minutes or so of whining...but really no barking.

Today has been fantastic with her! Got up this morning to let her out.....she saw me approach the crate...didnt pee in it from excitement this time....got her outside..TA DA!!! Went on the grass!!!! So I gave her a treat..back inside we went.....guess she wasnt quite done with her business...I turn around...peed again on the tile.......bad mommy..my fault!!!!

So most of the day today we have been outside with her and MAN does she love that!!! Playing in the front yard, watching James and Daddy fly James' kite in the culdesac, taking a walk/jog around the lake with Daddy.....she's LOVING life today and really starting to get used to us here I think....put her in her crate while we were eating lunch...she whined a bit, then realized we werent gonna let her out for whining...then she decided to lie down and take a nap.....so yeah, learning curve in process for all of us...Bailey included...but improving daily. :) Here are some new pics...she loves the blankie I gave her...we were putting it on her and she would wiggle herself out of it....then James was on the futon and she decided to lie down underneath him...LOVE this pic!!! james is still not quite sure what to think of her, but is coming around.......little did he know she was right under the couch where he was!!! LOL!! :o)

IT'S A GIRL!!!!!!!

Well since the other puppy didnt work out (poor thing ended up with pneumonia and passed before the owner could get him to us........poor little Nitro!!) and wasnt meant to be.....we took a step back and truly thought about what kind of dog we really really wanted...and we decided on a black lab puppy!!!!! I didnt want to go the tiny puppy route, I really wanted to get one that had a bit of the "hard work" done......like not having to get up every couple hours in the middle of the nite to let it out to potty

Freddy stumbled on the SWEETEST BABY GIRL today on craigslist...she is 18 weeks old, pretty well potty trained, sleeps thru the night from 11 PM to 6 AM with no accidents or whining to get outside to potty, is great with kids (has been around kids from age 3 up to 18) and is the sweetest thing ever!!!

We decided to name her Bailey.......my sister started a tradition of naming her dogs after brands of beer (Guinness, then now Murphy) and told me today I needed to continute the tradition....well we kind of did....Baileys happens to be my favorite drink.....so its close anyway! :) The crazy thing is that the lady that owned her said that Bailey was the name her daughter originally wanted to name her....but they named her Crystal instead.....said she didnt really respond to Crystal as of yet so to feel free to re-name her since she is still little and all. The prior owner was AWESOME and gave us some of her favorite toys, some of her treats, some food, all her paperwork to AKC register her (she is full blooded lab..her parents were both hunting dogs which THRILLS Freddy to no end of course) and she is so playful and fun and I just have this feeling that this was SO meant to be and a perfect fit for our family.

James was SO EXCITED to finally get his "birthday puppy" and fell in love with her from the start. He passed out on the drive home from Katy coming back from getting Bailey so has not had a chance to play with her tonite...but Im sure tomorrow after school and especially this weekend, is going to be a BLAST for those two...and I will have more pictures to come!!!!! WELCOME TO THE FAMILY BAILEY!!! We already love you girl!!! :)

HAPPY FIFTH BIRTHDAY JAMES!!!

James officially turned five on Friday (2/13). He was born on Friday the 13th....was kinda cool to celebrate his 5th b-day on a Friday this year. :) He had 2 parties on Friday, one at daycare and one at his pre-k class at school..combo James b-day/valentines day parties.....I went to the one at his daycare class.....

Then once my mom got to town in the afternoon and Daddy got home from work, we took him to Incredible Pizza and had dinner and TONS of fun playing skee-ball, air hockey and James tried bowling for the first time and LOVED IT!!!

Then originally, he was supposed to have had his puppy by now for his big birthday present, so we didnt have a big party planned for his school friends etc this year......decided to keep it to family and a few close friends.....well it was supposed to be that....lots of people didn't end up showing up, so it was very very few family and 2 close friends, and was over with by 3:15 (started at 1:00)........so I am going back to having kiddos from school next year I think, and have a fun party for him somewhere cool...I was pretty bummed out for him today that hardly anyone showed for his milestone 5 year party...oh well...we made the best of it then headed to a park, just me, Freddy, my Mom and James and had some fun in the fabulous weather letting James ride his 4 wheeler, fly his new kite, and play on the playground.......ended up being a nice afternoon just the 4 of us even if it wasnt what I had planned/hoped for. HAPPY BIRTHDAY my big 5 year old boy.....we love you very very much and hope you enjoyed your birthday weekend. :)

Janice, this one is for you

For anyone that doesnt know...Janice is my best friend who lives back in California...we've been friends since high school.....well anyway, Janice is ALWAYS telling me she loves the blog and the updates and pictures, but and I quote "there is never any pictures of you". Well hello...SOMEONE has to be behind the camera, take the pics, upload them, write the blog posts and send out the hey ive updated the blog emails girl.....hee hee!!!

Anyway, so with Janice in mind, I snapped this picture of myself yesterday before heading out to my BIL's surprise party....thought it was a pretty good picture for one that was "self taken"....so here ya go....ENJOY JANICE!! LOL!!! :)

Jimmy's SURPRISE 60th Birthday party

So the Salinas family decided to throw Jimmy (one of my brother's in law) a surprise 60th birthday party. They managed to get him to other brother Johnny's house last nite and pulled off the surprise perfectly! There were LOTS of family and friends there, tons of food and drink, and even yes, ELVIS!!!! LOL!!!!! Then Freddy and his niece Terri and her hubby Scott played a few songs, there was lots of dancing and fun, and a fabulous slide show of pics over the years for Jimmy put together by his kids......what a fantastic night! HAPPY 60TH BROTHER IN LAW!!! :)

No Puppy today... :(

The lady that has Nitro and was going to bring him to us tonite on her way to her cruise in Galveston.....she called me this morning all apologetic, and said that she felt bad but Nitro has a little cold and she didnt want to risk bringing him all this way and handing us over a sick dog...she just didnt feel right doing that.

So, she was going to have her mom tend to him while she is on her vacation, then she said she is willing to ship the puppy to us when she gets back (airplane). The thought of that makes me sick to my stomach, putitng a little puppy in a crate and into the belly of a plane...even if it is only a couple hours....I just cant do it.

SO......we are going to talk to her and work out another weekend that we can drive up halfway and get him, meet her somewhere between here and her place (she is in Oklahoma)...etc...we are thinking maybe during spring break. Bummer as we were really wanting him here before James' birthday next week....but better to get a healthy dog than a sick dog right off the bat....so we will wait.

Now to dodge the questions when James comes to us and wants to know where the "puppy birthday" is......crap......time to think fast!!! LOL!!! :)

Fabulous Weather Saturday

FINALLY!!!!!! Some nice weather on a WEEKEND no less!!!! The weather here in Houston has been so up and down (literally, we will have like 2-3 days in the mid 70's...then suddenly over night, it will drop into the 30's and barely get up in the 40s or even 50s for a couple days....then repeat)...and the nice days have not been hitting on the weekends either....until yesterday!

So we decided to pack a lunch, grab the wagon, and get some more use out of our year passes for the zoo. And so glad we did...talk about a great weather day!!!! We walked around, saw all the animals, sat and ate lunch, went and saw the crazy howling monkeys (that James and Daddy imitated again on the way home in the truck....had me cracking up!) and we rode the little train around Hermann Park........we gotta spend an afternoon some time just at Hermann Park doing other stuff......such a neat place and they are doing LOTS of rennovations to make it even better.....gonna be so cool once it is all complete.

All in all, a fabulous day! then we went home for a bit, played baseball in the cul-de-sac for a while to enjoy more of the sunshine, had some ice cream at James' request...then went out to dinner later. Great family time day....and man did James ever sack out HARD last nite!

Here are some pics from the zoo....enjoy!

James INSISTS on having his pic taken with this seal EVERY time we go to the zoo.....needless to say his scrapbook is FILLED with pics with the seal from the time he was real little....kinda neat!!! NOTE: the little blue bear in his hand...he dug this out of his toybox on Saturday...he got this bear when he was born as a gift at my shower...he LOVES this bear to this day......gets tossed aside for months sometimes a year at a time, but whenever he finds it again, its like he wont let go of it.......crazy to see him so BIG, with this same seal that he poses with every time, with his baby bear with him...my boy is getting so big...but will always be my baby!! :(

He LOVES this bird thing........its a bank of sorts that you can put monetary donations inside the mouth of this bird for helping the zoo fund a new bird sanctuary or something...he's funny....he laughs at this thing every time! HA!

James as a gopher. There is this tunnel deal at the children's zoo they can crawl thru and pop up in one of three holes........like a gopher............. he finally knows after MANY trips of me standing there yelling his name and him not turning around, to at least KIND OF look towards me for a picture.....too bad I missed it and got the side of his face....again....oh well, next time perhaps.

Playing at the playground in the children's zoo with some other kids....blew my mind to look at this picture and realize, he was about the size of the little guy in the orange shirt behind him here, when we started bringing him to the zoo.....whhhhaaaaa!!!! Where does the time go?

Hugging Mr Parrot as James called him, at the Children's Zoo before going to sit and listen to story time with one of the zoo staff.