Raleigh Doggie Day

A few years ago a young, carefree couple took their sweet puppy to downtown Raleigh for a special day-the annual SPCA 3k.

Two homes, three years, a toddler and a newborn later, we revisited this fun event.

Needless to say things were a little different this time around. Our clock was set by naptime. The trunk of our SUV filled with a double sit n stand and armed with extra baby supplies. Diaper bag, camera, carseat and stroller in hand, we set out for the streets of downtown Raleigh. Oh, and we brought the dog too!

We were so happy to make it this year. Just about every inch of Moore square was covered by doggie paws, and it was downright, dowgone CUTE!

 

I love sharing these moments with our ever growing family, and look forward to many more memories made in the years to come.

Giddy up Piper!

40 Weeks + 1 Day

Where to start? We had a wonderful, fun, active, busy weekend-oh, and I'm still pregnant!

On Saturday my parents came up and we took Piper and the belly to downtown Raleigh's annual SPCA doggie day. It was a ton of fun with plenty of things going on-live music, Vic's pizza, wonderfull Spring weather and of course a plethora of puppies everywhere! We had also hoped that all the walking would encourage baby Evan to come, but no such luck-0nly sore tootsies! Piper had a blast though and is really enjoying all of this extra walking and attention-he is one happy puppy!

On Sunday we went to Open Door Baptist to stay close to home "just in case" -it was a completely differant Sunday morning experience "sleeping in" and driving to a church just 2 minutes down the road, not to mention not setting up/tearing down. And while it was a bit less stressful getting out the door and a refreshing rest for Chris being able to enjoy worship on the other side of the mic-more than anything we both realized how much we love Wilson and missed it so much-it just was'nt the same and we are so grateful for and blessed by our church. We LOVE Christ Baptist! Afterwards we decided to-guess what-do some more WALKING! We packed up Pipey again and drove down to Cameron Village for a nice lunch out and some more Spring strolling.

In everything we did this weekend we were dripping with anticipation as our anxiously awaited due date approached-and now that's it's come and gone, I feel like our sweet ice cream cone of come baby goodness is quickly melting into a sherbet of anxiety, mixed with a bit of frustration and a lot of discomfort. Over that past few days, we've walked, walked, and walked some more. We indulged the wive's tales with spicy food and speedbumps-more than anything waiting and praying for a baby SOON! Chris even started to have "sympathy contractions" on Sunday afternoon, lol. :-)

Aside from feeling like a whale, I was disappointed that baby Evan did not make his appearance yesterday for many reasons. For one, my FAVORITE doctor happened to be on call yesterday so I was really crossing my fingers-but now it's a gamble. Tomorrow we've got another OB apt-one I'd hoped not to make, and the one where we'll be having the o-so-dreaded "induction" talk. However, I'm keeping positive and still hoping for a natural delivery, and sooner then later! After all, we've waited 10 whole months-what's a few more days?! He could even come today...only God knows. Praise praise praise to the one who holds everything perfectly in His hands-even baby days!

Come on Evan, we can't wait to meet you!!!

August Recap

While August has come and gone, (much like my blogging efforts these days!) I wanted to capture a few random highlights here of the last days of summer.

For one thing, our church held its first soccer camp and it was a great success!

Because Chris’ work schedule at Kia is so demanding, we find ourselves eating out and on the go a lot these days. I just love this picture of Chris at Red Robin with his enormous stack of towering onion rings. But as much as I enjoy our fewer and farther between date nights, I am so looking forward to meal planning, Saturday grocery shopping and a regular dinner time again! Needless to say, we are counting our Kia days!
Piper and I have had many a mommy-puppy playdate this summer and have enjoyed tons of fun outings at the dog park. The newest Piper news is that we finally decided to get him a harness for walking, and I can’t believe we’ve done without for so long! It’s a miracle really, and has completely changed our walks for the better…now Caesar Milan can feel free to move on to the next issue!
In other notable August news, Chris attended the much anticipated Worship God conference in MD and I just recently reached my 2 month milestone working with Glaxo. We didn't make it to the beach this summer, but are very excited to be planning a short getaway to Charleston in October. Of course there is so much more to say about August and the end of summer, but all in all I am so thankful for the kind helping of surprises, challenges and fun, memorable moments these past few months has brought us.

And the picture of the week goes to...

Who else? :)

Persnickety Piper

Piper has been developing some pretty peculiar habits lately, like

lining up his favorite toys in the window-for safekeeping I'm sure.

He also likes to show off his "toy of the day" as soon as I come home from work. I say toy of the day because it's usually a different item he comes running to the door to greet me with everyday. Without fail, he will be super attached to that toy for the rest of the night, and usually even tries to take it out on walks with him(so cute!). This new habit started in our job transitions where both Chris and I were out the house at the same times, leaving him by himself for longer hours than he was used to. So, he's made the best of his alone time and has become better friends with his toys :) Two words- Separation Anxiety.

He seems to understand more of the things we say now-like "going upstairs" and other everyday sayings. If I know that Chris is on his way home, I can tell Piper that he's coming home soon and no lie, he will run to the window and sit there patiently until he gets home...that is unless I'm cooking of course, in which case nothing gets between that dog and a crumb!

In other Piper news, he has almost mastered his new trick "spin," is in dire need of a good grooming and has more treats in our pantry than we do! He is very affectionate and playful, and has not mellowed out an ounce since we had him neutered a few weeks ago. In fact, he is as energetic and mischievous as ever! In any case, I'm confident that most of his acting out is rooted in attention seeking and not pure evil. He really would be an almost perfect pup if he didn't feel the need to bark at every soul that walks in front of our home-this is by far our biggest challenge! It's a hard one though because it's really just our home where he's territorial-he's an absolute angel when we take him out in public to eat, walk, ect. He's even been doing really well with strangers and kids coming up to pet him. I don't understand why he doesn't feel the need to bark at a TON of people outside the mall but goes crazy when just one person comes within a close radius of our home. Our poor, blessed neighbors! Any Caesar Milan experts out there? Tips appreciated! Other than that he's a perfectly well adjusted pup-albeit with a strangely curious and quirky affection for his toys ;)

Photo of the week...

...belongs to the 1 year birthday boy!

Happy Birthday Piper!

One puppy cake comin' up! Piper LOVED his very special birthday cake, and wanted to share this K-9 friendly recipe for all of you dog lovers! We can't believe our sweet puppy is already 1 year old!

Dog Friendly Peanut Butter Carrot Cake:

Ingredients:

1 egg
1 cup of whole wheat or white flour
1/3 cup honey (we skipped the honey)
1 tsp of baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup of peanut butter
1 cup of shredded carrots
1/4 cup of vegetable oil

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Now mix the baking soda and flour and then add the remaining ingredients and mix well and pour the mixture into a ring mold sprayed with a nonstick spray and place in the oven for 30 minutes.

For frosting use low fat cottage cheese decorated w/ carrots, dog treats, ect.

Grooming take 2

In case you missed "Grooming gone wrong," please refer to this previous post for an explanation of why Piper's OOC(out of control) hair went untouched by a groomer's clippers for so long. I must admit, although we are faithful to brush him everyday, his hair had gotten a little "ruff" around the edges...okay maybe a lot rough! And with it getting to be in the 90's here, we figured it was time to bite the bullet and give the groomers another shot. I have to admit I was a little apprehesive, but knowing that it could'nt be any worse than last time, we handed over the leash. The results?? PERFECT! I was so pleasently suprised at what a great job they did! I felt like our groomer really listened to us and took time to get Piper looking his best.

We did'nt want Piper to come home looking like a differant dog. Last time he was practically buzzed from head to toe(even his ears people!) so this time we were definitly erroring on the side of "cut as little off as possible!"We just wanted him to look like himself, but better. We were shooting for a cleaner face, and just a tad bit of hair trimmed off to make his length a little shorter and sharper looking-but still long and curly, as it is his trademark:) I can't tell you how happy I was when we picked him up...we had butterflies just expecting the worst! And when he bolted through the door and ran towards us, I was elated to see my puppy looking so clean cut and handsome! Enjoy the before... (click to enlarge)

And after.... Tadaaaaa! So fluffy, soft, happy and handsome! No to mention he smells soooo good!

And look, he has eyes!!!
They blowdried his hair straight, so it's not quite back to it's crazy curly self yet. However, it's just a matter of time. Don't pay too much attention to that messy looking wet ear, he always get's his left ear wet after he eats since his food/water bowls are right next to eachother. While it's adorable and kindof funny, we do plan on getting him two nice and seperate bowls for his birthday coming up in June. :) All that grooming was exhausting for Piper. Check out those perfectly pedicured paws!

You can't imagine how wonderfully soft he is...it's magic really! There must be something in that water because I've never felt him that soft before-it's like puppy/baby hair!

I can't tell you how exciting it is to be posting "after" pictures this time around :) Now that's a Yorkiepoo haircut!

I Bark for Ice Cream!

Dennis the Menace

Mommy and daddy got me this great new toy box this weekend, since I got bored and ate my last one (I love to chew on wicker!). I also love to make a mess:) I don't know why mommy keeps picking up my toys and making them nice and neat...I'll take care of that.

This one is pretty cute too. It looks soo fun to play with! I think I'll tear it to peices when they're not looking...but first I'll look adorable and pretend to play with these puppy toys.

Ugh..they're are WAY too many toys in here...I just want the box!
Yuck, cotton does'nt taste like my favorite peanut butter treats! But it sure was fun to tear it up :) Are those brownies I smell on the counter? I better hurry before they come downstairs!
"....PIIPPPEEEERRRRRR!!!...."
Busted...

Another Post for Piper

Last week we received a flyer from Petsmart announcing a big Grand Opening event at their new location in Knightdale. Of course, we were there at 9:20 9am sharp for the big event. To our surprise we weren't the only ones... luckily we had beautiful weather to enjoy while we waited.

Piper was sooo good in line with all of the people and other puppy dogs. He got some yummy treats, free toys-including his first frisbee(I'm wondering why spellcheck wants me to capitalize "frisbee?")- and his picture taken. I was so proud that he didn't get into any spats with the many other pets there, and was happy to call him a good and social puppy(for that morning anyways, lol!)

Alas his initial excitement came to an end, and he was down for the count and ready to go...until the food aisle that is. I can't wait to give him the special doggie "cupcakes" that Chris and I got him for Valentines day :)

The rest of our Saturday was full of coupon saving, grocery shopping, lunch out(using the last of our restaurant gift cards from Christmas), a haircut and a matinee, topped off with some enlightening episodes of "Top Chef" and a touch of laundry. Good day.

Vote for Piper!

Attention friends! We are entering Piper into the Bissel MVP Pet Photo contest.

After seeing the BISSEL commercial last night, our poor carpet desperately pleaded that we give it a try. The grand prize winner receives their pet's photo placed on a future BISSELL package, one BISSELL product(did someone say the ProHeat 2x Select Cleaner!) of winner's choice AND $10,000 Donation to Pet Cause of winner's choice! And it's totally free to enter.

So send your love Piper's way by voting for his picture on bissell.com. You can easily access the site by clicking on the banner on my sidebar. Here are the rules: you can vote for one pet per day from one computer. So that means you could vote everyday! We will be putting up a new photo of our adorable puppy every week, since there are a few more cycles left in the contest.

Ruff ruff!! Piper says thanks for voting :)

Puppy Poses

No clever captions, just a cute Christmas puppy

Grooming Gone Wrong!

Astonished looks, gasps...
Wide eyes..disbelief.
"Piper? Is that you?!"

We took Piper to get groomed for the first and LAST time yesterday. Suffice it to say, Chris and I are down right upset about his first haircut gone terribly bad. Our puppy was hardly recognizable to us. His rich, curly locks that we loved so much are all but gone. The stubborn hair on his head that always stood straight up and that I loved so much about him-gone. Friends, it is NOT cute, and worst of all, he hardly looks like a yorkiepoo anymore! Rather, he now looks like a girl, a dainty, awkward poodle. Apparently, what we meant by a trim was interpreted as a slightly longer buzz. The shear horror.

Fortunately, we know that his hair will grow back, and yes, it is just hair. Even so, we couldn't help battling those initial feelings of "this isn't our dog...where did our dog go?!" Dare I say, we were even a bit embarrassed coming out of PetsMart and I even felt the need to justify his look and explain that he was just groomed to perfect strangers! We had planned on taking some cute fall pictures at a local pumpkin patch with him-now were not so sure. Worst of all, as Chris and I eyed his horrific new do, we knew the unspeakable-that this cut has seriously jeopardized his chances of winning the "Howl-O-Ween" PetsMart costume contest.

I know this sounds ridiculous, it is just hair, but it's just plain ugly. And that is no exaggeration. Piper himself is also going through a mourning period over his lost hair. After barking incessantly at his reflection in our glass door, we decided it was best not to let him see himself in the mirror, at least until his hair grows out a bit-he is terribly upset over it. Not to mention, I'm not sure he was in love with the his first grooming experience as the words "a little wild" and "lost his dinner" were mentioned.

The worst part is that he just does'nt look ANYTHING like the puppy that we've come to know and love for these past two months. I keep telling Chris that it's just a bad haircut, and he is still our sweet puppy and for this short season of his life, we'll just have to get used to it. We're hoping upon hope that his hair will grow back super fast. Oh what new heights of vanity we've reached! Tisk tisk. But of course we love him no matter what he looks like :)

I would post a before and after picture here....but I couldn't bring myself to take the after.

Piper Pics :)

Our sweet puppy turned 4 months old at the beginning of October, soI decided it was high time for a fall photoshoot. He's getting so big(long) and is in dire need of a puppy cut! Chris and I have lately noticed the tufts of hair growing over his eyes, but as I look at these pictures I can hardly believe it...I think I need to stop putting it off and give Petsmart grooming a call PRONTO!

Our Studmuffin...
Infamous "Lion King" pose, background music...

And my favorite, drumroll please....

Rainy Day

Adventures in Photoshop

Replacing color in an image/adding text.
Contrast/levels for bright colors & brush strokes.

Lasso & the "Gaussian Blur"

Isolating an image/background fill.