Our dogs .....

People that know us know that we LOVE our dogs

they bring so much joy to our life

and I just like to document them on my blog

They are Teddy Bear dogs....which just means a cross with 

a couple of small breeds. Ours our ShiTzu and Bichon and they

are just about the sweetest dogs you can imagine

We have Bella Boo who is 7 years old. She's also known

as Bellstrum, Belly and Billy Goat. For awhile she was known

as Bella the Bully when Pippa was young but she has 

mellowed out a little. She's still bossy and def in charge 

of our Teddy Bear pack. She's also very, very spoiled by Johnny. She

was just a pup when Johnny had his stroke and he was out of

work for quite some time. So they spent a lot of time together.

here they are laying in our bed as I was working from home while

some work was being done downstairs in the kitchen.

Little Pippa Lou is 6 years old. She is our silly little girl and doesn't want anything to do with the shenanigans of Bella and Khaleesi. She likes to watch 

from the sidelines and jump in and out once in a while when the 

other 2 get to playing rough. She is the most well behaved out of the 3 dogs.

Pippa is just a good girl, very good, never does anything wrong.

here she is after I picked her up from grooming. She loves to ride in the car.

She is also known as PP girl, Smiley and Miss P

here is what i have to deal with as I sit in the den 

working from home. 

Bella Boo

Pippa Lou sitting in Khaleesi's crate

They are a true pack and are always snuggled up together

and here's the baby of the pack, Khaleesi Rue. She is 18 months old

and she has really given us a run! Bella and Pippa were good puppies, once

in a while got a hold of something to tear up but Khaleesi, she is a totally 

different story. So bad that for the first time ever, we had to crate one of

our dogs. And as much as I hated it, she is doing fine. But even as

mischievous as she is, she is one of the sweetest dogs ever.

And now, she freely goes in her crate to rest or take a nap.

She's also known as RueRue, Weesi, and some kind of name

Johnny calls her that I have no idea how to spell...haha

and here's the weird little thing about them....probably 95% of the time

they sleep in birth order. Even when they are all sitting on the staircase

they will be in birth order....it's so weird.

sweet little Pippa Lou....in serious need of a haircut!

our little fur babies....we love them so

later...

Line em up .....

I put these pictures up on Facebook quite often

but just want to document on my blog

for some weird reason my dogs line

up in order of age most of the time

it is rare to see them in any other order

these are all pictures from different days....you can tell

their favorite place to sleep!

Always Bella, 7 yrs, Pippa 6 yrs, Khaleesi 1 yr

even laying in the sun on the deck...always in order!

laying on the steps

Pippa was outside when I took this picture.....notice

they left the middle chair empty for her

just funny

later....

Thankful ....

We live in such troubling times now

and I'm not even going to get into that

but I will say I am so grateful that I live in the

United States of America

I enjoy freedoms that I try to never forget how precious they are

and I enjoy the most simple things in life the most

I am so thankful for........

• Family celebrations
• God
• the sight, smell and sound of the ocean
• a quiet day at home
• football and more specific, the Cowboys
• flip flops
• a cold beer on a hot summer day
• my family
• my life with Johnny
• holidays
• ice coffee
• vacations
• grandchildren
• good cooking, good food
• the company I work for
• good friends
• my doggies

I could go on and on but

these were just on the top of my mind

and no post is a good post unless it has some pictures so here

are a bunch of pictures of our precious dogs

later....

Home camera .....

I thought it would be fun to have a camera in our home

where we could view what our dogs are up to when

we are not home

So I asked around, I did some research and found the

camera that would work for us

and though Bella Boo and Pippa Lou pretty

much just sleep all day, Khaleesi provides some laughs

and we can talk to them....so that is entertaining!

It even has night vision

we were out one night, went to check on the dogs and

realized we forgot to turn any lights on

this is what we saw....

throughout the day when I check the camera, the picture

below is pretty much what I see. 

and apologies for the poop.....but when you have a puppy on

the loose, you have wee wee pads and lucky for us, she always

uses them!

we have put a camera in the den too but I cannot

get the color straight on it. I guess I need to 

call tech support and ask....

I do not have a pink/purple den!!

I was a little thrown off the other day at work when

I turned the camera on and saw someone in my kitchen!!

for a split second, it really scared me

then realized it was our daughter Nicole

I had forgotten she was stopping by

to pick something up

later....

Pippa Lou ....

Our sweet Pippa Lou turned 6 years old 

on May 10th.

She is by far just one of the sweetest little dogs ever

and she gets bullied a lot!!

Bella earned the nickname of Bella the bully from

her picking on Pippa so much

And now Khaleesi picks on Pippa. She is def not 

the alpha dog in our pack

She loves to lay on the top of the patio wall and guard

our home. If anyone dares to walk past our yard she races

so fast to the fence and let's them know this is our yard!

Now if those same people were to actually come in to our yard,

she would take off for the deck and scratch to come in....haha

We took her to the vet the other day for her annual check up

She weighed in at 14.7 lbs and the vet said she

is in excellent health

here are all 3 dogs enjoying vanilla frozen 

yogurt from Sweet Frog....Pippa's birthday

treat that she shared

later.....

Our year in review....2016

JANUARY
We started the new year cleaning up

Christmas!

and then of course I became a weather fanatic watching and

waiting to hear the words I love......SNOW!

There was rumbles of the "big one" coming our way but 

we know how that always turns out, big disappointment

but not this time.....Jan 22nd it started snowing and it didn't

stop for a long time

by the next day, we had 15 inches with 18 to 20 inch snow drifts

and Jan 23rd our grandson John Thomas turned 2 years old

FEBRUARY

was a terrible month as we lost our sweet daddy only
17 months after losing our momma.
It was heartbreaking but yet we all knew he was ready
to go be with momma again. He struggled to breathe so we
all knew it ended his suffering. But never easy....and we all
miss him so badly. There is not one single day in my life now
that I do not think of momma and daddy

MARCH

March 8th another grandson, Declan Liam, turned 3 years old
We hung out with my little sister and her husband at the
Irish Festival and we celebrated Easter at our home
the weather was bad so had to have the egg hunt inside
Even though the weather was annoying, hiding eggs in the house
can still be interesting

I turned 60 years old!! OMG
And my sweetheart husband surprised me with
a party at Maggianos
My siblings, kids, grandkids and a few close friends were all
in on the surprise.
I still can't believe he pulled it off!

APRIL

My siblings and I continued with cleaning out Daddy's house....not
an easy nor fun task. Though we did run across many items
that brought back great memories and laughs.
Our middle child, Jacquelyn Diane, turned 29 years old
And we left for Myrtle Beach at the end of the month
to visit with our dear friends Glenda and Jerry

MAY

May 6th our son Jake turned 28 years old
our granddaughter Avery Grace turned 1 year old
Our son's fiancee celebrated her birthday on May 28th
It would have been our daddy's 83rd birthday on May 31st 
and Johnny and I celebrated 37 years of marriage.
just a big old month of celebrations!!

JUNE

My darling husband turned 63 years old on June 22nd
Our daughter Jacquelyn and her husband Bucky bought their first home
and right around the corner from us!!

We hosted an engagement party for our son 
Jake and his fiancee Kayce

JULY

As we do every year, we headed down to the Chesapeake Bay
to spend a week with Tommy and Joanne. By far our most relaxing
vacation each year. Just a beautiful place to be, hanging out 
with the best people and just having so much fun!!

AUGUST

Our daughter Nicole Renee had her 33rd birthday
We picked up our new addition to our teddy bear pack
Miss Khaleesi Rue

We went to my momma's 80th family reunion 
weird to be there without momma but such fun to see all of our cousins

SEPTEMBER

We headed down to our most favorite place on earth.....
the Outer Banks of North Carolina
Hurricane Hermine had been downgraded to a tropical storm
but knowing how bad those can be, we decided to head down one day early
it was crazy but fun
we had one moment of thinking "did we make a mistake" by
coming down. We're driving on Beach Road, a lot of it flooded
then we came upon power lines down and across the road
so we headed over to the bypass highway, so windy it was hard keeping the
car in our lane, ended up hanging out in the parking lot
of the Kmart until things died down a little
the rest of the trip.....AWESOME!!

OCTOBER

Always a fun month

and we decided to have our first ever Halloween party

that sure was fun and there will def be a second one in 2017

Our daughter Nicole coordinated the 2nd annual

Walk to raise awareness for Apraxia.

Apraxia is what our oldest grandson Maddox has

we are so proud of the work our daughter does to

help people understand about this neurological disorder

NOVEMBER

We decorated for Christmas, had Thanksgiving dinner

at our home for 16 people and then celebrated with my

family.....I think it was 32 of us!!

Johnny and I with all of our grandchildren....love them so much

our children.....all grown up

we continued to enjoy our newest puppy, Khaleesi Rue
even though we are still dealing with moments like this

DECEMBER

We just had the best Christmas ever!

our traditions changed but that is ok

our family is changing and growing so much that we

knew that day would come

And now we just have so many things in 2017 to look forward to

and changes for our children.....Jake and Kayce getting married

Tyler entering his 4th year of trade school on his road to 

becoming an electrician

Jacquelyn starting her new job at Capital One

Nicole experiencing 3 kids in school and only one

home with her now and planning her 3rd Annual Apraxia walk

and Bucky continuing big success in his job

so much to be thankful for

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE

later.....