Archive for category charlie
Yay for pretty days
We are having GORGEOUS weather this weekend and have been taking full advantage. Most of yesterday was spent outside, tending to the backyard and playing with the kiddos…we had a flood in December which “relocated” all of our woodchips from the flower beds to various piles around our yard, so finally getting some of those raked up and tossed out. I spent a disgusting amount of time doing the disgusting job of picking up dog poop so that we could freely play. I always tend to neglect that job in the winter, plus we’ve had so much rain this season it’s been hard to find a day to do it. I will spare you all a photo of the giant bag full of poop that I ended up with, but suffice to say that it was impressive.
Charlie's attitude this morning was, umm, less than desirable. 
Jack, however, was having a grand time
Today was bath day since the yard is actually somewhat dried out and less muddy than it has been for weeks. I know you all probably hate Cardi photos in the grass as much as I do, but this part of the yard is by far the best light for taking photos and I wanted to try him on the ground instead of the table. I think he looks MUCH better when he free stacks than when I hand stack him, for some reason he has a tendency to lock his back legs oddly when I hand stack him, so we’re working on that. (I’m speaking in general, not about these pictures. I hand stacked him for these) He’s starting to look like a grown up all of a sudden, is high in the rear OFTEN although these photos turned out ok I threw away a bunch that were really bad LOL. Ah, the fun growing stages of puppies! They turned 8 months old a few days ago.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Today I promised Charlie that we would make pink heart-shaped pancakes for breakfast. I didn’t have a mold really, so just poured them into heart-ish shapes…not bad, really! They were prettier before they browned but that’s ok, she was tickled. It may have been helped by the chocolate chips inside, too.
Jack wasn't sure what to think at first, but ate them after a bit
And the extra special part of today…..SNOW!!!! After hoping to get some yesterday morning and being pretty disappointed with just a dusting, it starting snowing here early this morning and gave us a good ground cover. The snowman didn’t last long as it was warming up quickly, but the kids had fun! Nash wants to spend the whole day outside. We are supposed to get some rain later (eww), and maybe more snow overnight.
Jack stayed on the sidewalk for a while...he kept pointing at the snow and saying "Yuck!". He did eventually venture out into the yard but mostly stayed in the cleared tracks, LOL.
Throwing snowballs for Nash
Charlie chasing Daddy with a snowball
It’s A Small World After All…
Tomorrow at o’dark-thirty we are leaving for DISNEYWORLD! I haven’t been there since I was probably…17? (ahem, quite a few years ago..OMG. I just realized that I just turned DOUBLE that!) And Charlie has never been. I can’t WAIT to see what she thinks of it!
Nash has been shipped off to Heidi’s house for the week, and Rush promises to keep him VERY BUSY. Have I ever mentioned what a big goober Rush is? Yeah, it should be fun. I don’t like to board babies and Heidi graciously agreed to let Nash stay with them. I did warn her that he’s not 100% on the pottytraining, so she can’t hold that against him. *grin* The big dogs are going to my sister-in-law’s house.
AND WE’RE OFF!
Happy Birthday Charlie
I can’t believe that she’s 5…and then at the same time, she has seemed 5 for a while now. LOL! You have to know Charlie to understand. Such a gentle girl, but oh-so-logical. She loves to read, ask questions, and explore her world. On the flip side, she’s absolutely certain that she knows the proper way to do EVERYTHING, and is highly annoyed by her little brother (isn’t that what they are for?). Charlie loves Kingergarten at her Montessori school, her best friends Zoey and Alana, and swinging so high she can touch the trees. I’m very jealous at times that I can’t go back and be 5 again…it looks like so much fun!
We had a small party for her yesterday at an indoor playground. Since it is fall break there weren’t a ton of kids there (as I expected), but it was enough and everyone had a good time. Happy Birthday pretty girl!
Dave was on camera duty and neglected to get a photo of the INSIDE of the cake too...which was also rainbow! 6 layers, actually. Yes, I was impressed with myself.
I think we need an air hockey table...this was a huge hit!
Zoey (left) and Charlie
And because this is a dog website and I’m somewhat obsessed with trying to get Nash show trained (have I mentioned he’s stubborn?), some new pictures. The babies will be 4 months old this week!!! He needed a bath and blow dry today, so he’s actually clean and somewhat fluffy in these pictures. I’m wondering when his butt fluff will grow in…he still looks a bit sparse back there!
Photo Montage
Some random pictures from the past few days. We got our Christmas tree up on Saturday and decorated it on Sunday…Charlie is an ornament hanging MASTER. 
) Here’s a pic of “her” area of the tree. She kept insisting that there weren’t enough ornaments in her area when we suggested that she try spreading it around a bit.
“Honey, why don’t you pose next to the tree?”
“Could you maybe smile? Umm ok, not quite like that…”
“That’s a LITTLE better…”
Leo being, well, Leo.
I don’t know what Lizzie would ever do without Leo around to be her pillow.
A few more pictures in the “Charlie and Dogs” series. As Kate once said, she loves ‘em, the poor bastards. LOL She’s actually REALLY good about petting them gently, and they all like getting attention from her.
Here she’s waving Leo’s paw at the camera for us.
Ignore the bed head please.
Brady has gotten really distrustful of the camera in his old age. After this picture, he slunk underneath the desk behind him as if he thought I would beat him with the camera….?? I have no idea, maybe he’s just getting quirky. Yes, those of you that know him are saying “GETTING” quirky?? )
Time for a photo update
From Halloween…don’t you hate it when someone shows up wearing the same outfit? Jack with his cousin Cameron, who is 5 weeks younger than him.
Charlie the apple-juice-running-shoe-upside-down-butterfly-fairy. With bolero sweater.
Another day at the dog show
Yes, I really need two separate blogs…a mommy blog and a dog mommy blog. 
Although on this particular weekend they are intermixed, because Jack went with me to the dog show yesterday (his first!) and Charlie went with me today. After I was done showing today, Charlie demanded that it was “HER turn to walk Lizzie around and have ME clap”. She settled for getting to walk Lizzie out the door to the car, which always gets lots of comments because hello, cute 3 year old walking her doggie. :love: Lizzie is SUCH a good girl, she never pulls on the leash and Charlie is good about keeping a grip on it (and we put it over her wrist just to be a little more careful). Not that Lizzie would go anywhere if the leash fell anyway.
Anyway, it was a great weekend for us as Lizzie won on Friday and today both, for 5 more points. That brings her up to 10 points total and both majors. Now I just have to figure out where our next show will be, and whether I can get her finished before the Nationals to put her in the Megan…
Pictures forthcoming.
Pumpkin pickin!
Although ironically, we did not actually purchase any pumpkins. There is a pumpkin farm here that puts on quite a show for this time of year…rides, swings, games, pumpkin cannons, hay maze, etc etc. It’s quite a zoo. At $8 per head to get into the joint, I guess they’d better have some stuff to do other than just buy a pumpkin LOL! Of course they also have pumpkins, all shapes, sizes and colors. We decided to forgo the pumpkins for now though, until we get into our new house. Supposedly it will be finished this Friday (19th)…it was supposed to be the 12th but has been pushed back again.
Anywho. Charlie had a good time, although she didn’t sleep well last night and was a bit “on the edge” the whole time we were there. She doesn’t deal well with things when she’s not well rested, but she managed to not throw a fit (oh how I love this age) about anything, whew. Is it sad that I’m happy about that? My standards for good social behavior have obviously dropped fairly low. 
Photos can be found here. I’m too lazy to upload them over here also, so go check them out if you’re interested!
Happy Birthday Charlie!
Today my baby girl turns 3! It is so hard to believe that it has been 3 years since she came into our lives. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from her first 3 years.
A couple pictures of Charlie and “her” dog Leo…they have such a special bond.
Charlie's first "real" haircut
I’ve generally been happy to just trim Charlie’s hair myself. Until somewhat recently she had some cute big baby curls in her long hair, but as she’s gotten older they have gone away. *sobbing* Oh how I loved those curls! Cursed with pin-straight fine blond hair myself, I desperately hoped that she had gotten Dave’s wavy blond curls instead. Grass is always greener, and all that. So anyway, her longer hair tends to look stringy quickly, so I took her today to get it cut into a short bob. Of course, we had to have a photo shoot!
And my poor baby boy who is now nearly completely bald…but in his defense, he is growing new hair at a wicked fast rate! It feels like peach fuzz now and I see quite a bit of it in the light. Still, sigh.
