Things My Daughter Says, and Other Things

Magnolia says so many things. She’s always said lots of words, and is constantly saying new ones, ones that we never remember teaching her (like today, she said “table,” which I had no idea she knew), and ones that we do teach her (like “cereal” and “milk” which are two of the cutest things ever when said by that sweet little voice). But lately in addition to her world of new words, she’s been saying sentences. “Mama is cute.” “Dada is funny.” “What happened Coco?” “Where is Lunie?” “Papa is silly.” The other day she was holding the dvd case for Cinderella and she studied it and said “Prince dancing with Rella.” She always says “I help you?” when she wants help with something, usually fastening one of her many fancy plastic necklaces about her pretty little neck. Similar, and even more adorable, is when she says “I hold you?” when she wants me to hold her. Also, when you ask her if she’s happy, if she’s hungry, if she’s sleepy, to answer in the affirmative, she says matter-of-factly, “Yeah, Iam.” But slurred together sort of so it sounds more like “Yeah, yam.”

She also knows her name. It’s one of the cutest things she says, “A-No-ee-a.” She also knows that she is also called “Noie” and, of course, “Baby.” I am so very glad that she calls herself Baby, because it makes me feel just a little bit like she is still a baby, even though she’s really not. She’s such a big grown up lady, speaking in sentences all day long. But she will always be my baby, and I’m glad she knows it.

She also loves to sing. Mostly she likes us to sing to her, but she sings along, inserting the correct words in the correct places here and there. When we sing “I love to see the…” she always pipes up with “temple!” (She also thinks that all churches are temples, and that the Disney castle is a temple, but at least she can also recognize actual temples, right?) She chimes in on the ABC’s, saying every five letters are so, always the right ones in the right places, which amazes me. She loves “Part of Your World” from her beloved Meemee, her favorite line being “What do you call ‘em? Oh, feet.” Tonight, I was singing her to sleep, “Moon River,” what I always sing, and she sang along almost every word. She let me rock her in my arms and she just sang quietly with me and my heart was full.

These days life is really hectic. Since we’ve lived in our house, we’ve had a lot going on. Settling in and putting the house together has been taking so much longer than I expected, which has been frustrating for me. Truth be told, I’ve been pretty down. Moving is always hard, and even though I’ve done it many times, especially in the last few years, this time has beenthe most difficult. Not even just unpacking boxes, painting and cleaning (which are STILL not finished, by the way.), taking care of a YARD for the first time ever, and deciding where things go. We’re living in a new town, a new county even, and there have been a lot of adjustments that I guess I never really thought about when we were going through the process of buying our house. I know that once we’re settled, this will feel like home, and in some ways it’s starting to, but it’s been a little rough, for me at least. I’ve lost a lot of steam too, and can’t seem to find the motivation or the inspiration to put our house together. That’s really unlike me; I always get pictures on the walls and throw pillows on the couch as soon as possible so a new place feels like ours, but so far that hasn’t happened here. I guess I’m just in kind of a funk.

But I take things one day at a time. Today our new bookshelves were delivered, and tomorrow Rob will put them together, and maybe the day after that I can unpack the EIGHT (I think there are at least EIGHT) big boxes of our books that have been stowed away for over a year. And I will put those books on the shelves, and instead of a big tower of boxes, there will be a nice, beautiful wall of our books. I think that will feel really great.

The slow-going of making our home ours has gotten me down a little bit, but my bright-eyed, sensitive and curious child has balanced all that out. These last weeks I think that my new-house blues have made me appreciate how wonderful it is to be a mom to such a beauty. She has really gotten me through it.She’s been extra snuggly when I feel like doing nothing, and she tags along on all my errands, always happy and ready to go.

And her dad, he’s pretty great too. When I don’t want to unpack any more boxes or decide where the crockpot is going to go, Rob is always there to keep me going. He’s also done tons of stuff on his own, while I’ve worked in the evenings or even just crashed on the couch after putting Nolie to bed. He put together our new kitchen island, which is the best thing that ever happened to our kitchen. It took him two-and-a-half hours and I know was no easy feat. He has put hours of hard work into the yard and I have helped absolutely zero percent with that because it’s not really my thing. He’s been really patient with me too, which I know has not been easy. He’s woken up extra early for his new, much longer commute, and he’s never complained. He’s really wonderful, and I think that too often I am guilty of overlooking all the ways he makes my life so great. Like the fact that he lets me buy as many popsicles as I want and doesn’t get mad that I eat them all before he has a chance to have any.

I’m lucky, to have these two. Blessed. They make me feel that I’m worthwhile, like I’m doing things with my life that really matter, even when I don’t feel like it on my own. My sweet Magnolia makes me feel like me getting her “cereal and milk” is the most exciting thing that could happen during our morning, with the joy that sounds in her little voice when she asks for them.  My husband is happy, and proud of his hard work, when I put my crockpot away in the kitchen island and danced around it, so happy that everything in the kitchen has a place. Things are good. Despite all the things that aren’t perfect right now, I’m happy. “Yeah yam.”

We Bought a House. Now What?

Wow. Life is bananas right now you guys. Let me just preface this little update with that. I am soooo tired. And soooo overwhelmed. But in a mostly good way, I suppose. 

So we've owned our little home for almost two weeks now. We've been living here during that time, but we don't have any stuff here because we wanted to paint everything before we moved it all in. We thought that'd be easier. I'm not really so sure. But that's what we did, so that's what we're doing. I bought a bunch of paint while we were waiting for the house to close. (I'm planning a big epic post about my painting adventures for the future, so get excited about that!!!! I seriously am going to write a super huge post about painting. I'm weirdly excited about it. You probably aren't, and you probably shouldn't be. But just know, it's happening.) I initially wanted to paint a few of the rooms, but thought maybe we could wait on others. But then we did a walk-through the night before we closed and on closer inspection, we decided that pretty much every wall in the house needed painting, and we might as well do it all at once and get it over with. 

So that's what we've been doing. It's so exhausting. I feel like I'm painting the freaking Sistine Chapel over here. (Actually, I read a fascinating book about how that business actually went down, and it took years, so perhaps I'm being overly dramatic?) Plus we can only paint in the evenings when Magnolia is asleep. So it takes us longer. AND my awesome work has been scheduling me like twice as many hours as I'm supposed to work, even though they knew I was in the process of moving/painting. (They even scheduled me to work on MOTHER'S DAY which I am furious about, especially since most of the other people who work there aren't even mothers. But whatever.)

Also we had to spend our first Saturday up in Logan for graduation, so that cut into all the painting time as well. (But it was a wonderful day in celebration of Rob and all his hard work, so it was totally worth it.) So it's all been slow going. This painting/moving thing, that is. Also, the previous owners moved out of the house in November, so it sat empty for a few months and it's pretty grimey all over. So we have lots of cleaning to do. And confession: I really hate cleaning. I wish I was one of those people who liked it, but there is nothing at all that I like about cleaning. I don't even really enjoy the satisfaction once you're done cleaning. I just always think, "Man, instead of cleaning, I could've been napping/crafting/shopping/ANYTHING ELSE." I need to change my mindset about it, but that's just the truth of the matter. 

But anyway, yes, painting and cleaning, that's life for us right now. 

But we're getting there. We still have the stairwells, two bathrooms, two small bedrooms, and some touching up to do. But those should go fairly quickly compared to what we've done so far. Also the bathroom in the  basement just might have to wait, because I'm just not sure how much more painting I can handle, and it's the bathroom in the basement, so it's not like it's gonna get a lot of media coverage or anything. 

I think once I get over how tired I am and how sick of painting I am, I'll be pretty excited about our house. Oh, except we also have to get moved and unpacked before that, because that's also literally the worst. But after THAT, I think I can begin to get excited, because I can start doing some fun stuff like decorating. I am really looking forward to pulling all my old treasures out of the boxes they've been in for the past year. That will be a wonderful reunion, me thinks. 

I am hopeful that this week we will finish all the painting and cleaning and over the weekend we can get our stuff moved in. That's the goal. After that we can get down to the business of settling in. And that sounds really nice to me right about now. Then I can post pictures. I'm sorry that this post is picture-less. But I'm simply too tired for that jazz. Check me on instagram and you might see some house sneak peeks here and there. I'm also kind of waiting until there's stuff in my house and it looks semi-nice before I take pictures though. Because right now it's just painted walls and piles of crap everywhere, which doesn't really make for the best photographic inspiration. 

Anyway. Goodnight. 

Things, of Late

Get ready for some awesome randomosity. Okay I can't promise it'll be awesome. But it WILL be random. Things on my mind, or going on around these parts, lately:

So our closing date for our house got pushed back. Remember how in that super long post I wrote about how we found our house, I mentioned we were getting our loan through Utah Rural Housing, and that Eagle Mountain, where our home is located, no longer qualifies for that loan? Well we got our application in right before the deadline, and their office is really backed up by so many applications. They originally told our lender it'd be 10-15 business days before it'd be processed, which our loan officer told us was way longer than usual, but then a couple weeks later my loan officer called and said they called to check the status and they told him that actually it'd be 15-20 business days and that they'd have to push our closing date on our contract back to April 30. As of this week, it's been more than 15 but less than 20. I'm kind of hoping we'll get the call this week, but I won't be surprised if it takes longer. Sigh. I'm actually mostly okay with it, because it's not like we've got a lease about to go up or anything. But still, the not knowing when we'll actually get to move is kind of majorly annoying.

When we do move in, I have big plans to paint basically our whole entire house before we move our stuff in. I've been looking at swatches for hours. Seriously, my eyeballs have nearly fallen out of my head. I never thought it would be so hard to pick paint colors. Specifically it's terribly difficult to pick the perfect gray. Some grays are way too blue. Some are basically beige. Some are really purpley. Some greenish. I don't want blue, or purple, or green, or brown in my gray. I want GRAY. It's exhausting, really. I think I've pretty much picked the colors for most of the spaces I'm going to paint right away. I know that this is probably interesting to no one, but it's really forefront in my thoughts these days. I even dreamed about paint last time I napped. Wow.

So also, you know how I work at Old Navy? Well, as I pretty much thought would happen, I've been buying a lot of clothes. The discount is really killing it for me. And it's a pretty nice place to work. I just basically fold clothes for a few hours a couple times a week, and sometimes people ask me for my opinion when they're trying stuff on, so that's fun. The only downside is that when I'm at home I definitely do NOT fold my own clothes. Nor do I put them away. It's a big problem.

Rob's graduation is upon us. So that'll be fun. I'm really excited to see how Miss Magnolia does, because it's hard enough for adults to sit through those things. But I'm really excited, because it'll be an awesome day and I'm so proud of Rob. And oh how it gladdens my heart to visit Logan. I was there a couple weeks ago and man, I just love that place.

I really need to find a big girl bed for Nolie. I'm not planning on switching her anytime super soon, but I'd like to find one soonish. There was one at Ikea that I've liked for while, but it's pretty feminine and I'd like to get something that we could use again if we had a boy someday. My heart is set on a Jenny Lind bed, which is the same as her crib but a toddler bed (dur), but they are impossible to find. You can get conversion rails to turn the crib into a toddler bed, but we're obviously planning on using the crib for another baby sometime (not immediately. This is, for the record, no announcement of any kind.) and I'd just like her to have her own big girl bed for her big girl room. I'll be haunting garage sales and the D.I. until I find one, or something that I like as much. Or maybe I'll give up my dream and just get the one from Ikea. Time will tell.

Speaking of furniture, we don't have enough for our house. So I've been thinking about that a lot too. (Basically my thoughts are largely occupied by all things house. I didn't think it was possible but I'm even MORE addicted to HGTV.) We found a sweet dining table (D.I. special) that I'm gonna refinish, and I'm on the hunt for a few other things. There's a sofa at Down East that I'm pretty much in LURVE with, but I would really like for that to go on sale. I also wanna find a sweet buffet or something for the dining area, and, well, it's a really long list. And man, expensive stuff, furniture is. Like I found this bed that I really adore but it's $2,000. Yikes. But Rob thinks he can make one similar to it. In fact, he is going to probably attempt to make us a few things, which is super awesome.

So, having a puppy is fun, by the way. It's a little trying on my patience sometimes. Mostly only when I'm trying to deal with Nolie and Luna at the same time. I have to find time to take care of Luna when Nolie is sleeping or occupied and that's a challenge. Especially since during Nolie's naptime I'd also like to be napping, or you know, watching HGTV. Also, our dog is not allowed in my grandparents' house, but their yard isn't 100% fenced in, so we have to keep her in her crate in the garage most of the time, and that makes her sad. And it makes me sad when she whines. And sometimes it annoys me. That's probably the biggest downside of our moving date being pushed back. We're thinking things will get easier once we're in our own house and she can have a little more freedom. On the plus side, Luna is totally house trained, which is super awesome. Even MORE awesome is the fact that we didn't have to do anything to house train her. She just always goes in the same areas outside. She's pretty awesome and smart. At least as far as that's concerned.

Aaand... That's about all for us these days. Not much else is new. Just waiting around to get into our house. Hanging out with family. Puppy walking. Eating popcorn combos at Target. Watching HGTV. Pouring over paint swatches. Reading If You Give a Moose a Muffin MANY times. Not putting away laundry. You get the picture.

Thus ends a pretty boring account of my life in recent days.

18 Months

My baby is 18 months old. I say my baby, which she always will be, but more and more I find myself calling her "my little girl." She's growing. Even though she points to herself and says "Baby" she won't be one for much longer.

In some ways this ever-changing girl breaks my heart. I look at pictures when she was a tiny newborn and I simply ache with longing to hold that tiny babe again. I remember when we brought her home from the hospital. Each night I cried and cried because I held her in my arms and knew that in an instant that baby would be gone and a big girl would take her place. I was terrified of her growing up and I dreaded it more than anything. 

I wish I could go back and comfort my poor, sleep-deprived, hormonal little self and tell her how great it was all going to be. As much as I miss holding that tiny baby, her first smiles, her chubby cheeks, her sweet baby smell, this toddler that I am lucky enough to be the mother of is more incredible than I could ever have anticipated. 

I miss all of those things. I really do. But there are a whole host of things about having an 18 month old that that are simply sublime. How thrilling it is to hear my daughter call me "Mommy." Snuggles that are voluntary, which are probably even sweeter than tiny baby snuggles (although that may be a close one). How proud I am when she says a new word for the first time. To see her learn new things. To watch her develop her personality which is so sensitive and beautiful and pure. 

Each step in this process of raising this sweet beauty is such a gift. It's all wonderful. Every bit of it. Even though I do get sad sometimes when I think about how big she's getting, I enjoy her current stage so much and I can even look forward to future growth and change with excitement. I love everything about my daughter (even that she insists on watching The Little Mermaid every. single. day.) and I know that whatever is to come is going to be just as beautiful and perfect as everything else. 

After that bit of sentimentality, I just wanted to record some things about her so I will remember, because one thing I don't love about being a mom is how terrible my brain has become. 

We had her 18 month check up this last week and all looks wonderful. Her doctor said she is "ultra-bright." She was 46% for weight and 97% for height, a tall skinny gal. She had to get her shots and as soon as we went into the immunization room she started clinging to me and got all upset, so she must have remembered, which is crazy because we were last there six months ago. She cried and cried and it was just as sad as it always is, but this time she got some princess stickers and a lolly pop to help dry her tears. 

A couple weeks ago I counted roughly that she says over 50 words and understands way more than that. And it's probably more now because she's seriously saying new words every day. It's amazing. Sometimes she even says words that I don't remember ever really teaching or saying to her. She loves to talk on the phone and pretend to talk on the phone. She'll grab my phone or a remote control or whatever and put it up to her ear, tilt her head to the side like I do when I talk on the phone and say "Heyo?" She is also starting to put little sentences together. One day we dropped Rob off at the train station and she said "Daddy choo choo go!" and just today I was eating some fries and she said "Mama fry please." Sometimes when you ask her where someone is, she'll lift up her arms and say "I know!" (but it means "I don't know.") She also says thank you all the time and it's the cutest ever. It's just crazy how much she's talking; I'm always startled by how quickly she learns and how much she understands. I still adore the little made up words she says. She says "bocka bocka" all the time when she wants something and also this weird word that sounds like "gobble guy." 

She says "Hi!" and "Bye!" to seriously EVERYONE everywhere we go. It's so sweet but it bugs me because sometimes people ignore her, which I think is super rude. Hello, why would anyone ignore a cute baby saying hi to them? But whatever. 

She loves our little puppy and always looks at me and goes "Ruff ruff?" when she wants to go see her. She pets Luna and says "Nice! Niiice!" and loves to give her treats and pick up the dog food and feed it to her. I'm not crazy about that last bit, but it's pretty cute. She also says "Good Girl!" to Luna and it's DARLING. It sounds more like "Good Gew!". She even says it about herself sometimes. Once I told her to drink her milk so she did and then she said "Good Girl Baby!" and patted herself on the head!

She still loves to read books and dance, and now she loves to sing songs too. Her favorite is the song Ariel sings "Ahhh ahh ahhhhh, ahhh ahh ahhhhhh!" and she sings it all the time. 

She loves to play outside and to hold my hand and walk around. She always lifts her hand up and says "Hein!" which means hand, or says "up!" when she wants me to carry her. She gives sweet hugs and loves to give kisses and it really makes my whole life worth living. 

Oh I just love this girl so much. I know I say this every time I write about her, but I'll never find the words. I'm just so happy that this baby (big girl?) is my daughter. 

Cameo's Wedding

A couple weeks ago one of my very best friends got married. I have known Cameo since the second grade. We were roommates in college and have had many wonderful adventures through the years. She is like a sister to me and I love her dearly. For the past year she's been living in Virginia, which is where she met her husband Andrew. Since they lived out there, but were getting married here, it was kind of hard for her to plan the wedding and so I stepped in to boss her around and try to help get things done. She flew out a week before the wedding and stayed with me and we stayed up like all night most nights getting stuff done and spent all day going around running errands. There were a few times when I almost had nervous breakdowns because I was certain that it would never all come together, but it did and it was a beautiful wedding day.

Marni, me, Karissa, and Suzanne

Here's my awesome Rob. Don't we look cool in our shades? It was very bright. 

He took his off cause he said we looked ridiculous both wearing them. Which made me laugh. Hence this weirdo picture. A huge HUGE thanks are in order for this man. He spent all week helping us with the wedding and we couldn't have done it without him. He took care of Nolie so I could be free to help Cameo, and he even spent hours and hours cutting out paper templates so I could make these paper roses for the centerpieces. Observe:

I handmade all of these flowers and the reception place had all these cute white mismatched pitchers and vases and teapots that we put them in. Rob cut almost all of the flower petals out of the templates for me and I had a few other helpers. This was a huge job and super time consuming but we all thought they turned out really pretty. 

I also (with the help of a few others) made these garlands for her backdrop.

She had a ceremony outdoors at her reception place (the Old McMullen House in South Jordan) and it was just beautiful. This followed their temple ceremony which was in the morning at the Salt Lake temple.

The happy couple!

The night before the wedding we decided to de-stress a little by getting our nails done. It was super nice. We still had a bunch of errands to run after that, but it was a nice break from the chaos. Plus then we all had pretty nails for the weddin'. 

Bridesmaidies. And Andrew :)

This little sweetie made a short appearance at the reception. My family was kind enough to let her spend the night the day before and watched her all day since I was a busy bee with all the wedding stuff. When she came to the reception she wanted nothing to do with me or Rob. She just wanted Gee Gee and Papa. We were sad. But she got over it once we got home and things were back to normalish. 

Oh how I love her. Even if she wasn't fond of me that day. 

It was really a beautiful wedding. Cameo was a gorgeous bride and I'm so happy for her and Andrew. They are absolutely perfect for each other. They're two of the biggest nerds you'll ever meet and they are a great pair. He treats her like a queen and she deserves it. I hope they are loving married life and that they can relax after all the crazy wedding planning and stress are over. I'm excited to see what adventures life has next for them and I know they'll be so happy together. They're awesome. They even went to Harry Potter World for they're honeymoon. So awesome, right? 

Anyway, congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Thomas!!! No offense, but I'm so glad your wedding is over!

Disney Baby

Last week Magnolia and I went to Southern California with my family. We spent a day at the happiest place on Earth, and it was indeed a happy day. Nolie was so darling, and was actually very, very good most of the day. It was a little different taking a toddler to Disneyland, but in my family we are Disney veterans, so we know the park really well and knew going into it what we would be able to do and that we probably would have to have a slower paced day where we couldn't ride every ride. It was really a nice day, if a little different than what we were used to. It did not help that I had the worst stomach flu ever. I felt horrible most of the day. Luckily I know where all of the bathrooms are in the park. There was a terrifying moment where I was running through Fantasy Land and I seriously thought I was going to barf in a flowerbed in front of about a hundred people. I made it just in time, but it's definitely not fun to be throwing up at Disneyland. But anyway, moving on!

This happy little girl even had a "Meemee" shirt for the big day. I snagged it at my work (Old Navy, just to remind) for $3.00!!! Rad.

It was a beautiful spring day and not too crowded at all. The longest we waited in line was for...

Princesses!!! This was honestly what I was most excited about. Nolie was a little shy at first, when we saw "Rella." 

Then we got to meet Ariel ("Meemee") and she was still being shy, but she knew who it was, which was cute.

Once we got to Aurora, she had warmed up a little.

I love this picture. She pointed at her like "Hey, it's you!" and Aurora thought it was way funny for some reason. Cute. 

Then when we met Rapunzel "Pable" Magnolia was super excited. She ran right up to her and sat in her lap and smiled the whole time. It was so darling. 

With Aunt Coco. (We were dying over the mural paintings from Rapunzel's tower. So awesome.)

The gang in Fantasy Land. My family took Nolie on Pinocchio and she hated it. She was way scared. Which is funny, because we went on Pirates of the Caribbean and she did fine. 

In line for Small World (which she LOVED). Papa is pointing at Merida, who was across the way. We wanted to see her too, because she was darling and Nolie loves Brave, but the line was way long. 

The magical fireworks. I was bawling. Never mind that I've seen them at least five times. Still they get me every time. 

I think part of why I was so emotional was the fact that my sweet little daughter was there. She kept saying "WOW! WOW!" over and over again, and her little face was so darling. 

Overall it was a wonderful day. I really wish I hadn't been sick, because I think had it not been for that it would have been a lot better, and of course I also wish that Rob was there. But we loved our day in the place where dreams come true. I'm excited to go again when Miss Magnolia is a little older. Many, MANY thanks to my wonderful family for taking us and helping me so much with Nolie. We had a magical time!

Luna

We have a new little member of the family. Her name is Luna, and she's a sweet old thing. Except she's only three months old (born on Christmas day! How magical!), so she's not an old thing.

The first meeting of future best friends!

Some people might be surprised that I got a dog. I'm surprised. I still don't really know how it happened. Okay, well, this is how it happened...

Rob and I used to talk about getting a dog, but it was always very hypothetical. Rob grew up with a wonderful dog that he adored, so he's always wanted to get one for our kids to grow up with. I, on the other hand, have never had a dog, and it's very foreign to me. In fact, I don't really like pets very much in general. I like some dogs, but I hate dog smell, and I hate when there's fur all over, and I'm just really not into the whole idea of having a dog. Sometimes, in moments of weakness, I like to look at pictures of cute puppies and entertain the idea of having one. 

That's kind of what happened in this case. Rob said that since we were getting a house, we'd soon be getting a dog. I said, "No." When we found our house, I didn't think we'd get one, because our yard isn't really gonna work for a dog, and I was secretly delighted because I didn't want one and we couldn't have one anyway, so Rob's plans were foiled. Bwa ha ha. 

So one day, scrolling around on facebook, I see this picture of this DARLING little puppy face. It was posted by a girl that I knew my freshman year of college. She said that the puppy needed a home. I text the picture to Rob, not because I wanted to get the puppy, but because he likes to look at cute puppies (who doesn't, after all) and we had just been talking like the day before about what kinds of dogs we like if we ever hypothetically got a dog. He text back: "I WANT THAT DOG!" I just kind of laughed at him. I told him I'd ask her how much they wanted for them, because I figured that since puppies are so expensive, it would change Rob's mind. I sent her a message and was surprised by her answer. They had been asking more, but now they just wanted to find the puppies (there were two) good homes, so she said she'd take our best offer. She also told me that the puppies were border collie (one of my favorite dogs) corgi mixes, and that the mom is the best, sweetest, smartest dog ever. 

So I passed all of this on to Rob, and he called me right away and told me how much he wanted her. We talked about it, and even though I totally did NOT want a dog, for some reason I felt really good about pursuing it. It just felt right. But, since we weren't moving into our house for a month, that could be a problem. I messaged the girl back and forth a bunch of times and she said she would talk to her husband about how long they would hold her. 

Well, anyway, now we have a puppy, and we have named her Luna. Rob picked her up last Saturday night and Nolie and I came home from California to find her waiting for us. It was love at first sight, I must say. Our little puppy is a darling, and she's such a smart and sweet dog. Another reason I never wanted a dog is because you never know what kind of personality your dog will have. Some dogs are just terrible. But Miss Luna is not terrible at all. She's so mellow, so quiet, and she's already pretty obedient. We can tell that she's really smart and we think she'll be quick and easy to train.

She's not the fondest of her new collar, and the leash concept is taking a little getting used to, but she always walks right by our side anyway without a leash. And how CUTE is that bow!!!! Cutest collar I've ever seen. 

I really can't explain it. I'm still stunned that I love this dog so much. Because I promise you I'm not a dog lover. But I do love OUR dog. Even though it's only been a few days, this little Luna just seems to fit right in with our little family. I have high hopes that she'll be our perfect little doggie. As long as she doesn't mess up my new house.

Rob's in heaven. He keeps saying stuff like "Ah! A man and his dog." We're all really happy with what an awesome little pup she's shaping up to be. 

Doesn't get much cuter than this, right?