Day 4 - Commenting Challenge

Today's topic on Jenna's Commenting Challenge is Christmas in July!  What a fun topic, or at least I think so!

I LOVE everything about the Christmas season: the sights, the sounds, the smells, the family,  and most importantly, the reason!  I remember my first Christmas after I had Emmalee and I was so emotional over celebrating the birth of my savior.  I guess as a new parent, I celebrated my child's birth in so many different way, but to celebrate the birth of a SAVIOR...now that is just incredible! 

I will say that this year's Christmas will be a little different having 2 babies girls in the house instead of just one.  I've already started buying present - yes, you heard me right!!!  That is part of the "reasoning" I used when I spent a "little" bit of money at the recent Remember Nguyen "4th of July" sale! I mean, my girls NEED coordinating outfits next spring/summer, right? 


But, if I could get one "big" gift for the girls, it would look something like this!

Emmalee LOVES being outside!  She loves swinging, sliding, playing - she loves it all.  I told Brant that I would love the get a nice swingset for our backyard so that she has a place to play. 

Now, what does this Momma want for Christmas, well I'm already getting it - a new kitchen!!! I am beyond thrilled that I'm getting the kitchen "facelift" that  I have been wanting for 3 years now! So in my book, I'm just happy with my new kitchen, and my sweet family of 4! 

But, the best gift I've ever received is this guy!

I mean just look at that sweet face!  When Brant and I got married I begged for a dog. He consistently told me "no," only because he had already planned for that to be my birthday/Christmas present.  I came home from work a few days before my birthday (Dec. 12th) to find this sleepy little 6-week old pup in my living room.  He has definitely been my favorite gift and is certainly my "firstborn".  Just take a look at our sweet Dax Honey Williams of Maxwell (and yes, that is his full registered name)!

So what are you hoping is under your tree this Christmas season???

Summer List

I have seen so many people posting "Summer Fun Lists" of things they want to do, or do with their children,  before the end of the summer.  I love this idea. 

So I've created a "Summer Fun List"!

• Pick Berries at Gnismer Farms
• Go to Hawaiian Farms
• Spend a day on the lake 
• Wagon ride through Rose Memorial Park
• Go to a petting zoo
• Blow bubbles 
• Take Dax to the park
• Fly a kite
• Have a picnic
• Plant an herb garden
• Read books
• Go to the splash pad
• Feed ducks at the park
• Go see 4th of July fireworks
• Fingerpaint
• Plant a flower
• Dallas World Aquarium
• Make cookies
• Play in the rain

Do you have a summer to-do list?  What's on it???  

Wordless Wednesday

Dog Callin'

This is my darling daughter. 

This is my darling dog - Dax. 

 This is my mom's dog, Spencer.  

Emmalee has it in her mind that all dogs are called Dax, even little dogs like Spencer, are Dax.  In all honesty, any animal to Emmalee is a "Dax." 

So last night, Emmalee and I had to go to my parents' house to let Spencer outside for a little while. Apparently Emmalee has heard Brant and I yelling at Dax a little too ofetn, so I guess she needed to let "Dax" (aka Spencer) know who was boss!  If Spencer started walking away, she called "Dax" back!

This video just cracks me up!

Springtime

The weather here in North Texas has been really beautiful lately, expect for a huge of tornadoes last week - that was a bit scary. 

Anyways, a few weekend ago we were stuck at home because Emmalee had Hand, Foot & Mouth disease (which she kindly shared with her mother, but that is a completely different post).  So Saturday afternoon we were having some cabin fever and it was so gorgeous outside that we took Em out to play. She had so much fun playing and exploring!

 (WARNING:  PICTURE OVERLOAD!)

A Birthday Boy

We have a birthday boy at our house today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dax turned 3 today!!!

If you know me personally at all, you know that I LOVE my dog. He has been my baby for so long, and I tell him almost everyday that he is going to be the best big brother!

I am amazed at how big he is. Remember this post on the day after I got him? He was the cutest little thing! It's hard to think he was ever this little.

This picture cracks me up because he was so excited when I gave him a treat this morning that he just went to town on it. I laugh at this picture because he looks like he could be so vicious with his teeth, but he is the gentlest pup I know!

Happy Birthday Dax Honey Williams.
Mama and Daddy Love you so much!!!

Its a Dog Day!

Hey guys - It's DAX!!! Dawson over at Kelly's Korner is having this dog day and Dawson said that any one is totally loved and spoiled by their mom and dad should post, so here I am! This is one of those me-me's that you tell 6 random things about yourself...so here goes!

1. My favorite place to sleep is in my mom and dad's bed! At night I sleep in my crate, but I enjoy Sunday afternoon naps in their bed because it is the most comfortable place!

However, Mom got a new recliner and it is pretty comfy too!

2. I LOVE to take walks in the park! There are so many fun things to do there: play catch with my dad, run around and chase my mom, and I can even go play in the fountain! I like to make friends with everyone there!

3. My favorite toy is my blankie! I have had my blue blankie since the day I came home with mom and dad. I sleep with it, play with it...its the BEST!

4. I LOVE to take car rides! Anytime the door is open, I hop it because I love going places and meeting new friends.

5. You may not know this, but I have a big sister named Kai. She is a Tabby cat, and she pretty sweet. I like to chase her around, but she doesn't think it so funny! This is a picture of her hiding from me under the Christmas tree!

6. I am SPOILED ROTTEN! My mom and dad love me so much that they spoil me all the time, but I love my mom and dad just as much as they love me. I love to cuddle with my dad, and play with my mom. They are truly the best!!!

So now any of you other dogs out there that have a mom and dad as great as mine need to post too and tell the rest of us your 6 random things!!!

Go Place, Settle

This is the new command we are trying teach precious Dax. Remember this post? Well we are in this place again.

On Friday, Dax went outside to play with Saddie and Reese, the neighbors labs. On Saturday, I noticed he was limping again, and it was much worse on Sunday. However, this time, it wasn't his right front leg, it was his back right leg. So we took him to the vet on Tuesday and were given the bad news...another strained ACL. Unfortunately, we believe that this might be a genetic problem since Dax is such a large lab.

Ou vet, Dr. England whom we just adore, said that torn and sprained ACL's in labs are becomming more prominant that Hip Displasia. So, we have a 6-8 week recovery time - strict instructions that he is either in his kennel, or on a leash! Well I feel like a horrible mom when I'm at home and my "baby" is locked in his kennel. So last night had me thinking about an article I read just a week or so ago about the command "Go Place, Settle".

The article from our AKC magazine talks about dogs having a special place in a main room, or even a portalbe "place" that can go with them (the "place" being a blanket, a bed or pillow). This command is perect when you have a big family gathering and want your pup to be a part of it, but not in it...or when company comes over and you don't want him jumping all over them!

Well Dax already has a blanket, so we are designating that his "place". So "go place" obviously teached the dog to know their "place" and to go to it when commanded. The second part of the command is to "settle". The article said that the "stay" command teaches dog to "not move a muscle", but when commanded to "settle" the dog can be trained to lay down, and relax.

All of this to say that since I can't stand for Dax to be locked in his kennel when we are home, we are teacking him the "Go place, Settle" command so that he can still be in the living room or around the house with us, but still rest his leg.

Happy Birthday to you...

Happy Birthday to you...
Happy Birthday dear DAX...
Happy Birthday to you!!!

That's right - today is Sweet Daxy Boy's 1st birthday! This morning he got one of his favorite foods for breakfast...peanut butter! He loves peanut butter so I scooped a spoonful out of the jar and he went to town. Brant and I were going to take him to Pet's Mart after work tonight and let him pick out a new toy, but we ended up having other plans. So we're going to take him this weekend. Here are a few pictures of our sweet boy!

Also, I wanted to give those of you praying an update on Kristi. She had her first round of Chemotherapy today and this afternoon, after no side effects were found, she was finally able to leave the hospital. Thankfully, Kristi's parents live very close and the family is staying with them. The obvious prayer requests are that Kristi is healed...the family has grasped the medical possibilities here and are not overlooking them, but they are also fixing their eyes on a King who is extremely miraculous! But also please be in prayer for her time with her family, her husband, her children, especially baby Zane.

The LORD is my light and my salvation—
whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life—
of whom shall I be afraid?
Psalm 27:1

Swimming Lessons

What a great weekend, but why is it already over???


Well Dax had his first swimming lessons - he did GREAT (probably doesn't have anything to do with the fact that he's a water dog!) We put him in Sister's pool on Saturday. At first he was a little hesitant, but he took to it quite nicely although it wore him out pretty quickly. I wanted to get some pictures of him swimming in the pool, but that's kind of hard when you are in the pool with him...so here are just some pictures by the pool!

Me and Dax!

On Sunday, we went to church, then went to lunch with Brant's family for Father's Day. Came home, relaxed, then Sister called and wanted to know if we could watch Big "E" while they went to Six Flags. So, Big "E" came to play at Grabbie's house. Big "E" and Uncle B Watching some Ranger's Baseball!!!

We were supposed to go to Mom and Dad's house around 7 to have dinner and dessert with my dad for Father's Day. So Big "E" helped me make Paula Dean's famous Ooey Gooey Butter Cake. Ya'll, it was DELICIOUS!!! If you have never had it, here's the recipe!

Ingridients:

• 3 eggs,
• 2 sticks of butter
• 16 oz. of powdered sugar
• 1 brick of cream cheese
• Vanilla
• Yellow Cake Mix

Begin by mixing the yellow cake mix, one egg and one stick of melted butter. Once mixed, pat into a lightly greased 9X13 pan.

Then make the filling. First beat the cream cheese until it's smooth. Then add the ingridents one by one, always beating as you go: 2 remaining eggs, melted stick of butter, 1 tsp of Vanilla and 16 oz. of powered sugar. Mix very well until smooth and creamy.

Pour on top of the crust.

Bake at 350 for 40-50 minutes. Check it at about 35 minutes and take it out when the edges begin to brown. Don't let this overcook because it is supposed to be gooey inside.

Then last night, I tried a new recipe thanks to my friend Kristen H. It was fantastic!

Creamy White Wine Chicken

• 4 chicken breasts
• 1 can Cream of Mushroom
• 1 can Cream of Chicken
• 1/4 cup of white wine (I used a cheap Chardonnay)
• Swiss Cheese
• bread crumbs

Mix the Cream of Chicken, Cream of Mushroom and white wine together to make a "soupy" mixture. Please your chicken breasts in a baking dish and cover with Swiss Cheese. Top with the soup mixture and sprinkle with bread crumbs. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Serve over pasta or rice.

This was SOOO easy and delicious. Brant and I loved it.

Busy, Busy, Busy

So I think I can officially say the blog design business has taken off....I have over a dozen people on my waiting list for designs! I just love it! Go over to the design blog and you can see some of the newest creations.

Not only am I busy with that, Brant has two softball games tonight - one at 7, and one at 10 (don't you just love it when he plays in a mens league and a coed league???) . Then Friday night, I am trading my treadmill for an elliptical with Jessica (the BF). I love my treadmill, but it hurts my tendonitis so bad to use it...I do much better with an elliptical because my feet are always stationary. Before my wedding, I lost over 10 lbs just doing the elliptical for about 30 minutes everyday, and I need to lose alot more than 10 for Mexico!!! Then on Saturday, I desperately need to clean my house, go to the mall to get Father's Day gifts, go to the hospital to see Brant's Uncle Howard, then we have a get-to-gether at Ryan and Kristy's! I definitely think I'm going to need a long Sunday afternoon nap!

Well about dinner the other night - because I know your dying to know...it wasn't so great. Now, it wasn't bad, but it wasn't great, and not even because of my ingredient issues. The problem was that the chicken was really dry from cooking all day, and there were just too many flavors all together. First, the cooking sucked all the sweet out of the sweet potatoes - Brant didn't like that AT ALL! Then, you had the taste of the onion, and the chipotle, then paprika, then funny unsweet potatoes...it just didn't mix well for our pallette.

I think one of my biggest problems is the dry chicken...allow me to ellaborate. My crockpot has a timer on it...it turns on as soon as the timer is set, goes off when the timer is finished, then goes to a "keep warm" mode so dinner stays hot until we get home. That part is fantastic. But I leave my house at 6:30am, and usually get home around 5:30 pm...that is 11 hours. If I have the crockpot set to cook for 7 hours, that leave it "keeping warm" for 4 hours until I get home, which drys the chicken out. Any solutions here people? And no, I cannot go home during my lunch break and turn it on...I work almost an hour away from home! I think I just need to stick with red meat - it doesn't seem to dry out as bad.

Now onto the best subject of the post - my child Dax, although it isn't good news. Dax started limping again last week and by the end of the weekend, it was really bad. You could tell that he was in so much pain. So, we took him back to the vet, but to a new vet, Dr. England. He was WONDERFUL! I have never met a vet that would spend 45 minutes with you explaining the anatomy of a dog, the extent of his injuries, and his philosophy on how to fix it (not to mention he is WAY less expensive than the other vet!!!). It turn out, Dax has a torn CCL (cranial cruciate ligament). This is like a human having a torn ACL, and just as in humans, it is not a fun injury to have.

A torn CCL usually happens to large breed, active dogs, but can never turly be "cured". We can help heal the injury, and condition it, but it will always be a problem spot for The Boy. He is on "bed rest" for the rest of this week, then we will start with short walks, and swimming. The vet said that swimming is wonderful for this injury because it allows the dog a wide range of motion, but not straining on the ligament. Thank God for parents who live on the lake! After doing that for a week, we will move on to longer walks and just general conditioning. He isn't supposed to run for about a month...which is hard when he is still a pup...remember, he is only 7 1/2 months old. The last option, and will we hope it doesn't come to this, is surgery. Again, its no cure, but it will eleviate the pain and help stabalize the joints and ligaments. However, with more growing, the possibility of reinjury when he is older is high, so that would mean another surjury. We are praying that with rest, anti-inflamatories, extra TLC and lost of conditioning, surgery will not be needed. So, my weekend will also consist of making sure my baby is loved on and taken care of!

So what is everyone elses plans for the weekend? Any big plans for Dad's Day???

1 Dog or 2 - that is the question

So Brant and I have seen dog-sitting for our good friends, The Erwins, since Sunday. They have two labs: Jeter (5 months) and Bleu Belle (4 years). Two weeks before this, our neighbors have been re-doing the fence and there was no fence between our two yards, so Dax and Reese (the neighbors 2 year-old lab) played together all day long. So, Dax has been surrounded by friends for almost 3 weeks, and I know that he is going to be terribly sad when he is all alone again.

I have said for quite awhile that I would LOVE for my Daxy-Boy to have a brother, but Brant has never been so sure...but now he's actually considering it because he sees how much fun Dax is having with other dogs.

So, the other night, we took all three dogs, Dax, Jeter and Bleu, on a walk...it actually went VERY nicely! So Brant and I really began talking about whether or not we should get another dog...rescue one from the pound, or a local shelter. But the dilemma comes in because I say IF we ARE going to get another dog, we need to get it quickly so that Dax isn't lonely for too long., but Brant is completely sure we should get a second one.

So for right now, we are up in the air. Unfortunately, Brant will be watching the DBU Patriots in College Station this weekend, so we don't have a ton of time to talk about it before Jeter and Bleu go back home. So my only choice is to wait and let the Lord lead us...yes, I believe HE leads us even in decisions about dogs!!!

(although can I just tell you that I found a yellow lab, male at the Mansfield Animal Shelter named Duke...how cute would that be...DAX and DUKE!)

Oh well - I'll keep you posted!

Poor Dax

Well Mr. Dax had to go to the vet this morning. Sunday, Brant and I noticed that he was limping and it hasn't gotten any better. So, I took him in and vet did some X-rays. He has a sprained muscle in his shoulder and its very swollen and tender. And, he has a bacterial infection. So, for the next 2 weeks, the boy is bed-rested! He has to stay in his room or in his kennel and can only walk around to either get his food, or go to the bathroom...that means, no jumping up on the bed to snuggle with mom, and playing fetch outside with his ball...we can't even take him on a walk. So, for the next 2 weeks, he'll be here...

And while he is there, he will be taking all sorts of medicine to help him get better. Let's see...we have: an anti-inflammatory, a stool hardener (for the diarrhea), and two antibiotics...not to mention the regular heartworm and flea/tick medicine we take on a regular basis.

My dog takes more medication than Brant and I put together....hahaha! But in all honestly, I hate that he is sick - Brant and I love playing with him in the backyard and he loves to go on walks. We're going to miss that these next 2 weeks!!!

Oh a happier note, I thought I would give you a few looks as to some of my newest digital pages. These are all from Brant's birthday when we went to the Dallas Cowboys Thanksgiving Game.

Much Love,
Ashley

My Boy

Can someone please explain to me how in only

5 short months, this

Has become this!!!

My little Daxy Boy is getting to be a big Daxy Boy!!!!!

Much Love,
Ashley