Bye Willo....

I have to say that it has not been the greatest year as far as dogs in our family go.....earlier this year my first dog Wiket had to be put down and now his side-kick little (big) brother had to be put down. Willo was known as my mom's dog....he was always so sweet and very loyal and will be missed.

He had the softest look in his eyes every day and was always happy to see everyone. I'll miss his little bull legs and happy look. Say hi to Wiket for me little guy.

Madi sure has learned lots about death and dying over the course of this year....I hope we are done for a while now.

Dog sitting Sophie

We were so lucky that Sophie's family asked us to watch her again....this time we got to have her for a full week!! We just love Sophie, she is such a great dog, and mostly Madi just thinks that Sophie is one of her pals. I told Madi that Sophie sleeps in her room at night, but Madi never actually saw her so one night when Madi was going to bed she asked me to take a picture of Sophie sleeping in her room. So cute!!

Goodbye Wiket

Today I made the tough decision to put Wiket down. It was awful really.....having to say okay it's time to go. Wiket has been sick for some time and he was really hanging on the best he could. I couldn't take his suffering any longer, I had to let him go. He was a great companion and so happy and full of life. He was 9 years old and lived a really great life.

When Brady and I went to check Wiket out at the owners house, he was the last one left and the smallest they said. We scooped him up and brought him home that day. I was living at my parents house at the time and my mom had specifically told me not to bring a dog home (growing up we always had outside dogs). But I couldn't leave without him, so we bought him-well Brady bought him as an early birthday present. We took him over to Brady's parents house and weighed him because he was so very little....turns out he was only 1.5 lbs and a few days later when we took him to the vet, he told me that Wiket was probably only 4 weeks old and too young to be away from his mom, but what could I do....Wikets mom was in Prescott. So back to the day we brought him home, we were petting and holding him and noticed he was actually covered in ticks-we spent the next several hours picking them off of the little guy. Eventually that nice September evening I took him home with me. My mom was taken by him right away, but told me I had to take care of him. The next several weeks were filled with lots of puppy time-see I had to wake up every 2 hours in the night to feed him since he was so young. Eventually he slept through the night (i know sounds just like a child).

When I moved out of my parents house I couldn't take him with me so there he stayed. When Brady and I were getting married, my dad bought a dog for my mom (she had become attached to having Wiket around) and Wiket and Willo became inseperable. So I made the decision to leave him at my parents house. I still would see him as much as I wanted. That is were Wiket lived, with my parents, Darrin and Willo.

I will never forget my furry friend!! I loved him to pieces. Rest in peace Wikeysticks.

January 2009

The pictures pretty much tell how we spent most of our January, outside on the trampoline with friends and family. It has been such great weather....how could you possibly pass it up! This is Madi with her cousins Bella, Sophia and her Auntie Amy bouncing around.

Uncle Bobby didn't last long just watching in the wings. The trampoline really is so much fun, you don't stay watching for long.

Madi is always up for learning fun new games on the trampoline so here is her Auntie showing her how to play log roll....she caught on really quick, Sophia is waiting to take her jump next.

Anytime we have friends over they head right outside to the tramp so here is Madi and her sweet friend Maggie having a blast. I showed them how to bounce each other and they did that forever, they just don't seem to get enough jumping in (which is fine with me, makes bedtime go very fast:)

After about an hour of being outside I caught them laying down on the tramp so I brought them out some water and asked them if they were tired and ready to come in....Madi's response, "No mom, we were just waiting for you to take our picture again." So I told them to pose and the picture above is what the two cuties did! Then they got up and jumped some more!! Where do they get all there energy from?!?

We also like to dog-sit from time to time. Yes we do love dogs :) So Brady's brothers family was going out of the country for a week and asked if we could watch their little dog Dessa and we were very excited when she came to stay. She was such a good dog and especially took a special love to Madi. She slept with Madi at night....which Madi absolutely LOVED!!

And when Madi came home from school one day, she went in her room to take her shoes off and Dessa was taking a nap on her bed so Madi ran to find me and said, "Mom, quick come take a picture of Dessa, she's so cute on my bed taking a nap."

All of the dogs got along great so having an extra dog for a week really wasn't a big deal at all (hint hint to my hubby....I really would love a Cavalier King Charles) !! So Bobby and family, anytime you guys need a dogsitter please think of us, we'd love to have Dessa for a visit!:)