Lullaby, and goodnight...

One day, Hubby came home from work and surprised me with these. Aren't they pretty?

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I haven't exactly figured out the art of photographing flowers, unfortunately.

So, what spurred on Hubby to have him bring me these flowers? My exhaustion. I was so completely, utterly exhausted with the new puppy in our home. So tired, in fact, that for three whole days, THREE WHOLE DAYS, I forgot to brush my teeth. My mom said that's what it is like being a new mother. So, why was I so tired you ask? Belle and I weren't, er.... exactly on the same sleeping schedule.

When I wanted to play, she wanted to sleep.

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More importantly, when I wanted to sleep, she wanted to play.

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Why? 'Cuz girls just wanna have fun, of course!

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This out-of-sync sleep schedule really took a toll on me, and little Belle as well.

She was a happy little girl all day long, but when it came to night time and me and her being separated, she cried. Now, I didn't do the whole "Lock her in a crate and put her in another room while she cries" thing. I did the whole "Waking up with her every hour of the night so she would feel safe" thing. And, since Hubby was originally against getting a dog, I felt that I needed to make sure his sleep was uninterrupted. Somehow, he didn't hear baby Belle crying, but I heard every little peep she made.

I would carefully scoot out of bed, quietly unlock her crate, wait for her to come out to me and then take her outside. After she went potty, I always went back in the bedroom and grabbed my pillow and went out to the living room. I laid on the floor with baby Belle while she pounced all over me and used her little razor blade teeth to nibble on me. This happened for a little over a week, when I had a seemingly life-saving idea. I grabbed a coke bottle out of the recycling bin, and put hot water in it. I filled it up as much as I could with hot water, and then I took a shirt that I had been wearing to sleep in, and I put the coke bottle inside of the shirt. I put the coke bottle and shirt inside the crate, and I put Baby Belle against it, and she felt comforted. She must've felt that someone was with her in that crate, because from that night on, a heated up coke bottle was all I needed to get a good night's sleep.

And, in case you were wondering, Hubby does still bring me flowers, even though I'm not (always) sleep deprived. I caught a good one, folks!!

Number 3

My third memento I would like to share with you is our Christmas card picture. Yes, we’re one of those families that send out a picture of us wishing you a Merry Christmas.

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Behind us is our tree that’s in our family room, our “colorful” tree. This tree was a gift from a close friend of the family, so it means a lot to us. We put all of our colorful lights, garland, and ornaments on this tree, and we had another tree in our formal living room for the white lights, white garland, and silver and gold ornaments. That was our little taste of a White Christmas, since we don’t have snow in Florida. I don’t know why I didn’t take a picture of it!

This was our first Christmas as a married couple, and that's our son Austin with us.

Snuggle Pup

My second memento I would like to share with you is this picture. "The Princess" is our now year old dog, Belle. Princess Belle.

WARNING:  THIS POST IS OVERLOADED HAS AN AWESOME NUMBER OF PICTURES.

 This was the picture I stumbled upon when I was desperately searching for a puppy for our family. Hubby wasn’t really an animal person, but when all my friends got pregnant at once and we knew we were still a few years away from a baby, he gave in and became a dog person for me. Photo taken by Tiffany, our Princess' seller. As a side note, she has three of Belle's family members, and they are just too cute for words!

This one was taken when I went to meet Belle in person...er, in dog..no....you know what I mean.  ;)

It was then that I fell in love.  She was, without a doubt, the pup for me.  As I visited with Tiffany, (Belle's parents' and brother's owner) (By the way, you can check out her blog, here.) my mom mentioned my previous dog, Peekaboo, and my flood gates opened.  I was embarrassed to be sitting in this stranger's house sobbing over my dog that passed away over a year ago, but she understood how I felt since she loved her babies the same way.  And what was even greater was that when the first tear fell, Belle jumped in my lap and started giving me kisses on my face.  My heart.

A couple of weeks later, we brought Belle home.  She cried on the way home so we pulled over and let her go to the bathroom and then she was happy again.  A couple of interstate exits down the road, she started crying again.  We pulled over, put her in some grass, and she didn't have to go.  We thought maybe she was thirsty, so we got her a cup of water.  That did the trick!  Belle's thirst was quenched, she stopped crying, and back on the road we went.

My hubby met Belle soon as we got home.  In all honesty, when I brought Belle home, Hubby fell in love with her. Sorry for the photo quality, this was taken with my cell phone.

Belle felt right at home when she joined us.  I can't figure out why, but of all the carpet and hardwood in our home, she preferred to sleep on the tile.  Whatever floats her boat, I guess.

That changed rather quickly when we started allowing Belle to be on the bed during the day.  To this day, Belle beats me to bed and cuddles up with Hubby before I have the chance. Then, we tell her goodnight and she travels down her stairs without us even telling her it’s time for her crate. She’s one smart puppy, y’all.

And, she’s one snuggly puppy. Just the way we like ‘em!

Within our first couple of days together, I felt Belle was getting sandy feeling so I figured it was time for a bath.  

I had puppy shampoo behind me, just so you don't think I used Joy on her!

Whenever we went places, like to Jacksonville to visit my cousin's family, Belle came along and was a great sport.

But she was always exhausted after big days!

Isn't she cute?  Once, I tried to sell this bed on Craigslist, and I got more inquiries if the dog was real or fake than I had offers to sell the bed.

Well, as Belle got older, she got braver and braver.  When hubby was warming up his shower water, Belle often stuck her head in to see what this water falling from the spout would feel like.

Winter rolled around, and it was time for Belle to have her very first jacket.

It was around this time that she tried her very first dental bone, too!  Yum!

When Spring came around, Belle was hot with her long hair, so we ordered a haircut, pronto!

We recently went to a Pet Store (danger zone for me!  I could spend as much money in there as I could at the mall...) and Belle and I decided to try out this bag.
She was a happy camper.  Such a trooper.  There was another bag that she liked even more, but I'll show you that one later....because I strongly hinted asked for it for my birthday.

So, that's our girl Princess Belle.  Cutie-pa-too-tee, no?

Lake Lure... not always so luring.

Man, a year has gone by already? It’s so hard to believe it’s been a year since I walked down that aisle toward my best friend.

I’ve always wanted to write, and I absolutely love following people’s blogs, but I told myself that my first year of marriage might be a bit too intense to blog about. Don’t worry, I have little mementos that I held onto throughout our first year of marriage. Here, I’ll show them to you in the next few posts!

From Test

I love this picture. It just sums us up. Me and Hubby. We were relaxed, and having a fantastic honey moon. This picture was taken at Lake Lure, and we were just soaking up the sun and enjoying the freedom of not having any responsibilities. Actually, looking back, even though this picture just shouts “Relaxation” at me, I do recall the twenty minutes before this shot was taken. Let me explain Lake Lure to you.

It’s a beautiful lake in the mountains. Here's a picture of Hubby in the lake.

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Here’s a picture of me standing in the lake.

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Know why I’m not any deeper? (One, the water was cold...but, more importantly...) There were HUGE fish in that water! I walked in the water, eager to cool off with my new husband and a GIANT fish came and put my whole middle finger in it’s mouth! I hollered for Hubby and he said it must be my imagination. Oh no. It begins. I chalked it up to a once in a lifetime happening, and that fish was not actually interested in eating me. I continued walking into the water and WHAT JUST WRAPPED AROUND MY ANKLE! “Hubby!!!! I’m getting OUT!” He ran after me saying that the fish wouldn’t hurt me, and I should join him, but I do not like not seeing what is beneath me. Nope, sorry, not gonna happen. I made my way back to the sand and laid down on my towel. As I closed my eyes, feeling relaxed, I had a flashback to what the jeweler told me when I purchased Hubby’s wedding band.

For the full effect, this has to be said in a New York accent...“Nine out of ten times, I see the groom the week after his honeymoon because he lost his wedding band. Most men aren’t used to wearing jewelry, ya know. They go swimming in the ocean, and BAM! A new ring is ordered.” Knowing that Hubby had never worn jewelry before, I was a little anxious about this, but I knew he was also very responsible and would not lose his ring.

I was excited to see him finally coming out of the water to join me in the sand, when I saw the look on his face. I immediately thought of the ring, but just knew he didn’t lose it.

“My ring....I.....” Hubby was fumbling over his words.

My jaw dropped and I started for the water, like I would ever find it in the lake. Then I heard from behind me, “Just kidding! I put it in my pocket to see your reaction!” This was when Hubby had a threat to have his ring taken away from him. (Just kidding... sort of.) So, when I said that picture is of us relaxing...... well, let’s just say there were a few non-relaxing moments prior to that photograph.

Obviously, we ended up enjoying ourselves.

From Test