Wedding Day

Things are starting to settle down now that wedding is done and I got the wedding pics back so I thought I would share some of the pics of the dog. We got a lot more pics of Graham then Lola.....Graham loves getting his picture taken and I think Lola was just to hot to care.

Giving Dad a pre-wedding pep talk

It was a long day for the dogs!

The perfect Ring Bearer and Flower girl

Front row seats for the pups!

Week Away From Home

These past few weeks have sure been busy for us and the dogs. June 9th, Josh and I tied the knot. And of course my lil fur babies were included! Lola was our flower girl and Graham was our ring bear.

Graham as the ring bearer

Lola as the flower girl

I'm still waiting for wedding photos so I'll have to post better pics when they come but for now I have pics of them modeling the flower and bow tie after they arrived int he mail. I will say, everyone was worried about the dogs but besides a few growls, a sneeze, and Graham trying to eat my dress during the ceremony they did just as wonderful as I thought they would. A Lola wasn't so innocent, she tried to bite a bead off my dress earlier in the day when no one was looking.

The plan was for the dogs to go straight home with my parents and 6:30am Sunday morning Josh and I were to leave for Jamaica. Well we left for Jamaica....we just never made it. After staying up all night and arriving at the airport we found out our flight had been pushed back to 8:30 and while waiting Josh became sick and we had to cancel our trip. So we hung out with the pups and my parents on Sunday and decided the dogs should still go my parents and we would find something else to do. We spent a few days in Dubuque, IA and Galena, IL. Our first night away from the pups my mom sent me this pics to show me all dogs were doing well.

Tuckered out puppies. The third fluffy butt is Belle, she will get a post of her own soon enough

I think I did pretty good being away from the dogs! Before now we have never spent more then a night apart from each other. I missed them while at the hotel but once we got home it got a lil harder. It also made it bit a tougher since we missed Grahams birthday, but my mom made sure to celebrate it with him.

Happy 2nd Birthday Graham!

I will say, it was kind of nice not having them though. It was quite, no waking up early and standing outside, no being yelled at for food and water, and I could leave whatever I wanted where I wanted! Paper on the floor and open chip bags on the couch!

So we spent a couple dogless nights at the house, cleaned up the after wedding mess, put gifts away, and decided we just missed them way to dang much and had to pick them up! I was so excited to see them....more excited then I think they where!!! We came in my parents door and the barked at us like we were strangers and it took them a few seconds to realize who we where and the kisses and tail wags began! They must of have had a great time with grandma and grandpa and Belle because they have done nothing but sleep since being home! I'm glad to know though that when we do spend a week in Jamaica, they will do just fine without me.

The car ride home!

Counting Down

I thought without having classes for 8 weeks I would be able to start a good habit of blogging on a regular basis. Then again, working, working out, wedding planning and preparing, and honeymoon preparing does take up some time.

May 31st - June 7th is the busiest time of the year for us at work and my wedding date lands on June 9th (that wasn't part of the plan when we set our date!). Then we lave for Jamaica on June 10th! At points I find myself stuck on my couch unsure what to do next!

The dogs got groomed yesterday to prepare them for the big day. I must say,this is one of the cutest cuts they have had!! I normally just get them cut short and let it grow out until I'm sure they can't see me anymore through all the hair in their face and start over. This time in I asked for them to be kept a bit fluffy so they won't look freshly groomed but still have a nice cute. There is always that time between grooming appointments were they look perfect and I never remember to take their picture!! But now they look amazing and I have a picture!!

All groomed and ready for Ma and Pa's big day!

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

Since moving into the house we have talked about training our dogs to go potty outside and not inside on a potty patch. Our poor carpet ended being the patch. So after a recent carpet cleaning it was time to step up. The dogs quickly learned that after someone came home from work they are to go straight to the door. They excitedly wait until you hook them up and open the door.

Sadly, taking them out one time a day does not magically teach them to go potty outside. So I began running them out every so often int he afternoons and waking up early in the morning. The first morning outside adventure, both peeded outside but Lola didn't pooh until coming back inside, since then it wasn't any issue anymore! The morning is easy with Lola, she can't jump out of the bed on her own she she has to wait until you wake up to be put down to go potty. On the other hand, Graham can jump up and down as he pleases. Thankfully he seems to like to go downstairs to were the potty patch is to go potty so it's little clean up. I'm sure he sneaks out of bed but I feel I've been good at waking up around the same time as him and telling him to wait, which he is very good at.

In the last couple weeks we've made progress. Very few accidents found in the house, and every so often someone may bark or get antsy by the door. Not sure if they are realizing that is what they need to do or if it's a lucky guess on both our parts. I noticed the other morning that Lola was sneaking into our second bedroom upstairs. I dunno what it is about that room, but she loves to poop in it! She could have just took a number 2 outside and the second she walks in she goes again in that room! Well, I needed to do some printing tonight so I open the door and to my surprise.....POOOPY!!!!! Someone has been sneaking in there to do their duty and I think I know who!! Guess it's to early to be able to leave that door open.

Bath Time

One would think Lola would be the most perfect little lap dog, and of course she is. Some how though, Lola has found a great love for being outdoors. Because of this love we sometimes have a stinky dog that needs a bath. We call it "swimming" at our house and even though we sure get excited to go swimming, no one likes it once we get in the tub! I will give my pups credit, they let me do what needs done without a fight. I just get little pouty faces and cold shoulders. The best part of bath time is how much the dogs can shrink!

Is that a rat? No! It's Lola!

As puppies, baths were givin the sink. Since moving we now have a larger sink that Lola fits into but I'm not sure Graham would stay in. So I fill the tub up and put em both in. Sometimes I like to fill it a lil extra full so Lola can swim around a bit.....I don't think she enjoys it as much as I do. I always giggle because Lola has turned into one of those dogs that will swim when you hold her above the water.

Graham's First Bath

The best part about bath time is drying off. If I'm lucky I can wrap one up in a towel and do nothing but cuddle until they are dry. Mainly though, I have two crazy dogs running around the house. I don't think you can describe how crazy they get to non-dog owners. Lola found something extra stinky in our yard last night and we had to have a bath time. I ended up with Lola bouncing off the front of the couch and graham dragging his belly in full circles around our living room. I think you can compare it to a sugar rush in a little kid. The craziness seems to last forever and ALWAYS brings me to belly laughs and tears! My parents visited with there dog this past weekend so last nights after-bath craziness must have taken all the energy they had left because they both found some blankets and pillows, curled up, and fell asleep while they finished drying.

Lola drying in blanket mountain.

I love giving baths to my pups and making them go "swimming". Someday I hope to get them to a lake, or even to the pool on doggie day, to see if they really like swimming.

Kiss Kiss

Models

Sometimes I just can't help but think I have the cutest lil pups in the whole wide world. So I've decided that from time to time I'll upload some random cuteness, probably edited a bit with Instagram.

Outside Adventures

If you have stumbled onto my blog and are from the cedar valley area and find yourself thinking....."GEE! Those cute lil pups sure look familiar!" well.....you're probably right! Back in 2010 Lola and, a much tinier Graham tested out the Potty Patch for KWWL's Does It Really Work Segment. Although the video is no longer online, you can still read the article: http://www.kwwl.com/story/13557915/dirw-potty-patch . While living in the loft downtown the patch worked great for us.

As Seen On TV

Since then, we have purchased a house and are attempting to teach our dogs that carpeted floors are NOT one giant potty patch! Learning to potty outside seems to bring daily outside adventures. Graham seems to enjoy belly flopping into the plants before going potty on them and Lola finds every distraction she can from worms to roll in, people to bark at, and the odd need to sniff every single blade of grass in the lawn. Even the rain doesn't seem to phase these crazy two when it comes to finding things to do outside other then going potty! Our newest distraction is the loads of helicopters the maple tree's have dumped on our lawn. Not sure how great these are for the dogs but according to my dog they are the best thing since peanut-butter!

Other fun things we deal with outside are...

Muddy Paws

Trampling Plants 

Eating Not-Good for Us Plants

And Finding Fun Things To Tangle Up In!

We are slowly learning to go potty outside and not inside. Our main issue is shy Graham who likes to hide when he goes to poop. One nice thing, is he likes to poops in our basement and since putting the potty patch down there he seems to go on that. One tiny paw step at a time I suppose! Our second issue is just getting the dogs to tell us when they need to outside. Every so often Lola will let us know but more often then not it's us needing to just remember to take them outside every now and again.

I enjoy the time outside my fluffy butts and am happy they like it to. One nice thing about being outside all the time is there seems to be something new and interesting they do each time. Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!