We've Moved!

I'm baaack! I know I often have lots of time lapses on this here blog, but this time its for a good reason.  I promise.

 We Moved!

Not only did we move once, we moved twice. Also, Matt got a new job and I left mine. So see, it has been busy around here for us. We first moved for Matt's new job, which led us to stay with my brother while we house searched, then we moved when we finally found our house. I will catch everyone up in another post, but for now lets take a look at our house/homestead progression.

Our first house back in Louisiana, great size. 

1175 sq ft 

lived here: 2 years

 I love our first little house. We moved to Texas from here for Matt to get his MBA at Texas A&M.

Our tiny little apartment in a four-plex building 

800 sq ft 

lived here: almost 3 yrs 

It was pretty cozy. We gave more than half of our stuff to our parents and anyone that would help to store it all for us.

Our duplex 

1300 sq ft

lived here: 1 year

It let us loosen our belts and breath a little. It felt like a home. Mac finally had a backyard to run around in, unleashed at that (finally). 

My brothers house

the second floor 

lived here: a little over 3 mths

Got to spend great time with family and become closer with them. 

Our new home!!! 

 2290 sq ft 

will live here: for a long time!

I will post pictures of the inside along with more details soon. I am just so excited that we have a "house" of our own again. I know no matter where we lived it was "home" but it is great to have something that is ours again. 

Did anyone else have big changes over the summer? I felt like I was completely out of reality for the past few months while we were house searching, does that happen to anyone else? 

sweetest picture ever

Happy Friday!! 

I am so glad it is almost the weekend, how about you? Especially since its a 3 day weekend. I will be out most of next week for medical stuff so my weekend will be even longer, even though it won't really be fun. What plans does everyone have for memorial day? I am afraid mine will be spent in bed, so maybe we can grill out early on Sunday. Does everyone else usually grill, go to the movies, take it easy?

 As I was scrolling through my camera looking for pictures to post on, I ran across the sweetest picture ever. At least for me, it is the sweetest thing I have ever seen, and makes me fall in love with my puppy all over again. On one of our many trips to Louisiana, I captured my cutie while he was napping on my lap.

 (close up)

This is a rare occurrence since he LOVES to look out the window. Every time he settles down and starts to knock off, we get caught at a red light, stop sign or make a turn. Since we live far away from the interstate system (ha) we take mostly back roads till we get to Louisiana. So neither of us gets much sleep till we cross that state line. Mac used to chill in the back seat until we took a long trip through Tennessee and Illinois and ever since he likes to be up front. We even got him a seat belt, but he just cries till he gets his way. He is just like a child, I know. Needy and stubborn. That's why images like these just melt my heart and remind me of how sweet he can be. 

Another new family member, Tapas!

A few weeks/months ago I posted how my brother and his wife got a new puppy, Gaston. Well, just a few weeks ago, they adopted another lil puppy, Tapas. She is Gaston's half sister, and they were able to get her from the same breeder. Since she was from the same breeder, they got to pass through town and stop by to let us meet her. Here is Matt holding her. She was only 6 weeks old at the time. I can't wait to get more pics of her and her older brother, Gaston. 

Tapas' name means spicy appetizer and I think her name is very fitting. From what we have seen and what my brother tells me she is very feisty and already picks fights with her older and much bigger brother. We will soon be spending a lot more time with them, but I'll have to let you in on that later : ) 

Again, sorry for the bad photos, camera phone!

Who me?

Sorry I haven't posted in forever. I am a true slacker when it comes to posting. Life has just been a whirlwind and I cant believe May is almost over. There are so many things I am trying to catch up on from April still. So I thought I would just post some recent pics of Mac to hold you over till I get my act together again.

The other morning when Matt and I were getting ready, I couldn't find Mac and was looking all over for him. I called his name and out he popped from my closet. Not sure what he was looking for in there. There are no dirty clothes on the floor, just stinky shoes. I guess he just wanted to take inventory? Here was his cute lil face when I called for him. Melts my heart.

Sorry they are bad quality, they were taken with my phone. I knew he wouldn't stay there very long, so I had to get them fast. 

Holy cow!

Mac's birthday week continued!

Sorry I didn't get this post up as expected on Wednesday. Work has been super crazy and doesn't leave for a lot of free time. So I am trying to play catch up tonight and get the rest of these Mac posts up. I plan on making two posts today, so I hope you enjoy!

For some reason Mac has started noticing cows recently. He goes crazy when he sees them and loves to find them. I wonder if it has anyting to do with their dark color, but whenever we pass horses or other animals, he doesn't get as excited. Strange. We do pass a lot of fields with cows here in Texas, but its usually not daylight when we are driving. I decided to take a video of him acting crazy on our way home from Louisiana this weekend.  We took a detour through Lake Charles due to construction and chaos and while on the backroads we passed lots of fields with cows. His reaction was not quite what either of us had expected. 

Mac was so excited to see the cows, he wanted to get a better view and dove into Matt's lap while driving. Neither of us expected that, and realized it wasn't very safe, so now I will have to make sure I have both hands on him or just point out the cows on my side of the car.

Happy Birthday Mac!!

Today is Mac's birthday!! 

My little boy is now two. Wow how time flies. I sound like a crazy lady talking about my puppy like that, but until the good Lord decides its time for a real little one, I am blessed to have my fur puppy.

Here are some pictures of Mac when he was a few weeks old, when we went to meet the breeder. Every website suggested going and meeting the breeders, to see their house and also meet the puppy beforehand. I had a bad experience with one breeder before we found Mackie's momma, so I was trying really hard to not get attached. But look at his little sweet face, who could resist it.

 Here is one of the two momma's the breeder had, she is not Mac's mom, but I guess an aunt?

I have this picture on my desk at work. It's so hard to remember him this size. 

and now here is Mac these days. (Awww)

A handsome lil boy huh? However, since he is two that makes him 14 in doggy years, so he is technically a teenager and a stubborn one at that. We still love him, it's what makes him who he is after all. 

And here is his picture from last year when he turned one!

I will be posting all this week on all things Mac. I'm sorry if it's an overload, but remember he is my fur-baby, and the main entertainment at our household, so what else are we supposed to do. I also just assume everyone loves him as much as we do, lol. (he does too) I also have some fun little videos I can't wait to post. 

My hubby is a HUGE history channel fan, as am I. Expect I like to watch the actual educational shows as opposed to the reality shows. Either way, we watch TV together, so I end up watching what Matt does, and he ends up watching what I watch (a lot of HGTV). I think we watch just about every show on the History channel, so if we ever lost it, it would be a crying shame.  In November while we were in Vegas, we got to stop by the actual store from the show "Pawn Stars". We also watch a little Discovery channel. Not as much as the History channel, but if Myth busters or Sons of Guns is on, then we are usually watching it. Last time when we were in Baton Rouge to visit Matt's family, we got to stop by the "Sons of Guns" shop. Well, we didn't really stop, we kind of just drove by a few times, to catch a few pictures.

The shop is actually really close to the house where Matt was born. Since we were in the area, we decided we should drive by and check it out. Here's a picture below: 

I think it looks a little different from when he was little, but it was nice to see where they used to live. 

Does anyone else have pictures from famous TV places? I love driving around and seeing where things were filmed. I think if we just drove around Louisiana we would find tons of Movie and TV spots. Especially now in New Orleans. Do you watch Discovery or The History Channel? What are your favorite shows? Remember when they used to be all educational? 

Houston Rodeo weekend - continued

Here is the second half of the Rodeo weekend. The first half is here.

After we left the rodeo that night, we decided to eat in the city since there would lots of traffic from everyone leaving. We headed over to Goode Co. for some good BBQ. Goode Co acutally has a couple of different restaurants; BBQ, Seafood and a Taqueria. We lost my sister and her family that night and they ended up at a different one, the Taqueria, I believe. We stayed at the BBQ joint and had a great time.

 My sis in law, Mariamgely and I

Matt & Cam

It was a cute little place that had tons of character. I love when my brother takes us to new places in the city. I get so excited and feel more cultured. haha. 

On Sunday we barbecued and celebrated my Bro's bday. We couldn't start the day without going to the park down the street from his house first though. The girls LOVE going there and it wouldn't be a trip to "Texas" if they didn't go to the park.

Even Mac gets to go. He loves going to the park and dog watch.He usually gets to meet lots of new people and dogs.  

The girls swinging away!

Back at the Hacienda! The girls took to the hammock like bee on honey.

Here's T, getting her food ready.

 Mac had a lil fun in the sun with his bottle. 

Birthday cake for the birthday boy!

 

 Presents!

Shortly after the family left to head back to Louisiana since they had quite a drive ahead of them. Luckily we stayed for a little while and chatted before we had to leave. It is always great to get the whole family together. It can sometimes get crazy with all of us, but I wouldn't have it any other way. 

Mac - Picture of the week

Matt caught Mac laying on the couch one day like this. It is pretty funny that he had the pillow turned over under his head. We wonder how on earth he did that. 

It looks like he is just chilling watching TV with the remote next to him. Does anyone else's pet chill out and watch TV? 

Meet my new nephew - Gaston

Welcome to the family, Gaston!

I got to meet my new nephew on Wednesday. I was soo excited all day and couldn't stand waiting to meet him. My brother drove up from Houston to a nearby town to pick him up. Since he had to pass through on his way home,  he stopped by our office to show us his new pup.

 His eyes look a lil crazy in this one, but he was super sleepy.

He didn't want to get out of his kennel, I guess he really liked it in there and was still tired.

Me, my bro, and Gaston.
(look at his tongue hanging out)

Back in the kennel for the ride home and to meet his momma.But first he had to get a couple of licks in.

Sad face.

Now here he is getting back on the road to meet his momma.

We are so excited about the new addition and we hope Mac will be able to share the spotlight. I hope he will be a good big cousin to Gaston. Next weekend is the big race so they will get some quality time then. I'll keep you posted

Let's go for a ride

For my Birthday last year, Hubby bought me a cruiser bike. We were out of town for my birthday on memorial day weekend having a great time in Dallas with my college besties. When we got home I found a box on my front porch that had a bike on it.

(Here is where she lived before we got our dining table. This is before I tricked her out w/ a bike bell and sweet basket.) 

 I was soo excited. I wanted a cruiser bike for a long time. My ten speed from when I was 12, just wasn't working for me anymore. The chain keeps skipping, and Matt pretty much refuses to ride it at all, and when he does, it isn't very pleasant. The bike came with a front basket, a cup holder and a large rear, ready for a future basket for the pup. I haven't ridden it too much because I am waiting on Matt to finally get a bike as well, so we can ride together. Also, I didn't want to leave Mac at home while I was riding because I knew  he would love to ride with me (or so I imagine). We tried one of us walking him while the other rode, but it just didn't work out. So for Christmas, Matt got me a basket from Cynthia's twigs. We finally could ride together, Mac and I!

(Here she is tricked out (bling bling). I forgot to mention we put lights put on her since its a requirement in our city. So she now has a white laser beam in the front and red lights in the back that can flash or be steady. I feel nerdy and fancy at the same time.)

I got Mac to sit in the basket on our living room floor so that he could get used to it for a few days, and he did great. (treats helped)

(Doesn't he look excited? note the sarcasm)

 So the next test was putting it on the bike and walking him around on it. 

He did very well, so we set off on a ride up and down the street.  

Now look back at the pictures, it is so funny to see him looking at the camera in all of them. He cracks me up. Especially the one where Matt is riding down the street and you see Mac looking back. haha. It could be confused with his creepy stare. Either way it is pretty funny.

Here are some more recent pictures from our bike rides. Since Matt and I are training for a 10k in April,  Matt would run, and Mac and I would ride alongside him. We tried this for a few days, then Mac got kinda heavy going up hills that weren't even really hills. All I have to say, is that it is a great work out riding with a 16lb dog on your bike. 

I am also thinking that we should have gotten the front basket for him since he is very nosy and likes to see everything. He often rocks the bike back and forth because he is trying to see.  We are still working on that with him as well with him staying seated. We keep loads of treats in the cup holder and in our pockets when we go out. 

Has anyone else tried a basket for their pet on a bike?