The Addition to Our Home

We have an addition to our family! …And no I am NOT pregnant (knock on wood). – we have a puppy! I have wanted to get a dog for a while, but Eddie wasn’t all for it, he says they’re too messy and too much responsibility, which is true. But besides being sort of against it, he’s always trying to make me happy and started looking for ads on the Internet of people who were selling or giving away dogs; he’s the best hubby ever!

Last weekend he found an ad of a guy who was giving away 5 puppies. His female pug had gotten pregnant unexpectedly, and he couldn’t keep the dogs. When Eddie told me you can only imagine how excited I was! Pugs are so cute! But there was one condition – Eddie would be the one to name it.

He didn’t even think long before he said that the name of the dog would be Labao (for those who don’t know, Labao [or Laban in English] is a person from the Book of Mormon, and a bad person per se). I was against it at first, but sure enough, it grew on me…it’s funny and cute on a dog. I call him Labao, Labaozinho, Laban, BamBam, Pugs, and Pugster, I’m probably confusing the heck out of his little head, but he responds to all of them.

We drove 2 hours south to Lindsay, CA (kind of in between Visalia and Tulare) to look at the dogs, and we fell in love in seconds. We chose the cutest one and brought him to our home.

We got little BamBam at 5 weeks old, only weighing 1 lb. He’s tiny…so cute! He’s been loving our company, is full of energy, and loves to sleep. Pugs are not the most energetic dogs. Don’t expect a pug to play catch or Frisbee with you, he won’t move…but puppies are puppies…full of energy. He’s been biting everything and anything he can reach. Pugs also sleep an average of 14 hours a day…they’re kinda lazy, don’t you think? They are not the easiest dogs to train but it’s not impossible either. The upside is that they are sooo cute. They have those smashed in noses which makes them snore a lot; hahha, it’s hilarious. Also, they are the most friendly dogs; they love people. There is nothing that they love more (besides food) than just sitting next to you, or at your feet. They are constantly following you, they are like a shadow, so you if you think that’s annoying don’t get a pug! And my favorite…once they start recognizing your voice, when you talk to them they tilt their head to the side. ADORABLE!

Anyway, it has been an adventure. I’ve been waking up 2-3 times a night to play with him because he’s crying. I’ve also been cleaning up his bathroom duties an average of 10x a day! He’s way too young to go outside yet, collars and harnesses of his size are impossible to find, and you can’t really start potty training them until they’re about 8 weeks old. Luckily I found a miracle spray that gets rid of the stains and odor right away,; it leaves no hint. Besides that, he’s a blast! The cutest little thing!

I hope you like the photos and video!

The First Valentine's

Last year for Valentine's Day Eddie sent a huge box from Sacramento, CA to Rexburg, ID as my present. In the box there was a beautiful red purse full of money inside, chocolates and cadies of all sizes and kinds, and my favorite...a gigantuous card with pictures. The card "announced" where we were going on our honeymoon. It had pictures of Kauai, the itinerary, and his kind words of love towards me (ohhhh, how cute) ...it was a wonderful surprise.

This year we decided to scale it down a notch. We planned on staying home on Saturday night and cook a yummy dinner together. What Eddie didn't know was that I had already gone to Target and bought a whole bunch of cute Valentine's Day dinnerware to make our evening even more special. I hadn't decided what I was going to give him as a gift yet, but before I even made up my mind he decided that we wouldn't be doing presents this year. He said that the dinner was enough and that we could maybe go to the hot tub later. He had his mind set already, and thought that that it would be more than enough, well...I disagreed. We got in an argument on whether we should do presents or not and I tried telling him it didn't have to be anything expensive; but like every girl I love to get gifts, and even more than getting gifts I love to GIVE gifts. Anyway, he won that argument.

Valentine's "Eve" came and we cooked all day. The ribs that had been marinating for more than 24hrs smelled heavenly. Together we made the ribs, risotto, asparagus, a yummy green salad, and for the first time, I made home made bread. It was all very delicious. That week I had also made Eddie a gift. It was simple, but cute. I made a 20 page coupon book for him. In the book there were things such as "get out of dishes free card," and "breakfast in bed." I also made him a beautiful card and inside wrote my words of love to him. I was very excited because even though he had decided for us that we wouldn't exchange gifts, I had taken the time to make him something special.

Well, about 1 hr before dinner, when I was setting the table, Eddie comes out with a gift box and a card. You can only imagine the face I had on. I couldn't believe him! After giving me a lecture on how unimportant presents were he shows up with one. He apologized for the big deal he had made about me wanting to get him a gift, he said that he was trying to be frugal but had gone way overboard. Anyway, he gave me these awesome running shoes, and he knew how much I was in need of new ones; it was very nice of him. Later I gave him my present and he loved it too, he thought it was very clever, haha.

We enjoyed a wonderful candlelit dinner afterwards, and that was our first Valentine's Day as a married couple.

The First Year

When you get engaged you think you know everything or at least most things about the other person. You have had months or maybe years of dating and courting. You think you know what the other is like; you think you know what makes them happy and what takes them out of their element. You know their pet peeves and you know their habits. You are ready to be married, and you think you know exactly what it is going to be like to live with that other person. Well, I'm here to tell you that you are wrong.

When you get married people tell you that married life is all fun and bubbly; that the first year as newlyweds is perfect, that you are still "honeymooning," and that everything is just right; that is not all wrong, but there is much more to it. What they don't tell you is that no matter how long you knew each other before you got married, you still have a world of things to learn about your partner.

Eddie and I dated for 19 months that were followed by 14 months of engagement. We were "together" for nearly three years before we were married, and let me tell you...we thought we knew EVERYTHING about each other, and we were also wrong.

We are coming up on 9 months of marriage now, and it has been the most wonderful thing that has ever happened to either of us. We are still adapting and learning how to live with each other, and some times we have to make compromises along the way to make us both happy. We have so much fun just being ourselves and enjoying each other. We make it a point in our lives to go on a date every weekend and to the temple at least a couple of times a month so that we can continue to kindle that love. We love to cook, play games, and watch movies together. Eddie still wishes that I liked working out as much as he does, and I'm still wishing that he would stop bugging me about it! It is not all fun and bubbly all the time; although we have our little stupid arguments and we don't agree on everything, we recognize that there are so many more things in which we do.

Our love and our marriage is centered on the gospel of Jesus Christ, we set goals for ourselves and for our future family, and everyday we try to be better people. We both feel that we are on this journey together, and together we want to share the good and the not so good times with one another.

I hope that through this blog we can be more in touch with our friends and family. We want to share what we is happening in our life with stories and photos, and we would love to hear from you as well....

ENJOY!