Max and nurse Lila

We've had lots of inquires of how Max and Lila are adapting to having a baby in the house and so far, it's going great! We introduced them to Henry's scent by having them sniff his hospital hat. At the beginning, Max wasn't very interested in Henry but he's coming around. As long as someone is still tossing the ball, Max is happy.

Lila, on the other hand, immediately went to the baby and is very interested in every move and sound Henry makes. She inspects his nursery and patrols the perimeter when we are in there. She sits with us when he is nursing and tries to lick him every chance she gets. If Max gets too close to Henry, she growls at him. We joke that Henry is her baby :).

Overall, I'd say they they are adjusting just fine.

Boots for Max and Lila

We've had a pretty mild winter so far but I tried to be proactive and purchase some little boots (they look like balloons   for Max and Lila to keep the cold and salt off of their paws during our walks....they aren't having any of it!  See exhibit A:

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

We've been busy baking, decorating, wrapping and enjoying the holidays over here.  Hope you have been too!  Last night we finished most of the prep work for the holidays (just a little more food to prepare for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day) so I thought I would share some peaks of our holiday with you:

Holiday Baking:

And gifting (we give away most of the treats as gifts to co-workers and clients):

 

Holiday Crafting:

Making gift cards more personal-homemade gift bags

Homemade wine bottle gift bags

And decorating (I wanted lights and greenery above the bay window but I'm told that isn't possible...maybe next year!):

Thank goodness for UPS and FedEx, I ordered 90% of our
gifts online this year and everything came in time!

What have you been doing to prepare for Christmas?  What are some of your favorite Christmas traditions? We cannot have Christmas without cut-out sugar cookies....I make them 1 time a year and they are so delicious!  We also go to Midnight Mass and have breakfast with C's family afterward.  It's such a fun tradition that I'm hoping to be able to stay awake for this year!

Posts of Christmas' Past:

Christmas in our NC Apartment (2008)
Christmas (2008)
Fitting a 7 1/2 foot tree in my Jetta (2009)
Christmas Prep-Our Old House (2009)
Christmas-C was on leave from Afghanistan (2009)
Stocking I made for Grant (2011)
Too busy for Christmas?-Grad School (2011)

Loving our new camera!

As I shared in our Christmas Card Photo post, we got our Christmas present from my parents early so we could start using it and getting comfortable with it.  I think we'll be required to photograph the holiday :)  We are loving our new micro four thirds (kind of like a hybrid between a point-and-shoot and a DSLR camera).  We felt is a great step up from our Olympus Stylus without being over-whelming like a DSLR :)  After much research of C's part and asking friends and family, we ended up with a Panasonic Lumix GF3.  Here are a few photos we've taken of the dogs (of course,they are our babies until the real baby gets here) so far:    

Max, playing ball:

"Come on!  Throw the ball!"

Lila, relaxing on the couch:

Wearing our invisible fence collars (BTW, training is going well!):

Lila, our pretty girl:

Christmas Card Photos!

'Tis the season for all things holiday and our annual Christmas card!  We (um, I) thought it would be fun to use our new camera (thanks Mom and Dad for the early Christmas gift!) to take a self-timer photo for our holiday card this year.  Lesson learned: it's very hard to get two people and two dogs to all look in the same direction and not be blurry using the self-timer.  Especially since we were on a limited time frame since we had childbirth class to get to.  I imagine next year will be even harder with a baby to consider, we may be going the professional photo route instead.

Here are a few of our (failed) attempts!

Chris, pointing at the camera to get Lila to look:

Lila trying to lick C's face and Max not looking:

 Thank goodness, a usable photo!

 And one of the three of us :)

Weekend at Home

After much deliberation, Chris and I spent the weekend at home.  We had planned on going to Washington DC to visit C's sister but we are headed to San Diego this week for a pre-baby get-away and were in DC in April.  Two back-to-back weekends of traveling seemed like too much and we need to get ready for our trip!  

On Saturday, we went to the Brooklyn/Parma area of town to check out cars.  Currently, we are a two (small) car family and we need something a little more family friendly before February.  We are at the very beginning of our car search but we think we've narrowed it down to an SUV of some sort, small to mid-sized.  We were able to check out the Arhaus Outlet (Yay for outlet shopping!) because it was just down the street from the dealership and I found color inspiration for our living room.  I was able to buy both of these beautiful embroidered pillow shams for about $20.  We are going to keep the walls the original blue and go with a blue/brown color theme.         

Living Room Inspiration

 Here are a few other elements that we've added to the house since we moved in:

Curtains (from the Master Bedroom in our
last house)

New Couch (and Lila)

I just had to share this photo from Saturday night.  Apparently Lila and Max wanted the exact same spot next to Chris on the couch, resulting in a double-decker dachshund pile!

Lastly, on Friday after my doctor's appointment, we stopped at Melt on the way home.  Melt is a local restaurant that specializes in grilled cheese sandwiches.  This is a photo of C's sandwich, the Kindergarten (your basic grilled cheese sandwich, with fries and coleslaw) which he dipped in a side of their homemade tomato soup.  I ordered a chicken Quesadilla because I wanted more protein in my dinner.  The food was pretty tasty and the grilled cheese was really good but service was slow.  Luckily, we were there early (5pm) so we didn't have to wait for a table.
   

Hotel Living

Needless to say, things have been a little crazy around here (hence the lack of blogging and running...but that's another post).  We spent a week with my parents before Chris started his job, then headed to Bulter, PA over the weekend for a dear friend's wedding and now to Cleveland for good!  Chris started work yesterday so we need to be here everyday but aren't able to move into our new home until Friday at 6pm so it's extended stay hotel for us.  Max and Lila, of course, are still in the country.  By the time they make it up here over the weekend, they will have spent 3 weeks in the open air, un-fenced yards, hanging out with Brutus, rolling around on the carpeted floors and doing whatever they please.  I think they might miss it after they come up here :)

Here are a few photos I stole from my friend Cari of the weekend wedding festivities.  The bride and groom were just glowing and the ceremony a perfect blend of their personalities and cultures (Altay is from Turkey and Kelly is from Pittsburgh).  I'm not sure where my camera cord is at the moment so these will  have to suffice:

The lovely bride and groom

APhiO Girls: Cari, Sonya, Tammie, Kelly

Our week in the country

It's been pretty calm and relaxing here! Lots of walks and bike rides and hanging out with this awesome view.

At the end of the day, we've got some tired puppies!  

Max's favorite spot, perched on some pillows

Chris and Lila, all tuckered out