A Little Bit About Gracie On Her Birthday.

Today is Gracie’s eighth birthday so to celebrate her birthday I thought I would share some facts about her so you can get to know her a little better.

We’ll start at the beginning, but don’t worry I won’t tell you every minute of her life because that would just be crazy.

Cute but crazy.

Gracie was born four weeks earlier than she was suppose to been born and she came into this world via emergency C-Section because her heart kept stopping.

After she was delivered the doc said that there was no way she would of been born the good old fashioned way because the umbilical cord was too short and every time I had a contraction it yanked her up, kind of like a bungee cord, hence the reason her heart kept stopping.

She was a little peanut, weighing a little over five pounds when she was born in the wee hours of the morning.

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5 Things That Made Me Smile This Week

This certainly wasn’t the calm, relaxing, take a deep breath week before Christmas that I had planned.

Nope. Nothing about it was calm, or relaxing, and believe me, I only told you about 1/2 the stuff that went on. The rest we’ll just leave for another day because despite all the negative things that happened there were still a few positive things that went on and those are the things that I need to focus on.

So here’s my list of things that brought a smile to my face this week:

1. Snow. Not when it was pelting me across the face as I tried to finish up my Christmas shopping, but when I got home and saw Newfie faces covered in it.

2. Band Concert. Bobby had his first band concert this week where he played We Wish You A Merry Christmas on his saxophone. It was music to my ears.

3. Checking out the chimney. I found Gracie checking out the chimney this week. She was just wondering how Santa fits down such a small opening. I swear we had this conversation last year.

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Holiday Ornament Fun!

Every Christmas I try to do something crafty with the kids.

We paint or make something. We don’t sew anything.

I’ll say that again.

We don’t sew anything.

Last year we painted picture frames. It really wasn’t all that crafty.

Here’s a picture frame. Paint it.

I try to be crafty. I really do, it’s just really hard for me because I lack craftiness. My Mom and sister are very crafty. Either I didn’t get that gene or I was adopted and no one’s telling me.

So anyway, this year I had the idea for the kids and I to make homemade ornaments as gifts so I went to our local craft store and bought some clear glass ornaments, some paint and a little bit of fake snow, because fake snow is just fun.

My plan was that I was going to make some pet ornaments for my families pets and that the kids could make ornaments for their grandparents anyway they wanted.

We started off painting and using stickers as decorations and then I told the kids that I read that they could put paint on the inside of the ornaments and swirl it around.

Well as soon as I told them that, it was game on.

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Happy Birthday Sherman. Here Is What I Wish

Today is Sherman’s 6th Birthday and just like anyone in my family who has a birthday, it’s a bittersweet day for me.

Of course I’m happy that it’s his birthday and I know that it’s a day to celebrate him but it also means that he is another year older and that just bums me right out. I already know that I will never have the amount of time I want to have with him and that thought is what brought tears to my eyes the other day when we were in the park together.

You live and you learn with these guys and the thought is always in the back of your mind that one day they will break your heart as much as they have filled it with love and joy.

But instead of dwelling too much on that I want to share some of the things that I wish for in regards to Sherman.

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Monday Mischief. It’s Hard To Find Good Help These Days

One of my favorite sights of fall are the leaves. Watching the green leaves change into amazing fall colors is a sight I look forward to all year.

This weekend I couldn’t wait to get out and take some pictures of Sherman and Leroy with some of the beautiful leaves that had fallen in our backyard over the last few days. Imagine my surprise when I went outside Saturday afternoon and all the leaves were gone.

Gone I tell you.

But I wasn’t going to let a few missing leaves ruin my day.

Lucky for me I had a secret stash of fake leaves in my closest.

I keep them in case of emergencies such as this, when there is a leaf shortage in my backyard or when the leaves just aren’t to the color of my liking.

Or when I need to keep my kids occupied.

Here’s some leaves, go make a mess.

Or better yet, go throw them on Leroy.

Um, I said on him not at him.

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Wordless Wednesday. Waiting For The Bus

Sherman waited for the bus with the kids today.

I tried to sneak him on the bus but the bus driver told me no dogs were allowed on the bus. I told her he wasn’t a dog he was a bear. She said bears weren’t allowed on the bus either, and then she drove away with my kids.

Today were are joining the Wordless Wednesday blog hop brought to you byBlogPaws. Each week BlogPaws creates a link up for the community so you can add a link directly to your Wordless Wednesday Post. That way we can all share and enjoy each other’s pets. To join the hop visit here.

Monday Mischief. Back to School Fashion Show!

This weekend I had a girls weekend with Gracie. Bobby was up in Michigan with his cousins at a skate park. It was the perfect time for me and Gracie to do some girly things together.

Our weekend consisted of shopping at the mall, getting our hair done, getting our nails done, going out to lunch and dinner and holding our very own fashion show.

The fashion show was all Gracie’s idea. She wanted to make sure that all her new back to school clothes fit her, and coordinated with her new Angry Birds backpack.

The fashion show took place in our backyard and the runway was the new cement walkway that my husband laid out earlier in the summer. I was chosen to be the fashion show photographer.

Since this was Gracie’s fashion show she was calling the shots, and she decided that she wanted the dogs to walk the runway with her.

Fine by me.

So without further ado, here is Gracie’s Back to School Fashion Show featuring Gracie, Leroy, Sherman and even Plunger!

Here we have Gracie modeling a very cute dog dress from Old Navy paired with black patent flats. Leroy is modeling a lovely chocolate brown fur coat, that in the right light looks like brown velvet.

Leroy wasn’t very enthused about walking the runway. He is very easily distracted and it wasn’t long before Gracie lost control of the situation and chaos broke out on the runway.

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Wordless Wednesday. Pure Sweetness.

Behind the Scenes of a Product Review

A product review is a relativity easy thing to do for most bloggers.

You are provided with a free product from a company in return for your honest opinion of that product. You, or in this case, your dog, tastes it. You take some pictures, and then you write a post about it.

Plain and simple.

Or not so simple in our case.

For me, doing a product review takes planning.

I have to choose a place to conduct the review. I have to choose which dog is going to give me an honest review of the product.

Sometimes I even need to search out an assistant. You know…someone who can assist me in wiping slobber away from my model.

Sweet, sweet Gracie is more often than not that assistant.

Here is a little taste of what it is like to have a seven year old girl for an assistant when you are doing a dog treat review.

First, before we can do anything we HAVE to paint the assistant’s toenails.

This is a must. I mean you never know when your toes are going to be a part of a photo shoot. One must always be prepared.

Next we have to primp the model.

This is another must because the assistant takes her job her job very seriously, and everything must be perfect.

Then the assistant AND the model need to inspect the product.

They must consult for at least 5 minutes and go over every ingredient and then they come up with a gameplan.

Then the assistant has to pause because her model seems to have sprung a leak in anticipation of what is to come next.

Then, about 30 minutes later they are ready to perform the review, which I can not share with you right now, you will have to wait because this is not the product review post, this is the behind the scenes of the product review post.

However, I can tell you that because my assistant did such a wonderful job I allowed her a 15 minute break in between scenes.

She chose to conduct her own product review on the box of cupcakes.

A Flexi Leash Review By Sherman and Gracie

Last month I received an email from the editor of the dog walking channel at Dogster.
She was currently working on a campaign with Flexi USA and she wondered if I would be interested in reviewing one of the leashes.

Now let me tell you, I was a bit hesitant to commit to this review because I have never used a Flexi Leash with the Newfs. I have used one with a Beagle but never with a Newf.
Don’t get me wrong I think that Flexi leashes are fine. They are fine when used properly. Properly is the key word. People who do not use their Flexi leashes properly annoy me. People who do not know how to lock their Flexi Leash when entering the vet’s office annoy me even more. People who do not use the lock button in the park when you are approaching them annoy me the most.
Another thing that I question about a Flexi leash is their quality. There are a lot of different knock off versions of the Flexi leash out there that are cheap, and I could never see one of them being able to withstand the power of a Newf. I see a lot of cheap flexis come through at the vet and I don’t trust them.
All I picture is the cord snapping.

Regardless, of my hesitation I agreed to do the review, but not before I specified that I needed one for a dog that was 150 pounds.
When I received the Flexi leash I was quite impressed by the quality of the design.
It wasn’t a piece of plastic waiting to fall apart.
It was strong and durable.

The other nice feature that I really liked was the leash part.
It is a belt, not a cord and it is a strong belt.

Still yet another nice feature of this leash was the safety collar.

The safety collar prevents snap-back if the dog’s collar breaks, or if the leash disconnects from the dog’s collar. It’s a nice safety feature.

The leash also comes with a pamphlet on special precautions and directions. It states that “this leash should only be used by responsible people who have read and can follow all of these precautions. Anyone who uses this leash must be able to control the dog and watch the dog closely at all times to keep it from running off or wrapping anyone in the belt.”
Nice.
I think more people need to read this. Oh… and there is also a video you can watch too! I love the video!

So did I put it to the test with the Newfs? You bet I did. Well I didn’t, I was the photographer, Sherman and Gracie put it to the test, and you know that if I trusted this leash with my 7 year old daughter and my heart dog, that says I had complete confidence in this leash’s safety.

Here’s how they did with the 26 foot leash..

The leash worked great. Now I do have to say in all honesty, that this is not a leash that I would use for our daily walks down the street. I just couldn’t do it with both Newfs and have the control that I like. However, this is a leash that I would use for a stroll down in the park with Sherman because it gives him more room to explore than our regular 6 foot leash.

Another cool feature with this leash is that you can have it customized with your dog’s picture on it!
You can check that out here. Pretty cool!

Disclaimer
I received a free Giant Flexi Leash from Flexi USA for my honest review of this product. All opinions in this post are mine and mine only.