Christmas fun

For Christmas, we took our crew to Alan's parents' house, where his brother was also staying with his two dogs, Daisy and Samson. Hazel the boxer lives there, so that's six dogs in one house! Everyone had a great time chasing and playing.

Rascal and Hazel were constant play partners. Whenever we left the house, our pups got put in "jail." When we came home, she went crazy telling us to hurry and get her toys out!

They wore each other out.

Daisy is a portly bulldog, so she needs help up on the couch.

Peekaboo's first experience with a doggie door — Alan had to help her through. But she started using it on her own by the end of the trip.

Alan's parents gave me a Canon EOS digital camera for Christmas — I LOVE it!!! It takes pictures the second you press the shutter button, and it's so sharp.

Peekaboo didn't think the camera was so cool, especially when I woke her up with the flash.

Boo played most with Samson and stayed away from Daisy, who can be a bit of a diva.

Daisy loves food. In fact, she guards it. She figures out where the food is stashed and plops herself down so that nobody can get to it without going through her.

Alan took this picture of Rascal and Kritter. Can you believe these two were once trying to tear each other to shreds on a daily basis?

They're good friends now!

Alan's mom gave us tons of baby clothes — she's excited about her grand daughter! Here, Alan models a bath blanket.

Good idea Norman

Norman has a pretty good idea to help me not stress so much about naming this little girl. Although don't think I'll be drawing her name from a list of your suggestions, I'd love to hear some.
First you have to know all my criteria. Then maybe you'll understand why this is so hard for me!

1. No names that have been in the top 20 on the most popular list for at least five years.
2. No names that begin with letters that don't look pretty when I write them in cursive, including: C, F, G, I, O, P, Q, S, U, X, Y, Z
   
3. No names ending in a "era" sound, because it would sound weird rhyme my daughter's name with mine.
4. No unisex names. I like several names that - according to the Internet - could be used for both a boy and a girl. However, Alan's brother Kyle has very strong feelings against unisex names since he met a girl named Kyle. If we want him to speak to us ever again, we can't name her anything that could ever possibly be a boy's name.
5. None of the following names because they belong to either friends or people we don't or didn't like (and I'm not saying which is which!): Emily, Jenny, Lori, Gayle, Brittany (any spelling), Tiffany, Heather, Beth, Rachel, Brandy, Carrie, Christi, Claire, Jennifer, Kimberly, Laura, Melissa, Mollie, Nicole, Shanna, Rebecca, Shelley, Jamie, Sandy, Nikki, Christina, Karen, LeighAnn, Megan, Lauren, Kelly, Jessica, Michelle, Kayla, Kathleen, Amanda, Mindy, Anna, Deanne, Erin, Stephanie.... this list goes on for a while.
6. No name spelled in a weird way that would force the kid to spell her name all the time
   

I think that's it - are there any names left?

Christmas cheer - in 80 degrees

We went to a huge tree farm this weekend to get our tree. It was the first time we'd actually cut our own, 'cause there's just not a lot (any) pine or fur tree farms where we are from. It was so warm I had to take off my jacket - and I was hot in jeans and a sleeveless shirt!

Kritter helped Alan cut.

The place had lots of animals to pet - including a cute little baby goat!

And a big pig.

Kritter didn't care much about any of the animals, but he did enjoy the ride without the Frenchies. Sometimes the mature pug needs time away from the "kids."

Christmas in (and on the outside of ) our house is blue, white and silver. I may be the only one in the world who thinks red and green look yucky together.

I've noticed since getting pregnant I'm a lot more cautious about what Alan does in addition to what I do. Before it was "I'm going to be very sad if you fall and crack your head open." Now it's "I'll kill you if you fall and crack your head open and leave me alone to raise a little female version of you."

Other than that, we've just been hanging around:

In pregnancy news, I'm 21 weeks and I'm feeling good! I am a little freaked though, because I don't like ANY baby name I see, and I haven't found any crib linens that do it for me either. I'm taking a break from looking, because it's really starting to stress me out! (Is that a part of nesting?)

The baby is a...

The man who did our sonogram was very experienced. He said he didn't need to look at the baby's genitals to determine the sex; he could just look at the hands. Do you see what he said he saw? You may need to click on the picture for the bigger version.

I know, I know...

My funny flat faced boys

Ok, yes, it's been a while since I posted. I've been busy growing a kid - so sue me! (But don't really, 'cause this baby stuff is expensive!) I have news - specifically baby gender news! But I'm not going to tell you quite yet. Give me a few days, I have an idea about how I want to do it.
Meanwhile, here are some cute puppy pics to tide you over.

Bitey face time!
Boo takes Rascal down.

He is always the one on his back during playtime.

One day, Rascal figured out how to jump up on the swing. Kritter knows how, but Peekaboo was totally baffled.

No fair!

Momma, help me up!

Halloween - Alan's bad luck

Our vet told Alan about a Halloween costume party for Frenchies, and Alan told me. I'm pretty sure he was counting on me not feeling well enough to go, but thought he could still score points by offering to attend. Too bad for him - because I was feeling better by party time!
Boo and Rascal were Little Miss Muffit and the spider who scared her.

It was pretty warm - the costumes didn't stay on long. I don't think this boy wore one at all.

This is Rascal's twin, except this Frenchie has more white on his chest.

This pup is a bit of a diva, so she's held most of the time.

Sweet strawberry!

After leaving the costume party, Alan suggested stopping by Central Market for dinner on the patio. Luck was not smiling on him that day, because Central Market was hosting a Howl-o-ween costume contest! He couldn't believe it. We didn't win, but we were by far the cutest, of course!

This poor pup. He was as big as a mini horse, and arrived with three children, so you know he gets ridden around the house. They dressed him up as a tooth fairy. He won "Most gender-confused canine."

Is this a greyhound, or a wolf in sheep's clothing? A pair of these "sheepdogs" took first place.

On Halloween night, the pups got dressed up again. Kritter, having a history of HATING clothes, was spared.

The spider costume sparked some wild play time.

Of course, Kritter had to do a full inspection first.

Rascal can spin 180 degrees with just one hop.

Wild animals!

Legs flew everywhere!

Being a spider looked so fun, Kritter had to try it out!

Things are looking up!

I'm feeling soooo much better these days - yay second trimester! Yesterday I even happened on a children's resale shop that had maternity clothes. Someone had brought in all their size 8 long pants - score! I got four pairs plus about twelve shirts for $120. I'm just now starting to get a little bit of a belly, so it was time to find an alternative to my regular pants plus a safety pin!

You can tell that the pups were really sad that I was feeling so bad.

They did keep me company - after they'd worn themselves out.

Alan hasn't been getting much sleep because of all the hours he works at the hospital. The pups hang out with him while he naps.

But Peekaboo gets bored quickly.

Then she gets impatient.

She tries to amuse herself.

But usually decides to just wait it out.