puppy puppy puppy...

So Copper has been dominating most of my posts lately, so it is only natural this on be about him too. As most of you know we went to go pick him up the day after Christmas, and what a Christmas present he is! He is the snuggliest, cutest, softest puppy ever! He was pretty anxious during the car ride back to our house. I am pretty sure it was his first car ride ever and on top of that it was an hour and a half. He was pretty alert most of the ride, but towards the end he finally fell asleep. He has basically been asleep ever since. haha. Not really, but he does sleep A LOT!! The first night he only cried for about 5-10 minutes after going in his crate and then he slept the whole night, the second and third nights were the same thing. His first full day at home in the crate while Gary and I were at work was yesterday. He didn't even go to the bathroom in his crate at all!! He seems to be quite smart so far, although we know we still have a long way to go in terms of "potty training."

He loves anything with a string.... shoelaces, robes, toys, sweatshirts... etc. He seems to like the snow. He hugs you when you pick him up, he wraps his front paws around your arm and clenches down really tight. He has a really small bladder and drinks a lot of water so we have to take him out almost every hour. Although miraculously he hasn't had an accident in his crate yet. He follows us around everywhere, always at our ankles. Of course like any puppy he loves to chew on things, so we have already invested in 3 toys... he gets bored easily so we have to interchange them... I'm sure more toys will be on their way soon. Although his favorite toy seems to be the Christmas tree, luckily that is not permanent decor! haha! I'm sure you can tell how much I adore him, I miss him while I'm at work, yay for only 3 day weeks! Enjoy some pics!!

meet Copper McNeillie....

Gary, Amanda, and I went to Shadyside Acres to pick out our first new family member, Copper! We got to choose from two of the cutest pups you ever saw. But ultimately my heart fell for the hugging pup you see before you. He is already over 10lbs... haha he is going to be a big one. At first I couldn't really decide between the two but when I picked up the one we ended up choosing he would hug me! No really, he would, if you put your hand/arm between his two front legs/paws he would squeeze in really tight like he was hugging you.... and he was a good snuggler! Anyways, sorry for the blurry picture, I forgot my good camera so all I had was my old one. Don't worry though, once he is mine forever you will probably see more pics than you ever wanted to!

picture update...

I haven't blogged in quite a while, so I figured the best way to update everyone would be just a picture update. Otherwise this would be a very VERY long blog. So here is what the pictures indicate: our visit from David, our finished stockings, our first kinda big snow (4inches), new carpet installation, baking with my new stand mixer! (buckeyes of course), visit from Amanda and Christina, and baking Gary's birthday cake (late).

david... for christmas....

I made stockings!! Of course since Gary and I are now on our own, we didn't have any stockings. Our stockings from childhood remain at our parents' houses. This would just not do for me, so in traditional fashion I decided to make us some. I thought about knit, but in the end I decided to go for a sewn fabric version. I found some red velvet on sale and some goldish rope. Of course, still sewn all by hand.... still waiting for that sewing machine! The two on the left are the finished versions. The terrible one on the right was the trial version. They still aren't completely finished, I'm going to sew a "G" and an "M" on them, you know... to make them official. :)

This weekend we have been visited by a great and long time friend, David, Dave, Gustav... one in the same! Mostly while he has been here we have done some Christmas decorating. He has helped us put lights up outside our house and also inside and removed the piles of leaves from our backyard. We worked on sanding and painting the kitchen cabinets too. Now, before you feel like we just worked him to death, there was also a surprise early birthday gift for Gary that was also a gift for David!! Playstation 3 with Gran Tourismo 5. Talk about faces of little kids in a candy shop... when they saw what it was I could have sworn one of them was going to pass out! Needless to say, playing the game was a major part of the weekend. Oh and Gary already wore down the battery on the wireless controller, that is why he is sitting so close to the TV... so it can charge back up.


Hope you enjoyed the update! We are sad David's trip has to be so short, but so glad he was able to come! Congratulations on your Graduation Dave, Mechanical Engineer.

until next time....

4 weeks old....

Our puppy is now 4 weeks old, half way to pick up!!! I am very very very excited to have him in our house!! I can't remember if I told you guys what we decided for his name, but if not, we decided on Copper. We are going to Mt. Airy, MD to pick him up the day after Christmas. This ends up working perfectly because I have to work Dec. 23rd, 24th, and 25th. So Gary and I will be celebrating Christmas on Sunday! A Christmas puppy!! As Gary mentioned to me yesterday, at the top of my Christmas list was P-U-P-P-Y with three exclamation marks!!! So I am so ready to have Copper in my arms!!



These are the three boys, one of these is Copper!!

rockin' around the christmas tree....

Just before Thanksgiving my most favorite movie came to theaters! HARRY POTTER! And boy was this one good. I have been preparing for months... I knit a Gryffindor scarf to wear, and we found gary a round-ish pair of glasses.

We just got back from a Thanksgiving trip to Chapin, one that will probably be our last for a little while. Throughout this fall we have made a few trips back to the great state of South Carolina, but since I have to work on Christmas and we won't be traveling it seems all the holidays have run out.

Aside from that, our Thanksgiving was great. Short, but great! There were many members of the Langhorne family at my house, along with the Lougherys. Some of my favorite times are with family and this holiday will rank up there with the best! And on Gary's side of the family we have a new nephew, so it was great to be able to hold him! And of course hang out with the rest of the gang.

Next on the update list, we got our first Christmas tree today!! We went to this cute farm and there was a cute old man trimming our tree telling us about how long he lived on this farm. haha, I'm corny, I know. As we pulled in the driveway with our tree, the song "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" came on. It was perfect, I started singing and Gary called me crazy. We got the tree inside, put the lights on and then put the few ornaments we have on the tree. It's perfect!!