the latest around our house

i realized a few weeks ago that it's been months since i posted pictures of our 'kids.'

can you tell amos has grown? :)

they have been LOVING the warmer weather and all of the extra outdoor time that they have been getting. 

and i will admit, i probably enjoy our walks as much as they do. 

paisley has adjusted very well to having a 'little' brother... and she also doesn't seem to have noticed that he is no longer little. 

it has been ridiculous watching amos grow. we often have to remind ourselves that he is still a puppy.

he is 7 months old and 100 lbs of sweetness. he is so incredibly affectionate. 

i never thought that he would be so BIG this soon, but he really has no idea that he is big. 

he still tries to sit on my lap 

and he doesn't seem to notice that he towers over his sister.

paisley is so sweet and patient though. she has actually become a little more snuggly, probably because she has competition for attention... and is rather jealous after being the only child.

she definitely fits the 'needy' characteristic of the weimeraner breed. 

but she is clearly happy to have a playmate.

i will admit, that i never imagined that SO much of my time would be consumed by dogs, especially after growing up without ever having a dog. 

i did manage to find a little time to do other things this month though.

about a month ago a did a little work on the front porch.

i will admit that i have never had good luck keeping plants alive. pets and children are so much easier... or maybe not.

but every year i do manage to keep my hanging plants alive. 

this year i planted them really early. i ususally just plant sweet potato vine (both purple and bright green), but since spring (high 80's and 90's) started in february this year, i couldn't find those yet. so, i planted 2 kinds of ivy and impatiens...

but i was REALLY excited to find ranunculus(es)!!!

{my VERY favorite flower}

they didn't last very long, but they made me smile every time that i saw them

aren't they so fun? they were in the middle of my hanging baskets, 

but didn't make it till i remembered to get pictures

i was also really excited to get our porch lanterns. 

i love world market!

we spend at least part of every summer evening out on the front porch, so it is so fun to have our 'nightlights'

we LOVE our little downtown porch

i think that new house numbers might be an upcoming project. ;)

this cute little guy showed up to watch over our garden

i have wanted a gnome for years and my husband got me this little guy on our anniversary trip. 

isn't he cute?

this weekend my parents and i went to the local farmers market to get some produce and some tomato plants. i was so appreciative to have my dad's gardening expertise.

i actually ended up getting 4 times as many plants as i had planned to get.

i planted a whole salsa garden-

4 kinds of tomatoes, 3 kinds of peppers, tomatillos

& cucumbers and okra

[both of which were starts from my dad]

don't you love the gaping hole in the masonry? 

the joys of old homes... and renting. (sigh)

and an exciting little happening on our front porch this week was the appearance of a nest in one of the hanging lanterns from our rehearsal dinner.

my mother-in-law got these lanterns to decorate the tables at the rehearsal dinner

and this weekend i noticed that there was a little nest inside one of them 

here is the mama bird sitting on her nest. :)

she is rather anxious when we bring the dogs out on the porch, but we are enjoying getting to watch the whole process.

the new addition- puppy love

about 2 months ago our family got a little bit bigger... ok, a LOT bigger. ;)

my husband and i adopted our 2nd 'baby', a 10 week old, 23 pound, merle great dane puppy.

 we had discussed getting a great dane, *someday*. but i really didn't think that we would be able to get another puppy for several years due to our schedules.

 i was SO incredibly thrilled when my husband made the decision in november to switch to part-time work to accommodate his school schedule {i will add that i would never recommend that anyone attempt full-time work/full-time school/and marriage all at once. as newlyweds, it was overwhelming for both of us for him to keep that schedule}. 

i feel like our honeymoon has begun all over again now that he has cut back his work hours. we have been loving being able to spend meaningful time together where he is not too exhausted to engage in a conversation. 

all that to say that with my husband home more, we decided that this would be a great time to add a new puppy as we would have the time to deal with the puppy training.

i am excited to introduce 

'amos hawke collogan'

me and amos on the drive home from kentucky

my husband had his heart set on a fawn colored great dane, which is the scooby doo type coloring. we had searched for breeders for months and i had several in mind for when the day ever came that we would get our puppy. 

the first week in november we went to iowa to visit my in-laws and to go to an iowa hawkeyes game for my husband's 30th birthday.

 as we were leaving the game we saw a beautiful, giant, merle great dane outside the stadium. my husband instantly fell in love. so we were back to the drawing board for breeders. i searched for hours when we got back to greenville. we didn't want to drive too far for a puppy, but we wanted to get one pretty immediately.

i found a breeder in kentucky, which was about 4 1/2 hours away. they had several litters with merle puppies. it was so hard to choose because they were all completely adorable, but we fell in love with this little face.

this was at about 7 weeks

we drove up to kentucky the weekend after we found him online. 

he was as sweet as could be from the moment that we met.

i was so incredibly excited... but at the same time i had mixed emotions. i knew that this was going to be difficult for my 3 year old weimaraner. she has always been an incredibly spoiled, only child.

we took her with us to pick up amos. it actually was worse than i had anticipated. not only was she not at all interested in the new little friend that we were bringing home to her, but she was furious at me. she wouldn't look at me, she wouldn't let me pet her, she wouldn't even let me sit beside her. i did not anticipate that at all. 

this was at one of our potty stops on the trip back to south carolina. 

you can see paisley went out of her way to ignore her new brother.

he is definitely a daddy's boy. amos adores topher.

it is funny to me that i thought that he was SO big for a 10 week old puppy... and now 7 weeks later he has already over doubled in size!

this was 3 days after we got home. paisley finally would let him within a few inches of her, but she was still not happy about him being around.

2 weeks later, on thanksgiving day, they were finally getting along.

we had my sister take a 'family photo' of us when she was visiting for thanksgiving. 

i had no idea how much more difficult it would be to get 2 dogs to cooperate. we managed to get a couple with everyone behaving. although, the out-takes are pretty funny.

amos LOVES going on walks and instantly was a pro at leash walking. 

we live downtown, so we walk up main street and then back home, which is almost a 3 mile walk. 

poor little guy would get so exhausted that we would have to stop and let him take a nap 1/2-way.

i was amazed how quickly he outgrew his baby crate and had to move up to his big one. but he definitely loves being able to stretch out in the big one. not for long though, i am sure.

although now their favorite thing is to share a crate... guess it's like a slumber party.

this was probably about one of the last times that he fit on my husband's lap.

 amos got to go with us on our trip to michigan for christmas. he was a great traveler.

he would let us know that he was thirsty by licking the windows. i don't know if the cold glass felt like water to him? haha. 

we 'celebrated' amos's 4 month birthday on tuesday and he was already 48 pounds. he eats 7 or 8 cups of food a day! topher is really hoping for a giant great dane. i would be content if he is average... whatever that means. he is definitely a BIG baby.

he is such a fun 'little' guy. i am sure that you will see more of him in the near future.