A Good Dog...

Last week I got a sad phone call from my  parents, our family dog had passed away. Molly was a 12 year old black lab. She joined our family as a Christmas surprise when I was just in 7th grade. After months and months of giving my parents power point presentations about why I deserved a puppy they finally caved. She was the cutest puppy.

She was a good dog...

However she was also a DESTRUCTIVE dog. She ruined thousand of dollars worth of plants, clothes, furniture, socks, you name it..she probably destroyed it during her first few years of life. 

She was also my first photography subject. Long before my thousands of pictures of Emma Claire I filled my parent's computer with thousands of pictures of Molly.

She was a sweet dog though. Loved by all. 

She was known for her famous head tilt. All you had to do was start saying the phrase, "Do you wanna go on a walk?" or just the word "walk" and she would tilt her head. 

She never turned down a good game of fetch. 

Always ready to strike a pose. 

Her life was pretty good...until we got another puppy. Sammy. She wasn't thrilled as you can tell.

But they learned to like each other.

Emma Claire loved her. sadly this is the best picture I had of the two of them.

 I thought I would end this post with our family's all time favorite Molly picture. This is how we will always remember her. Completely crazy.

So here's to you Molly, thank you for being a good dog. 

Thank you for letting me dress you up in countless outfits.

Thank you for letting me put bows in your hair. (That one shouldn't be a surprise) 

Thank you for graduating from PetSmart puppy school...we didn't think that one was going to happen.

Thank you for always greeting me with a tail wag and a smile. 

Thank you for being there on bad days. 

Thank you for being a constant source of entertainment. 

Thank you for swimming with us in the summertime. 

Thank you for always eating the crust off of my sandwiches. 

Thank you for "listening" to me when we used to talk on Skype. 

 Thank you for always wanting to go on walks. 

Thank you for understanding that you were a crazy dog and couldn't go on runs with me after the first two times. I needed my arm and you tried to pull it off. 

Thank you for finally calming down after 10 years of life.

Thank you for loving on Emma Claire when you first met her. 

 

Thank you, Molly for being a loud dog who always barked out the window, shredded far too many items, always begged for food, was a LOUD heavy breather, sometimes stole food good dog.

An Exciting Delivery

A few days ago my Valentine's Day present finally came. I was SO excited, it was an embroidery machine. The PE770 to be exact! This might explain why I have been a slacker blogger the past few days...I've been busy ;-)

I was so excited to thread my first needle, it's the little things. 

This was my first design to stitch out. I just used a heart off the machine and text provided. Nothing fancy. 

The second day I got some fun fabric and thread just to practice. I got EC's monogram set in the computer and was able to practice a few times. 

The first shirt I made Emma Claire! Hippity Hop!

My favorite so far. I cannot wait for her to wear this in Texas soon!

And in unrelated news, we had a little date night with these two cuties last night. I think all three of them had a good time.

Full Frame and No Frills

I just recently upgraded my camera body and am now shooting full frame. I LOVE it! I snapped some pictures of Emma Claire this morning while she was playing in our front room that I just adore. It's another set of no frills photos. Just a baby in a t-shirt and some natural light.

Valentine's Day Shenanigans

The past few days we have been having plenty of Valentine's Day fun. Yesterday we had TWO fun packages delivered! One from Grammy {my momma} and one from Aunt Paige. Emma Claire LOVED opening her packages and was just spoiled silly. She got several books, outfits, toys, and cards. She is one lucky little lady.

And in an unexpected turn of events, yesterday {during nap time OF COURSE} our power went out. Womp womp. The power company said it might not come back on until NINE o'clock that night. Seriously? I was not happy. Especially because it happened during nap time and EC's white noise went away. So she woke up early and wasn't happy. But there wasn't a thing we could do, expect light candles! It was starting to get dark and miss Tylar was coming over to play so I wanted to find flashlights and make sure the house was well lit in case I had to entertain two toddlers in the dark.

Praise the Lord the power came on about five minutes before Tylar was dropped off! The three of us had a great time. EC and Tylar were so sweet together. Tylar even offered to blow Emma Claire's nose for her. Now THAT'S a true friend ;-) 

Towards the end of the night EC got a little sleepy...can you tell? 

This morning I had a festive little spread  set out on the island. We gave EC a little stuffed frog, and a froggy sippy cup, as well as a few books.

I also put out our cards that I made. They are perfect and I can't wait to pull them out for years to come. 

I made Emma Claire some pancakes and applesauce for breakfast this morning. She loved it so much that she dumped her applesauce all over her pajamas. Needless to say she earned a little v-day sink bath to clean up. 

My little love bug all dressed and pretty. Cutie. I ordered her a custom Valentine's day shirt that sadly didn't make it in time for her to wear. Can you say bummed? But she looked darling anyways.

I thought it would be cute to get EC and the pups together for a picture. HA. Yeah right. All she wanted to do was hug them. And all the dogs wanted to do was get away from her ;-) Oh well, it's a cute picture anyways.

Then after the dog/baby photo shoot went SO well I had the great idea to set my camera up on a table and get some momma/baby girl shots. Again a pretty big flop. I would focus the camera and everything would be good to go but then I would end up sitting too high. So the end result is chopped off heads. Oh well.

I think even with the cut off heads they're pretty cute, and funny!

After taking a million and one pictures we headed out to drop off picture CDs for a few clients. Then we went to Chick-Fil-A to socialize and talk to everyone eat lunch. ;-) Emma Claire is such a social butterfly and really does love to wave, say hi, and "talk" with everyone she sees. Huh, wonder where she could have gotten that from? ha!

After lunch we went to Target to pick up a few things, and once we got home miss EC went down for a nap. Now I'm just relaxing and blogging! We've had a pretty good Valentine's day so far! Our favorite guy is on his way home from a business trip and we can't wait to see him! 

I hope you have a lovely day full of love!

Exploring

Well the weather finally warmed up so this evening Emma Claire and I headed outside to do some exploring. We held hands, fell down, got dirty, collected rocks, and waved to birds.

I love the way she holds hands with me. Just melts my heart.

Looking for geese in the pond. Sadly they have flown away.

She found some birds in the sky. Cue excitement.

We found a pink rock. You better believe we dusted it off and brought it home with us.

Profile. Stunning. 

Nothing better than some backyard swingin'.

Love this pictures. Such sweet little hands. 

Rocks. 

Her eyes are completley unedited in this shot. LOVE. 

New favorite picture. What is it about leaves? She just loves them. 

Hope you enjoyed exploring with us. Days like today make me so excited for spring and summer with my sweet girl. There is just something magical about watching her discover, explore, and experience the world. It's amazing, and I can't get enough of it.