Proud Parents - Bostyn & Emmitt

Bostyn and Emmitt showing off their new neckware after their annual check-up with their doggie doctor.
It's amazing how you can get married and instantly become the stepmom. Grandma Little always said I would marry a guy with kids - I just didn't know they would be dogs! I already knew I liked Emmitt when I dated Brody the first time, but Bostyn was a new addition when we got back together so I had to get to know her. Just in the past few weeks, I have come to realize how much I love my kids. They are always happy to see me and even happier when I ask them if they want to go outside. Their ears perk up and Bostyn goes berzerk (more than normal). Emmitt, on the other hand, prances around and get that gleam in his eyes. Of course, their hearts will always belong to their dad - they only have eyes for Brody when he's home, no matter what I do to get their attention. Such devotion.

I realized last night that I was becoming one of those "parents." You know the ones. Always talking about how adorable their kids are and showing pictures of them. Ya, I do that. I have tons of pictures and videos of them on my phone and as soon as anyone asks what kind of dogs we have (which I can remember - finally), I whip out my phone and bore everyone to tears. But that's okay - I just love them! I talk to them all day and boss Bostyn around to do all the things I should be doing. One day I'll come home and she will have cleaned the house for me, right? Ha. Just teaching her how to "shake" took quite some time and lots of cookies, dog cookies, that is.

The weird thing is, Brody added Bostyn to the canine team at a time when he thought he would be a bachelor forever. He also wanted someone Emmitt could hang out with. Both dogs are rescue dogs and have some of the most interesting personalities. The most interesting part of it all is that the saying "owners are like their pets" is VERY relevant here, which is quite amusing. I marvel at the way our little family has come together. Emmitt (or Brody) tries to be the alpha male and is calm, loyal and steadfast. He can also be somewhat of a creep, with his shifty stare or his slow crawl when you're not looking. (Okay, Brody doesn't creep up on you like Emmitt, but he can look at you with those beautiful eyes of his in a creepy kind of way sometimes. It's cute.) Bostyn (or Jen) is always on the move, wanting to know what's going on with everything, extremely curious, yet cautious and fearful, and pretty much psychotic and needy.

We enjoy taking the kids out to the grassy area behind our condo and letting them play with their new friends. I always remember the names of the other dogs, but as much as we talk with the owners, I have no clue what their names are! Bostyn doesn't care how small the puppies are (like 5 month old Abby) or how big Bella and Czar are (they outweigh her by 60 & 95 pounds), she enjoys playing with them all - and we enjoy watching them. It's also great because they sleep through the night and don't stir too much when we're up at 4 in the morning to get Brody off to work. Emmitt will be a great big brother and Bostyn will be a great big sister when the time comes to add a human baby to our family!

Grandparents

Some of the coolest people on the planet are grandparents. They always spoil you and think you are the best thing since sliced bread (to use a saying from back when they were young - long, long ago)!
We were lucky enough to have some of our grandparents at our wedding. Louie got such a precious picture of my Grandma and Grandpa Little dancing. From the looks of it, I think my grandma still likes my grandpa, even though he can drive her crazy at times. But since she is just as crazy as the rest of us, she does all right.

Another neat lady is Brody's Grandma "Chris" Christensen - Kathy's mom. She is fun to be around and likes to have a good time. Today she is leaving with some of her kids to travel to China, which Brody is excited about because she's going to look for some really nice golf clubs that are cheaper to get there. Brody & Grandma Chris can go on and on about golf while I just sit there looking at them like they are speaking a foreign language. I suppose they are because my golf talk is certainly not up to par! (pun intended)

Ambien

Isn't my hubby cute? Those droopy eyes and that goofy grin! Aah, the wonders of Ambien CR. Sometimes he is his normal sarcastic self, but some nights (like last night), it hits his system quickly and he just sit there with a crooked smile and makes weird comments. Weirder than normal, I promise. Sigh. The only reason I don't chuck all his Ambien (or roofies, as we like to call them) in the trash is because I realize he needs his beauty sleep so he can put up with the people at work every day in the awake mode. Walking the dogs whilst he is well into his Ambien is also a treat - you don't know who's walking who!

Trip to Phoenix

Whilst Brody stayed home to bring home the bacon (thanks hun), I went with Kathy, Grandma Chris and Audrey to Arizona for Ryan and Lauren's wedding. (Ryan is Brody's cousin.) There was lots of relaxing and staying up late and sleeping in. We watched some Brian Regan, went swimming and I played just a little bit of Bookworm on my phone. Haha. Okay, a lot. I'm addicted!! One of the highlights was eating at a restaurant with cockroaches skittering nearby. We moved tables and then watched it downpour, creating a small river in the street. The reception was very nice. Since the weather cooperated, Lauren got her outside reception. The backyard at her uncle's was decorated beautifully.

Friday night I stayed at Dan and Betsy's and met their dog Hera. She's really cute and very happy. Dan seems to like her a lot! They were both proud of her graduating from a six week obedience course. I love their new house and how they decorated it. They have a cute, little backyard with a hammock, grill and an orange tree! I will need to head back around December to take advantage of those oranges!

Hera's amazingly long tongue.

Dan & Betsy - We ate at a mongolian grill restaurant - I love those.

Jen & Audrey before hitting the pool.

Family Home Evening

Going to church yesterday was very good for our social life. We sat with Brody's Aunt Shauna and Uncle John who introduced us to a few of the young married couples in the ward. They were quick to welcome us into the ward and their circle of friends by inviting us to Family Home Evening with them. It was fun to be forced to socialize a little and get to know some of the people in our ward. Okay, so we weren't forced, but we also met some of our neighbors who live in the Sky Pointe community. Our next step is to actually invite some people over to our house for random movie nights or dinner or ice cream or something. Lucky for us, they keep their family home evening lessons short enough that we can get home to bed, or rather, home so Brody can take his ambien and get a good night's sleep!

Happily Ever After - The Beginning

Here we are, at our condo, after going to our new ward (for all three hours!), randomly picking things to do around the house. After running around all day yesterday, we just plopped on the couch and watched Spiderman 3 on our new PS3 (thanks Boca, Jr, Brew, AY & Lyndsay) with Brody's fabulous surround sound and barely made it through the whole movie. Okay, so that was me falling asleep although I was the only one who hadn't seen it. Anyway... we got kind of motivated to get a few things done to our new living arrangement today since it didn't happen yesterday.

Hawaii was the pefect honeymoon - beautiful sights, no schedule, an entire week to play. The highlight of our week came on Friday. For our 1 week anniversary of being married (that wasn't our reasoning then, but it sounds good now), Brody played 18 holes of golf in his new golf shoes right along the ocean. After napping in the golf card, I got a fabulous 80-minute hot stone massage. I've never been more relaxed ever. I felt so pampered as I was given two towels, a robe and some disposable flip flops and headed down to sit in the sauna for 20 minutes before Ringo rubbed hot stones all over me and did pressure points that relaxed muscles that haven't been relaxed in years. By Saturday, it felt good to go home and get back to reality. Reality has been fun for us. I've decided that married life is WAY better than engaged life. Single life was really good for the most part, but I'm certainly happy to be home and part of a husband and wife team.

My next goal is to update this more often. It's been almost two months. I'm still learning how to use this and put pictures and other things on here. Audrey (Brody's little sister who was one of my bridesmaids) showed me how to put the list of other people's blogs on here so now keeping up with everyone else's lives is just a click away!