dogsitting

brandon headed down to moab to escape this lousy smarch weather and we couldn't say no to a chance to watch riley and koda! we just had them for 3 days, and it was a little crazy but such a blast! they are the best dogs. it's hilarious to watch cooper and koda. they love to play together and never leave each other's side. riley is the fun police and likes to break things up before they get too exciting, but koda and cooper always find a way around him. cooper was also getting pretty jealous. if i called to one of the other dogs to pet them or have them lay by me, cooper was right there, doing all he could to be closer to me than them. he wasn't letting anyone share his mama! he was so territorial and it was pretty cute. he's such a mama's boy! i'm okay with that :) he's been so happy to have friends over, though. he loves to show off all his toys and they played musical chairs allll night with their beds. nobody seemed to be happy enough to just sleep in their own. brandon will be by later tonight to pick them up and it'll be nice to not have to use a lint roller every day, but i will miss this full house! they have become the cutest trio and i'm so glad cooper gets along with other dogs so well. 

more of our weekend: kamas bound

we had planned to spend our saturday rock climbing with brandon and his dogs, but the weather never agrees with us! we tossed around the idea of doing some indoor climbing at the gym, but in the end, we decided to head up to kamas instead and hang out up there! we went on a drive up into the uintah's and it snowed the biggest, prettiest snow, and we went on a cold little walk until the guys were tired of me complaining (haha). we drove straight to the Rhode Island Diner after that for some dinner. they are the coolest, most classic 50's diner and serve delicious food! i scored an awesome bumper sticker and had a delicious pulled pork sandwich and then we headed back to brandon's. it was raining all afternoon, so we pulled my car into the garage and brandon and devin changed the brakes for me! it was so much fun to hang out in the garage by the fire and listen to music while they worked on the car. we aren't very hard to please, obviously :)

cooper in action

the week we got cooper, i recorded a bunch of footage with the intention of making an introduction video about him. i wasn't patient enough and just took millions of pictures instead, but this weekend, i finally got around to editing the footage. me and my amateur iMovie skills... this is him at 7-8 weeks old. cute as ever. he's grown so much since then!

a good place

F R I D A Y

first real snow. awesome. gorgeous. antsy to ski.

crashed ryan and danica's date night and met up with them at olive garden, then went home and grabbed cooper and headed to their place for some basketball and an impromptu puppy play date.

watched the new office. a classic. i loved it!

S A T U R D A Y

slept in an extra, glorious 2 hours.

watched the snow fall from our bedroom window.

grocery shopping trip (which we actually like, so...)

devin hung out at home with brandon.

i went to city creek with my sisters and had the best time ever. girl talk, cute clothes (finally found a really great pair of thick, long, black leggings. score!), delicious Cheesecake Factory food, hilarious jokes.

cuddled up at home in blankets instead of turning the heater on.

S U N D A Y

slept in again. (looooove.)

church. (we have such an awesome ward and we love it so, so much. we love it!!!)

devin had to work

i went down to my parents with cooper for family dinner. kelli and sean came down with zero. so much fun. delicious homemade chili and cornbread. card games. playing puppies. i love my family.

more cuddling at home in blankets and relaxing, sans husband this time :(

it was a fantastic weekend. the snow has made me peculiarly happy (in that giddy, christmas feeling way). i'm terribly in love with my husband. i have an adorable dog. my family is amazing.

I ' M  I N  A  G O O D  P L A C E .

dog party

we spent our friday afternoon in Kamas with Brandon and the dogs. it was glorious. i've been welcoming the strangely warm November weather, and we've been spending a lot of time outside. not to mention, it's so great that cooper is finally big enough and old enough to hold his own with the adult dogs. it took a few minutes for Riley and Koda to warm up to cooper, but by the end of the night, cooper and koda were chasing each other around and wrestling. having a dog is the best. brandon cooked for us (i don't think you've really lived until you've had a meal cooked by chef brandon) - amazing steak and grilled vegetables and we ended the night with a funny movie. i love kamas. i love that our siblings are our friends. we had a blast and i'm sure there will be many, many more dog parties.

> > A L S O  T H I S  W E E K E N D < <

- on Thursday - i'm pretty sure I got food poisoning, or maybe the flu. Anyway, some awful bug. I threw up a few times and on Friday, left work early. i was totally miserable. i hate puking, it's the worst. by friday night, i was feeling better, and we drove up to Ogden to see my sister's play. Kelli is in her first year of teaching! She is a choir teacher at a charter school in Ogden called The Da Vinci Academy and her students put on "Little Shop of Horrors" - which is probably the strangest thing I've ever watched, but it was so cool to see Kelli living our her dreams. Ever since she was in junior high, she knew she wanted to teach choir and be involved in music education. I went to every dang play she was in and a zillion choir concerts and now? She's directing them. It's so awesome, I can hardly believe it. Kel is one of my best friends, and I look up to her probably more than she knows. She is absolutely gorgeous, so talented, freaking hilarious, and uber successful. I love her! And even though Devin and I both left the play a little wide eyed and weirded out, it was so worth it. And for the record, I didn't hate the play. It was actually pretty funny. And the kids did an awesome job.

a cooper photo dump: tons of photos of my dog

                

 

fall is here.

i thought i would take a minute to post about the things going on in our life outside of cooper.

...and then i realized that doesn't exist.

we are all cooper all the time. having a puppy is a full time job. some people even tell me it's like having a newborn. since we got cooper 2 weeks ago, we get much less sleep, spend way more time outside, and watch a whole lot less TV. we love that pup and spend every minute we can with him training and playing. he is so smart and so good.

last week we took him to the vet and he did so good! he didn't so much like the way the nurse took his temperature in his bum, but it was pretty much smooth sailing after that. we love the vet and he has given us so many good tips! we are so excited to go again next month to continue cooper's shots and see how much he's grown! i seriously feel like he grows each day. he will wake up from a nap, and all of the sudden he is taller, and his spots are bigger and darker. i'm so excited to watch him grow - i think he'll keep his puppy face though. either way, he's going to be a handsome dude.

we spent most of the weekend getting overly concerned about the fact that he got off his bathroom schedule and had some problems, but he seems to be just fine now. we are almost positive he's just adjusting his tummy to the new food we've been including with the first stuff we gave him. (we originally had him on purina puppy chow, until the vet said that puppy chow is the mcdonald's junk food of dog food [my first thought we he said this was "is that really such a bad thing? i love mcdonald's!"], and have started to slowly switch him to science diet).

on saturday, devin worked all morning and cooper and i mostly slept and watched One Tree Hill. once devin got home, we headed to American Fork Canyon and spent a few hours up there walking around and playing at Tibblefork. The colors in the canyon were absolutely beautiful. I love that fall smell. I had never felt so content in my life to be in such a gorgeous place with my two favorite boys.

after that, i had a craving for ice cream that needed immediate attention, so we headed to Soda Row for some gelato. Daybreak has such an awesome sense of community. When we got there, there was a live band playing, kids in the splash pad, a bunch of dogs, families playing on the grass, people walking, riding bikes and eating outside. We got some gelato at a cafe and sat by the fire for a little bit, then went home before it got too cold.

Did I mention Cooper is a major lady killer? We can't walk 10 feet before being stopped by someone asking about him and saying how cute he is, and he loves the attention. It's hilarious.

Cooper: Week 1.

it's been one week since we got Cooper, and i'm already the world's most obsessive dog mom. you'll be able to tell because i'm sure he will be the only thing i write about for awhile. but seriously.

sunday night, we took coop with us to Devin's parent's house for a birthday party for Amanda. Coop slept the whole way there. when we got there, there were tons of people, plus Koda, Riley and Moe.

Cooper did so good! he was surrounded by people all night and didn't whine or anything. he was just tired! and he was nice to all the other dogs, too! riley and koda were mostly uninterested in him, but Moe seemed like he wanted to be best friends with Coop! it was adorable! Moe was so cute with him. I was so glad he was getting along with all the bigger dogs!

Sunday night, we started crate training. it went horribly! he doesn't mind the kennel at all, he just hates when he isn't by us. we caved that nigh and let him sleep in the bed with us (which he loves).

monday was his first day home alone while we were at work. it was so sad to leave him, but he had tons of toys and treats and his kennel is very roomy. plus, it's easier to believe he's sleeping or playing when you can't hear him whining or barking. i went home at lunch to check on him and he had been so good! he didn't chew up anything or have an accident! he is such a good dog. we moved his kennel into our rom instead of the kitchen that night and he did way better! still whine a lot, but at least we got more than 3 hours of sleep like the night before!

Coop is doing really well with potty training, and it recognizing his name. We've been having lots of conversation about how we want to train him, and decided to associate hand signals with commands. he is pretty good at sit (which is a fist). I am so amazed with how smart he is. He really is so well behaved. Everyone said border collie and aussie breeds were smart - I had no idea just how right they are! they also said these breeds  develop very intense loyalty to their owners, and we've seen that in him too. he was picking us out of the crowd on Sunday after being with us for only one day! 

last night, we went on our first doggy date! when i got home from work, i fed him and took him outside for a bit, and then packed up [all of] his toys and some treats and we headed to Momentum to meet devin. he's still got some practicing to do with the solo car ride (he just kept climbing into my lap while i was driving), but he did so good. all of devin's co workers had been anxious to meet him and he was a hit! turns out he loves licking the chalk off of climber hands, ha! 

next, we headed into Salt Lake and met with Kyle and Jamie, and their two adorable pit bulls, Maggie and Gus at the dog park! The park was sort of lame, and Coop was a mixture of terrified and curious with those big dogs. Kyle and Jamie haven't had Gus very long, so he is still in training mode too, he's just at least 10 time bigger than little Cooper! they did really good though! 

next, we walked over to Ekamai and had Thai food for dinner - i had never had Thai before. Yellow curry is delicious! The restaurant had a deck upstairs, so we tied the dogs up to the railings and ate up there. Kyle and Devin went down and ordered while Jamie and I stayed with the dogs. after dinner, we switched turns and Jamie and I went next door to Bruge's Waffles and Frites and got dessert - probably one of the most expensive desserts - but worth every penny! delicious waffles, dark belgian chocolate, house made creme fraiche, and fresh fruit. amazing! 

cooper's first doggy date was a total success. he has a few more coming up this weekend, too! tonight, coop gets to meet Danica and Ryan and their shih-tzu puppy, Glen Coco! and tomorrow, we are going to my parents' for dinner and the temple dedication, and coop will meet Kelli and Sean and Zero! 

I think it will be good for him to be around some dogs his own size for a change. We've been trying to expose him to a lot of different things, so he isn't afraid of them, and so far so good! Plus, he's a total lady killer with all the little girls that see him playing in our backyard. 

it sounds a little funny, but Coop really is just what we needed. we both knew something was missing in our lives and Coop filled that void completely. he made our house a home and we love him so much!