Otis' birthday!

Here are some pics from Otis' birthday that I've been meaning to post...I think Otis and Cooper had a good time.

J.B.

A golden birthday

Today our first born, our little guy, Otis is celebrating his golden birthday! He's four years old. Which means in dog years, he's the same age as Dave and I! We were so excited for little Otis to join our family. We'd been waiting for years to get a dog. But we waited and waited until we had our own house. And then we waited for after all the wedding craziness to bring this guy home. He was such a cute pup -- he still is so handsome. His little soul patch is gone. It's morphed into more of a beard. He still loves to sleep. He loves attention. He loves people. He loves cuddling. He loves treats. I love Otis and I'm so glad he's our pup.

J.B.

Don't forget to vote on what gender you think Boo is. You can guess here.

The MN Twins

This past weekend, Papa Bear and I got to meet our Godchild and his big sister (older by mere seconds)! Our good friends, Jim and Aimee had twins less than a month ago. It was Aimee's birthday on Saturday, so we surprised her by showing up at her house unexpected! (Don't worry...it was only a surprise for her.) We had a great weekend hanging out with friends and meeting these little people. Even Otis and Cooper joined us! They (especially Cooper) had a good time playing with Jim and Aimee's dogs. They slept the whole way 4 hour drive home! Honestly, Cooper didn't even move until we were about 5 minutes from our house.

Baby Love! I think they could be in a Double Mint commercial!

Jameson snoozing away in my arms.

Dave and his Godson. Jameson makes the funniest little expressions.

Ms. Vivian sticking out her tongue.

The proud Daddy!

Otis still thinks he has speedy super powers. Even without his costume.

Cooper having a good time!

J.B.

Thank you, Otis

Dear Otis,

Thank you for living up to your name -- Mr. Rude -- last night. Thank you for waking me up at 1:30 a.m. in the morning with your high-pitched bark. Thank you for dragging me out of bed so I could take you outside. Cooper thanks you too. He lived up to his name too -- Pooper. I enjoyed watching you two do outside what you should have finished doing at 10 p.m. -- BEFORE bedtime. Oh, and thank you for running upstairs, into my room and taking my spot in the bed when I let you back inside. No matter how rude you are, I will always love you.

Love,

Momma

Photo courtesy of Katie Mathews Photography

J.B.

The perfect sandwich

I'm not talking about peanut butter and jelly. I'm not talking about a grilled cheese or a ham.

I'm talking about an Otis Sandwich.

J.B.

The Great Transition

One thing I worry about bringing home a baby (when it someday happens), is how the dogs will react. Because right now, the dogs are our babies. When a real baby comes home, suddenly the dogs won't be our babies anymore. We'll definitely still love them, but we obviously won't be able to give them as much attention as we do now.

I think Cooper will be a good brother. He'll be protective -- probably overly so. He'll be curious about the little babe.

Otis. He'll have a hard time. He was our first puppy. We spoiled him. We gave him lots and lots of attention. We let him cuddle with us whenever he wanted (meaning: all the time). He's the captain of our house. He still wants (and usually receives) the most attention and cuddling time with us. I don't know how he'll react when he can't get what he wants all the time.

Case in point: Last weekend, Andee and Bryan and their precious little baby, Lucas, came over to our house to watch the Super Bowl. Otis liked Lucas. He was really curious. He wanted to smell the little guy. But what did he do when I held Lucas?

Sat next to me and started giving his super high-pitched Don't-you-dare-give-others-more-attention-than you-give-me-bark.

So I sat there with one arm holding Lucas and the other hand petting Otis. I really didn't want Otis to keep barking like that when we had company -- he gets just a little annoying. Dave would distract him by playing ball, but the Otis would come back to me and start barking again.

Otis survived the transition of getting a second dog in our house. I know he'd survive a transition with a baby too. But it might be rough. It will most likely be known in our house as The Great Transition.

J.B.

Flashback Friday -- Otis' homecoming

Another big homecoming for The Balow Bunch was the day we got Otis.

We Dave anticipated getting Otis for such a long time.

When Dave was in the army, he wanted to get a dog. I told him he should wait until he got out of the service.

When Dave and I lived in an apartment, he wanted to get a dog. I told him we should wait until we have more space.

When Dave and I bought a house, he wanted to get a dog. I told him we should wait until after our wedding and after the honeymoon.

So it was decided that a dog would be my wedding present to Dave.

Otis was actually born before our wedding. Dave picked him out, but Otis wasn't old enough to go home until about a month after the wedding.

Here's the first photo of Otis that we ever saw.

We loved him immediately.

During our honeymoon, Dave would check his email every day to see if the breeder had emailed us any new pictures. One day we got lucky and saw this:

Finally, on the last Saturday in July, it was time to go pick up Otis. We drove 4-5 hours down to a farm in Iowa. We loved getting a tour of the farm, meeting Otis' parents, seeing the other dogs and puppies.

 

 That's Otis' mama, Angel, and one of his sisters.

Angel loves attention, just like Otis!

We drove back home with two puppies. Another couple was buying the other pup and they lived by us. So we took their dog back with us so they didn't have to drive down to Iowa too. We didn't know what they were going to call her, so we called her Princess. We were so tempted to keep her!

Dave and the little Princess.

O-bear and I. We put his little collar on him right away!

 
Checking out his new toy.

Otis and Princess did a great job on the way home. They didn't cry at all. That was so unlike my experience with my first dog, Nels. He cried the whole way home and my mom and I cried too.


Anyway, we loved Otis straight from the get-go. He looked like a little bear cub and waddled around the grass. It's so funny to remember how slow he was as the grass was almost as tall as him, because now he's so speedy. He would lick us right on our chin, just like we always dreamed our puppy would.

Our family.

 

Checking out another new toy. Today he would destroy a toy like this in seconds!.

Dave finally got his puppy. He said it was worth the wait, because if we had gotten a pup any earlier, it wouldn't have been our Otis.

Sleepy pup!

Read my previous Flashback Friday post: Dave's homecoming.

J.B.

Thankful Thursday -- Cooper's wiggles

I love my pups.

That's an understatement. lol.

One of my favorite times with them is when I get home at the end of the day. They are so excited! When I first walk in the door, it's Otis' turn to be super excited. Cooper has to wait until he does his business outside. Why? He wiggles a lot and would leak if he didn't empty his bladder first.

So when he gets back inside, Cooper is full of wiggles. He has to wiggle his body because he doesn't have a tail. Wiggles equal love. Cooper has a lot of love. Although if you didn't know better, you might think he was a little terrorist with all his wiggling.

Today I'm thankful for my wiggling puppies that explode with love when I come home. I wanted to share this moment with you all. Take a look.




J.B.

RIP Spike

Dave was looking at our dogs' breeder's Web site today. We love to check it every once in a while and see the new siblings Otis and Cooper has. Well, there was some sad news on that site today. Otis' biological dad passed away. His name was Spike. It makes me sad. For Otis. Not that he'd understand if we told him. But it also makes me sad for me. Dave and I operate under the assumption that our puppies are going to live forever. But Spike's death is a reminder that our puppies are not invincible.

So tonight I'm going to give the dogs a little extra cheese in their dog food and give them some extra scratches. Just so they know how much we love them and love having them with us right now.

Here's Otis and Spike side by side. Any family resemblance? They both have a lot of hair!!

Spike's photo is courtesy of www.s-dstables.com

J.B.

Not your average herding dog

Winter has arrived. In full force. The school district I live in was closed yesterday because of the snow and blizzard warnings. Snow and cold weather is nothing new to Otis. With his big black fur, he prefers winter weather to the summer, when he gets so hots he hides in the shade under the trees.

Or so I thought.

I took the dogs out this morning and Otis started tip-toeing around in the snow. One of his back paws wass cold, so he lifted it up into the air and out of the snow. He balanced on his three paws like for a couple of seconds. Then switched legs because his other paw was cold. Next thing, he's sitting with his butt on the ground to give both his back paws a break from the snow and he starts wimpering. Yes, he's crying. He jumped on me like he wanted to pick me up. Sorry, Otis I'm not going to carry all 35 pounds of you back to the house.

I thought about taking a photo of him. But a) I didn't have my camera and b) when it's -1 farenheight (farenheight....not celcius) my mittens do not come off my hands outdoors.



Apparently, Otis forgot he is a herding dog. A dog that was bred to work outside. All day. Every day. In his old age of 3, he's turned into a big wimp! Silly dog!

J.B.

Photo credit: Katie Mathews Photography

Last weekend...

Dave and I took Otis and Cooper down to Minnesota City to see some of our family and visit John's farm. The farm is nestled in a valley surrounded my lush tree-covered hills. It's so peaceful and beautiful. Since it's fall harvest time (yes, FALL), we got to enjoy the fresh produce that John's been growing all summer. We had tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, grape tomatoes, ground cherries, and red and yellow raspberries. I had never even heard of ground cherries, but they were good! We got a preview of the pumpkins and cantaloupe that are growing. We walked around the hillside and toured John's prairie gardens.

While we had an awesome time eating and spending time with family, the dogs had one of their best days ever. They got to run around free for hours and hours. They got to explore the garden while Dave picked us some food. They played with Ann's dog, Minnie. You could see smiles on their faces -- not kidding. When they were tired of running, they'd take a break and lay by our feet. Then after a while, they'd get up and run around all over again. We all can't wait to make the trip again next year!

Here's some pics of our day. I already posted them on FB, but wanted to blog about our day too...since it's a fun one that I want to remember! And I got to play with our new camera!

Cooper squinting in the sun -- he's got those sensitive blue eyes.

Otis resting in the shade -- he gets hot so easily with his thick black fur.

The view from the prairie garden on the hillside.

Cooper, Otis and Minnie -- the three amigos.

Cooper resting with Dad.

Dave successfully picked an ear of corn!

Just because....

Just because it's TUESDAY...
And because my husband is the BEST....
And because my puppies are the CUTEST...
And because we got a new CAMERA....

Case of the Pooper(s)

I have a little mystery to solve. We went camping last weekend. The dogs could do their business whenever and wherever they please. Apparently the dogs are having trouble adjusting to the fact that our house is INDOORS and it's not ok for the to poop where ever they want anymore.

When I woke up this morning there were TWO piles of poop upstairs. ONE in the hallway and ONE in the loft.

Did TWO dogs poop ONCE? Did ONE dog poop TWICE? Did ONE dog poop ONCE and then MOVE half his pile?

I thought I'd be smart and determine which dog(s) was/were the pooper when I took them outside this morning. But they BOTH pooped outside.

Now I can't say for certain who is/are the pooper(s). But honestly, I'd rather not know and not have this incident happen again!

Thankful Thursday...

I can't believe it's already Thursday. It's already August. Summer is going by way too fast.

Anyway, this week I'm thankful for photos. My husband has started emailing or sending me every couple of days when I'm at work. Sometimes they're a little disturbing (i.e. photos of my dogs pooping). But most of the time, they're cute. Like this one I got today. I love knowing that I'm being thought of and these pics just make me excited to get home to my family. I don't like missing out on cuddle time!!


Our real camera broke this week. :( So I won't be posting photos much on my blog until we get a new one. Not that I post photos often, but now that we lack a camera I feel like I'm going to be missing a lot of photo opportunities. *tear

My Grandma's Dresser

One of the things I've been wanting to do for a LONG time is refinish my grandma's old dresser. It's number 66 on my 101 in 1,001 list. It was one of the only things that has been passed down to me from my mom's side of the family, so I treasure it. Even if it's a beat up old dresser. The varnish that was on it had gotten old and bubbly, I guess, the way that varnish gets when it's old. There are lots of dents and dings on its sides, water stains on the top. Anyway, in April, Dave and I finally got started on this project. It's finally done. Well, almost. It still needs some new knobs. But it's back in Gracie's bedroom...and I'm really excited about how it turned out...so I wanted to post some pics quickly.

Before! (FYI. Gracie liked to hide in the dresser, but we didn't force her to be there. I just thought it was funny, so I took the pic. Good thing I took it....because it is the only before pic of the whole dresser! It's a really old pic from our first apartment.)

Ok. I guess you can see Dave really did most of this himself. Who am I kidding? lol.

After! The finished dresser!

And Otis and Cooper trying to steal Gracie's room. Cooper's licking his chops. They're so cute!