Texas Tech, here we come!

Every year, we make a trip to Lubbock, TX for the football spring game & autograph signing event. This is Ellie's second year to go & she definitely enjoyed it more this time! Our seats were right behind the horse & masked rider......& Ellie came unglued! "orse, orse, orse!!!!!" she screamed! When the masked rider left to wave at the other fans, we thought we would have to change seats to keep her contained! She loves orses ;)

Sitting in the stands during the game, we had a clear view of the cheerleader! Oh my, the dancing that came out of Ellie was hysterical! She loves watching them dance & then she danced along! Jon got all but one autographs he came for & Ellie ran around on the field. She especially liked wallering around on the 40 yd line :)

Prairie Dog Town is one of the 'highlights' of a trip to Lubbock! Seriously! Back when I was going to school there, the PD's were plentiful....today, not so much, but there were still a few to enjoy! Ellie wasnt so sure about these animals. They bark but dont look like dogs. I enjoyed visiting PD town & enjoyed passing on one of my Lubbock, TX traditional visits to Ellie!

Visit from Mimi & Pops

In March, my parents visited us in Keller! My dad had an education class in Dallas on Saturday, so Ellie, me & my mom shopped a little ;) Ellie came home with shoes!!!!!!!!!! And a purse!!!!

I love this picture below, such a sweet moment!

Ellie loves stickers. And by love, I mean LOVE!!!!!! "ticker" is what she calls them and if you ever give her a sheet of stickers, you are her new best friend. I guess she decided that this would be a funny was to play with stickers this night!

My dad wanted to see Ellie eat pizza, since we always rave about how funny it is to watch her carry around a piece and eat like such a big girl. After pizza, we took Ellie to Bear Creek Park. She loves playgrounds, swinging, & running around. I love these family pics! Such a great day! I miss them so much & would love to live closer!

Raider

Raider, our first baby was diagnosed with chronic renal failure about 1 1/2 months ago. He just wasnt acting the same and we took him to the vet for a check up. He had lost some weight and wasnt eating very well. His kidney numbers came back very elevated, so much so that the vet said she was surprised he was alive. His BUN was 110 & Cr 9.5. After 2 full days of doggie IV fluids, his numbers dropped to 80/6.5 (still very elevated). But the vet is hopeful that his life can be extended with special kidney meds and food.

He now looks much better than these pics. We have been making him chicken tenders and lean beef. On days he wont eat that, we let him have a can of dog food. Its most important that he eats, even if it cant be chicken & beef all the time! He's had some trouble with vomitting and we had him on pepto every day. We now switched to pepcid to help, since he starting vomitting again :( Just when I thought his time was up, we got some good news. We have this urine specific gravity tester (loaned to us by a wonderful friend, Stan) His ability to concentrate urine is actually getting better. I was a little confused about what #'s he was supposed to have and called the vet one day when I thought his #'s were out of range. To my surprise, his # was actually improving! Thank God. Jon had just told me that he had been praying for Raider....so definitely a prayer answered.

Thank you all for your support during this time! Especially to Stan, who has been through doggie renal failure before with his own fur baby. Jon and I can always count on our friends and we are so thankful!

Fort Worth Children's Museum

I am always looking for fun & exciting things to do with Ellie.....especially outside of the house! My nurse & mommy friend, Jaime invited us to the Children's Museum recently! Ellie had so much fun!

She played dress up Doctor, but come on guys, we all know that being a nurse is WAY more fun ;) She dressed up, picked out a baby from the nursery & weighed the baby. So sweet!

Stella & Ellie really enjoyed playing with the bubble wall!

Grocery shopping was Ellie favorite thing, I think. She was a little confused about what to do, but had fun picking out fruits & veggies...& then pushing around the buggy!

Thanks Jaime & Stella for inviting us out! We had a great time!

A week of firsts.......

Ellie has been doing a lot of fun things lately.....

We ventured out to the dog park today. Tipps Canine Park in NRH. Us and the Schaeffers packed up the dogs for some playtime. The doggies had fun and Ellie enjoyed seeing all the furry friends.....unless one of them just appeared in her line of sight and then she cried. :) There were about 10 other schnauzers there and 2 other maltese.......so Raider, Bailey, Macy and Molly all had look-alike playmates. Everyone left worn out!

We went to the Watauga Public Library with Angie, Brenley and Brooklyn. The girls had fun playing in the little house, looking through books and running around acting very un-library like ;)

On Friday night, Ellie spent the night at JJ's house. This was the first time Jon and I have been away from Ellie at night. Jon dropped her off at 6 and when I came home from work, Jon and I headed out for an evening alone. We had reservations at Silver Fox, a yummy steak place near TCU. The place was PACKED! Our late reservations were for 9pm but we didnt get a table until 10. Good thing Ellie was staying somewhere else for the night. Jana said that Ellie did great! They played, ate pizza, and all that kind of fun girl stuff. I picked her up Sunday morning, after a sound nights sleep. I'm so glad that she was close enough for me to not have a mommy freak out moment! Thanks JJ!!!!!!!!

SNOW!!!!! WEEK!!!!!!

This past week has been the craziest weather that I have seen in a long time! Less than 20 degree temps, ice and snow have consumed our week! Jon has pretty much stayed home from work and I braved the black ice to drive to and from work on Wednesday and Thursday. It took me one hour to go 13 miles!!!! Ellie has enjoyed staying home with daddy...except on Thursday when she went to Miss Angie's so daddy could work from home. We've played in the snow a bit. The first day of snow, Ellie was fine to walk around outside for a bit...not too excited about it, but okay to be out there. Then today she didnt really want anything to do with it! She just wanted to be held. Maybe it was the falling snow...who knows....but Jon and I had fun looking at it. Aunt JJ came down to play but Ellie wasnt much for playing outside...so they moved their fun back inside.

Here's a few pics from our snow week....

And a pic from last February............

Kroger Marketplace

Keller got a new Kroger! That makes us seem po-dunk, but really Keller isn't. It's just fun that we have the latest and greatest Kroger here! Since they opened a few weeks ago, I have been up to this sacred place at least once a week....usually twice a week....any excuse to shop at the place that has produce galore, fresh tortillas, towels, furniture, and a huge organic section. They even have these kiddie carts, that the little ones can push around. Here are some pics (and a video) from the place....and yes.....I dedicated a whole post to Kroger Marketplace!