Happy Birthday Clara! [Personal]

Today Clara turns 1 year old - she made it through puppy-hood (relatively) unscathed, though I'm not sure I can say the same for us! :)

It's been an interesting 9 months since she arrived at our home, disrupting Einstein's calm life, and waking us up two or three times a night for the first few months. She loves to hunt for socks, harass her brother Einstein, attend her new agility class, and is way too happy in the mornings for all of our liking (Josh, Ein, and I are all NOT morning people). All in all she's grown into a sweet pup, who makes me laugh almost every day.

Happy Birthday Clara! 

(all photos taken by Josh or me, except the one on the top left in the set below, taken by Matt Murphy)

This is Our Life: Project 52 [Week 3: This Makes Me Wish I Could Freeze Time]

Week 3 of my project 52 has the theme "this makes me wish I could freeze time". There are obviously a lot of things that I could post about for this week's theme - hanging out on the couch with Josh and the pups, reading a good book on a cold winter day, or enjoying an evening out with friends. However, Josh snapped this photo today of me doing one of my favorite things - petting my two furry friends while they snuggled on the couch, and I knew it would be perfect.

I know that our life isn't always this calm, or relaxed, and that the pups don't always spend this much time in close proximity (Einstein is becoming a bit crochety in his old age). In fact, shortly after this photo was taken, Clara jumped up and started biting Einstein's face and he wanted off the couch immediately to go explore the backyard...where he could be ALONE (thankyouverymuch!). Peaceful moments like this are never quite long enough.

This is Our Life: Project 52 [Week 2: This Makes Me Laugh/Smile]

I'm a couple of days late on last week's photo project, partly because it was really hard to think of what I could photograph that makes me laugh. There are so many things that make me laugh, such as the fact that on January 15th we STILL have our Christmas tree up (seriously, we are so lazy right now!!), or that Clara chases Einstein under the bed every morning (she is such a morning person, it's almost painful), or Dan when he tells me "your mom" jokes.

Finally I settled on taking a photo of a photo that makes me laugh. This weekend, my sister Bri and her husband Colby celebrated their marriage with a reception in their hometown (they were married in Las Vegas this fall) and had a photobooth area. We all had a great time trying on the props, and this photo is one of my favorites because it includes me and all of my siblings being completely silly. Also, is it just me or is my sister Rachel totally channeling Slash from Guns & Roses with that hat and glasses?

It's kind of hard to read, but the chalkboard says "DONE AT 6" (all one word though), which is my parents' license plate.