It must be PUPPY LOVE!!!

Bob, Ivan's (our neighbor) pup Pit Bull, wants to play with Maggie Belle sooooo BAD! I won't let them play together yet until her belly heals. So, until their 1st play date, Bob just peaks through the fence to get a glimpse of Maggie Belle. It's so cute. He kinda whines and gets her attention and flashes those sweet puppy dog eyes at her. I got some sweet pics of the two of them this morning.

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On another note, yesterday we took Maggie Belle shopping at Petsmart and met a pup Lab/Rotty mix and Maggie has a lot of the same markings. I started researching pics of all three types of pups: Rottweiler, Mastiff, and German Shepard and here is what I found. Remember, she is suppose to be a Mastiff/Shepard mix.

Okay, here is German Shepard Puppy

A Rottweiler Puppy

And a sweet Mastiff Puppy

And here is Maggie Belle

And here are her siblings...most of them do look like Mastiff.

So who knows, right????

Sore & Achy....STILL!

Saturday night, the girls (Presley, Juliet, and Maggie Belle) stayed with Grandma Ragan while John, Liza, Nick, and I walk/jogged the Mardi Gras 5k downtown. It was lots of fun! It was the first time that I actually got to jog a 5k. I am usually walking them while pushing the girls in the jogger. Jogging that thing was sooooo FREAKIN' hard! I think I complained the entire time.

I had thought John and Liza would go ahead of us and run it since they are the runners. And Nick and I were going to walk/jog it. But Liza & John decided to stay with us. I am so glad too! We probably wouldn't have finshed when we did if they hadn't been there encouraging us....or me. Nick did complain once....he had a smile the entire time.

We finally finished the run. I think it took about 45 minutes or so. And we got beads at the finish line. After the race we munched on bananas, chex mix, nut raisin mix, vitamin water.

After the left the 5k, we headed toward the parade to watch that and get more beads! We got a TON of beads too!

NIck kept saying how much he felt like Mr.T. It was pretty funny!

Then we went to Hunky's for some good burgers and conversation.

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I told John the next day, while I was groaning and walking around like an old lady ( I was and am still sore, I wonder if Nicky is too), anyways, I told John that the 5k was so hard and I hated running...It was hard but I had so much fun and really felt good afterwards and the days to follow that I want him to teach me to jog and critic my stride and etc. So that is my new goal. Or it could even by my late New Years Resolution since I didn't make one this year...to run a 5k without hating it and complaining the entire time. And eventually to run one without taking walking breaks.

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Next month is the St. Paddy's Day Dash Down Greenville Avenue 5k & fun walk. Can't wait!

http://www.dashdowngreenville.com/details.htm

So Curious

I love how curious Maggie Belle is. It takes her for ever to pee or poop because she is to busy exploring every part of the yard.

She's so cute.

Maggie Belle

I have been obsessing and searching for our family a little Boxer puppy. I love Boxers and ever since we had to find Sophie a new home last year, I have always wanted to get another one just like her.

We have filled out applications to Boxer Rescue Centers and looked for breeders. But no luck finding the right one for us.

We started looking on kijiji.com, oodle.com, Petfinders.com and saw so many cute pups that needed homes. I wished we could take them all! We decided to visit Operation Kindness last weekend and they had the cutest and biggest puppies in the lobby that just jumped out at us!

They are a Shephard/Mastiff mix. We played with a couple and decided to think about them over night. And that turned into days....we went back last night and the one we wanted was still there. And once again, she went straight to Presley. We couldn't play with her again because she just had her surgery. But we knew we had to take her home. So they let us adopt her and the girls and I went to get her this afternoon.

She's so good.......right now she is sleeping on the floor with Presley above her head on a pillow. And Piper is above them. It's really cute. And she has yet to bark. I hope that is a good sign. Piper still isn't too certain about her. Hopefully she'll learn to love and adore Maggie Belle just like the rest of us have.

Here is a picture of all of her brothers and sisters. She's the smallest of the bunch. They predict she'll be between 80 - 100 lbs when she is an adult. And the say she'll be a protective gentle giant.

1st few minutes at home. She went straight to Presley's lap and wouldn't leave her.

This is

Maggie Belle

(Presley wanted her to have a princess

name & Belle is a princess)

And here she is exploring her new backyard.

And the girls napping...all three of them. It's so peaceful right now, you have no idea!

One day, I'll get my Boxer, but for now, I really believe that Maggie Belle was meant to be the newest member of our family.

Mother WHAT????

Last night was hot dog night. And Presley commented that the Mac n Cheese was delicious. John said to her that it was "mother-truckin'" good.

Well this morning, Presley was snacking on her frozen blueberries and I overhear her saying to herself, "Yum, these blueberries are mother-truckin' good. "

As you'd imagine....I called John immediately!

It probably isn't appropriate for a 4 year old to say those things....but lordy, it was funny with all her sincerity.

The Napping Battle Is Over...

Presley has always fought with me about nap time. She HATES napping! Her biggest complaint is that the sun is too bright for her to sleep.

SOOO, I fixed that!

I got her a sleeping mask!

Now nap time is fun!

Finally!!!!

Piper went poo poo in the potty!

She, for some reason, has been absolutely terrified to go poop or pee in the potty. But this morning, she ripped her diaper off and said "poop". So we ran to the potty and Presley grabbed her an Elmo book and she did it! Afterwards, she got to flush the toilet (which is very exciting for her) and waved bye bye to her poop and then asked for a sticker.

Hopefully this means more pee pee and poo poos make the potty!!!

OH NO.............As I type, she pees on the kitchen floor!!!!!!!

UGGGG!

"Let's get physical, physical"

This morning, I got the girls movin' & grovin' with Billy Blanks. I can't get over how much they love Tae Bo! They had an absolute blast! And Presley is really good. She can really follow along with the DVD.

Work it! Work it!!!

I ordered a mommy & toddler yoga DVD too. It should be here next week. I think they'll like that one too.

One Sleepy Piper

Yesterday, we were on the go, so the girls missed their nap. We sat down for dinner about 6 o'clock and Piper wasn't feeling it! She had other plans. Here's a video clip of her trying to fall asleep at the table. It went on for about 5 minutes. It was absolutely hysterical! I was going to get up and put her to bed & John, of all people told me to grab the camera. I am so glad too. The girls and I watched the video clips again this morning and it was still just as funny!

On The Run Again...

Last year on December 14th, John ran his 1st marathon! 26.2 miles. That's a lot of running!

Well, tonight he signed up for his first ever TRIATHLON!!!!

It's The Toyota U.S. Open Triathlon on October 11th.

He'll start his swim at Cedar Hill State Park, then bike till he reaches the American Airline Center, and then run the Katy Trail.

All I can say is WOW!

Valentine Marshmallow Treats!

Presley, Juliet, and I made some yummy Valentine Marshmallow treats this afternoon!

They are strawberry marshmallows dipped in milk chocolate and for the girls I made some icing. Then the girls sprinkled candied sprinkles all over them!

Juliet made two. One didn't even make it to the cookie sheet after leaving the bowl of icing. It went straight to her mouth. And the second....well here's a picture of her and the second one. It looks like a little mouse was snacking on it.

Here's our finished product! Can't wait till after dinner! Yummy!

Bunny Ears!

Presley has been desperately wanting to learn how to tie her shoes. In the last few weeks, she has been practicing making knots in everything!!! She knows how to even do a square knot. Anyways, this morning she runs out of my bedroom saying, " I need cloths on now. And socks and shoes. I know how to tie them now! I figured it out!" I think she was watching John get ready for work.

Anyways she comes out of her room dressed with her new mismatched socks and gets her new laces and starts with lacing her shoes. After that she tries tying them...it didn't go as planned for her. She has the patience of a Ragan...so she got frustrated real quick!

She asked for my help, so I put her in my lap and we started making bunny ears.

After about 20 minutes, she finally did it! She tied her first shoe all by herself! But it fell out...it wasn't tight enough.

We'll just have to continue our practice and have more patience! She got the determination so she'll conquer it pretty quickly.

Catching up on getting out...

This was the real first weekend that nobody in our household has not been since the beginning of the new year. So...we caught up on getting out! We went to the mall a couple of times, we ate Barbecue, Presley had a play date, and I got to catch up with friends!

FRIDAY, I took the girls to the mall during the day to get out of the house. Those two girls were all over the place! Understandably though....I tried to be as understanding as possible and not get on to them too terribly much. The had fun running around and being out of the house.

Here's Presley's looking all cute in the back seat.

And here they are having dinner...yep I said dinner. We went home for nap time and went back when John got home...he needed to look for a few things.

SATURDAY, Presley had an early morning play date with Cindel. Those two had lots of fun. They painted and did crafts with Valentine foam stickers and played with Cindel's toys. After the play date, we met John and Piper for some Barbecue and headed home to meet Xenia and Helena!

Juliet was surprisingly great around Helena, Xenia's baby girl. She pretty much immediately wanted to hug her and hold her. She kept patting her lap at Xenia telling her to put the baby in her lap. Xenia put Helena in the highchair and had a blanket on her lap and Juliet kept raising it up to look at her feet. She was sooo curious with the baby. She was really the 1st baby Juliet has seen up close.

Here's a picture of the three girls. I can't wait till a few years from now when they are having slumber parties! FUN FUN FUN!!!

For dinner, we invited our neighbors, Ivan and his son and nephew, over for hot dogs. It was a great dinner and the kids ate picnic style in the living room watching Robots and Scooby Doo while us adults had actual grown up talk!!!!!!!!!!!!

And SUNDAY! My car was an absolute mess with goldfish and pretzel crumbs all over. So we cleaned it out. It looks so clean inside now. Presley did most of the vacuuming. She was great too....she so small, she was really able to get to the spots I couldn't. How funny is that. Anyways, here's a few pics of her doing a great job!

After the car was clean and the car seats were back in the car, we headed to The Galleria. I needed to go to Williams & Sonoma for a new thermometer.

While I was in there shopping, John was walking with Juliet outside the store and he was looking at their windows. Take a really close look and see if you notice what the heart is made of....

I don't know how appropriate it is to have a heart of condoms like that in a mall. I am just glad Presley didn't ask what they were....she is way to young for that talk! If you look closely, you'll see one is missing. ?????

Welp, I hope you all had a wonderful & safe weekend!