Behind the Scenes of the Easter Puppies

WARNING:  If you don't care about cute puppies (and by puppies, I mean a 65 pound and 100 pound dog) then you won't care for this blog post.  It's pretty much nothing but photos of my Easter Puppies.

I love my dogs.  I also love to make them sit and pose for photos (aka "torture" if you ask them).  They don't really enjoy it, but they appease me...kind of.  For the most part, they cooperate by sitting where I ask them to sit and staying there.

Many of you ask me how I get such great photos of and with my dogs.  HA!!!  You're seeing the one decent (and I'm using the word loosely) quality photo out of the 300 I took.  Okay, so I don't really take 300.  I usually get fed up around photo 30 (the dogs are fed up after three and Nick is fed up after -4).  But in that 30, there will be maybe, MAYBE one decent one.  We attempt this with lots of "Sit.  Stay. Leave it."  If your dogs don't know those commands, it's going to be pretty hard.  Yadi and Vino are great at commands so this usually works.  The hard part is getting them to look at the camera since we're using a timer and there's no one to call their names.

But enough talk.  Why don't you come with me on a tour of our Easter photos.

Here are the only semi-decent photos we capture

 As you can see in the photo above, it's not perfect.  In the first photo, Nick is apparently strangling Yadi to get her to look at the camera.  In the second photo, I'm tugging on Vino's neck to get her to look up.

Again, these aren't the best.  Clearly Vino isn't even looking in the top one.  Then we attempted individual ones because it's a little easier when one of us is behind the camera but still not perfect.  Vino has her mouth hanging slightly open in the photo with me and Yadi looks like we flushed every ball she owns down the toilet.


How about the real behind the scenes?  This is what it truly looks like during our photo shoots.

 Vino REALLY likes the ears...in her mouth.  She kept jumping on us to try and get the ears out of our hands.  In this photo, Yadi swatted her ears off and ran away while Vino also removed her ears and then jumped at them in my hand.

 In the above photo, Vino is attempting to pull Yadi's ears off of her, because as I mentioned a few photos before, she loves those ears.

 And once again, Vino, eyeing those ears, devising a plan on how she's going to get them.

Yadi is usually looking at me, sniffing me, or trying to move closer to me...because she's up my ass obsessed with me.  It'd make sense to put Yadi next to me and Vino next to Nick, but he won't have that.  Yadi is his baby (even though she strongly prefers me and Vino prefers him) and therefore he always wants her by him.

 Go home, Vino.  You're drunk!

 Seriously, she looks like that college kid who had too much at the party and isn't aware of how friggin stupid she looks.  Realistically, I'm sure Vino wishes she were drunk.  She's definitely true to her name and loves wine all alcohol.  And I'm sure the alcohol would make her tolerate this situation better.

A mess.  Just an absolute mess.  And it's like this every stinkin holiday or random day I decide to attempt this.  My hopes are always that one day, it'll click.  They'll think "Okay, if I sit here nice and pretty and give this crazy human three good photos, I can go back to laying in my bed cleaning my asshole and chasing lizards."  (I'll give you one guess as to who the lizard chaser is and who the ass licker is).

Here's my advice on good "headband holiday" photos....
Wait until they're super tired and put the ears on them.  (In our case, we took them on a long hike).  At that point, they don't give a rat's ass what you do to them!  And they might even play along and pretend they're a real bunny rabbit, as Vino is doing below!

 Sorry Vino, this is not your best angle  

I know I'm biased but I just think she's the most gorgeous pup ever!!!

But be warned, it will end with a giant swat of the ears off the head  (Yadi was only good for about four photos.  Those ears were ruining her nap).

And the dogs inevitably eating the ears off each other's heads.

I know it could be much worse.  They could not sit or stay or leave it.  And the outtakes do give me a good little chuckle.

Crazy dog mama I am!  I have no shame in admitting that.  I mean, I don't have human children to dress up in adorable little Easter dresses or cute little Sunday best suits.  My holidays are boring without a little dress up fun.  That is, until I realized they make these fun headbands for every holiday!  The girls now have bunny ears, shamrock headbands, reindeer antlers, witch hat headbands, heart antennae headbands, and the list goes on!  Don't worry, I'm not spending much money.  I mean, Dollar Tree make me holla Honey Boo Boo!!!  (Sorry, I watch that show.  It's just so disgustingly amusing).  But for realz, hit up your neighborhood Dollar Tree.  I spend $2 total and it provides me lots of entertainment and laughs.  And now memories.  You know I'm all about the photos and memories!!!!

But if I'm being honest, these dogs, while we love them dearly and treat them as children most of the time, are here for our own amusement.  We mess them with and torture them and make them do things they hate us for.  Yet for some reason, they still love us.  And that's what great about dogs!!!!!! (One day I'll compile all the crazy things we do and make a blog post.)

Do any of you take holiday photos with your pups???

I'm sure my dogs are going to be over the moon once I have a baby to torture with ridiculous outfits.  *insert evil laugh*

First Family Photo!

If you know me, are friends with me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or follow this blog, then you'll know I'm obsessed with photos.  I love to document everything.  I'm also pretty obsessed with my husband and dogs, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that I take a crap ton (official measurement) of photos of them.

So I'm sure when I tell you that we haven't had a family photo taken, you would call me a liar face.
But it's true.  Since we got our little Vino in September 2011, we have not had a photo taken of the four of us.  Sure, we've a few random (and awful) photos snapped on Christmas morning, but I'm talking a real, posed, looking decent "Let's take a family photo" photo.

So when my sister came to visit, I decided this would be a good opportunity.  After a day out and about, right before they hit the road to head back to Alabama (the car was packed and her pups and fiance were already in the car waiting), I asked her if she'd snap a few quick photos.  And I mean quick.  This was all done in about 2 minutes times.  I'd say it was pretty successful for it being so quick (and let me add, I set the camera up on manual mode.  Sure, they aren't perfect but I messed with all my gadgets, didn't cheat with a flash, and produced some pretty decent photos!!!)  So thanks, Little Leah for taking these!

We also realized we didn't ever get a photo of us taken in front of our house when we closed back in October.  Here we are, five months after being first time homeowners, taking a of my adorable little family in front of our first ever gorgeous home!

And because I love bloopers, here are two.  Some ask how we get such great photos of the dogs.  Lots of calling their names, "watch me",  and "stay".  We usually end up with more outtakes than good photos, but this time, we only ended up with two duds and about 10 decent photos!

FAIL: Doggie Christmas Photos

 I think it's safe to say that my dogs are nothing like their mother and they do not enjoy photos.  They're much more like their father, except he cooperates and smiles for them...sometimes.

I don't know about you all, but put my dogs in front of a camera and they don't listen.  Taking photos of them is harder than trying to lick your own elbow (did you just try??)  

Actually, I take that back.  Yadi is perfect (95% of the time) when it comes to photos.  Grab a treat and she'll sit, stay, and hold your eye contact for as long as you want.  And sometimes, she'll even give you a wink!

Vino, on the other hand, turns into an antsy asshole.  Camera comes out and all commands go to the wind.  Ask her to sit and she'll sit, but the instant her butt touches the ground, she's back up.  Ask her to lay down and she'll do it, but in a Sphinx position, which is far from cute.  She won't put herself into a relaxed "down" position.

And for some reason, Nick thought bringing the bathmat out (which they LOVE to lay on and we never allow it) would be a great idea.  Not only did it not work, but it made the photos look even worse.  

Vino finally got fed up with us and just turned into a dead reindeer and Yadi followed suit.  She refused to stand up or sit up.  Thanks for nothing, assclown.

We nixed the dogs by themselves because we were getting pretty frustrated.

We thought, "Why don't we each take a dog and get photos that way."
Another bad idea.  

You put a headband on Yadi, in this case reindeer antlers, and she looks like an idiot.  Ears go straight back against her head and she thins her face out so badly. Her face/head strongly resemble a greyhound.  And I'm sorry if you like or own one, this is just my personal opinion, but those dogs are not cute.  So I'm not too fond of these Yadi/Nick pictures.

I thought photos with Vino would be easier.  Just sit on the ground and she's all about being in your lap.  I forgot to take into account that she hates when you FORCE her to do anything, so of course, she put herself into that stupid Sphinx position.  All of them.  Awful.  Not that I'm not a gem in all of their either lol

Then she went into her "I love you so much I just want to eat your face" phase.  

Not cute.

We managed to get one decent photo, but like always, Vino looks beyond pissed off.  She has a very stoic look to her, which bothers me, because if you've met her, then you know she's the sweetest, most loving dog there is.  Seriously, everyone who meets her wants to steal her.  Or they leave wanting a Vizsla.

We really failed this year.  When we could get both of them to lay down, neither would look.  The tile was more interesting.

I think they knew our plan was to wrap this around them so they didn't want to cooperate.

But then we called it quits because when Yadi is finished behaving, there's no more hope.

Yadi says "I'm done bizznatches!"

Valentine's Day Celebration

February 14th isn't the best day for me; it comes with too many memories and it's a difficult day.  I like to be busy and distracted.  Valentine's Day is the perfect excuse for it.  Unfortunately, Nick had to work all day.  When he came home, he needed to study all night for an exam he had Friday morning.  But we still did a little something.

Wednesday night, I cooked him his favorite cake (angel food cake) and added those little sugar letters to them.  Anytime we're grocery shopping and we're in the baking aisle, he wants to buy those just to eat.  So today was the perfect time to get them for him.

(Nick dug into it right away lol)

I also got him a card from each of the dogs (normally he gets just one but I found two that were absolutely perfect for each of their personalities) and obviously one from me.  I also wrote in his notebook.  (This is a notebook I write in a little, okay... a page or two (or three)... love letters each month on the 11th (our wedding anniversary day) or just random days).  We agreed NO gifts because we're poor so I just got him a simple little box filled with Reese's hearts (he's obsessed with the seasonal, and only the seasonal shaped Reese's.  Apparently the eggs, trees, hearts, pumpkins, etc have a better peanut butter to chocolate ratio????)


When I woke up on the morning of the 14th, I walked out of the bedroom to see these gorgeous flowers sitting on the table.  It was nice to have a little surprise from Nick even though I wouldn't see him until that evening.

The day wasn't all the bad.  I managed to keep myself really busy.  Part of that was torturing my dogs and taking my usual "holiday photos" with them.  Except, this year didn't include headbands or props ;)  (Nick was NOT amused with my doggie fun for the day)

Nick got home around 5pm and immediately began studying.  While is sucked to not actually spend "quality" time with him, he was at least next to me on the couch, which is better than not being home!

Around 8:30pm he decided to take a break and asked if I wanted to go out to eat.  Of course my answer was yes so we headed to Applebee's to use the Valentine's Day gift card from my parents (they know us too well).

Once we got home, it was back to studying for Nick and we headed to bed around midnight.  Not an exciting day, but it was much better than I expected AND I at least got to have dinner out with Nick.


On Friday the 15th, Nick again worked most of the day but got home around 4pm (which was still later than expected).  He had asked if we could celebrate Valentine's Day this day.  While it doesn't erase my memories of the 14th and I've become anti-Valentine's Day, I'm slowly getting back into the celebration of the day.  Not to mention, Nick likes to celebrate so I agreed.
When he got home, we immediately hopped in the car and headed down to NAS Pensacola.  A friend had told me about a spot where you can see dolphins in the evening.  (Little did I know this was the place we were told about when we moved here over a year ago, but had no idea we could see dolphins if we stayed later in the evening!)

The dolphins did not disappoint.  As soon as we arrived (later than we wanted, thanks a lot Navy, for keeping Nick later than you were supposed to which majorly cut into our sunset time!) they were there in the channel, just swimming and playing.  We spotted about 6 of them.  It was amazing!

We spent the evening on the beach, just laughing and having an amazing time.  Sunsets on the beach are my absolute favorite thing in the world so this made my day!!!!  We don't get to experience this often with Nick's schedule so it was awesome!

It's the cutest when he just hugs me so tight, over and over again!  He's like a little kid that
can't get enough of me.

Kissing me so hard he's squishing my eye

Afterwards, we went home where Nick had planned to make dinner for me.  Nick making dinner for me isn't anything crazy special because he's an amazing husband and we share the cooking responsibilities and a lot of the time we cook together!  But this dinner was special because he made my favorite dishes that I don't get too often because he's not a fan of them.  So that truly meant a lot that he not only made them, but actually ATE them!!!!
When dinner was ready, he lit some candles on the kitchen table, turned out all the lights in the house, and poured some wine.  We enjoyed a delicious dinner and great conversation by candle light.

Afterwards, Nick told me to sit on the couch and he lit more candles around the living room.

He came over with our wine and our cards to each other.

We opened them, he read his love letter, and then he told me the plans for the rest of the evening were to just sit on the couch, cuddling by candle light and just talk (and enjoy chocolate covered heart shaped pretzels).  All often, especially in this world, we have so many distractions.  Phones, laptops, television, etc.  It was nice to just sit there, us two, and talk by candle light.

How perfect is this?!  Well, if you know Yadi, then you know it couldn't be more perfect!
That dog will eat anything and everything (rocks, sidewalks, bugs, leaves, etc.)  Not to mention,
it's  a Weim on the front of the card.  But it didn't describe perfect Vino because she does eat or rip apart anything she's not supposed to (and never has).  So I had to find one from her.
{Excuse my scratched out typo.  I wrote this card at 3am.}

And luckily I found the perfect one.  Again, if you know Vino, you know she does NOT stop wagging her tail.
In fact, she more so wags her entire back end because she's so happy!  And when it comes to Nick, it's in over-drive.
She is so obsessed and in love with him!  So this was obviously perfect.

We talked about important (but exciting) topics such as nursing school, Nick's naval career, buying a home, and starting our family.  We laughed and joked around about our past, the present, and anything else you can think of.  These are the moments I cherish.  When we decided to go to bed, we realized we'd been sitting for hours and time just flew by.  I guess that's what happens when you marry your best friend ;)


The evening was simple but perfect.  It combined my absolute favorite things of the beach, sunsets, wine, and great conversation all with the love of my life.  We agreed no gifts and that's probably a good thing.  No gift could have made me happier than this evening together.  I'm a simple girl and just quality time together, especially in a crazy life, means the world to me.  I hope you all had a great Valentine's Day celebration with a significant other, family, or friends.


{It shouldn't come as a shock to you that these are nowhere near all of the photos from Valentine's Day.  If you'd like to view them more, please visit my SmugMug page HERE.}