Happy Birthday, Riley! {4 +1 month...}

Four.  F.O.U.R.  How?  Seriously??  The last four years have flown by, and everyday this little girl makes challenges us to practice patience, encourages us to sing to our own tune, and ensures that we smile as many times as possible.

For at least the last six months, Riley talked about how much she wanted to have a 'banquet.'  She talked about how we were going to have little sandwiches and drink tea, dance in the garage with boys, and have flowers everywhere and a disco ball.  Between her love of Sofia the First, Pinkalicious, and Fancy Nancy, I'm not sure exactly which one was more of the inspiration, but I was thrilled to tie them all together and give her a little birthday tea party.

I remember as I was decorating the night before thinking to myself, 'I never realized how much I wanted to have a daughter until she was born.'  I always thought I'd be a boy mom.  And to be honest, the thought of raising a hormonal teenage girl in the kind of world we live in today scares the crap out of me.  But, I can't imagine not having Riley in our lives.  She makes me so happy, and I know her Daddy and Big Brother feel the same.

We kept the party small, inviting just a handful of her favorite girlfriends and instructed everyone to dress in their fanciest clothes.  She picked out her own outfits, and as usual, rocked it.  We ordered party hats and purses for all the attendees. 

The night before her party, we let her open up an early gift - new tea sets.  We gave her two so that everyone had their own tea cup, and then I set the table that night after she went to bed.  It all came together so well!  I made sure we had lots of flowers, but it was missing her disco ball (and admittedly, we didn't dance in the garage with boys...)

Of course, our favorite baker friend dazzled us with her cake skills.  I sent her a link to the tea set that I ordered for Riley and she came through with this beauty.

As the girls came in, we presented them with their hats and purses, and after a few minutes of play time, we got started by filling their purses with lots of fun jewelry.  Next up, party games!  And what kind of games do you play at a fancy tea party?  Bingo, of course.  :)

The girls were served lemonade and water in their tea cups as we played games and laughed.  I just loved watching Jarrod in his Daddy role, serving all the little princesses that joined us that morning.

The girls all looked so beautiful!

Lunch was right on point for a tea party - finger sandwiches, fruits and veggies, cheese and crackers.  I think they all enjoyed it.

Gavin didn't join the girls last the fancy table, and of course, he didn't want his picture taken.  He did, however, have no issue at all stuffing as many starbursts into his mouth during our Bingo games as possible, and then wasn't in the mood for lunch.  Funny how that works!

Cake and ice-cream time was a big hit!  Mara's cakes are so delicious.

Riley got a lot of nice gift from her friends!  A car for her dollhouse, some sticker books, Barbies, Palace Pets, games, and more!

We went out to dinner that night at a restaurant of her choice - Mojito's because she wanted a quesadilla.  No surprise there!  The next morning, her actual birthday, we of course had our traditional birthday pancakes before surprising the birthday girl and her brother with our first visit to the new children's museum in town.

I think our little lady had a great birthday!  We can't believe how amazing she is and love watching her grow everyday.  We just wish our days would slow down just a little... 

Her name is Phoebe McFlufferpants

It's been a long time coming.  When we lost our sweet Shirley in April 2014, Jarrod said we wouldn't be getting another dog.  His tune had changed - he had once said that I would need to take Shirley when her time came to be put down and come home with a new puppy that day, but losing Shirley took a toll on all of us, especially him.  He wasn't ready for a new dog.  

Riley, however, talked about Shirley every single day for over a year.  Many of those days included tears, and she so wanted Shirley to come back, or a new dog in our family.  Around Christmas time, the conversation started and I had to explain that Santa doesn't bring puppies as gifts, and that Mommy doesn't do puppies in the middle of winter.  There was no way I was going to be outside every couple of hours for potty breaks in the snow and freezing temps.  The next thing we knew, it was about May and Jarrod was finally ready to add a new furry friend to our home.  But the timing wasn't right in my opinion.  We were leaving for vacation near the end of June and I didn't want to bring a new dog into our home just to turn around and have to board her for a week and confuse her.  It was HARD for him to be patient, but I finally convinced him.  He's so stubborn!

Alabama came and went, and we filled out the lengthy application to adopt through a lab rescue in Tulsa.  We were excited to be approved and were contacted by the foster mom of the first pup that we fell in love with, Dibbs.  Of course, we thought she'd be in our home shortly.  However, Dibbs' foster mom was very adamant that she wasn't ready for a home with kids.  We were a bit confused, and felt like the things she was saying was just typical puppy behavior, but she insisted and said she'd never told anyone that a dog she was fostering was suitable for kids, but that she really felt strongly about it.  So, we moved on.  Dog #2 'wasn't ready for adoption for 10-14 days' but was posted with a 'congratulations on your new home' photo about four days later.  Hmmm.  Dog #3 was my secret favorite.  I was SO excited to meet her....and apparently she was a good dog because she never even made it for adoption...the foster family decided to keep her.  By this time, weeks had gone by and I could tell Jarrod was getting more and more impatient.  He started looking up breeders and I kept my fingers crossed for a 1-2 year old lab to come along.  Next up, came Madison, and she was a lab mix but really sweet.  We were excited to meet her, but as our luck would have it, the foster family didn't contact us until Sunday afternoon, and being 2.5 hours away and with Jarrod's work schedule, their work schedule, and Riley's birthday party the next weekend, it would be at least 7 days until we could even meet her, and there was no telling if another family would get there before us and be approved.  That was kind of the end for Jarrod.  An ad for chocolate lab puppies was in the paper that day and he called and was told there were 7 females available, which he took as a sign....  He convinced me to 'go look,' but I knew what that meant.  I knew we were coming home with a puppy that night.  

And hours later, we were in the car with this little lady...

Picking her up was nothing like when we got Shirley.  There, we had played with all the puppies, met the mom and dad, knew their weights, etc.  This time around, it was such a whirlwind.  It was so super hot, the old man that had bred the puppies was dripping in sweat, they were bringing the puppies out to the front just a few at a time...it was kind of chaotic.  We saw the mom and dad from a distance, but between the heat and trying to keep the kids calm (and Riley not so scared about the jumping puppies) we never even asked how much they weighed.  Duh.  This little one seemed pretty calm there, and we of course fell in love with her little face.  And despite trying to convince Jarrod to come back to pick her up on Tuesday (because I had such a busy Monday) that didn't work either and we were in the car on the way home with a pup on my lap.

Phoebe was the name I'd had picked out for years and years.  But, the kids wanted a part of the naming, too...so we welcomed Phoebe McFlufferpants into our home on July 19, 2015.

Can you tell how loved this girl is already?  Jarrod was one happy guy that night!

The first few days were rough.  Like, really rough.  Riley was way more scared of Phoebe than I even anticipated.  She spent the first three days standing on our couch the entire day, screaming if the puppy got near her, and needing to be carried from one room to the other.  The jumping and puppy biting completely freaked her out and I was way overwhelmed.

This little guy, though....he was in love from day one, and while he had to get used to the jumping and puppy biting, too, he's been so helpful, even taking that one bite to his thumb that drew blood like a champ (after the bandaid was applied, that is...).  He's suffered the most holes in his clothes from her jumping on him, but he's been 100% committed to her.

It's been a month (tomorrow) and Riley is much better!  The house training is going really well, and we're working on manners.  She's signed up to start puppy school through our wonderful vet's office next month, which I hope will be helpful, because we need to get the behavior down asap.  I know it will just make everything better around here.

Phoebe's great in her crate and sleeps through the night now (yay!).  She isn't awful on a leash, but has some improvements to make.  Unfortunately, she's a digger...something we never dealt with with Shirley.  My attempts to stop the digging didn't help at all...so for now we're just trying to walk her more and hoping we get the digging under control soon. She loves to chew on the most random things - like the brick of our fireplace, rocks from the yard, or she'll attempt to put the refrigerator in her mouth - crazy dog.  

She went from 15.5lbs at her very first vet appointment to 22 lbs last week.  We go back next month for her next set of shots.  If the bathroom door is left open, she goes for the trash.  If the closet door is left open, she goes for the socks in the laundry basket.  She's a licker...and loves to lick the lotion off of Jarrod's legs if she can sneak her way into the bathroom while he's getting ready for work.  

Phoebe's favorite way to sleep is on her back.  She loves to be outside in the backyard (digging, of course) and is in heaven when she gets a new squeaky toy.  Trying to work those puppy teeth, we started giving her all the empty plastic bottles/jugs from the fridge and she LOVED them - 2liters, milk jugs, juice bottles...doesn't matter!  She's already eaten her first foreign object and thankfully, passed it quickly so we didn't have to worry too long about stomach issues.

I know Phoebe is going to be a great addition to our family, and we're so excited to introduce her to our Ohio fam in November!

Love you, Phoebe McFlufferpants.

Wrapping Up, Alabama!

After our broken shells fiasco, we drove to find a new stretch of beach that was better, but we now realize the importance of a beachfront location - after packing everything up, parking, dragging everything through the parking lot and to a place on the sand, setting up, and playing for about an hour and a half, the kids were ready to go back home to eat and play in the pool.  Clearly, they're pool kids more than beach kids for now!

But we at least go to get in the ocean more and the kids really enjoyed that.

Jarrod and I also squeezed in a much needed date night while we were there! The kids were excited for spaghetti night and playing games with the family, while we went to the outlet mall, had dinner at a 'fancier' restaurant (including drinks AND dessert!) and then stopped by some local shops on the way home to browse.  We really need to get out and do date nights more often.

When we got back to the condo, the kids were out on the dock fishing with the fam and BOTH kiddos caught fish!  So many great memories made right there on that dock.  They both still talk about fishing with Beepa, Tyler, Briana and Uncle Kyle.

Since we loved The Hangout so much, we headed back again on our last morning there for the Pirates and Princesses Breakfast.  Still a fun time, but we decided we preferred dinner there.  We did get some more fun pics, though!

Some other random pics from the last day...

A panoramic from our rooftop deck

The sunset from our bedroom's balcony

My first true love!

And my 2nd and 3rd true loves. :)

We had such a great trip.  I so enjoyed exploring a new city (and marking a new state off our travels map!) and of course, it was even better to have my whole family along with us.  Making memories oceanside is so special, and almost makes me want to move to the beach!  (But I sure would miss fall temperatures and winter snowfalls!)  The kids still talk about going back to the condo, and they're already planning our next beach vacation.  We love to travel...I just wish we could do it more often.  Thanks for the memories, everyone!  Thanks for taking care of the lodging expenses and making it more possible for us to join you on this incredible family vacation.  Love you all!