Work Christmas Party

This was the second year that Alex and I hosted the Christmas party for my work.  We had a HUGE turnout this year.  At max, we probably had 60+ people here. 

This is one of the babies that I have delivered in the past year.  She belongs to one of our employee's daughter.  She is almost three months old now.  She is just the sweetest thing and looked so cute in her Christmas outfit!  I couldn't help but love on her all night!

We had TONS of amazing great food and somehow we managed to eat most of it.

I was so incredibly proud of Anthony!  He greeted every guest at the door and didn't jump on them.  He didn't scare the kids or get over excited.  He spend most of the night just laying around or trying to sneak food off the floor.  The hardest part of the party was keeping an eye on him and keeping him from licking the kitchen floor. 

Anthony doing what he does best, chilling in the living room.

Anthony got lots of loving from Nanette and Debra who's day at work is not complete if Anthony isn't there.

Olga and Martha....the hot mama's of the party!  I wish I could look as good as Martha (right) after having 5 kids! 

A group of guest had a fantastic time playing cards in the basement.

The many kids in attendance had a great time playing ping pong and running around crazy in the basement too.  This is Dr. Archer's middle child.  What a cutie.

We had a great crowd!

Anthony finally just ignored everyone and went sound asleep in the middle of the living room.

By 1 AM guest were playing silly party games in the living room and Anthony just kept right on sleeping.  No amount of noise seemed to bother him.

Silly party games in one room and Taboo in the other room.

I know I am not suppose to hold the puppies on my lap like this but I was sitting on the floor and Anthony was just so snugly.  And he was helping me win at Apples to Apples at 3AM.

4AM and a group of people in each room are still playing games.  Don't these people get tired?

Bree, the next morning, hiding under the Christmas tree.  She had a fun night after we finally went to bed.  She found lots of shrimp tails and drug them all over the house and explored the mess in the kitchen helping herself to whatever looked like fun to play with.  We found stuff in some really strange places.

One funny thing we found is that some little kid thought that Bree need more food and feed her a HUGE plate of food during the party.  I am glad she didn't eat it all before I could put it away.

Just a shot of the handsome boy today.  He was so good last night!  I was such a proud raiser!

Getting Ready

Alex and I are hosting the holiday party for my work tonight.  We are expecting well over 50 people to be here.  It should be a good time.  Last night we were moving furniture to open up the house so that there is more space for people and setting up more space for food, etc   Anthony of course was right there with us helping make sure we moved everything just right.  And what is the first this he needs to do to get ready for the party?

Get a bath of course!  After all the snow we have had he was really dirty.  This picture may not suggest it, but he really loves his baths and does really well. 

This morning I was vacuuming and cleaning up the basement so we can all play ping pong tonight at the party.  Of course Anthony was with me making sure I didn't miss any spots.  When I finished I realized he wasn't with me any more.  I ran up stairs to see what mischief he had gotten into and this is what I found.

Luckily he had yet to discover that he can tear it apart like Gardner use to try and do.  Oh and the collar.... it doesn't seem to bother him at all so I think he is going to wear it at the party tonight.  What a festive puppy. Oh, and I immediately took the ball away and put it back into my work out space.

On a side note.... we finally got the letter to have Anthony altered!!!!!  We are all SUPER excited about it!  Well, maybe Anthony isn't but all of his raisers are!  He has been a bit of a handful lately and we are all hoping that taking away his teenage hormones will help make him a bit calmer. 

Free Food

Our friends were lucky and won a huge feast worth over $64 dollar at famous Dave's Bar BQ.  They couldn't eat it all alone so they invited us over to help.  Alex and I never turn down free good food.  Thanks Havlik's for the great dinner!

Brianna and I

The Yummy Food!

Freezing outside

We got over a foot of snow over the weekend.  It has been sunny since then but extremely cold!  Today the wind chill made it -30 degrees out.  I haven't felt it that cold since I lived in Michigan.  Below is the view from our back porch.  It looks like a beautiful cold waste land, even the Geese have left to find a warmer pond.

A very cold and snowy backyard.

I was off work today and I was out doing some errands when I saw something strange.  It apparently has gotten so cold in Fort Collins that we even have Reindeer living here now.

 

I wonder if Santa knows that his Reindeer have moved to Fort Collins?

On another note, Anthony won't go poop in the Guys (co-raisers) back yard because the snow is up over his hips.  Today he reportedly climbed to the top of a snow bank beside Carol's car and took a big poop.  I told Alex that solidifies it for me... he is for sure a teenage BOY puppy.  Only a boy would want to display his poop on top of a 5 foot high pile of snow.  Silly goof ball!

Snow sunday and Guide Dog Party

I really can't believe how much snow we have gotten so far this year.  We have gotten more this year than all the previous year we have lived here.  I have to admit though, that I kind of like it, especially since it never stays around for long and the puppies love it.

Alex went to take the puppies out this morning and had normal shoes on.  When I pointed out to him that there was about 8 inches of snow on the ground and that he might want boots this is what he came back wearing:

Those are fishing boots that have been pushed down.   Whatever works.

Alex and I hosted the annual Fort Collins GDB Christmas party today and below are a few pics I took during the party.

Cambria - she is about 12 weeks old now.

 

Eve is now 9 months old.

 

Cambria again- I love this picture! Her eyes are going different directions and she really just looks so sweet!

 

Betsy has grown up to be a beautiful big girl!  Here she is at 7 Months

 

Norahabelle does some "back time"

 

Mulan (5mo) also does some back time while her raiser chats on the phone.

 

This is Fred's Career change dog.  He is so beautiful and also HUGE!

And I should also mention, he is a good sport!

 

We are all getting ready to do the white elephant exchange.  Only about half of the group is pictured here.  Maybe Santa needs to bring me a wide angle lens for my camera.  I think everyone had a good time.

fresh snow

We were suppose to get 1-3 inches of snow last night but so far we have gotten about 6-7 inches.  I took the two puppies out one at a time to DYB this morning and here are a few cute pics.

Norahabelle with a face full of snow.

 

All Mulan wanted to do was eat the snow.

Norahebelle lost one of her big front teeth this morning and so was more willing to try to learn to play tug.

The puppies try and play tug - finally!

OMG!!  They are both sitting still and chewing on toys. Lasted about 10 seconds. 

"please let me out....I promise I will play nice!"  Yeah right!  I don't believe her for a minute.  She really is a sweet puppy though.

"Are you serious? I am really going to have to wear this for the party?"

Check back later for photos from the GDB Christmas party that we are hosting today.

All you can do is laugh!

Norahabelle (4months) looks so innocent and cute until you add to the mix another young puppy

 

Enter Mulan who is just about 5 months old. 

They didn't play together like other puppies we have sat for.  They didn't like to tug and much preferred to just bite each other. So what is one to do with two puppies that are yipping and biting each other?

 

 You can try and make them sit and be calm, but do you think that lasts long?

Not when one of the puppies feels the need to be dominant.  So then what do you do?

 

You can try to tie them down and keep them far enough apart so they can't jump on each other. But believe it or not they are actually strong enough to move a sofa - thus the picture below.

 

So what to do next? You could make the tie downs shorter or ....

You could try giving them Ice cubes and hope they will eat the ice cube and forget to eat each other  for a minute or two while you catch your breath.

But then what happens when you smell a tell tale puppy fart ......

Well, I thought it was Norahabelle so I grabbed her and we went outside.  We had no success at a poo poo and came back inside to find that I had taken the wrong puppy!  Mulan had just taken a huge poop and was steeping in it because she  had wrapped her leash around the lamp.  I tied norahabelle back up and then she ran around the table and knocked over the lab top while I  was trying to get paper towels to clean up the poop.  At this point Alex came out of the den, where he had been studying, to see what all the commotion was about and stepped right into the poop with his bare feet!!! When he yelled, Mulan jumped and knocked over the lamp on to Alex.  All I could do was sit down on the floor and laugh!  The amount of total chaos and the site of my husband jumping around with poop sticking out from between his toes was just too much for me.  Sorry no pictures, I was laughing too hard!

Puppies after the commotion!

Finally about ten o'clock after making the tie downs significantly shorter and correcting a lot of whining, Norahabelle feel asleep and Mulan was happily chewing on a toy, and I am exhausted! 

I posted several other posts today, so keep reading below.

Norahabelle

We are watching Norahabelle this weekend and she is 4 months old and super cute.  She has done great on outings so far and She and Bree seem to get along really well.  She is really calm and loves the toys we have. She seems so small compared to Anthony.  Mulan is Joining us tonight and then we will have two 4 month old puppies until the party tomorrow.  Wish us luck!

What a cutie

 She is teething and loves to chew.

 

"you talking to me?"

 

"Mmmmm, lick lick lick, this bone is yummy!"

"Do you think Anthony will be mad at me for using his bed and chewing on his toys?"

Geese Invasion!

We have a lot of Canadian Geese in Fort Collins but we seem to have a ton during the winter!  They love the ponds behind our house.  They all try to fit into the small unfrozen patches in the ponds.  I think they are fun, but the only problem is that they make a LOT of poop that the puppies like to try and eat and several hundred of Geese make a lot of noise!

This is just a portion of the Geese flock on the soccer field across the ponds.

All of the black dots on the pond are Geese sitting on the ice.

The Geese move around like a giant squawking mass of pooping feathers.  

Big Boy

Anthony has grown so much that he can now look out the living room windows.  He loves to sit and watch the other dogs in the park and the birds in the back yard.  The kitty also likes to sit in the window so they often argue over whose turn it is to sit in the window.   Bree usually wins.

My little helper

So with the Guide Dog party coming up this weekend, I finally started decorating our house for the holidays.  And of course our energetic puppy Anthony wanted to help me bring stuff up from the basement.  One of Anthony's favorite toys is the GoNought Stick and he loves to carry it around the house with him when he is trying to "help" me with things.  The funny thing about the toy is how he carries it, see below for pics.

I didn't think puppies were allowed to smoke cigars

"Aggggrrrrhhhh"

 

I don't get it, he walks around with it like this.  I keep worrying that he is going to fall on it and choke.

 

He has almost half of it in his mouth.  Anthony, it really isn't a bottle, silly.