Universe, take note!

Yesterday morning began with a sick baby at 2 a.m. Sick as in diarrhea every hour sick.

If you are squeamish or judgmental please turn back now.

By 6 a.m. I'd had it. I was done. D-U-N. Nic took over so I could sleep. Unfortunately, his job doesn't allow for working from home, which meant I was going to be the one dealing with Miss Poopy Pants Grumpy Face all day.

Which was fine. Really.

We ate popsicles. Norah took, like, a hundred baths. She took a long nap. She seemed to be feeling better. I felt all awesome because I can work from home when my baby really needs me, etc., etc.

Fast forward to me talking on the phone with my mom and Norah playing in her room. That's when I discovered that she was leaking out her diaper, leaving three distinct puddles on the carpet.

Poop puddles. Puddles of poop.

And you know what? I can deal with that. Moms have this otherworldly power of being able to conquer any disgusting mess. I would prevail! But do you know what I can't deal with? Looking away for a second then turning around to see my only child bend down, put her finger in the brown goop, then stick her finger in her mouth.

Have you ever had to tell your mom you need to get off the phone because your daughter is eating her own poop?

Here's an adorable picture of Norah eating something that's not poop. Hopefully it helps get the other image out of your mind.


This is where my appeal to the universe comes in. Because would you like to know how my day ended? It ended with Moxie getting sprayed by a skunk.

So, universe, I have one simple request: If you are going to give me a poop-eater, please don't give me a skunk dog. At least not all in the same day.

My dogs are about to get fatter

Norah discovered a new game.

Chilly

Now that it's freezing, it is getting more tricky to walk the dogs with Norah when Nic isn't home. And they have to be walked; it's either walk them or strangle them or just open the front door and hope they don't lick a neighbor child to death. (That last option is starting to be really appealing, especially considering some of the neighbor kids.)

Last night was one of those times when I was on my own. I typically try to avoid their gazes as long as possible, but as the evening progresses I can't even walk by the door or look at a pair of shoes without sending both dogs into an Oh-Boy-She's-Really-Gonna-Take-Us-On-A-Walk-This-Time frenzy. Now they've also caught on to the fact that if I get Norah ready to go somewhere, they typically get to go too. So you can imagine their reaction when baby appeared in this:

I think it blew their minds. And hers too, apparently.

So the bunting bag I bought on clearance last year is still a little big. But you guys, it is so warm. I couldn't get her to smile at the camera, but the mirror? She loves the mirror. And those HUGE bags under my eyes? That's because she's decided that she needs to wake up every three hours at night again. I forgive her only because she is so adorable.

But the walk was a success. I didn't have to murder my dogs and Norah was warm and happy the whole time. That means I win.

Remember her?

Poor Moxie. Baby came along and done stole the spotlight. Don't let lack of presence on my blog fool you though. The dogs are still a prominent part of my growing entourage. In fact, wherever me and Norah happen to be, you can typically find Moxie there too. I just have two rules: Watch where you step and no face licking. She's doing really well with rule No. 1; we're still working on rule No. 2.

Sup spent his first year of life with two little girls, so this whole baby thing is old news. I think he's just biding his time until Norah gets enough hand-eye coordination to be able to pet him. Then he'll be her best friend for sure--it'll be like I grew him a whole extra set of hands.

Moxie, on the other hand, is kind of obsessed. That's why we've had to establish the no face licking rule. If Norah is playing on the floor, there's Moxie. If Norah is crying, there's Moxie trying to figure out what's wrong. If we're on the bed with Norah then ooh, ooh Moxie wants to play too--hence the watch where you step rule.

My favorite thing about our little animal family is that these guys are going to be Norah's childhood pets. As soon as she learns to grab, I'm gonna let her get a fistful of Sup and there's nothing he can do about it. And you'd better believe that both those dogs are going to be ridden like small yellow horses.

Oh, and once she's old enough to wield a shovel, Norah can scoop the poop.

This is what I mean about face licking. I take a picture, get ready for the next, and bam. Face. Licked.

Dogged

As a little girl, I always imagined how great it would be to grow up and be able to have all the animals I ever wanted. Just imagine: There would be no one to tell me no--I could have any pet I chose! Turns out my mom had good reason to limit the animals in my life, because apparently there is such thing as too many. This is a lesson that Nic and I are relearning this week while we've had two additional dogs at the house. That's a total of four large dogs and two cats--although the cats have been understandably MIA.

Don't get me wrong. We love our visitors. Riley and Matilda are extremely well behaved and fun to have around and keep my two dogs entertained and thoroughly tired at the end of the day. It's just A LOT of dog to have to waddle around--and my balance isn't what it used to be.

But how adorable are these faces? Here's Matilda:

And Riley:

I wanted to get them all on the picnic table for a photo (it's happened before), but Riley was the only one willing to stay put. He got a treat.

And like all other animals I've ever met, these four are Nic's constant entourage. It's great when he's home because everyone loses all interest in whatever I'm doing. I'm hoping baby Norah reacts to him the same way.

Hound dog

Are you seeing that face? Just look at her! How could I say no when Nic called to say he had a hound dog who doesn't have a home and can we keep her until we find her a family? So yes, I'm about 33 weeks prego and just added another dog to my existing pack of two dogs and two cats. But, seriously, would you look at her!

The funny thing is that this time Nic was the one bringing home a stray, not me. This little doggy, Daisy, was found lost in Herriman and the people who were keeping her were going to give her to the shelter. Now she's with us and is looking for a home. She is the sweetest, funniest, most clumsy dog ever and oh how I wish we could keep her.

If anyone is looking for a perfect family dog or knows someone who is, let me know.

Someone got a haircut

And he's not super excited about it.

We shave Sup each spring, and each year it takes him a while to get used to living without his golden locks. I think he's over the self-consciousness now, but he did mope about for a few days. We take every opportunity to tell him that he's still pretty--you know, just to boost his self-esteem.

Sup's got his snow boots on

I wish I could get this excited about going outside.


The only problem is coming home and removing the snowballs.

Because he's the calm one

I prefer not to get my arms pulled off and having to apologize to small children, so Moxie was not invited to Halloween at work. Sup, however, had one of the best days evar! I can't even count how many people told him how pretty he is--which is Sup's FAVORITE thing. And the fact that he got pet for about two hours straight means that he was the happiest dog who has ever been happy on Halloween.

If only Moxie could learn to control the crazy.

Hobbes in a box

Sundays are always interesting because we're home a lot more than usual. I don't know if this throws our pets for a loop, or if this is really how they spend any given day.

Keeping the peace

We had a full house this weekend with Alexi, Dug, and JJ staying over. All four dogs had a party; however, Alexi was bored out of her mind. Turns out my house isn't all that exciting for teenagers.

Nic seems to be some sort of magnet for all things canine. He hasn't been able to sit in peace for four days--and I'm pretty sure that JJ slept on his head each night. It seems that the only time JJ wasn't attached to Nic was for this picture. I think he had sneaked downstairs to harass the cats...

Dear child who left a ball on the playground:

I'm sorry that Sup found it before you did.

Because Nic is so handy

As we tore out our master bath last weekend, I realized that I haven't mentioned that we finally got our main floor finished. So yeah. We finished it like months ago. That just shows you how on top of things I am. I love love LOVE the new floor though. I highly recommend that all laminate be replace with natural stone or something equally awesome.

My favorite part about our new floor is that it stays cool. That's why I can count on finding Sup enjoying its amazing coolness each morning. I have no idea why he insists on laying with his feet elevated on the wall. He may have been dropped on his head as a puppy.

Minus the new car smell

The past month has been an exciting one for Nic: He got the Coronet running! And even though Olive and I don't always get along (Alissa, you know what I'm talking about), I have to say that our little Nicolas has some serious talent and I'm SO excited for him. I mean look at how this car started out:

It's nuts! He made an entire new vehicle. BY HIMSELF. He even sewed the seats. Who does that?

The puppies are in love as always. All they are thinking is: You mean Nic really likes this? I HAVE to sit in it! Let me in! What? Erin who?

Sup hearts MJ?

Sup had a little too much fun on his Fourth of July weekend, ended up with a messed up pad, and this was the only way we could stop him from the incessant licking. I was just thinking we could throw a few silver sequins on that thing and we'd have ourselves a pretty decent tribute.

Safety dogs

We took Sup boating the summer we got him and quickly realized that he was not a typical water dog: as he tried desperately to climb up on the boat, he all of the sudden realized it was futile, gave up, and started sinking. That's when I invested in a doggy life jacket. I bought a second life jacket when we came home from the lake and thought Moxie's tail was broken. Turns out that Labs can get something called "cold water tail," meaning that it pretty much looks like their tails are broken (all limp and sore) for a couple days. Weird. But we hoped that if Moxie wore a life jacket, it would require less of her tail and avoid any future cold water tail issues.

So that's why my two sporting breed dogs wear flotation devices in the water.

This weekend we took them and the jet skis to the lake. They. Loved. It.


The most entertaining part is how worried they get when Nic takes off on a jet ski; they try as hard as they can to save him from what in their minds could only be an imminent watery demise.

Once they realize that they are not as fast as jet skis, they nervously watch and wait on the shore.

The best part? When Nic is all done and safely back on dry land. Take a look at these three. How lucky can one girl get?

My temptation

I've located Hobbes' long lost brother. He's serenely waiting for me to adopt him at the American Fork Petsmart.

When I sent this picture to Nic's phone, his first question was whether I had this cat in the car with me at the time. He always asks these sorts of questions with a particular tone in his voice: part supportive, part annoyed, 100 percent apprehensive. I'd be lying to say that it doesn't give me a particular sort of thrill.

But the truth is that this little kitty will have to find a different home for no other reason than I can't give Nic his own reason to come home with a surprise--which is almost always another car. Although I have to say, Nic did give me the green light when he said I'm going to do whatever the hell I want anyway. I like him so much.

Lately

No new cars. No crazy kitty drama. No new foster Labs. None of the stuff I usually blog about has been happening lately. Which, when I think about it, is actually a good thing. I did just get some of the pictures off of my camera, so here's a little bit about what we've been up to the last little bit.

Summer means more car shows. I'm markedly less supportive this year and only stopped by the UVU car show for a few minutes on my way to the gym. I did hang around long enough to give away Stewart Specialty Services' award for favorite car. I chose this beauty. I only wish you could have seen the look on the people's faces who owned the white car next to me. They were super pissed that this car didn't even have a real paint job and won an award over them. I say it has character (plus a sign that said "please touch").

Nic spent a LOT of time after regular work working for the Corsa race team. He painted their hybrid race car and did an excellent job, plus he even got a brand new paint gun out of the whole deal. This picture is from the race car's first race at Miller Speedway. It looks great right?

I asked nicely and Nic took me to baby animal days at This Is The Place state park. I will never tire of looking at small, fluffy animals.

Most exciting is that Nic is finally painting his Coronet. It's been nearly a year of body work and repairs to get to this point. His car looks AMAZING. I don't know if you can see in the picture, but I'm holding up a drawing of what the finished car will look like. Nic is scheduled to paint the rest of it on Saturday and I'm pretty sure that he gets actual butterflies in his stomach every time he thinks about it.

Letting him lie, part III

In the ten minutes it took me to get ready for Easter dinner, Nic fell asleep and Sup decided that he was an ideal pillow. This is a prime example of how, despite their size, I've also taught Sup and Moxie that they still qualify as lap dogs.

Letting him lie, part II

It's not uncommon to find Sup passed out right in the middle of doing something. Tonight he fell asleep while destroying Nic's socks--a habit I taught him years ago and still think is funny even though I replace A LOT of socks.