ECHO BEAR'S NEW LOOK

Echo got a haircut. I love it!!! It's short enough to keep looking clean and mat free, but long enough so she doesn't look buzzed. What do you think???

ECHO BEAR IS ONE!

This sweetie is one year old! I just can't believe that a year ago, we received a text message on Mother's Day (the day after she was born) to let us know that the litter of 5 made it safely and that they were all doing so well.

Shortly thereafter, we made a trip to pick the fur ball. And right after the 4th of July, we brought her home. It has been a crazy year, but we have loved having a dog. The kids still are helping and doing a fair amount with her, which is great.

For her birthday (and Mother's Day), we let her have a bunch of chicken and then also a rib. I think that she is so spoiled!

We love our Echo bear!!!

HELPING DAD

Everyone likes to help Dad! I love it when he takes pictures of the helping happening!!!

Dawson was helping Dad to clean out his work truck! He had a lot of fun and loves to be with Dad!

And when they looked over, it looks like someone else wanted to help too!!! Crazy Echo!!! Too fun, too cute!

OUR BABY ECHO

Our first year with our newest baby is almost to a close! I can't believe that she is 11 months old already. Echo is a digger, but she is super sweet and likes to play a lot! Our kids still are loving her and still cleaning up her poop in the backyard. I feel like she has been so great for our family. I still sneeze at her every once and awhile, but overall my allergies are doing pretty good.

Here are a couple of "cute" pictures that we hope you enjoy!!!

Sleeping stretched out

Looking out the window!

"Am I in trouble?" face

One of my favorite pictures

Echo always tilts her head for pictures

She is SO photogenic

Totally just hanging out in crate - with her head on a ball

Another head tilt!

After a bath - you can tell how skinny she is!

Playing with one of her besties - Rue

After her last grooming!

Isn't she so cute?

She is now approximately 21 pounds and the cutest furball that we know! She excited to celebrate her 1 year birthday! It will be fun!!!

LIFE AD - ECHO

I think that we are now referring life to BD and AD (before dog and after dog.)Yes, life is different, but very fun with a puppy. She is sweet and has been a lot of fun for our family!

Soon after we got her, the kids really didn't want to help. We have had a couple of come to Jesus meetings. The discussions mostly go like this: "Everyone here in this family wanted a dog. She is a living creature and needs us to help take care of her. That means that everyone will help!"

Puppys are cute!

She has even lost a bunch of teeth. (We found two just the other day. I'm guessing that she ate the other ones.)

She loves to please us and gets the zoomies after bathtime. It is so funny to watch her run around the yard and act completely and totally obsessed. I have to say that we are a little obsessed with her.

So, imagine the shock and horror of it all when our cute little chewbacca was totally given the worst hair cut ever. I seriously had tears in my eyes. It took all that I had to hold it together. Even she looks sad about this hair cut.

Short, short, and shorter!

Falling asleep after the day at puppy day care, her hair cut and then puppy class. She seems to fall asleep everywhere. A lot of times she even sleeps on her back which I find quite hilarious!

And she likes to snuggle and jump up when she is allowed to.

A lot of hard work and training will still be in her future. She is now digging (especially at Aunt Tracy's house), climbs and jumps the kennel at doggie daycare, still has the zoomies, and just today brought in a dead (decaying) bird and egg to stink up the whole house! We love our little fuzzball and are glad she is part of our family!

IT"S A JOLLEY CONFERENCE HOLIDAY! OCT 2014

We always look forward to general conference! This time was no exception! I took the day before off so that I was able to do a lot of prep work for conference. Here are the kids getting all settled in for the night. Even Echo wanted to play in the tent!

The next morning, we ate pumpkin french toast and got all ready!

Here is a little sampling of snacks that we have for conference. Granola bars, crackers with spray cheese, cookies, chips, licorice, trail mix, nuts, gummies, and that BEST fruit tray with fruit dip!!!

We also usually have danimals (Dawson LOVES these) and string cheese. I also made homemade salted nut rolls and homemade twix. You can see the pumpkin french toast below as well.

The kids had fun coloring, writing notes, and listening to conference. We even had the sister missionaries over to our house to eat turkey pot pie between the sessions on Sunday. Towards the end, Kate wanted to show me our family.

Kate- pretty

Dawson- funny

Faith- gorgeous

Mom-  helpful

Dad- smart

I loved that she took the time to write some of our talents down and that she wanted to share them with us!

We are so lucky to be able to hear conference and listen to the words from the Lord. I am working on already re listening so that I can pick my top 3. Have you already decided which ones are yours?

HASHTAG STAYCATION

Our whole summer this year has been all about the puppy. But we still wanted to get away for just a day. A staycation, which was decided to be Lava Hot Springs this year. We arranged to have my sister pick up Echo from the groomers and we headed out on a cloudy-ish day. It couldn't have been more perfect. Lower 80s, upper 70s. Mostly cloudy. And all of my kids and husband around me!

During our swim and riding the waterslides, Dawson began saying a ton of things starting with a hashtag. I couldn't help but laugh. Here are a few that we heard (#alot)!!!

#kitty
#imakitty
#imakittyonaturtle
#imakittydrowning
#luigiforthewin
#imacutelittlekitty
#imnevergoingonthatdeathtubeagain
#imissthelazyriveratcherryhills

Dawson, Mom, Kate

Brandon and Zoey

Faith, Dawson, and Kate

We stayed for about 4 hours, but we still had sad faces when we left. Echo's day was also quite eventful. She pooped in Tracy's car (on top of Jordan's preschool papers he had to hand in that night.) Then, she decided while Tracy was reprinting the papers that she would have a spa day in her backyard by taking a mud bath. Maddy just watched her. And so Tracy took the rest of the day off of work to bathe Echo for the 2nd time. I'm afraid I have quite a bit of making up to do for her!!! 

Echo's new doo (just face and paws were able to be cut)

UPDATE ON THE NEWEST GIRL

We have been so busy with our newest girl! Not only are we in puppy classes, but we also are spending at least 10 minutes a day working with her on commands, etc. She has been both a lot of fun and a lot of work. I think that our family went into it with a pretty good understanding of the work that it was going to take to mold a new little one.

The first day home she drank from Brandon's cup and was so, so timid.

This is a picture of us trying to shape her to the bathtub by feeding her in the tub. Notice that he hair is longer.

Echo likes to sleep on her back sometimes. I think this is just so funny!

Working on crate training and kennel training. 

And here is what Echo looks like wet! Only 10 pounds... the hair is quite deceiving!

Right now, Echo can sit, stand, go down, come, shake, and touch the potty bells and other things we want her to touch. She enjoys puppy class because there are other dogs there to play with. So we are working on trying to set up more playdates and fun things for her.

GOODBYE AND HELLO - PUPPY DAY!

I lightly rubbed Kate to wake her up and said "Good morning!" The first words out of her mouth was "PUPPY DAY!!!" Needless to say, we had no problem getting the kids ready for the morning. Of course, we did have to say goodbye to our besties!

Side note. I have never stayed in a hotel where there was a mini fridge in the bathroom right next to a scale. I wonder if that is a hint! Definitely was a shocker!!!

Faith and Cambrie

Kate loved this little cutie!!!

 The girls! Cambrie, Myah, Kate, and Faith

The boys! Chase, Kaden, Ethan, and Dawson

After I looked through the pictures, I thought that it was so funny that between our 2 families, we have 4 girls and 4 boys! Here the group is together!

Of course, I had told Rachel that I wasn't going to cry. At this point though, the tears started to come out and I just couldn't help it!

I loved that our men were both wearing red! And Will in true fashion, was wearing his AERO shirt!

Chase wanted part of the action! He was so sweet with our family! Hugs all of the time! I will definitely miss them!

Quick picture of Cambrie, Sara, and I. Before the tears got too bad.

We said goodbye for now. They headed on a long 10 hour drive, and we headed to IHop before we went to get our puppy.

     

 Thumbs up for the special day and the chance to eat at their favorite breakfast spot!

The two big girls! We look awesome in this picture!!!

After a great breakfast, we headed to Heber City to pick up our puppy. During the week, we went through a process of elimination to pick a name for our puppy. We wanted a fun name, but also a name that isn't too common. We narrowed it down to Daisy and Echo. In the end, because Dawson was the only one that didn't 'vote' for pink girl, we wanted to 'keep the peace' and decided to pick the name that he liked - Echo.

Picking her up was awesome! We were given a bag full of toys for her, instructions, food, etc. Just like if you were bringing home a baby from the hospital. We were wanted to get her used to her crate, but she was not having it. All of the kids took turns on the drive home holding her, with Brandon supervising in the back seat. Yes, I was the chauffeur. She was great during the first hour. We stopped at Amy and Justin's house to show off our baby girl!

Andrew LOVED her!!!

But the funniest part was that she went right to Justin who is allergic to dogs. (So am I!) You can tell he was thrilled about it!

But he got used to it and reported later that evening that he was okay!

After spending some quality time visiting with our family, we headed back to Pocatello. She totally passed out for a good amount of time in the van. Doesn't she look comfortable ... and cute???

After the long drive, we made it home to start training our new puppy. The kids want to not only celebrate her birthday (5/10/14), but to also celebrate puppy day, the day that we brought her home. I have a feeling that she is going to be spoiled!