God be with You 'til we meet again...

President Monson said this when Sister Hinckley passed away, "Today there's a place vacant in our hearts.  We morn her passing, yet . . .  all we loved and knew about Marjorie continues.  Her spirit has simply gone home to God."  Is it not the same for us to think of President Hinckley this way.  Not only is he home with is sweet eternal companion but he is also standing in the presence of our Heavenly Father and Savior, Jesus Christ whom he had spent his whole life serving others on their behalf.  What a wonderful man we have lost but what a great work he did while on this earth and that is the work we will all remember him for as each of us strive to be a little better and continue doing the work that he so much enjoyed.  How lucky are we to have been alive when President Hinckley was our Prophet.  I know I will miss his sense of humor and he sweet smile as well as his words of encouragement and love.  Until we meet again our beloved prophet...  

Basketball Shad

Shad is playing for the Utah Jazz...ok Junior Jazz!  Check out his smooth moves guarding his man and bringing in the ball.  He's getting pretty good!  I try to get a picture when he shoots but I always end up with pictures of everything except the ball going in the basket.  Look for #34, he's a STAR!

FYI...Did you know that if you click on any of the pictures that they will come in bigger so you can see them better?  Try it and you'll see.

Dog encounters of the first kind...

Here is Shandi and Chewbacca's first meeting, as you can see he really liked her.  He's all about the girls!

"Somebody get this walking carpet out of my way!" Princess Leia

Meet Chewbacca...

We just picked out our new mutt, got him from the pound.  Don't let his size fool you, he is only 10 months old!  He is so cute and sweet but has a lot of puppy in him.  We picked him out Friday afternoon and Brett was not very happy as he was hoping for a yellow lab.  But just look at that face, how can you not fall in love?  He has grown on us all, except the cats, we'll give it some more time and hope that at some point they will put him in his place and he'll stop thinking they are running toys.  So far he has been really good to have around.  He is great on a leash, likes other dogs and got a clean bill of health from the vet (except for an ear infection) so we just need him to work out his desire for cat fur and we'll be great.  He needs some training but seems to be catching on to the few things we have taught him already, like his name.

Shandi came to see him today and fell instantly in love with him, and him with her.  He is starting to feel more comfortable and is being more playful, when we first got him home he was quite unsure of what was going on and was fooling us that he would always be this mellow sweet dog.  We know better now, he likes to chew on us so his nick-name is Chewy.  He especially likes our toes for some reason, it must be the toe jam.  We're glad to have a dog back in our home and although he will never take the place of out sweet Brigham he does make it a little easier to come in the door knowing there is a "walking carpet" waiting for us inside.  Welcome home Chewy!

Before and After...

AFTER!  Wow what a difference...can you believe how grown up Shad looks with his new haircut?  We won't be doing the long hair thing again!

Worst Day Ever!

It was one of the saddest days of our lives when we had to put our sweet Brigham to sleep.  We had second thoughts hoping that he would snap out of it and get better but we quickly realized we were only being selfish and that we needed to let him go.  It was just so unfair of us to expect him to continue suffering, you can see in his eyes that he was not happy and the pain for him was getting unbearable.  We will never forget his sweet continence and the unconditional love he showed us.  We will miss him for as long as we live and we may get other dogs but there will never be another one like our sweet boy.  He will hold a special place in our hearts as our very first dog and we hope that our merciful Savior has prepared a place for him in Heaven and we can see him again someday.  We love our Brigham and we miss him so much!  Our home is not the same without him, we all feel so lonely and our home feels empty with him gone.  We only hope he knew just how much we all loved him!

Brigham's Dog Days...

Here is a picture of our wonderful family dog Brigham with Shad.  We adopted him from BYU and he has been a part of our family for just over 7 years.  We found out today that he has what is probably cancer and we will have to put him to sleep.  He is in so much pain and we just can't watch him suffer.  We are so sad.  He has been a wonderful "pooch" and a huge part of our family.  I thought I would share a few things about him that we will miss...

1.  Him waiting by the back of the truck to go for a ride, even if we weren't going anywhere he knows that if he waits there long enough we'll at least take him around the block.  

2.   His love for marshmallows.  We can't have a cup of hot chocolate without sharing our marshmallows with him.  His love for green beans (Shad's favorite vegetable and he would always share with Brig).

3.  I always got mad at him for laying on the couches in the living room on top of all the pillows but now if I had the choice I would let him sleep there forever rather then have him leave us.

4.  His snoring and barking while he sleeps.  Brig is a dog that never barks at anything unless he is sleeping and then he barks and his paws move like he is running after something.  (I think I will even miss his stinky GAS!  He could clear a room when he let one)

5.  He is so afraid of loud noises.  He hates fireworks and loud bangs.  I guess that is why he ended up at the animal shelter, because he could never be a hunters dog.  He was always so appreciative of us and you could just tell he loved being in a loving home with a family.

6.  We'll miss the way he would always break up Salem and Mini-moe (our two cats) wrestling.  We were never sure if he was just jealous because he wanted to play too or if he just wanted them to cut it out and behave. 

7.  Going to play with his cousin dog Moose or with JJ and Quinny our friends dogs.  He loved to be around other dogs and run.

8.  I will miss him being wherever I am.  I always call him my shadow because he follows me around all day long and sits or lays until I move to another room...then up he goes to follow me there.

9.  His love for raw hides (the only dog treat he really ever enjoyed)  He preferred fruit snacks and string cheese or of course marshmallows!

10.  The number one thing we will all miss about him is he was always there to greet us at the front door with out fail, wagging his tail and excited just to have us home with him.  

Brigham has been the best dog anyone could ever ask for and has givin so much unconditional love we only hope he felt that same love from us.  We will miss him so much.    

Is it ReAlLy just that easy?

OK, it's official!  I have joined the blogging world.  Who will read this, I don't know?  But hey, it's here for people to see.  I'm going to send an e-mail out to all my good friends and family members and get everyone on board.  I can't wait to see where this goes.  Now lets see what happens if I click on the publish post button....