October Catch Up

Wow, for the second year in a row October has completely consumed our lives to the point of me not updating the blog! Ok, so here we go, this month.....

Penny started obedience school at Petco. Penny is already a VERY obedient little girl but there are a few things we wanted to work on with her to improve our 'parenting' and her skills and behavior.

 I had to take some pictures to document her first day of school

 And one just wasn't enough...

Isn't she so cute in this sweater!? Josh of course would not let her go out like this. He is extremely against dressing dogs for the purpose of fashion.

We are already three weeks into the program and she is doing great. The trainer is very impressed with her skills and knowledge, no surprise to us tho:) 

October 29th was the annual Mark Family Halloween Party, hosted by the wonderful Aaron and Nicole. Our costume this year was inspired by a friend of mine....

I think it turned out perfectly:)

As always we had a blast at the party. Aaron always comes up with such fun and unique games for us to play, and Nicole's food NEVER disappoints. My nephews were also cute as a button!

October 30th Josh reached the ripe old age of 26. We had such a good day together! His mom, brother Joseph, sister Kandise, and nieces Kya, Pheobie, and Marlee all came over to celebrate with us. Those little girls are so much fun to have around. They are very sweet and cuddly with me, and very hyper and playful with Josh. It made me so happy that they came to share a special day with us. For dinner we headed to my parents house. A delicious roast was served to us followed by cheesecake for dessert. Can't beat that! We are truly blessed to have such loving family members. 

One down, Eternity to go.....

Last weekend Josh and I celebrated our one year anniversary. I can not believe we have already been married for a year. A part of me feels like it was just yesterday that we promised ourselves to each other.

It was such a beautiful day! Slightly overcast, however that really made our pictures turn out quite well. The temple grounds are always so pretty and that day was no different.

On Friday night we decided to have a night to ourselves doing things that we love to do together. First we went down to 25th Street where an Art Gallery was being held. One of Josh's high school friends was displaying her art, and let me tell you, it was absolutely breath taking! I wish that I had a talent like that. Then we went out to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, The Pizza Factory. Their breadsticks are to DIE for! After we ate until it hurt, we drove out to barnes and noble. One of our favorite things to do together. Josh likes to browse the books, I like to find a few magazines and then while Josh looks around I sit and read. It is quite enjoyable and before we know it, its already been an hour. Needless to say we ran out of time so we decided to celebrate our anniversary all weekend long:)

Saturday we celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving with my dads side of the family. Some may think its odd that we celebrate both Thanksgiving holidays but whats wrong with honoring days that are dedicated to being thankful? After a large and scrumptious meal we headed home to have some alone time to do this.......

 A candle lit cake eating and white grape juice drinking tradition. What did you think I was talking about?

 I started on one side, and Josh started on the other until we met in the middle.

Josh likes to call this, the tunnel of love. Cheesy I know but you've gotta admit, its clever:)

And that concludes the details of our anniversary we are going to share with people. One year down, eternity to go, we can't wait!

Don't be a SUCKER!

I was vacuuming my house today when I accidentally sucked up one of my shoe laces. My quick reflexes told me to swiftly pull out the shoe lace and continue vacuuming.  Attached to my white shoe lace was some hot yellow stringy substance. I turned off the vacuum out of fear and astonishment. What on earth is this stuff?! When I turned it back on to continue cleaning, the brush roll wasn't spinning. Oops... I walked away and went about my business hoping that the vacuum would fix itself in my absence. Unfortunately when I returned to the device minutes later it was in the same condition. When my mom came over we decided to get out Josh's tools and see what we could do. On the bottom of the vacuum I read the words 'to clean brush roll remove screws 1,2,3,&4. It took a lot longer to find the right head that fit and an extender thingy. We finally got all the screws out but couldn't figure out how to pull off the cover. As I looked at the device from a different angle I saw the words 'brush roll reset' above a tiny red button...."this is awkward..." I said to my mom as I push the button. It couldn't have been that easy could it? We laughed for a long time. Then I plugged the vacuum in, turned it on, and what do you know?  It was fixed. You may think that we are suckers, but think again because I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have worked again without us spending all the time we did to take out the screws and put them back in. If you need any help fixing things around your house don't hesitate to ask us. She is really handy with the tools, and I am great at pushing reset buttons.

Home Sweet Home

I have been wanting to post pictures of our new house for our friends and family that aren't local. We have absolutely LOVED living here! And so do our babies:)

 Living room

 Yes we are still rockin' our flower power couches!

 Massage Room.

 Much relaxation goes on in here, ask anyone!

 The love making room....tmi?

 Downstairs kitchen

 Downstairs living room

 Master bedroom

Second bedroom with walk in closet.

There are so many things that I love about this house. Our renters just moved out of the basement so this is the first time we have seen it completely empty. I've got to admit, there are some aspects of the basement that I wish we had upstairs! Maybe someday we will use the whole house for ourselves so I can take advantage of all the room.

Daddy's girl...

Sometimes Josh mentions that he doesn't think that Penny loves him as much as she loves me. She doesn't follow him around the way she follows me, unless he has food. BUT, she doesn't snuggle me the way she snuggles him! This is a testament of Josh's sensitive side that he doesn't like to show people:)

 Kisses for Daddy

 Posing for the camera

On a completely unrelated note, can I just say that I am OBSESSED with these cookies! I call them candy bar cookies. I could eat them for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert! All you do is make up cookie dough (I like to do betty crockers Peanut Butter cookie mix) then roll the dough around your favorite mini candy bar. You wont be disappointed!

The finished product

back to normal

Meet Molly. 

I have never spent any time around an English Bulldog, until this weekend. Boy are they....different. Lets start with the face. She has a MAJOR underbite so when she lays down to relax it is not uncommon for her tongue to be sticking out of her mouth like this. It made me giggle. Dogs are so fun to be around, I am a total sucker for them. I will admit that on occasion I browse the KSL ads looking for dogs hoping that my husband will reconsider his rule of 'only two dogs at once.' If I can handle two dogs, why not three? We live on a third acre of property for goodness sake! However, this weekend has humbled me. A third dog TOTALLY changes things, A LOT! Nobody was getting along 100% of the time. My dogs have a way of speaking to me. Stella says it all with her eyes. I can tell if she is hungry, tired, lonely, annoyed, or needs to go potty. When I question her about my theories, she confirms them with her sweet little eyes. Penny speaks to me with her tail. I can tell if she wants to play, or run around, or play, or go potty, or play. And when I question her about my theories, she confirms them with her little nub of a tail. Unfortunately, Molly and I don't speak the same language. She speaks with her over sized tongue hanging out of her mouth and I have not yet received that version of Rosetta Stone. Needless to say we had quite the adventure together. The three dogs chased each other constantly and there was lots of unexpected barking and pouncing haha. It was also pretty exhausting taking care of three dogs! After almost 5 days it was time to say goodbye to our new friend Molly. It was somewhat bittersweet. But afterwards me and my girls went inside and cuddled on the couch. It really made me appreciate my babies and the fun we have together. I love the way we understand each other and the way they make me laugh. I love the puppy kisses they give me and the way they snuggle me. 

We got bored the other day and decided to play dress up. Don't tell Josh, he really doesn't like it when I dress them up. I think it bothers him that they look so cute, and they love the attention they get while wearing clothes:)

 Stella, relaxing in her baseball tee. Even thinking about playing baseball makes her tired.

 Penny in her polo, about to go to the driving range and swing some clubs. Her polo makes her look slightly masculine because it accentuates her chest hair haha.

We are a very athletic family as you can tell:)

We have had a fun weekend with our new friend Molly but we are definitely happy to have things back to normal. Its true what they say, 'three's a crowd.' Referring to dogs residing in one household of course. **Please note** Every family has different needs, it is not the intention for this blog to be judging people for there human to animal ratio, or lack thereof. I am only speaking of my personal experiences and preferences. I love the idea of expanding our family someday, but for now ours is perfect just the way it is:)

Bath night at the Cronen's

Sorry for my absence, I decided to take a mental vacation. It was nice. I spent lots of time on the beach and soaking up the sun. In reality, I have just had little motivation to blog. But good news is, I am back from my mental vacation:)

Josh and I decided to take the dogs up to Weber State and walk them around the campus. Penny LOVED all of the ducks and Stella LOVED all of the duck poop. Gross I know! If I turned away from her for a second she would be sniffing and licking at the massive amounts of poop. Then there was Penny, who tried to jump into the dirty duck pond a few times. She loved chasing them around the grounds and if I wasn't such a meanie she would have been swimming in the pond with them. Needless to say, the girls needed a bath when we got home.

 Mid shake, LOVE it!

So so so so so cute I know:) We are OBSESSED with our dogs in case you didn't notice.

Days of the Dogs

When Josh is at school or work it is pretty common for the dogs to follow me around. In fact, I find it odd when they don't because I worry something is wrong. Today as I am getting ready, I only hear Penny's paws tapping around. The first place I look for my baby Stella is the bedroom, 99.999999999987 % of the time she is nestled in the pillows and blankets on our bed.

Stella thinks that when I make the bed in the morning, what I am REALLY doing is tucking her in.

 How could you resist that face!?

After I take these pictures of Stella I go about my business. And pretty soon I don't hear the Penny paws around me. I go back into the bedroom and this is what I find...

It looks like someone was a little jealous of her sister getting all the attention with the camera. As soon and I got this picture, and put my camera away, Penny jumped off the bed and continued to follow me. 

I really can't understand how people don't like dogs. They are just so loving and sweet. Whenever I am feeling down they come and snuggle me. When I'm lonely because their daddy is at work they cheer me up. It is soo precious :)

VROOOOM VROOOOM!

Meet Jesse....

We first met in October of 2007, and we've been together ever sense. With only minimal upsets he has always treated me well and kept me safe. But over the years I have worn him out, specifically his windows. About a month ago he finally quit trying all together on one of the back windows. Unfortunately he quit on the way up, and I constantly had my window down. Penny was just fine with it, because she loves sticking her head outside while mommy drives. It wasn't too bad, unless it rained, then my car would smell wet:( 

LUCKILY I have a Dad with connections and a hard working husband. My dad made arrangements to purchase the parts at wholesale price, and my sweet sweet husband pushed up his sleaves and was ready to work. So I left Jesse in great hands to be repaired. It wasn't a huge deal being without a car for a couple days because Josh usually drives us everywhere anyways. But I did miss my Jesse, and now we are reunited. Thanks to the awesome men in my life, Josh and Dad. 

Echo Lake

Last weekend we went up to Echo Lake with Aaron, Nicole, Ryan, and Copper. We had a lot of fun hanging out by the campfire, swimming, eating, and laughing. Here are some pictures.

 Ry Ry and Uncle Josh, future father photo:)

 The water was freezing, but Ryan said, 'its warm Meemi' as his whole body is shivering.

 Just look at that face:)

 The water was beautiful.

He is so cute, I just want to squeeze his cheeks!

We had a really good time, with good food, and great company. This morning Nicole sent me a picture that Ryan drew for me. I couldn't help but post it, one of the many reasons I love this little guy!

Meemi, Jooosh, and Stella

Birthday Festivities!

Happy birthday to me! The big 22, its going to be a big year, I can already tell:) Last night we had some friends and family over to celebrate. We only got a few pictures compliments of my sister Nicole.

 

 Happy happy birthday

 Party Guests

 Cute little Ry guy

 This is a really attractive face of mine. I thought I would show it off.

 

We had so much fun. I was so grateful that our families and friends were there to support us.

 

I am so humbled by the amount of love I have received today. Numerous people sent me messages and emails. Even relatives out of state were kind enough to send their love. Josh and I got an early start today. We woke up in the wee hours of the morning before the sun was even up. We got dressed and ventured out to Salt Lake to go to the temple. Wow, BEAUTIFUL! It was a perfect way to start my birthday! After that we headed to the Gateway to do some shopping. I told Josh that I wanted to go on a shopping spree for my birthday, this weekend we will be going to Park City to the outlet malls but sense we had the time, we figured we would get an early start. Lunch time rolled around and my amazing mother took us out to the Pizza Factory. Josh left the restaurant to go to work, and mom and I headed out shopping. I have to admit, I always thought that I loved to shop. But now, meh not so much. Don't get me wrong, I love getting new things, clothes especially. However finding quality but affordable clothes is not the easiest thing. Its a really good thing that I had great company:) I came home and unloaded my new belongings, I couldn't help but smile. And I am looking forward to Josh coming home so that I can show him. I have been so blessed throughout my life and especially on my birthday.