A Little Time Outside

Outside With The Pups

We Got Frodo 1 Year Ago

We made this 2 days after we got him. . .

Lilly, A Little Photo Attention

I figured since Frodo got some blog attention I needed to give Lilly some so she didn't get jealous. Here's a few photos.

Begging to get up (like always).

Frodo was saying, "back-off Lilly, this is my toy".

Frodo's New Shirt

Thanks to Tricia for the oh so cute Big Bird t-shirt for Frodo! It fits perfectly and he seems to like it. In fact, he slept in it the first night he had it! So cute! Thanks Tricia, Nathan, and Gwyn!



Sarah Elizabeth

A Tour Of Our Home

As requested by Tricia (and many others, but most recently Tricia). . .

When We First Got Frodo

He was a little fluff-ball.  We've nearly had him for a year and he's now 1 year old.  Here's a video of the first two weeks we had him.

The Parents Visit

A couple of weeks ago my parents came down for a visit, their first visit here to Vero Beach. It was so nice to have them here. Made Vero feel more like home with them here. While they were here we gave them a general tour of the area; drove through Dodger Town and walked on the boardwalk at the beach.

On Thursday we went to Busch Gardens in Tampa. It started out a miserable day, raining and a little chilly. I was thinking that our whole day there would be ruined because of the rain. But by noon the rain was gone! And because of the rain there was NO ONE at the park. It was so nice, we didn't have to wait in line for a single thing all day, we sat in the best seats at the shows, and had no one in the way to view the animal exhibits. It was the best Busch Gardens Tampa experience I had ever had!

"Mom and a bird."

"Me and a bunch of birds."

"Us and a bird."

"Dad and a giant lizard."

On Saturday we had our youth Christmas party, which was pretty fun. We got Mom to help cook, so the meal was perfect! We ate too much, played dirty santa, sang Christmas carols, read the Christmas story, and gave the kids stockings full of goodies. It was a great time!




On Sunday Dad preached at our church here. It was really nice to hear him preach; I miss my church back home in NC. Forest Park BC seemed to enjoy him too; at least that is what they said, and I hope they aren't a bunch of liars! lol!

Other than those events we mostly just hung around at home, like we would have done if we were in NC. Frodo actually seemed to start to warm up to Mom a bit, which is saying something for him.

It was so wonderful to you have you here, Mom and Dad! Come again soon!

Sarah Elizabeth

Ready for Christmas

In preparation for our trip to Terry's parents for Christmas, which will be in the mountains of NC, we bought Frodo a coat. He is a chihuahua who lives in Florida, so we know that he will be freezing. I just wanted to share how pimp Frodo is. Enjoy.

Sarah Elizabeth

Halloween

At Staples we had 3 spirit days last week, the 30, 31, and 1. It reminded me of spirit days back in high school. Thursday was crazy hair day and backwards day. Crazy hair, obvious. Backwards - we wore our uniform backwards. We were able to wear jeans too. I was the only one who managed to wear my jeans backwards, I just had to be careful about bending over all day.


Friday, Halloween, we got to wear a costume. I was a pirate, arrr! It was fun! There were some pretty cool costumes.


Saturday was red, white, and blue day and hat day. I opted out of the hat, but I did wear red, white, and blue. I didn't get a pic of this day. I was so nice to be able to wear something other than the red shirt and black pants. 

Frodo got to enjoy dressing us also. He is so good about wearing stuff. He pulled off a bumble bee rather well I would say.

Sarah Elizabeth

Cold

Believe it or not, it actually got a bit chilly here in Florida. A record low for October actually. Yesterday we woke up to around 50 degrees. I walked to work, beautiful outside! All day at work there were people coming in in sweaters, jackets, and even some in coats. It was a bit humorous, especially in the afternoon when it was around 65 degrees. Poor little Frodo has been cold, so he slept in bed with us last night cuddled up to Terry the whole time for warmth. We need to get him a sweater. It has been quite refreshing to be a little cold here and it not be caused by the ac. It finally feels like Fall!

Sarah Elizabeth

Tug o War

Our Vacation

We are now back in Florida after spending a wonderful week back on the OBX. While we were there we got to spend lots of time with my parents, Nathan, Tricia, and Gwyneth, and Rachel and Ramon. We hung out at my parents house a lot just relaxing and enjoying their company. We got to see a lot of Tricia and Gwyneth, which was really nice considering what all they have been through this year and what we have missed. She is a beautiful baby and has those beautiful Lawrenson blue eyes. It was a great week catching up with the family.

We were also able to spend some time with friends. I was able to see several at Gwyneth's baby shower, and we saw several at Nags Head Church on Sunday morning. It was great to be able to go to church there! I miss it! I was able to swing by Kitty Hawk Kites and The Culinary Duck to say hi to some old co-workers (sorry I missed you Heather!), and that was nice.

We never made it to the beach, sad, but we did make it to La Fogata twice! I really miss some good Mexican food here. The local chain just doesn't cut it. On Saturday we went with some friends to see Batman, which rocked! Sunday I planned a girls night out. We went to Barefoot Burnies for some good food, then we went to see Momma Mia!, and that was awesome, even better than Batman!

The only bad part of the trip was our flights back. We were delayed a few hours in Norfolk, but luckily our flight out of Charlotte was delayed too, so we made that. We finally got home at 4am, so I slept until 12:10 today.

Monday was our anniversary. We ate our cake topper, which wasn't half bad for being in the freezer for a whole year. We decided not to do anything special by ourselves and took the chance to spend more time with our family. It was a good day thinking back of our first year as one.

And thanks to Karie and Paul & Diane for keeping and taking care of Lilly for us.

Friday night the family went to the beach for some family portraits. Nathan took all of them, and he did a great job! All of these pics are courtesy of Nathan. Thanks Nate!

Frodo flew like a pro; he did great both times. He got to hang with Nate's dog Meka all week. Frodo liked Meka a bit too much, if you take my meaning.


We had a great time on our vacation, and can't wait for you all to come and vacation with us!

Sarah Elizabeth

Frodo the Heart Breaker

We took Frodo to Petsmart to get him some apparel, for he had none yet. We decided on this studly sailor outfit, so he can impress the ladies.


And on the way home we saw that the brand new Petco was now open, so we swung in there and found Frodo a sharp looking polo shirt for more casual wear.



Frodo is officially ready to go out on the town!

Frodo, The Food Thief

It's a little boring to watch. Too bad I don't have a Mac or something so I can put in some voice overs. You can just imagine what Frodo is thinking. "What's that noise Lilly?". . ."Look over there!!!". . .

But Frodo does this every single night! Lilly often growls and barks at him.

If you click on the video and view it on YouTube Frodo talks.

Frodo

Frodo getting a bath in the sink

Frodo at puppy training

Frodo is one of my most favorite things in this world, so I figured I could blog about him. He will be six months old on July 10. His birthday is two days after Gwyn's. When we got him in March, he and Gwyneth weighed the same. And because Gwyn wasn't gaining weight fast, they stayed neck and neck for a few months, which made it pretty interesting. We could pick up Frodo and say, "Gwyneth must be about this big and is this heavy".

Frodo has his papers, even though his father is a long haired and his mother is a short haired chihuahua. Because he is mixed he is the cutest thing ever! I don't see why more breeders aren't mixing the two. He doesn't have the full mane or tail of a long haired, but he definitely has more fluff than a short haired. Behind his ears is really fluffy. He really is the cutest chi I have ever seen!

I have never seen another dog that is as sweet and affectionate as Frodo, at least to Terry and I. He is afraid of everyone else. Luckily that fear hasn't turned into him nipping and biting at other people like some chis do. With Terry and I he is the sweetest companion! If we let him he would give us kisses 24/7. He doesn't play rough with us, which is good because he has sharp little teeth.

We went to PetSmart for a puppy training class that lasted 8 weeks. Frodo learned how to sit, lay down (which the trainer didn't think he would ever do, most small dogs won't lay down, but Frodo does!), stay, leave it, and shake. He can also fetch pretty good, which is quite entertaining to watch when we give him a normal size tennis ball. He has to carry it by the fuzz. He is, for the most part, an obedient dog, although he is still in puppy mode so we aren't too hard on him yet like we are with Lilly.

Weighing in at just under 5 lbs, he is the medium size for a chi. He is too big to be a teacup by a few lbs, but luckily he is quite smaller than chis can get. To breed, the male should be under 6 lbs, preferably under 5, so Frodo just made the cut. We plan on breeding him, and maybe one day getting a female so that we can have the puppies at our house! He was the cutest puppy ever, so I know that he will have cute puppies!

We are bringing him to the OBX with us, so if you see us, you will probably see Frodo. Other than Terry, Frodo is my best friend here. And Frodo and Lilly get along great! They play for hours everyday.


Sarah Elizabeth