ANOTHER FAMILY PIC

We take Nixon almost everywhere. He is like a little celebrity. Everybody gets so excited when they see him and they all say, " OMG! He is so cute!" He loves the attention.

SILLY GIRLS

Friday night we were able to babysit our nieces, Brooklynn and Maylee. Ashley and Paul had a work Christmas party they wanted to attend so we took the girls for the evening. Brooklynn had a pre-school Christmas program that we went to and watched her perform some Christmas carols with her classmates. It was really cute. Brooklynn's request for dinner was hamburger and french fries so we took the girls to In-N-Out. They were were a lot of fun. Maylee likes to dip her finger in the ketchup and lick it off, and just suck the ketchup off the fries. Brooklynn wanted a strawberry shake and she shared it with everyone. It gave Maylee a brain freeze. We got them some hats and took this silly picture outside before we left.
After dinner we took them to see some Christmas lights in Temecula. The street is Bainbridge ct,  off Winchester and Willow. If you haven't been there you gotta go this week. It is pretty amazing. Every house is loaded with lights and they have music playing that the lights coordinate with. You can get out and walk around or stay in your car and tune your radio to a station that has the music playing. The girls loved the lights and were little troopers. It was pretty cold and windy that night but I think they really liked the lights. We always enjoy spending time with our cute and adorable nieces. We have 3 right now, but by next year we could have 5. Both of our sisters are pregnant, Ashley knowing she is having another girl and the verdict is still out for Lauren. Either way we are excited for them and can't wait for next year! This is one of the houses that we saw the other night.

QUICK FAMILY PICTURE

OUR NEW RIDE

Shortly after Brooke and I got married I sold my Acura Integra, which was an awesome car and I miss it, but since then I have been driving my dad's old civic aka the "Silver Bullet" until Brooke and I were ready to buy a new car. It has taken us awhile to be ready to buy a new car because we wanted to avoid having two car payments. Well, the Silver Bullet took a turn for the worse last week and might have to be put down which left me without a car. It was time to buy a new car. The timing was okay because we only have one more car payment on the Scion Xa. We are very excited about that!
We have been looking at cars for awhile and test drove a few cars recently, knowing that the one car we had would be paid off soon. We went back and forth with looking at small SUV's or a sedan. I would have like to get a ForeRunner or something like that to be able to take to the snow, put snowboards and bikes on etc. The price on those is just too much for us right now and not practical with gas prices. We decided to go with a sedan. A nice family car and it gives us a lot more room than the Scion. We really liked the Acura's and pretty much narrowed our search down between the TSX and TL. A few nights after the Civic died we drove out to Riverside to look at the  Acura dealership because online it looked like they had the largest selection of certified pre-owned TSX's. Lucky for us a few hours before we got there someone turned in their lease and we ended up getting the deal we wanted on it and bought the car that night. It all worked out and was good timing. We are really happy with the car and it came with pretty much everything we were looking for. The title of this post should say..." Brooke's New Ride" because it is her car, but she lets me drive every once in awhile.

TRIP TO THE EMERGENCY PET CLINIC

Sunday afternoon we went over to a friends house to BBQ for dinner and of course we brought little Nixon. My buddy hadn't seen Nixon yet and wanted to hold him. When Nixon meets new people he gets really excited and when you are holding him he gets really squirmy and wants to lick your whole face, which makes it hard to hold him. Well, Nixon was just out of control and just too excited and got away from my buddy and fell on the ground and hit his head pretty good. He seemed okay and normal, wanting to run around and play. About 20 minutes later he wasn't himself. He became very sleepy and lethargic and then threw up. Soon as he threw up I was thinking that he had a concussion from hitting his head. We became pretty concerned and wondered if we should get him checked out. Then he threw up again. I got on the phone and made a call to the Emergency Pet Clinic in Temecula and the said to definitely bring him in. While I was on the phone, Nixon threw up two more times. I then rushed home got my wallet and we took off to the see the vet. They checked him out as soon as we got there and his vitals were normal and they said that he was stable, but we still knew he wasn't feeling or acting right. After meeting with the Vet and going over options we decided that we wanted to keep him there for further monitoring so they could give him and IV and some medication to help prevent any swelling in the brain and alleviate any pain he might be having. By the time we had left the pet clinic Nixon had thrown up 9 times. Poor guy. We left the clinic around 6:30 last night hoping everything would be okay and that in the morning we would be able to pick him up. It was really weird to be home and not have Nixon running around, jumping on the couch, biting Brooke's feet and we missed him. We were about to go to bed and decided to call the clinic at about 9:30 to check on him to see how he was doing. The vet told us that he was doing wonderful and that we could come pick him up in 30 minutes if we wanted. We put on our shoes and were out the door to bring him home. All the nurses loved Nixon and were having a great time playing with him. He was back to normal, running around licking your face and wanting to play. The extra fluids and medication helped. When we got home he wanted to play and eat like nothing ever happened. He is a tough little guy. Brooke said he takes after me, referring to the concussion. I thought it was pretty funny. He is home now and doing just fine, but gave us a little scare. Thanks to all our family and friends that kept him in their thoughts and prayers.

STOP GROWING PLEASE

Nixon is getting so big already. The picture in the previous post is a picture taken maybe about a week after we brought him home. This picture was taken today. We are hoping that he doesn't get too big when he is fully grown and stays short and stalky. We like having a little pup and don't want him to grow up like most parents.

NIXON'S FAVORITES

We have had Nixon for a little over a month now. I think he has almost doubled in size since the day we brought him home. He is a little over 3 months old now and into everything. He has to sniff and lick everything. I think he has tried to chew on every pillow, chair,  shoe and everything else he can reach. Fortunately he hasn't destroyed or ruined anything. (Knock on wood) Nixon does have a few favorite things that he loves to do.

-Scratch at the cupboard where we keep his food. He would constantly eat if we allowed him to. We are already down to feeding him from 3 times a day to twice a day
-Try and reach the toilet paper in the bathroom. He has unraveled one roll already
-Loves to jump into the laundry basket
- He loves to play and run laps around our little place. He has a little hiding spot under a chest in our living room. Not sure how much longer he we be able to fit underneath it
- Loves to jump onto the dish washer when we are loading dishes
-He really likes to fetch and bring you back his toy
-He loves car rides already, even though he usually ends up falling asleep in the car
-He now knows what the leash means, and loves to go on little walks
-Nixon is great with other little dogs and just wants to run around and play

 He is definitely a mamma's boy. If Brooke is home he has to know where she is at all times, and follows her around every where she goes. We don't know why and we can't get him to stop but he constantly has to be nipping and biting at Brooke's ankles. He doesn't do it to me, just Brooke. He really hasn't learned what the word, "NO!" means. Hopefully soon.