Christmas 2011

For Christmas, PaPa and NaNa came down to spend the weekend with us. We had a fabulous time. We watched movies, told stories, made cookies, opened presents, and more importantly, we made WONDERFUL memories.




We celebrated Christmas by waking up and opening gifts, eating a delicious homemade breakfast and then playing with our new toys santa brought.

For breakfast, PaPa and NaNa made homemade biscuits and sausage gravy. It was delicious!

Santa brought NaNa a 8x10 picture, he brought PaPa a new magnetic light for his garage, and Zulu a HUGE rawhide.




Brad got a 3-ton jack, a creeper for the garage and new jack stand.




Dani got an iPad. I think Santa spoiled all of us rotten, but especially me. I love my new toy and take it everywhere. In fact, I might even have to start blogging more. Now there is no excuse. :)

Zulu really warmed up to PaPa and NaNa this trip. Especially NaNa because she was here every morning when she woke up. She followed her around everywhere, tried to get in the shower with her and cuddled with her every time NaNa sat down.










Zulu sharing her bone with PaPa!

We had a fantastic holiday and feel very blessed to have shared it with family. How wonderful it was to have PaPa and NaNa want to spend the holiday with us. We enjoyed their company more than they will ever know.

Merry Christmas!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Christmas photos

One very windy Corpus Christi day, this little family ventured out to ATTEMPT to take photos for our Christmas cards.














A windy day, a disagreeable dog and 100+ photos later and we had our Christmas card photos.




Merry Christmas!

Love, The Breedloves

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

This was our first tree, during its first round of decoration. 

Insert a 10 month old chocolate lab who has never seen a Christmas tree and you too would have to redecorate your Christmas tree several times. 

By the end of our Christmas trees (yes, plural) life, all the ornaments were at the top foot and a half of the tree. Silly dog. 

Setting up

Putting the lights on

Tada! See that starfish to the left. Yep, that was Zulu's favorite attack ornament. 

I think she was attracted to the smell of it - it smells like the ocean. 

Are those presents I see?

Our Christmas tree and Elf. Perfect holiday!

We did end up with a dead tree about 7 days after the first purchase. We were devastated by the loss of our first tree but the second tree we bought was just as perfect. Despite the needles, you can't beat the Christmas tree smell. 

This last Sunday PaPa and NaNa came for a quick visit to see our home, meet Zulu and spend some quality time with Brad and I. Since October of 2010, we have seen PaPa and NaNa a couple times, but we have never had one-on-one time with them, so this was extremely special.

P & N are winter birds here in Texas and stay about 3.5 hours north of Corpus Christi for the winter months. This year they will be here until February/March and Brad and I plan on seeing them as much as we can. We are already looking forward to the few days we will see them for Thanksgiving. We are planning on heading up there and spending the day at a charity event that P & N have gone to for the past several years! Uncle Rick, Aunt Christy, and cousins, Courtney, Paul, Jarrod and Lauren will also be there. I am looking forward to Brad meeting MORE family (poor guy!) and he is excited to see Uncle Rick - he just adores him. (:

Then, a couple weeks after Thanksgiving Brad and I will head back up to see P & N for a BBQ that will be held at the VFW. P brought some pigs with him from Idaho and the VFW is going to be smoking them up. This is the same thing we did at Uncle Rick's in Amarillo in March, which we had a great time doing.

We really enjoyed our time with them. P & Brad talked about flying ALL day long. It was great to watch them interact all day. I just love that they love Brad!
 
During their visit we had a chance to visit the flight line and the Navy even let us crawl inside of a plane and hang out for a while. So neat - we would of never been able to do that in Enid! The guys chatted about flying and NaNa and I watched some of the active planes taxi and takeoff.

 Talking about flying!

 

Running checklists

 

 

NaNa! 

 

PaPa!

 

Pilot briefing his crew. (: 

 

T-44's!

 

PaPa and Zulu. She loved them! 

 

NaNa and Zulu

We can't wait to see them at Thanksgiving and to share the holiday with them and other family. It will be great to have them so close for a few months! We love you P & N!

It's "ruff" to be Zulu!

In the Breedlove house, it's "ruff" to be a dog!

Recently..

Recently Brad has been studying like a crazy mad man. Him and his buddy Chris are flying partners so they are getting together during the week to chair fly, study and memorize.

He has also been working on a new project - building us a dining room table. It's pretty awesome and I can't wait until he finishes so that we can share pictures!

Brad's also been super into his juicing diet. He has been eating a ton of fruit and vegetables and getting the maximum use out of his juicer. He has nothing but positive things to say about it, mainly about how much energy he has with how little he is eating. He has 7 days left in the 15 day program that they recommend. I'm sure he will succeed!

I have recently taken a seasonal retail position with Bath & Body Works. Not necessarily what I was hoping to do, but I am  enjoying it. You can't beat awesome discounts, especially around the holidays. I've already worked 4 shifts, but I am only part-time, which is working out perfect. It's just a little extra income for the holidays, especially as we plan our Christmas skiing adventure. Looking forward to spending some time in the snow this year!

Without gloating to much, I am excited for a potential temporary management position for the holidays with the company. The store manager and I met today and she asked me if I would be interested in the opportunity. Even if I don't get chosen for the position, its an honor to be recognized and approached for such an opportunity - especially with only 4 shifts under my belt!

Fall is in the air around here and Zulu has certainly taken notice. She has a crazy case of the zoomies and has spent ALL day outside today. It truly is wonderful to open all the doors and windows, shut off the air conditioner and watch a fall movie.

Which leads me to the fact that Brad is making me wait until Halloween to watch Hocus Pocus. How RUDE! I love that movie. That and Double, Double Toil and Trouble with Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen. Yes, im 24. Yes, I just admitting to loving that movie. Your point?


The monster and I had some fun with photobooth, as you can see here:

A day at the beach

Things we love about the beach:

- Living 15 min from a superb beach location

- Finding itty, bitty clams - by the thousands

- Zulu plays. A lot!

- Zulu playing a lot means she wears herself out. That makes happy puppy owners

- Sun! Sun! Sun! Oh, and I guess water. But salt water has sharks and jelly fish and spiny pokey things that bite, OH MY!

Enter the Breedlove pup debate

Brad and I have decided that within the next couple months we are going to get a dog blood analysis test done on Zulu.

When we got Zulu we didn't care what she was we just loved her and were thankful that we were able to rescue her. But as time has progressed we have conducted "mutt" research and we began to think that she was a chocolate labmaraner until we stumbled upon pictures of a german shorthaired pointer.

Then the debate began. I wont tell you which one of us thinks what, but we shall see when the test results come in.

That is, of course, after we get the test, take the blood and send it in...


Exhibit A - Zulu

Exhibit B - Chocolate labmaraner

 

Exhibit C - German Shorthaired Pointer

  

By.the.way - I sorta wish I lived in Southern Ontario so that Scruffy Dog could take our photos.
 
Seriously. Best pet photos EVER! Check 'um out here. Adorable!

Back to the debate.

Is it just me, or do they look exactly the same? Doesn't matter. I've cast my vote in the super secret sealed envelope hidden underneath the bed and I just KNOW when we get the blood test back, it will say __________________ . (: