Life Lessons

Many of you may or may not know our family dog, Roscoe, but here he is: 

{so handsome, by the way}

This was taken just a few days ago in my parents' backyard. He has been such a good dog for our family and we love him so much. 

About three weeks ago he slowly stopped eating his dog food. This was worrisome to our family since this is highly unusual for him. Well, then last Sunday and Monday we really started noticing he wasn't acting like himself. My dad took him to the vet last Monday to see what was up. We found out his liver  is failing and that he probably wouldn't live that much longer. 

My dad and I have been working all week to get him feeling better. We have tried many different avenues and some of them seemed to be working for him. He was playing "ball" with me (like his old, happy self), and even letting out a few courtesy barks. But Friday, Saturday, and today we finally realized he is not truly getting better. To make this sad story short, we are going to be putting him down to sleep tomorrow. We feel it the most humane and loving thing to do for him. 

I know most people won't read this, but it is really helpful therapy for me. We love Roscoe and will continue to love him long after he's gone. Up until two weeks ago, he's been such an active and happy dog. He makes us laugh and he is certainly too smart for his own good. :) He is technically my brother Nick's dog, but he has a special place in all of our hearts. If anybody knows Roscoe, you would know that he loves his family and his ball more than anything else. Our family has tried to remain positive throughout this ordeal, and in so doing, had a conversation last week about what Roscoe would have in heaven. We all agreed that it would be very appropriate for him to have golden balls. There would be nothing greater for that ball-loving dog. And its a great comfort to us knowing that we will see him again someday. Here's to our loving, smart, handsome, and caring dog, Roscoe. We will miss you -- and we know, especially, since dog's have a special intuition, that you already know that we will miss you. 

Now on to a happier note -- Here are some super cute pictures of my boy:

We've been getting outside at least once a day when I get home from work (and especially since we wanted to play ball with Roscoe)

It's been quite nippy outside, that's why he is all wrapped warm

Gabe hanging with Great Grandma O and of course, Zoey, who loves to be in the middle of everything

Gabe loves his ketchup

"Talk to the hand" -- haha, that's so 90's, but hilar

The first time we went outside, Gabe made a beeline for this car. 

I know Gabe's a boy, but I had no idea how fast he would love "boy" stuff. He absolutely is in love with cars and trucks. 

Here he is "backing" it up.

Inspecting the hood (?). Such a cutie. 

And Gabe is now 18 months -- a milestone -- mostly because he gets to be in nursery now!

Some stats:

He is almost 23 pounds (4th percentile)

He is 30 inches long (11th percentile)

And I can't remember how big his head was, but I remember the % -- 40!

Zoey, A Princess (Oh and Gabe too)

So I was cleaning stuff up in my room and I found this little do dad for our dog Zoey. Haha. My dad begged me not to put it on her, but she's a girl, so I couldn't resist! She hated it, I'm almost positive.



Then .... the GOOD NEWS ........

Gabe is WALKING!!!

Look, no hands!

 And finally ... this heck-a funny picture of Gabe & me

Man's Best Friend: Woof Woof

When my dad was out here for Ale's graduation, we went to the Museum of Idaho's "Wolf to Woof" exhibit. It show cases the history of wolves and dogs. If anybody knows our family, we LOVE dogs. We've had many family dogs and we have little Zoey and big Roscoe right now. Well, we really enjoyed this exhibit, and I suggest if you love dogs, you take your family too. They had various quotes about dogs around the musuem, and I'd like to share a couple of my favorites:

• "He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader." --Anonymous
• "In the beginning, God created man, but seeing him so feeble, He gave him the dog." --Toussenel
• "I wonder if other dogs think poodles are members of a weird religous cult." --Rita Rudner

Outside the front of the musuem

Jill is pointing to the two breeds that make up her little Zoey (chihuahua and Jack Russell Terrier)

I'm pointing to Roscoe's breed -- good ole Golden Retriever

It was awesome that we could take pictures -- and they had some cool displays we could take advantage of :)

Jill so kindly walking one of the display dogs (I can't remember what kind it was)

August 2009, California Trip

I have another post below this one, so don't miss the opportunity to check out that post too!

Alejandro and I went to California to visit my family on August 8-17th. That seems like a long time, but it really went by too fast! Since I am almost ready to have our baby, we really didn't do too many activities. I am getting more and more tired, so we hung out at my parents house, as well as my older sister Tiffany's apartment. We baby sat for Tiff a few times and saw her kids pretty much every day. I didn't take too many pictures of us, but mostly the kids and my baby shower.

On Friday, we went down to San Francisco to get Alejandro's passport renewed. My dad, mom, Jill, Stacie, as well as Alejandro and I went down to the Uruguayan consulate. It was just a room in a real estate firm's building. That cracked us all up because we always make fun of the fact that Uruguay is such a small country. But when we walked in the room, there was a huge bookshelf and on the bookshelf was a picture of President Spencer W. Kimball. All of us were shocked to see that, especially in the middle of downtown San Francisco. We asked the Uruguayan consulate if that was his picture, but it wasn't. I guess it belonged to the owner of this real estate firm, which is HUGE and has many offices throughout the country. The owner is now over 80 years old and has Parkinson's disease, so he doesn't work any more. But the real estate agent working told us that this man is LDS and had known President Kimball and even went to school with the elder George Bush at Yale. It was pretty cool seeing that picture. My sisters took a picture with the picture, even.

Besides hanging out, we were able to go shopping and out to eat with my Grandma and Grandpa Ommen, as well as go to a few of our favorite places to eat, including Lincoln Chinese (THE best Chinese food on the planet). We stayed in most of the time since it was extremely hot! Well, here are some highlights from our trip:

Jill with her little furry friend Zoey. I always have to get a picture in of our dogs. I didn't get any good pictures of Roscoe.

My nephews Zander and Keaton. Keaton was trying to fit into his old bouncer. It's too small for him though! Zander was offering me a piece of watermelon. :)

With Keaton. I had the hardest time getting him to smile for the camera! He is such a muffin.

I posted this mainly to show how big I am now, since it really isn't flattering for anyone in the picture .. ha ha. This was on Saturday, August 15th, and I am 35 weeks along!

My baby shower cake. Sorry about my cleavage...I can't really help it at this point.

One of the many baby shower opening presents pictures. I also wanted to show my funky new haircut, courtesy of my mama. It's really cute though.

At the baby shower with my sisters and mom, from L-R: Stacie, Jill, me, Tiffany, and my mom. They were so awesome in throwing such a wonderful baby shower for me.

Keaton finally smiling! Tiffany had to tickle him for me to catch it on camera. He has the cutest, heart-melting smile, but he never does it for the camera. So glad I got a snap shot of it!

Our family's newest addition... our little Lacie love. What a sweet heart too. Seriously the best baby ever. I hope I am lucky enough to have a baby that's a good of sleeper/eater as she is.

My mom did Jill's hair (highlights), but we all had planned to play games at Tiffany's apt., so she left the foils in and drove over to Tiff's. But Jill actually had to walk out of the car and through a crowd of 12 year old boys looking like this in order to get to Tiffany's apt. She said they all turned and stared at her while she walked up the stairs to her apt. She's never been so embarrased! Ha ha

We also celebrated Jill's 18th birthday party while we were in town. Her real birthday was actually on August 17th. Can't believe my youngest sibling is now 18! Here she is with Nick (who doesn't look to happy) and little Z man. The cake was absolutely disgusting though. We have always enjoyed my G'ma Ommen's homemade cake, but she's getting too old to make them now and had to order it from Winco... don't ever order from there, it was gross!

FaMiLy!!

This is the rest of the trip I had with my family over Thanksgiving. My mom, Jill, and I went to see that movie "August Rush," and they had this display up with a bathtub so we decided to take some pics. These old ladies walked by and offered take a picture with all three of us in the tub. It was funny. Tiff and Ben also got a trampoline and it was so much fun to jump on it with Zander, since it was his first time! I also enjoyed playing with Roscoe and Zoey and watching Keaton laugh and smile. There are few things that make me happier than spending time with my family. I was glad to come back to Rexburg, not for the freaking cold weather, but to see Ale again.

In the bathtub with the future Lochness Monster

Mom, Jill, and me

Roscoe waiting for me to throw his beloved ball

Nick eating his daily banana.

Nick was making Keaton laugh. Keaton has the cutest smile!

Little K laughing....what a munchkin!!

Jumping on the trampoline with Zander