Border Terrier

- Oh Happy Daze

Our Third Anniversary

Beginning with year one of our marriage I decided I wanted to try and take a photo of Chris and I each year on our anniversary. I am already loving being able to compare Team Baker from each year; what we looked like and how our family has grown.

Year One

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Such babies we were! Ha, just us and Baxter. We should have included our furry first baby in our photo, though now that I know what it’s like to wrangle kids for a photo I am glad we opted for a ‘no puppy photo’ the first year so I don’t feel pressured to have him in it every year. It’s much easier to use my supremely awesome photo shop skills to add him in later if we choose, like this…

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yes, he is in fact wearing a birthday boy hat in this photo.

Baxter’s birthday is the same month and year as our anniversary, so it’s always easy to remember how old he is…or how long we’ve been married… or neither in my case.

Year Two

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Last year a 2 month old Charlotte had added!

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You can read more about our first and second anniversary photos + a bit about our wedding day here and here.

Year Three

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First of all, I just have to say that I am totally distracted by the fact that I am standing on the left in these photos instead of the right like in the previous 2 year’s photos. Totally a first-world problem. I just had to get it out. Whew, moving on.

The wedding-arch-thing is still standing. My dad built it for our wedding and I am still so amazed by how beautiful it was and that it is still {sort of} standing in the woods in their backyard.

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At the time that these photos were taken we still had our first foster squish. I am so glad my mom took these pictures and I couldn’t resist posting this one {with a little mustache censoring to protect squish’s privacy} because it makes me so happy to see how far God has brought us over the past 3 years.
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I pray that the next 50 years creep by; I don’t want to miss a minute of them by being too busy or rushed.

 
 
 

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Snow Day

I will get back to posting weekly {well, maybe bi-weekly?} updates next week so our far away loved ones can stay connected. A lot has happened over the past month. Did you know that January is almost over? Here’s a scary confession for you: I have vacuumed my house two times in 2013. Only twice. One of those times was today after my sister in law came by. We were sitting on the floor while playing with Charlotte  and when I stood up my sweat pants looked like Chewbacca’s legs because of all the Baxter hair on them. Totally disgusting. Not you personally, Chewey… just the fact that I looked like you was disgusting. Also part of the confession, I wore sweat pants almost all day today. I will confess that but I will not apologize for it!images-1

Anyway, the one time I did wear actual clothing today was to venture out into the beautiful snow with the whole family, Baxter dog included. I was excited to see what Charlotte’s reaction to snow would be. And now, without further adieu, please enjoy the nauseatingly adorable pictures of Charlotte and Baxter dog frolicking happily i

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Notice our matching ‘boots with the fur’? Haha, I swear this is as far as the mommy/daughter matching will go. Cross my heart.C standing in snowI made sure Charlotte got the snow sensory experience by letting her touch it. This look says it all: ‘Not interested, Mom’. Maybe because it’s such a boring color, haha. She was definitely more entertained by Baxter’s craziness.

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Charlotte thinks Baxter dog is the bee’s knees; I have to agree, he was very entertaining to watch in the snow. My apologies for the ‘Blare Witch Project’ quality of the video; I am definitely not good at taking video while walking backwards in the snow. I’ll keep my day job.

 

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Big brother Baxter

All day yesterday Baxter moped around the house. He would flop himself down at my feet and let out a big sigh, or just sit and stare at me with sad doggy eyes. I actually texted Chris at work to ask if he had fed Baxter before leaving for work because I thought for sure Baxter was trying to communicate something important to me! “Baxter, bark twice if your daddy didn’t feed you today”! No response, he just sat and stared. Didn’t even play with his toys!

Today it finally dawned on me that in all the hullaboo surrounding our new family addition (Charlotte, of course) I forgot about our first born dog’s birthday! Baxter turned 2 yesterday – EEK! I feel bad that we let it pass by, but he knows we love him regardless. Extra apple slices for you today buddy!

You can read about last year’s celebration HERE and about how Baxter dog became a member of the family HERE.

Baxter is a very good dog. I can’t say that he meets all of my ‘dog requirements’ (If you’re really nosy, they are listed in the link above) but he certainly tries and by the time he started barking and shedding a bit I was already hooked – there was no going back.

Baxter is a very good big brother to Charlotte. Very protective and super calm around her, though he  is always on high alert and nervous that every squirrel, mail man, and leaf blowing by is trying to break into our house and he must bark loud enough to alert everyone on the street.

“What’s that smell? I thought I was the only mess maker in the house”.

 

Happy Birthday Baxter – We are so glad you’re part of our family!

- Oh Happy Daze

Baxter Turns One!

You remember our little doggy Baxter?

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He turned ONE today!

I wrote about our adventure in getting him and how we decided on his name here.

We have tried to be very good parents to Baxter by exposing him to a lot of experiences, taking him to obedience classes, and working on training (like roll over, sit, stay, etc.).

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He has grown up so fast, but is still very much a puppy (thank goodness).

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To celebrate I made a special hat for the birthday boy. Of course, he was scared of it at first. Not to worry, I practically have a bachelors degree in psychology (jk, I really do), but I never thought I’d be using it on my dog (and maybe occasionally my husband).

I allowed Baxter to engage (a speech therapist term, for sure) with the hat on his own terms – you know, sniffing and stalking around it for a few minutes. I also let him play with it in the car on the way to the ‘photo-shoot’ (AKA: my parent’s house).

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By the time we were ready for some pictures he didn’t even bat an eyelash when I stretched that elastic over his head. So proud to wear his birthday hat.

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Of course, we let him run around my parent’s house, harassing the goats and nephews.

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It makes me a little nervous to let him off his leash with so much un-fenced space to run, but he always comes running when I call his name…and that makes me so proud that he is such a good listener!

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