these two

That's all.

two peas in a pod

 

Carlisle loves to be by Bentley's side. Most of the time she is more interested in him than me, but this past week, we have been curling up and watching Christmas movies together while the boys do their own thing. We have caught everything from The Grinch, The Polar Express {my favorite}, and even Beauty and the Beast and Finding Nemo on abc family. She curls up on her blanket at the end of the bed. And if it's too early to get in bed, we curl up in the den with the room lit by only a pine scent candle and the lights on our tree.

Look how little! This is one of my favorite pictures I've taken of Carlisle throughout her first six months of life...I was still in the bed and Wesley had left for the golf course, and I snapped the picture with my phone. OK, actually I snapped several. She is the little love of my life. And she is on the bathroom floor and not in the bed with me only because at this point she still couldn't make it up there on her own. Now, she jumps on the bed more often than we would like her to...we have a white comforter and she is a tom-boy who likes to get dirty in our backyard, but that usually slips my mind and I give in and let her cuddle anyways.

Did I mention Bentley was 126 lbs to her 7 lbs? When we took Carlisle to her first vet appointment almost five weeks ago Bentley was due for his yearly check-up the same week, and while I already knew he was stronger than me, he officially had quite a few lbs on me. Luckily, Carlisle has doubled her weight since then and now weighs in at 14 lbs {she's not a chubby puppy- she's right on track!}. And a part of me hopes she stays smaller, but on the other hand it'd be great if they were closer in size. She loves him, but unfortunately for now it's unrequited love! 

[They've done some damage to our back door, but I've accepted that's just part of it!]

You never really realize how much they've grown until you look back.

Carlisle: the new addition

This cute little thing standing next to Bentley, we picked up off the side of the road. She was so pitiful, panting and dirty... and her little puppy stomach and paws were on fire from the street's hot pavement.  There wasn't anything in sight for miles except for undeveloped land, mainly just woods.  Once we got her home, bathed and in the air condition, you would never had pinned her as a stray. I hate thinking back to how she was before we came along. I can't imagine that someone would actually have dropped her off close to where we found her, but I'm almost certain that had to be the case.

She was declared a healthy, 7 pound, 8-10 week old at the vet. It's possible she is a lab mix but there's no way to know for sure {well, except for expensive test results!}. And Bentley's not too sure about her, but hopefully they will grow to become friends! One thing is for sure though, I had absolutely no idea how much my life would change with this little one. My priorities have shifted and my schedule seems to revolve around her. I just hate leaving her!

I feel like finding her was meant to be and the thought of giving her away to a shelter was out of the question after one night with her. So, of course a trip to Pet Smart was a must for her and I began to understand why people have always said that once you have children you begin to spend all your money on them when I could not resist all the cute Martha Stewart pet products!

Baby Bentley

This 100+ pounder may be intimidating at first, but he is nothing but an over-sized baby when it comes down to it! Having Bentley around is somewhat like having a baby - in the sense that he constantly needs our attention. When we first bought our house, we intentionally had a special fenced in area built for him so that when he is out in the backyard he couldn't scratch on the back door. But it didn't last for long. He howled so loud the first couple of days, I'm surprised we didn't have any knocks on our doors. We have since let him have the whole back yard, only for us to endure the scratches on the back door and the howls turn to whines. And for two nights in a row he has whined in the middle of night loud enough to wake me and keep me up... at which point I leaned over and jabbed Wesley to say, "Bentley is crying, can you go get him?". Bentley, I love you, but I'm not yet ready to have a baby, so please grow up and let me get some sleep!! {Not in a harsh tone, more of a beggar's plea!}