Life, and the wonderful mess that it is!

So, I am quickly learning that being a mommy is a lot harder than it looks. Er, grandma? Whatever, you know what I mean.

Lily's puppies are growing so fast, as are their functions. They've recently just started "doing their business" all on their own. For those of you who have never had a fresh litter of puppies, when they are first born, their mother (careful, this is gross.) will stimulate them to go to the bathroom... and then she eats it. It's gross, but fabulous for those of us who live with them. They've just begun this little miracle of "potty-ing" on their bed, and as much as I love to do laundry, it's just not fun. AND IT BEGINS!

I will admit though, Lily has been an awesome mommy so far. She cuddles them, and feeds them, almost whenever they want to eat, and she even keeps them pretty clean. They smell so good, with their new little puppy breath, too. My mom can't get enough of them, although, they are still at that cute irresistible phase. And amazingly, I thought they would all be adopted by now, but the fear of owning a new little puppy is too much for people to handle.

Yes, they chew.

Yes, they have accidents.

Yes, they will love your new pair of red high heels. (And YES, I know from experience.)

But the undying love and joy they will bring to your family is undeniable! When we first brought Abbey home, she wanted to play non-stop. I thought she was crazy! Come to find out, that's normal for a puppy to behave that way. Anyways, the puppies sure are becoming a very important part of our lives and it will be sad when they go to their forever homes.

My job is going pretty well, and I'm enjoying it enough. Although, I think I'm getting carpal tunnel sitting in front of my computer all day. Haha, I guess that's what happens. I've made a great friend at work, her name is Megan. Go figure. And no, she's not an imaginary friend that I named after myself. She's pretty cool, and we like a lot of the same things. She's into animals too... not quite the way I am, but almost. And she LOVES cats. She's married, and although still very young, has a eight year old son. They are a wonderful family and I can't wait to get to know them all better.

Jared is doing pretty well, just enjoying life and where it takes us. He loves Lily to pieces, and the puppies too. It's really cute to watch him love on all of them.

This year has started out pretty well, so we couldn't be more grateful. Let's hope that it's a sign as to how the rest of the year will turn out. (We need it!) My birthday is in a few weeks, so I'm sure we'll end up doing something fun, so I will be able to update you with a few pictures. Tyler and Grandma are doing well also; G-ma just turned 93 in January, so we couldn't be more thrilled. Tyler is loving his job too, which is great. My family is doing pretty well, and they have a few things to look forward to this year also. Matt will be graduating from High School (I know, it's insane!) which is a really big deal. Go Matt!

I guess that's really all there is to say this week, but keep checking out the puppies blog because I'll continue to update it with their progress. I guess I had better get back to work now. We'll chat again soon! :)

Lily, our new girl!

Hey everyone! Guess what? We have something very exciting to share with you!

Two Friday's ago, we decided (spur of the moment) to bring in a foster dog who had literally no where to go. She was completely pregnant, and abandoned in the snow for quite awhile. When we brought her in, she stunk and looked so tired. She was very timid around us, and quickly learned that she liked all of the attention!

On this past Saturday, Lily had her puppies! We were worried about them all being okay, but they were just fine. She had seven little babies, all of which are darling! I wanted to be sure to share the news with all of you. If you would like to see pictures and hear more about the puppies, please go to: http://www.peyton-puppies.blogspot.com/

If you would consider adopting one of the puppies, please visit http://www.lolin.org/ (Love of Labs Indiana) and fill out an adoption application.

We would love to see them all go to loving families!

All our love,
The Peyton's

Paintings by Peyton

I think I need to make a new blog for just my art! I wanted to share a few of them with you!

They are all for sale, so if you're interested, just let me know.

These are just some of the more recent ones.

If you want information (sizes, mediums, prices) look me up on my Facebook.com account.

Enjoy.

2007 in Review!

This past year has had so many wonderful things happen, and I can't help but reflect on them. (This is where consistant journal writting would be helpful.) Let's see what I can remember just from memory.

In January, I was working hard with Keller Williams. Jared and I had a pretty laid back month and not too much was happening (which was good now looking back on what was to come this year.)

February was the beginning of us being busy! First we had the Superbowl party for the Superbowl that we won (YAY!!!!) which was a lot of fun. And then we had my 21st birthday which was quite a celebration. Only for Ashley to close out the month with a trip to the hospital to have her appendix removed. (Thanks Ash.)

Most of the excitement in March was my mom joining me at Keller Williams. I also was rear ended by a dump truck, which ended up smashing up the Honda and leaving it inoperable for about a month or so. We borrowed Grandma's car until it was fixed, and then went back to life as normal. (The weather was perfect this month, might I add.)

April is when our summer started to pick up, with a quick weekend trip to the resort in French Lick. We drove down with Gma and Tyler, and had a fun weekend just eating and gambling.

In May, Matt finally got his drivers license and started driving all on his own. I have pictures to prove it. Haha. I painted the kitchen, and planted the first flowers in our garden. My flowers bloomed by the end of the month and we had the prettiest house on the block. Given there were only three other houses ON the block. :)

June was insane! We started June off with a bang by taking a mother-daughter trip to Chicago for a weekend. We visited Navy Pier, the Sears Tower, the now famous Tommy Guns Garage, and of course the CSI Exhibit. It was such a fun weekend. The very NEXT weekend, Jared and I drove up to Chicago to celebrate our 2 year anniversary. It was so much fun! (Both weekends were so much fun it is insane!) We took a speed boat ride around the pier, and went to the infamous Tony and Tina's wedding Dinner (just to recap, DON'T GO THERE!). I almost went to jail in June, because I didn't show up for Jury Duty, but thankfully the judge was nice and let me off with a warning. We visited the Fishers Freedom Festival the last weekend in June and had fun the rain watching the fireworks for the fourth of July.

We celebrated the Fourth of July by visiting some family for a week in California. We ate at In-'n-out, and drove red hot convertable mustangs! We also learned of a new food group called Pole-Pockets (hold your jokes please.)

August came really quickly, leading us back into the working mindset after our two months of play. We went to the Dave Matthews Band concert with Tyler and his friends and had a really good time. I also started volunteering for Habitat for Humanity this month which continued through the end of November, and was a lot of fun.

September is when reality hit, and Jared sent me out to find a job. Ick! I landed a good job with an Architecture company in an executive assistant position. I'm still there, so something must be working out right. (I like being able to pay my bills.) :) Jared also took a promotion at work this month, and is now a salaried manager well on his way to becoming Assistant General Manager.

October was full of madness too. Ashley and I decided to throw my parents a 25th wedding anniversary party, which turned out to be a lot of fun. We enjoyed suprising our parents (they had NO idea!) I also took my first ever business trip to Pennsylvannia, and had a blast. Who knew work could be so much fun?? It also forced me to get out of my comfort zone and strech myself a little which was good. We had an addition to our family in late October which led to a lof of enjoyment and fun. Abbey, our new dog, joined the clan, and is still learning to get along with the kitties. She's also caused us to rent a carpet shampooer twice since! haha!

The month of November was an interesting month. I got involved with the animal shelter in Rushville, where horrible things were happening. Change takes time, but changes are being made. Someday, all animal shelters will be regulated due in part because of people like me who are passionate about animals. We also got the whole family together for Thanksgiving, which was a lot of fun.

As the year wound down, and December rolled in, we got our first dump of snow. We got a ton, all at once, and then when it melted we've gotten two or three small snows since. It's not been too bad. We had a really good Christmas and a relaxing one too! New Years eve was great, our friends Heilit and Matt from Utah came and visited. It was a lot of fun. We closed out this year on a great note, and we're hoping that 2008 will be wonderful and productive!

Hopefully 2008 will yeild a lot of great things! We wish you the best in all of your resolutions, and hope you have a wonderful year as well!