Bella

I have not done a post on Bella in a while and I like to look back see how she has changed and grown.
At the end of this month she will be 10 months! I feel like every time someone asks us that and the looks at Bella and we always get the same response... She's huge! She is a big dog.. when we got for at 11 weeks, she was way larger than your average puppy! This is a picture on the first day we got her..

As you can she, she's big!

We think she is pretty much full grown as of now. The vet said she would grow up until she is a year, but she seems to be pretty stable in her size over the past couple months. We think she is def the height she will be, but if she grows at all, she will prob just fill out some more. 

We have been so blessed with this dog. She has literally given us no problems during her puppy stage! God must have known Mitch and I have never had a pet before and went easy on us :) Ever since her first night, she has always slept through the night, no whining or barking. We crate trained her, and you get a lot of different views on that, but I truly believe it is the best way! She is part poodle, and they are super smart, so we think that is some of it, but she is just a good dog!

We took her through 6 weeks of training and wanted to continue to the next class, but she really hasn't needed it. We have taught her more tricks because we watched how they did it in our class, and she catches on really quick. She does have a lot of the golden retriever traits... she is always super happy and wants nothing more than to make you happy. She is the most sociable dog I have ever been around. She wants to be with you 24/7. Whenever someone comes over, or passes by our door, she thinks they are there for her. She thinks everyone and every other dog is her best friend. The dog park is her favorite place!!It is so funny to watch her she thinks all the dogs are there for her. There are a few dogs that just aren't very friendly and want nothing to do with Bell but she just doesn't get it! 

We have started letting her sleep out of her crate. She usually starts out on the end of our bed and then gets in the floor within about 30 minutes. She has so much fur and she get hot quick, so she likes being on the floor. I really don't want to, but I think we will have to get her cut pretty short this summer or I don't think can go outside ha! She loves cold weather! If it is about 30-50 degrees outside she is in heaven and would stay out all day!

We can't wait for this spring and we can take her hiking with us! She will love it! 

She is finally starting to become a little bit of a guard dog. For the longest time, we didn't think she had a mean bone in her body. But over the past month, there are certain people she doesn't like. If someone comes to the door that she's doesn't know, ups man, etc... she barks, growls and always comes and gets me. I love it! She DOES NOT like the people who live across the street from us... it is so funny whenever they are outside she sits at the front door and growls at them! We were home yesterday and she did it all day...

She loves going for rides in the car. If you say, "Bella.. wanna go for a ride" she freaks out and runs to the door. She loves sticking her head out the window, but if she's not doing that she recently started sitting backwards :)

She goes on runs with me all the time and loves it... I do too! I love having her to run with me, it makes it more fun. 

She gets compliments EVERYWHERE we go! Everyone wants to know what she is, where we got her, etc. She knows she is cute and she milks it for all its worth :) Whether we go on walks, or to the store, we always have to stop and let people pet her, kids especially love her. They all say she looks like a big stuffed animal. 

She has so much fur that we have to brush her with a comb every day. Thats really the only maintenance she requires. We didn't know this at first and she got really matted being her ears and on her neck, so we had to shaver her there and she does look kinda funny :) Everyone things we are trying to giver her the poodle cut... WE AREN'T! Ha! I can't wait until she grows back out :)

So every night, we spray her with deodorizing/detangling spray and comb her out. She hates it! She is very good while we do it and the second we are done she freaks out!

The name we officially gave her was Bella Grace... well I don't know why, but both Mitch and I just call her Belle. We hardly ever use Bella, unless someone asks us her name. So I think she thinks thats her name. And the funny thing is, when Mitch registered her online.. he accidentally put Belle as her name. So if she ever gets lost... her microchip is under Belle. 

She is the best dog in the world (in my opinion) and I can't imagine our life without her. She is a big responsibility and we do make lots of sacrifices for her, but its so worth it. I never knew the joys of having a dog, they are incredible! If you are looking at getting a dog, look at golden doodles... they are such good dogs!! They have the temperament of a golden, are super smart and don't shed a hair! 

The youth pastor at our church... him and his family just got a puppy golden doodle and we can't wait to go see it! The pics of her are precious and Bell will just love her :)

Sorry for the long post about my sweet dog. I hope y'all had a wonderful weekend and are able to get outside and enjoy this beautiful weather! 

Date nights

So I am sure most of y'all have seen this floating around Pinterest, but Mitch and I saw this the other day and thought it was such a good idea. We believe dates are so important, even if it is just a quick dinner. We like to have some time just to us. Ever since we started dating our freshman year in college, Mitch has always taken me out on a date at least once a week. We love carrying on this tradition, but never seem to know what to do beside dinner, movie, bowling. So we thought we would make a date jar!

Like I said, I am sure most have you have seen how this works, but you pick out different categories of dates and then think of as many things as you can for each category. Then, like us, on a friday night when you can't seem to think of anything to do, you decide what category of date you want and pick from the jar. Not only does it help with our indecisiveness, but its fun not knowing what your going to do!

So I thought I would share what we came up with so if y'all decide to make one as well, you can see some of our ideas. (I know some of these will vary depending on where you live).

Our categories our...
$$$ + planning ahead (we would only do these every once in awhile bc they are expensive)
Reg. out of the house dates
Stay at home dates

Here is what we came up with from each category...

$$$ + planning ahead
Bed and breakfast
Branson weekend/golf
Thunder game
KC weekend
Couples massage
Fancy dinner
Concert
Tulsa- dinner and stay @ The Mayo (where we stayed for the first night of our honeymoon)
Weekend in OKC (we LOVE okc!!)
Dallas trip

Reg. out of home dates
Dinner/movie (his choice)
Dinner/movie (her choice)
Razorback baseball game (we get discounted tickets to sporting events now that I work for the U of A!)
Naturals baseball game
bowling
minigolf
fast lanes- go carts and laser tag
Mall surprise (Mitch came up with this one and I thought it was such a fun idea. You get a limit of $20 and we go and buy something for each other)
Drive in
Mexican night (you could do this with any type of food, we just have an obsession with mexican food)
Dessert only date
Picnic
hiking
bike ride to get snow cones
Garage sale and breakfast
Walton Arts center-play
Pottery painting
Tennis
Golf


In home dates
fondue and movie
bake a dessert together
Seinfield marathon
Chinese take out/her choice movie
Pizza and his choice movie
hot dog/smores night
decorate sugar cookies

If y'all have done this, or decide to.. post your ideas and we can all share. The more unique the more fun!!

Fat Tuesday Celebration

Well, we don't really do the whole Mardi Gras thing, but since Mitch use to live in New Orleans, he has a few traditions he likes and wants to carry on. He always talks about New Orleans and the food... does that surprise you? Ha! So last year, he surprised me with a King Cake from Rick's Bakery and it was so good. It was the first time I had had one. So this year I thought I would surprise him with one!

I ordered one earlier n the day and went and picked it up when I got off work. I know Mitch likes loves cajun food and the traditions in New Orleans, but I just thought we would come home and have dinner and King Cake.

Well, Mitch calls me when he got off and it happen to work out where I was running late on dinner and didn't recognize until about 7:30 that dinner was going to take an hour and a half to cook and that didn't include me preparing it. So, Mitch called me when we left work and said he had a surprise and to get ready we were going out.

When he got home, we went to Copeland's for dinner, it is a New Orleans style restaurant.  Mitch heard they were having a big crawfish boil and wanted to go (for those of you who don't know, crawfish may be Mitch's favorite this in this world). It is hard to get good fresh crawfish, and he is really picky! We knew it being Mardi Gras it would be busy, but we had no idea what we were getting into! It was packed! They had live music, people in costumes, and decorations everywhere!

We had a 45 min wait, but they got us in, in about 15 min!! We were so glad because we were starving.
Well when we sat down they informed us they were out of their fresh crawfish! Needless to say Mitch was upset. So he got crawfish po boy and I got what I always get.. grilled chicken breast with sweet potatoes. It is delicious!

We came home and had king cake, no one has got the piece with the baby yet, but I am guessing the way Mitch eats the cake he will get it before I get around to it :)

So thats how we celebrated Fat Tuesday! Hope y'all had a fun Tuesday as well! 

Exciting news!

Well we have had some exciting things happens over the past few weeks!

Here is the first piece of exciting news...
We booked our vacation!!!!! We have been trying to decide on a place for the past two months and we finally picked and booked it last night! Every year we go on a vacation with Will and Michelle and we always look forward to it! We know trips are really pricey, but we love traveling and this is something we want to do a lot of before we have kids, so we make it a priority. We know once we have kids, traveling is over for a while so we want to go to some fun places while we can enjoy it!!
So in September we are going to....

 ANTIGUA!!!!

I can't wait! We love to go in sept because we get the extra day off from labor day(an we have lots of time to save up).
We get to Antigua at 2:00 on sept 1 and leave the afternoon of sept 7th! I am so excited!! We are also going back to a sandals resort! We had a couple other places we were looking into, but we all have been to sandals before and you really can't beat it! It's so nice! They only have sandals resorts in a few places, and we have all already been to Jamaica. Antigua is one place I have always wanted to go and I can't believe we are going in a few months! So now the countdown is on... 196 days to go!

And the next piece of exciting news is.......

I got offered a new job!!!
I like my job, but there have been some underlying issues lately. There are definitely parts about it I do really like, but I was ready for a change. It was the perfect first job for me, but that's it. The beginning of february was my year anniversary and now I am ready to move on.
I am going to be starting Monday, March 5th at the University of Arkansas! I have always wanted to work for a university, I feel it just fits me an I am excited about it! I tried to get a job there when we first moved to nwa, but you have to have experience. So when I knew I was coming up on my year at this job I applied there and got it! I am going to be an admin specialist working in the college of education. I don't know exactly all my responsibilities yet, but I know I will be working closely with faculty and helping advise students with their classes. I feel like it is the perfect job for me and can't wait to start!

Thank y'all for all the prayers during the past month!

So that about sums up what we have been doing the past couple weeks! I hope y'all are having a good week!

Giveaway!!!

Who doesn't love Olive Garden???

Check out Jenna's Blog to find out how to enter to win a $100 Olive Garden gift card!!

My favorite thing about OG is the salad and breadsticks!!

Yum!! 

Good luck and have a great Tuesday!!!

Tulsa trip

I hope (most of y'all) had a nice day off today! I wasn't as lucky and I had to work today. But I did have a nice long weekend and we got to spend it in Tulsa! For Valentine's day Mitch got me tickets to Jake Owen! I was so excited! I love Jake Owen and the concert was so much fun! Mitch, Natalie and Scott all went, we ate at El Guapo before, which was delicious as always!  Here are some pics from our night out...

Saturday, we didn't do much and it was so nice. I feel like when we go to Tulsa its always because we have something planned and we don't ever get to go and just relax. Saturday we slept in, my dad made a big breakfast and we took Bella on a run down Riverside. I love running, especially on riverside. There are always so many people out there! Saturday night, we had dinner and started a game of monopoly which lasted until about 12:15am! Needless to say, we slept in Sunday and then headed back to Bentonville.

This pic pretty much sums up our Saturday! Bella thinks she is a little lap dog :)

Now we are trying to get back in the swing of things for this work week. I don't know what it is about Monday's but I just really dislike them ha! There is nothing like enjoying a nice long weekend and then you wake up Monday knowing you have a long week ahead of you. No fun! I vote everyone should get Mondays off :)

So thats our trip, short and sweet! 

Have a good week and I do have some exciting things to share, so check back soon for updates!!! 

Red Stamp

Okay, so I found this new app and I am obsessed, so I thought I would share it with y'all!

Some of you may already know about it, but if not check it out! It's free!!

You can make cards, invitations, thanks yous and so much more! It has so many options! It may just be me, but I love stuff like this, so it may not be as cool to you ha!

When you pick a design, which all of them are so cute, you can add a picture if you want and a message. Then you can either post it to FB or twitter, send it through a text or email OR they can send it through the mail! Everything is free exept if you want to sent it via mail. It is like 1.99 or something like that. It's kinda pricey, but If you are ever in a hurry, or need to send out something quick it is so convenient and that cost covers postage!

I don't know how many times I think, oh I need to send that person a thank you note then it takes me weeks to get around to it. With this, I can design it, personalize it and have it sent for me in about 5 min all from my phone. I love that I can do it from anywhere and don't have to be at home!

So that's my rampage on Red Stamp! I was playing with it the other night and these are some of the designs I made...

I didn't spent a lot of time on these, but I was just wanting to see all the different designs. You can obviously put more into them, but you get the idea!! 

Hope your having a great weekend!! 

February 14, 2012

So I told y'all I would do a Valentine's day post, prob not as interesting to you, but I love to look back and remember all the v-days and what we did!

This Valentine's Mitch had the day off, but I had to work. So I got home at 5 and I walked into a completely clean house (including all the laundry done) roses and chocolates. I have always told Mitch I dont really care what we do I just love getting flowers and chocolates on Valentine's. I know... very origianl ha! And he knows I stress about a clean house, so it was sweet of him to take care of all that for me.

We got ready and went to dinner. our reservations werent until 8:30 in Fayetteville, so we had a lot of time to spare from when I got home. He wanted to exchange gifts before we left, becasue he knew it was going to be really late when we got home. He got me tickets to Jake Owen!!! He is one of my favorite country singers and the concert id tomorrow! I got him a gift card to nike. I knew he has been wanting some new basketball shoes, so I thought he could order what he wants! It also came in this cute mini shoe box!

I thought it was the cutest thing!

We headed to fayetteville and he had reservations for us at James at the Mill! Ever since the beginning of college when I wouold come to bentonville to visit, I have always wanted to try this place, so when he told me thats where we were going I was so excitd!! It is connected to the Inn at the Mill, a little boutique hotel. I wish we could of stayed, but we both worked the next day. In the near future, when where have a free weekend, he wants to go stay there. I just love the look of it!

The food was amazing! We had heard the portions werent that big, but they quality of food was so good, so we didnt know exactly what to expect. We actually went in thinking we were going to one of those places where its all about presentation and you dont get much food. But.. it wasnt like that at all, or at least not what we got!! They had a couple pre set valentines day menus made up, like most places on Valentine' day. We each got an appitizer, entree and then our own dessert. We really didnt want dessert since we had peanut butter pie at home, but since it came with it we didnt turn it down :)

I meant to take a picture of our meal. but ony happened to capture the desssert. For dinner Mitch got steak and I got this onion crusted chicked with rice, carrotts and asparugus. It was sooo good!!!

For dessert mitch got chocolate cake with rasberry sauce  and I for this banana dessert with cinamon and caramel drizzle. I love bananas foster, and thats what this reminded me of! So delicious!

And now we are heaed to Tulsa tonight and get to go see Jake Owen tomorrow night!! Hope yall enjoyed your valentine's day as well!

My other little Valentine :)

Valentines Day

Happy Valentine's Day!!

I hope y'all have a wonderful Valentine's day! I know Valentine's is very different for everyone and that most people don't make a big deal about it, but I love Valentine's day! I really don't know why, but ever since I was little, my mom would always decorate the house and it was just always a big deal.

Honestly, Mitch could probably care less about Valentine's day, but the fact that he always makes it so special to me is so sweet! He knows I think it is a fun holiday, and he always surprises me with something!I love that he doesn't have to do a thing for me and he knows it would be perfectly fine, but he choses to always make Valentines day a very memorable day for us! I blessed with such an amazing husband!!

He has reservations for our dinner tonight (he always picks the best restaurants) and then it is tradition that I make a peanut butter pie and we come home and have dessert! I will post soon about what all he has planned for tonight! I'm excited!!

Blog changes/weekend update

So, as you can see I am still working on the blog update!! It is taking longer than I thought. I use to change stuff and update it on a regular basis but since I don't anymore I have forgot all the shortcuts. Also, Blogger has changed their design as well and right now I am not finding it very user friendly ha! I am sure I will like it later, but of course they had to go and change it when I am trying to figure out how to change mine. But anyways.... as you probably noticed, I changed the title and web address! I liked my old title, but we won't live on "Lyndal Lane" for much longer and I came up with this title and really liked it! Also, Mitch and I both started this blog, but I am the only one who posts, ha! He says he loves me doing it to keep people updated and always says, you'll have to out this on the blog, but he hates writing (typing) so I changed it to my blog :)

So my designs and colors may be off for a while, but hopefully by the end of this week I will have it all worked out!

I have had a very relaxing weekend. Mitch and I were both off on Friday so that was really nice. I got up early Friday and got a massage and then came home and we literally stayed at home all day! It was so nice to spend some time just us two relaxing. That night we went to dinner and a movie. We went and saw Safe House and it was really good. Mitch liked it a lot more than I did, it was very action packed and had a lot of violence, but it did keep my attention!

Yesterday and today, Mitch worked and I haven't been feeling well, so I have stayed at some at caught up on my shows and watched lot of movies! Fun!

Tonight we are watching the grammys and waiting on the snow!! I can't stand this cold weather, but if it is going to be this cold, it might as well snow :)

Hope y'all had a good weekend!

New blog design coming!!

Happy Sunday Y'all!! 

I am in the process of updating and changing the design on my blog!! There are lots of changes and it may take me a few days, so sorry for the crazy color schemes, etc. Just bear with me and check back soon for the final product!! 

Thunder game, Tulsa and the Superbowl!

This past weekend, we went to Okc/Tulsa! For one of Mitch's Christmas presents, I got him a Vans gift card and tickets to the Thunder game! We both love going to the games! They are so much fun!!

Headed to Tulsa

Thursday night, Mitch had a church league b-ball game and then we went and ate at Las Palmas, one of the best little Mexican places here in AR. We didn't get home until late and then had to pack for the weekend, plus pack for Bella, which is harder than packing us! Ha!We headed out about 9 Friday morning and made it to Tulsa by lunch time. I am obsessed with Whataburger, Mitch really likes it to, but I have grown up eating it at least once a week with my family, so everytime we go to Tulsa or Dallas, we always make a stop there! I am not a big fast food hamburger person but I just love everything about Whataburger! ;)

After lunch, we went shopping with my mom and then we left about 2:30 for Okc.My parents took care of Bella and she had a lot of fun! She loves going to Tulsa! As soon as we pull up she knows exactly where we are! First thing she did was run through the house, up the stairs and jumped on my bothers bed looking for him ha! She was so upset he was still at school. She kept going up there to try and find him.When we left, my mom took Bella over to her bosses house. She has a goldendoodle too and they hadn't been able to play yet. My mom said they stayed a couple hours and they played the whole time! My moms bosses goldendoodle is a very small breed, it isn't a miniature, just really small! So Bella looks like a giant compared to him!Bella is a big dog anyway, but it was so funny to see the pictures!When they got home my mom said Bella was out for the rest of the night ha!

Mitch and I went to Shawnee first, so we could eat at vans and it was so weird being back! I had not been back since we graduated and it felt weird and normal all at the same time. I felt like I had never been gone and I was just suppose to walk right I to my appt! I really enjoyed going through campus. 

I miss this place so much, defiantly the best four years ever!!

Then we headed to Vans! We absolutely love Vans! Obviously, we have gift cards and drove 3 1/2 hours just to eat there! I always get the jr rib dinner and Mitch gets the brisket sandwich! I remember going to Vans when I went down to look at the school and stay with some of my friends down there and then we went there for our first team dinner with the tennis team! From them on I bet we ate there all the time.

Yum!! 

After dinner, we drove to okc and it was fun to be back there too! At least once every week or two Mitch would take me on a date to okc, mostly in Bricktown, so that brought back a lot of fun memories as well! I don't know how many times we went to the movies there, ate and so many other fun things. We both really like okc and I think it would be a fun place to live one day!

The thunder game was a blast! We were down the whole first half an played soooo bad! Finally in about the middle of the 3rd quarter we picked it up. From there on out it was such a fun game! I just love how much the crowd gets into the game!

After the game, we heads back to Tulsa and went straight to bed!
Saturday, my mom and I went shipping while my dad, bother and Mitch ran some errands. That night we ordered pizza introduced my parents to BezzerWizzer! We stare playing it around 6, took a short dinner break about 8:15 and then played until 11:30! We got them hooked!

Sunday, we got up and came back home to Bentonville. We got back, unpacked everything and went to calebs for the Superbowl. We had hotdogs and lots of dips! I love making dips for parties, so I tried this new one from pinterest and I wasnt that impressed.

I pinned it a long time ago and it sounded so good, so I thought I would try it out. Well the recipes called for it to sit in the refrigerator over night and I only had time for about an 
hour, do maybe that was the issue. But everyone raved about it on pinterest and I just wasn't that impresses! So it is been in our refrigerator all night and we will see if it is any better today.

The Superbowl turned out to be a pretty good game. I really could have cared less about it, I just love the commercials :)

Have a good weekend! 

Visitors!

Last weekend we had some visitors!! Katie and Tommy came to AR for the weekend we had so much fun!

They came in Saturday and we just relaxed and hung out that afternoon and then went to dinner later that night.We went to Jose's in Springdale! Mitch and I love Jose's! It's so good and a really fun atmosphere! After dinner, we went bowling! Mitch and I go bowling everyone once in while when we don't have a lot going on, so it had been a while for both of us.

We, of course had to make it a competition and Mitch and I took on Katie and tommy... Losers buy kennedy coffee for everyone! I have to admit I was the weak link and lost it for us :(
Later that night we come back to our house and played board games! We played BezzerWizzer... We have yet to figure out the name, but it is such a fun game!! Mitch and I went and bought it the next day!

It is just basic trivia and we played one round boys vs girls, then we mixed it up and played Katie and Tom vs Mitch and I. We stayed up way to late playing!

Sunday, we slept in and went to marketplace for lunch! You cant go wrong with marketplace and Tom had never been there! After lunch, we took Bella out to the dog park and then went  and got Kennedy.

Guess what we did when we got back to the house... Haha yes we played a couple more rounds of BezzerWizzer!

Katie and tommy left that evening and Mitch and I just hung at home that evening.

We love having visitors and had such a good weekend!