Bringing Home Orly

Orly DOB: 12/20/15   Arrived home: 2/13/16, Justus' birthday!

We are beyond excited to finally have our puppy, Orly the mini goldendoodle. While on our honeymoon we had a layover at Orly International Airport in Paris, France. While there, we said Orly would make a good dogs name. Now that the time has come, Orly it is!

It was the longest week of work knowing it was "Orly Weekend". Friday afternoon finally came and we took off for Grandpa and Grandma Anderson's. Orly's breeder is Whispering Pines Kennel in Hull, so staying in Okoboji was a big help on the driving. We had a good time visiting Grandpa and Grandma. I love mornings with coffee at Grandma's!

We left around 9:00 for Hull. I wanted to stop at my mom's old house to take a picture. It was less than 10 minutes to the breeder, which was convenient. We pulled up and saw the moms in the kennel and Justus thought they were the puppies- ha! We went inside his shed and I about died when I saw the crate with puppies. He reached in, picked one up, and handed her to us. I could not believe it! She was so cute- great head shape, curly, thick coat. She has a great dark, red color too, which the breeder thought she would keep because of her ear color. She was trembling so much, but we managed to weigh her. She came in at 7.5 pounds. We got to see her dad (Rusty) and litter mates. I may be biased...but she was the cutest. We picked a winner! Justus got the best birthday present ever!

Justus's best birthday present ever

Welcome to the family Orly

The ride home she cuddled on my lap the whole time. I kept waiting for the whining, but it never came. She must have accepted her fate. Justus was pretty jealous of our car ride cuddles.

First family selfie- let's go home! 

My travel buddy for the next 4+ hours of driving 

Mom is obsessed and keeps taking pictures of me! 

We stopped at Early for her to go the bathroom, but she refused. She whimpered the whole time and hated the cold. It was wind chills below 0, so I don't blame her. We decided to put a bucket on the floor and carryon with our travels.

Lil Orly really does not like the cold. She refused to pee and just whined.

So, dad put me in the car and got this cute pic!

Back to cuddling

We stopped in Harcourt and she finally went the bathroom. I felt like true parents getting excited she went the bathroom. We made it to Boone and the family had a blast playing with her. She was pretty cute playing with the pivoting clown we had as kids. My parents thought she had a good personality and that we picked a good one! They are officially puppy grandparents!

Mom with her grandpuppy

Justus finally getting some cuddles after lots of driving 

Orly loved cuddling Wendy

Family tradition for puppies- Retro, Scary, pivoting clown

The fam! 

Dad got in on the cuddling

We had 1 more hour until finally home. Orly slept most of the way and was so cute walking into the house for the first time. She investigated and settled right in. She loves her moose and chew toys- those darn teeth are bothersome to her, so the chew toys feel good. She also loves going on the coffee table and looking at herself in the mirror. I mean who wouldn't love looking at yourself when you are that cute!

My secret place

Look at that cutie! 

You won't fit there forever!

We put her moose in her crate hoping she would go in. She got shocked from all the static electricity, which I thought may stop her from going in again! She was shocking everything, so we plugged in a humidifier to help out. She finally went in her crate, laid down, and fell asleep! We were so excited she willingly went in and even fell asleep. It was cute to hear her pitter patter into the living room when done with her nap. Her goodness in the crate continued because she barely whined that night. She whined for about a minute each time we put her in and after going the bathroom at 2am and 6am. She was a champ her first night!

Crate training begins

Crate Training is a success...first time in she naps! 

These are the perfect nights.

Camouflage with the floors. The fireplace feels oh so good for this lil pup. 

Is it bed time yet? 

One more look at this cuteness before bedtime.

Christmas at Grandmas

Saturday, December 26th

We took off from Ames for Okoboji Saturday morning. The roads were good, so we made it in good time. We arrived just in time for Grandma's delicious lunch of sloppy joes, cheese soup, and egg salad sandwiches. After lunch my mom and I went shopping at a few of the stores in town while others played Risk (Dad won again!). I love the shops in Okbooji, especially at Christmas time. For dinner Grandma had cheesy potatoes, ham, and green beans. We never go hungry at Grandma's!

Sunday, December 27th
We woke up to rolls and A LOT of coffee. With so many people at Grandma's it is always a trick to get in for a shower. Everyone managed to get a shower before Christmas lunch. This year we celebrated earlier in the day, so had a Christmas lunch. We had Grandma's traditional roast, potatoes, corn, veggies, bona duce cheese, rolls, 7 layer salad, hot tamale salad, herring, olives, and root beer. After lunch we passed the candy tray as always with all of Grandma's yummy treats. Cleanup when fast and we jumped right into the next phase of the day. We cannot start presents until every combination of pictures are taken. We go much faster now that we are older! Wendy read the Bible passage this year and did a great job. The whole group then sang "Hark the Herald"... this rendition will not be on iTunes top 10. ;)  Grandma got me the nativity set and star backdrop for my nativity scene. My mom got me the three wisemen, so it is extra special having the set given to me in different groups from my favorite people. It will be fun to add on to it next year with more of the pieces.

We spent the rest of the day relaxing and playing games. We were going to leave Monday morning, but a big snow storm was moving up from the South so we all left that night. Justus and I left around 8:00 after getting Grandma's iPad setup. We made it back to Norwalk around midnight. When we woke up Monday there was quite a bit of snow and the wind was bad. So, I am happy we did leave early. It was another memorable year with a lot of great memories! I am so blessed to have a great family and rich traditions.

The "kids" table

Grandma's main tree

Tensen selfie

Grandpa Craig & Grandma Sharol

The Bass Family 2015

Grandparents and Grandkids

Grandma's Swedish Tree

My Nativity Scene setup at home- love it is from Grandma and Mom

Christmas Day

I LOVE Christmas mornings at my parents' house. It use to be Wendy woke everyone up early to open presents, but this year I had to wake everyone up! Sam and Wendy have turned into such sleepyheads in college. I love coming upstairs and seeing how my mom...I mean Santa... left the fireplace setup. 

Santa came...love this scene. 

Opening our stockings. Best part was when Wendy found a bracelet that was not from this year. Not sure how many Christmas ago she was suppose to get that! haha

Dad forgot to wrap our presents, so waited behind the wall to bring them out. Silly Dad! 

Justus looking handsome in his new coat. 

Dad got a map to mark all the National Parks he has been to.

Pretty Christmas Day, so had to take a selfie. 

After our morning of fun, we headed to Joan's for lunch and her annual gift game. The lunch was delicious and fun seeing everyone. It was nice to spend so much time with Grandpa Jack, he is as feisty as ever. I love Joan's gift game. She wraps a gift many times and it gets passed around the room. Each person can only unwrap one layer at a time then it is passed on. If you take off the final layer it is yours! I scored the Peppermint Bark this year, which Justus was pretty pumped about.

Peppermint bark for the win! 

Grandpa Jack, Grandkids, and Gunner

Cousins + Mike cerca HS graduation

Grandpa Jack :)

After a great day with my side of the family, we headed to Kim's for dinner. We had a delicious Mexican casserole and my favorite- mulled wine. The theme of gifts this year were socks- everyone got socks! We stayed at Kim's so we could take off for Okoboji the next morning. I was able to squeeze in a Yoga session before our Starbucks stop and 3+hour car ride.

Starbucks struggling with the spelling of our names. At least they tasted yummy.

Christmas Eve 2015

What a busy, wonderful time of year. Each year it amazes me how much preparation and anticipation goes into the holidays and then it is over so fast. Each day was packed with so many memories, I will split up the posts. 

Christmas Eve:
Justus had to work a half day today, so I went to TWO yoga classes at PowerLife Yoga and the mall in between. I enjoyed getting a good workout in before all the food to come. After my first barre class we saw it had snowed- we were all very excited. I had really wanted a white Christmas!

Justus and I later headed to Boone so we could make it in time for frosting cookies. This year's frosting session got a little R rated. The bell didn't look like a bell and Santa had his naughty-bits showing. Oh my! We got all the ridiculousness out of our system (for the most part) before church. Grandma came out for our picture tradition in front of the tree. We all headed to a beautiful Christmas Eve service and then back to our house for goodies and catching-up. It was great to see my family, especially Sam since he is now in Illinois. I love Christmas Eve and the traditions my mom has maintained over the years.

Yearly tradition of cookie decorating. 

The naughty cookies...

Siblings <3

Justus got in on decorating a cookie

Grandma and Grandkids

The Bass Family

Justus and I

Mom, the stockings are out of order! Don't mess the order up after 25 years!

Our beautiful church on Christmas Eve