A day in iPhone pictures...

Today I've spent the day trying desperately to get our new life settled.
I am so in love with our home and am loving the wonderful space that we have that is ours and only ours.
I've ordered Christmas Cards.
Addressed them, and plan to mail them on Wednesday.
I've done more laundry than I probably have in the last 3 months. {sad, but so true}
I made my husband cinnamon rolls this morning for breakfast, before he left for work.


I took my mom to get a pedicure, to thank her for being so wonderful. I realize this doesn't begin to cover the things she has done for us, but who doesn't love a good pedicure?! And when I came home, guess who was waiting for me...



I cooked dinner for my husband, which he was able to come home for. I can tell I'm going to love that again.

I saw this out my window while I did my dishes.


All in all it was a beautiful day off. Definitely something I needed after the last few weeks.

And, guess who blogged twice in one week? This girl! Who knows, maybe I'll be back tomorrow with more! :)

Somebody Got a Haircut...

While we were in Oklahoma this past week, Piper and I got our hair done. Her's is much trickier than mine, because my favorite time of her hair is the halfway point between being groomed and being outgrown. I love when she's scruffy and cutesy, but I can't handle it when it's in her face. Then it begins getting matted, so I take her to get groomed, but when it's just been groomed it's too short. Someone tell me what the heck to do. I'm having serious problems with this.


BEFORE:


AFTER:


Ugh. What's a girl to do...

Back to life, back to reality...

So Friday, when we found out about my brother having cancer, I took several hours and cried my eyes out for not being there. And then I thought to myself -"What the heck are you doing here? Go home!" So I hurried and scatterbrainly (is that a word? Oh well.) packed myself a bag, grabbed Piper and a toy and was on my way. Probably not the safest way to head home, but I wanted to be there. And fast. So I was home until Sunday. (Thanks mom!) It was so wonderful to spend family time, but also made me more sad for not being there more often. I hate missing things with family. Even if it's a simple as a movie date, or a dinner or a birthday party, if I'm not there I just feel like I'm missing precious moments that I'm so lucky to have. So obviously missing things like Dr.'s appointments, and just dropping in to bring my brother a Route 44 grape slush (his favorite Sonic drink) are especially hard on my heart. Living in Amarillo has suddenly become all the more real that I'm not in Oklahoma anymore. I can't just be there in 20 minutes. It's so great we're only four hours away, but that's still two tanks of gas - it's close enough, but still so far away. It's times like these that make me so excited for Dylan and I to work in Oklahoma again. I'm ready to not miss moments like this.

Today Jason had his first appointment with the pediatric oncologist, he'll most likely start chemo as early as next week. Please if you would, say a little prayer for him. I'm not sure how it will be next week, but I know the power of prayer in numbers. I just pray for his doctors as well as him. I pray that he heals quickly and that the effects of the chemo will be something he can handle. Thank you for your kind words and support. I can't tell you enough how much it makes my heart smile.

Also, my mom set up a CaringBridge website on behalf of my brother. She will keep everyone up to date on all the outcomes of the appointments and things like that. If you're interested feel free to stop by here and leave them a sweet comment. :) I know it would make them happy.

Onnnnn a lighter note, (& because I hate posts without pictures...) Piper is by far the BEST car rider I've ever seen in my whole life. She loves car rides and they just put her straight to sleep! She will just cuddle or curl up and be out like a light for as long as you need her to be. She is so wonderful. :)

I'd like to introduce to you...

Fenway Parker Buckingham

Here's a closer version. He's not actually as orange as he appears in this picture.


On a different note, we took Piper to PetSmart today, trying to socialize her a little more. She of course was a trooper, and despite the fact she hasn't been bathed/groomed in far too long, she was quite the little attention getter. She was a hit!


We took her down the toy aisle so that she could get a new one, and she of course fell in love with this giraffe.


Now she is perfectly content with her squeeking giraffe. I'd say it was a successful day.

Egg-a-Palooza...

This has been an exciting night at Casa de Buckingham. We spent the evening decorating Easter eggs. We decided it would be our little families tradition to decorate eggs on the evening of Good Friday. :)
Here are the highlights-

The Spread...

The Details...

The Mr...

The Mrs...

The Patient Witness...

The TaDa...


John 11:25

Let's Recap the Week...

My Gparents and I hit the road on Thursday to head home to see my family. Although it was mostly a heavy trip home, I wouldn't have had it any other way. Let me break it down for you:

On Thursday, our oldest family dog passed away. She was almost 14, it was hard, but it was like she waited for me to be there, and I feel really blessed to have been home with the rest of my family. We had a little doggy funeral that would have put Marley & Me to shame. We were pretty cute, I'm not going to lie. Here is Annie the day that I was surprised with her for my birthday
And this was her most recently cuddling with Piper, which is quite shocking, because as Annie got older, she definitely got crankier, as most old women do, but Piper even won her over at times :)
We'll miss you Annie Varmint! I hope you can bark at lots of doggies and bask in the sunshine uninterrupted!
In the mess of the whole Annie ordeal, my brother dropped his phone in the pool, which led to an early birthday celebration.

On Friday, we headed to the Apple store to buy Jason an iphone for his May birthday. He was a happy guy! We're so excited he's finally in the iphone club, he was the last one of our family to get one. It was about time. I also got to meet up with a couple of my dear friends I used to work with. It was wonderful to get to talk with them. I miss them so much!

On Saturday, in true fashion, my parents and I went out to hit the garage sales. This has been a Saturday tradition in our family for two years now? Wow! We all came out with something great, but the best find of the day, was this vintage coffee cup of my husbands favorite basketball team
to be used as his pen cup at work. For a whopping $.50 you would have thought I brought home a brand new car! That afternoon, after making the most beautiful veggie tray I've ever seen, we headed to my best friends bridal shower. She got lots of goodies, and it was definitely a good time. Here are two of my best girlfriends, Megan the soon to be bride is in the middle

On Sunday, I met up with Dylan's mom for her to give us our Easter presents, the best jelly beans in all of the land
Then we headed to this little guy's 4th birthday Party! Can someone please tell me where these last 4 years have gone?!

I got to finish reading my book
I am anxiously anticipating the next one.

I spent lots of quality time with my mom, which is always a plus. I really love her a lot. She's quite possibly the cutest mom of all time. I wish we lived closer. One day we will :)
Sunday evening, my mom and I headed back to Texas for a mini girls road trip to take me back home, and it was the quickest 4 hour car ride of our lives. We got in town just in time to see Dylan on TV, and catch up on the latest Kendra episode.

Monday morning she headed back to Oklahoma. Oh how I miss her so. Less than three weeks til' we get to do it all over again. Not that I'm counting or anything! :)

Now it's back to the grind, last night I made homemade barbecue chicken pizza, omg. Yum-doesn't even begin to describe it's goodness!

Blah, I'll try not to store so much information before next time. That was entirely too long! :)

Spring, Really?...

Today is (technically) the first day of Spring. But here in Texas, this is what we have to look at
And instead of taking Piper on walks outside on gorgeous Spring days, like this

I'm forced to drag her through the snow, while she looks at me, like this


Needless to say, I'm ready to wear my cute sandals, and paint my toenails, and wear spring dresses, and wear my sunglasses again. Spring, if you're out there... Bring.It.On!

What to do on a Friday afternoon...

Several months ago, Dylan and I were out shopping for Christmas gifts for our family. We stopped at TJMaxx, and I of course fell in love with this darling bed for PIper. It was round and just truly divine, but in the spirit of Christmas giving (and our budget) I passed on this dog bed, and have regretted it ever since.

So today, I decided I would make my own. I'm a pretty good pillow sewer, so it isn't uncommon for me to whip up some simple square covers to vamp up a room, but why I never thought to make one for little Piper girl is beyond me.

I spent my morning looking at this...


Voilà! I must say, I think she loves it... and of course her little reindeer friend...
Happy Friday!

My Little Family...

It's days like today that I am all the more thankful for these two. I love Dylan's off days. I especially love when his off days really are just that, lazy days where we can hang out and enjoy each other. It's no surprise that Piper is a cuddle bug, but it makes my heart smile to no end when I catch them cuddling, just like this.

I love my three person family.

Blizzard 2010...

So here is our home, for those of you that haven't seen it. :)


And here is the outcome of our blizzard snow fall. Not nearly as bad as we thought, but still more than I'm used to. It was fun to see snow flakes as big as a dollar coin! A whopping 14 inches!


And as much as I love having a beautiful blanket of snow right outside our window, it is causing me insane frustration! Our dog, bless her heart, absolutely refuses to do her business on the snow. It is like a confusing surface to her, and she just won't do it. Maybe it's because the snow is deeper than she is tall, which I can't hardly blame her, that would be a tricky situation, but either way. I'm going to go crazy. She's probably going to have a bladder infection, because she hasn't pooped in 2 days, and she has only peed once. Cool.