Our weekend in pictures (and a few words)!

Let's just say that everything we initially had planned for this weekend went up in smoke for one reason or another. First, our picnic dinner on Friday was cancelled because we both felt like we needed to be home with Louie, especially after leaving him in the bathroom all day while we worked. Then, our Saturday IKEA trip was cancelled because what I wanted the most is out of stock in all the stores near us. Of course the kind lady that I spoke with on the phone pointed out that I could order the daybed online as long as I was okay with paying $345 dollar for shipping. Umm, I don't have that kind of money to throw away, so no thank you IKEA. You can keep you $99 daybed...even though I love it so much!

So what did we end up doing? Well, Friday evening we babysat our youngest niece while her parents had a little date night and we also met Stephen's parents for dinner and a trip to Lowe's. Stephen's parents wanted to get him a grill for his birthday, so that was the purpose of this trip. I also wanted to get a new towel bar and some lattice for a DIY puppy play pen I had in mind. It worked out perfectly because having Stephen's Dad's truck to bring the lattice home in was much easier than tying it to the top of our cars! It took quite awhile for the guys to make a decision in the grilling area, but in the end we got everything we came for plus some shrubs to plant at the house. Oh, and some daffodil bulbs to plant this fall! Stephen's Dad, Dave had even thought ahead when I mentioned the need for lattice and brought a power saw to cut it in the parking lot. This made bringing it home even easier! Hadley was so cute plugging her ears while they cut the lattice!

After Lowe's we headed to Hadley's parents house to drop her off. Her parents beat us home from their date and that meant that we did not get to bake or play Polly Pockets like Hadley had planned, so we scheduled that to happen on Saturday. Stephen and I made it home and crashed pretty easily after we walked Louie and gave him a little love. He really is the sweetest dog!

Saturday I woke up to Louie barking. At 9am. Stephen had already cleaned up his messes from the night before and walked him but he put him back in his room while he went to the bank and post office. I talked myself into getting out of bed and taking him outside. He is making such progress on his leash, it is really exciting! Saturday was the first time that I walked him around our house on the sidewalk and he did great! Once Stephen got home from running his errands he sat with Louie while I vacuumed upstairs and steamed the floors. Louie does NOT like the vacuum at all yet! After lunch we all headed outside to put together his new play pen and Stephen's new grill. Both the boys got new stuff this weekend :)

Louie seems to really enjoy being outside. He will actually walk out to the mudroom on his own now and let us hook his leash on him. Once we are outside he will walk towards the tree in our backyard and lay down in the shade like it is the only thing he wants to do. While I am glad he is comfortable and enjoys being outside, I really, really wish he would sniff around and show some interest in going potty outside! I thought that maybe he was not interested because he was on a leash and there is some tension on it, so my hope was that in his playpen he would bounce and sniff around to potty. No such luck there! He just lays down and relaxes there as well!

Saturday afternoon, Stephen's parents come over and so did Hadley and Ainsley. Apparently putting a grill together is more than a one person job, and Stephen knew that I would be no help so he called his Dad. I set up a blanket in the back yard and the girls and I played Polly Pockets for a bit outside before heading in to bake a cake that they could decorate. Louie was really good with the girls and they were great with him too!

Hadley asked if we could bake something on Friday and since we did not have time we made it happen on Saturday. I had no idea what to make with them, but I knew that making something from scratch would lose their interest by the time it was time for mixing and baking. So we picked the alternative: a boxed cake mix. The only one I had was a patriotic fun-fetti cake which was perfect for the girls!

Sunday we were late for church because of some low blood sugars on my end, but we made it before the preaching started! To some people that could still be considered being on time, ha! Our Sunday afternoon was lazy; filled with reading, naps outside and inside and yummy food! Stephen got to cook on his grill for the first time while Louie and I watched from our spot in the backyard. It was a great afternoon for all of us!

Louie also got his first bath at home on Sunday evening. He was not very happy about it, but I think he liked being clean afterwards! :)

If you made it to the end of this long post, bravo for you! We hope that you all had a wonderful weekend, too!

Let me know if you have any tips or advice on house training a 5 year old pup. It is not proving to be an easy task!