Ranger Growing & Exploring at 3 Weeks Old {& Videos}

 Ranger has been growing so fast and I swear he looks bigger every day. We're savoring the sweet moments with him now, as I know he'll be all grown up before we know it! 

Belly up nap. Oh my melted heart! This may be one of the first time you can see the palomino coloring under his belly. His coloring is so cute. He has 3 white paws and one black one. 

 Precious babe.

 Me and our sweet boy after he opened his eyes two weeks ago, just before he was two weeks old.

 About a week and a half ago, he was becoming more interested in Indy's dog food, so we thought we'd blend some puppy food for him to see if he liked it. 

Nick has spent so much time with him, helping him eat and watching to be sure he's gaining weight like he should be. Since Indy doesn't produce enough milk for him, we've been weighing him to ensure he's getting enough food. We'll probably watch until he's two pounds or so, then we'll know he's good to go. 

As of this morning, he's at 29 ounces! He'll be four weeks this coming Tuesday, and he's gone from 3.5 ounces at birth to 29 ounces today. So wild and really incredible to watch him grow from the moment he was born. Raising a new puppy is hard work! Especially when the mama just can't produce enough milk for him. 

It's also the cutest to see Nick care for this pup. My heart swells so much seeing these moments. Nick is amazing with him and I know he's such a good puppy-daddy that he'll be an even more amazing daddy some day (no - we don't have any news to share for those who may take that the wrong way- ha!). 

We are so proud of our little guy, it's a new kind of love to care for Ranger's little life and raise him. 

Here is our very first family photo of us three :) On his three week birthday this past Tuesday. 

My dad snapped this one of Boo and I a few days ago - Boo has been more in a cuddle mood this week with me. Dad noted that Boo even left his bone on my lap which is a pretty trusting gesture. He's Ranger's daddy you know.

Sweet sleepy boy - I wonder if he'll sleep with his tongue out like his mama Indy - ha!  

Ranger and I had a few photo shoots this week - I had to brighten this one to see his face, so the coloring is weird, but his yawns are too cute! 

Cuddled up in my arm. Such sweet moments.  

Go ahead, Ranger, make yourself comfy in my arms.  

 I think he looks so big here. I shared this one (along with many more of him;)) on my Instagram (EatExploreEnjoy). Even if you don't have Instagram, you can see the photos I post here. 

Here's some of his growth on the scale. I think top left was around 2 days old, top right is around two weeks (he outgrew the little scale bowl pretty fast!), the bottom is around 3 weeks, and he's outgrowing the tupperware now too.  

 Sleeping on his mama Indy's blanket last night.

We enjoyed our cuddle time after my nap yesterday afternoon. He's the sweetest thing. 

Nick enjoyed a night swim last night - I enjoyed observing from my chair. It was so beautiful out, so I had my dad check the weather - it was 96 degrees out. It felt like 78 degrees to me, it was perfect!  

Here's a video of Ranger exploring at 3 weeks old. He can be hard to get good photos of (though no one can say I'm not trying;)), this little video is just so cute. 

I started putting some videos on YouTube so I can share them here easier on the blog. Check them out, I posted some others I had on my phone from the past few months (and some videos of Ranger's earlier days): click here to check out all of my YouTube videos. 

Here's another  video (just 10 seconds) of him eating blended puppy food this week:

One of my sweet friends (who is expecting her first baby (a girl!) next month) sent me this beautiful necklace from her trip to Africa. I was so honored and excited about this beauty. As I wore it, it was a constant reminder of those in less fortunate situations, and made me think about the people who made this. What a treat I can have this reminder to pray for others around the world. Thank you, sweet friend, for this beautiful gift. 

Today's Pinspiration:

I've been reading What Happens When Women Say Yes to God - part of the Proverbs 31 Online Bible Study. What a great book. Lysa TerKeurst has a way with words and really speaks to our hearts. I'm not quite halfway through it, but I'm loving it so far. 

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Our Bed & Breakfast Getaway {4 Year Anniversary}

I knew Nick had something up his sleeve for our 4th anniversary, I just had no clues as to what it would be. He planned this a few weeks in advance and even sought out input from someone who was familiar with where he wanted to take me. He made all the plans and even tried to throw me off, by asking questions like "Have you ever been zip lining, and do you have an underlying heart condition?" Ha! I answered him, skeptical at this point about what this plan was. On our way there, he asked "Have you ever been bunji jumping?" Oh boy.. what was I in for?! :)

The day before we left (two weeks ago now), he told me we'd be leaving at 12pm Saturday, and would be back around the same time on Sunday. He said we'd been in the car for a little while, and approved the things I packed (I asked him to, to be sure I dressed for the right occasion). We drove west and south. Any potential ideas were out of my mind at that point, because I'd never been south of Fort Worth on this particular highway and had no idea what would be there.

After driving for about an hour, we arrived at this adorable little town square. 

This courthouse in the middle of the square is so pretty! 

We drove by the town square to check in to our Bed & Breakfast

It's such a quaint little place! The couple who owns this business has 4 cottages on this land (a few blocks from the square) and also two suites on the town square.

Nick checked in while I stayed in the car and he brought this back - I was so excited to see our place! I had never even told him I've always wanted to stay in a Bed & Breakfast. Plus, we were set away from the action, in Granbury, TX. 

Our suite was the three windows over Jezebelle's, you can see our little tan door to get up there just to the left of the shop.

They did such a beautiful job with these suites

The view outside of our window! SO cute. I've always loved small town squares. There's also so many boutiques there! Oh my heart was jumping with joy. And I was so excited Nick thought of this all! 

This is the second bedroom/sitting room. So cute and classy.

After we got settled, I rested for a bit, and we were off to check out the square. So much to see! 

They had a Elvis show playing at this theatre - we thought about getting tickets, but chose to spend money on other things, but this entry way is so neat! 

They also have a beach to a lake a few blocks from the square, this cute victorian was on the way. So picturesque for a nice small town.

We realized we wrote the same things on the outside of our 4 year anniversary cards. Cue "aww..." :) 

We went out to dinner for a date night. Oh how I love date nights!

Dinner was so good - we checked the menu before going so I could eat something good. I got a gluten free margherita pizza without cheese - it was delish! 

Sunday morning, we went back to the cottages for breakfast (which they also made gluten and dairy free for me). The koi in this pond were huge. 

The court house again, closer up this time. Such a pretty building. 

One of the other shops we really liked was Dog Tired - that was the weekend we agreed to keep Ranger, we had fun browsing all of the cute dog stuff there. 

Here's the necklace I got (with matching earrings!) at one of the cute boutiques. 

We had such a great getaway and it was so refreshing to enjoy some quality time together and not have an agenda. Thanks to my hubby for planning this great getaway for us! I appreciate that he could see this would be worth it for us. And it was. Happy four years, and many many more, my love! 

Today's Pinspiration:

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Introducing {OUR} Puppy!

I'm pleased (that's an understatement;)) to announce that Nick and I will be keeping the puppy!

Meet Ranger...

I had been thinking of puppy names for a while, even before I knew it would be Nick and I's puppy. I made a list and had a few top choices, but one day, I curiously asked Nick if he had thought of any names and he said Ranger. I loved it right away. It's a good boy name, but it's also fitting for his personality. In his litter, he was the lone ranger, we live in Texas Ranger (baseball) territory, and he's quite the explorer, crawling all over Indy and the whelping box. It's perfect for him! 

In the end, it didn't take much convincing for Nick to agree to keeping the puppy. He's just so cute and has had us wrapped around his paws since day one (before then really!). 

He's been growing so much this past week which has been great to see. He was born weighing about 4 ounces and is now at 11 ounces! He's a week and a half old and I swear he visibly looks bigger every day.

This photo was after work earlier this week

Here's a reminder of what he looked like just a week and a half ago (Tuesday, August 6th) a few hours after he was born:

He's a Hairless Chinese Crested in case you wondered. His head, feet, and tail will have hair, but the rest of his body is pretty hairless. Because of his lack of body hair, keeping his body temperature comfortable is important.

His face is so precious. I kiss his forehead quite often. Sometimes he scrunches his face and it's too cute. He should be opening his eyes any day now! His hair is silky soft too.  

Here's another closeup of his face and body. He has some palomino (spotted coloring) on his nose and under his belly. 

We had to get a newborn (human ;)) bottle since he seemed to outgrow the first one pretty quickly. He does much better with this one too.

We've been supplementing the milk he gets from Indy (it doesn't seem that she produces enough), so it's kept us (mainly Nick!) busy with many feedings each day, usually every 4 hours throughout the day - thankfully we haven't really needed to do overnight feedings at this point. Talk about practice for parenthood someday! He has an adventurous spirit yet loves to be warm and cuddle.

We swaddle him to feed him:) It's pretty funny! It keeps him content to eat the amount he needs. He'd be very squirmy if we didn't bundle him. He likes the warmth of being swaddled though. After he gets fed and is all cozy and warm, he falls asleep pretty fast. It's the best when he falls asleep on us. 

Indy seems to be enjoying more "away" time outside or around the house lately - I think she has cabin fever for staying in her box so much. While she was out for a few minutes, I snuck in to see what Ranger was up to, and he was sleeping so sweetly. 

Most of the time when he's awake, this is what my pictures look like. Even with flash. He likes to be on the move.

Here, it seems like he was looking toward my voice as I was talking to him. At least I can tell myself that;)

Sweet puppy fell asleep just like that. He's posing for my photos already! 

Sweet Ranger-boy.

Beautiful drive home earlier this week

Update on my Step Dad Joe

Since I started this post yesterday, KCCI and WHOtv did interviews with Joe about his recovery, what he remembers about the accident itself and about going back to work. 

It's interesting to see different things in each interview. We're SO thankful for all of the prayers pouring in and for his great progress so far. In accidents like the one Joe was in, you're just a few inches, or centimeters away from a much worse situation. I also had the accident go through my mind many times and if he was crushed/pinned for much longer, it could have been much worse much faster without being able to take a breath. 

It literally pauses life and makes you look around to be sure you're loving your loved ones hard, and enjoying life - we never know when our time on earth will end. This was one of those moments for many in our family, and maybe even in the Des Moines community, to be sure we're living the life we want to live. We continue to pray for him as he still has some physical recovering to do, for mental strength through his recovery and adjusting to his slower pace lifestyle without work. We love you, Joe! And all the rest of you too, while I'm at it:)

WHOtv's Interview:

This is a photo (though you should be able to click on it to go to the video) from WHOtv of Joe's Interview Video (click the link if clicking the photo doesn't work).

KCCI's Interview:

 This is a photo (though you should be able to click it to go to the video) from KCCI of Joe's Interview Video (click the link if the picture doesn't pull the video up).

Today's Pinspiration:

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