Clover 3/18/12-2/4/18

If you follow me on Instagram then you know we lost Clover in February. This has been really hard for us because our dogs are like our children.

I'll start with what happened. Sometime in January, my husband took the dogs out for a walk. Clover jumped over a creek and stumbled a little bit causing her chin to go up and compressing her spine on the back. She did not yelp or seem to be bothered by her fall and we checked her when the walk was over and she was fine.

A few weeks after that she started to show signs of her neck hurting. She would turn it a certain way or if you touched it she would cry. We took her to the vet and they had her put on some medicine. That was on a Monday. By Wednesday of that week she had lost her ability to walk and could not feel sensation in her legs. We rushed her to the vet immediately and they got her in for emergency surgery to decompress her spine. I was a mess the whole entire day.

Her surgery went well and by the next day she was walking again! We were so happy and it seemed like she was going to be fine. We got to bring her home Friday and we were giving her meds as instructed. Brinkley was happy to have his sister back too. She did great all day Saturday and then when we woke up on Sunday something just felt off. She wasn't in her high spirits anymore like the day before. By Sunday afternoon, she lost her ability to walk again. We rushed her to the vet's house and he told us to up her meds.

That evening, Clover went into shock. I'm crying now as I'm typing this... Elliott took her back to the vet's house because Elena was asleep and I needed to stay home with her. I helped him carry Clover to the car and told her how much I love her. Elliott said he talked to Clover the whole way there about all the good times not knowing what was happening in the back of the car. He heard silence right before he got there thinking she fell asleep. It was very hard for him to open the tailgate and see that Clover was gone.

Clover was such a sweet, sweet girl and we still love her very much and miss her to this day. I don't think that will ever change.
Until we meet again...

2017 races and Elena's first race

McNellie's Pub Run 11-4-17 (Elena's 3rd birthday)

We picked up a new hobby of running! The Pub Run was Elena's first race and she had so much fun! She and I did the 1 mile while my husband did the 4 mile+Guinness Challenge. Elena ran the entire time! I kept telling her she can walk if she needs to and kept checking to make sure she was doing fine, all she kept telling me was "I'm going fast!" I just kept my pace with her and kept telling her what a great job she was doing!

Turkey Trot 11-24-17

For this race, we all ran the one mile. I even made Elena and I matching turkey hats!

Rudolph Run 12-16-17

This was probably the best race we ran! Santa was there giving everyone high fives at the finish line! And as you can tell in the pictures below, this is very magical for her this year. Again, I ran the one mile with Elena and Elliott ran the 5K. His time was 25:30 and he placed 85/1044 (9th in his age division)

We've had so much fun running this year, we are already signed up for multiple races next year. Our next one is in January, but there is no fun run so it will just be Elliott and me. He is doing the 10K and I am doing the 5K.

Elena's Harry Potter 3rd Birthday

Elena had a wonderful third birthday! She requested a Harry Potter party and if you know me, I am a HUGE Harry Potter fan. I was so excited to plan this! She had a great time at her party. Thank you to all of our friends and family that came! 

Dress up rack from Poppa and Mimi!

We got her a Jasmine costume since she is her current favorite princess. She has also taken a liking into golf, which Daddy loves!

My husband made the Quidditch stands and rings, and I painted them. We already had all of the decor at the house (surprise surprise!) Cake and cupcakes hand made by me.

Ferrero Rocher golden snitches!

Dark chocolate frogs made from a mold I got in one of my monthly HP boxes.

For the flying keys, I got the keys off Amazon and used E6000 glue to put the wings on. Wing template here. I took the template to FedEx and they printed on transparent paper. We used fishing line to hang them.

"Whomping Willow" from Target Halloween section and Ford Anglia from monthly HP box.

Of course we had to have house points!

So happy with all her gifts from friends and family!

Happy birthday to our dearest, sweetest, smartest girl. You bring more joy to us than you will ever know! We love you honey!