Meet Bruiser

For Austin's b-day we celebrated for 12 days, in a 12 days of christmas sort of way. The"12 days of Austin's birthday". It was fabulous!
Every morning I gave him a rhyme hinting at what we were doing or what he was getting that day.
For example:
"On the 11th day before your Birthday your true love gave to you; 11 pipers piping and relief of your aches and gripings."
or
"On the 9th day before your Birthday your true love gave to you; 9 dancers dancing and a night full of romancing."
You get the idea.
Of course I have been a picture slacker over the past couple of months (which is SO weird because my camera is attached to me like a 3rd arm) so I only got a few pictures of his 12 day birthday celebration.
Some of the celebrations included, getting sushi, truffles, going to movies (LOVED Blindside, I think it's my all-time favorite movie. Beautiful in so many ways!), temple night, ice cream, a couples massage, a facial, "zombie night", Forgotten Carols (which was AMAZING), a Flash basketball game (where Bryon Russell did NOT play Michael Jordan), chocolate covered strawberries and candlelight and lots of other things you probably don't want to hear about.
At the last minute Austin decided to go to AZ for a selling trip so that put a kink in some of my plans but it worked out nicely because it gave me the perfect opportunity to get him a BIG surprise!

This BIG surprise was a puppy. Since we have been married Austin has wanted a yorkie. He started talking more and more about it so I finally decided to just go out and get one and surprise him for his birthday. I NEVER surprise Austin because he either figures out my surprises or I give in and tell him everything because I am so excited. So this surprise was very hard for me to keep.

I searched high and low for puppies, looked at tons and called on even more but never found the "right" one.

While he was in AZ a few days before his b-day, Austin's bro Jordan, his wife Lanae and I were at dinner getting ready to go to the temple and randomly we decided to drive to Pocatello where a good breeder lived and go look at and possibly come home with a puppy.

We left SLC at 8:30 PM and on the way we witnessed an accident and car fire, got stuck in traffic, got lost and finally made it to the breeder's house at 11:30 PM! He must have thought we were crazy, well we were a little crazy but it was a fun adventure.

When we got there I fell in love with the puppies, not only do they come from a good line but they all had great personalities, had been around lots of kids and people, were eating solids and were snuggle bugs. They all came right up to me, climbed right up onto my lap and laid down. I was sold.

So we picked one (that was hard!) and hit the road at midnight to come home.

On the way home we got stuck in a bad snow storm, slid off the road, had to stop and feed puppy which was an adventure in itself, and didn't get home until 4 in the morn.

WOW.

But we had the puppy. Mission accomplished.

The day before Austin's b-day he surprised me by coming home early. I was able to sneakily have Austin's sister, who was at our house making dinner for her boyfriend, take the pup and all evidence while we went to dinner.

The next day I could hardly stand the wait.

I wanted to tell him EVERYTHING so bad. But I kept it in, for once. So proud of myself.

We had a little family party at our house for Austin, while dinner was cooking Austin opened his gifts.

This was how it went.

Open big box.

Find another box.

It says:

Find a thing of toilet paper,

It says:

Look in Jordan's pocket.

Find the last rhyme.

Search the house to find Alyse upstairs with...

Love at first sight.

Happy Birthday my love.

We sure are proud parents,

to a one pound yorkie puppy (He doubled in size in 2 weeks),

named Bruiser.

He was born in Chubbuck, ID so while he was nameless we called him, chubbs, chubbo, chubbalub, and chubby. I think those will stick as nicknames.

Austin and I made a deal (or rather I made a deal with Austin) that he could name the puppy if I could name our first born.

For weeks he deliberated on Tank or Bruiser (I liked the name Scout, because he scouts around and gets in EVERYTHING).

Finally, despite the fact that it's the name of the silly chihuahua on legally blonde, he chose Bruiser....because our little teeny, tiny guy is quite the mean, fierce, BRUISER.

Actually big, bad Bruiser is just the sweetest pup. Smart too, he is pee-pad potty trained, it only took a few tries for him to figure it out.

He sleeps in his kennel all night, with hardly any fuss; he takes bathes with no crying; and the only time he barks is in his sleep (he also snores and runs in his sleep). Over the past couple of days he has let us haul him around from Logan to Mt. Pleasant and everywhere in between.

Bruiser is the most lovable, silly, fun, adorable little rat.

We just love him.

As you can see, he likes to sleep. But don't let him fool you, when he is awake he is a wild pup. He jumps, pounces, gets into anything he can reach with paws or mouth, chews on everything, runs around (except on the hardwood and tile then he just slips all over the place and has to walk backwards), chases anything moving and investigates every noise and movement-he also likes to snuggle, give kisses and be held.

He is one adventurous, sweet puppy, just perfect for Austin.