the newest member of the pack

Once again, it has been an awfully long time since I last posted. School and life often gets the best of me and if we are being brutally honest I am the worst at trying to maintain balance.  There have been some big changes in our household since I last posted as we welcomed baby C to the pack! This may be a long post but I want to share my trying to conceive (TTC) experience to give hope to others who may be struggling with trying to have a baby.

First, let me back track a little bit.  From the get go I knew I was not going to be able to conceive B without a little assistance. It took about a year to get knocked up with B with the help of injectable infertility meds. 

{It was only appropriate to add an adorable Baby B photo here}

Already going through the whole having-a-baby thing, when the hubs and I decided to try for baby #2 we thought it was going to be easy peasy like B.  Well, what happens when you have that kind of mindset? Yup, it doesn't exactly go as planned.  We did about six rounds of injectable meds with no success and ended up doing an IVF cycle. Our cycle went about as good as it can possibly go and I ended up pregnant on the first go around with eight more embryos to spare.

I'll skip over the pregnancy part. All I will say is once again pregnancy is so not my thing. I was sick for the first 27 weeks with C, then became a wild, starving, bottomless pit for the remaining 14 weeks. If you noticed, 27+14 does not equal 40... That would be because I was a week overdue with C and had to be induced.  I think that the powers-that-be do me a solid when it comes to labor and delivery because both of my kids were pretty similar. About six hours of active labor and a whole whopping five minutes of pushing.

And now I shall introduce you to our newest member of the pack, hound terrorizer in training, and little love of our life: 

Claire Lily

{Born 01/12/2015, 8:05 PM, 8 lbs & 4 oz, and 21.5" long}

And now let me inundate you with ridiculously cute C pics....

{Lily honestly believes she is human}

{and just for good measure here is B & Big Tim... Only because these might be the cutest pictures of a boy and his dog EVER.}

[Disclaimer: I understand that not everybody's IVF experience is like mine and while some might find it insensitive of me to talk about my relatively 'easy' IVF process. You have to remember that everyone's experiences are different, however we are all in the same boat.]

lately through the camera roll

Forewarning: Since I have been gone so long this is going to be a little picture heavy... 

But, they are cute pictures. :)

{1. B at a hockey game looking rather studly.}

{2. Violet deciding that my head is a good place to sleep.}

{3. Typical small hound.}

{4. Mine & B's great thrift shop score.}

{5. Grumpy B at his friend's pirate themed birthday party.}

{6. The view in my rearview mirror a few weeks ago.}

{7. Target fun.}

{8. Cutest sign holder ever.}

{9. Two of my fave guys.}

{10. My first freshly picked flower from B.}

{11. B after a late night of partying.}

{12. Beach Day.}

{13. Backseat (well drivers seat) drivers.}

{14. I just found this... I am pretty sure B took this of my BFF.}

{15. Lil.}

{16. Morning with Big Tim.}

{17. Apparently pizza dough on your eye is fun.}

{18. Late night dinner with the coolest kid I know.}

{19. Me & B.}

{20. Catching the Octonauts at the mall.}

{21. B's first Subway sandwich...}

our week through the camera roll

Last week was pretty uneventful, but I caught some cute shots with my iPhone. :)

Enjoy!

{This is what happens when I try to lay on the couch.}

{I think B was watching Elmo... How cute are his doggie boxers?!}

{Violet is not a burrower... She uses pillows for blankets.}

{I made some new pillow covers for the couch in my front room.}

{I swear Vi sleeps in the most random spots. Here she is on the arm rest of the couch.}

{B & I on our way to my parents' 70's themed party}

{Us at the end of the night... It was super hot out.}

{I snaked my mom's party afro. It kinda matched my real hair.}

{How great is this print?! Totally wanted it but it was $150... On sale!}

well, hello there!

Hi there and welcome to my new blog! If you don't know me, i'm Sheri and I am glad you found your way over to my small corner of the world!

If you already know about my little family then you can probably skip over the next part but I wanted to let y'all know a little about me.  I live in sunny, wonderful California with my dear husband, amazing two year-old son, and our three dogs; two of whom this blog is named for. I previously had another blog that focused on my ever growing son but wanted to expand it to include a little bit of all of us.

I am a mess of things. I love school and have a bachelor of arts in History, hopefully I can continue on to receive a masters degree. I love to craft and have been known to take on more crafts than I possibly have time to finish. I love to cook and try out new recipes with desserts being my absolute favorite thing to make. I spend most of my days with my son whom I love more than life itself.  Some of my day is also consumed by hound cuddling... Can't say it's a bad way to spend my days.

 

B is my two year old son/sidekick/shopping & craft partner. He is a super friendly, super sweet, super trendy kinda guy. His loves include trips to the park, shopping at Target (which he will gladly point out anytime that store is passed by), reading books, fire trucks, garbage trucks, airplanes, trains, his "hound" (Lily), Sesame Street, art, his blankie, Starbucks, and snack time.

Lily Lovemuffin is my first ever dog and was given to me by my husband as an early Christmas present in 2006.  I have been hers since she was six weeks old.  She is unlike any dachshund I have ever met and I honestly think that she thinks she is a person. She rarely associates herself with the other dogs and only wants to be with people, she is too good to sleep on the floor unless there is some sort of sun bathing involved, and she is sneaky (which IS a dachshund trait). She sleeps under the covers at night and sometimes requires the use of a pillow for her little head. She also loves treats and naps.

Violet Grey is the newest addition to our family and she just turned one in May.  My husband calls her Karen- like from the cougar that jumps out of the backseat in the movie Talladega Nights, the Ballad of Ricky Bobby. Karen describes her perfectly, she is the monster of all monsters at home but a sweet angel around everyone else. She loves to terrorize her sister and use Timber as her dog bed; apparently she is too good to sleep on the floor as well. She demands attention by lying on your face and eats everyones food. She is the cutest-chubby-small-headed dachshund you'll ever meet.

 

And then there is Timber.  We rescued Timber about five years ago after moving to our permanent home. Lily was in need of a companion/minion and Timber wanted the job.  He's a nice, gentle guy, that puts up with the girls and B. He likes to sleep 20 out of the 24 hours in the day and catch flies, bees, and mosquitoes in the summer time.  He is the brawn to the girls' brains.

Though the title might be deceiving, this blog is not all about our dogs, though they might be frequently talked about. I just wanted to share our likes and dislikes, things I have made, yummy foods and recipes, and some of our fun activities.  If you are wondering why this blog is entitled A Tale of Two Dachshunds it's because if you have ever had the privilege to have a small (or large) dachshund be a part of your life you know that you do not own your little badger dog- he or she owns you. This is a household ran by two small hounds- the rest of us just abide to their bidding, lol!