Tiki vs. the Duck

Tiki hasn't had any new toys lately because he tears them to pieces. An example of his titanium teeth, we bought a toy guarenteed not to rip. They claimed it was tested on tigers. HA, is all I have to say. It had a hole in it within mere minutes. So I saw a toy duck today at work and I bought it for Tiki to try his luck with. Here are the results


















Yeah those deer antlers were once attached to a whole deer till Tiki got a grip on them.



Click here to view the video of Tiki taking this Duck apart.

Halloween

So since Lindsay isn't home for Halloween I didn't really do anything, but I did go over to my parents to see my neice Kathryn dressed up. Johnny said I would like her costume so much to my surprise she was a Panda bear. Here are the pictures of Kathryn's first Halloween!

And the Advenuture Continues

Ok, so it's been a couple of days since my last post, and I thought I would update everyone on my Cali Adventures...which actually don't add up to anything really interesting. This past Friday, I started coming down with a really yucky cold. I think it was a combination of the travel and the change in weather. It's really cool here. So, when everyone decided to go out for dinner Friday night, I decided to stay at the hotel and get some rest. Saturday morning arrived and I thought I was better and could join the gang to take the BART (Bay Area Transportation...kinda like the DC Metro) into San Francisco to do touring for the day. I made it up and got ready. I made it down to the lobby. I made it to the van. I made it into Oakland. I made it into the Bart station. I did not make it on to the Bart! Right before the Bart pulled up, I started feeling very dizzy and seeing lots of spots. Bascially, I almost passed out!!! (I probably should have eaten...but you all know that when you have a cold, food doesn't sound so yummy. Plus it was really cool outside and hot in the station...anyways). So thankfully, Mike took me back to the hotel where I crashed for the rest of the day. Sunday was a bit better and I actually was able to make it onto the Bart and into San Fran to do a bit of shopping. But we didn't stay long and I came back to take yet another nap and rest. I am feeling much better today and I have a marathon of shopping lined up for this coming weekend. Since I didn't venture out of the hotel, I have no pictures. But I thought I should update anyway! Hope you enjoyed!!!

Oakland

Here are just a few pictures that I took today. The first one is from the building where we are training and the rest are from our hotel!

JULIA-ROSE IS HERE!

When I found out that I was heading to California for three weeks I was upset for a few reasons. Of course I would miss Randy, Tiki and my family. But I was also really upset that I would miss the birth of Julia-Rose. Andrea was due on the 6 of November and I wasn't heading back to Roanoke until the 9th. So, you can imagine my delight when on Saturday, October 20, Andrea called to tell me that she had been having contractions since Friday evening. Luckily for me (And I'm sure that Andrea was excited also), Julia-Rose came early! I was able to go to the hospital on Sunday for a couple of hours and see and hold Julia-Rose, as well as see Andrea and Shawn interact with her. I have been really blessed to have a super close relationship with my cousins. Andrea has been more like sister and a best friend than a cousin!!! I am so lucky to have her in my family!! Shawn has been a great addition to the family as well and I can already tell that they are going to be such great parents!!! Julia-Rose is not my second cousin, she's my "niece!!"

Ok, so enough of my babbling, here are some pictures of my niece!! She is absolutely precious and I'm so excited to be able to be part of her life!!! I'm so lucky to have TWO amazing nieces!!!!! Here's the cutie pie!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, this is by far my most favorite picture ever!!!!!!!!!!

Baby Shower

On October 13, the Dooley girls had a shower for Andrea and Julia-Rose! We had the shower at Aunt Betty's house and Aunt Becky and my mom helped with cooking all the yummy food, while Kim and I did the favors! We had a great time and Andrea received so many nice things. Below are just a few of the pictures I took!


I know this picture is sideways, but I can't figure out how to turn it on the laptop, but I love it and I had to post it!


Andrea opening gifts!

Andrea and her friends from high school!

Andrea, Amanda and Jessica! They are all pregnant!!

Kim, Andrea and I!

The Dooley girls: Aunt Betty, Andrea, me, mom and Aunt Becky!! LOVE US!


Decorations

The clothesline!

The picture frame favors and the piggy bank that I made for Julia-Rose

The Krispy-Kreme cake I made especially for Andrea b/c she loved doughnuts while she was pregnant!

The shelf that Kim made for Julia-Rose!!

Sad

This is the face of sadness since Lindsay is not home for 3 weeks. Since I can't take a sad picture of myself I had to use Tiki. Here he is sitting by the door waiting. The same principle applies to myself, as soon as I finish this post I am going to go lay beside the dog.
-Randy

California...Here I come...actually here I am!

As most of you know, I started a new job about 3 weeks ago with the Department of Veteran's Affairs. As part of my training, they sent me to California for 3 weeks! I arrived today around 5:30 California time, 8:30 VA time! We had a really long annoying shuttle ride to the hotel! But we are all here, with all our baggage and ready to head to bed! I know that most of you are anxious to see my pictures of Julia-Rose, but I will have to wait and upload all of those tomorrow night! My goal is to get updated with all my posts tomorrow so that I can update with my adventures here!

Alright...I'm off to bed. I miss you all and will see you soon!!!

Photo Shoot

As we all know by now, I am obsessed with taking pictures of Tiki. When we went to pick him up from my parent's house on Sunday, I couldn't help doing a fall photo shoot!!!

One Year

On Sunday, Randy and I celebrated our 1 year wedding anniversary!! We left on Thursday and headed to Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg for the weekend. We rented a cabin and had a great time! Below are some pictures from the weekend. We went to the Hard Rock Cafe in Gatlinburg, as well as many other yummy places! We also took our cake top from the wedding. We dug a hole in the middle and tried the cake, but it wasn't very yummy!! We had such a great time and are looking forward to many more years!!!!

P.S. The video below is of the trip up to our cabin! It was really really steep and the video doesn't do it justice! Sorry for the glare! ;)