Our Shining Star

Ya know, ever since Optimus Prime was a wee little pup, we've been trying to tell him "Go to school, get an education, don't give up, earn that degree." Well it took him awhile but he listened. Last Tuesday Optimus officially graduated from Puppy Kindergarten!!!!! After 8 gruelly weeks of Tuesday night classes, our pup is finally ready to go out into the workforce or at least go on to the next class called Puppy Intermediate.
Optimus has learned all sorts of cool tricks like "Sit" and "Down". He knows "Take It," "Off," "Leave It," and "Stay". Don't get "Take It" and "Off" confused with "Take It Off". He doesn't know that one...maybe that will come next, although, I'm not too sure what he will be taking off...
On the last night of class, Optimus got to play some games with the other dogs. He did really well in the preliminary rounds winning with his stellar performance of "Sit" and "Down". But in the final round for both of those commands he was sorely defeated...I'm thinking those other dogs were Decepticons. They better watch out because our Autobot will kick their little furry rears in Puppy Intermediate! Well, okay he might not kick them, but he could definitely smell them!
Here is a video of the preliminary round for sit. Please pay no attention to the bad color combination of the person on the other end of his leash.


That's my boy!  At the end of the night Opti-pup received his diploma.  He was the first one to be given his diploma so I'm pretty sure that meant he was vale-pup-torian, although he didn't have to give a speech or anything.  Yip, Yip, Hooray!  We couldn't have been prouder!  Here he is about to be handed the diploma and then after he brought it back to us.  Dang camera wouldn't take a picture when he was actually handed the diploma!  Oh well.  We got some good ones after the fact.

I can't believe he is growing up so fast.  Next thing you know he'll be going off and getting his zippity taken out of his dooda.  Which by the way is next week!  (For those of you who don't understand our humor, he is getting neutered!)

Weight Loss Challenge Week 2

Well this week was not a good one for me.  I knew it was going to be bad.  The question was, just how bad was it going to be?  Here are the stats:

Sarah:
Last Week:  224.8
This Week:

That is a 2.4lb gain.  Oh, well.  I know what I did wrong, and I will try to change that this week.

Steve:
Last Week:  220.8
This Week:

That is a 3.2lb gain.  I'm telling ya, we did not do our best this week.
Now I'd like to say we already started being good with today, but I can't.  Gabor Brothers in Layton opened back up after being closed due to a fire for over a year....we couldn't help ourselves!  I really think we just enable each other and that really needs to stop!

Thank You Betsy for shaming me into a pedicure before this weigh in.  As you may have noticed I now have pretty pink toenails.  And Steve even trimmed his for you too!

This week will you please leave a comment on with your favorite low calorie snack?  I need some good ideas.  Thanks!

Weight Watchers Drop-outs!

As many of you know, Steve and I have been members of Weight Watchers for over a year now. We both were doing really well, but we are trying to save a little more money each month. Now instead of losers we are quitters! We vow that we will rejoin Weight Watchers by July. But until then, we need your help out there. Each Monday we will still weigh in just as we did at Weight Watchers, but in our own home. To keep us accountable, we are putting our weights on our blog. So please help us out by either letting us know how well we are doing, offering tips, or just leave a comment so we know you are watching...

So Steve's stats are:

Original Weight: 261

Last Week's Weight: 221.2

Current Weight:

Way to go! A loss of .4 lbs!

Here are Sarah's stats:

Original Weight: 254

Last Week's Weight: 225.2

Current Weight:Woohoo! Another .4 lbs lost!

One thing I learned this week is that I definitely need a pedicure! You can now keep track of our weight on the ticker at the top of the blog.

We look forward to your encouragement and support!

An Attempt at Craftiness

Every year I get a ton of Christmas cards in the mail and never have a good spot to put them. They usually end up on the entertainment center or the piano, but this year I wanted to do something different. I searched and searched for a greeting card holder. Well okay, I searched Target and found two that I didn't like. I thought, I'm sure the Internet has some great ideas. So I really did search and search the Internet for a good idea. I found this really cute Christmas wreath made out of clothespins. You just string them together on a wire with some beads between them and Voila! You have a greeting card holder wreath. Sounds pretty simple until you realize that each of the 42 clothespins had to be painted inside and out. That took me a couple days to complete. My cute little brain didn't even think to take them apart to paint. That was the great and wonderful Stevey's idea. So after painting all that I could on the outside, we finally decided to take them apart and paint the middles. Don't ask me how I was going to do that part with them still put together.

The instructions said to use a hanger wire and pony beads. I chose these cute red and green beads over the pony beads, but a hanger wire just would not fit through them. I bought some wire that was just perfect. I put it all together and Voila! It was as limp as a noodle. It looked really nice sitting on the table, but once you picked it up it just sagged. The wire was not strong enough.

So after another attempt at shoving the hanger wire through the beads, I decided I would just hot glue the hanger wire to the back of the wreath. This time the Voila, worked! It stayed together, it didn't sag, and you can hardly tell the wire is on the back!

The only thing that the hanger wire changed is now I can't move the clothespins forwards and backwards, but hey who cares? I think it looks awesome!

Click here for the Woman's Day article where I found the idea.

A Transformation in our Lives

We have a very exciting new addition to our family! We recently bought a black lab puppy and we named him Optimus Prime. He is a true Autobot Transformer. He even has the dog tag to prove it. Optimus was born on September 4th. We picked him up from a breeder in Provo on October 23rd.

When we took him to the vet for a check-up the week we got him he weighed 11.6 pounds. Now he weighs 26.5 lbs! We were told to expect him to be 80+ pounds full grown.

It has definitely been a big adjustment in our lives. We plan on Optimus being an outdoor dog, but I think we bought him at the wrong time of the year since it has been so cold outside. For the first month or so he slept in a little crate my grandma had bought for us inside the house. Then during the day he stayed in his dog run with his dogloo. Don't worry, we put up wind barriers and a roof. (Which coincidentally collapsed in with all the wet snow today) :(

Optimus started puppy kindergarten a month ago. He is doing great! He knows "Take It," "Off," how to sit and lay down, "Bed," "Go Potty," and "Up." Potty training is going well. Every time we think he's got it though, then he goes and pees on my mom's carpet or poops in the hall. Thank goodness for Nature's Miracle cleaner and hardwood floors.

Optimus and Dammitt have a love/hate relationship. Optimus loves her and she hates him. I think she may be a little jealous of the attention he gets. Typical first child behavior...ya know, growling, hissing, scratching... But the more training Optimus gets, the more Dammitt doesn't seem to mind him.

We love him to death, well, Steve loves him most the time; my love is unconditional! ;)

There is lots more to tell, but I will explain with the pictures.

This is my first picture with our little boy!

I picture Steve saying "Duh Duh Duhs" in this picture. Just look at that little belly.

This is when we put him in the crate in the car. He wouldn't even eat his treat. The dog toy was from the breeder. It has the scent of the litter and mom on it, so it was supposed to make him feel better.

Our first stop after Petsmart with our little boy was Carolyn and Bob's house. Here Optimus is with his Auntie Carolyn.

This was the first time we saw Optimus transform...it was a true miracle. I'm not sure why he transformed into his fellow Autobot, Bumblebee though. I thought he was supposed to be a semi-truck.

Dammitt and Optimus meeting for the first time. That was fun!

Our stinky little boy getting a well needed shower. Just look at the brown suds in the tub.

He was shivering so bad. Next time I'm totally getting out the blow dryer. FYI his eyes are not really blue, although they look that way in most pictures. They are brown. It's kind of like red eye for humans.

We read the dogs love peanut butter...the sign of a true Cutler.

Look at his adorable peanut butter face! Duh, duh, duhs...

His humongous dogloo! Its the extra large size. We partitioned it off so he could only use a little bit or else they will sleep in one side and go potty in the other.

Taking a well needed nap on one of his first days. This is usually Dammitt's favorite position. I don't think she has anything to worry about though, because Optimus is too squirmy and now way to big to do this anymore.

This was the second time Optimus transformed. This time it was on October 31st. I just love the little white stinger on the back.

My dad with Optimus. He is such a sucker for puppies. My mom and dad puppy-sat for us and apparently my dad's hands were Optimus' chew toys.

Optimus getting his favorite toy...his stuffed pheasant. No need to get up though, he'll just stretch.

Steve took this adorable picture. He said it took him quite a few tries to get it perfect. Well worth the effort honey!

There is the manly man himself putting together the dog run. It's pretty big, 7 1/2 ft x 12 ft, and 6 ft tall.

Optimus decided he needed to help too. He was bringing us (running away with) some of the parts.

There are my boys! Oh so cute! You may notice the laundry baskets filling up the rest of the dog house.

Well, our poor boy grew so fast he could hardly fit in his crate anymore. You can see his scrunched up body in the little crate. We bought the big one on KSL.com and it barely fits in the Subaru. Now he sleeps in that at night, at least while it's cold outside.

Here is Steve about to go on one of his walks with Optimus. I'm not sure if Optimus did any walking or not. :)

We partitioned off the big crate at first, but now he has free rein of the whole crate.

I wanted to show you a comparison picture from the first day and from a few days ago. He fell asleep on my chest that first day.

And here is how he fits now. Such a cute little boy!

Here is his Christmas picture. I love the sweater. Dammitt has a matching one.

This is Dammitt's cyborg eye...she senses an Autobot. We really think she might be a decepticon.

He is telling us he is bored with taking pictures.
Oh, the puppy dog eyes...love it!