bry & cole having fun!

happy 4th!

my heart aches

it has been only two days without bear. I feel like it has been forever. I miss him. we miss him. we wish he could come home to be with us.


photo by lilly bella photography. thanks, kristen!

  I wish all those little things that used to annoy me would come back. like him licking the floor repeatedly when nothing was on it, licking my pants, carrying around cole's favorite toys when we were about to go on a walk, peeing on every tree we pass, begging in the kitchen.

but I know in my heart we did the right thing. I know he was in pain. you can see it in his face. his eyes. we just miss him terribly & would give anything to have one more day with him when he was young & healthy. we'd throw the ball really far to him on the beach & he'd run so fast the sand would cover his face.

my heart will heal. just not today

saying goodbye to bear

today we had to make the very painful decision to put our beloved lab, stewart, to rest. he had been sick for the past week & yesterday we were told he probably had some sort of cancer. instead of doing further testing, we knew he had had a great life & did not want him to suffer or endure anything uncomfortable.

we adopted stewart in march of 2003 from lab rescue of florida. on his listing it said, "can jump 8 foot fences but is a snuggle bug." he was just that. every night he would lay on the couch in bry's lap & before we moved to indiana, he would sleep inbetween us each night & would snore all night long.

we believe stewart was probably around 12-13 years old. over the past year he has slowly had a harder time getting up. over the past few weeks he quit eating & became sick quite often. my fear was his pain. I did not want him to suffer for a second. last night, we carried him up the stairs to sleep with us one last time. he had a hard time getting comfortable and a few hours later I carried him down to the couch.

things we loved about stewart that we will never forget:
his affection, his appetite, his icky kisses, his long sighs, his snuggling, his grey face, his love for walks, his doggy dreams, his protective nature, his crooked toenails, his one white eyelash, his funny teeth, his love for carrying anything & everything in his mouth. I could go on and on....

below are pictures of his life with us.

first car ride! we adopted him from lab rescue of florida in 2003.

first snuggle time

going to the park for the first time

playing ball at the beach!

one of my favorite pictures

he used to put a tennis ball in his mouth and bite all the way down. he had one strong jaw!

young stew bear, 2003

family photo

recovery from surgery, bear was always near my side to snuggle

still recovering & bear was still there

yesterday. you can see in his face he just did not feel well.

my snuggle bug

bear, we love you with all our hearts & will miss you terribly. may you be at peace now, pain-free, running through the ocean & eating an entire bag of dog food like you always wanted.

happy father's day!

I was so excited this year about father's day. I wanted a day to show bry how special I think he is. I think he is a wonderful father. he loves cole to death, is so good with him & couldn't be a better father! so on this day, we did all things for bry!

we started off by making this banner so it was hanging when he got home from work at 2:30 a.m.

the next morning he had homemade french toast in bed.

this was one of his gifts. a hand-stamped picture with words from cole describing his dada!

the next cole stamped his foot & hand and we framed a picture of them.

here they are looking at a year's worth of pictures of the two of them together.

and lastly, one of my all time favorite ever pictures. the two of them! we treated bry yesterday to a shopping spree to get some new clothing. he looks very handsome in his new gear.

thanks, bry, for all you do for us. we sure do love you!!!