Max and his new bed.

For Christmas we gave Max a new bed. You see, his old bed was his very favorite thing on planet earth...until it was destroyed and was no more. As a temporary fix, we gave him a few blankets that he could curl up on and burrow under. But it really was no replacement for his bed...his one true love.

So, when we unveiled this gift of his (a few days early, I might add...we really couldn't wait to give it to him!)...he was excited, to say the least.

And he spent plenty of time snuggled up and bonding with his new gift.

Chilaxin'

"Okay, really, Mom?"

"Enough pictures already!"

max wants you to feel bad for him...

Because, really...his life is so rough.

max and the fuzzy blanket.

A few weeks ago Jonathan and I bought a nice fuzzy blanket at IKEA during our adventure in Atlanta.

Well, apparently Max thinks this blanket is his...

Or he thinks it's his new brother. One or the other. It does kind of resemble an animal of sorts.

max and driving with the window down.

Last summer Max was still a little puppy, so he wasn't a big fan of driving with the windows down...it was still kind of scary to him. But now, it has become a new love of his. Whenever we're driving somewhere and he's with us {and it's nice outside}, we roll down the windows...he climbs up in my lap and puts his paws against the passenger door...sticks his nose out and sniffs the fresh air.

He loves it. And we love it too, because it brings us a lot of amusement during our little drives. :)

max and his nighttime grumpiness.

Max and I have a few things in common: 1. we both really don't like to ever be alone {which is why we're so good for each other} and 2. we both tend to get grumpy when it's really late and we're really sleepy {Max shows his grumpiness a whole lot more than I do though.}

When I say that Max gets grumpy late at night...I mean, he gets really grumpy. For example, last night Jonathan and I were over at my family's house to spend time with everyone and we always bring Max along on our visits...and as much as he loves visiting his friends...we stayed there a little later than normal, and he was just not happy about it. He wanted to go to bed, but we wanted to stay and talk.

So, Max proceeded to sit there and stare at me and Jonathan and discontentedly sigh/grunt every 10 seconds. Yes, friends...it got a little irritating after a while.

Needless to say, when we finally left and came home...Max bounded into the house, grabbed his bed and dragged it to his crate, and stared at us until we tucked him in for the night.

I swear, our dog is like a little child.

max and his first year with us.

Our dear puppy Thelonious Maximus Zajas has been with us exactly one year today. And what a year it has been! I seriously never knew that I could love a dog this much, but he really has become a part of our family. :)

Here are some photographs of Max and his first year with us...

Max and the day we picked him out.
{it was a very easy decision...we fell in love with him right away!}

Max and his ride home with us.
{blurry, but memorable.}



Max and his discovery that he is destined to be a puppy model.



Max and his favorite toy - the Chick-fil-a cow.
{it's still his favorite toy, to this day. he won't chew it up...it's special to him.}



Max and his water dish that was larger than him.



Max and me.



Max and his bed.



Max and his first walk.
{it took us forever to get anywhere on our walks,
because everyone and their mother would stop to oooh and awww
over him. he loved the attention...still does.}



Max and his first picnic.



Max and his nap.



Max and his first summer.



Max and his first swim.



Max and the rain.
{he really doesn't like the rain.}



Max and his first card game.



Max and his first Halloween.
{he's thinking "Aw, c'mon Mom...really?" hehe}



Max and his first Christmas.



Max and his looking cute for the camera.



Max and his favorite place on earth.
{his absolute favorite is to sit in between me and Jonathan on the couch.}



Max and Jonathan.

It has been a great first year! :)

evening walks.

Recently husband, Max, and myself have been consistently going on walks after dinner each night. We have been walking on our local greenway...and we love it! It feels so nice to wind down after a day of work by taking a brisk walk in the lovely weather we've been having. We've been walking at least 2.5 miles each night, and it has been great.

It's also so fun to see Max's reaction after dinner. He has learned that when we start cleaning up and doing dishes after dinner, that means he's about to go on a w-a-l-k. He gets sooooo excited about this. He'll run back and forth from us to the door, jumping up and twirling around.

It makes me smile. :)

my couch buddy.

One of the benefits of getting to work from home on some days is my couch buddy. When I don't feel like working at my desk, I'll work from the couch. My little buddy Max is always right there next to me to keep me company. It's amazing how content he is just sitting by me while I type and work away. I love my couch buddy.

max and the balloon: round two.

We just recently discovered that Max really loves playing with balloons. Really really. The other day he had another round of serious balloon playing. {Oh, and please excuse how the video is sideways at first...I'm a dork and forget that taking video is not just like taking photographs.}

Enjoy the craziness that is Max:

max's silly morning routine.

Max has this silly morning routine...after he has been taken outside to go potty, he comes inside and runs all throughout the house making sure he says hello to everyone. He then grabs his rawhide bone and does this:

I have to say, getting to see this every morning of every day makes me pretty happy. So happy, that I took two videos of him doing this. So, here's another one for you:

I promise, he can actually be quite the calm little dog. He is laying in my lap fast asleep right now. It's just that the moments when he's going all crazy happen to be his funniest moments and the ones worth recording.

P.S. I do realize that sometimes we talk about our dog like he's our child {and when I say we, I mainly mean me, Tiffany.} He just does such funny things, I feel as though I would be robbing you of joy if I did not share. :)

days like these make me happy, because i get to wear my rainboots.

Days like these make me smile, because I get to wear
my polka dotted rain boots.



Getting to wear my rain boots somehow makes any dreary day
just a little bit brighter.

Max, on the other hand, doesn't like the rain at all.
Maybe if he had some puppy rain boots he would feel a little differently about that.

{all images by me}

max and his photoshoot.

I love taking photographs. And I love our puppy Max. So, whenever I feel the need to pull out my camera...Max is always there as a willing model. He really does quite a good job posing for me.

Although his attention span can be rather short sometimes.

Here are some images from Max's photoshoot earlier today:

I think they should make an America's Next Top Dog Model.
And Max would surely be the winner.