Meet Mayzie, our French Bulldog who is really more like our first child. I mentioned her earlier, but felt like she deserved her own post so that I could share a couple of pictures (out of hundreds).

After lots of research, meeting breeders, attending dog shows and applying for puppies (yes, there are applications) we finally found a wonderful breeder who had the perfect puppy for us. We named her Mayzie after a character from Dr. Seuss’ “Horton Hatches a Egg” and Seussical.

We were able to bring Mayzie home at 11 weeks old. She weighed 7 pounds, 6 ounces.

Since she wasn’t finished with her vaccinations we had to carry her when we went outside or to walk to work. Her preferred method of transport that 1st week or 2 was my purse. We’re very lucky that she gets to go to work with us.

The first week of having a puppy was so fun and exciting, but exhausting. We were up multiple times in the night and it was like we had a newborn. I’ve never had so much worry and anxiety over a dog. I have no idea how we will handle real children! I literally took her to the vet once a week for the first month because I thought something wrong. Basic conclusion was that she was a picky eater and adjusting to her new home so I should just relax.

She’s had the sweetest personality from the very beginning. She loves people, dogs and especially kids.

We had a puppy reunion with her sister, mom and other dogs she grew up with at the breeder’s house. It was cute overload with Frenchies and puppies everywhere. In the picture above Mayzie is the puppy on the left with the pink collar. This is her and her sister reuniting with their mom.

She loves to cuddle in our arms or lap and will let you know if you are not doing it “right.”

She usually prefers to sit in blanket on your lap.

You can see how much she has grown. I’ve tried to take pictures in her bed at work to track the growth. For awhile she was gaining a little less than a pound each week. She’ll probably be between 21 and 23 pounds full grown. She is 18 pounds right now.

Enjoying the warm weather in Southern California over Christmas and having the time of her life.

And that is a quick introduction to Mayzie! Hope you enjoyed the pictures.

In future posts I’ll write about the process of finding a French Bulldog. It was a tough process and hard to find good information on how to find a good dog and breeder. Because frenchies are such a popular breed there are unfortunately a lot of unethical breeders and unhealthy dogs out there.  I hope that our story and experience can help others who want one of these sweet puppies.

I can’t believe it’s been this long since I last posted. Time has seriously gotten away from me this year. It’s been a busy, but overall good year. I’m sure there are things to go back to in the next few posts, but in the spirit of posting regularly and escaping the pressure of a 1 year lapse in blogging, I’m going to just focus present time and what’s been going on lately.

Golden Gate Bridge

2011 Quick Highlights
Really there is much more that happened than this. We’ve had some fun memories this year, but here are a few big things that happened.

1. Celebrating 1 year in San Francisco. We’ve been lucky to experience some really amazing things here and grow both individually and as a couple. We’ve been to parades, festivals, incredible restaurants, baseball games, theater and explored the various neighborhoods in this 7×7 mile space.
2. Family and Friends visiting us in the city. One of the best parts of living in San Francisco is that we live in a place that people want to see. We have been so lucky to have many friends and our families come visit several times since we’ve moved. It’s always a highlight of that month and gives an excuse to discover more things in this city.
3. Oregon for Annie’s wedding. We went to Portland, Oregon this summer for one of my best friend’s wedding. We got to catch up with friends and see a beautiful new place. I hope we can make it back soon.
4. 2 year anniversary. So much has happened in the 2 years since we got married. We did our annual celebration and dinner out at a fun restaurant that’s been on my wishlist. We went to Michael Mina this year. I also got the best gift ever. See below.
5. Mayzie! If you know me in person or have previously read this blog, you know that I’m a dog person. A French Bulldog puppy joined our little family as our 2nd anniversary present. We researched and looked for a breeder for about 6 months before we found Mayzie, but she was worth the wait. More on her in later posts…
6. Holidays in Southern California. We drove down to visit our families for both Thanksgiving and Christmas this year. It was so nice to be down there and visit people and places we miss. Mayzie also enjoyed the road trip and warm Southern California weather.

2012 To-Do List and Goals
I am not going to say resolutions because I think it’s too easy to break those. These are some general goals that I think are very doable. There is also our San Francisco & Bay Area To-Do list which features many things that I want to do, eat and experience. I won’t share everything here because the list is very long, but mention some overall themes of the list. Here we go…

1. Get back into crafting more. I’m sad to admit I didn’t do too much crafting last year or as much as I would have liked. I miss it though and need the creative outlet. I’m hoping that blogging will encourage me to create new things and find inspiration in the blogging community. I want to incorporate some crafting into parties and entertaining as well.
2. Brush up on photography and photoshop. My senior year in college I took a photography class to fill in some remaining credits and wanted something fun. I was definitely out of place as a psychology major in a land of photoshop gurus, comms majors and others who had spent a majority of their college life on an apple. It ended up being one of my favorite classes, but I’ve lost much of the knowledge over the last few years. Time to get out the camera again.
3. Visit Bay Area destinations. We are an hour drive away from some really incredible places. Time to plan some weekend and day trips to Napa, Sonoma, Monteray, Half Moon Bay, the Redwoods and more.
4. Health, working towards a better me and enjoying it. I got a good start on this at the end of 2011, but I want to continue to make better food choices, find an exercise routine I enjoy and lose the few extra pounds that are hanging on. I don’t enjoy running and often wander around aimlessly at the gym. I hope to find a routine that works for me and that I can enjoy.
5. Cooking more and mastering new things. I hope to try making new things and master a few recipes in my collection of cookbooks that have just been flagged for too long. Along with this I want to use fresh ingredients and ingredients I have not tried before. In a addition to healthy cooking, there a few cookie and dessert recipes from new cookbooks that deserve the splurge.
6. San Francisco To-Dos. I say this generally because there are so many places I want to see and a list of restaurants I hope to try. I want to consciously get out and do new things vs. opting to just stay in or do the same routine on the weekends.
7. Take a vacation. It’s been a few years since we took a true vacation that wasn’t just to go visit family. I hope to get some time away to explore a new place, relax and get quality time with Mark.

That’s it for now. What is on your to-do list for 2012?