Merry Christmas to all!

All of us here at Bringing up Bella would like to wish you and yours a very happy Christmas. Thank you for following our adventures with the crazy dog. Here's to a bright and brilliant 2014!

'Twas the night before Christmas...

And Bella was wondering if she was going to be on Santa's naughty or nice list. What do you think?

Naughty?

Or nice?

How to get on Santa's "Naughty" list (video)

The Christmas cards were stacked by my work-desk with care,
in hopes that a coffee break would find time to spare...

I was working.

Bella was bored.

The cards were tempting.

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Christmas card photo-shoot 2013 - The Outtakes

I'm afraid I don't have an abundance of outtakes to share this year. Bella's getting to be such a good model that the only real problem we have remaining in our photo-shoots is that I can't see worth a darn to focus the camera.

Still, this year's Christmas card photo-shoot was extra fun for a two reasons: 1) I got to trash the house (before putting it back together) and "blame" it on the dog and 2) Jan got to see just how good Bella is at modeling for me these days.

Usually Bella and I go off somewhere to do our photo sessions. I'm not sure why (probably the shock and horror at seeing what our living room looked like pre-dog) but Jan decided to hang around this time. I put him to work being 'the treat guy'. That definitely helped me out because it allowed me to get some shots of Bella where she's not looking right at me (a photography hazard of teaching the "look" command.)

When we wrapped the shoot and I was cleaning up, I overheard Jan cooing and coddling our little super model sounding rather amazed at just how good she was when asked to stay, look, and pose.

He was impressed and I was proud.

Still, I did find a few outtakes of Bella not looking her most lovely and elegant. Enjoy!

You're going to blame this mess on me, aren't you?
Yes, yes, that's very funny. Blame the dog. Har har har.

I can't see you.

Maybe if I look drunk you'll stop doing this to me.

Is this the pose you want, Daddy?
Am I doing it right?
Can I have that treat now?

Is that tree going to land on my head?

I'm not sure this one really qualifies as an outtake. Still, I wanted to include it because she's just
so. darn. cute.

Oh and for the record, yes, yes I did totally decorate the house and wrap Christmas presents in the middle of November only to trash everything and then put it all back together again. I don't know where I got the idea I had an abundance of free time that wouldn't be better served by doing something other than decorating the house multiple times and wrapping 'pretend' presents. (It actually was kind of fun though. :)

Meet the Blogger blog hop 2013

Welcome to the Meet the Bloggers blog hop 2013!

So these bloggers walked into a bar... Uh wait, no, that's not right...

A few blogger friends were talking one day and realized we wouldn't recognize each other if we ran headlong into each other at a bar. Er, wait, that's not quite right either.

Well, some bloggers finally realized there aren't any pictures of us on our blogs and in an attempt to "peek behind the curtain", a blog hop was born! A blog hop designed specifically to reveal the true identities of the hard-working individuals who bring these marvelous musings of petted bliss (uh - our pet blogs) to life.

The "Meet the Bloggers" blog hop is being hosted
by the following bloggers:

Amy from Go Pet Friendly
A.J. from I still Want More Puppies
Jodi from Kol's Notes
Dawn from NEPA Pets
Jennifer from My Brown Newfies
Jodi from Heart Like a Dog
Julie from The Daily Dog Blog
Kim from Cindy Lu's Muse
Kristine from Rescued Insanity
Lauren from Life With Desmond
Leslie from Bringing up Bella
Mel from No Dog About It
Peggy from Peggy's Pet Place

It's not too late to join in the fun - all you need to do is:

Write a post that includes the following:

Uh, mom? Wat'chu smoking? Can I have some?

1. A current photo of the blogger.

Sorry, it's the best I could do.

The remote controller I ordered for my camera came after I suffered some indignity to my face this weekend due to a disagreement I had with a tree so a more current picture will not be forth-coming. This is from 11/16/2013 so it's about as current, if kind of silly, as I have.

2. Answers to at least five, (but more if you'd like!) of the following questions:

(FTR, I know that as soon as I hit the "publish" button, I am going to think of a million things I left out, a few thousand better answers and "just the right" thing to say. Oh well.)