Life With Santana :)

Where it all began....

Jim and I gave our families a big announcement just a few years into our marriage. There was for sure some disappointment..... we had already been feeling the pressure of "when were we going to have kids already?" We were excited to start off with a puppy though!

We set out to take a look at a litter of lab puppies just weeks old and had a hunch we would be heading home with one of them. Santana's mom was an average size black lab named Cleo and her dad was a ginormous yellow lab (or small horse?) named Remmington. We chose a girl thinking it would be that "average size", we had no clue she would grow to be every bit as big as her dad?!

Our little baby roadkill!
She would fill up on puppy food and fall fast asleep in the rocks.
We always knew she was weird?
She was soooo tiny when we got her....

Hard to believe she was once so tiny next to the hose?

Our little troublemaker would always stop for a pose and give you a sweet innocent look.

I will never forget this park!
Our first house sold while we were waiting on our home to be built. We lived in Jim's aunt's home and took her to this park daily. She would stick her head right in to these industrial sprinklers and we would just laugh hysterically! I don't know how this didn't hurt?
This too is where she won the heart of this gal in a wheelchair and got around the back and got caught up in the poor girls oxygen tubes!! Then ran off to steal some couples fishing bait they were using to fish in the pond!! Needless to say it seemed everyone quickly knew us wherever we lived because of her!!


There with us when our house lot was just dirt...

Had to come along with us to check on the progress of our house...

Our brand new home!

When she was about 3 years old, along came Chaser...
When he would roll over so would Santana :)


It was miraculous!
She was a crazy girl and somehow always calmed down and got all gentle around the kids?

Best buddies :) She loved them from the start!!

Another kid around here...really??!!
She is just towering over Tatum here...


Santana loved kids!!
She enjoyed all of the neighborhood kids and was more than happy once she had her own around here!!

Always an innocent poser...

The trio...

Had to love romping around playing football with Chase.

Best game ever for the 3!!
Chase and Tatum would throw balls up on the roof and it was a race of who would get it first when it came rolling down.

I can for sure say that she never once listened to me her whole life!!!
Jim was always her true "master".
She ruled me from the very beginning, but after Jim and I were done pulling our hair out from her antics she was sweet at heart and she and I really became close over the years.

Such a lovable part of our family.

We had to say goodbye to her Friday, March 11th as she struggled badly. Her legs and joints became too weak to support her.
She grew from the tiny little one along with Jim and I to a 120lb sweet dog and awesome member of our family!!!! We will never forget her!!!