Savannah's 11th

Savannah asked if I could bring by some lunch and eat with her at school for her birthday. It is funny how something so small can add such joy to your day. I like that on birthdays everything is magic! 

So after we had lunch together I took the rest of the day off and went home and secretly decorated the kitchen, made a cake, and wrapped her presents. When Savannah got home from school she was thrilled with the surprise!

We had fun this year with just celebrating as a family. 

This picture is not in relation to Savannah's birthday, but I did want to share that she saw this shirt at Target one day and asked for it - which is a big deal. Most of the time we pass up all the Frozen shirts or Cinderella stuff and I look at them with memories of my baby girl. So when she asked you can imagine how giddy inside I was and of course didn't blink an eye. It will probably be one of the last times I get to buy her Little Mermaid stuff. Or maybe not. I would be fine if she wanted one at age 20! 

Decorated - Savannah loves animal print - very fun!

Let's just say I shouldn't quit my day job to work in the bakery. It wasn't what I had envisioned...I thought for sure it would look like one of those in the pictures you pick from the book...

Here's what matters most. Look at that face? Of course this was just after she walked in the door from being surprised. 

"The dentist is going to hate me," she said. And she did admit to her dentist about eating the tube of black frosting for her birthday when she went for her annual cleaning today. 

We had to run to the high school after the surprise for a Trivia Contest she and her friends entered. We sat in back and reminisced being in high school all over again. Funny how those desks feel smaller than they used to.

Savannah chose to go to Chili's for her birthday dinner. We weren't very thrilled about the food, even she said, "Remind me not to choose Chili's again," but the lava cake was the best part. Jake and I ended up eating it since she was too excited from everything and didn't seem interested. Odd, I know.

Her balloons had little LED lights in them so you could play with them in the dark. I thought that was pretty cool, and the lights lasted for about a week too!

Making a wish!

I just love getting pictures of people just at the right time, especially when they belly laugh as they open their cards. This was a card from Jake and it appears to be a good one. 

She loves her Lego movie, robe, and  jeans, can't you tell?

I wonder what the next year of double digits will bring. Lots of love, happiness, growing, and laughter. Happy birthday miss Savannah, we love you!

Pugsley's Journey

We adopted Pugsley on August 17, 2009 from the Utah Valley Animal Shelter. She was a purebred pug and Charlie had been wanting a pug for a while for himself, but the funny thing is she took to me and never left my side since. So much for having his own pug.

The vet guessed Pugsley was about 4 when we got her but I think she was closer to 5 going on 6. She was always wherever I was, even if I was just sitting watching TV she wanted to be by my side all the time in fact so much so it was smothering to me at first. But eventually I became so used to it she was like my sidekick. She'd often plop herself on my feet under my computer desk or if I was out mowing the lawn she would follow me everywhere but did keep good distance from the mower. She trudged wherever I was just to get to my side even if it meant she'd run out of breath and hyperventilate doing it.

Savannah loved her so much too, she was a living stuffed pet as you can see in the picture where they were sleeping together. All her friends loved to come over and play with her. With her big eyes and round head, it was as if their favorite Littlest Pet Shop pet had came to life.

Pugsley loved her stuffed animals and would suckle on their noses and nurse while kneading he paws back and forth until she fell asleep. She once got a stuffed snowman for Christmas and she suckled his carrot nose right off the same day! It wasn't uncommon to catch her sleeping at my feet snoring or sometimes stealing Bear's rawhide. Bear was always so nice to her though, like a big brother. He let her take his bed or his food any time.

She spent a couple weeks at my mom's house and after getting over my being gone a couple days later, she adopted my mom as her own. My mom nicknamed her "Granny Grunt" - and it fit very well because as you know, Pugs don't have much for plumbing int he way of sinuses and facial features. You always knew when Pugsley was in the room. I guess that is why I miss her so much. She was always under my feet, my little shadow. The house is much empty now without her.

Eventually she couldn't get up on the furniture any longer on her own, being over weight and all. Her hair was shedding so bad we just kept her off completely. To be honest and I hate to say it but I've never been much of a puppy breath loving person so I didn't mind that she stay down off my lap either. We did learn eventually all the weight gain was from her eating what Bear had in his dish when we weren't home. She was able to lose some weight in 2013. For a while there though she was quite the pot bellied pig.

She would sit at my feet and just stare at me waiting for my next move. If she wasn't at my feet we were not sure where to even look for her for as she rarely left my side. Literally. I mean this dog was so loyal to me and I didn't give her the attention a real dog lover would have. I did feel bad, but through it all I believe she understood that was how I was. Of course some of it was that she was also very interested in food and knew I'd give her kibbles so that is where some of the staring came in, but even when I wasn't eating she'd patiently wait and look at me with those eyes just letting me know she was here for me. She was also very jealous at times when the cat sat on my lap or when we dogsat our friend's dog, Sassy, this last Christmas.

About 9 months ago her little hind legs started to fail. She wasn't able to go up and down the stairs like she used to. Things got worse and we'd notice her bunny hopping to get around. One day she tried coming up the stairs after me and fell after the third one, I felt so bad. She'd never try it again after that. We'd bring her upstairs every night until she started losing control of her other bodily functions. We had tried a diaper but it didn't work. So she had to keep her bed in the kitchen where things were easier to clean and she seemed content with that. It was inevitable what we needed to today - something worth doing before she became miserable and completely immobile. Hard decision, but life is like that.

One thing about Pugsley was she was always happy. We love and miss her so much. Here are a few of my favorite memories...

Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas!

No snow for Christmas this year in Wisconsin - in fact it was super warm the day after we didn't even need our jackets. We bought a real tree this year...after two years of artificial we were just not loving the idea-besides the lights burned out in one of the sections which made the decision that much easier to revert back.

Here are some of the fun memories we had...

Savannah performing with Show Choir

Our front room before Christmas exploded - the kids did most the decorating and did a good job!

Savannah and I decorated this gingerbread house while watching Rudolph. She had a few Littlest Pet Shop friends visiting as you can see. The frosting bag was super hard to squeeze and I didn't have the strength in my hands to help her like I normally would due to HM issues, so there wasn't any snow at this house either LOL. (BTW this had to be protected from the dogs reach, however the day after Christmas we found it on the floor with the roof missing.)

I just love looking at the stockings hung on the mantle!

Savannah as the "narrator" in the church play

Savannah didn't know I took this picture, we were waiting for our church program to start and as she saw us sitting behind her, she stuck her tongue out at Jake as she often does. Sibling rivalry. Heh.

Here she is with her school's "winter" concert. (I call it the Christmas concert however, society seems to be evolving this time of year to "holidays" or "winter" but not around me.) We were way up in the balcony so this was a pretty good shot considering she didn't know I was trying to take a picture. 

Here are both 5th grade classes -  when seeing them next to the kindergartners it reminded me of them when they were in 1st grade. Next year they will all be in middle school. Boo to growing up!

We went to the Botanical Garden to see the lights...no snow on the ground but it was still pretty. Afterward we stopped for Starbucks. It was a great new memory...maybe even the start of a new tradition.

They are a botanical garden so I think they felt inclined to have the lights reflect what you'd see in the summer time. We still have yet to go in the summer time...but we will!

This was very pretty. Reminded me of the movie Frozen.

We had a visitor spend the week at our house. Sassy is our friend's dog and she was very energetic (as it was her first Christmas-yes she is a pup) and loved attention.

Ha. Ma and Pa and Muffers (against her will I might add)

Savannah was so excited to give Jake her present to him. They are remote controlled bumper cars - they enjoy playing with them together. I think it was a good idea and she was very clever to find something that he and she could do to spend time together. 

I often look back at years past and remember how sad and depressed I'd get after Christmas was over...it is interesting now that I have Christ truly in my heart that I don't get these feelings any longer. Out of everything during this time of year I am so grateful for the gift God gave to us of His Son. For without it we would have no Hope.

Merry Christmas!