I know...FINALLY! I had so many plans to do quite a few posts during November and December but next thing I know it's January and now it's almost February! So, I am going to condense it down to one (possibly very long) post.
Our kitty Boo
The weekend of July 4th we lost our cat Boo. He disappeared and never came back. Our theory is that since he would pick a fight with most any critter in our neighborhood, he finally picked the wrong one. So, at the end of October we decided it was time to get another kitty. We took the boys down to the Humane Society and we picked out a cute little kitty with the name Logan. We had to wait a week to bring her home since their vet was on vacation but a couple of days later we decided that she was going to need a friend so we went to visit her and ended up picking out a little orange tabby named Zack. (We changed their names to Ben and Gwen.) Unfortunately, the day after we got Ben home (a few days after Gwen came home) he developed a nasty eye infection. We took him to the vet a couple of times but he wasn't getting any better. We finally made the decision to return him to the Humane Society since his poor eyes were completely shut and I had even taken the day off of work to take care of him. The Humane Society let us choose a different kitty, so a few days later we came home with Maurice. Both of our kitties are cuddly (Mo a little more than Gwen) and are a lot of fun to watch. We actually think that Mo thinks he is a dog. He likes to sniff new people and things, he follows us around like a dog, and he even looks at you better if you call him like a dog (whistle) instead of calling "kitty kitty."
This is poor little Ben just before we took him back
This is Maurice and Gwen. Mo is the one with the stripes.
November was busy with Jacob and Austin's birthdays. Both boys had sleep overs with a few of their friends and once again I was reminded about how thankful I am for the friends that they have. They are all really great kids! One of the big presents for them was a rearrangement of bedrooms. Once our two little houseguests left we started the big room move. Griffen and Austin moved upstairs to the bigger room and Jake now has his own space. They are all really liking this new set up too. To make room for future foster kiddos, we moved the office. We took the doors off of our big coat closet in the hallway (there are still three other closets in the hall for storage) and Dean built a really nice desk and shelves in there for our office. The office will once again be a babies room but we still need to get it fully cleaned out and organized.
Griff & Aus's Room
Jake's Room
Our new office
We had a great December with lots of traditions. We started out with the annual Christmas Tree hunt and for the second year in a row we found our tree in less than 10 minutes! This is a HUGE deal as we used to drag the boys around trying to find a tree we could agree on. The boys had a great time helping me decorate it that night. They love to hang all of the ornaments that they have gotten over the years. We spent Christmas day at our house. It was a nice quiet morning and a fun afternoon and evening as Dean's sister and her family and a couple of friends came over for dinner. It was really fun to see the grown up guys having lots of fun playing Lego Rock Band on the Wii. Dean and I wanted to try some recipes that we had seen on The Biggest Loser but I bought the wrong kind of turkey breast (it was a turkey without legs instead of a turkey breast loin - oops) so I was a little worried about how it would turn out. It was actually pretty good if I do say so myself.
Successful (and fast) tree hunt
Decorating the tree
The boys and their new airguns Christmas morning
We spent New Years in Longview having Christmas with my parents and then with Dean's grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousin. It was great to see family though we missed Dean's parents. We let the boys stay up until midnight but then all headed to bed at 12:05. The one thing we mentioned though was that this is the year we get a teenager. I can't believe that Jake is going to be 13 this year! Our new year has been busy but good so far. We hope your 2011 is too.
