Trees and Birthdays

Since Thanksgiving, we got busy tearing up the house and decking the halls, inside and out. I am nowhere near done and I've lost my energy to finish! I know how to get it back, don't you worry. As soon as my Girl Scout cookies arrive, I'll be good to go! Anyway, we bought a new tree this year after mulling over several options to replace our last one. I'm allergic to trees (such a nerd I am) and I didn't know how Angel would handle the needles. She seems to eat very strange things these days. We also figured that in the 15 years we had a fake tree, we saved a ton of money! So, we went ahead and got a nice new beautiful 9 foot pre-lit tree! (Did you hear that angel choir??) Only problem is, we are so very traditional about Christmas and we like playful, childlike trees covered in the kids ornaments. That means a multi-colored "color book" tree to us. Well, we don't care for the weirdish psychedelic colors of the new LED lights, so we went with (drumroll) clear lights. Yeah, that fell flat on me too at first! It's all decorated, finally after having to figure out why part of the tree wasn't lighting...pre-lit, fellas at the factory...not currently dark. Anyway, it does look beautiful in our living room. It is stately, elegant, and not so traditional, though it has all of our traditional ornaments on it. Oh well, we also have 2 other trees decorated and if you stand in one spot, you can see them all at the same time. The mystery spot, I guess we call it now. On Wednesday, we celebrated Steve's birthday with a special theme party. When Natalie turned 6, I turned our kitchen into a pizza parlor, and made matching aprons and chefs hats for all 13 of her friends....i was so much more energetic back then! Anyway, Nat thought it would be neat to do for her daddy, since we have a standing Friday night homemade pizza night at our house. It took me ALL day, but I did get the kitchen transformed, as well as menus printed, signs made, and a storefront window completed. Of course, I got the dough made and all the toppings ready too. Welcome to Papa's Amazing Pizza!

Where you are waited on by beautiful girls with mustaches!

The birthday guy has to toss his own dough! He's really good at it too!

Hi "cake" is a giant cookie decorated to look like a pizza. Didn't the girls do a great job? Daddy thought so too.

We had such a fun time throwing this party for Steve/Daddy. He works so hard for us and has been having such a hard time with work lately. He comes home tired and deflated sometimes. On this day, we just kept coming at him with more and more love. He had a great time and so did we!

Thankful

For all God has given me...Love, Life, Grace, Mercy, Family, and more LOVE, I am so thankful!!

Dog Days?

I just had to share this embarassing info with you...I pointed out the other day that this blog has been up since 2008. July to be exact. My dog Angel's blog has been up since June of this year, I think. Her pageviews are already approximately half the amount of my 4 year old personal blog! I know I've pointed this out before, but it just amazes me to think that my dog is way more popular than me! Like I should be surprised...Anyway, I don't know what Angel's secret to popularity is, but I might start watching her a little closer for some hints. Like maybe I should beg people to pay attention to me? Maybe I should cuddle up on people's laps? Maybe I should just have a fluffier hairstyle? Maybe I should bark...chase chipmunks...sleep in the sun...I don't know what she has over me, but it's pretty impressive. I don't know, guys, maybe it's time to close up this shop and be Angel's permanent personal assistant, blogging only about her and all of her adventures?? I'm thinking about it...seriously...no comments....no reactions...no nothing. No one is even reading this! Oh, well, I think I need to go chew on some rawhide and do some other crazy dog stuff. See ya later. Arf!!

Bang a Gong

The "Sound of Music" means something entirely different at my house! The other day as Nat and Serena practiced their alto and tenor saxes together, I actually said out loud to myself, "some day I'm going to miss hearing this". Every day is full of music at our house, whether it's guitar, piano, keyboard, singing, saxophones, or drumming on every horizontal surface! I absolutely love it...even when I'm trying to rest. Even when I'm on the phone, even when I'm trying to watch a movie. Because I know one day, my house will be silent. And boring. And lonely. And quiet. Shhhhh... So for now, I love and cherish the noise. Bring it on. Bang a gong!!

Happy Howl-a-Birthday

Those of you with great computer connections....consider yourselves very lucky! My computer and I differ greatly on how things should be done. Long story short, I can't blog from home anymore! Ugh! Anyway, we've been busy! On October 29th, Angel turned 2 and we had our annual family Halloween party. Complete with a dog-themed decor and food, we also had a dog-themed scavenger hunt! Steve decked out the tree house as the final stop, and it was spooky! The party was so much fun. We've done it for several years now, just the four of us, and it never fails to be a great family time.

Steve always has fun coming up with the scavenger hunt, and I love coming up with a menu and decorations. This year we had "bones and blood" (bone-shaped breadsticks with marinara), "mummy dogs", "Kibbles and Bits" (chex mix), "bones and barf" (bone-shaped cookies with pumpkin dip), "found in the yard" (chocolate clusters), and the usual stromboli, tortilla roll ups, chips and cheese, and a "purr purr platter" (mexican layer dip with a cat face). The girls still love all the fun foods and the names I come up with. Every year I think maybe they're outgrowing it. Nope. They said they'd bring their kids home one day for the parties!! I can't wait. Well, yes, I can....