Christmas as a family of three

Christmas this year was very special for our family - it was our first time celebrating with Carter! We have been looking forward to sharing Christmas with our children for years and it was so wonderful for it to finally happen. And if that wasn’t enough we were also privileged to have my Aunt Pat and Uncle Tim come and visit us from Santa Barbara to celebrate the holiday! They are like a second set of parents to me and a third set of grandparents for Carter and we were honored to have them here!

Pat and Tim arrived on Christmas Eve. We went to church for the Christmas Eve service and then headed out to P.F. Chang’s for a yummy dinner. Carter did well at the restaurant and even enjoyed some cuddle time with Aunt Pat after dinner.

Before bedtime Carter set out some egg nog and cookies and wrote a letter to Santa… well, I wrote the letter but I’m sure it was what Carter would have written, if he could write.

After what felt to be a short night we woke up to find that indeed Santa visited our house!

We caught Carter’s trip from his bedroom to the living room on video (a long-standing family tradition on my side of the family). Checking out the shoes seemed to be more exciting initially, but I’m sure that was because he didn’t know what was in store for him in the living room…

Then the fun began as we showed Carter how to check out all of the loot from Santa in and below his stocking (that my mom, aka Grammy, made for him)!

After this we headed into the family room where our Christmas tree was to open gifts under the tree from family and friends. The tree was certainly packed for only having five people’s gifts under it. What a blessing!

It was really fun teaching the little guy how to open presents and he caught on pretty fast! He’ll be a gift-opening pro in no time!

After opening the gifts under the tree we ate brunch, hung out, did some video calls to family, made dinner, ate dinner, and hung out some more - a pretty wonderful way to spend the day if I do say so myself!

We had a wonderful first Christmas as a family of three and we’re so glad we got to share it with Aunt Pat and Uncle Tim! We hope your holiday was wonderful, too! Merry Christmas!

Halloween 2012

Ok, so I’m a little slow on catching up with posts, but at least I’m trying, right? Hehe!

Halloween was last Wednesday and it was a lot of fun! This year I was co-chair of our church’s Fall Festival along with some of my other good friends. We spent the last few months planning and preparing to invite the church members and community onto our church lawn to play some fun games, win fun prizes, participate in a costume contest, travel through our maze, play in the bouncy houses, go on a hay ride and eat some delicious food.

Our committee dressed up as “busy bees” so that people knew who to come to for questions at the event.

The night was a success! Over 400 people showed up to participate in the event and we also had over 150 volunteers help us to set up, work at games, cook food, build the maze and clean up. It was a great event to be a part of! Of course since I was busy running around at the event I didn’t get any pictures of the actual setup or event (oops!) so you’ll just have to imagine how awesome everything was.

Go ahead and ignore the fact that we were exhausted and all of my makeup had sweated off by the end of the night (when we took these pictures).

Happy (late) Halloween!

It’s been a while…

Sorry that I haven’t posted in a while. I’ve been busy, tired, a little lazy and have just enjoyed having a little break. Also, I was kidnapped by ninjas.

Ok, well, maybe that last part wasn’t true. But that would have been kind of cool, right?

So, what have we been up to these last few months? A lot! Let me give you the highlight reel so you can get all caught up. Ok?

• We celebrated all three of our birthdays! Gromit on April 14, Dave on April 24 and me on May 1.  
• I took a trip to Colorado in May to see my next-to-youngest sister, Kelly, graduate from college. 
• Dave rode in two local bike races. He is getting more and more into cycling lately and I’m sure having this nice weather all year long is a contributing factor to that. On the weekends he does 4-5 hour training rides. Not my idea of fun, but I’m glad he’s enjoying himself :-) Ignore the photo below with the watermark over it. Of course we’re not too cheap to buy the photo… 
• We have taken many day trips into San Francisco where we have enjoyed sightseeing, dinner and sweet treats! It is so fun living close to such a big city!

• We took a little trip in early June. Our first stop was in Santa Barbara where we visited my Aunt and Uncle for a couple of days, then we headed down to Disneyland for two days of Disney magic. Dave and I loved getting to spend a little one-on-one time together! We had an absolute blast! 
• Our friend, Mark, came to visit for a few days around the 4th of July. While he was here we visited San Francisco, toured the Jelly Belly factory and ate yummy ice cream from Ghirardelli Square. I even made patriotic waffles on the 4th! 

That pretty much covers the big things that we’ve done in the last few months, so you should be all caught up now. I’m ready to continue to update my blog regularly again so check back soon for more happenings. I’ll do my best to keep those ninjas away ;-)

Escargot

Gromit has developed a new, unsettling hobby. Catching snails.

Every time it rains here (and it has been raining a lot lately) there seem to be an army of snails that come out of nowhere to invade our front lawn. We have tried to keep them under control by dropping them into a bucket of ammonia water, but it seems like we can never get them all.

During this past rain spell we noticed a few snails in the backyard, and Gromit has noticed them as well. This morning he greeted me at the back door with a snail in his mouth. Yuck!

I told him to "leave it" and he seemed to listen to me. He sat, pouting, at the edge of the lawn staring at a snail climbing up the brick garden wall. He even went over to check it out and left it alone. Since it appeared that he got the message to leave the snails alone I went inside to get ready for work. When I came back outside he again greeted me with a snail in his mouth and a dirty beard.

He doesn't chew on them or anything (at least not that I've seen) but this is still a gross new hobby. Kind of cute, but still gross.

So, we obviously have a snail problem and clearly we aren't solving it by dropping them into our bucket of ammonia water (a remedy I read about on the Internet). Anyone have any ideas on how we can better control snails? It has to be something pet-friendly since Gromit likes to put them in his mouth.

Thoughts?

Sick

I've been so sick this last week. My head is stuffy, my nose is runny, and I can't stop coughing. I just can't seem to shake this bug, whatever it is.

I've used up all of my earned paid time off from work and my boss finally offered to let me sleep in this morning without having to use unpaid time off because she felt so bad for me. Thank you, Boss.

The only good thing about my sickness this week was that I got to spend some more time with my cute little fur ball. He definitely knew I wasn't feeling well and was extra snuggly all week.

Here's to hoping I can get back to my non-sick life soon!

Valentine’s Day celebrations

Happy Valentine’s Day! Ok, so I’m a little late posting this, I know. But after my 52 hour work week last week I was a little tired. So better late than never, here is a recap of our Valentine celebrations.

Last month when we were in San Francisco with Dave’s grandparents we walked by a restaurant that had wonderful aromas coming from inside. We passed by it a couple of times and I made comments about how great it smelled and how we should eat there sometime.

My sweet and thoughtful husband took note and made surprise reservations for us the Saturday before Valentine’s Day! We spent last Saturday in the city where we ate a yummy dinner at the restaurant that smelled so good and then we walked around Fisherman’s Wharf. We came across an arcade museum with working (and a few creepy) old machines. It was a lot of fun to walk around and see so many different things and we even put a few quarters in to see what some of them would do.

On Valentine’s Day I received some beautiful flowers at my office (which I didn’t take a picture of. Oops!) and that night I came home to a wonderful fondue dinner - It was like eating at The Melting Pot, but in our own dining room! Dave had looked up the recipe for something similar to the mojo cooking style at The Melting Pot and prepared that with some chicken, steak, and shrimp for cooking. He also prepared mushrooms to cook in the fondue pot and made green goddess sauce to stuff them with. That is my favorite thing at The Melting Pot! I am one spoiled, and lucky, wife.

I brought home a really nice bottle of wine to enjoy with our dinner and I made these red velvet Valentine cupcakes for my wonderful Valentine.

And, of course, this post wouldn’t be complete without a picture of our little Valentine pup.

I hope you had a wonderful Valentine’s Day!

Christmas 2011

This year we celebrated our first Christmas in California. It looked a little more like September than December outside, and it was nearly 60 degrees - certainly not what we are used to, but a fun change!

Since we didn’t travel back to Colorado for the holiday to celebrate with our immediate families my Aunt Pat and Uncle Tim, who live 5ish hours away, came to stay with us! I was so excited to finally have the space to host my first holiday!!

On Christmas Eve Pat and Tim arrived and we all headed to our church’s Christmas Eve service. After church we went home for a bit to chat and eat some of Pat’s yummy appetizers before we headed out to look at Christmas lights and have dinner at a restaurant - one of my family’s Christmas Eve traditions.

On Christmas morning we all slept in before enjoying opening all of our gifts. Santa came for Gromit and he was super excited to check out what was in his stocking. And yes, we dressed him in dog pajamas that morning just to be cute.

 

Dave and I made out like bandits on Christmas morning and we have a lot of very generous family to thank for our wonderful gifts! The one thing that we are most excited about is that we were given money towards purchasing a dining room table and chairs! We do have a small, 4-person table in the kitchen area, but we want something a bit larger for the dining room so we can host more than two other people for meals. We are so excited!

After opening gifts we had a yummy Christmas brunch before spending more time hanging out, Skyping/talking on the phone with family members in other states, and eventually giving a driving tour of our new hometown.

One of my favorite parts of the holiday was preparing Christmas dinner. It was my first holiday meal and I was pleased at how it came out! We made balltip steak, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and rolls and Pat made a yummy salad. And then for dessert Pat and I made a really delicious pumpkin cheesecake. It was certainly a feast!

On Monday Pat and Tim had a great idea to take a trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I had never been before so I was excited to go. Dave and I still think it is crazy that we live in the same state as all of these fun attractions. We all had a great time looking at all of the animals and Dave took some amazing photos!

After a few hours exploring the aquarium it was time for us to part ways and head to our respective homes. We had a great time spending Christmas with Pat and Tim and really enjoyed their company! Who knows, we may have to get together for every holiday!

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

Our little escape artist

It's been a few days since Gromit's paw incident and he seems to be doing much better. He's putting weight on his foot and is acting a little less lethargic now that his pain killer doses are decreasing. He was doing so well that late Monday afternoon I decided that I could run to the grocery store really quick and leave G at home.

I was gone for about an hour and when I got home I found a happy dog who had removed the bandages from his foot and was licking his stitches. Ack! I dropped the groceries and scooped him up and ran to get my first aid supplies to re-cover the foot.

Please excuse the quality of the photos since they were taken with my cell phone. I was the easiest thing to grab.

The after hours vet clinic told me that it would be ok to leave his foot unwrapped since we had a vet appointment the next day to assess his foot - as long as he didn't lick it anymore. They suggested we purchase an e-collar (cone) so we could be sure he wouldn't get at his foot when we weren't looking. So when Dave got home from work (because I wasn't going to leave G unattended again) we headed out to get G a cone.

I thought that I should also lightly cover his foot because it looked like it was still oozing and bleeding just a little bit and it would be safer to have it covered while we were out and while we were sleeping. This is my poorly done, make-shift foot wrap. It looks like I don't have a future in veterinary medicine.

Monday night we put G in the cone, wrapped his foot, and went to bed. I woke up every hour or so to check on G because I was so worried about him. Everything was fine until my alarm went off at 5:00 a.m. so I could give G another dose of pain killers. I got up and looked around and couldn't find him anywhere. I turned on the bedroom light to see that he had backed himself under our bed to catch the cone between the bed frame and the floor and slid out of the cone. On the other side of the bed was my bandage that he (again) pulled off his foot. I found G under the bed. We had a little escape artist on our hands!

Clearly this dog is too smart for his own good.

So I re-wrapped his foot, gave him his pain killers and brought him into bed with me so I could keep better track of him. We slept there together until 9:00 a.m.

I kept him with me all day Tuesday until we went to the vet. The vet said that I now needed to leave the bandages off so his foot could air out (except when he goes outside - I need to cover it then) and helped me to better secure the cone to G's collar so he couldn't slip out of it anymore.

He now has to wear the cone any time that I can't be right next to him and when we go to bed at night. G is NOT thrilled. Can you tell?

He hates the cone so much that when it is on him he just sits there and gives me the "I hate you" glare or pouts with his head down. He won't lie down unless I'm holding him or walk unless I'm walking right next to him. Let's just say this makes sleeping and going outside to potty very interesting.

The stitches will come out late next week so let's hope we can all make it through until then.

Hang in there, Little Guy!

Paw trouble

Saturday evening was a great evening... at first. Our friends Kendra & Danny and their two cute kiddos came over for dinner and then we all headed to our downtown area to watch the local holiday parade and tree lighting. The kids had fun and Gromit enjoyed getting pet by all of the passers by during the parade.

When Gromit was saying hello to another dog we noticed that he wasn't putting any weight on his back right paw. We checked it out but it seemed to be fine. A little while later he was still not putting weight on his paw so we ended up carrying him for the rest of the evening. When we got home we re-examined the paw and saw that one of his pads was swollen and pink.

Dave let G into the backyard to potty and when he came back in the top of his paw was bleeding! We don't know if it popped or if he was biting at it or what but we quickly sprung into action. We rinsed the paw with water and sterile saline solution to clean it out. Then I wrapped his paw in gauze, a protective bandage, and covered the whole thing with one of Gromit's socks to prevent him from getting at it.

It was recommended that we take him to the after hours emergency vet clinic to have it checked out to make sure nothing was still lodged in there and to avoid incfection. After two and a half hours in the waiting room (apparently it was a busy night) we were finally able to see the vet.

Long story short, they say something must have gotten stuck in his paw 3-5 days ago and Saturday night it came to a head and exploded, like a zit. To be sure that whatever was in his paw is gone they recommend minor surgery to check it out. We agreed to the surgery and had to say goodbye to our little baby for the night. He was NOT thrilled about wearing a cone before his procedure.

Dave and I got home a little before 2:00 a.m. and tried to get some sleep before going to pick him up before 8:00 a.m. I certainly didn't sleep very well knowing he was in a strange place and having surgery on his paw. Poor little guy!

I went to pick him up at 7:30 this morning and the vet told me everything went well. She flushed out a small seed pod from inside his paw during the procedure which seemed to be the cause of his pain, swelling, and bleeding. We don't know how or when it got there, but we are just glad that it is out and he can get to feeling better soon. He is on antibiotics and pain killers and his paw is bandaged up to protect the stitches he received after they worked on it. We'll continue to give him some extra TLC and treats and will follow up with the vet in a few days.

Feel better soon, Gromit!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from us and Gromit, the “Happy California Cow”!

Vineyards and beaches

This weekend, we took some time to explore our new state before Dave starts work Monday morning. We had a great time visiting new places and doing new things all while getting to spend more time together - a luxury that we haven’t had while Dave has been so busy finishing his PhD!

On Saturday we checked out some vineyards and did some wine tasting. It was really interesting to taste new and different styles of wine. I never knew so many different kinds existed! By the end of the day (and after a few too many glasses of wine) we joined a wine club at a vineyard. We will receive two cases of reserved wine a year and get free tastings and other perks all year-round as members of this club; so friends and family come visit soon! We even got to go to a members-only party that day with (more) free wine and food - we even got to pick up our first case of six bottles of reserve wine. I think that will hold us for a while ;-)

On Sunday we went to the beach after church to see what that was all about. We’ve been to the beach in the past with other family members who live in California, but never by ourselves and never with Gromit. I’m not the biggest fan of the beach and don’t like the sand, but I was willing to give it another shot. We packed up a small picnic lunch to take with us and headed out to a beach that Dave found online. We enjoyed our relatively sand free lunch and then took Gromit out to the water to see what he would do. At first he was scared as the waves came towards him and he would jump back and run away as they got close to him. After a while he got more comfortable and was having a blast running along the water edge and playing in the water! When it was time to go he wouldn’t leave - he just sat down in the sand and refused to move. Silly dog! It was a great time, even if I did end up with a sandy dog ;-)

We had a great time exploring parts of our new home state. While we still love and miss Colorado, we are certainly having a great time here in California. Hopefully Dave’s new work schedule will allow us to have some more weekend adventures soon!