A dog named Carlos?

So, if you refer to the post lower in the blog, you will see how I felt/feel about dogs. Well, something has changed. Last weekend a little dachshund dog was found in Mike & Paula's yard (Kelly's cousin). The dog did not have a collar and was shivering and cold and looked a little underweight. Mike went door to door in the neighborhood and asked if it was their dog or if they knew anyone with a dachshund, no luck. The dog spent that night with Mike's sister. The next night we went to see the pup - super cute, how could anyone not know that he was missing? That same night, Kelly went with Paula to a Vet's office to see if he had a microchip - he didn't so Kelly brough him home to our house.

Paula had already put a "Found Dog" post on KSL classifieds and had contacted the animal shelter to see if anyone had been looking for a weiner dog - nope. I also called two shelters that next day and no one had been looking for one. I've posted found dog ads on 5 websites and we also put up Found dog posters in the neighborhood where he was found. We've had a few phone calls and emails but for people looking for poodles or pomeranians, not a dachshund. I've also spent time, daily, searching local classifieds for lost dog ads. Nothing. Short of leaving him at the shelter (who, by the way, have our info if someone is looking for the dog) we have done what we feel we can to find the owner. I can't believe that someone is not out there, actively looking for this cute dog.

So....it looks like we now have a dog. Maybe it was meant to be. One of my best friends has two daschsunds and I do love being around his dogs. This dog is growing on me and for some reason, I am his favorite person in this house.

Those of you that know me well, know that I obsess over EVERYTHING and this is no exception. The dog is here, in a good home and is well taken care of. I feel like we have done everything we need to do to find the owner but they don't seem to be looking for the pup (I seem to obsess over this the most). I'll continue to look at lost dog ads for a while but in the meantime, this little Carlos is growing on me.

Wish me luck and I'll post pic's later, once I'm a little more certain he is ours to keep.

The Eve's

To start - a little history...Growing up, I always spent Christmas Eve at Grandma & Grandpa Williamsons house. Christmas Eve was filled with tradition that changed and evolved over the years. There was always great food, and hanging out with all of my cousins. The Grandkids all had an individual stocking that Grandma would fill and hang from the staircase. The kids always played out the story of Christmas as Uncle Leonard read from the bible. We would raid my Grandmothers closet for robes, hats and nightgowns; use her perfume bottles for gifts for the baby and the youngest grandchild was always baby Jesus. As we grew up, Grandma's house kept getting smaller as our family grew larger, we eventually changed our traditions and each family started to create traditions of their own.

I found myself wanting do continue doing something on Christmas Eve, I wanted my kids to have something to look forward to each year and remember in the years to come. Over the past few years we've started a Christmas Eve party at our home that includes both sides of our families. Our parents, siblings and cousins (who, really, are more like siblings) come over each Christmas Eve for food, fun & laughter.

One of the things that we traditionally do is a White Elephant gift exchange. There are some tried and true gifts that make the rounds each year and always a new one that shows up that everyone wants (usually a Gnome and somehow, every year, Diane scores it).

This year (or should I say 2009) we also had Kelly's family (and Megan & Ian) over for New Years Eve. Tracie's family was here from Denver so we decided to have everyone over again to hang out while they were in town.

Below are a few pictures from both Christmas and New Years Eve. Blogging lesson #1 - I need to take more pictures!!!

Christmas Eve - the White Elephant gift exchange begins...

Batman, Adult, Underwear are the hot ticket item of the night. Mike Gillespie, enough said.

New Years Eve - Black Jack game, went on for hours. This is my sister Megan and her husband Ian.

Minutes before the strike of Midnight. Emma is sound asleep, on me and its way past Grandpa Dennis' bedtime!

Are you ready for some Football? - Surprise!

For Christmas, we gave Mastin a surprise early Christmas present. Several weeks before, we had purchased airline tickets for Mastin and Kelly to fly to Denver and see the Bronco/Raider NFL game the week before Christmas. The best part is we didn't tell Mastin he was going until we actually arrived at the airport. It went something like - -


5:30am on a Saturday (12/19) morning, Kelly went in and woke up Mastin and asked him if he wanted to go with him. Assuming that Kel was inviting Mastin to go to work with him, he agreed - jumped out of bed and got dressed. The suitcase was already packed and in the van. We woke up Emma (Chase had stayed the night with my Mom so he wasn't home) and everyone got in the van. Mastin kept asking where we were going, we told him we were going Christmas shopping and you could get the best deals really early in the morning. He wanted to know what mall we were going to, we told him a new mall that he had never been to before. That morning it happened to be really foggy so we couldn't see the airport until we were pulling into the terminals (which made it even better).


Mastin - "Why are we at the aiport?"
Me - "They have really great shopping at the aiport, they added a mall"
Mastin - "OK"


Kelly and I then had him get out of the car - we handed him a hat with the Bronco's logo. He still didn't clue in. I told him to look at it, he said "Denver Bronco's... are we going to a Bronco's game?!". Yep!


Here is the picture at the airport right after we told him. You can't fake excitement like this!

Some other pictures from game day -

I've been told it was a really good game. It was close and the Raiders won (much to the delight of Uncle Mike). Kelly and Mastin had some great Father/Son time and they were able to spend some time with Mike, Tracie, Telyse and Mareia. I love surprises!!

First Lost Tooth!

Emma lost her first tooth on her 7th birthday! Both of the front, bottom teeth were really loose and she finally let Kelly wiggle one and it came right out. She was so excited and left it under her pillow for the tooth fairy.

Happy Birthday Emma Jane!

7 years ago today, we welcomed our 7lb, 8oz baby girl to the world! We did not know that we were expecting a girl and Kelly and I were both convinced we were adding another boy to the family. We were so excited a blessed that Emma Jane decided to join her two older brothers one week before Christmas.

These days Emma is a funny, silly, strong, smart little girl. She loves horses and playing with her dolls. She has her own fashion sense and don't ever tell her something doesn't match. With two older brothers, she can stand up and tease back, like the best of them.

Emma loves the water and loves to snow ski (she is quite the natural, she takes after her Grandpa Willie). She loves school and reading, we are very proud of how well she is doing in first grade!

Best yet, we are so lucky to be Emma's Mom and Dad. Happy Birthday baby girl!

A Dog?

At the top of the kids Christmas list this year is a dog. Everyone in the house wants a dog...except me. Grandma Kate is not even on my side. I agree, it would be the most amazing Christmas morning ever to have a puppy dog, with a big red bow around its neck, under the tree. The first few days, the kids would fight over who gets to sleep with the dog in their room, they would be so kind and want to feed the dog, take it for walks, snuggle with it. Then...in a few weeks, when I ask someone in the house to go out and pick up poo, I'll get the "but mo-om..." "That's gross", "its not my turn", blah, blah, blah.

Don't get me wrong, puppies are cute, dogs are fun and every kid needs to have a dog to grow up with but really...Its like having another kid, isn't it?

I'm sleeping on the idea, for one more night.

Oh Chase

As I continue to update this blog, I hope to be able to keep track of the funny and crazy things our kids say. Chase is 8, the middle child and says comments that you don't expect from an 8 year old. He is wise and funny beyond his years.

On Thursday, I had to take him to another school to take a test. It was actually great one on one time in the car and we were talking about a lot of things. His school teacher, Mrs. Larsen, is pregnant. This is how part of the conversation went:

Me: Mrs. Larsen is pregnant, how is she doing?
Chase: I'll tell you one thing....she is going to barf that baby up if she doesn't stop coughing.

He paused and I looked out the window so he couldn't see me trying to hold back my laughter as the tears ran down my face.

Chase: She coughs a lot and is taking cough drops but she should stop coughing.
Me: I'm sure she is just getting over being sick and its ok to cough when you need to.

Seriously - where does he come up with these things?