A December to Remember

This is the first weekend Casey and I do not having any plans....no work, no Christmas parties, no volunteering AND we have finished our Christmas shopping and grocery shopping!! SO, we are staying in all weekend, lounging around in our pj's and enjoying time together! I am going to bake, wrap presents and of course, catch up on blogs.

Lily has been loosing a lot of teeth over the past several months. She was even a tooth fairy for Halloween.

Now, all she wants for Christmas is her two front teeth....

Her Christmas program was a week ago and all the first graders did a great job with songs like Teaching Peace, Barnyard Boogie, Shake your Brains and Tony Chestnut.

Lily is third from the left on the top row. She had a pretty blue dress and blue bow on complete with new shoes!

A few weeks ago, Casey and I went to Lawrence for Sushi with a group of friends! YUM! We went to the restaurant Wa and Free State Brewery for a drink after.


We had five rolls all together and they were fantastic!



Casey trying sushimi (sp? raw salmon) for the first time.

 Our first snow was this week and Harry got to break in his new sweater!! Casey says he looks like a bigger doofus and that the stripes make him look fat! But, Harry loves his sweater! I am going to make him another one in a more slimming black.


Isn't he cute!



Sunrise in the park...even prettier with snow still on the ground.

Last night we got together with friends to celebrate the end of the week and Holiday. We are looking forward to the relaxing weekend. Now I really should start making Christmas candies! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year (just in case I don't get my cards out)!!

November Highlights

Wow, where did November go?! I can't believe it is December 2nd and the weather has been beautiful! Who would think that we would have 60 and 70 degree weather in Kansas this time of year! It does make it hard to get in the Christmas spirit, but hopefully we will have snow soon!

So much has happened at the Woods house in the past month and here is a recap of our month!

The major, most time consuming item....WE MOVED! We are now at a large three bedroom apartment at Four Seasons Apartments. We have been contemplating a move and selling our house for a while now. Finally, the time just felt right. We moved the weekend before Thanksgiving and we are almost all settled and unpacked. It feels like home, very comforting, and that is just what I need right now.

HOWEVER, we still have boxes, and years of "stuff" to sort through at the house. I didn't want to move things that we might toss or donate, so it was left for later. We will need to clean and fix up the house a little to sell and hopefully we can do that in the next few weeks.
We love the new place! We have so much more room and the best part....I have a fully functional craft room! Plenty of room for sewing, scrapbooking, and crafting! We are working on Casey's "man cave" too!

We spent our first Thanksgiving, just the two of us, at our new home. I baked a couple pumpkin pies, we ordered out a smoked turkey and all the fixings from a local restaurant and loved just spending a quiet Thanksgiving weekend just us!


My first made-from-scratch pumpkin pies with frozen crusts. The Libby's canned pumpkin recipe made good pies!

Four Seasons is right next to Jones Park and Harry has loved all the walks in the park! Harry still wakes up early, so I take him out each morning for a walk. Usually, it is right at dawn and the sunrise is beautiful through the trees! We have seen geese on the ponds and squirrels in the trees. Harry loves the juniper trees and smelling everything!!!


Harry has his eye on a squirrel, or leaf, or another dog?!



View from the park of the apartments.



Another view from the park. I love having the park as our "backyard"!



Geese on the pond at sunrise!

 

Sunrise through the trees.



Beautiful sky at sunset.



A full moon rising one evening last week.

This weekend I decorated the Christmas tree! I was so excited to go through all the ornaments, remembering when, where and why we had each one. Our tree if full of memories and I love that it is a hodge-podge of different homemade, whimsical, traditional, glittery, felt and wooden ornaments!


This cute little guy I found at a beautiful gift shop in Lebo, during their Open House last month. I have several new bird ornaments this year! 



Also new this year...looks like he has a sweater on and I had to have him!

Brought him home from our trip to Baltimore in April this year.

I have been catching up on crafting. I made a new Christmas wreath from yarn and and have been crocheting Christmas gifts. Today, I plan to paint wooden signs, also Christmas gifts! AND, I need to do some paper crafting, designing Christmas cards and paper ornaments. I will post more over in our How Crafty Are We blog.

We had a busy month and I am sure December will be just as crazy with Holiday activities! We are looking forward to Christmas and a new year in a new home!

Lucy

We put our Lucy to sleep last Tuesday night. It was a difficult decision to make, but in the end we knew that she was no longer in pain and running free, tongue wagging, ears flapping in doggie heaven. She has been mine for almost 12 years. Many non-dog people don't understand, but she was our fury kid, I loved her more than anything!

Lucy was the best dog. I bought her in 2001 from an Idaho pet shop when she was about 6 weeks old. She was the cutest puppy and loved all the snow that first Winter!

As a walker hound/lab, she had many lab traits, but was more hound. She loved to bay, chase animals, and run in the country.
When we moved back home to Kansas she met other dogs, first Bella, then Auggie, Harry and Moogie. I know she preferred being an only dog and just tolerated all the other dogs. But she did love to chase and play tug of war!

Lucy loved to be outside...playing, sunning in the grass or out for walks! I am sure she preferred to be off her leash, but she never learned to obey or come when called. Casey called her Lucifer! As you can tell, she had a mind of her own, was very stubborn, but we loved her all the same!

Since she was a puppy, Lucy never liked storms or fireworks. She usually hid under my legs or in the bath tub....it's like she knew we were in Kansas and that is where you were suppose to go!

In May, we noticed a mass on her front leg. After taking her to the Emporia vet and K-State for more tests, we learned she had osteosarcoma....a common bone cancer for dogs. We opted not to amputate her front leg and knew we wouldn't have much more time with her. The cancer spread and she went downhill fast over the summer. We knew it was time, but I wasn't prepared for her to go so soon.

I loved her dark brown eyes, soft brown ears, funny black spots, snake licking tongue, sharp claws, and wet nose. She loved to sleep in late with me and snuggle on the couch. She was one of a kind and I will always love my Lucylu!!

Evening Ride

Tonight, I went on a bike ride after work. I rode to the zoo and with the setting sun and trees turning, it was a beautiful ride. I took a few pictures and wanted to share!



The Cottonwood River from Soden's Grove Bridge.

Harry was jealous that I went out without him. So, when I got home, we played in the backyard. He is not very good at playing...he takes the toy and doesn't give it back. Although he really wants to play fetch, it turns into something more like tug of war!

Lilybug

My niece, Lily, turned 6 on April 17th! I can not believe how tall she is getting nor that her Kindergarten year is almost over! She is a joy! I love her to pieces!! She constantly amazes me with her humor and she is learning so much in school.
Here are a few pictures from her 6th birthday party on Sunday, April 15th.


Birthday Girl with her new big girl Bike!



Lily with her Justin Bieber cake! Guess who her favorite singer is?!?



Also in April was her first music program at school! Both Kindergarten classes sang together...they were so cute! Remember this one.....it makes me smile every time I watch it! That's me giggling in the background!

Last Sunday, she came over for a play date. She loves our dogs and now that she is older and bigger than both Harry and Lucy, she loves to play with them. We planned to go swimming, but with the uncertain stormy sky, we changed our plans. Lily and I went to the zoo, got Dairy Queen ice cream, colored, and played with the dogs outside!
Here are a few zoo pictures....I was just as excited to tour the zoo as she was!

Lily the Lemur



Cooling off at the water fountain!

 

Playing at the new educational kids area!

 

Comparing her "wing span" to a vulture. Her's is equal to a Red Hawk!

 

Checking on the turtles sunning on the rocks!

A Dog's Life

It must me nice to be a dog in our house....they are very spoiled! We have Lucy, our almost 11 year old Walker Hound-Lab mix. Then, we have Harry! Harry, our 6 year old Boxer, is quite something. The pick of the litter, beautiful coloring, but boy is he dumb!

We call him.....
Harry
Harry Monster
Dufus Harry
Dufus Head
Harry Crazy
Baby Harry
Monster Head
Hungry Hippo
Fatbutt

Wigglebutt
....the list goes on!

He is our pillow eating, whining, always hungry, wake you up at 5am, tug of war playing, jacked-up teeth, love sponge!

A day in the life of Harry....

I normally wake up to the sound of Harry whining, and his nose nuzzling my arm about 5:00-5:30am each morning (even weekends). I reluctantly get out of bed, shuffle in to feed him (yes, I said FEED...he doesn't wake us up early to pee! NOPE, it's to eat!), and usually Lucy wakes up when she hears food being scooped. I then let both dogs outside. Ahhh, now I can go back to bed you think? Nope! Because, just as your head hits the pillow, Harry will bang on the back door to be let back inside (while Lucy stays out and plays or lays in the grass). This process usually takes a half hour, then we snuggle back to bed for a little while longer before my real alarm goes off and Casey gets up.

On the weekends, this is usually our wakeup call...Harry right in our faces!

Every morning, I remove the pillows from the bed or he will chew them/de-stuff them; close the bathroom door, to keep both dogs out of the trash; and shut the office door, so he will not chew on anything in there. (He got into papers and yarn a lot when he was younger...would he now?...don't know but not taking any changes!)

We come home for lunch and it is like we have been gone for days! He bounces and wiggles and spins because he is so happy to see us! Harry gets especially bouncy when Casey comes home versus me....I don't know why?! While eating lunch, Harry rests his head on the coffee table and breaths heavy or slobbers on you and your plate trying to get some food! He might lay down on his bed in the living room, trying to fake you out, but he just really wants some of your food! Unfortunately, it is a dinner time ritual too.

The dogs sleep most the day away, usually on our bed. (oops, forgot the pillows that day!)

After work, in the evenings, we play outside. He loves his football or "chewy"! We try fetch, but he really isn't very good at dropping the toy and we end up playing tug of war with it instead!

We come inside and we fix their bowls with Harry leaving a puddle of drool on the floor while waiting impatiently. He eats like a horse, wolfing down his food in 2 seconds flat. We think, if we left a feeder for them, he would eat and eat and eat til he was sick....dumb dog is always hungry!!!

Some nights we take walks as a family. Now, "WALK" is a four letter word in our house, not to be mentioned and only spelled. If the dogs hear the WALK....they instantly go nuts...their ears perk up, they get all bouncy and happy! Once we are changed for our walk, poop bags loaded in our pockets, we ask them "do you want to go on a WALK", and out the leashes come!!! Harry is so happy and loves walks!!!! But, he usually tires out early. He will stop, lay down and expect you to wait for him. We pull on the leash and he will reluctantly get up, run a little ahead, then slow down again. Once home, he collapses onto the floor, tongue rolled out, panting!

Harry loves having his butt scratched by Casey (I refuse)! He will sit down right in front of or on Casey and look backwards/upside-down waiting for Casey to scratch that perfect spot above his stubby little tail. Harry loves it and finds nothing better than being loved and scratched all the time!

Harry loves to play with Lucy, but Lucy doesn't like to play with Harry all the time. It is like the pesky little brother who wants to hang out with his big sis all the time! Lucy tolerates him, but would much prefer to be an only dog. Harry does have size on Lucy though and often uses what we call, "the power of the fat foo" to push her out of the way, getting all the attention and love!

Evenings when it is cold, the dogs love to snuggle in bed. I usually go to bed first and read. If Casey stays in the living room or office, Harry stays there too. BUT, as soon as Casey is up getting ready for bed, Harry wanders in, jumps up into bed, and plops down right next to me, taking up most of Casey's half of the bed. It is a battle every night for covers and I LOVE COVERS, but so does my Harry! And he has to be right in between us, like a little puppy sandwich. He is not happy unless he has squeezed his fat puppy self right in the middle and is touching both Casey and I simultaneously! There he will snuggle all night long (usually kicking Casey several time), until early in the morning when we start all over again!