1-23-12 AYLEXIE’S 14TH BIRTHDAY!!!

Aylexie LOVES to paint her nails and for her birthday, she outdid herself…she did and AWESOME job!  Looks pretty professional to me!

She wanted cheesecake for her birthday.  I was happy to make her something special, until this happened…

OH, NO!!!!!!!!  I pulled it out of the oven and it slipped out of my hands! 

Anyone want a bite?!  I headed back to the store for more ingredients  and was curious to see exactly how much this was going to cost…

$19.01 to make a cheesecake, or should I say, $38.02?!!!!!

It cracked around the edges, but it still tasted delicious!  YUMMY!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AYLEXIE!!!!!!!

Kaimi with Aylexie’s birthday balloons…

She also wanted German Chocolate Cake-doesn’t everyone light a birthday cake with a blow torch?!!!

We love the Adams’ and the Ho’s!  They are our family in Vancouver!

I had to end with another “HAPPY BIRTHDAY”!  We love you, Aylexie!

1-7-12 SHOOTING GUNS

 Jeff promised me a date 19 years ago…he never sealed the deal!  For Christmas, his dad helped me order him a lambs wool gun holder as seen in the picture below.  He was pretty happy about it!  Needless to say, it was a lot of fun and it was great to see our kids (and Alexandra) enjoy it too!

1-2012 ZULLA’S NEW HOME

After much research, we found a Whippet Rescue in Portland, OR.  The woman who helped us thru this process promised us that she would find a good home for her, without children and other whippets to run and play with.  We found out that the breeder who we purchased her from, abuses her animals and many of her whippets have been rescued.  Zulla was always very skitterish around everyone except me.  She was my shadow and loved to be near me.  I believe, after much research, that her abuser was a male. 

I needed peace of mind and heart to know where she would be living.  I got a phone call from the rescuer, and she told me she found a woman who had two other whippets, no children and 5 acres for her to run and play on.  Even though it’s hard not having her by my side, I am happy to know that she is loved and having fun! 

~Zulla with her new family, on the quilt I made for her~

1-4-12 ZULLA

Here are a few of my favorite pictures of our dog, Zulla.  We loved her!!!

I meant to write down a few things about Zulla, but didn’t have the time between last night and this morning.  I absolutely LOVE her and am just so sad that we couldn’t keep her. 

Zulla thinks she is a lap dog.  She knows that she can come up on the furniture when I put her quilt next to me and she snuggles up!  She loves treats, and comes running when I open our pantry door-that’s where I kept them.  She’s pretty lazy and mostly lounges around-especially when there is a sunny patch on our stairs.  She loves lying in the sunlight.  She also loved to lay under our grand piano when I played.  She loves to play with her toys and will fetch them if she’s in the mood.  If not, all you have to do is taunt her with the toy and  bounce it on her neck to get her to play and she’ll do it until she poops out.  She also likes to play hid-and-seek.  I just whistle and she would come try to find me.  She is potty trained and will come bump me on the back of my leg to let me know she needs to go.  The phrase we used is “potty” and she would go.  We trained her to go potty in the rocks to eliminate cleaning up poop in our backyard.  She is excellent about going in one spot.  She knows how to sit, shake, up to jump up on my legs to get her ears rubbed and my husband trained her to be very gentle when eating from his hand.  He would use the word “soft” and she would be very gentle when taking a bite.  She LOVES popcorn!  She goes nuts and will simply not leave you alone unless you share!  She catches food mid-air when it is thrown to her.  She loves to go on walks…all you have to do is say, “Zulla, do you want to go for a walk?”  She’ll shake a bit, but once you get her out, her tail usually goes up and she is happy.  She doesn’t necessarily like to shower, but once you get her in (we had a big shower and I just showered her with me) she loves the feeling of being clean and will prance around happily after she gets out.  She is most comfortable in her kennel.  She’ll probably be there near the back for a while.  She also LOVED to follow me around our neighborhood when I would ride my bike.  She’d race me and always won!

1-2-12 NAUGHTY DOG AND FOOD WITH FRIENDS!

 I invited the Adams’ and the Ho’s over for dinner-smoked chicken!  We were enjoying a delicious dinner until our dog, Zulla bit Amelia.  How sad!  Here are a few pictures of our evening together and looking back, I am amazed how happy Amelia is!  What a trooper!

Smiley Girl!

Keiji, Mako and Taiyo

Aylexie & Kaimi

Aylexie & Amelia…if you look closely we had to bandage up her thumb…

12-25-11 MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

 Here we are on Christmas morning!  We got up at 7:00 to see if Santa came…the kids were VERY excited!

Thomas is reading his reply from Santa.

Cool Hot Wheels!

Ashley LOVES her nail polish!

Aylexie asked for quick-dry for nail polish.  She was VERY happy!

Thomas got his remote-control helicopter from Santa!

Check out the Clicgear carts the girls got…LUCKY!!!

The girls and I went to Sacrament Meeting after we opened presents from Santa.  I had to play the organ and we also sang in the choir.  Poor Thomas just didn’t feel very well.  Luckily, he didn’t throw up any more on Christmas day.  He just felt yucky.   

Ashley made this beautiful picture frame for Jeff.  He has always sung the “Goodnight, Sleep tight” song from the Lawrence Welk show to each of our kids when he tucks them in at night…

Jeff got me some AWESOME jeans!  I love them!!! 

Aylexie got some new shirts.

Thomas is patiently waiting to open his present.  We always take turns when we open gifts from each other. 

I made a nice soft blanket for Jeff…

Aylexie likes her new shirts :)

She got her pointe shoes!  They’re beautiful!

Ashley was THRILLED to get this gift…

NEW SHEETS that won’t ball up!!!

Sadly, this is the only picture of Zulla we took on Christmas day.  She was a little bit nervous about all the craziness of opening presents!