Christmas cheer...from Chase!

Just sharing some Christmas cheer in the form of Chase's artwork!

 

Sometimes they can be so sweet...

Normally, the boys would never, EVER voluntarily read a book.  Let alone to each other.  So, you can imagine my shock when I walked into the room to find Cole reading Chase a story!

They were reading a Christmas book that has been sitting on the coffee table for a month.  It must have been the Christmas spirit that made them decide to read it! 

 It was truly a Kodak moment...  (Although....I'm not sure what is all over Chase's mouth!  Looks like he had been eating something blue or black beforehand!)

Here is a little video...just to prove it happened.  It may never happen again.  :)

Meet our new puppy!

Daddy surprised the family a few weekends ago by taking us to the animal shelter.  As we were greeted when we arrived, the girl asked if there were any particular dogs we wanted to meet.  Mommy answered with a quick, "No," however Daddy whipped a list of dog names from his pocket!  WHAT?!?  Clearly, he had been doing a little quiet research without us knowing about it.

We looked at all the dogs, but didn't find one we could all agree was the perfect one.  And, we left.  We followed that with many, many more trips to the shelter....each time with the same results.  We even tried a few more area shelters, all with no luck.

Today we went to the Warrensburg Animal Shelter to look at a sweet puppy whose picture we had seen on the internet.  Daddy had to work, so it was just Mom and the boys.  (Yeah...never let Mom and 2 boys alone to make that decision.  I'm surprised we didn't take them ALL home!!)

 Lucy was just as cute in person as her picture.  She was a shivering little Jack Russell/Rat Terrier mix, who was sitting on a cold concrete floor, feet away from a drafty doggy door.  No blankets or anything soft and warm.  We melted. 

We asked if we could see her in person, but were told no.  The shelter's policy is not to let anyone handle dogs under 6 months.  (The shelter estimated she was 5-6 months old at the time.)  So, we just had to trust that she had a good temperament and would be a good fit for our family. 

We paid the adoption fee, and out the door we went with her.  Then, reality struck that we had no dog supplies whatsoever outside of a lease and a dog crate we had borrowed from Nonnie for the trip!  So, we stopped at Wal-mart, and bought Lucy a crate, bed, food, treats, toys, and shampoo.

We've got a long road ahead of us with housebreaking her, but the boys just absolutely LOVE her.  Welcome to the family, Lucy!

Cole's video

 

Cole asked me to shoot a video of him showing everyone how his holiday train set works.  Enjoy!

Santa!!

We just sort of lucked out today....definitely a case of being in the right place at the right time.  (And, that normally does not happen to us!!!) 

Just so happened, we were at Summit Fair shopping for a new suit for Daddy.  As we walked out of one store, on our way into another, we noticed what appeared to be a big, red Santa chair sitting all alone....not a soul around. Hmmm...strange.

But, after we came out of the second store.....THERE HE WAS!  Sitting all alone in his chair. SANTA!  And, not a single person around him! 

Could we really be THAT lucky???  After all, the line for the mall Santa we had seen a couple weeks earlier was outrageous!  So, off we went....literally sprinting down to see Santa, trying to beat the rush of other kids!  We looked around, and still no one.  We had Santa all to ourselves!  Talk about luck!

(Now...if Mommy had only known beforehand that we would be visiting Santa, she would have made sure we had nice clothes on...)

Cole hopped right up on Santa's lap, spilling his entire list of what he wanted and telling Santa how good he had been all year long.  Chase, on the other hand......wouldn't go NEAR Santa!  He clung to me like glue.  At one point, I even tried to walk over near Santa thinking that maybe the 3 of us could be in the picture together.  But, Chase wasn't having it.  He took off running the other direction.  Sigh.)

No pic of Chase with Santa this year.  But, at least we got a couple with Cole!