Christmas Pics!

I've been meaning to make a Christmas wrap-up post for a couple days now. Finally here it is, on the eve of New Year's Eve. As most know this was our first Christmas with my mom visiting from Phx. So her first TX Christmas. The weather behaved for the most part. A few rather cold days but nothing too extreme. No arctic blast! An arctic blast is actually due to hit us tomorrow. Cody's New Year is not going to start off like he planned.....Sorry Code, no 80 degree days in the foreseeable future.

Back to Christmas, we had a lovely Christmas. And both of us commented that this visit with my mom was definitely one of our overall faves. I'm sure our fur-babies enjoyed having grammie around. Piper got to know her better and without a doubt the little girl in the house loves her grammie. I do believe she will remember her from now on. Next time Piper sees my mom it will be old hat, she won't have to warm up to her.  Cody always gets the award for most vocal when it comes to welcoming grammie. He's a nut! Simon is typical Simon, with his neutral attitude. Not that he's displeased to see her but he's rather neutral on all accounts but food. He's very pro-food!

I believe Christmas morning is always my favorite. We get up in a lazy manner, take the dogs out in a hurried manner, then get around to opening gifts. The boys still love opening gifts. Yes, they open their own gifts. A skill Piper has yet to imitate. LOL!  After opening gifts homemade cinnamon rolls, hot cocoa, and a Christmas movie are the focus. Since getting married we've tried to implement our own little traditions. I'm certainly a traditionalist.

Below are some pics of our Christmas Eve at my in-laws and our Christmas morning:

 My father-in-law avoiding opening a gift to run the camera. He got away with that for only awhile!

 Aww, doesn't my mom-in-law look good! Love this pic!

 Our nephew, Dylan, striking a pose!

 Me, either striking a pose or getting annoyed at my husband for taking my pic yet again. ;)

Christmas Morning:

 Code-man! He loves this toy, his new fave! A skunk!

 Simmie! I can basically only tell because I remember dressing him in red!

 Piper hiding under the tree, slightly hard to spot in this pic.

 The boys are always ready to lend a paw when opening gifts! :)

Piper sampling one of the boy's Christmas lollipop.

 

 

Quick Snap Saturday!

Oh what a cute little gift under our tree! It's interesting having a young cat around at Christmastime. Fun, indeed! Though this is her second Christmas she's certainly more aware of everything this year. Perhaps she's more secure within her place in our family. Last year she was so young and new to our family she may have been more apprehensive to step out of line. This year she's secure within the family unit. Although she is a very good kitty. She has the same fear of being in trouble that her older brother Cody has lived with. Which makes disciplining her quite easy!

 

When we first put the tree up she was curious to say the least. She played with the ornaments hanging low, simply batting at a few key ones. Mostly the Dallas Mavericks candy canes have caught her eye, or shall I say, the candy canes have caught her paw!  There have been a few moments when we've noticed her attempt to grab onto a branch. Which the idea of grabbing branches has been immediately squashed by one of us! All in all she's been respectful of the tree, no ornament has been killed at the paws of Piper. ;) 

 

Her big enjoyment is laying on the soft tree skirt under the low hanging branches. As more presents soon get wrapped there won't be as much room for her to lay. I think once the presents are wrapped is when I'm most curious about whether or not we'll come home to an unwrapped gift or two. Of course that could be courtesy of Piper or Simon. :) 

2 Years!

As of yesterday we have been happily married for 2 years. Can you believe it? Two years! It went by quite fast I must say.

We both love having our anniversary in the month of December. It's nice to stop to reflect on our wedding day during the craziness of the holiday season. However, there is one slight, and I mean slight, negative to having an anniversary in December. Can you guess what it is? If you order a gift for your honey make sure you order it with more than enough time for it to travel to big D. It's the busy holiday season with lots of packages being shuffled around daily and things are unpredictable to arrive on-time. We were both in the same boat on this issue this year. The gift I ordered for him I had my fingers-crossed since last Thursday, hoping it would arrive in time. He was also awaiting the arrival of my gift he had ordered. At 5:05 pm a knock was heard at our door. My gift for Brad had arrived.....whew!!!!!! Talk about in the nick of time! I quickly flung into turbo drive as I found a box for it and wrapped it before Brad got home. I must say I was in awe of what I got him too. LOL! I think it's soooo cooooool! I can hardly wait for him to open it, he's going to love it. I get so excited to present him gifts. And this gift is definitely one I can barely contain my own excitement over. Notice my language....notice I said, "I can hardly wait for him to open it." Since Brad's gift for me hasn't yet arrived we have decided to hold off on exchanging gifts until it comes. No biggie, we have something additional to look forward to as the week progresses. :)

For our anniversary dinner, no big surprise, we once again decided to go to Uncle Julio's, where Brad took me for our first date. It's our traditional spot for celebrating anniversaries. It used to be the go-to spot to celebrate our first date now it's the go-to spot to celebrate our wedding anniversary.  You know me, I LOVE traditions!!! After dinner we came home to pop some bubbly, check in with the MNF game, and have some dessert bars. As a surprise treat for Brad, I made gingerbread bars. He loves gingerbread at Christmastime or anytime! I made the gingerbread in bar form rather than individual cookies then I slathered them with ooey-gooey white frosting. YUM! Oh this is kind of funny, when we popped the champagne little Simmie immediately arrived in the kitchen. Simon has a weakness for champagne. A few years ago he seemed rather intrigued by the bubbly, we gave him a small sip. From that point on he has celebrated New Year's with a sip of champagne. We quickly reminded him that he has 2 more weeks to wait for his bubbly moment. No champagne was enjoyed by Simon, just his parents!

Side message to my husband:
Thanks for a great anniversary evening my sweetness! I love the flowers and I can hardly wait to exchange gifts. And once again as I already told you, thanks for marrying me! You are the man of my dreams! Far exceeding my expectations! Oh and thanks for marrying me in "2012". I must admit I really like the way our wedding date reads....12-15-12! Love the 15 being bookended by 12. :)

Quick Snap Saturday!

Here's a great pic of two handsome gentlemen! Brad and his dad! These two have taken some good pics together in recent years but this one is especially nice in my opinion.

 

I appreciate the fact that both of them are always willing to pose for a pic. Or at least 90% of the time. ;) I can guarantee this pic will be popping up in the new year. I always make a calendar for us each year featuring an assortment of pics from the previous year. This pic has already made the cut!

Cody's Birthday!

 

 

Our little Cody turned 13, as everyone already knows. I know he enjoyed the new toys. I know he enjoyed his cake. However, he sure was a Mr. Grumpy-Pants on and off throughout the day. He was a punk towards Simon twice! Simon simply was trying to stay out of his big brother's way, so as not to wake the beast inside Cody. It was a chilly-drizzly day yesterday, perhaps that contributed to Cody's grumpiness! We had a little Eeyore yesterday!

In typical Cody fashion the only toys he's played with today are the new ones! He's so funny about that! He loves getting a new toy!

Guess what unique thing I did for Cody's baker dozen bday?  I made a baker's dozen! Yep, he got cupcakes instead of a cake. The cake batter worked perfectly for 12 cupcakes and 1 jumbo cupcake. When it came time for the boys to indulge in the special birthday treat Brad's idea was to simply drop a cupcake in each boy's bowl. Definitely not how mommie would do things. We went with daddie's idea, it was quite humorous watching them attempt to eat a whole cupcake. Cody licked all the frosting off his cupcake then politely ate it as best he could. Simon gulped it! It took him a few gulps to master it. It was a gulping expedition for him. Needless to say they both made quite the mess mommie had to later clean up.

All in all it was I believe a nice birthday for the Code-ster! He certainly loved his new toys. However, I think he thinks the 3 toys that were presented are all his, we'll set him straight on the importance of sharing later. That is one lesson we continue to teach Cody over and over again! I tease, he's not too bad about sharing. He shares quite well. However if he has any inkling Simon is out to destroy a brand new toy he will take it away from Simon. Simmie is the most passive fur-baby we have. He's easy-going to the extreme. Cody is the enforcer! Officer Cody enforcing all rules and keeping everyone in line! No wonder he's so grumpy...he's got a big job keeping 2 pesky siblings on point, one is more pesky than the other! LOL! 

 
 
 
 
Once again....Happy 13th Birthday my dear sweet Cody-man, mommie loves you! I can't believe we've had nearly a full 13 years together. I remember when I first brought you home. Oh man, you were a sweetie! And you've always tried your best to stay out of trouble, never testing the waters. It is my honor to be a pug-mommie!
 

 

 

I love the action shot of Simon with his ears flying up! Another classic moment was caught when I struggled to get Cody's attention as he played with his new toy, yet Simon's eyes are nearly popping out of his head as he focused on the cupcake in my hand. Oh and does anyone notice something new about Piper? She got a collar! A perfectly red Christmas collar!  

 

 

Quick Snap Sunday!

This is Cody's first time in a Quick Snap post, in honor of his bday it is purposely being made on the 7th!  It was a must to feature him today since it's his birthday. This will likely not be the only pics of Cody today. Well, it actually might be since I may not get around to posting bday pics until Monday.  But the goal is to post more later, after he wakes up as he's currently crashed out. Brad did sing to him just a little after midnight.

 

Getting back to the pic above...I'm not sure you can tell how big the peanut butter jar is but it's the bigger size. This was the first time the boys have been given the big size pb jar. We worried slightly that Simon might try to stick his big ol' head in the jar and get stuck. Luckily nothing unbelievable took place.

Both boys completely enjoyed the jumbo jars. They approve of the switch from small to jumbo jars!

With Brad and the boys loving pb so much I finally decided I need to start buying the big jars. Otherwise peanut butter occupies a spot on my grocery list too often.

They both may be pugs but they are completely different boys.  Here's another difference in the boys, Simon never stopped as I snapped his picture with his pb jar. Cody obviously stopped what he was doing to give me a perfect straight on look! Hi Cody-man! 

My Friday Night!

It's a quiet Friday night at home for me. Yes, just me. Well I'm never completely alone. It's me and our trio of fur-babies. Brad has a tennis tournament he's in this weekend. It started tonight instead of Saturday. I'm not too used to him having Friday night tennis.

Actually I'm not used to Friday night's without my mate at all. I feel quite lost to be honest. I went out briefly but soon realized I would rather be at home, feels too weird being out at night without Brad.

Get this, his match time was 7:00 pm, if him and his partner win they play right away again at 9:30. Yikes! That is a late match. Not to mention there's hardly any time between matches. Too much to ask of people to play one match then turn around and play another. Just my humble opinion!!

I'm trying to keep busy! Let's see, I cleaned out the fridge. As I mentioned I briefly ran to the store. I finished up the puggies laundry. Yes, the pugs have laundry. If only they could do their own! ;) Now I'm obviously sitting here blogging as I have the Arizona-Oregon game on in the background. Go AZ! I know I'm a Sun Devil but I have to root for the Wildcats over those annoying Ducks. The Wildcats are representing AZ at least. And besides who doesn't want to see an upset? Go Wildcats spoil the Ducks parade. 

Baker's Dozen!

Well it's that time of the year...Yes, it's Christmastime. Not exactly what I'm referring to though. Someone in this household whom stands about a foot tall and has a floppy tongue is about to celebrate his birthday. Yay, Cody-man!

Cody will be turning 13. He'll be my little baker's dozen boy. I'll poke him in the tummy on his birthday to see if he giggles like the Pillsbury dough boy. LOL!

Sunday is the big day for our Cody-man! I can hardly wait to bake him a cake. When it comes to his cake this year I have an interesting idea floating through my head. We'll see if I end up trying out my idea or not. Should be fun!

Alright Cody here is the good news for you....no snow in the forecast for the weekend, unlike last year. Not so good news, there's rain predicted. I'm thinking you can handle the rain as long as the snow and icy cold temps stay away for your bday weekend. Am I right big-man?