January Reflections

I was standing in the kitchen tonight cooking dinner and just had one of those moments where I suddenly felt so thankful for the life that God has blessed me with (maybe it had something to do with "Love will Keep Us Alive" playing in the background:-)).  I have a wonderful husband and a great marriage, a close family, we both have steady jobs that provide us with more than enough, a home we own that is warm and cozy, a sweet adorable dog that has quickly become an integral part of our family, a church family that we have become plugged into and are able to give back to the community through, awesome neighbors we love to hang out with....

So out of all that, I finally felt the desire to get back on here and share some things that have been going on lately.  We had so much going on through December, I've needed the last few weeks to recover!  Then I caught a virus which turned into a sinus infection... phew.

To start, early in December for my birthday Noah took me out to all of the animal shelters in the area.  And after many hours of browsing and playing with dogs, we came across Lexis.  A little (or not quite so little) golden gal tucked away in a corner kennel at the Seattle Humane Society in Bellevue.  We had her taken out so we could meet her.  First thing she jumps up, gives me a hug (literally, she put her paws around my waist) and looks up at me with her big brown eyes... what could I do?!  It was sealed from there, but when we went back in the office we learned someone else had a hold on her until the end of the day.... ahhrgh!  To make a long story short, we were luckily there toward the end of the day.  When they looked into her paperwork some more, the people with the hold on her had taken the hold off, they just hadn't updated the paperwork right.  So, it was actually a blessing in disguise because that hold probably kept her from being adopted much earlier in the day!

So, she has quickly become a very loved part of our little family.  Sure, I've had to give up my untainted new floors, a clean, hairless house and clothes, and the ability to just leave things laying around the house.  But she sure makes up for it in love.  Here are a few pics:

Then, it was Christmas.  We had all of Noah's family here for the festivities.  It was so great to have everyone together, as hectic as it was :-).

We had Noah's grandparents:

His Mom and her boyfriend, Sean:

                                         

His Sister, Hannah and her boyfriend, Angus:

Hannah's three little boys, our nephews.

Michael:

Marcus:

And Merrick:

Then Noah's brother Moses:

And last but not least his other brother, Abe:

It was certainly a full house, and here are a few pics of the shenanigans:

Noah had fun with the little boys; tickling them and telling them tall stories so that they were afraid of the Fremont troll.  We ate our way through Pike Place Market.  And of course spent a cozy Christmas morning opening presents and eating Grandma's homemade noodles with Christmas dinner.  There was a lot of 'hygge' in our house Christmas week, and I am forever thankful for the many memories we made.