Welcome Cousin Mac!

My sister Susie and her husband Pat welcomed little Cormac Michael this morning! He entered the world screaming and has lots of black hair hidden under his hat. Han is very excited to be a big brother. And the girls are excited to have Mac as their cousin!

Getting into the spirit

We attended the Macy's Holiday Exhibit today: A Day in the Life of an Elf!






The girls also had a nice visit with Santa! He told them that he prefers chocolate chip cookies. Good to know.

This evening, we returned downtown and attended the Holidazzle Parade!




Peanut is also getting into the spirit of things! Yes, we got her a Christmas sweater.

She clearly loves it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We have so much to be thankful for...and these two are top on our list!



We had a great day celebrating Thanksgiving and the birthdays of my mom and sister!


Hope you had a great day too! Happy Thanksgiving!

The first snowfall

...is always such fun! We have been making multiple trips around the neighborhood walking Peanut and pulling the girls on a sled. We have been throwing snowballs, making snow angels and eating maple snow.

Given her prior life in a puppy mill, and her reaction, I don't think Peanut had ever seen snow before! She was quite excited and raced around the back yard at full throttle. She has been enjoying prancing around in it on her walks.

The girls and their neighborhood friends had a great time running and sliding down front lawns.


Welcome Winter!

Willa's Bouncy Birthday

Willa had a little birthday party last Monday with her best preschool buds at Pump It Up, a bouncy house place. She had been asking for it for about a year...and it was finally time!









Happy Bouncy 4th Birthday Bee!

Happy Birthday Willa!

Happy birthday to our sweet Willa!

Willa is:

Wonderful
Intelligent
Lovable
Lively and
Altruistic

and so much more!

She had fun celebrating her birthday at school. She loves talking about when she was a baby, and was thrilled she could tell her classmates all about it.


She had a fun breakfast out this morning:

She had fun getting presents:

And even more fun on rides at the Mall of America:




She is such a treasure. We can't believe she is FOUR!

Jia made her the sweetest card, which says it all:

We love you so much, Willa!

Welcome Peanut!

Our cats were 17 and 19 years old when they died this year. After they were gone, we thought we would take a break for a while, but it felt very odd to be pet-free. We are pet people.

We thought a lot about what we wanted to do. We decided that a dog would be our next pet. It was important for us to get a rescue or shelter dog. We started looking, and found our Peanut!

She is a Pembroke Welsh Corgi. She is absolutely the sweetest thing. We had met Peanut right after she was rescued, but it was a few weeks before she joined our family. We kept her arrival a secret from the girls! Here Jia is coming home from school to the surprise:


Peanut was rescued from a puppy mill a few weeks ago. She spent her entire life confined there - as a breeding dog. Since her rescue, she has had good medical care (which included having five teeth pulled - poor thing! - and treating an infection), and been spayed.

She is doing surprisingly well given the conditions in which she was raised.



We've done a lot of research on puppy mill dogs. They can be very needy (she has been at my side all day), but she is already getting more comfortable.

She has never been on a leash. This will take some time. For now, she's happy to run around the back yard in a blur!


She is settling in. (Other than climbing down the stairs. She's scared of them! So we are carrying her for now.)

She turns six years old in two days! Happy birthday Peanut!