Here she is!

Finally! Here are few pictures of our little Princess...

They looooove to snuggle, and it's so darn cute.

Matching vests. I know, I'm a dork. Imagine how my children will feel...

In a bag. As you can see, she clearly loved it.

There will, of course, be many more to come, but I could not wait to show her off!

2 Years!!!

Just wanted everyone to take a little look-see at our "love tracker"- 2 years! I love you baby, with all my heart! Being married is the best thing that's ever happened to me, and I can't wait to spend the rest of our lives together!
MUAH.

New addition!

I'm excited to introduce the newest addition to our family:
Athena Aphrodite born 12/14/08
Her dad was a pug/chihuahua and her mom was a pekingese/shih tzu.
She currently weights a whopping 3.2lbs and is freaking adorable.

I'd post pictures if I hadn't been a moron (as mentioned in previous posts) and converted our photos to the new version of iPhoto that we DON'T have. It's on its way friends... just you wait. It should be here by Monday or Tuesday and believe me, there are plenty of pics to post.

Athena and Titan are hysterical together. Besides the fact that she is 1/8th his size, they love to wrestle, run and yell at each other before settling down for a little snuggle. They are already the best of friends and we couldn't be more relieved!

I'd forgotten how much puppies wake up at night to go potty though- it's like having a baby! Actually, I'd forgotten how much they just need to go potty in general. Ah well, it gets better eventually. Thankfully, she is already potty trained to go outside. Seriously. We got her from a group called Bullies and Friends and she'd been in a foster home. The "foster parents" had been working with all the pups on going outside and she's great at doing her business in the backyard. WHAT A RELIEF.

She has a crazy story in that she and her brother and sisters were taken from their home by Animal Control (as were their mom and dad). The children were also taken from the home by DCFS. The puppy's mom and dad were unaltered and the family just keep breeding them over and over. Luckily, all of the puppies and their mom have been adopted now and the children are with relatives. Unfortunately, the dad had been kept on a chain, tied to a tree his whole life and could not be rehabed. We are just so greatful we found our little girl-she is such a wonderful addition to our family!

I can't wait for you all to "meet" her soon!

Listen to your body

Mine hurt last Sunday... after the pain went to my belly and right side, we decided to wait it out but with caution. After trying to go to work, trying to sleep it off and trying to "drug it away", we finally went to the ER Monday evening around 10pm...

I was in surgery to have my appendix out at 4:30am Tuesday morning.

It was laproscopic, so the incisions are tiny, but they went in from the left side so my entire belly (and right ribs as they pushed "insides" up into the ribs) have been sore and slow to heal.

After returning home and making recovery camp on the couch, I was SO glad I'd taken all the Christmas decorations down that previous Saturday. I could just imagine being stuck on the couch while left-over Christmas stared down, taunting me to put it away and laughing at my inability to do anything but stare back.

I still have another few days off work if I need it, and knowing how I always try to do too much too soon, I think I'll take advantage of the extra healing time.

I leave you with a phenomenal gadget I found in my time of recovery... thought it was real until I realized it made coffee... take a few moment to play and enjoy The Pomegranate.

It's been far too long...

I can't believe it's been almost a month since I've updated...

I hate updating without pictures, but that will take a bit as I messed up our iPhoto; I wanted to try and view the picture collection on our desktop with the new version of iPhoto. Ben has it on the new laptop he got for Christmas, so we opened both computers for sharing, and it seemed like it was going to work! After converting the pictures on our desktop over to the new version (which, by the way, is SO cool), I was editing and playing like a crazy woman... until Ben disconnected his computer. Duh. Copyright infringement. Now we can't do ANYTHING with the pictures on the desktop because they've all been converted to the NEW version of iPhoto, which we DON'T have yet and have been too busy to buy.

Too busy as in:

- Just after the New Year, my manager decided she wanted to ride along with me for two days, causing me to get little to nothing done work-wise (and around the house, as I was still recovering from bronchitis I had over Christmas/New Year's). Riding with a manager is like preparing for a quarterly review. It's not bad, just draining. Additionally, I was preparing for:

- Our National Sales Meeting January 12-15 in Orlando. 4 days of non-stop meetings, little sleep, and company outings/"parties" that are supposed to be fun but end up leaving you tired and hung over the next day. I will say I just love my co-workers and had a blast with them. We kept each other going with our private games and laugh sessions. :)

- The day I checked out of my NSM, Ben, Drew, Leslie, Craig and Melissa flew IN to Orlando and we had a fun-filled and EXHAUSTING Disney vacation. 4 parks in 4 days, Extra-Magic Hours and half-a-dozen rounds of Space Mountain was amazing... and I need a vacation to recover.

- Rehearsals have also started for the high school I choreograph for. Normally one day/week rehearsals were Wednesday and Thursday this past week (after we got back Tuesday night) because, as mentioned above, I was out of town.

- Did I mention my REGIONAL Sales Director e-mailed me last Saturday (while I was in Disney) to let me know she'd be riding with me this past Thursday? No pressure.

And now, poor Beno has been quite sick these past few days and I'm scared I'm coming down with his achy-feverish-flu-thing. Luckily, though, I was able to get all of the Christmas decorations down this weekend (don't judge me, I've been sick and busy!) and at least feel like our house is in order!

Pictures to follow once we get our act together and buy iPhoto. Thanks for letting me rant.

Around our House...

Christmas is not only my favorite holiday/time of year but I think the person who designed our house 80 years ago did so just for this holiday! I've been having so much fun decorating and making our little house a Christmas wonderland... here are a few pics around the house:

Our Tree

"The Stockings were hung by the chimney with care...."

My little tree I made for my nightstand.

The garland that wraps around the entire dining room...

It has little secret family tokens hidden all throughout... doggies, ballerinas and music notes!

I'll put up some more later as the season goes on!

Thanksgiving... I did it!

I did it! After much planning and preparation, I hosted my very first Thanksgiving! We had my parents (my brother is away at school in Cali and stayed up there with my mom's sister and her family) Ben's parents and Ben's sisters. The food was great, the house smelled amazing and the time spent together was wonderful! I wish I'd taken more pictures, but here are a few moments I managed to capture:

My table =)

Place settings

Basting Turkey McGee (I basted that sucker every 30 minutes on the dot for over 4 hours!)

My Great-Grandma's Gravy... it brought tears to my Mom's eyes... she said she hasn't tasted it since the last time her Grams made it =)

My Dad and Ben carving McGee.

And of course a family snuggle to finish the evening!