Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Thanksgiving 2011

*Written 10/26/12

We wanted to see lots of family on Thanksgiving day, so we decided to try to pack as much in as we could.  We started the day at Michael's family's house for breakfast:




After a fun morning there we took Jane home for her nap.  Afterward we headed for Jacque's house for dinner!  It was delicious and we had fun playing games with our family.






After dinner we went back to our house to meet up with our good friends Hannah and Michael for desserts and more games!  It was a jam-packed day but we got to see so many people that we care about and eat lots of good food.  Hard to beat that!

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Misc November 2011

*Written 10/26/12

I'm still trying to catch up on my blogging for the last year.
So here are a few photos that I took that month:

Here is Jane reading in my bed.  She has always loved books and is getting much better at holding them and turning the pages.  I thought she looked pretty cute so I had to snap a few pictures.




Also I got a haircut and we took some pictures to commemorate.


This is Michael sleeping on the couch with Abba, our cat, sleeping above him in similar positions, which I find hilarious.  Michael started a swing shift schedule in October which means he gets to be awake during part of the day, but he's still pretty sleepy.  Also, our schedules are such that we don't have any day of the week entirely together, and it's been pretty hard on us.  We're looking forward to Thanksgiving so that we can have a whole day together (or two!).



Tuesday, November 15, 2011

11/15/11 - Leaf Cleanup

*Posted 8 July, 2012*

In mid-November we decided to try to bag up some of the leaves on the front lawn, and Daddy took Jane outside to help him. Jane was pretty adorable trying to help and playing in the leaves. I have some pictures and video that I mostly took from the warmth of the front room window.





Just before jumping in.

And just after

Here is the video that I took of Jane "helping" Daddy. I put some music with it since you can't hear anything. It's pretty adorable.

Introducing the newest addition to our family


This is... well, we're not really sure about the name yet.  But this is our new cat.  She's very, very sweet and fits right into the household as though she was all that was missing.  We're debating on names... I like Abba Zabba which I think every cat should be named.  We also think she looks like her name could be "Tabby" (Michael says Tabatha).  My sister says she needs some kind of caramel macchiato name.  We're open to suggestions so feel free to leave a comment.


The main reason we got a cat is because we have mice (and not the good kind like you gave us, Dad).  Every fall they come into the house and drive me crazy, this is the third year.  The first two years we put down traps and caught some of them... and then after a few weeks they went away mysteriously.  I began to think that with all of the traps down they thought, "You know, I'm beginning to think we're not wanted around here!" and then they left.  But who knows.  Anyway, this year they haven't gone away and there's this little fat mouse that's especially devious, outsmarting all of my traps.  The most disturbing thing is that they'd crawl through my bedroom on a nightly basis, waking me up and making me so disgusted that I couldn't fall back asleep.  Then after two mornings of me walking out and seeing a mouse race across my kitchen counter right in front of me as I screamed and screamed, we decided it was time to call in the big dogs.  Or cats.

Well, we got the cat on Saturday and... I haven't seen or heard from a mouse since.  Hehehehe.  Hehehehehe!  Kitty has a little mouse toy that she loves to toss around at night and chase and bite, and I think she's setting an example.  It's a warning to all the other mice in the house.  "This could be you."  Hehehehe.  I may be a little vindictive.

Jane LOVES the kitty, and she calls it "Meow."  When I put her to bed at night we say bye bye to things in the house, and now she's added, "Bye bye, Meow."  The cat is... barely tolerant of Jane.  She can take about 4 seconds of Jane-time and then she's out of there (pictured below).  But she does let Jane get a pet in now and then and is generally very tolerant of Jane.  The cat came from a house with two energetic dogs, and I think that was a bit stressful for her, she seems to really enjoy the peace and quiet in our house, even if Jane does chase her down a hallway now and then giggling like her evil plan is about to come to fruition.


Getting a cat was a really hard decision for us, since we didn't really want the responsibility of a pet and especially since one of my sisters is highly allergic to cats.  There were lots of guilt ridden phone calls to her before I even started looking.  But I do have to say I kind of love having this cat around.  She keeps me company at night when Michael is at work and Jane's in bed, and we see her now and then throughout the day when she comes out for a pet.  She's really sweet, sweeter than any cat I've met in quite a few years, and Michael and Jane both love her.  So hopefully this was the right move.

Friday, November 4, 2011

Happy Halloween

We had a party on Halloween with some of our friends and lots and lots of sweet treats!

I made Jack-o-lantern apple pies

After fixing the oven, baking brownies and two apple pies, and hours cleaning the house, I realized that I had no idea what I was going to wear. Breanne the mildly-convincing gypsy was born.  But doesn't Jane look sweet!?  We trick-or-treated at a couple of houses and then came home to greet our party guests.


This is my 80's pop-queen friend Hannah and her Handsome Little Devil.


Our friends Mark and Kat and their son Cannon the fireman!


Below is the trick-or-treating party that left the house for about half an hour or so to scour the neighborhood for obliging homes.  I think Jane brought home a total of 10 pieces of candy - what the heck!  We just had to fill out a neighborhood survey for the city and I should have written in "too many Scroogey Halloween holdouts."  Just kidding - it sounds like everyone still had fun!


This is my co-worker, Ann-Marie, dressed as a scarecrow!  I like the raffia bows in her hair.


Aaaaaand the grand finale, my brother:


Awesome!