A little "Mo" Christmas!

We have been looking for a new dog for about 4 weeks. Our sweet Clark passed away in October at the age of 14, and it took my heart a little while to grieve for him. But, after we returned from my parents house for Thanksgiving, I knew it was time. I missed hearing the pitter patter of doggie feet in our house, so we started looking at the rescues and shelters.

On December 17 we found our little cutie! His name was Larry - really?!!! So, we decided we had to rename him. He is a 5 months old Terrier mix - we think he might have some kind of retriever mix as well... maybe Lab or Golden. He is VERY SWEET! When we went to the shelter, he played with us for about 5 minutes, and then he went over and gave Josh a big lick on the ear. That was when I knew he was the dog for us.

We came up with 3 names we liked, and after much deliberation and a lot of input from our Facebook friends, we settled on Mozart. We are such a musical family, it just seemed like the right fit for us. We decided to call him Mo for short... keeping life simple for now, but letting him know he can aspire to greatness!

We brought him home last Thursday. He is doing great, but oh my, he is such a puppy! Not fully housebroken, jumps on everyone and everything, chews... yep! He is keeping us busy. But, we have laughed more in the last 5 days than in the last 5 months. He is so fun and so funny! He pulled all the bows off our Christmas packages, played in the tissue paper, stole toys from the kids, and mostly stole our hearts.

Having a puppy on Christmas morning is kind of like running a marathon... thrilling, fun and exhausting!

Merry Christmas and best wishes to you all!

Happy Family Day

3 years ago today we met Michelle for the first time! It's hard to imagine life without her. Yet, when I think about that day it still amazes me how much I remember - how I felt, everything we did. I am still in awe of how easy Michelle was, from day one. (She was saving it up for kindergarten! Just kidding.)

When we met Michelle, all I really knew about her was that she had a cleft palate in need of repair, and that supposedly she liked to sing and dance. Of course, we didn't discover that for ourselves until about 6 months later. She did great from day one, but it really did take her about 8 months to "settle in". I didn't even realize it those first months, but I could tell a difference when she finally relaxed, finally settled in, finally gave us every part of herself.

Today, 3 years later, I know so much more about this precious girl. Pink is her favorite color. She lives to be outside and play. She adores her big brother Josh. She can read about 50 sight words, say anything she wants... this, from a girl who could say nothing intelligible when we brought her home. And we were told might never speak clearly - boy, were the Doc's wrong on that one! She has a sweet tooth, but her favorite food is still noodles. She hates to have her hair brushed. She has a great sense of humor.

She completes our family! I can't imagine my life without her, and I thank God every day for the miracle of adoption!



We had to celebrate a day early - tonight Bill Jr. has a guitar concert at school. We celebrated in what has become our tradition - ordering Chinese food from our favorite take out place, red velvet cake, and singing "Michelle" - the Beatles version. (of course, we didn't put quite enough red dye in the cake, so it was more like a pink velvet cake. Michelle loved it - she told me she hoped she turned into Pinkalicious!)