Happy Birthday, crazy little dog!

Yes, in honor of Harli's 2nd birthday (does that mean that she's a teenager now in dog years?), I thought I would post the following video to show how disturbed our little baby truly is.


This video was filmed a couple of weeks ago, but I just haven't had the chance to post it. As you can see from this video, Harli is EXTREMELY jealous of our two cats, Alley and Sammy. Back story: Scot had picked up my prescription refill earlier in the day, and I simply picked it up off of the coffee table. Normally, this wouldn't have been a big deal, but the cats were sitting on the other side of me. Harli didn't necessarily know what the bottle of pills was, but all she knew was that she didn't want the cats to have it. She started doing her normal freak-out.



She is on her back because Scot put her in "time out" so she could calm down. Did I mention she hates being on her back (it's the whole submission thing.) OK- so I didn't help matters by shaking the bottle and saying the cats' names. However, I was trying to capture one of her freak-outs on film. I would never do that normally. :)

Continuing with the "Harli" themed post... Scot and I were sitting on the couch Monday night enjoying a glass of wine after dinner. Scot got up to answer the phone, and knocked his almost full glass over onto the floor. Thankfully we don't drink Red wine!! He quickly went to get towels to blot it up. He got as much as he could, but the floor was still damp. Well, Harli would NOT stop licking the carpet! We kept pulling her away, but every time we stopped paying attention to her she would sneak back to the spot! She loved her some wine! Perhaps Scot and I are bad influences on her.

You, alright! I learned it by watching you!

Happy Birthday, Harli... you little wino...

While the weather outside may be frightful...

The grill smelled so delightful! Yep, last week we decided that we weren't going to let a little cold weather stop us from grilling up some yummy New York Strip Steaks for dinner. Despite the 18 degree weather (which would be considered warm after this weekend's ridiculously cold temps), Scot headed outside to get down to business. I know that it doesn't look that cold since Scot is wearing shorts outside, but...

...here's proof that it was quite frigid. There is no grill under this grill cover. It was actually frozen when he removed it, so it retained the shape of the grill!

My Grill-Master at work.

I would like to recommend a cool website: http://www.charcoalbob.com/. It has a "Cookout Calculator" that is pretty slick. You put in the details of what you're cooking: type of meat, desired doneness, type of grill, even the outside temperature (which I guess can play a factor- especially if you're silly enough to grill when it's 18 degrees.) You can enter several different types of meat with varying degrees of doneness. This is great if you are having a big cookout to accommodate a lot of different people/tastes (or if you are like Scot and I and one of you prefers your steak Medium Rare and the other Medium Well.) It then gives you a detailed timeline of when you should start the grill, put each piece of meat on, flip each piece of meat, etc. I expected it to respond to our request with something like, "Um, it's 18 degrees out? Check back in the Spring, Dumba$$." Luckily it didn't, and our New York Strips turned out perfectly! Thank you, Charcoal Bob and Gassy Scot!

Merry Christmas?!

I know this posting is a little untimely since Christmas has come and gone. However, I have several pictures from our holiday that I wanted to post to share. Since the boys spend Christmas Eve with us and Christmas Day at their mom's, we celebrate our traditional Christmas morning on Christmas Eve each year. This was our first Christmas in our new house and as husband and wife, so it was definitely a special year for many reasons.

Wake up! It's time to see if Santa came!

But first, we enjoyed a yummy (but certainly not healthy) breakfast of homemade cinnamon rolls! Having homemade cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning has been one of my family's tradition for years. I wanted to continue this tradition with Scot and the boys. This was the second year I have made these on my own, and I must say that they were a success! I think the guys agreed since they seemed to gobble them up pretty quickly. Maybe they were just anxious to open their presents, though?

"Are all of these for me? See, I told you I wasn't a bad dog!"

"Wait- I think I just found mine!"

Notice the candy cane shaped bone hanging out of Harli's stocking. She became fixated on it and just sat there whimpering.

"Oh, my gosh, Oh, my gosh...this is not a drill."

I loved this picture because if you look closely you can see her little tongue sticking out in anticipation of her treats to come.

"Decisions, decisions!"

We layed out her presents and made her sit and wait to choose one. She was just shaking with excitement.




And the winner was... her new bone! She is an addict for these things, and didn't hestitate to grab it and run. We didn't see much of her for the rest of the morning as we opened our presents (which was why we opened her presents first!)





Don't worry. Santa Paws didn't forget about the cats. They received a new feather stick, and, as you can see here, it was a big hit with Allie. (Sammy doesn't come out much when the boys are here, so he decided to wait to play with his gift.)



After we finished with the silliness of the animals' presents, we moved on to the Main Event. The boys started by opening their stockings.

Here they are posing with their Stewart's Cream Sodas. This is another family tradition of Scot's.

Another tradition that my family has always had was that everyone got a new Christmas ornament each year. Even on the years that I wasn't at my dad's house for Christmas, they would still get me an ornament. When I became an "adult" and got my own place, I acquired all of my past ornaments- back to the year I was born. Hanging all of them on the tree is one of my favorite parts of Christmas- each ornament is labeled with the year it was from. This is another tradition that I want to continue with my family. Here are Matt and Andy finding a place to hang their new ornaments for the year. Andy got a snowman wearing Tampa Bay Buccanneers gear (his favorite team) and Matt got a classic Corvette (so he could say he got a car for Christmas.)

Scot with his new Hawaii WAC Championship T-shirt, courtesy of my brother and his family who live in Hawaii.

My dad had sent gift cards for the boys. Scot and I bought some of those gift card holders that look like stuffed animals. These had the velcro pockets in them so you can't really see the gift card unless you're really looking for them. We told them that they had gifts on the tree, but they had to find them. They finally found them, but were a little confused- thinking that my dad had sent them stuffed animals. Matt saw the pocket and thought it was a puppet! He put his hand in it and then he goes, "Oh!" They quickly discovered the gift cards, and I think they were quite happy to see that was their gift and not puppets. Not that they wouldn't have been appreciative of puppets, but I think Best Buy gift cards are a little more on target for 13 and 15 year olds. ;)

Matt's big gift was a new photo printer for his camera. (He recently spent an ungodly amount of money- his own money- but still a lot of money for a fancy new digital camera.) So we thought he would get good use out of a portable printer that he can hook his camera directly to without the need of a computer to print his own photos. It's pretty slick and he seemed to enjoy it.

Andy's main gift was Guitar Hero III. He has been talking about this game non-stop and was pretty stoked to get it. (I must admit that I've tried my hands at it a couple of times when he hasn't been here.) It's a neat game and I can see why it can become addicting.

After our Christmas (Eve) morning, we headed down to Scot's mom's house in Springfield, IL. When it comes to opening presents, Scot's mom, Michele, is as bad as a little kid. So it is always funny to see her at Christmas time. When my family has gotten together in the past, we have always had our meal, relaxed, and then opened presents. Not when you go to Michele's house! If she had it her way, we would be opening presents before we even get our coats off! It's kind of fun to torture her because of this. We wrapped all of her presents this year in paper that read, "DO NOT OPEN UNTIL DECEMBER 25TH," knowing full well that we would be there on the 24th. As you can probably guess, she didn't let that stop her one bit.

I liked this picture because of the confused look on Matt's face as he was trying to figure out what his gift might be. Michele is an absolute whiz at scrap-booking and card making. She is very talented and creative at this (of which I am completely jealous.) She made the boys some cool calendars- each month having pictures of them from different events over the past year.

Whatcha got Scot?

Hmmm...a drill doctor! That will come in handy with our basement projects that we have planned!

Harli helps her mommy open her gifts. "Are there any more bones in there?"

Andy opens his Terranator remote control car- it's supposed to go over any type of terrain. A 13 year-old's dream.

Matt with his aforementioned fancy camera.

"Any more presents to open?"

After our festivities on Christmas Eve, Michele and Rob graciously drove the boys back to Peoria to their mom's house so Scot and I could continue our journey onto Missouri. We got to my mom's house late on Christmas Eve, and had our family celebration on Christmas Day. I didn't take as many pictures at my mom's house as I thought I had, which was kind of disappointing. I think this was party due to the fact that I was in a near coma after the meal my mom cooked, including her nearly world famous turkey and dumplings. I love Christmas, but thank God it only comes once a year or else I would be twice my size!

Here is a picture of my mom opening her gift from Harli. In case you can't read it, it says, "Min Pin Grandma."

Yay! A new drill! This was put to good use on Scot's New Year's Day project (see previous post.)

Once again, we had a very blessed and fortunate Christmas with our families. The only thing I would have wished differently would have been to be able to see all of our family during the Christmas season. But as my family is so spread out geographically, this just isn't a possibility. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, and we hope to see everyone again soon!

Happy New Year, Happy Anniversary!

Sorry for the delay in postings recently. We have been busy with various holiday events and celebrations over the last few weeks- as I'm sure most of you have, as well. Although we had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's, we are kind of relieved to have it behind us. Now we are ready for Spring (especially considering the freakish 68 degree weather we had today!) I plan to post some pictures from the holidays in the next few posts.

But first- I will start with our New Year's Eve! As most of you know, this day also designated our one-year anniversary! The debate was whether to celebrate the evening on our own with the more traditional anniversary plans or to throw a party to celebrate the New Year. I was very indecisive on the subject, so Scot said he would take care of the plans and surprise me (he knows I love surprises!) We ended up celebrating the occasions with just each other, but it was a good blend of traditional anniversary plans and a New Year's celebration, as well.

Unfortunately, Scot had to work on New Year's Eve, but it was a holiday for me. I found out that Scot made me an appointment for a spa pedicure that morning. What a great start to the day! While my toes and I were enjoying the R&R, one of the attendants at the spa hand delivered to me the card that Scot had dropped off at the salon a few days earlier. All of the people there were oohing and aahing about how sweet that was. Of course, I had to agree.

I spent the rest of the afternoon hitting the Christmas Clearance sales. I can't remember the last time I went leisure shopping on my own. I found a few good sales, but nothing crazy. For dinner, Scot had made us reservations at a restaurant that both of us had been wanting to try. It is down on the Riverfront and it is an old train station that has been converted into a swanky restaurant. Our dinner was fabulous, and then we headed to the Martini bar next door to listen to some live music. Here is a picture of us at Martini's.



Turns out that Scot went to college with the owner of the Martini bar! This resulted in a free bottle of wine for us, which is always a plus. :)

After listening to the live band for a while, we headed home. We wanted to make sure that we got home before midnight so we weren't out on the road due to the snowy weather and drunk drivers. I'm not sure if that means we're smart or just old. Actually, I'm afraid I know exactly what that means. :) We got home around 11:30, and pulled out the top tier of our wedding cake that had been thawing. Not quite as pretty as it was on the big day, but one-year is a long time in cake-years!

We rang in the New Year with pieces of wedding cake and a Prosecco toast! We were quite amazed at how yummy the cake was! In fact, Scot continued to snack on it for the last week.

We've had this bottle of Prosecco for several months now. We bought it with a gift certificate we got for a wedding present from my co-workers. When we bought it, we had no idea what Prosecco was or if we would like it. I bought it purely because I loved the label. Not only do I love dragonflies, but this particular dragonfly looks almost identical to my tattoo!

The next day was back to work. Not normal work, but Scot and Kim house work. Kim spent the entire day taking down the Christmas decorations. Scot spent the day converting a long hall of our basement into a great storage area. He put in the wiring, installed the lighting, hung the drywall, and built the shelves. It was finished just in time to put all of decorations away! My weekend warrior never ceases to amaze me!

We hope you all had a wonderful New Year, as well, and wish you all the best for a great 2008!