Christmas is officially over...phew! It was a great Christmas for all. The kids had a blast and have enjoyed their gifts, there was happy news from several friends and the house is still standing. Seriously, not an easy task with this crew plus my mom and her pup. And, I am finally feeling better. Had a bugger of a cold that went into my chest. Amazing what a few doses of antibiotics can do. Here's hoping you and yours had a great holiday, too.

The new year is upon us, and I am looking forward to all it will bring. This past year was full of change and challenges. There have been friends lost, and friends found. There have been many blessings and some hardships. In other words, it was a year full of life! ;D What will this year bring? What can I do to make it a happy one for my family? What will I bring to the new year?

I have plenty of thoughts, plans and good intentions. I don't know if they are resolutions as much as hopes. We'll see. ;)

A few of my favorite pics:

My niece...what a doll!

I need sleep. For the past three weeks someone has been throwing up, coughing, needing medicine or having to go outside in the middle of the night. Last night everyone, including me, finally made it through the night only to be awakened at 5:00am (!!!) by the most horrendous music on the radio. Ugh. DH had the alarm set to some Mexican radio station in hopes that it would jolt him out of bed. He slept right through it. The dogs didn't. They know when the alarm goes off, it's time for breakfast. Pavlov sucks.

So when you're sleep deprived you start to think weird thoughts. A few nights ago, as I slept soundly, I woke up to a soft "whoof....whoof". I opened one eye, and this is what I saw:

(Well, not exactly this, because although scrappers always have their cameras at the ready, it was 3:00am, so just pretend the background is dark, etc.). I fell back asleep for what felt like a minute, but could've been an hour. Then came the "whoof" again, only not as softly. I opened the other eye, and saw this!! Wait...weren't you just white? Wha....

I swear I thought the dogs were playing tricks on me. I had to open both eyes to scan the room, and make sure they weren't giggling at me. I imagined Holden and Winston plotting to confuse me. "I'll sit by the bed and bark, and when she opens that one eye, I'll look at her all innocent-like, and then we'll trade places and she'll think I changed colors. Bwahahaha!!" Like I said...sleep deprivation. Weird thoughts. DH thought it was humorous. I bet he's in on it.

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In other news: I finally finished the gifts I was working on:

This came as plain chipboard and I painted and papered and stamped and glued for days. So fun!!! Gotta run-will post more pics later! :)

I've been a bad blogger, but a good scrapper. :)
I've been working on some gifts for Christmas, including a mini-book and some calendars.
Will post pics soon...

Here is that journaling I was talking about, along with the layout I did.

Journaling reads:

Sadie, they say that dogs don’t lie-that they are not capable of deception or jealousy and that we mustn’t attribute human traits to our dogs. But I’ve seen you, little one!! I watch you as you come up to Winston acting for all the world as if you want to play with that little stubby tail wagging furiously until he takes you up on your invitation only to have you turn on him at the last second.

You’re like the big sister who lures her suspicious little brother into a game, only to tease him mercilessly and giggle with malicious delight when he walks away with his tail tucked and his ears drooped. Look at you! You look so sweet and innocent. I’ve seen you bat your eyes…literally, as if to say “Aren’t I a good girl?” but from one female to another, I know what that look really means…
Oh, but you are a cutie…a cuddly, licky little ball of energy. You make me laugh, and that’s a quality, indeed. You are like a mischievous toddler, ringing the bell to go outside repeatedly only to bark incessantly and interrupt what I’m doing to go outside and make you come back in. And if you can’t entice the others to follow you out, you scratch at the door frantically to be let back in only to turn around and ring the bell again five minutes later

One of my faves of KK-she and her
friend took it. A natural beauty and
smart as all get-out! My baby girl-
love her so much it hurts.

This fits Mr. B perfectly...funny, mischievous.
Quite the charmer. I adore this boy.

Now for some scrappy stuff. :) I picked up the HOF edition of CK. Hate paying that much for a magazine but I was too lazy to go get a Sunday paper, hence no coupon. Anyway, there was a lot of inspiration in there, and it makes we want to play!!!!! One of my goals is to better about my journaling. I know what the pics mean to me, but I am not too great at conveying the message to
the rest of the world thru mu LO's. That's the main reason for the blog. I can sit down and type out what's in my head, and it'll be there when I sit down with the pics and the yummy paper.

So I had several ideas for layouts today:
(did ya really think the subject of dogs wasn't going to leak into the scrappy stuff? They're perfect subjects for a LO...they don't roll their eyes when you try to get a shot, or give you a goofy smile. They 're exactly them. All the time.) Anyway-

I was watching Sadie digging under the barbq pit to get at whatever she smells under there and thinking about how tenacious she is and how, despite the fact that she's got the attention span of a gnat (particularly when working on her stays at the door), she did some major problem solving. I watched her figure out how to move a huge brick off two others to get at whatever it was she wanted to get. I know she's no Lassie, but it was cool to watch.

So I've had this saved in word for a few weeks, and I think with some tweaking it'll make for
good journaling: okay, it's not in word , which means that it's in some notebook somewhere which shows why I am so glad I started this blog. I'll come back to it.

The other idea I had was to do one of those everyday kinda LO's. You know, documenting my daily existence, which included steam cleaning the carpet only to come home and find that Winnie threw up while I was shopping for groceries. He has the whole flippin' house to himself (all other dogs are "put up") and where does he throw up? You guessed it! On the clean carpet!!!
Aaaargh! This is my life.

Now, I know I signed up for the job, and I wouldn't have it any other way, but no where in the job description did it say that I'd have to steam clean the carpet twice in one day, make a minimum of 8 snacks a day (my kids are on different schedules) re-wash the laundry that was never worn by my 12yr. old daughter because it's easier to put it in the hamper than hang it back up....etc. You get the picture. I know. I know. My life is blessed. It truly is. I just wish Winston would quit blessing me so often.

Anyway, back to scrappy stuff and HOF. While I am awed by the talent of the HOF'ers, I actually found myself more drawn to the LO's done by the HM's. I'm not a real linear scrapper, so I guess that's why. It seemed that a lot of the layouts done by the 25 ladies that won the title
were more linear.

Okay, just so you don't think I'm obsessed only with my dogs, I'll share the other loves in my life. I hope this turns out well-so far I've messed up every single post. Okay...here goes:

Apparently, they ended up at the top rather than where I wanted them. Oh, well. The point is that they're there...my two loves. Now, if I can find a pic of the hubby...not an easy task. Think I'll go play with paper now!

Puggy Cuteness: Zack
Mom brought her puppy up for a visit, much to
Winston's chagrin. Sophie and Holden loved him
(once Holden realised he wasn't an evil alien), and
Sadie....sigh. Sadie chases anything that moves.
She didn't spend much time with him-maybe next
time. She has to mellow out eventually (riiiight.)

I finally got all four pics and their names in the right place...had to do separate posts.
So, finally, here is the four-legged crew!

Sophie: the best dog ever. Seriously.

Holden: my nervous nellie and resident dufus.

Winston: the problem child :)

Sadie: The troublemaker. She's a Kelpie-'nuff said.

With Christmas just around the corner, I thought I'd add a little something I had swimming around in my head (I know...scary) a year or so ago, when Winston was still a puppy.

A Doggie Christmas
(to the tune of Chestnuts Roasting )

The Kelpie’s chewing on the Christmas tree
And nipping at poor Winston’s nose
Labradors mill around with their eyes all aglow
While we try not to step on their toes

Children running in and out the door
Making Sadie want to take flight
Oh those cats and the birds taunting her from afar
Are making her crazy tonight

We know that Winston’s gone upstairs
And now there’s dog pee everywhere
Even though he just went out an hour ago
And knows how to ring the bell

All the doggies know that if we leave the fridge unlocked
They just have to bide their time
Because sooner or later Sophie will open it up
And they’ll all have a grand time