Pajama Party

We love our pajama movie parties. Now that we have a good TV, we've been watching movies downstairs. Daddy and Mommy drink wine and chat and the girls watch TV and play. Everyone is happy.  

Hair Cut Day

 Juliet was due for her first haircut. I had put it off as long as I could. I had Chris schedule it 4 weeks in advance so I could prepare. I feel like once you cut a babies hair for the first time, it sort of ends baby hood. They just look so much older! 

 Juliet did a great job! She sat on my lap and was quiet the entire time. She looked around, and was very interested in trying to find her sissy and Dadddy in the salon, who were also getting their hair cut. 

They look so sweet! These girls are ready for Christmas! 

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

 Both girls were super excited to decorate the tree. However, Leah was the only one who would pose. Juliet kept getting mad and running away.

Leah was very anxious to put on the ornaments, she kept trying to get me and Chris to put each ornament she found in a specific place. It was a slower process to get the ornaments up this year. Then she discovered she could put some on herself (she really didn't like the ones with hooks, she refused to try to put those on). Chris and I were laughing at the Leah clusters of ornaments that were all around the tree.

 Juliet was very good about taking off the ornaments. She kept taking them all off and going, "huh?!" All in all, both girls had a ton of fun! 

Buddy, our elf, even reappeared with the tree. He brought each girl a Christmas book. The LOVE looking for Buddy each day. He is one of my favorite traditions, too. 

Getting a Christmas Tree/Burying Ruggie

 Leah was very excited to get a Christmas tree. We also used this opportunity to bury a little of Ruggie on the Christmas Tree Farm we go to each year. Ruggie loved going to the farm, and Chris and I have really good memories of taking him when it was just the 2 of us, and even when Leah was little (though we weren't always able to take him consistently--I think he missed the trip when Leah was only a few months old). 

 Leah carried Ruggie in the backpack. He would have loved it. 

 I've been going to this farm since I was little, but I never knew that if you walked far enough, you would come to a little lake. There is only 1 house on the lake, it seemed incredibly peaceful. The spot we picked for Ruggie was by a tree, only about 20 feet from the last row of trees in the farm. Leah and Daddy dug a little hole, and we put a little bit of Ruggie's ashes in. 

 We marked the spot with a rock. 

 Juliet and Ruggie. 

 Leah and Juliet with Ruggie's tree in the background.  

 Leah was most excited for the horse pulled wagon ride. We do that every year. 

After the farm we went to our favorite little (local) Mexican restaurant for lunch. Another tradition.

Such a fun time of year! 

Gingerbread Houses

 One of our best traditions for Christmas is making gingerbread houses. Leah loves to put on candy (munching as she works, of course), and Juliet loves to lick frosting. 

 Family projects are so much fun!

Standard Thanksgiving Blog Entry

 These girls love to hug. Leah loves to say, "Juliet thinks I'm her Mommy" as they hug. 

 I picked Leah up early from pre-school on Wednesday, and we made Turkey cookies for Turkey Day. They were a hit! Leah did a great job! 

 I love Leah's pose! She is getting really good at taking pictures (when she is in the mood). 

 The best sister shots that I could get. Juliet had just woken up from a nap, and was feeling a little cranky. 

 Sister shot! I look so much better with a tan and blonder hair. 

 Family shot. 

 Young/Lakatos Family 

 Nowaske Family

It was really nice to have everyone over. I was glad to host this year, because the girls just disappeared with their cousins. I didn't have to worry too much about them, because they were in our own, child proof house. It was pretty nice! We got to relax, and have some adult time while the kids kind of entertained (or annoyed, as I'm sure the 4 year old and the 1 year old did to the teenagers). 

Juliet wasn't sure about her dinner. She didn't want to sit with the kids, so she moved in with the adults. She was much happier, but still didn't really eat much.

 Some of us had a little too much adult time. #shame

 Blue berries were the snack of choice at 10:00 pm when I cleaned up. I think the girls did AWESOME for the day. Leah skipped her nap, and Juliet took just 1 nap. They were happy and cheerful until 10:30. Both had brief melt downs, but went to sleep shortly after. 

 We went Black Friday shopping at a Matilda Jane Sample Sale. We scored big time! Leah kept talking about how much she loved her Matilda Jane! 

We Miss Our Friend.

We said goodbye to Ruggie on Friday. It has been rough. It was sad to see his body fail him and watch him in so much pain, but it gave us a chance to spoil him in his last days and tell him how loved he was. It was bittersweet. In the end, he left this earth in his home being hugged and told how good of a boy he was. It has been hard doing things for the first time without our dog. Everything reminds us of him (and it doesn't help that J-boo keeps calling for "doggie"). The house is quieter. It seems colder. Nothing is the same. It seems like the little things are hardest (cleaning up after the girls eat and not having him bark at the doorbell). We miss our dog.

The whole family spent his last night sleeping like "a pack" in our room. And we did it all weekend too. We have spent a lot of time talking about our favorite Rugen memories -- playing in the snow in Brighton, eating batteries in Howell, trying to tell us that Brain escaped (twice), going to the Christmas tree farm and the apple orchard, chasing bunnies, trapping the chipmunk in Brighton, running circles around the apartment in Ann Arbor, rollerblading with K in Howell, when the humane society said he would only be 40 pounds, when I taught him to roll over (for like 6 months), our daily walks, eating loaves of bread and thinking he got away with it until we found the bag ties, how much he loved to cuddle (and how he never figured out he was 100 pounds), when we put candy canes on the tree and he ate each one that wasn't five feet off the ground, when we had to lie about where we lived to take him from the humane society (but the hospital never asked before we took home our babies), when we lied about his weight at Howell and made excuses to avoid having his picture taken, when he warned us about the skunk, and when he was sprayed by a skunk years later, how much he used to hate having his nails cut and the ingenious (and embarrassing) things we did to try and cut them, when he would get locked in the bathroom, when he would stick his head out of the kitty door, but most of all we remember how awesome he was with the girls.             

The girls were so sweet with him the last few weeks. They brought him countless treats and gave him lots of attention. When he stopped eating his food and his bowl was full all day J-boo even started bringing him his food by the handful. Leah seems to be taking it much better than we are. She talks about Ruggie being in "Doggie Heaven" and asks how he can see us through the clouds, but otherwise she seems to be unaffected. It makes us sad that she might not remember what a good dog he was to her, but we will always remember how he was with the girls.    

We miss our dog. We miss our friend. We will never forget him and hope he is chasing bunnies in Doggy Heaven. He was such a good, good boy.

R.I.P. Rugen (April 2003 to November 22, 2013)