A new pet.

Well, we did it. After a lot of begging from the kids we finally gave in. For the last 6 months we've spent many weekends visiting shelters, adoptions and doing internet searches. Despite Devin's love for bigger dogs (labs in particular) we knew in our current home a large dog just wasn't a good idea so we had been looking for something in more of a medium size. We had also preferred an older dog in hope of being housetrained and less hyper but were worried how a young to middle aged dog would be able to deal with our kids. You know the phrase "you can't teach an old dog new tricks"? When considering getting one from a shelter we don't really know their behavior or their past. It could be hard to retrain  over any aggressive behavior.We would have hated to pick something and have to return it to a shelter. So we decided puppy or very young dog was the best way to go. Last week I found an ad on Craigslist for the most adorable Mini Australian Shepherd. Based on it's size and knowledge that this breed is supposed to be good with kids, it didn't take much convincing to get Devin to drive the family up to Malibu to meet him. He was a Christmas gift to someone who was not going to be home enough to take care of him and so decided to sell him. So on January 2nd we became the new owners of this little guy we now call "Brumby". If you've seen the movie "Man from Snowy River" you've heard the term brumby which refers to the wild horses. We thought it fitting in reference to his breed and also that he can get a bit hyper. The kids just love him to pieces. We all do, though there are times I think I should never have given in.

Christmas 2011!

I'm a little late getting this post up but finally here are the pictures from Christmas! We had a great holiday season with fun activities, vacation from work and school and fantastic weather. It felt a little odd for someone from Colorado. Like we were celebrating Christmas in the middle of summer!

Our Tree!

Our house with lights!

Teagan made a gingerbread train.

Austin made a gingerbread sleigh with reindeer.

I actually made some Christmas cards this year!

We went to Disneyland to see the Christmas decorations! Here's the princess and her castle. :)

Small World ride all lit up!

    

Santa definitely made a stop at our house!

New Pajamas!

Teagan was very happy with his new Thomas movie!

Star Wars!

She loves Tinkerbell and Minnie Mouse!

Dollhouse and furniture from the grandparents!