Thanksgiving, Kids, and Dogs

I've noticed a theme with my blog posts.  They seem to consist of kid and dog updates.  What is our world coming to?  We had a fantastic Thanksgiving at Jace and Kelli's house.  We hung out, ate, relaxed, played, and had a fun time.  Johanna also joined us, which makes 13+ years now, I think.  Amazing that she hasn't tired of me and our diverse families.

Big smiles from B, who was on his best behavior.

And, here's our special Nonie.  Never a dull moment.

Guess what?  Justin and I got almost 24 hours of kid free time!!!  We dropped the boys and dogs off at Laura's house the day after Thanksgiving and headed out to dinner at the Barley Mill Pub on Hawthorne.  Next stop - Pearl Jam at the Moda Center!!!   While waiting in line for beers, I stood behind these two guys who were just chatting.  They seemed familiar to me for some reason.  During a lull in conversation, I said that they seemed familiar.  As it turns out, it was Nick Allard and Russ Lewis from KGW's Channel 8 news. They were so cool and let me get my picture taken with them.  I hardly recognized them without suits on.  

I warned you that I would post about the dogs.  So, we had Storm for a few days this week (and a visit last week).  It seems that snuggling runs in the family.  It is slightly chaotic at times with the two big dogs, but it's such a treat to see them play together.  Storm is such a sweet and loving dog that we can only hope that Otis will be like that.

Bennett and Storm snuggling last week.  

Yes, Storm has nail polish on.  I didn't do it.

Bennett and Storm snuggles this week.

Otis getting some illegal (Justin says no-no about 

dogs on the furniture) lap time with Mollie.

The boys are so excited about Christmas this year, it's quite infectious.  We started our Lego City advent calendar on Sunday, which has been a huge hit.  On Monday, we started our Elf on the Shelf (his name is Jingle) and both boys have really enjoyed searching for him each morning.  Our tree went up last night and the boys enjoyed decorating it.  They love having the tree up and are looking forward to finding presents under there soon.  Bennett looked for them this morning.  Oh boy!