Celebrations and an Addition

The past couple of weeks have felt like one celebration after another. First we celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary. On the one hand it's hard to believe we've been married that long and on the other it seems like we've been married forever. Mike surprised Lena in the morning with balloons, orchids, and presents on the table. The best item was the note in the bottle. It was a poem that Mike wrote. Incidentally, the bottle, parchment, and stylish twine were all provided by the room of requirement.
Our original plan was to go on a sunset river tour, but due to lack of participants, the cruise was canceled. Instead we went to an art gallery, went hunting for some scenic cypress trees we had heard about, and went out for dinner. It was a nice day.
Here we are at 10 years. It's hard to belive how much has happened in that time. We've had some challenges of course, but overall it has been wonderful. We are so grateful to have found each other and our love and appreciation for each other is increasing year after year. The song "Then" by Brad Paisley kind of sums it up.

A few days later we celebrated Mike's birthday. Mike chose to have apple pie instead of cake since he likes it much better. It took a few tries before he could blow out his candles since the kids kept blowing them out for him. Lena got him a new tool chest and his parents sent Mario Bothers Wii, which the kids have had a blast with over the holidays. The one unfortunate event was that we got a plug in the sewer line that prevented our toilets from flushing. Fortunately, we were able to get it fixed that morning, which was essential since we already had a couple extra families visiting us for Thanksgiving. Apparently a single wet wipe was the culprit. In the evening we went to a friend's house where he had a recording studio to sing some Christmas songs as a family. It was a lot of fun and it will be interesting to see how it turns out with the little kids. They especially liked the drum set.

We had a nice Thanksgiving with a total of 30 people at our house. The kids really enjoyed having several of their cousins here to play with. They were very sad to see them go.

Our family has been joined by the addition of a puppy. Although we hadn't really been looking to get a dog, Lena had been pondering how to help our kids be more responsible and felt that a pet would be just the thing. As we were going to the store, we spotted a man selling some puppies and stopped to take a look. Rebecca fell in love with a mini schnauzer that licked her face after she picked it up. So we decided to go ahead and get it for her. Later we discovered that it's one of the more popular breeds in the U.S. for it's temperment and size. It also sheds little to no hair, which is an added bonus. The kids are thrilled to have a dog and Rebecca is enjoying taking care of the new pet. The dog is a female. Rebecca wanted to name her Princess and Ethan wanted to name her Sally. So we've named her Princess Sally. Here are a couple pictures.