Farewell pumpkins

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

As the day draws to a close I am thinking about tomorrow when I will start decking the halls! I probably shouldn't admit this but since I've already told Josh and he laughed hysterically at me and told me I was out of my mind I've already suffered the worst: 6 months ago I started a list of what decorations I wanted to put where in the house and I would review it on a monthly basis and update it with any changes. Actually now that I'm typing this it does sound a little bizarre. I think I just couldn't take the summer heat so I started daydreaming about winter which lead to day dreaming about Christmas decorating. Although I guess I didn't need to go so far as to start a list ... perhaps Josh has a point.

Since all the pumpkins will be leaving the house tomorrow I thought I'd share some pics of our dining table. We've had the mercury glass candle holders on our table since early October but this morning I gathered all the pumpkins from around the house and dumped them all on the table. Too bad I didn't do this sooner - I love how it looks!





The green striped pumpkin is my favorite.



Just as we were about to eat we looked over and saw this gross scene ...



Not what I wanted on the table right before dinner!


Welllll I think I will go and review my list one last time before tomorrow :-)

Its no secret that I like to take pictures of our dogs.

Sometimes everything goes right and I get an adorable shot.


(Aren't they the cutest! This is my favorite one of them to date.)


Other times things go horribly wrong.

Exhibit A



It was dark so I had to use my flash, resulting in demon eyes. Also, does that puppy have fangs?!?!?! (Its really just her jaw wrinkles but it totally looks like she has fangs!)

Exhibit B



Wow. Where do I even start. Josh and I still can't figure out what was happening that would cause these faces - seriously, could those two be any more of a mess in this photo? When I first saw this pic I laughed so hard I had tears rolling down my cheeks. This is my favorite 'bad' photo ever!

Last weekend Zoey went on her very first walk. She was very excited, but also a little nervous and jumpy.

(my loves)

We took her to Zeke's favorite field and she chased him all over the place.

Thanks to all that exercise they spent the rest of the afternoon doing this ...



... which made our afternoon wonderful because it meant there were no accidents to clean up! :-)

Spring is here!

The winters are never very long here in northern California but I think ours is officially over.

We were working in the backyard this weekend and I noticed our peach tree is covered in little buds. I hope this year's peaches are bigger than the miniature ones we had last year. Although its probably my fault since I didnt water the tree. At all. Oops!

We are in the process of cutting down this unattractive bush (because its a hiding place and litter box for the neighborhood cats) but I quickly grabbed a snap of its spring growth. I like how the new light green leaves look next to the dark green older ones.

This purple guy (girl?) is cascading over the neighbor's fence behind the mail boxes.

These mustard weeds are everywhere - especially along the sides of the freeway. Even though they are pesky weeds I still enjoy their sunny yellow flowers.

The cherry blossoms are starting to bloom and I just love their pretty pink color!

(These cherry blossom trees are outside the grocery store and Josh sat in the car embarrassed while I took a few pics. I think I embarrass him a lot.)

These are my Valentine's day flowers from Josh - they have a springy vibe so I think they are appropriate for this post too.

Anyone else experiencing an early spring?

Christmas

I was going to post these pictures over the weekend but then I thought I might as well wait a few days and make it an entire month since my last post. I guess not posting for a month gives the impression that we haven't been doing anything. Which is sort of true. Actually we have done stuff it just doesn't make for interesting blogging. I am still working on the kitchen cabinets - that project is a labor of love if ever there was one. I have also been spending a lot of time helping my dear friend Sasha plan her wedding. Its next week and I still have a LOT to do! Yikes!

I wanted to post some photos of our holiday decor because I love how cosy our house feels during the holidays. I don't do a single thing for Valentine's day, Easter, 4th of July etc (because I am too lazy) but I LOVE Christmas! Last year I bought some berry garlands on super sale after Christmas and I couldn't wait to use them this year!

I had enough to put them all the way up the stairway banister and I love the touch of red it brings to the room.



I secured the berry garlands with some black ribbon (left over from our wedding) and I love the little black bows almost as much as I love the berries on the other side.


I also got a little out of hand with the marked down glass ornaments after Christmas last year. There were way too many for the tree so I put a bunch into some cylinder vases for a festive centerpiece.
My friend, who is a mother of 3, came over the other day and as soon as she saw them she announced that it was so obvious no kids lived in our house! I guess she's right.


We got our tree from Costco last year and we weren't sure how well it would fluff up the second year. Well it looks just as good as last year - thank goodness - so hopefully we can get many years of use out of it.


I hosted an ornament exchange at the beginning of December and this the ornament I got for it.


I loved it so much I went out the next day and got one for myself!


The cats got personalized ornaments from pottery barn kids last year so of course this year I had to get Zeke his own. (I just re-read that sentence and I sound like a crazy pet-obsessed person.)


Don't ask me why there are 6 stockings when there are 2 humans and 3 pets living here - it just seemed like the right thing to do to use all the stocking holders.

Now I need to go listen to Christmas music - its almost Christmas and I haven't listened to nearly enough this year!

Napping

Over the weekend I came across a sweet scene. I quickly grabbed my camera and started snapping.

Now I know why I have dog hair all over my pillow ...

(Notice the post-nap gunk in his eye ...)

Cuddles!

I love these guys.

2 Years!

To my other half:

Happy 2 years!

I hope we have many more years of laughing hysterically at things that shouldn't be funny to people our age, and staying home on Saturday evenings hanging out and listening to music (although maybe you could tone down the laughing at my chronic mis-heard lyrics!). I hope every year continues to feel like the best year of our lives.

Love you.
L

Football fun

Josh loves all sports but in particular is a football fanatic. I am not. At all.
.
In an effort to make football a little more fun for me we made up a game last year and we are playing it again this year. Each week we try to predict who will win each game. We make our picks based on our own special rating systems and then track who has the best record for the whole season. Josh's rating system utilizes his expansive knowledge of players and team performance and since I have none of that I pick teams based on their uniform color scheme and their logo.

You're probably thinking my rating system is ridiculous and sometimes it is – for example I love the New Orleans Saints logo because it features a fleur-de-lis so I almost always pick them, no matter who they are playing.

So far there’s only been one week of picks and Josh and I tied in picking the winning teams. I hope my ‘special’ rating system continues to do well for me!

(Josh just read this as I was writing and said “your special rating system sucks” – now I REALLY want to beat him!)

This is what happens ...

... when you make-over a room and don't use it.

Josh and I usually hang out in the family room (where the TV is) and I guess since we seldom use the living room the pets have decided its their room. I woke them up when I took this photo but they are usually in there napping - and I love how they each have their own chair/sofa!

Dear neighbors who live in the house behind ours:

Wow. You guys clearly aren't getting along. And apparently you forgot your windows are open. Maybe try closing them so the entire neighborhood isn't privy to your dirty laundry.

Love and kisses,
Your neighbors

(I would share some excerpts from the overheard fight but they aren't exactly PG. Or even PG-13 actually. Cuss-fest-o-rama.)

A peachy surprise

This past Sunday was hot. H-O-T-T hot. Mid-afternoon we went out on the back deck to check out the exact temperature. I wasn't kidding when I said it was hot.

While we were on the deck I started looking out at the left side of our yard. I generally try to avoid looking at it because it needs a lot of work and currently looks like this:

All of a sudden something caught my eye: what's growing on that tree and is that our tree? (Its hard to tell what is ours and what is coming over the fence from the neighbors.)

After wading through the grassy overgrowth I discovered that we have a peach tree absolutely covered in peaches!!! They are quite small (probably because we haven't watered the tree since, well, ever) but they looked good so I grabbed one and bit into it. It was delish! Josh was disgusted that I'd just grabbed a peach off the tree and bitten into it without washing it first - he thought it was a little too 'rustic' :-)

Next year I'm definitely trimming back the neighbors' trees and watering that baby - I figure if the tree did this well being totally ignored imagine how amazing the fruit will be with a little TLC!!!

Not much to report

Josh and I are total homebodies so we like nothing more than hanging out at home with our pets. We've been doing a lot of that lately so there is a definite lack of exciting updates for the blog. So instead here are some random shots I've taken lately.

The heirloom tomato plant finally has (one) fruit! I am super excited because I was convinced the plant was a dud. The cherry tomato plant currently has about 60 (yes, I counted) tomatoes in various stages of growth. A friend suggested I vibrate the flowers with an electric toothbrush to increase pollination and it appears to be working.

Zeke still enjoys posing for glamour shots. He's nice :-)

Monkey is getting used to Zeke - I think eventually they'll be friends. Hobbes is still not interested.

We've been going to the park almost everyday so Zeke can play with his friends. Josh is always good about taking water for them - he's a good dad :-)

We are STILL working on the living room - we may never be done in here.

Monkey is still the cutest cat in the world.

Fruit glorious fruit

We are lucky to live about 10 minutes from a bunch of fruit orchards so last weekend we headed over to pick some cherries and peaches.

You cant really tell from this photo but the cherries were literally dripping off the trees.

I had to resist the urge to grab handfuls and stuff them into my mouth - don't they look delicious?!

On the walk over to the peach trees we passed this huge field - I'm no expert but they looked like cherry tomato plants. Unfortunately there were no tomatoes yet (assuming that's what they're growing).

Delicious, soft, juicy peaches.

Our loot.

Since we had so many ripe peaches I made a dessert. Its a pie/cheesecake/crumble - I took a pie crust, poured in a cream cheese/egg/sugar mixture, added some sliced peaches, and put a crumbly topping on top. It was sooooooo yummy!

It was a good day :-)