Life Lately

I'm back in the blogging groove and it feels so good. I had such a wonderful, relaxing time off though. 

I spent a lot of time in my (new!) pajamas and my (new!) slippers lounging around. I became obsessed with watching episodes of The Sing-Off. I mean, how could I not? There was a country a capella group! Does it get any better than that? LOVE THEM.

I drank lots of coffee from my (new!) adorable coffee maker. Soooo much better than instant coffee! Notice a theme? I had a really good Christmas! I got everything on my list AND tickets to see Beauty and the Beast next month. I'm so excited!!! I was definitely spoiled this year and am so grateful.

More importantly, I got to spend a lot of great quality time with family. My brother was home from Chicago and it was fun to catch up with him. We had a few family gatherings including a brunch on Christmas with my family, a lunch at my cousin's later that day with my dad's side of the family.

And! A get together on Boxing Day with my mom's side of the family. A lot of my mom's side is scattered in Chicago, Ohio, and Florida so it was really neat that (almost) everyone was in town around the holiday and we could get together. It was so much fun to see everyone again and catch up.

We also took Manny to meet his cousins, Kodi and Hitch, at my brother and SIL's house. It was such a fun experience, especially since it was our last time "just the four of us" because they had their baby 3 days later! It was just a relaxing time to hang out and connect one more time before baby and let the dogs meet and play. And play they did! 

They were so tired. Manny could barely keep his eyes open and yet he kept on playing. So adorable! It was a really fun day. 

Between all the fun we had, we also had a few lazy days watching movies. I loved Monsters University! I also organized the pantry and closets, deep cleaned the whole house and cooked up a big, yummy batch of beer cheese soup to keep us warm. 

Most notable was moving Manny's kennel from our bedroom to the office! I have wanted to do this forever, but Garth just wasn't sure how he would do at night without it.

Turns out it was a piece of cake! Manny loves his new bed (his Christmas present) and we didn't have any problems getting him to stay on it all night. Knock on wood! We are on day 6 and he is doing great sleeping next to the bed through the nice. Yay! I'm so glad to have the kennel gone and have our bedroom back!

Garth being silly while we moved the kennel. Cuteness. Love those two.

And now we are getting pounded with 15 inches of snow (!!) and -20 degree temps. It is insane, but really pretty!

How is Manny reacting to this crazy weather? He is loving it! This picture doesn't do it justice, but he is pouncing and jumping and enjoying all this snow. We were throwing the tennis ball and he would dive into the snow looking for it. It was quite impressive that he would find the ball in all the snow every time! As he went looking he looked like he was swimming in all the snow. Hilariously cute!

And how could I forget the Spartans winning the Rose Bowl!!! Such a great game to watch. So proud of them!

So yeah. Life has been good lately. Relaxing. Productive. Full of my favorite people and my sweet pup. I'm entering this year feeling rejuvenated, relaxed and ready to tackle my goals for the year (more on that in a later post...so behind!).