Crazy Love Gamble-Style

I can't believe our little baby is six today. Ava is such a sweet, silly, caring, kind, wonderful little person.  We feel so lucky and blessed to have her, we adore this girl.   I'm so excited to spend our day celebrating the joy she brings to our lives!   Happy Birthday Ava!!

 We are ready, or at least close. The presents are all wrapped.  The house is all clean & pretty.  We can't wait for Grandma Barby & Grandpa Bob to arrive, we are picking them up this morning from the airport. Such an excitement is in the air.  It's so funny how quickly Christmas seems to arrive, right after Thanksgiving, don't blink.  Then Ava's birthday and New Years, it all happens so fast!   We are really looking forward to spending some wonderful memory-making time with our family.  I love this time of year.  And this is the best part, the busyness fades into a calmness, where we can just enjoy all the hard work in getting everything ready.   A little excited and relieved to have this little elf fly back to the North Pole, she's fun for a minute, than she turns into one more thing to remember....   : ) Happy Holidays Everyone!

We had a really fun day yesterday, considering we are all still really sad about Oreo.   I just adore her little face.   Norah told me that her cat ran away, and she wished he would come home.   I reminded her that he had died.   Norah:  Can we get a new cat mommy? Me:  Maybe someday. Norah:  Sunday!  Okay! Me: No, Norah, SOMEDAY. Norah:  Okay, how about while I'm taking my nap? I got the girls out the door early, ready to go see Santa at Pump it Up, this is a tradition for us, we've done the last few years.  I love it because there is no mall line or mall price, they let me take as many pictures as I want and give the kids a cookie to boot!  Who wouldn't love that?  Pockets!!  She keeps telling me that she's grown up now.  Sadly, I think it's sort of true.  Then two seconds later she wants to pretend to be my baby.  I'm okay with that.    In fact, I think I ...

Today is a sad day.  We lost Oreo yesterday.  We knew his time was coming, but it's still pretty heart breaking.   It's hard to believe he was once so tiny! I often referred to him as "big furred" as he weighed in at over 17 pounds.  In the morning I went out to the garage and noticed everything was a wreck out there, like he got disoriented and trashed around, knocking everything over.  He has been blind in both eyes for several months but this is the first time he has done this.  He also went potty in the garage, which was unlike him too.  I checked on him and he seemed fine.  I took Ava to school and when I got home I heard a strange rustling coming from the backyard, I saw that he had somehow lodged his body inside a wooden trellis and was totally stuck.  I'm not sure how long he had been thrashing about try...