A few winter pictures....

Our first snow this year....it was so pretty....
Our little Jorge and Louie footprints!
Louie at mom and dad Jackson's on Christmas

Just a few random winter pictures. The last one is of Abbie right before we left for St.Louis, she didn't get to go with us. Since we were only going to be gone for two days we loaded her up on food, water and the coolest Christmas toys ever and left her here. She is such a lovey little thing, even the vet commented on her specially friendly personality-- for a cat when we got her declawed. And you can see her markings, she is half orange tabby and half tigger taby, very cool markings.  More Christmas pictures to follow soon...looks like the Maynard Christmas is scheduled for the 1st. Of course there will be some new year's ones on here too. 

A Jackson Christmas

Scratchin off the lotto tickets from Santa....
Christmas morning in our new pj's!!! (love dads shirt...lol)
The boys playing with one of their toys from santa...or should I say destroying, it lasted less than 5 mins, hence the reason for the look on my face!
Two words.....CREME EGGS!!!! I LOVE YOU SANTA!!
My hubsies got the FUNNIEST present ever....please read below....
As soon as I got off work on Christmas eve at 6:00 pm we all hopped in the car and drove to St. Louis. Christmas morning was pictures, presents and good food! Dan got the funniest present ever from Santa....a peter parka....it has room for the frank and beans!! LOL Tim and Ken got one too actually, so all the Jackson boys have nice things to keep themselves warm this winter....LOL.
We hung out and played games all day and night, it was so much fun. The 26th we went to Panera bread for lunch...YUM...and then off to see Marley and Me. Wow, what a great movie. Not for non-dog lovers though. I think you will leave asking why they kept the stupid dog. It was such a great great movie, would recommend it for alll dog lovers. I must warn you, myself and uhhh a good 90% of the theater was in tears the last 20 mins or so. Great movie all around. One of these days when my school books aren't taking over my life I will read that book.
We had to leave late on the 26th to get home for work the next day. We were supposed to have Christmas with my parents this morning but yeah, I am sick again for the holidays. I have had the flu since the 26th. So not fun. So, we will have a Maynard Christmas sometime in January! Oh and the furry santa is momma and papa jackson's dog Snicker's.

2nd Annual Cookie Exchange...

Love the cracker crowns!!
All of the cookie partiers!!
I wish this pic wasn't so fuzzy!!!
Gotta take tons of pics with our cracker crowns!!
Tonight was our 2nd Annual Cookie Exchange!!! Thanks to all that came and sorry to those who couldn't make it, we missed you!! There were so many good cookies and cute ones!! The only cookies that got a vote for cuteness were the santa cookies made by momma holt and the christmas mice cookies made by momma maynard! They were almost toooo cute to eat! You guys had waaaaay more patience then I would have had to do all the details on those cookies!
We of course played pass the ornament, so many fun ornaments, we all walked away with cute ones! Adria won the tastiest cookie with her choc rolo cookies this year. They were allll so good. Looking forward to our next cookie exchange in 2009!! Thanks for all of the fun ladies!
Oh and for those of you wondering about the cracker crowns, having christmas crackers is a british thing, you pull on each end and you get a toy, joke and of course CROWN. They are nothing like american crackers...you can't eat them! :)

Our Lazy Days Off....

Snugglin' with my boys
Two of my favorite boys
Downtown at the Plaza

Dan and I had wednesday and thursday off together, without any plans, which is UNHEARD OF!! So, wed we went to the Plaza to look at the lights,(which by the way were very pretty) then came home and had a movie night with our boys. We all sat on the couch and watched The Chronicles of Narnia. The first pic is of that night.

 Thursday we were supposed to have our Cookie Party but we cancelled it due to the ice storm we were supposed to get so we stayed in again, decorated our gingerbread house and had another family movie night and watched The Chronicles of Narnia Prince Caspian. Those two movies are AWESOME incase you haven't seen them yet. 

Tonight we hung out at Momma and Papa Holt's house for the Christmas party, I will post pics soon, we had a great time as always. 

A little update on Louie, we are still just taking it day by day. The pain meds are helping but he still tweaks it the wrong way every now and then. Thank you so much everyone for all of your kind words and thoughts, you have no idea how much it means to us during this time. 

Our poor Chewybear....

Louie at 2years old
Such good buddies
Our wonderful gentle giant
Making yet again another bed out of a single article of clothing, he even does it with socks! lol
This is going to be one of the hardest and longest posts I write, I have been trying to finish it since sunday and I just have to stop, the screen gets too blurry with all my tears. Well you all know our animals are our kids, they always have been and always will be. I came home Saturday night after work to find Louie not using his left leg again at all. The last time he did this was last year when he tore his cruciate, and we had it repaired. At first I thought well maybe he just slept on it wrong, then as he walked down the hallway he screamed in pain, screamed, not whined. I knew he had torn it again. So, needless to say I have been in constant tears since then.
Dan came home from work the next morning and we waited up for the vet to open and they got us right in. Dr. Bruner did the same test she did on him last year and got the same results, she says she thinks he has torn it again. Short of going in and looking at his tendons and ligaments in surgery this is the best test we can do.
Louie is already 5 1/2 years old. Giant breeds like Louie usually only live 6-8 years. Unfortunatley the bigger you get in the dog world the shorter your time on earth is. Dan and I have decided not to put Louie through surgery again, due to his age, his not so pleasent recovery and other things. Our only options at this point are to put him to sleep or try to make him as comfortable as possible for as long as he is having a good quality life. We have him on pain medication and some other things to see how he does. The vet said we should at least give him a week and then if he still isn't using it we need to think about his quality of life. It's only a matter of time before his other knee will go out, these giant breeds are just too big to support themselves on three legs like other breeds can.
I have been really really depressed ever since we found out, he is just the best dog ever and has been through so much with me since he was a tiny puppy. It's so heartbreaking because it's not his mind or personality that is gone, he is still with us, it's his leg, and he is happy as ever until he tweaks his leg the wrong way and cries out in pain. We love him so much and can't imagine life without him. Dan and I decided to take these next few weeks and watch him and help him as much as we can. As hard as it will be we are not the type of people to let him suffer just to be around for our emotional comfort. So, this holiday is going to be a little sad to say the least. I am trying to look at it different, as the best christmas with him and not the last. The last pic is of what Dan got to walk into the other morning, Louie can't really get up the stairs anymore too well so I slept on the living room floor with him and of course George had too also! Send lots of good thoughts our way for our chewybear.

Happy Birthday Jessica!!

What cuties!
What's a birthday bash without a little old fashioned making out? hee hee
Random cute pic of Abbie, we just love her.

Thursday was Jessica's birthday....the big 28!!! We all gathered for a great night of lasagna, garlic bread, salad and cake!! Dan and I had to add a good ol make out session to the mix too....KIDDING, we were only pretending. How do you like Tay puking in the background? lol
Then I had to post a random cute pic of Abbie....and the naughty little boy George. So, wed we went to Mel and Steve's to make them a long overdue dinner to give them a night off. We always leave George to roam the bedroom with Louie and he never does anything bad. Yeah so we decided to just let them have the roam of the house while we were gone....and he ate my SANTA PILLOW!! I was so sad, I looooved all the buttons on that pillow and I got that with Mel and Momma Holt at a Christmas auction last christmas. So, we did what any good parents would do, made him sit in his mess, took pictures and laughed, then yelled at him and sent him to his room. You could tell as soon as we walked in the door he knew he was gonna get in trouble. Sigh...so George will get coal in his stocking this year, if Santa just doesn't decide to set it on fire.....

Finding our perfect tree....

He's so silly...
Look how tiny and cute Lorelai is!!
Looking for a tree!

Last Sunday we all headed out to find our perfect tree at our favorite tree farm, Reindeer Lane. It was soo pretty this year with all the snow on the trees. Our christmas card might be a picture from that morning, but I don't think I posted it on here! ;) After we got our tree sunday we had to painfully wait til wednesday to decorate because that was our first day off!! So happy it is up now, I love this time of year! Does everyone have their tree up?