So we had a most Excellent Christmas. Time with family is the best time there is, and just seeing people's reaction when they open that perfect gift from you. We feel so blessed this Christmas Season, except on christmas eve and our little convertable broke down in Tukwilla while Devin and Lance were finishing there Christmas shopping. They were in the middle of an intersection and they had to have a cop push them out. Then they "limped" it back here to my work. It turned out to be the alternator. So Devin bought one, put it in the front seat and parked it in our warehouse. On Friday morning we drove down to work to install the new part. Got all ready to tackle the project, and Devin forgot the keys. WOW, so we had to drive all the way back home to get the key and all the way back down to work. There were a few complications, but he got it done in about 2 hours. Yeah, back up and running with 2 full cars again!
Here is our "family" Christmas photo from Christmas day! The Dog and the 2 cats, now that was a tricky picture to take!
Here are the ginormous stockings that we got last year, and boy did we fill them, mine isn't as full because "santa" couldn't make it all the way with the harsh weather that we've been having, they should still be comming shortly!
Here is Maui sitting so cute by the tree. I just love this picture!
Here's me and my little baby Maui. I just love her, and I hold her all the time. Don't be fooled she may look like she doesn't want to be there, but just seconds earlier the picture was a little different. She was licking my face like there was not enough peanut butter on there to please her enough!
Well that's about it for the holiday pictures, however, we received a little bit of extra money from Devin's parents and Grandmother, so we decided to do something with it instead of saving it. We put in hard wood floors in our bedroom and the guest room. We can't be happier. It took us about 3 hours per room and we did it in 2 nights. So here they are, let me know that we made the right choice....
Here is the new Guest Bedroom, I could not for the life of me find an old picture of it, but it had tan carpet with stains on it, and for those of you who have seen it or have stayed in it, you can be the judge of that!
Ok, so this is the old room, it had nasty green carpet in there that smelled and had stains on it. Our room basically looks tiny and I hate the green carpet. ewww
So this is the new one with the new floors.I think the room looks and feels a lot bigger and the light reflects off the floor now to make it feel brighter! You can't really tell the color too much, but it's called cherry. It's darker then an Oak, but lighter then a dark cherry. It's beautiful!
So this Season here in washington we have had unusual weather for this area. for the past Week we have been seeing snow around here. of course not very much but some snow, and then things turned south.... We then got freezing temperatures ALL week which kept the snow around here on the ground. Well then... the snow started back up on Wednesday. Thursday Devin and I couldn't make it in to work, Friday i had to have a co-worker pick me up because it was a frozen solid street out there. so Satuday comes around and the snow starts up again at 2pm. It snowed, and snowed, and snowed till sometime during the night. Here are some photos from last night when Devin and I went out with the dog. 
She was LOVING to burry her head into the snow and just play around in it. She was having the time of her life out there!!! well then we got a call from Lance and he said they were going for family drive time. So they drove there way over to our house. i made hot apple cider, and Addie colored. 
It's been a crazy week and it's been fun and they say that we may even have a white Christmas. that's WAY rare around here but we are excited to see what happens.
This picture does NOT do it justice on how encredible cute these clothes are!!
Boys and there Toys!!!
This is officially the first pitcure that we ever taken of us. Probably about 3 weeks after we started dating. I never realized how much shorter I was then him until I saw this picture. Then I decided that I loved having a tall man. I get to still wear 4inch heals and he's still way taller then me. I think that's my favorite thing about him, is his tallness!
This was taken in my room at Valeries house (my brother in law's mommy). He was trying to act so tough for the camera. It looks like "umm, why you taking a picture of me, this is so dumb"
Sleeping, life is rough
Puppy Graduation day. This is the best picture we could get, she didn't want to keep that hat on her head, without some help of course.
She sleeps in some of the weirdest positions sometimes. But we still just LOVE her!
All peaceful Sleeping in our room. 
This is a new crate that we got her. She outgrew the other little one. Devin decided that we needed the biggest one possible. This crate is made for Grate Danes. But she's spoiled for sure.
Loving on Papa
On Friday late afternoon I got a call from my dad, and once again of course I was rolling my eyes. More drama, more crying from him and it was just another day of trying to calm him down and tell him that everyone would be ok and that I was there for him. I got him calmed down and promised that I would see him in the morning so that we could clean his apartment so we could start looking for a new one on the first floor. Something that would make it a little easier for him to get around. I left a little early on Friday from work because I was upset, my aunt at told him something that made me really upset. She told him that I thought he was a burden, and I NEVER have said that to anyone. that's why he was so upset and crying. More drama...
Reluctantly Devin and I got up on Saturday morning, packed up all the cleaning supplies and put them in the car and drove down to his Apt. We got there, walked up stairs, knocked on the door, nothing, called his cell and we could hear it ringing, nothing, we were there for about 15 minutes of doing this and then decied we were pissed that we wasted a saturday morning getting up and going down there. We were going to try again later that night. So about 6pm we went back down there with the intent of yelling at him because we had a date. Again, no answer (he would always answer his door, maybe not his cell, but always the door). We went down stairs and tried to knock on the Managers door. He's never there so we talked with the assistant manager, he said there was no key to let us into the apt. The manager was the only on with a key and he didn't want to drive all the way down there just so we could check on someone. We were Pissed. We Thought, what were we going to do now? Well we left it alone that night and tried not to think about it and decided that we were going to knock the door down on Sunday morning.
We got up, and did a few things, and went down there at 12:30. Knocked and knocked again, and no answer, talked to a few neighbors and they said that hadn't heard or seen him since Friday night. So Devin had brought his screw drivers so we could try to unscrew the door knob, and no go. He tried to shove the door open with his shoulder, but then if we broke the door, we would have to replace it. So I called his brothers to see if they had a key and they didn't, so I asked my uncle gary what to do. He suggested call 911 and they could get the door open. So we did and about 30 minutes later officer Burger came out. He talked with all the neighbors and tried to get a phone number for the manager to bring a key, all the numbers that everyone had for him were wrong, so the last thing to do was to kick that door in.The Sergeant got there right on time to walk up there stairs and witness it.
IT took a few tries for him to get the door open, but the officer broke the deadbolt off and got it open. They asked up to stay outside while they "cleared" the place. They came back out and said, "Well he is here in the back, but unfortunately he is no longer with us". WOW, didn't expect that, I was actually just going to yell at him for not answering the door and his phone. Once they took there pictures for evidence, they said that we could go in and look if we wanted. Well me being so gung-ho and a visual person I had to see. So we walked into the Apartment and into his bedroom and right there on the bathroom floor was my dad tightly curled in the fetal position. Looking just like a little baby entering into this world. His hands and neck and ears and face were all purple and he looked so peaceful laying there. I just kept thinking that he was going to start breathing and that everything was going to be fine.
We went and sat outside so the officer could take more photos and go through everything just incase there was something there that dad was hiding. The Medical Examiners came by and did there thing, and tried to gather as much info as they could. They said that he looked like he was in no pain when he died and that it looks like he just laid down and fell asleep. They put the time of death at 11-pm on Friday night, so even if we got the door open on Saturday morning, we couldn't have done anything. At this time, they are thinking that it is not Self inflected, and it was natural. I'm pissed, we were just at the hospital the weekend before and they found nothing. Dad and I had talked about his death and memorial service and what he wanted done with his body plenty of times just in case something did happen. I didn't sleep much the fisrt night, all the dreams I had involved his apartment and seeing him like that. I will probably be a wreck for a little while, but just stick with me and I will get through it. I knew that I would have to be the one that would take care of all the financials now since Dad's number 1 fan here has been stuck with this the whole time, taking care of him, running him around..... I'm pretty sure nothing will change with that, but Dean was here to help. We found a cremating home, got that done in time for his memorial that was on Saturday!
We also had till last Friday to get his APT cleaned out since he's only paid up through October. That was a task all in it's self. That man had so many clothes. He worked at Brittania for 18 some years, and got his clothes fron there for almost free.
So the cause of death was a major heart attack that killed him instantly. There was nothing that we could have done to help him even if we were there.
On Sunday, we got to go up to the mountains to a location that was very close to where Grandpa Sheldon's ashes were spread. Grandma's ashes hadn't been done yet so she came up with us too. We went up to Snoqualmie where the river is, and about 2 miles up from Snoqualmie Falls is the place that we picked to spread them. We had all the brothers and sisters that were still left join us along with some of Dad's cousins. First Uncle Pat took Grandma out and did hers and then Dean, Lizzy and I went out. We took our shoes off rolled up our pants and started wading into the river. I was first out and I slipped and caught myslef just as my bum and sleve got wet. Dean started laughing at me, and sure enough not but 2 seconds later he slipped and soaked his pants all the way up to his bum. He even dropped Dad's Urn into the water, luckily it was sealed tightly and it didn't get wet inside. We all stood there and poured it out together and also took turns doing it. I must say that was the BEST feeling I got all week. It was such a hard week planning and moving and taking care of everything, along with dealing with family. It was a great ending to a hard week. After that, we had a family dinner and a slideshow of all the pictures taken over the weekend. So please, keep him in yours prayers that he will walk again with the angels and that he is ok!
