The boys have recently become fascinated by x-rays. They always want to look at ours when we go to the chiropracter, and they ask Joe and I to "draw their insides." This weekend they asked Tasha to do it, so she did. We were sitting at dinner, and Dom had brought his picture to the table. I told him that I really liked it, and he said, "Yeah, that's my brain." (pointing to the head) and then he pointed to a thicker line and said, "And that's my penis!" Tasha, who was only half listening looked up in horror and said, "What?! No, that's part of his leg!" Joe and I couldn't stop laughing. If I get the picture scanned in, I'll post it.

Now for the bad news. About a year ago, we noticed a funky little growth on Lexi's (our black lab) chest. We had the vet look at it, and they told us it was just a fatty deposit that would probably get bigger, and when it got to a certain size, they'd remove it. Well, it did get bigger, so while we had her in for a broken claw on Sunday, Joe asked them to take a look at it. They aspirated a fluid sample and sent it to a lab. They didn't seem to think it was going to turn anything up, it was more of a "just to be sure" kind of thing. We got a call from them today saying that it is a cancerous tumor, a very invasive kind, apparently. They're recommendation is obviously surgery, with all sorts of tests to confirm that it hasn't spread, etc. While we haven't even talked to the vet about what that would cost, we are incredibly doubtful that we will be able to afford it, so at first glance it looks like we're going to have to put her down or give her up to an organization that can give her the care she needs. I'm so incredibly heartbroken about this. I suppose if I think about, I've never had a pet that died of old age, or sickness. They all got hit by cars, or just disappeared (outside cats). I'm really struggling with how to explain this to the kids, because they love her so much. We've had her for six years, and I really can't imagine our family without her. So I guess I would appreciate it if you could keep us in your thoughts while we try to deal with this impending loss.

She's gonna be trouble...

I've come to the conclusion that Mia may just be more of a stinker than both of the boys. The following pictures illustrate my point.

In this one, she went into the pantry cabinet and took out a box of cereal. Now, we prefer to let the kids explore and learn about stuff, as long as they aren't in danger of hurting themselves. So, we let her play with it. We figured she'd probably tear the box apart a little bit. Joe and I got involved in a conversation, and when we went back in the living room a few minutes later we found this:

Not only had she gotten the box open, she'd managed to tear open the bag and plopped herself on the couch to have a little snack! Needless to say, child locks were installed on the pantry in short order.

Just today, Dominic had pulled his chair up to the bar height counter to get a book off of it. He didn't put it back at the table however, so Mia climbed up and helped herself to a permanent marker:

Thank goodness that we've dealt with marker art before and I had a bottle of Amodex on hand. I got every bit of that off in under five minutes.

She looks so cute and innocent doesn't she?

While we were at Christmas with my family this year, one of my Aunts told me she checks the blog every day for updates. I realized that I really need to do a better job at updating this...yeah, yeah, I know I've said that before (a lot), but it's a new year, right? So this is going to have quite a few pictures. I have to start with this one of Joe's truck. We got back from a shopping trip and saw this when we pulled in the drive...doesn't it look like his truck has eyes?!

Our holidays were crazy sometimes, but overall quite enjoyable. We had Joe's side on the 20th, a quiet Christmas Day at home with just us and the kids, and then spent four days in IL with my side over New Year's. The boys are at an age where they "get" Christmas, and it was really enjoyable for us to see their excitement. Santa was a bit worn out because he didn't finish their teepee until 11:38 on Tuesday night, but it was worth it to see them going crazy over it! While the boys tore into their presents, Mia just sort of stood by the couch looking very confused...she'll probably "get it" next year. Here are some pics of them from Christmas...Zack and Mia are in the teepee, Zack and Dom are showing off the spaceship they made, and Mia being fascinated by the tree:





We've had plenty of snow so far...I think we're in the neighborhood of fifty-some inches. For a while it was three feet deep on the back porch, and the kids have had a blast playing in it...Zack made himself a cave:Speaking of Zack, I'm happy to report that Meredith found another detox program for him, and we are able to get it into him much better. It will take us around 2 1/2 months to get him all the way through it, so we're just waiting to see how well it works at this point.

And just for laughs, the kids have decided to learn how to make funny faces...Joe taught them quite a few: