Here are some new photos…also included photos of the new Gorilla at the Birmingham Zoo. His name is Hasani and he moved here back in December from the Bronx Zoo. And Arwen loves the white tiger! Yes, she is quite the spitfire, she gets into the toilet paper and fridge regularly!
Anya had a class at the Zoo today and she painted a black and orange tiger. The picture will be displayed at the BJCC on the weekend of January 30th at the Cat Show. Yes, its just like a Dog Show, but this one is all cats! I’m hoping we won’t come home with a kitten! 
Anya’s really been wanting a cat, but Chance wouldn’t like that very much I don’t think!
I’m excited to see her picture displayed though and I know she’ll be excited too!
Arwen took 2 steps today between the sofa and her jumperoo, but they were steps so they count, so I’m sure she’ll be turning loose and walking all over the place before we know it!
Stay tuned for some new photos in a day or two!
I read a lot of books in 2009, 23 to be accurate. I discovered the best time to read is while I get a bath, so every night I had a little 30 minute escape to get my bath and read. I’m hoping I’ll get to read 25 books this year. I finished my first one last night…Dean Koontz’s “Your Heart Belongs To Me”. Not my favorite, I wouldn’t recommend this one. I read a lot of Dean Koontz books though and the ones I would recommend include “The Husband”, “Odd Thomas”, “The Darkest Evening of the Year”, and my favorite one “Watchers”.
I want to read “Breathless” but after that I may take a break from Koontz for a while. Other ones I read that I would recommend include “The Lucky One” by Nicholas Sparks and “The Time Travelers Wife” by Audrey Niffeneggar.
My next one is “The Lost Symbol” by Dan Brown. Travis just finished it. He reads much faster than me and he likes Sci Fi books. I’m not sure if I have a genre I really like yet, but I do enjoy mysteries it seems.
In other Almand Family news…Arwen’s still not quite walking yet by herself, but she’s talking a lot more now. Her vocabulary include dog, ya-ya (for Anya), bye bye, ma ma, hi, and her favorite…Da da!
Anya is going back to gymnastics this week and I’m going to have to push her to work on the bars more. She’s still not wanting to do skin the cat, which is a basic flip on the bars, so she’s been banned from having lollipops until she starts! I didn’t want to go those measures but I also want her to be able to conquer her fears. So, until she does an actual skin the cat by herself, no more lollipops. She gets to go to see 101 Dalmatians the Musical tomorrow night with her buddy Acacia and Acacia’s Mommy and me. It should be fun.
And Travis and I are counting the days to our 10 year Anniversary!
This is why we help…one small wag of a tail is all we need! Please watch and share…
Christmas Day is almost over, but we had a nice one. We all slept late then got up and got the day started with some toast. Anya’s been sick with a stomach virus the past 10 days so toast is one of the 4 things she can eat right now as part of the BRAT diet – bananas, rice, applesauce, toast. She doesn’t seem to like applesauce today so that’s really 3 things she can eat. Its been a strange 10 days with her and this virus, but we think she’s over the worst part now. And luckily none of us have caught it.
But I transgress…
So, I will transgress further to Arwen’s birthday. She had a good day. Loved her cake (see photo below) and her favorite new toy seems to be the car her Auntie Rena gave her. See photo below. She also loves the mailbox that Granny and Pop gave her.
Kim, Jake, Sonya, and Les all participated in celebrating her birthday with us with cupcakes, chips, dip, cheese and crackers and since her birthday was so close to Christmas we went with a snowflake pattern and a cake with snowflakes and deer! It came out to be very cute.
Back to todays events…
Anya received her 3 gifts from Mommy and Daddy which included a digital camera (which she loves), the Leapster 2 game system and a Pet Pals game, Monopoly Jr. and from Arwen she got the Play Doh Ice Cream Swirl Shoppe. Arwen got some stacking/nesting blocks from Anya, and from Mommy and Daddy she got a piggy bank, a Lightning McQueen ride on Car, and a click clack pet world that took forever to open!
Travis gave me a fondue pot and Daughtry CDs. I gave him Atari boxer shorts and an indoor remote control helicopter.
Not too shabby…
Now for randomness…
Our family Christmas present is going to be a flat panel TV we hope. We have discovered a few sewer problems though (again) and are praying our money won’t have to go to repairs. We are working on Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover and are loving the ideas behind his book, but as we are just getting started its hard to pretend and accept that you have no credit cards. The end result there will be very good though and we are following through with his plan.
I’m sure we’ll still get our TV, we just may not be able to get the TV stand I wanted right now too.
We re-financed the house with an excellent new rate and signed all the paper work this past Monday.
Chance got a long green stuffed dog for Christmas.
I actually made some good peanut butter kiss cookies for once.
We made coconut fried shrimp together for dinner.
Arwen was running a fever until about 2pm today from the teething.
She has 5 teeth now.
We had no power for about 3 hours last night on Christmas Eve.
I desperately miss my best friend Serena and her family.
We love playing the Wii again as we now have Wii Sports Resort.
Arwen’s close to walking.
Travis is still the love of my life and we are doing great. Looking especially forward to our 10 year Anniversary in February.
Life is good. We have many, many blessings.
Enjoy the photos…
