Happy Birthday/Mother's Day to me!

I love my birthday, this year, like many, I enjoy celebrating my "birthday week." To start off my week my sweet husband placed a box of Hostess ding-dongs in the freezer for me (only me!!). Then on Friday night we went to dinner with some friends and enjoyed some great food and live music (very fun!). Sunday was my birthday, which was shared with Mother's Day this year, the girls were very gracious in their cards and flowers that they gave. Mollie gave me an early card on Thursday (well, it is my birthday week) that read:
Happ
oomost
Happ
Barfdau

you ra sil butfil

interpretation: Happy almost Happy Birthday....you are still beautiful!
I love beginner writers!
So for my big birthday/mother's day surprise Dean and the girls arranged for an activity for us to do on Sunday afternoon. And it was so fun and relaxing. This is where we went and I cannot wait to go back. This weekend we will get to pick up our finished product, so I will let you know how they all turned out. And from my friend Michelle , she got me tickets to go see these guys and we have great seats! And from what I hear they are pretty good!!

Puppy Heaven!

Please welcome the newest member of the Gourley family...Bosley! We picked him up last Friday and we have been adjusting to our new schedule ever since. Feed, potty, play time, nap, feed, potty, play time, nap. His schedule resembles that of a newborn baby, I have even been getting up with him at night, it's been awhile since we have had this kind of schedule in our home and we are all adjusting. The first night was really hard, but last night he slept for over 5 hours at one time!! We were very excited this morning to get a good night of sleep, or at least I did since Dean got up with him!
F.Y.I. More house updates should be coming soon!

The Perfect Presents

Merry Christmas everyone...it's me, Madi. This Christmas I didn't know what to think at all. Merrill and Mollie slept in my room on Christmas Eve. I talked Merrill out of waiting for Santa..but still we couldn't fall asleep. Finally, around 12pm we hit the hay. Mollie had fallen asleep about 10 pm on the floor. In the morning when we all finally were awake, we opened presents. Starting with one of those new ipod nanos for me! Then came Merrill's video camera and Mollie's pink DS. When we went to stockings we got lots of other cool gifts. Then we insisted Mom and Dad open presents next. They did. Then came all the other presents. But four special gifts made this Christmas great. #1 the ipod. #2 the Wii. #3, a box full of puppy things and a puppy. A beautiful black lab. And #4 is Jesus. Who came along a long time ago. He was born of the earth from a virgin, named Mary. Later on, which is what we call Easter, years later from this birth, Jesus died from our sins. Now that is a great present. If you want to know more about the puppy, my mom's post under this explains it. Well, I wiss everyone a Late Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Our Christmas Surprise!

Merry Christmas...a couple of days late! We have had a few fun days playing with new gadgets, (still figuring them all out), visiting with family, and eating lots of yummy food. However, the few days before Christmas found myself and Madi in bed very sick! But thanks to our favorite Dr. and some prayers we were able to roll out of bed and make it to our Christmas Eve service at church. By Christmas morning we were much better.
This Christmas was special for a few reasons, one, it is the last Christmas we will spend in this house (hopefully), and it was our first Christmas without Cocoa in 5 years. So as you can imagine the girls (and Dean and I) were pretty emotional when the girls opened a box filled with a green leash, collar, and a book about Labs. At first they weren't sure what to think, but then we explained that a couple of weeks ago we had picked out a black male lab puppy for our family. He isn't quite ready to come live with us yet, but very soon, maybe by this weekend or early next week. So yesterday we headed out and visited our new puppy for the first time. When we arrived at the owner's home they had just let the puppies (all 11 of them) outside for their first time ever! We spent about an hour playing with our new puppy and his siblings and visiting with the owners. Merrill was able to capture some video of our visit on her new flip video recorder, and she made this movie earlier today, very cool!! Now we just have to decide on a NAME!!!

A night at the Symphony!

It was magical, beautiful, wonderful. We headed downtown Indianapolis to go (for our first time) to Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra's Yuletide Celebration. As we drove downtown we admired all the decorations and Monument Circle's Tree of Lights. We parked and walked to the Hilbert Circle Theatre where we were greeted by Reindeer! The City was beautiful with people taking carriage rides and walking downtown enjoying the Christmas attractions. We entered the Beautiful Theatre and we found our seats. As we waited for the lights to dim and the curtain to go up, I watched the girls, they looked beautiful in their new dresses with their hair done, so "grown-up" as they browsed through their program given to them by the usher who greeted us. We were so excited to see what was about to happen on the stage below us. Sandi Patty was the host and let me tell you, she looked beautiful, and her voice was amazing. She did an incredible job and what we were so amazed with was the 10 or so gowns that she transformed in. Every time she left the stage she appeared in a new amazingly gorgeous dress, with diamonds, glitter, trains, beautiful! And she was so fast!! However, that was only the beginning, because the African Children's Choir was the special guest this year for the show. They were WONDERFUL. The children were very involved in the show and show much FUN to watch, it was beautiful to hear them sing praises of our Lord and Saviour Jesus. The other special treat was one that will not be there for every performance so they did not promote it. Ben Utecht from the Indianapolis Colts showed up in his "Colts Blue" Tuxedo for a duet with Ms. Sandi Patty, she of course, was wearing a beautiful "Colts Blue" gown at this time with lots of diamonds, and it was fabulous. She walked off the stage with a white fur given to her by Mr. Utecht that proudly had his name and number on the back in lots of glitter!! Very Fun! And that was all before intermission. The show ended with the telling of the story of Jesus' birth, it was beautifully done. After the show we headed home and made a dessert stop at Steak and Shake, don't you love that Steak and Shake is open so late! (We even saw Tom and Terry Camp there, Jeremy's parents)
So this is where I would show you all the beautiful pictures that I took of the girls and the lights and the theatre. Where you would see pictures of me and Dean looking, might I say, the best we may have ever looked (wink, wink) But, unfortunately, when my parents stopped by before we were leaving to take all these beautiful shots I realized my battery to my camera was going DEAD and this is the ONLY picture that we have of the night. I am so sad about this, hopefully I have learned my lesson. Today we go get our tree and my battery is FULL.

One more try...for my girls

Not sure if I want to try this blogging thing again, but I know the girls' think it is very fun! So we will see...