Handmade ornaments and a tribute to our dogs.

Just to keep you updated, I still have the dogs, Ellie, Jake, special occasions, and .... hmmm... we'll just have to see.  Today is The Dogs We Have Loved and Lost Day.  Our first dog, the one we got right after we got married was Coach.  We LOVED that dog!  He was our first baby! 

Our newest addition and loss was Tarzan.  I probably could've chosen a better ornament than the one where he has a halo and wings, buuuttt...

I actually also added the month that we got him and the month we had to give him away on the back.  I do miss that little critter, but Lizzie is MUCH happier being an only dog, and our house is beginning to smell normal again!

This little bobble head doesn't have a name on it.  THE SHAME!  So, it could be for Earl or Coach!

No denying this one!  This is for Earl.  Earl was a good ol' dog.  (Sounds like a country music song!)

Here's a little line up of our babies.  I am actualy glad I have these, because I totally forgot that we used to call Puppy, "Lucky".  Well, Todd did.  I called him Puppy from the beginning to the end!

And then we have the handpainted glass ornaments that have somehow survived for 17 years.  Is that nuts or what?!

See Santa below?!  It says Christmas 1996.  The one below it might even say 1995.  I can't really tell.  Either way, that's a pretty impressive run of packing and unpacking for 16 years and even surviving a move!

This is the collection.

I was apparently going through my, "experiment with acrylics" phase.

This llittle angel ('99) has always been one of my faves.  Can you believe how vibrant the paint colors have continued to be?  Doesn't even look like time has faded them at all. 

I was excited to have this one.

And as I am bragging about not losing any... I drop this one.  It's from last year.  Irreplaceable fingerprints of my two girls.  LUCKILY, I'd also made Madi do one for her mom and did a three thumb one for my tree too.  Sooooo, I can breathe again!

Here is another little pile of "extras".

From my viewpoint, I could only see an endless number of ornaments that still remained.  I was sitting on the floor and started at the bottom to remove the many ornaments on our family tree.

Looks like I failed to complete the dog section!  Above and below are both Coach.  Remember, he was our first baby!



We literally had Coach in frames all over our house.  And if I am not mistaken, he was in our Christmas card pics for a few years.  Just the three of us. 

Here's a weird one.  Had I not written "Memphis" on the bottom of this one, I would've totally forgotten about this dog. He was a yellow lab who was given to us, the year Ellie was born.  But four was really just too many for us to take care of, so we passed him onto a friend.  I wonder how ol' Memphis is doing now.

Coach died 2 months after Ellie was born.  He threw a blood clot, or so it appeared, after heartworm treatment.  It was a very sad day at the Groves  house.

And so it goes... I've completed the dog section.  I think I'll do Jake's ornament collection tomorrow.  And these are the family tree ornament.  Not including the angel tree that is all for him.

Happy Saturday. 
MO