5 most read posts of the year.

Happy New Year's Eve! 

It's cold where we are and so we have extra layers on and blankets to keep warm. I'm envious of the dogs, especially Murray, who has a thick coat and seems to enjoy the outdoors more than being indoors, especially when the heat is turned up {my goodness, he just asked to be let out back again}. 

On this last day of blogging in 2014 I thought to look back at the most read posts {minus the giveaways} of the year. And just because I was curious, I looked at the all time popular post since the beginning of time for Always With Yoo. Scroll down to see if you're interested!

#5 - The Final Story: What are some life lessons you learned from your partner? 

#4 - The day we lost Basil. 

#3 - June Wishing

#2 - A Guy & His Dogs: Rick, Oscar & Tiki

And the most popular blog post of the year is..... 

#1 - How did you know (s)he was the one? 

It turns out a lot of folks are interested in how to hack IKEA things because Our Rainy Weekend Project: The IKEA Malm Dresser Hack post is currently the most popular of all time.

It's great being part of this online community and I look forward to contributing more in 2015. Have a wonderful night tonight as you ring in the new year. See you in 2015!

Piri's year in review.

This is our third year doing this. It's always fun to look back on things from what we think is a perspective of Piri {I know.. those crazy dog people}.

I can't believe we celebrated his 15th birthday this year, and despite him being older and having stage 3 kidney disease, he has these moments where he'll break out into a trot or prance around the yard or fling his toys around, like he did when he was a puppy. 

Much of the second half of the year I worried about his waning appetite and weight loss, and while he still goes back and forth with his food {he just recently had another episode of not eating and then eating again}, we are incredibly thankful for his resilience and also the people who have showed us so much love, care and support through some difficult and good times. 

Piri is always in our narrative - past, present and future. We wouldn't have it any other way. 

Here is Piri's year in review, 2014. 

 ^^ It snowed a lot in the beginning of the year. I don't like snow much. ^^ 

^^ But my human dude made me this. I thought it was pretty cool.^^

 ^^ But then this happened. The human dude said it was supposed to be me. Um. No. I don't think my nose is that big. ^^ 

^^ I celebrated my 15th birthday with all my friends. Oh and the human girl made me a party hat. I think I have a lot of patience. ^^ 

 ^^ She also got me toothpaste and toothbrush as birthday presents. I thought she was joking. She wasn't. I think she's losing it. ^^ 

^^ But she did leave random beds for me. This one was so soft and warm. ^^ 

^^ And this one so sleek and cool!^^

 ^^ I learned that this is called a cherry blossom. ^^ 

 ^^ And I saw them in full bloom all around Washington D.C.! ^^

^^ Summer quickly came. ^^ 

^^ And my human girl made me a flower bracelet. ^^ 

^^ And I found a shallow creek to play in and ate apples there, too. ^^ 

^^ I learned that if I made this face...^^

^^ I got more strawberries to eat! ^^

 ^^ We went on car rides. I loved every single one. ^^

^^ Summer is always fun with the human dude and human girl. ^^ 

^^ And this summer was pretty special because I found out that I could fly! ^^

^^ Bath time though. They are bad all year round. ^^ 

^^ We bought a house and the humans got this footstool sofa just for me. ^^ 

^^ And every day I welcomed home the human dude right from this door. ^^ 

^^ And I found a new favorite window. I think they made this just for me. The height is just perfect. ^^ 

^^ I was busy telling the humans how to take care of the yard. It was hard work. They have no idea what they are doing. ^^ 

^^ We went back to Virginia Beach and it was so much fun. ^^ 

^^ I played so much and was wiped out at night. I slept in the hotel bed right next to the humans. It was nice. ^^

^^ I became the President and CEO of Piri's Place and so many cool dogs came to stay with us. This is Truffles. She didn't like the mailman too much. ^^ 

^^ I got my own crochet rug. The human girl made it out of their old clothes. It smells like them. I liked that. ^^ 

^^ She also made me a hat with a big red pom pom. ^^ 

^^ And a snood cowl, too. ^^ 

^^ The vet said I had stage 3 kidney disease and high blood pressure. This made the human girl cry a lot. I didn't want to eat and I was tired all the time. ^^ 

^^ The human girl started to fold paper cranes for me. She said if we fold 1000 cranes then our wish will come true. Then kind people on Instagram started folding them too, and some people mailed them to us. I was so happy and thankful. ^^ 

^^ I rested. ^^ 

^^ The humans continued to include me in their lives. Like here. My pumpkin. It's a Dracula dog. {Yup. The human dude. I don't know.. this is kind of up there with the cupcake, but I let it pass. He worked so hard to carve me this. It was touching.}

^^ And my friends Hiro and Mini cheered me on. ^^ 

^^ And I felt better and decided to help out Santa again this year. ^^ 

^^ I almost put the humans on the naughty list though because they forgot again that this is mine and not the tree's. ^^ 

^^ But I changed my mind after I got this ornament. ^^ 

^^ And the human dude gives the best belly rubs. That automatically puts him on the nice list. ^^ 

Thanks for always including us in your lives. 

Love, 
Piri, Jane & Yangkyu

 // Piri's year in review 2013 & 2012. 

Favorite moments of the year {pt. 2}

Thanks for reminiscing back on the year with me. I wanted to share some more moments from July to December. Some of these seem like it happened just yesterday. I can't believe we'll be ringing in the new year in just a couple of days. 

Most years I like to hold on to Christmas for a bit longer. This way, I feel like I'm stalling on starting the new year. But this year I packed away Christmas the very next day. Christmas seemed a little drawn out for me this year and I was pretty ready to get over it {even though it's my favorite holiday}. 

I usually get a little sad in January {end of festivities and lights and decorations and the cold dreary days sometimes gets me down}, but I think I'm pretty anxious to start new. To get ready, I've already rearranged some of our living space and will do a little purging as well. I'm taking notes and planning some things out. And I can't wait to start learning new things like sewing and embroidery and add new things to Piri's Place {I was thinking of making doggy bandanas for guests and also a little summary card for the humans}. I have also been thinking about how to make some changes to this blog -- mostly cosmetic. I'm thinking about coming up with a new name, too. But we'll see.. 

I hope you are winding the year down just the way you want to and getting ready to start 2015. Here's to exciting beginnings. 

Our favorite moments, from July to December: 

 // 2014 Favorite moments - part 1

 // 2013 Year in Review - part 1

// 2013 Year in Review - part 2