Castle Update

As promised, Moxie here with a castle update...

It's pretty well finished, here are some pics of the final touches...

Decorations

The river with Swedish Fish candies and candy rocks!

Watching contently...

All finished... look at the mess on the table! Notice the little house to the right? Mum made that for Dad as a corgi dog house! Too cute!

Aerial view of the castle courtyard...

Christmas Piggies! They're a German tradition (for good luck!)

The back!

Snow Storm 2007!!!

Check out what our Sunday has been like...

This is what happens when you root around in the snow with your snout...

The face off...

Snow drifts!

FRAP (frequent random acts of play) time!!!

Through the Izzie hoop...

Snarf snarf snarf... I'll get you!

I'm so fast!

Christmas Castles?

Hello Friends! Moxie here for the update... its been a busy week so far...

Guess what Mum and Pap have been up to?! Making a gingerbread castle!

Crazy parents... Instead of baking us more cookies, they go and build a castle, what's up with that?!

Trees and bows for decoration

Look at that mess, honestly... the only thing that should be that messy is making cookies for us!

Frosting the walls.... (Thats dad's bum in the background... he's mixing more icing)

Pap piping away... (not on bagpipes)

Outside decorations...

The stained glass windows... they were my idea...

Green glop (which I wasn't allowed to sample, grrrr.)

Interior design by Izzie

Scenery...



Clearly they aren't finished yet... these are very preliminary photos... so we will keep you posted on Castle Project 2007 as news unfolds!

This is agent Moxie, signing out.

Early Presents!

Hello Friends, Izzie checking in...

So Mum and Pa have gotten us presents... and lucky for us they haven't been able to wait to give them to us! That means we've been getting presents early!

First was this ginormous bully stick...

Moxie, a little to the left...

No no, the other left...

Oh, never mind...

So delicious...




And then, there were antlers! This is our first time getting antlers, Mum ordered them online from petexpertise.com....

Taste Test

Oh yeah, these are good...



As you can see, we took right to them... there are five of them and I tried to hoard them all for myself... it didn't last long and while I was distracted chewing on an antler, Sis nabbed one from my stash.

Festive!

I sure hope there are this many presents for Moxie and I this Christmas!


So Mum decorated the living room this weekend, she hung these really cool twinkling LED star lights in the window, they are really pretty, but for some reason I feel the strong urge to bark at them all the time. Then she hung snazzy garland and silver beads in the room... she also hung silver and red shiny ornaments all over! And she hung up Daddy's stocking! Moxie and I watched intently and I even tried to help out a bit. This is the first Christmas I remember, last year I was a wee pup at this time, so it's all new and exciting to me!

Cards have been rolling in like crazy! Sometime soon we will post pics of all the beautiful cards we've been hanging up as decoration.

Artsy Pics...

Mum was feeling artsy again...

More about those cookies...

Hey Pals! Izzie here...

Here's some more info on Mum's cookies... we asked her for the recipe and she laughed... she said she didn't really use one, but she told us roughly what to tell you all... so here goes:

Moxie and Izzie's Cogilishious Cookies
1 jar of applesauce (any size you like) - we get the kind that is just apples, no sugar or any other preservatives or additives
1 jar of peanut butter - again, we get the natural kind that is only crushed or ground up peanuts
1 can of plain pumpkin (not the cinnamonie kind)

Put above listed ingredients in a mixer, using the paddle attachment, combine until smooth. Turn mixer back down to "slow" or "stir" speed and begin adding dry ingredients. We used whole wheat flour this time, although we usually use a combination of buckwheat, whole wheat, garbonzo bean as well as other flours we can find. Garbonzo bean as well as a few others are great if you are a grain-free type hound, are watching your wheat intake, or have a wheat allergy. We just slowly add the flour until a dough forms that is solid enough to come together and gets stuck on the mixers paddle. Scrape everything out of the bowl and refrigerate to make it easier to roll and cut.

Once chilled, take out sections of dough and roll-out (just as you would human sugar cut-out cookies). Cut into shapes either using cookie cutters (mum has a great little bone and a little heart cookie cutter) or using a pizza cutter. Bake on a baking sheet at 350 degrees (F) until slightly browned. Cookies will still be soft, don't over cook at this temp, they will burn. Once everything has been cooked at that temp, turn the oven on very low (200 degrees (F) or less) and allow cookies to dry out in the oven. We just pile them all in one pan at this point and stir them throughout the drying process.

It's really quite a lax recipe and its really fun to experiment with... try lots of variations, be creative!

Other things that may be added to the mix:
- eggs
- blackstrap molasses (adds magnesium, calcium, and iron)
- yogurt
- parsley (for fresher breath!)
- oats (quick oats, cooked or uncooked)
- any type of baby food such as green beans, peas, carrots, or any protein (beef, chicken) as long as it doesn't include onion.
- pureed bananananananananas (particularly yummy, we might add)

Yummy, cookies on the way...


Me, supervising... my best role, next to "consumer" BOL!!!

Just another day helping Mum...

Hey all, Iz here to tell you about our day...

Mum was up to something... she left us and went out somewhere... must have been the store, because she came back with some bags of groceries... and something for me too... a NEW COLLAR! Yay, I hadn't been allowed to have a new collar... since, ahem, an incident back when I was a rebel puppy... I, ahem, may have incidentally severely damaged a collar... so since then I've had this indestructible hunting dog collar, which has really served me well, but the blaze orange just doesn't suit my personality enough... apparently Mum agreed and brought me home a new one!

Well, that was not the only surprise! She started opening some of the things she brought home... and using that noisy mixer thing on the kitchen counter... she had some pumpkin... and some apple sauce.... and peanut butter, YUM! She's making us doggie cookies!

After she had emptied the containers into the mixer bowl, she let us help clean-up!

Oh yeah, that's the good stuff...

Moxie, get in on this action...

Uh oh, Moxie, I dropped mine...

Never mind, we're all good...

Moxie, you're in the way...

Moxie refined some nice technique... check out the foot-lip leverage maneuver...

I had some nice moves too, if I do say so myself... and check out that sassy new collar!

____________________________________________

Also, we received an award! That's Lacy Lulu, you're such a dear friend to us! We have really loved blogging, we hope you all like looking at the pics and reading our anecdotes too... we love reading everyones blogs too and seeing all the great hound dog antics!

"This award is presented to a successful blogger, one who can “be the blog” - making it their own, staying with it, interacting with the readers, and just plain having fun."

THANK YOU!!!

We would like to pass this onto our pals:
Noah the Handsome 'Dale!
Lorenza, the Dachsie with the coolest wardrobe around!
Amber, the Solid Gold Dancer with all those great pics of food on her page!

Snow!

Now all our blogger pals can have fun in the snow with us! Come make a snowflake and add to the blizzard!



For those of you that haven't experienced snow... its so much fun to run around in... and try and eat... and make doggie angels in... and catch snowflakes on your tongue... and root your nose around in... and bury stuff in... yeah, we love it, although it is really nice to come back into a warm house and cuddle up with mum and papa too!

Plans?

Not too much new to report on... pretty uneventful weekend, its been quite rainy and cool here in Ohio so we haven't had much outside play time... and when we do, when we come in, we have to sit in front of the heater to dry off!


So we were wondering what pups had planed for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday? Any special meals? We might get some special food... but hopefully not turkey, because turkey makes you sleepy, you know... and who wants to be sleepy on a holiday! It's play time!

Love you all!

Germs!

You have to check out this website mum found... it's very funny and cute...

"Cute Little Ickies"

Some of our favorites...

Miss Giardia and her beautiful long locks...


Mr. E. Coli, he's got great punk rock hair...


And Mr. Flea... he's usually not such a welcome guest...

A Beautiful Fall Day...