It's Coming . . .

Can you feel it?  It's on its way!  Summer is almost here!!!  We've been enjoying warm days at our house on the weekends and in the afternoons.

We've been playing keep away from each other . . . 

 . . . rolling in the freshly cut grass . . . 

 . . . and relaxing in the sun!

All of this play is hard work!

Mommy is counting the days until school is out  (SEVEN) and so are we!  It's coming  . . .

Hunter, Dixie, and Jenna

Behind the Scenes: Memorial Day

For Memorial Day, Mommy tried really hard to capture this look (even before she saw this particular picture on Pinterest):  

thepinkandgreenprep.tumblr.com

But needless to say, that wasn't even close to the image you saw yesterday was it??  That's because none of us four-legged beings would cooperate with Mommy.  

Hunter wasn't interested at all.  He kept sniffing the flag, but refused to take it in his mouth.  Dixie preferred (as always) to play ball.  Because we had so many tennis balls outside, there was no distracting her from her goal of playing fetch.

I was up for the idea and willing to give it a try.  Mommy attempted to hand me the flag a couple of times, and kept saying, "Gentle" over and over.  I'll admit I tend to have a hard mouth and need to be reminded to go easy on toys sometimes.  Mommy finally gave up and chose to play fetch with me too.  When she was ready to go inside, she decided to give me one more chance.  I was eager to please, so I sat like a good girl and waited for the flag to come my way.  This time, Mommy let go of the flag inch by inch and tried to take pictures at the same time . . .

 . . . until I chomped down on the flag really hard and took off running in a victory lap for the USA!  With Mommy chasing me!  In flip flops!  By the time she caught up with me, the result wasn't pretty.

Mommy wasn't a happy camper when she saw what I had done, but really, how did she think this was going to turn out?  Oh well.  Better luck next time . . . if there is a next time.  We can always give it another shot on the Fourth of July!

Happy unofficial start to summer!
Jenna

Happy Memorial Day!

Happy Memorial Day!!  

We want to send a bark out to those who have served and are currently serving our nation to secure our freedom and rights as a nation and individuals.  Woof!  Woof!  Woof!!  Twelve paws up!

Thank you for your service.

Special thanks to Poppa and his fellow soldiers 
in the 101st Airborne.  

Spring Cleaning

Many of you have probably already finished your spring cleaning, but Mommy always waits until her spring break.  She doesn't feel the need to waste her weekends doing chores she doesn't want to do in the first place!  During the first part of her break (you know, the days before that Mother-Daughter Weekend we were left out of), she got down to business on the floors.  She polished the hardwood floors in the living room and foyer.   She scrubbed the white tile and grout in the kitchen on her hands and knees.  That's really the only way to get them truly clean.  What idiot chose those colors for a kitchen floor?  One who wasn't going to stick around until fifteen years later to see the results of their decision making process!  Or one who wasn't planning to have three dawgs track through there every day!!  Mommy also pulled out the steam cleaner and cleaned the carpets.  She had been meaning to do this for a while (since before Christmas), but one thing or another kept her from doing the dirty deed.  Thankfully, we finally have clean floors to pad around on, but they come at a price . . .

In order to achieve clean floors, apparently we girls have to stay in our crates!!!  Hunter, on the other hand, is allowed to roam freely around the house.  That boy hasn't seen the interior (or even the exterior) of his crate in eight years!  Hunter's crate is stored in the basement and he has always HATED it!  Don't tell anyone, but we secretly LOVE our crates!  Really, we do!  We love to sleep and relax in the comfort of our own space.  That is, until we hear the key turn in the lock.  Well, it's not actually a key but you get the picture.  It's a tiny bit depressing watching Hunter and Mommy parade around the house while we're stuck in the comfort of our crates.  [sigh]  Oh well.

We guess it's worth it for Mommy to enjoy her clean floors . . . which lasts about thirty seconds!
Dixie and Jenna

Musical Beds

When the temps finally decided to warm up around here, Mommy surprised us with a special treat.  "Treat" might make you think of Jenna immediately, but it wasn't quite what Jenna had in mind.  We have a pair of wonderful outdoor dawg beds that can be rained and snowed on without hurting them.  They are made to allow the water to run right through them.  The only real problem with the beds is that their covers were ugly to begin with and they have faded over the past few years.  My bed also had a hole in its cover.  I say my bed because it's the largest and it was here first (like me).  Recently, the company began selling covers more to Mommy's liking, so she ordered two new ones!  They look great!  We are ready for relaxation in the sun and one of our favorite games, Musical Beds.

Now if only we had a third bed . . .
Hunter


PS: Mommy said to tell you she has thought about a third bed MANY times, but it's rare that we are all lying down at the same time outside!  I guess that's true, but it would be nice to have the option, don't you think?

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is my TWELFTH birthday!!!  That's eighty-four in human years.  Any way you look at it, I'm getting OLD!!  We celebrated with birthday "cake" as well as cookies and ice cream.  Mommy and Daddy let me eat my giant iced "cake" all by myself with no sisters stalking my every move or breathing down my neck.  We could hear loud yelps from inside, but they couldn't get their teeth on my treat.  I even "blew" out the candle . . . by snuffing it with my nose.  Ouch!  Who thought it was a good idea to light the candle??  (Daddy says he'll give you one guess!!)

Once I finished my treat, Mommy dished up the same kind of ice cream and cookies we had for the girls' birthday last week.  She made sure to get a picture this time.  We made quick work of the treats.

Dixie was then ready to resume her favorite activity: retrieving tennis balls.  

I tried and tried to get my party hat off, but it was a snug fit.  No amount of shaking my head seemed to loosen it up.

On the other hand, Jenna seemed to wear her hat all over her head.  I finally put a stop to her problem by snatching it off her head for my dessert!  Don't worry; I didn't actually eat her hat . . . but I wanted to!

It was a great birthday!  I want to send a bark out to Uncle Wes and Uncle Heath as they celebrate their birthdays too.  It was obviously a great day to be born!  (Or week if you prefer to look at it that way, Poppa!)

Here's to many more years!  (Crossing my paws)
Hunter


PS: Yes, that picture above was taken recently.  I look YOUNG, don't I??

PSS: Poppa, I am super sorry there was a typo in yesterday's blog!  I will use old age as my excuse.  I don't know why my much younger sisters didn't catch it!

Happy 490th Birthday!!!!

Today is Poppa's 490th birthday!  That's SEVENTY years to you humans!  Either way you look at it, that's OLD!!!  Mommy finds it hard to believe her daddy is that old.  (Probably because that means she too is growing old!)  Poppa has done so many wonderful things in his life.  Mommy scrounged up a copy of one of her favorite pictures of the two of them.  They are at NASCAR's Bristol racetrack thirteen years ago (when they were both much younger).  Poppa still had hair then.  Check out the similarities between Mommy and Poppa: same nose, same chin, same forehead.  Yep, no denying their relationship!

Happy Birthday, Poppa!

We love you!

Hunter, Dixie, & Jenna

Happy Mother's Day!

Have you hugged your mom lately?  If not, today is the day to do it!  We hug (and slobber on) our Mommy all the time, but we don't get to see our grandmothers very often.  We want to say Happy Mother's Day to our grandmothers.  Grandmothers are very special people.  Of the three of us, only Hunter was able to meet one of our great-grandmothers.  Grandmother H always said when she died she wanted to come back as one of Mommy's dawgs because they (meaning Hunter at the time) were living the high life.  She was right; we do have a great life.  Hmmm . . . you don't think Grandmother H is actually Dixie or Jenna do you???  Not that anyone at our house believes in reincarnation, but . . .

(in alphabetical order to make it pawsitively fair).

First up is Grandma.  She is mommy to our Mommy.  Grandma lavishes us with gifts when she's here and tries to talk to us on the telephone when she's not here.  When one of us is ailing, she'll call just to check up on us.  If we sit at her feet and roll over for a belly rub, she'll slip her shoes off to make sure we receive the optimum massage from her feet!  We love going to her house and visiting her.  She doesn't complain (too much) when we crawl up on her white sofa for a nap.   Dixie is especially fond of Grandma for reasons we'll keep to ourselves.  It might embarrass Grandma to have those reasons splashed about in blogland.

Next is Mimi, mommy to our Daddy.  Mimi doesn't get to visit as often as we would like.  We've also never been to her house (Mommy cringes at the thought of our nails on Mimi's hardwood floors).  To not be a dawg person, Mimi treats us quite favorably.  Dare we say one of us might be her favorite grandawg?  (No offense, Lucy, but the odds are in our favor with three of us here.  However you do have geography on your side.)  Mimi is known in these parts for the delicious recipes she has passed on to Mommy and for her gardening skills.  We love it when Mommy fixes Mimi's chicken pot pie because we get to be on the clean up crew.  Seriously yummy!  And whether she knows it or not, Mimi has taught Mommy lots about gardening.  While picking out flowers at a farm recently, Mommy was asked by the farmer if she had ever worked in a greenhouse because she knew so much about the plants.  Good thing Daddy wasn't with Mommy or he might have keeled over dead from laughter.  She responded that her black thumb had come a long way in fifteen years and it was mostly due to her mother-in-law!  Mimi might have laughed too since her plant knowledge FAR exceeds Mommy's!!!

Mimi, we looked for pictures of you and Daddy, but none received his seal of approval.   Please don't think we aren't giving you equal treatment or that we have a favorite grandmother . . . unlike you, who of course chooses us as your favorites!  <wink, wink>  Don't worry, we'll never tell.

For our own Mommy, we asked Daddy to pick up a little something for her.  You know Daddy; if one bouquet of flowers is good, then FOUR will be better!  He did a little grocery shopping on Friday and came home with lots of flowers.  He said there were traps all over the store for men to pick up flowers.  We're not sure why he didn't put some back when he found flowers he liked better, but he didn't!  Daddy's allergies are now wondering why he was so foolish!

Daddy also picked up a card for us to give Mommy.  He asked Dixie to deliver it; she's the only one of us who isn't paper crazy.  Mommy knew what was coming, so she tried to capture a picture of Dixie.  Dixie bypassed Mommy and ran straight to her crate! 

Daddy said the card was so perfect that it could have been written by us.  It gave Mommy more than a few chuckles.  The parts about the tennis balls and squirrels are totally us!  

We gave her a terrific new coffee mug and bacon flavored dawg treats.  Hopefully she'll give those dawg treats to us . . . 

Mommy was really surprised and touched by our thoughtfulness (and Daddy's).  High paws all around!  We hope both of our grandmothers have a terrific day!  

Hunter, Dixie and Jenna

Monkey See, Monkey Eat!

Jenna strikes again!   Mommy had just finished fixing herself a bowl of cereal with a cut up banana when Jenna decided to make her move.  Mommy turned her back on the bowl ever so slightly to wash her hands and Jenna engaged her stealth mode to nab the banana peel!  Mommy didn't realize it until after she had washed and dried her hands and heard Jenna smacking her lips on something.  It was too late!  I would estimate that 75% of the peel was history.

Mommy grabbed as much of the peel from Jenna's mouth as she could get her hands on and then immediately grabbed the iPad to Google this situation.  The first website she landed on said banana peels were toxic and she should seek help from the vet.  Our local vet doesn't have an emergency number, but there's one about thirty minutes away.  Mommy considered placing a call to them, but decided not to panic yet and kept reading.

Many other websites said the peel wasn't a problem and that it would pass on its own.  Mommy relaxed slightly until she came upstairs to discover that Jenna had found a paper towel somewhere and was chowing down on that too!  Daddy likes to blow his nose on paper towels (for strange reasons unknown to us), and we think one must have been on his nightstand.  After retrieving the paper towel from Jenna's jowls, Mommy was at her wit's end.  Unfortunately, the Stomach of Steel didn't stop there . . . she wandered into the bathroom and started helping herself to the toilet paper!  And all of this happened before 6AM!

Jenna was on a roll . . . literally!  Ha! Ha!  I crack myself up!  You know you find my humor appealing . . . get it, a-peel-ing??  Thankfully, this story has a happy ending (another intended pun).  It all came out in the end just fine and Jenna lives to eat another day!

On the plus side for Jenna: she has two new nicknames: Monkey and Stomach of Steel!  What a way to mark her two year anniversary as part of our family!

Way to go, Sister!
Dixie

Mother-Daughter Weekend

Even though we didn't get to participate in Mommy's recent Mother-Daughter Weekend, we guess we could tell you a little bit about it.  We heard from Grandma that there was a LOT of walking involved (even down in the subway).  That is proof right there that we should have gone.  We LOVE to walk!  When anyone became tired, they could have hitched a ride on our backs.  We also could have provided plenty of pawtection for the lovely ladies (in the subway, on the sidewalks, in the taxis, everywhere!).  No one messes with us!

Another reason we should have been allowed to go: the ladies took a rickshaw ride through Central Park.  We could have saved them sooooo much money.  Just hitch that seat to us and we could have taken them on the same beautiful journey.  We even think they could have understood our speech patterns better than those of their drivers from West Africa.  We would have been right at home.  There are always many dawgs in Central Park because not everyone is as lucky as we are with a huge yard to play in.  Oh what fun we could have had meeting new playmates!

We should have been on the trip because Grandma shopped for her HUMAN grandchildren but not us!!  Can you believe the injustice?  Mommy didn't bring anything back for us either!  Aren't parents always supposed to buy souvenirs for their children when they go away without them?  Have we not been good dawgs lately?

The moms and daughters did lots of sightseeing and saw a musical as well.  We'll admit we might not have been allowed to go to the top of the Empire State Building or into the theater to see Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, but we do know how to sit and stay.  We could have waited patiently outside until they were ready to move on to their next adventure.  

Maybe we'll get to go next time . . . it's been decided there will most definitely be a next time!  After all, a good time was had by all!  (All but us!  No offense, Daddy!)

Dixie and Jenna


PS:  Please ignore the appearance of Grandma's hair.  Her angel wings decided to show themselves in her hair this weekend.  It was very windy in the city!