Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

For unto us a child is born, 

Unto us a Son is given; 

And the government will be upon His shoulder.

And His name shall be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, 

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6

May the blessings of Christmas

be with you and your family

today and always.

Dixie, Ruger, Jenna

(and our parents too!)

Something's Missing . . .

A couple weeks ago Mommy told me she was taking me to be "fixed."  Seriously?  Am I not perfect already???  Apparently she thought not!  Hmmpff!  This is me protesting my lack of breakfast that morning.  It's ruff not eating when your siblings are pigging out. 

Fast forward eight hours and I was singing a different tune  . . .

My parents have apparently had LOTS of experience with hard plastic cones on my siblings' heads.  Mommy says they are murder on her legs as well as the doorways and furniture.  I guess I'll have to take her word for it.  I don't really think the cones I wore were a walk in the park!  Mommy purchased two different cones in anticipation of my recovery period.  This blue donut was placed around my neck when I first got home. 

It was fine . . . then I woke up and discovered I'd been permanently altered.  No amount of licking was going to bring my body back to its original condition.  So, the donut had to be switched out for the Comfy Cone!

Let me just say in case you're in the market to buy a cone for your own head, the Comfy Cone is a misnomer!  Do I look comfy????  Daddy says I look like a Jawa from the original Star Wars movie.   I don't see it . . .

My sisters were very curious about where I'd been all day and were eager to show how much they cared. 

I moped around for a day and then I was back to my usual self.  If you can call a cone on my head my usual self???

I've spent my days trying to commune with Instagram pals in other states and countries.  I keep hoping for a contact with life on Mars too . . .

Those stitches come out tomorrow and I can't wait!!!
Ruger

My First Christmas [Tree]

Y'all there's a TREE in our house!  It's been a while since my parents introduced an indoor tree to a boy dawg.  Thankfully for them I haven't yet learned to lift my leg to do my business, so I don't associate trees with making a mess.  I wasn't sure what to think of the tree at first.  I had to sniff all around it to make sure it didn't pose a threat to my family.

Mommy apparently got carried away because she tried to put the lights on me too!  I wasn't impressed.

Finally, she (with Daddy's help) finished decorating the tree.  I'm still not sure why we need this in our house.  It takes up a LOT of space.  So much space that my crate had to be relocated to a new place in the house!

Here's the finished product complete with cowboy hat on top!  Mommy says they've always put an angel on top of the tree until last year when she felt a little rebellious . . . 

I'm off to enjoy my first Christmas tree . . . YEEHAW!!  (I think I saw a few sticks in there I could gnaw on . . .)

Ruger

Just Call Me Punkin!

As Mommy started putting up the Christmas decorations a couple weeks ago, she realized she had a LOT of pumpkins that were still in great condition.  They had no soft spots and she felt bad about just throwing them away.  She decided to carry them to the back porch and built a lovely little (out of season) display.  Mistake #1!

I naturally discovered those pumpkins and began to carry them around the yard.  Mommy should have disposed of those pumpkins right then and there!  Mistake #2!

Instead, she sent pics to our family to point out how cute I was!  When she saw me chewing on the pumpkins, she took more pictures.  You're really not surprised are you??  She should have thrown the pumpkins away . . . Mistake #3!  See a theme developing here??

She didn't throw the pumpkins away until later that night when she realized I'd been outside by myself for a looooooong time.  She discovered this:

The pumpkins finally went into the trash with Mommy fully expecting to be up all night with my stomach . . . Lucky for her, pumpkin is good for a dawg's stomach and I had no problems at all!  If you're thinking it was a miracle, you're right!

Mommy's Little Punkin,
Ruger


(At least you can't call me chunkin punkin! Ha!)

Fire in the Hole!

When I first arrived on the scene, I didn't really take notice of the hole in the wall.  Jenna's crate was out in the middle of the den since she was convalescing and needed to be where she could keep up with all of us.  (Look at how tiny I was!!)

But a few weeks ago the temperature started to drop and Daddy moved that giant medallion screen to reveal the hole.  What in the world was he doing and why did we have a hole in the wall?  If you listened carefully you could even hear the wind blowing through it . . .

Daddy said the hole is really called the fireplace and it's a favorite feature in any house for him.  As soon as it gets the least bit chilly, he loves to build a fire.  He said I have to be careful and not get too close.  He also said that wooden leaf garland Mommy has hanging over the fireplace is a fire hazard, but I'm not totally sure of what he meant.

It only took Daddy a few minutes to build a roaring fire in the hole, I mean the fireplace.  I have it on good authority (from my sisters) that Mommy takes a LOT longer to successfully build a fire and it doesn't always stay lit!  This thing called fire is amazing!  It made all kinds of cool, crackly sounds and gave off heat that kept me warm.

Once it made a loud crashing sound and I had to jump across the room to save myself!  Mommy said it was just a log shifting, but I feared there might be something more sinister in there trying to grab me.

I finally became convinced that it was okay to enjoy my usual sleeping spot in front of the hole.  Drat!  It's going to take me a little while longer to call the hole by its proper name.

If you need me I'll be curled up sleeping in front of  the fireplace!
Ruger

Falling All Around

Mommy doesn't feel like she sees a big difference between seasons where we live currently.  Her favorite season is fall.  She LOVES to see the leaves on the trees change.  We get a tiny bit of that here, but we don't have many trees to begin with so her chance to enjoy fall is limited.  Back in September Mommy noticed a field of tall but small sunflowers near the house.  She started developing an idea in the back of her mind . . . Daddy hoped she'd forget about it, but she didn't.  One afternoon, she indulged her idea of a fall photo session.  She put each of us in the car one at a time and drove to the nearby spot in three consecutive trips.  Each trip was unique just like us!

Although we're already moving into the Christmas season, it's technically still fall for a few more weeks!  Enjoy!

Dixie

Jenna

Ruger

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving

to all our dear family and friends!   

We hope you have a wonderful day

counting your blessings.

Dixie, Jenna, Ruger

(and our parents too!)

Friends in Far Away Places

Do you follow us on Instagram?  If you do, then you might have noticed homerdog22 is usually one of the first to like our posts.  Meet Homer:

We've become good friends with Homer and his Mum who live all the way around the world in Australia!  Such good friends that Homer recently sent us a few gifts.  If Mommy had had her act together, she'd have taken a picture of everything that arrived all together.  But she didn't . . .

The first things that rolled out of the package were three Kong squeaky balls!  We were (and still are) in heaven!

That's Ruger running by in the background with a ball in his mouth.  Ruger LOVES squeaky toys and runs around like a madman whenever he has a new one!

We each take turns being the ball hog!

Ruger and Dixie had a bit of a scuffle over a ball that first day despite the other two being readily available!

Homer also sent each of us new collars with our names on them!  They are color coordinated for our personalities (you can see the colors above) and are super soft on the underside.  Along with each collar came a light that has the ability to flash for us to wear on our collars so we can be seen when we're out at night.

Here's Dixie showing off her new collar before Daddy put the light it.  Not sure what Ruger's doing here besides being his usual pesky self!

I look so serious here, but I'm trying to show you Ruger's beautiful blue collar. 

I got the blue light!  Mommy thought it matched my purple collar best.  You know purple is the color of royalty, right?  Just saying.

Dixie's light is yellow when it's off, but a little orangey when it's on.  It goes great with her pink collar.  Pink is such a sweet color and that's exactly what Dixie is . . . or so Mommy tells me!

And Ruger has the red light!  It matches his blue collar really well.  Plus, he can be Ruger the Red Nosed Reindeer with his light during the Christmas season.

We LOVE, LOVE, LOVE our gifts all the way from the Land Down Under, or the Land of Oz as Homer calls it.

Here's Homer with our Halloween card (it took about two and a half weeks to travel that far!):

Thank you so much for all of our lovely gifts, Homer and Homer's Mum!  As we approach our American Thanksgiving, we're thankful for our new friends across the globe!

Jenna
(and Dixie & Ruger too!)