Halloween is Here!

 

 

Happy Halloween from us in big D!!!

 

Brad went to work dressed as Batman(sort of).  Doesn't he look tough! I made him pose like that. He told me not to post this pic but I didn't listen....obviously!  Come on it's cute! He's my Batman! It's Halloween it's all about dorky pics!

 

It finally happened....a group photo session! A very successful one too, might I add! Up until this morning I've captured a few shots with all three sleeping or playing in close proximity, however, this is the first time I've had a "photo session" with the trio. For Halloween we have two black cats and our little pumpkin! Ha-ha the boys are dressed up as cats! I thought my idea to find them cat costumes was quite good! And Brad liked the idea too!  I think these are among my fave Halloween attire I've forced the boys to wear. 

 

Below are a few of the best photos I was able to capture early this morning. Cody is completely used to this whole ordeal. Simon too! Cody especially seems unimpressed though about being shoved into costume for yet another Halloween! I love the pic where Piper is looking directly at Cody. Perhaps she's asking him 'what is going on and how come we look like this?'

 

Once again Happy Halloween from Batman, 2 blacks cats and a little pumpkin!

 

And remember EAT CANDY!!!! 

Halloween Nears!

Well I've got a few tricks up my sleeve as Halloween fast approaches. My poor husband better watch out.  My little brain has been working over time to figure out some sort of a frightful breakfast treat to send him off to work with on Halloween.  I think I've finally got it! 


Our plan for Halloween night is to watch a Halloween/scary movie. Here's the thing, we don't want anything too scary. Nothing too bloody and gruesome. We are thinking something a wee bit frightening not disgusting, I never want to sleep ever again!  Perhaps Ghostbusters? Hocus Pocus? Maybe The Addams Family. They just released The Addams Family on blu-ray. It's the old movie now on blu-ray. I'll admit my vote is for Pirates of the Caribbean.  Yes, I know that's not exactly Halloween.  Yet how many people dress up as pirates every year?  A lot!  Pirates are on the creepy/ghoulish side of things and are always associated with Halloween as it seems.  Pirate costumes have to be one of the most sold each year!  I was actually chatting with a friend of mine earlier that stated she's going to be a pirate for Halloween. She told me this after I told her I had considered making the boys little pirates this year. Why now puggie-pirates?  I know my limits and their limits. Getting the boys to wear eye patches is NOT going to happen! Can you imagine? Picture me going towards Simon with an eye patch in hand.  Actually worse yet picture me going towards Cody with an eye patch. LOL!


One thing is for sure we will not be among the crowds of people going to see the new movie Nightcrawler which comes out on Friday.  Based on the previews and the title it doesn't seem like something we'd want to see. Quiet movie night at home with plenty of candy is more our thing!


Stay tuned to see our fur-babies in their costumes! 

Quick Snap Saturday

Is it treat time?

This is a sight I see rather frequently, our trio lined up near the closet that houses their treats when they realize treat time is approaching. They know exactly what time of day it is each day. No tricking them. That's slightly unfortunate at times. ;)

In the pic Simon looks the most calm and content to wait. Head is down and he's in chill mode. Truth be told he likely clued the other two into the fact treat time was fast approaching. Cody and Piper both have their heads up and were keeping a close eye on me as I grabbed the camera. As soon as Cody saw I was simply snapping a photo he no longer felt the need to look in my direction. As you can see Piper remained looking towards me but is diverting her gaze. Not sure exactly what she is looking at but she's obviously not looking directly at the camera. Perhaps she's learning from Cody to divert her eyes, her glance. Cody is a master at that!

Costume Shopping!

Every year I dress up the pugs for their annual Halloween photo. I have been thinking for awhile what the costumes should be this year. The other day I finally had time to go look. I used to shop way in advance to get the pick of the "costume" litter, so to speak. Now I wait until about 10 days or so before Halloween because prices drop drastically. Took me some years to clue into the price reduction but I finally did.



This year we obviously needed 3 costumes. I have been determined to get little Piper in a costume. My husband has been telling me there's no dressing a cat. I intend on proving him wrong. I WILL get Piper in a costume!  She's young, this is the time to do it. If she gets dressed up at this age alongside her brothers then it will begin to be the norm for her. Now taking a 18 year old cat(Storm) and trying to dress her up in costume would never have occurred. Pipey doesn't know any better!


So 3 costumes were purchased the other day. The boys match this year. And Piper is in her own costume, her costume is right in theme with theirs but not an exact match. I think I chose wisely for Piper, its a simple costume nothing too over the top. The store had a witch's costume complete with a hat. But the hat was a must to make the costume make sense, and I know my limits. Getting a young cat to wear a hat is not going to happen. Plus I wasn't fond of the idea of our little fur-baby being a witch, I wanted something a bit cutesy. After getting the costumes home I quickly tried hers on her. Yes, I was successful....Piper got in the costume. She wasn't so sure about it and acted a bit dramatic once she was fully dressed but she put up with it. Simon has yet to get in his costume for this Halloween. However, Cody was chosen as the official model. I dressed him up in costume to show Brad. As I paraded Cody around I believe I heard Simon breathe a sigh of relief that he was not chosen as the costume model. LOL!



When Brad saw Cody in his complete costume his response was this, "Oh good it comes with a bow, my boys are wearing bows. Code already looks embarrassed." I quickly said, "He's not embarrassed, that's his usual look." LOL! Overall Brad likes the boys costumes. I did run my idea for their costumes by him before I bought anything. My idea for their costumes this year is one of my better ones. Do I wish they didn't have a bow on it...perhaps but it's not a girly costume in any way. It's very unisex. And it's not like they have to wear it a longtime, just long enough for mommie to snap a photo! So stayed tuned to see what our fur-baby trio will be looking like come Halloween.

Quick Snap Saturday

I'm starting a new thing this Saturday. I'm calling it as you can see with the title "Quick Snap Saturday". Hopefully I can keep up with this on a weekly basis, if not then periodically I will feature a "Quick Snap Saturday". Just one quick shot is all I'll feature. Who knows who or whom will be in the different snapshots, should be fun to see what I post in the weeks to come.

This first ever Quick Snap Saturday as you can see features my wonderful husband. Aww, isn't he handsome! He was a good sport posing for this pic. He doesn't hate taking photos but you have to catch him in the right mood. He's most commonly up for taking pics at all special occasions and he never minds posing with our fur-babies or his wife! 

Blast Off Simmie!

In my previous post I mentioned we've had some rain. The other night the 4 of us really got caught out in a bad storm. The time for the last walk of the day arrived coincidentally a storm was just beginning as we headed outside. It didn't seem that bad when we first walked out. Okay it was mildly bad. But we still decided to trudge along.

I was prepared for the rain and Brad thought he was prepared too as he was proudly wearing his new Cowboys jacket.  We got to nearly the halfway point of the walk when we looked at each other and decided the rain is getting worse, lets get back inside. As we decided to head back home. Brad reveals his new Cowboys jacket that appeared to be waterproof....hmmm.....is not waterproof! He was getting drenched. As we turned to head for home the rain started pelting us. I mean "pelting" us! The rain was coming down at a slight angle which meant we were all getting pelted right in the face.  Soon after Simon clued into the fact we were heading back home he took off. I mean he blasted off! I always walk Simon and Cody is always walked by Brad. It was suddenly like I had a sled dog on the leash. He was running so fast I couldn't believe it! He ran far too. He blasted off while outside then blasted through the hallways until we arrived at our front door. He decided he'd had enough of that pelting rain hitting his face and ears....he was done and ready to get home.

He's always been a fast runner, which I already knew. The part that's a bit surprising was the way it all played out. He recognized we were headed home and without any encouragement to run he was in full sprint. His willingness to run the distance we ended up running was surprising too. The lil' ol' dude can still hang with the pups! ;)

Football and Chilly Weather!

Yikes! I looked at the upcoming games this week, noticing Dallas goes up against New York Giants. That's a dangerous match-up in my opinion. They are both in the same division, which always raises the stakes. However, Giants most recently got embarrassed this past Sunday night courtesy of the Eagles. And Philly is yet another division opponent of the Giants and Cowboys. So the Giants are coming to Dallas on a serious mission. Fingers-crossed the Cowboys are ready. And yes I happened to notice there's no way I will get to see any of the Cardinals game since the play at the same time as the Cowboys. Last week we got "bonus" coverage of the Cardinals after whatever game we were watching was finished. I love bonus coverage!  

What else has been going on in our household. I'm anxious for the weekend mainly because this has been a long/slow-moving week. We've had some colder weather. The chilly weather came in with a bang on Monday when we had a super storm that drenched us. This past week I had to "up" my jacket level. I have 4 sweaters/jackets that I have ranked. The levels are as follows:

Level 1: my light sweater

Level 2: my windbreaker

Level 3: my medium weight jacket

Level 4: The big one....my heavy coat that one would use in the snow.

This particular week I've gone up to level 3! My brand new medium weight jacket. It's my first "puffer" jacket ever. I noticed tons of puffer jackets hitting the stores last winter but I was just fine with my jacket selection at the time. But at the end of the season last year I realized my medium jacket needed to be replaced this season. After enduring a long Winter and a chilly Spring I had buttons missing, buttons hanging off, and numerous strings. It wasn't the right choice of fabrics to buy when a person has dogs. If I had to pick up one the boys while wearing that jacket I could count on some ripped strings after putting them back down on the ground. It was a cozy jacket though which is why I was determined to make it last through our cold season last year. But I'm happy to report the new medium weight jacket is working out great! It feels so light weight yet it's a medium weight jacket.  And the best thing about it is it's "packable". Which means it came with it's own special bag along with instructions on how to pack it up and put it in the special bag so it doesn't take up too much room in a suitcase!  Woo-hoo! Great idea to make it packable. Trust me packing a jacket is the most difficult thing when traveling by plane in cold months, or even the non cold months. We had a hard time finding room in our suitcases for some windbreakers back when we went to London and Paris. Believe me when I say having a "packable" jacket is important!

Piper's 1st Birthday (Part 2)!

 

 

Here's our cutie birthday girl!  Our little Piper reached her first big milestone....one year old! I think the 2nd pic below with Cody directly behind her is one of my absolute faves!  I've been able to catch the two of them together in pics many times. Much harder catching her with Simon.  Cody likes to pretend he's not into his little sister but don't believe him, he loves her! In his own way, he loves her! He wouldn't discipline her if he didn't. Plus his heart is enormous.

 

Piper has always been a good girl. From day one I remember placing her in our huge overstuffed chair right before taking the dogs out and she cutely peeked around trying to see where we were all going. I also remember the 3:00am feedings for the little newborn Piper. And I of course remember wondering if she would even make it. They have to get passed that newborn stage. Another thing I'll never forget, is how much we debated about her name. She had 2 other, well likely 3 other names before we settled on Piper. What can I say? We tried out a few before finding the one that fit her best! It's been quite the first year!

 

So who is Piper? Well.....let me start by saying, she's been quite the joy so far. Her cute personality is a great compliment to the boys personalities. Piper's sweet, timid, a bit shy, and not at all a rebel. She likes being praised and told she's a good kitty. She's got just the right amount of independence yet she's not so independent she's standoff-ish. I must add she's a smarty! Little Pipey's been rather easy to train, but having the boys has helped dramatically with her training. Courtesy of our Hyper-Piper we have enjoyed numerous laughs during her first year. As she discovers new things we laugh at her funny expressions or movements in response to something new. Just the other night she ducked her head as Brad turned up the volume on the TV too quickly and too loudly. We both busted out laughing as her immediate response to the loudness was to duck down. She does act slightly like a pug which is certainly acceptable and understandable! Much like Simon, she prefers to gobble all her food at once instead of taking a few nibbles then going off to do something else like most cats would typically do.

 

I've learned a lot about cats this past year. It's been a fun ride! I'm so glad we decided to keep her. I believe she came to us at the perfect time. I love the fact she arrived to us just about 7 weeks before our first wedding anniversary. She'll always be our "souvenir" of our first year of marriage!  I'll admit the second Brad brought her home I knew we had a new kitty. I knew I wasn't going to be able to part with her. Brad was much better than I was as he attempted to not bond with her that first week since we weren't sure about keeping her. I was already working on names during the first 24 hours. Little did I realize that despite my early name brainstorming it would take us weeks before she would "officially" be named Piper.

 

Congrats Pipe! You are 1!!! Here's to many more bdays little girl!   

Piper's 1st Birthday (Part 1)

Piper's first birthday has arrived! Congratulations Pipey you are a year old! Woo-hoo!

Tonight Piper's "cake" will be tuna with sliced hard boiled egg on top and maybe a few cat treats as a garnish.  Her brother's will enjoy a special treat along with her, as I went out to get the boys some doggie ice cream earlier this week.  Of course Cody looks forward to opening a gift in honor of Piper's bday more than the ice cream, while Simon is all about the ice cream. Total opposites!

I'm anxious to see how she responds to the 2 designated "cat" toys we got her. One is a pop-up cube which hopefully works better than the pop-up tunnel she already has. She loves the tunnel but the darn thing won't stay up, it collapses if you look at it oddly. We also got her a rounded bird cage contraption, complete with a bird inside she can try to get to. Oh and the bird chirps, lets hope not too loudly!

I remember when I bought Cody a stuffed birthday cake for his birthday. He had it for a few years, he loved to make it sing to him. Mommie kept wishing the music box inside the plush cake would wear out.  Never fear for Simon is here! Simon one day decided he'd heard enough from that singing toy cake and he worked until the thing became inaudible.  Hopefully Piper's new caged chirping bird toy doesn't need Simon to make it inaudible.  LOL!

Here's a few recent pics of our little Piper.

My Birthday(the re-cap)!

My birthday went very well. Lots of fun! I chose to go to a restaurant called Brio. Brad and I discovered the gem of a place, Brio, while out for drive a short distance away from our place back in July. That particular July afternoon we were set on finding a new place to eat at, we stumbled across Brio. I told Brad before we had even been seated that the place looked so promising I might choose it for my bday. Well I stuck to that decision! Brio it was for my birthday dinner.

We met my in-laws at the restaurant. We all enjoyed a nice meal. A meal that is fine dining in my opinion. The ambiance, the food, and the service are all top notch!  The food is of course the ultimate delicacy.  All 4 of us ordered something different and all four of us gave rave reviews of our individual entrée. A good time was had by all!

Afterwards we arrived back out our place for cake and ice cream.  I told Brad to surprise me with my cake this year. I simply gave a few guidelines and let him decide what to actually get.  He ended up choosing my ultimate favorite type of cake: red velvet!  Trust me if you haven't enjoyed a delectable slice of red velvet cake in Texas then you have been deprived! There's imitation red velvet in other states and there's the true Texas red velvet!  Yum!  Thick gooey cream cheese frosting and deep red moist cake reminiscent of a chocolate cake but better!  Can't ask for more when it comes to birthday cake!

Brad did well with the gift giving. And our "kids" did a good job too. My favorite part during the gift opening was little Simon sitting next to me intently watching me open "his" gift.  I'm sure he picked it out himself! ;)  Piper kept trying to play with everything. The card, the envelope, the paper, the tissue paper....she wasn't picky, she wanted to play with all of it.  Brad scored some major points with the cards!  He did an excellent job choosing the cards, one from him and one from the pets.  His card blew me away. I've read it a couple times since as it was so touching to me. I now have a brand new RED camera!  I go through cameras...don't I? In hindsight the last camera was not a good choice! The touch screen wasn't a fun feature. It took one great pic following that one great pic up with 9 mediocre to not so mediocre pics. The old camera annoyed both of us! After doing quite a bit of research I narrowed it down then told Brad to choose one of them to be a gift in the not so distant future. We have yet to truly try out the new camera. I've taken only a few pics.  It'll get some use coming up next Friday(Piper's 1st birthday).

Guess What Piper Likes?

Well I was rather shocked two days ago when I couldn't manage to distract little Piper from what her mommie was eating. You all know me, I am completely against giving pets table scraps. No way! My boys have never consumed table scraps. Have they had fresh fruit like bananas or a chunk of carrot or cracked open pecans....yes! Big difference giving a pet the leftovers at dinner and giving them fresh banana or melon that has nothing added to it. I understand its slightly different with cats than dogs. Although I can guarantee Piper will never receive table scraps. Fresh tuna out of the can...yes! Pizza.....NO! I must admit Storm ate pizza! She loved the sauce. So she didn't exactly eat pizza in it's full form, she was all about licking the sauce. She also loved French fries. I doubt Piper will ever get to taste those delicacies thanks to her strict mommie! :)

Oh man, allow me to take a few moments to reminisce! Storm used to meow as loud as possible until you gave her the human food she could smell you had. When the crockpot had been going all day long, she insisted on sampling whatever came out of it. Beef, chicken, something cheesy....she wanted a taste!  She was funny! Might I add her sampling was just that, sampling. She never ate that much. The one item she ate the most of: French fries! She had to be limited to 3 fries. Only 2 if they were from Chick-fil-a, because Chick-fil-a has waffle fries, which are bigger.

Okay, back to my story. So there I was sitting on our couch enjoying my rather quick breakfast when I couldn't get our cat-daughter to leave me alone. There she was standing next to me getting closer and closer. I kept shoeing her away but she kept coming back. Another huge difference between cats and dogs....persistence. Cats never give up! Dogs do and are easy to tell to go lay down.

I felt like I was being stalked by a shark. I was shark bait! I finally decided to let her see what I was eating once I was finished. She was eager to look over the crumbs. I watched her closely as I assumed she'd turn her nose up at the crumbs and walk away. To my surprise the darn little thing ate the small bits of hard boiled egg that had been left on the plate. The crumbs mostly consisted of the yellow part. She left nothing! Then today I decided to try out the white part of the egg with her. Sure enough she ate that too. Mind you the pieces of egg consumed by her were merely crumbs. Equal in size to a Cheerio.  A Cheerio-sized yolk portion and a Cheerio-sized white portion is what she polished off. She batted the white part of the egg back and forth between her front paws before deciding to eat it.

Earlier today I shared this story with a friend of mine that has informed me eggs are one of the healthiest human foods a cat can consume. She uses eggs of all style as a treat for her 7 year old cat. Hmm, good to know! So I guess other than tuna we now have another food that we'll allow Piper to have. I will never go so far as to scramble her some eggs, as that breaks my general rule. If I'm going to offer our pets human food I want it to be as natural as possible. Not mixed or cooked with anything. Hard boiled eggs are natural to me. Nothing's been done to them except boiling them.

We have an egg loving Piper! Perhaps for her birthday we should mix up a bit of natural tuna with some hard boiled egg. She'd flip for that combo!

Wait! Did I Just Hear You Correctly?

Is it the Super Bowl dilemma all over again? Who to root for during a particular match-up this coming Sunday is yet another big choice to make.  Not for me however! My mind was made up upon reading the list of match-ups on tap for Sunday.  My husband is the one with the dilemma.....or is it a dilemma? Denver is playing my Cardinals.  Denver is Brad's 2nd favorite team.  He even has Denver shirts and jerseys.  Granted he has more Dallas gear than Denver gear but no denying he's a Denver fan too.

While over at my in-laws house last night my father-in-law mentioned the curious match-up to me while my husband was in the other room.  He happily told me he was rooting for AZ, no chance of him rooting for Denver. He then coyly mentioned my husband was likely going to be for Denver. Making our household a divided one come Sunday afternoon. 

Brad and I have kept fairly silent about the upcoming game that threatens to divide our household. ;)Let's see how it might stack up....me and Cody for AZ, Brad and Simon(he loves the color orange) for Denver, and Piper?????? She's the swing vote!

Well apparently we don't have to try to pull a pet to our side after all. This morning when my husband emerged from our bedroom and was preparing to leave for the workday he says to me, "I'm going for AZ. No rooting for Denver this weekend."  I instantly said, "Huh?" Quickly followed up with "Wait! Did I just hear you correctly?". Brad the replied, "Yep, I want you to be happy!"

And yes folks that's what it takes to make me happy.....;).....a non divided household. Rest easy Piper, you don't have to pick sides.  But come on Pipe was it even close?  Were you really going to root for Denver over mommie's precious Cards?  Before you answer Pipey remember who feeds you 95% of the time! She's like Simon...she's a little eater!

So this is a Cowboys and Cardinals household ONLY this Sunday.  Sorry Denver! You must take a backseat! Or perhaps the cargo section! What a smart man I married! Giving up his Denver for the week just to root for his wife's team! Yep, that's a smart man, folks!

The game's in Denver so I definitely don't expect the Cards to pull it out. But at least we'll all be rooting for the same team! Crisis averted this week. No big dilemma on who to cheer for!