New Trick

Lemme have them, Mamaface!!

A Corgi Christmas

  A little late, but we participated in The Corgi Butts Christmas Exchange that Kelly set up last year for us. We received our present and I had to keep it away from Wrigley because he kept sniffing it, knowing it was his. Ever since the exchange last year, Wrigley has loved opening gifts (I wish I had taken a video; it's hilarious!) because he thinks each present is for him and he loves tearing the paper and sticking his head in bags.

  Our present was wrapped so nicely within the shipping box and Wrigley was going crazy. We opened the card and found out our Secret Corgi Santa was Aparna and Gryff! I thought this was funny because last year, we sent Gryff's gift!

Finally to the good stuff, Mom!! 

  Opening the last box, we found a gift for me--a very cute reusable bag which I love! And there were two gifts for Wrigley: a skinneez raccoon and a galileo bone. He could not wait to get his teeth on both of them!!

Gimme dat coon!

  Thank you so much, Aparna and Gryff!!! We love our gifts!! I can't wait for next year again! It's such a cool gift exchange!

Two Years Old

  Today, my little man is two years old! I can't believe it!! We slept in until noon and then I got back in bed and Roo got in his bed in our bedroom and we watched a little tv until about 1:30. I finally decided that I needed to get a few presents for Wrigley, so I got ready to brave the nasty weather we were having today.

  City Dog Market wasn't open today so I ventured a little further into town and drove to Woofgang Bakery. I was very impressed with the owner and got a little birthday cupcake for Wrigley and two antlers. Next time I go, I'm going to have to pick up a knucklebone for him as I didn't see it until I was heading out the door. I also ran to Petsmart and grabbed a Nylabone, a ball, and a flat raccoon and fox for him.

  I always try to put his gifts in bags with tissue paper because for some reason, he loves sticking his nose into the bags. I probably could just give him tissue paper in bags and he would be happy, but oh well. I made Pat take pictures of us and then made my mom, dad, and sister (and Tucker) get on Facetime while Wrigley enjoyed his cupcake. I think he thought I was going to take his cupcake away from him because once he took the top off, he inhaled the entire cake in his mouth. As soon as he finished the cupcake, he grabbed his antler and has been chewing it every since. He loves the split antlers and especially likes to chew on them until he breaks them into two antlers. I have a feeling this antler will be destroyed by Thursday night.

   Happy birthday, buddy!

Vote for Wrigley

Vote for Wrigley to be in a calendar!! He is #28!
http://corgibutts.blogspot.com/2011/08/30-finalists-time-to-vote.html?m=1

For Your Viewing Pleasure

  Today has been a very busy day. I mowed the yard (harder than you think, I thought it would be a great idea to buy a bladed push mower) and raked up all the clippings. Then I decided that I would weed some of the beds and picked up some of the leaves on the driveway. Pat and I then grabbed some lunch at Subway (eat fresh!) and ran to T.J. Maxx to try to find a white jean skirt or white skinny jeans (didn't happen) and Bed, Bath, and Beyond for a shower gift. 

  After our little trips, we ran to the store to pick up a few items and then finally came back home. I searched on Pinterest (newest obsession) while Pat watched True Grit. I made some chocolate chip cookies for work tomorrow and also started to make a recipe I found on Pinterest for Olive Garden bread. Yum! I'll post the recipe tomorrow. Since I cut the grass so nicely, I just had to take the roo out to do a little agility. Check it out!!

Wordless Wednesday

A Balancing Act

Slacking Off

 I have not been a good blogger, again! This seems to be quite the norm for me now. Life has just been too busy for me!! Two weekends ago, one of my cousins graduated from high school and made me feel really old! My parents came over from Mississippi and stayed with us for the weekend. Mom brought Tucker with them, so he and Wrigley had a great time together again. My cousin and her family came up from Florida and it was wonderful to see them for the first time in a few years. My aunt also came down from Chicago and my aunt hosted a delicious graduation lunch honoring my cousin and I got to see many of my extended family whom I've not seen in years. Unfortunately, Pat's soccer team was in their final tournament that weekend, so he wasn't able to partake in too much of the earlier day's festivities but he was able to help us cook dinner on Saturday night. He cooked some fantastic okra to go along with our hamburgers and vegetables. Mmm, so good!

Cousins from Florida

Me with my parents

They did it!

The Graduate!

Tucker and Wrigley

  I made some cookies for the graduate with lots of help from Mom and Dad. Dad helped decorate a few of the cookies while Mom did the rest of the decorating. Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of them, but I'm going to paste the recipe for y'all here. My friend Jenny made these cookies with her Mom for her wedding favors and she was sweet enough to send the recipe over to me. 

I used the Simple Cookie Glaze from King Arthur Flour recipes and added a drop of almond extract to the glaze for a little flavor (thanks to your suggestion, Jenny!!):

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
• 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon milk
• Food coloring (optional)

Directions

1. In a small bowl, whisk together the confectioners' sugar, corn syrup, and 1 1/2 tablespoons of the milk until smooth.

2. Add food coloring, if desired.

3. Spread one cookie with glaze, using a table knife or offset spatula. If it doesn't smooth out after 1 minute, dribble in additional milk, 1/2 teaspoon at a time, until the glaze reaches the right consistency. I think we ended up adding more confectioners' sugar to make it a little thicker, but you kind of have to just play with it until it gets to a good consistency. Below is the recipe for the cookies from the King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion cookbook. Once we got home late on Saturday night, the boys needed to run a little while as they had been cooped up for several hours. We threw the indoor Chuckit! for them and they absolutely loved it! We finally had to just put the toy away because the crazy nuts both would have kept going. Normally, Wrigley will get tired of fetching and will play keep away with the ball, but since Tucker was there, he tried to keep away from him if he got the ball, but he wouldn't stop fetching. In the pictures below, Tucker is wearing the black harness.   I would recommend the indoor Chuckit! especially for the too hot or too cold days, but I have to watch Wrigley since he likes to be the destructor and can easily rip the ball up since it is very soft. However, I would much rather have Patrick throwing this soft ball around the house than a regular tennis ball. I found it in my Petsmart early this spring, yet I haven't seen it there again. Has anybody else tried it? http://www.caninehardware.com/#/product/indoorfetch