Snow!

We woke up this morning to rather a lot of snow. Both Josh and Ellie's schools were closed due to the roads being so bad no one could get to them!


Ellie and I decided to make the most of it and go out and build a snowman with a bit of help from Max puppy of course.


This is Ellie and I starting to make the snowman.
Here is Max starting his collection of snowballs on his paws.

Max absolutely loves it when you throw snowballs for him. He's waiting so patiently for Ellie to throw this one.

and the snowballs on his legs get bigger!

Ellie really enjoyed finding the deep bit of snow.

This is Max playing catch the snowballs.

and this is our rather dodgy looking snowman! It didn't help that Max kept attacking his head while we were trying to roll it!

Max's New Look.

Max went to the dog groomers today. This is only his second ever hair cut. The lady who groomed Max last time cut his fur way too short and he looked awful and it really put us off taking him again. To be fair we didn't know exactly what we wanted her to do - we were hoping she'd have some suggestions - but when we went to pick him up we knew exactly what we didn't want but it was too late by then.

This time we went armed with a sheet of paper with instructions on it as to which parts we wanted short and what we wanted left long. It was kind of like painting by numbers! LOL!

So this is what Max looked like first thing this morning... ...and this is what he looks like now.

Doesn't he look lovely?! :-)

Poor Puppy Dog!

Max is doing well after his operation. He was very sleepy yesterday but he's back to his normal bouncy self today. This would be a good thing except that he's supposed to stay as still as possible, no running, no jumping, no chasing balls, no going mad in the garden. Unfortunately Max has other ideas and trying to keep him calm and relaxed is no easy task!

He's got to have a lovely bucket on his head to stop him licking at his wound. As you can see, he's not impressed with his bucket at all!

Poor Puppy. We have an appointment at the Vets tomorrow to make sure that everything is healing as it should. I'm hoping they'll say he doesn't need the bucket any more but we'll see. Fingers crossed eh?!

Snow Puppy!

We have woken up to snow this morning. Not much at the moment but it is still coming down and it supposed to be here all week! England is already grinding to a halt as we cannot cope with "extremes" of any kind of weather! So many buses and trains are not running already. What will we be like in a week if it keeps on coming?!


Someone who is enjoying the snow though is our little snow puppy, Max. Peej just went out in the garden with him and took these photos, so I thought I'd share. It's starting to stick in little snowballs to the fur on his legs now though and it's bugging him a bit. Awww bless!

Photo Challenge

I have been photo challenged by my PCJ and blogging friend Dawn. I must admit when I saw what the challenge was I did have to laugh. This is a lovely challenge and very funny as you just don't know what you are going to get!

The challenge is: In the 6th folder, take the 6th picture and post it on your blog. Write something about the picture. Challenge 6 new people to join in this challenge...

Here is mine.

This is an action shot of our puppy Max enjoying the snow at the beginning of this month. The Thomas tunnel is in the garden because we are trying to do some agility training with him but don't have any of the proper equipment yet to we were improvising with the kids Thomas tunnel. Lol. He will go through it now though and is very fast too!

So I now challenge:
Debbie
Carol
Barbara
Jenn
Cazzy
Paula
Can't wait to see your photos ladies!

Some Puppys Can't Have Nice Things!

One of the gifts we bought Max for Christmas was a lovely felt rag ball. He absolutely loved it and it kept him amused for about an hour... and then he found out how to pull all the bits of felt out of it! This photo reminds me of the dogs eating spaghetti in Lady and the Tramp! :-)

Just look at the mess he made. Naughty puppy! At least it kept him busy while we opened our pressies but it would have been nice if it had lasted a little longer. Oh Max!

Just before Christmas we had some family photos done. I thought I'd share some of my favourites with you.

Snow Puppy!

We had our first snow of winter today, not much I'll admit, but snow none the less. I sent Max (our Cockapoo puppy) out to play in it to see what he would make of it. As you can see he wasn't bothered at all. He loved licking it off the steps to the slide though. He looks like he has bad dandruff! Lol! But I assure you it is snow.

He loves his ball today, the rope parts on it have frozen solid and he's loving chewing on them.

I wonder what Max will make of it when we have a proper snowfall and it settles enough for him to leave paw prints in it. Hope I have my camera ready for that one!

Scraplift Challenge

This is a layout I made for a scraplift challenge over on the new PCJ blog. Jayne designed the sketch for it and this was my take on it. The photos are of our little rug/puppy otherwise known as Max, when he still had his fur!! It is now growing back after his trim but he did look very bad for a time there. Poor puppy.

Good news. I rang the shop where I got Ellie's leotard and skirt from and they said as it was their mistake they would change them even though she'd worn them. So she now has the correct uniform, hurray! I didn't buy any tap shoes though as they were a little off with me in the shop so I didn't think they deserved any more custom. I will get some from somewhere else after I have had my first class (well my first since I was about 14) which is tonight at 8.15pm. I will have to do it in my trainers this week but if I enjoy it then I think I will order some tap shoes online and hope they come before the next class.

Wish me luck!!

Happy Halloween!

The kids are on half term this week and we've been very busy. On Monday we had a play date at a friends house, Tuesday we went to stay the night at my Mum's house, Max included, which was fun as he'd never stayed away from home before other than in kennels. To cut a long story short - he didn't like it!

Yesterday my Dad and his wife Liz came over to baby sit/dog sit for us while Peej and I went to see Bryan Adams live at the M.E.N. in Manchester. Bryan really rocks! He's such a performer and great to see live. We had a great time despite the fact that I have managed to catch a cold and was feeling a little sorry for myself.

My Dad and Liz stayed over night and because the kids were off school we decided we would visit The Edge (Alderley Edge) this morning. It was a beautiful morning although very cold and the view at the top of the edge was fabulous. Josh and Ellie really enjoyed the walk and we even saw two Buzzards flying about with a young baby Buzzard. Max was so tired when we got back that he just flopped on the kitchen floor and didn't move for about an hour. Poor little puppy.

The kids got dressed up in their Halloween costumes earlier and went Happy Halloweening. Peej took photos on his camera though so you'll have to wait for those. He's also got some photos of the pumpkins we made. I must say they are really good this year even if I do say so myself!

Mum's Birthday Surprise

My Mum's birthday was back in February but my brother Richie couldn't give my Mum her birthday present until last Saturday when the weather was a little better than it is in winter!

You see my mum has always been a bit of a biker chick but her dream has always been to have a ride on a Harley Davidson. So on Saturday Richie invited us round to his house for a barbecue, we were stood outside chatting and waiting for the barbecue to light when Steve pulled up on his Harley. Mum's head nearly whipped off her shoulders, she turned round that fast. Then when Richie said told her that she was going out for a ride on it and "Happy Birthday" she just burst into tears. Bless her!

The photo below was taken when Richie brought the birthday cake out. We'd all sung "Happy Birthday to You" and Mum went to blow the candles out and the wind blew them out for her before she got chance!

This is Mum in her borrowed Biker Chick outfit and that's our puppy Max at the side of her.

This is Mum squished into her helmet.

Mum trying to get onto the Harley. I won't tell you all that I had to help her get her foot over as she got stuck!!! :-)

And this was Mum riding off into the sunset. Well not quite but you get the picture.

Raspberry Ribbons DT Call

I've decided to try out for the Design Team for Raspberry Ribbons as the other DT I'm a member of is a bit slow at the moment and doesn't seem to be showing any signs of picking up again any time soon. I really need something to keep me crafting on a regular basis as I've been very slack recently with no DT challenges to work on and to be honest I really miss them.

A friend of mine, who knew I was looking let me know about this one and this is what they asked for:

All we need for you to do is create a card using the sketch on post below and tell us on the comments where it is for us to look at. There is only one thing we ask and that is to use ribbon on your creation whether it's a card or Layout.

I decided I would do a layout as I really wanted to make a ribbon flower and knew that it would be too big to use on a card. So I used these great papers by Blonde Moments. Unfortunately when I shrunk the first photo, to make it the right size for a web page, it made the photo of Max go very dark so you can't see him very well.

So I just took the photo again but a bit lighter and now you can see Max but the colours of the paper are a bit light. So if you can imagine the real thing is somewhere in between the two.

See I should have done a card as they are much easier to photograph you don't have to worry about the light bouncing back off the photograph! Doh!

Our Baby Puppy is Growing Up.

Our little puppy dog has started loosing his baby teeth! He's lost two so far and has another wobbly one. I feel really sorry for him as he just doesn't understand what is happening. He knows his mouth feels different but he can work out why. One of his fangs was really loose and wobbly before it finally came out yesterday and he was so subdued all day it must have been really bugging him. We were getting really worried about him as he wasn't chewing his toys and he hardly ate anything, he was just really not himself at all. Once it finally came out though he was straight back to his normal mischievous self!I was trying to get some up to date photos of Max and Ellie thought she'd come and help.
Not sure if she was a help or another distraction for him but I got a couple of photos of nice photos of the two of them before....
...Max found my camera strap!!!!!!! Lol!

Ball of Fluff

I have been trying to take some photos of Max our new puppy who is now 16 weeks old. The problem is he is such a ball of fluff that it's really difficult to take photos of him without him just looking like... well... a ball of fluff! Here are my best efforts.

I think his face could do with a bit of a trim so you can see his eyes. That would help a lot! Lol!

Four Becomes Five!

I'd like to introduce you to the newest member of our family. This little ball of fluff is called "Max" and he will be 12 weeks old tomorrow.

Max is half Cocker Spaniel (Mum) and half Toy Poodle (Dad) which unfortunately makes him a "Cockapoo" but he is a real sweetheart and very good natured and best of all he doesn't shed which has meant that so far he hasn't triggered Peej's allergies off.

He's only allowed in the garden at the moment as he's only just had his last injection but that's good because it means he's getting used to the sounds of cars going past without seeing them so hopefully when he does get both together it won't be such a big deal.
The kids both love him to bits although Josh was a little unsure at first he's really come round to him now. I think once Max calms down a little and gets past his chewing phase he is going to be a fantastic addition to the family, not that he isn't already but you know what I mean!