Furry Friday

So as I posted earlier this week, my lil Toby turned 8!

Happy Pup on my wedding day. =)

Given his endless supply of toys, I decided to bake him a cake from scratch!  Off to Pinterest I went, and after checking out a few of the many recipes, I settled on this one. 

On my was home from work Monday I stopped to get the ingredients to bake it the night before his birthday. Unfortunately (or not really) the AC repair man decided to stop by a few days earlier than expected since he was in the area so that took up a chunk of our evening since he showed up around 6pm. So, no baking happened, but our AC got fixed! :)

Once I got home from work Tuesday, I went for a nice 2 mile run and then returned to start baking. It was a really straightforward recipe...and I took pics of the process. 

All of my ingredients!

I even used the Mandolin to shred the carrot!

Yay for tiny spatulas for sticky stuff!

It's all in and ready to be mixed!

Eh - it smelled better than it looks...lol

Into the oven!

With the cake in the oven, I jumped in the shower and had dinner for myself before the waiting game began. I ended up cooking it just under an hour (recipe said 40 minutes) as the top of the cake was super soft. Things also just cook weird here at altitude...

Then I had to let the cake cool before I could add the cream cheese "frosting" and decor.  I (and I'm sure Toby) was starting to get impatient!

cool down time.

I finally gave in to the fact it was ever going to get super firm and the cream cheese wasn't going to get soft enough so I went to work and Toby finally got his cake around 10pm. ;)

I decided to add some shredded carrots on top for some extra color.

Happy Birthday Toby!

I had to get a picture with him and his cake, but in true Toby quirky style, he was afraid of the dish...so he didn't want it close to him, regardless of the yummy peanut butter smell. Haha

Can you tell he's uncomfortable here? lol

Of course now he's not scared...

Piece 1 of 2 for the evening. ;)

Overall it was quite a success and he's gotten to have some each night this week...the party just keeps going! :)  I think I'd definitely try making something for him again in the future, it was fun to do and I know he liked it.

Have you ever baked for your pet?

Wordless Wednesday

Yesterday may have been his birthday...but I'm the one who got the best gift in the mail! #newrunningsneaks

Happy Birthday Toby!!

Can't believe you came into the world 8 years ago!  You will forever be my pupcake. <3

Furry Friday

My cuddle muffin and his new favorite toy. <3 <3 <3

Furry Friday

I am going to miss this lil nugget while soakin' up the sun next week...

Furry Friday

Toby lost in though over his assortment of toys surrounding him... ;)

Furry Friday

A funny thing happened in our home Tuesday evening.  Toby went on a hunt!  He was on the hunt for a specific toy, which unfortuntely was burried in a toy basket.  I must confess, over the course of being Toby's owner/mom I have used any excuse possible to buy him a new toy, typically of the stuffed variety.  Christmas, obvious!  Running into the store to buy some treats, sure!  Browsing an online dog boutique, yes!  Birthday, well duh!  ...you get the point.  I understand it may seem a bit oh, excessive, lol but I love him and gladly spoil him.

While he has a main little toy bin of his favorites in our family room, he has an overflow basket behind our main couch that he will occationally pull things out of, but this night he had his sights set on getting that darn floppy moose!  He proceeded to drag his toy basket from behind the couch - tugging on the leg of said moose - and refused to give up on getting his prize.  I did actually video tape this for my own amusement, because well - I love him and his funny quirks!   

He did eventually dig it out play with it for a hot second - seriously, for all that work you'd think he'd be playing with it for the rest of the evening - but he was over it and went back to one of his usual favs within a few minutes.  Below is a little timeline of events. ;)

My first inkling of what was up...

Still tugging on to the rug...

Starting to take other toys out to get to the goods...so many to choose from!

The moose has been captured!  Play time!

Look what I did mom! <3

Does your pet do anything crazy?  Do you shower your pet with gifts? haha

Furry Friday

In some down time at work this week (shhh don't tell!) I started clearing out my gmail inbox account. I have had this account since I graduated college aka when my college email account was going to die aka I needed a professional email to apply to jobs...so needless to say it's um, robust. Haha. I have been putting this task off for some time, but with nothing better to do I figured, why not?!

I also have the darnedest time with unread emails for a variety of reasons, so I had been hovering in the 800s even after deleting my daily junk (aka shopping/fashion/news/ads/JUNK, etc) for some time slowly working my way down the hundreds as if go through some more recent stuff. 

Today, however I am now hovering in the 200s (!!!!!) which is pretty huge for me (and I could still do a bit more clearing.) 

One of my older emails is dated July 31, 2007 to my mom titled "Puppies!" - so I had to see what that was about. (Mind you, I came across emails as old as 2010 of dogs I liked on Petfinder that I would share with myself...as I'm always on the search for a companion for Toby. Unfortunately, others don't agree. lol)

Needless to say my day was MADE finding this treasure of a photo...Toby and his 3 litter mates. :)

This was taken on my *gasp* Blackberry Curve (I did enjoy that phone, it was fab for 2007) and I am so grateful to have it to snap this pic. 

I often wonder who got his siblings (we almost walked away with Toby AND his sister) and what they're up to today. I wonder if they have any of the same crazy Toby traits, or if I actually causes them. lol. I wonder if they're all still in PA or if they too got moved across the U.S. for a change of scenery. 

Regardless, I love my lil muffin and cannot believe he's going to be 8 this year!  He will forever have a (very large) piece of my heart. <3

Do you ever think about your pets parents or siblings...or am I just crazy? ;)

Week in Review

Ok sooo I need to get back into my weekly roundups of work outs...now that the hubs is all about getting fit for himself (hello 2015!) it's a little easier for me. 

Last week I did 2 days of the 10 minute trainer workout program, something that's husband has and wanted to get back into. We ended up doing 2 different videos so it was roughly half an hour each day with the warm up and cool down.

All in all, I think it's a good series and is a quick way to get the job done, so that was a plus. It also reminded me of when I did Jillian Michael's 30 day shred last fall and what a great series THAT is. So, that will probably be coming back into the mix. 

I also retuned, for one night, to the gym to run on my beloved treadmill. :P It was....rough. Haha I just decided to take it easy in walking a quicker pace and running. I did just over 2 miles in about 35 minutes so it was something. 

Now that I'm a Coloradian, it was a warm weekend in the 60s (today was even warmer!  Too bad for working inside...) so I knew I wanted to do something outdoorsy.  My thoughts are with those back on the East Coast though...I'll be missing out on that snow day tomorrow!

Yesterday we took Toby out for a nice stroll and got to get him off leash and play some fetch at the field at the high school by out place. After some running fun, we walked to Petco to try out their self serve bathing station - that was an experience for ALL of us. Haha

Toby was not the biggest fan (I'm use to bathing him inbetween grooming appointments in a jacuzzi tub so this was very new!) but we made the best of it and he was showered in treats once he survived.  We then walked back home, so we had a nice active Sunday morning. 

With the hubs traveling the beginning of this week I plan to stick with it and stay active!

How have your 2015 active plans been going?

Furry Friday

 

My snowy cuddle bug. :)

Furry Friday

Today I'm jetting off for a quickie trip to Disney, where I will be drinking around the world in Epcot tomorrow with friends and flying back home Sunday morning. 

I.Can't.Wait!

In the meantime, please enjoy Toby's annual picture with Santa!

Every year since I've had him (7 crazy years!) we have visited at least one Santa during the Christmas season. It was originally a local pet store chain, Cutter's Mill, that did it with Polaroids - but then became Petsmart. One year I even took him to King of Prussia Mall and he got to meet a REAL Santa in a fancy mall. That is probably the best photo I have...but the tradition of going to Petsmart and getting some random guy (and one year it was a woman) dressed up like St. Nick has a certain charm to it. 

In addition, Toby always gets some new Christmas accessory to wear for the photo. This year, The hubs picked out a cute Santa harness for him. :)

Fun times in the car!

This year we went to our neighborhood Petmart here in the Denver area and they DIDN'T have a Santa!  Even though they advertised it, they only had options with a background filler...like Olaf from Frozen. Sorry, that is not my tradition!  

Luckily, we went down the road to Petco and they DID have a Santa and all was right in my Christmas tradition. I'm use to showing up at these events with lines of other customers and dogs and it's a chaotic situation. We were the only ones there, and they gave us awesome customer service to get the best pic possible (Toby was not thrilled being held by a stranger). 

Merry Christmas from Toby - 2014

I guess people here aren't as excited to have their pooches photo with Santa as they are in PA. That's ok though, tradition complete! ;)

Do you do anything fun with your pets for the holidays?