25 Days of Christmas: Day 17

Happy National Maple Syrup Day!

You know I couldn't let that pass by without doing something for little Maple!  Conveniently, her half-"gotcha"-day was yesterday, so we wrapped that all into one special treat for tonight ;)

I found this recipe for homemade dog treats with Maple Syrup in them online, and couldn't wait to make them for Maple.  While making them, I did get concerned that she wouldn't even like them after all the time spent making them, but she did, so...success!

They're very easy to make.  A little messy, but very easy.

And here ya go...Maple's Christmas cookies for National Maple Syrup Day and her half-"gotcha"-day!! We love you Maple!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of whole wheat flour
• 3 tbsp of ground flaxseed
• 1 tsp of cinnamon
• 1/2 cup of natural peanut butter
• 1 medium ripe banana, mashed
• 2 Omega-3 eggs
• 1/4 cup pure maple syrup

Directions:

1. Preheat the over to 300 degrees.

2. Combine flour, flaxseed and cinnamon in a medium bowl.

3. Whisk together the peanut butter, eggs and maple syrup until smooth.  Add dry ingredients and mix well.

4. Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to about 1/4-inch thickness.

Y'all remember our "rolling pin" right? haha

 

5. Cut cookies with cookie cutters and place onto a large cookie sheet.

6. Bake for 30 minutes.

Cookies can be stored in the fridge in an airtight container.  They can also be frozen and saved for later.

Maple's excited!

 

I'll take that gingerbread man please.

 

He didn't stand a chance..

25 Days of Christmas: Day 4

I know it's only the 4th day, but this is the most fun post so far! haha. I have been looking forward to this activity since I first saw it on Pinterest! Now, I'm glad to finally share it!

It's no secret that we love our Maple! She's very loved, and quite the snuggle bug. I can't wait for Santa Paws to come visit her this year ;)  So, when I saw this paw print ornament idea on Pinterest, I knew instantly that we needed to do it!  Just the process itself of getting her to cooperate made it more enjoyable! Plus, homemade, DIY ornaments are fun keepsakes to have!

These ornaments are super easy to make--just 3 ingredients. GETTING the paw print is the hard part!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of flour
• 1/2 cup of salt
• 1/2 cup of water

Directions

1.  Preheat over to 200°.  Combine flour, salt and water in a large bowl.

2. Flip out onto a well floured surface and knead with your hands for a few minutes until the dough is smooth.

 

3. Roll dough out until it is 1/4-1/2 inch thick. Hey, when you don't have a rolling pin...you use whatcha got!

 

4. So, the exact directions said to roll it out, cut out a circle, make the paw print and then put the dough on the cookie sheet lined with wax paper or aluminum foil.  Well, we did it the easier way. We put WHAT LITTLE BIT of aluminum foil (or wax paper) we even had left on the cookie sheet, and rolled the dough out on it. Rolling it out and then transferring it was too difficult to make sure it didn't start to come apart.

5. Then, get your paw prints :)

Poor baby had no idea what we were doing....but she enjoyed all the animal crackers she got for being such a good girl :)

 

And here's what we got! BUT, when we took a glass to cut circles around each paw print, it distorted the paw prints :(  And those were the two best ones we ended up getting :(

So, Plan B. Roll out the dough and cut our the circles first! Then repeat the whole process of getting your paw prints and giving the doggy animal crackers.

 

6. Once you have your paw prints, use a straw to cut a hole at the top of each ornament. 

7. Bake for 2 hours.

And here are our finished ornaments!

They turned out pretty well, but I think we are going to re-do them and try to press her paw into the dough more so you can see the impression better. More animal crackers coming for Maple!

Original Source

Saturday Morning with Maple

This morning, Matt and I went running at Dorey Park, but we didn't stay long before going back home and picking up our sweet Maple!  We've been wanting to take her to the dog park and today seemed like it'd be a good day. Unfortunately, there were several dogs there when we got back, and Maple is always iffy around new dogs at first, so we ended up not going in the dog park area and walked around in the field instead. She still had a great time!

Maple isn't too fond of car rides when she isn't in her kennel.

 

Hey you guys, what is this air blowing on me?! I've never liked this before!

 

I love how cute this picture is...she was just resting her head on his seat.

 

We sat in the parking lot in front of the dog park for a little bit, waiting and hoping that some people would leave with their dogs, but no such luck. Maple kept watching and whining the whole time because she wanted to play so badly, but she forgets how she acts around new dogs, haha. She was all over the front seats like, "let me out! I want to plaaaay!!"

 

"Come on, deddy, can't we go yet????"

 

Finally time to walk around..

 

And here's proof of our dog part dingo/kangaroo/jumping bean.

This is an everyday occurrence. haha.

 

A Day in the Life of Maple

Mornings are sometimes ruff.

I usually wake up twice: once around 4:00 am with deddy (this is how we say DADDY for all you northerners). Then again about two hours later when I wake up momma. I use to wake up at exactly 6:37 am every day, but I will now wake up anywhere between 5:30 and 6:30 now.

I wake momma up by moving around on the bed and pawing at her (gently, most of the times) as if I'm saying, "momma, wake up and play with me!" Sometimes, she convinces me to lay down for a few more minutes, but then she can tell I just really need to go, so I hear my favorite words: "wanna go ou'side?" I LOVE to go outside to I start prancing around the bed room, jumping around waiting for momma to get up.

After that, I then eat breakfast, and then I pretty much have a very relaxed day: I love to lay around and gnaw on my toys. I'm not like my cousin, Annie...I don't destroy toys within 5 minutes of having them :)

Or momma will do something weird like this for me before she leaves.. (she thinks it's funny. I, on the other hand, don't see anything funny at all).

Sometimes, I play weird games with momma.

Like when she was moving my bed from the bedroom back into the den, I kept getting back in it and laying down so she couldn't move it.

Or, I'll try to sneak away, get back in bed, and hide in the covers.

 

One of momma's favorite things about me is my ears...aren't they cute??

I seriously just LOVE to snuggle up with my people!

 I love when deddy gets home and I can play with him!

When we're all home in the evening, I find some way to snuggle up with everyone, no matter how little space there is left on the sofa.

At night, most times I'm very content sleeping on the bed....

...but other times, I'm deliriously tired and keep momma and deddy laughing when I'd rather sleep on a pile of dirty clothes that momma didn't get to...

Oh! And I've been to the river twice and made some new doggy friends!! Do you want to see some of those pictures? Let my momma know and will get started on that blog to show you all the fun I had! :)