Lazy Sunday!

Not much going on during this crisp January Sunday.  Gma and Gpa were coming up for lunch today so Kelsey treated us to some vegetarian spinach lasagna.  It was very good!  We had lasagna and then watched movies.  Pretty low key and relaxing.  Of course, I'm constantly doing laundry on the weekends so I got in a few loads too.  :-)

We weighed Ava this morning.  Whopping 43 pounds now at 11 weeks old.  She's almost too much for me to pick up now but I did manage to get her hiked up one last time for a picture.

We did get a little practicing in today too.  Ava is such a wiggle worm, she has a hard time keeping her feet where they need to be but she's getting better.  It will just take a bit longer but she's getting the hang of it.  She doesn't chew up my fingers quite so bad anymore so we are getting there.  She's been working on walking on a leash trying to get the hang of that as well.  Gotta get that mastered before she gets too much bigger.  :-)  She really stretched up this last week and got a few inches taller.  Amazing how fast a Mastiff grows!

ants in pants!

Lookin Good!

House breaking is going great for Ava!  She hasn't had an accident for probably a week now!  She picked that up really fast.  I can't lie...  Dora and Apple help a lot in house breaking a new puppy.

I'm a big girl!  No accidents here!  :-)

Some exciting news!  Molly is coming into heat so we could be looking at a litter of Mastiffs in Mid April.  Timing is going to be kind of tough.  Mid April we are looking at taking Oscar to Ohio and Ava starts showing Mid May so it's gonna be a busy couple of months if we are lucky enough to have some puppies!

Rasmus and Molly

Hope your weekend was good.  See ya when I see ya!

1 - 2 - 3 - pinned!

Had some wrestling going on from the kitchen a couple of nights ago....  Looks like Ava came out on top!  She's about 12 weeks now and 40 lbs and all girl!!  Oscar doesn't stand a chance!  :-)

Get her off!  Get her off! I give up!

Apple chose to avoid all of the action like normal and spend some quality time with Kelsey while she was home. 

Ahhh....  sofa....

Absolutely Nothing!!!

Well, it was a busy weekend!  We did this....

zzzzzzz......

And this....

zzzzzzzz........

And this...

zzzzzzzz.........

In other words...  we did absolutely nothing and it was fabulous!

We are uptown now!!

Boy are we getting fancy and high falootin!  Check out the ramp Mike just bought for Oscar.  I've been having difficulty getting Oscar into the vehicle when Mike is not around since Oscar weighs 60 lbs more than I do now.  Oscar will get his front feet in but then gets stuck so when I try to push him in, he would sit on my shoulder while I tried to put the grunt on him and push him in.  Yeah, it wasn't working anymore so Mike took mercy on me and bought a ramp!  We practiced and it went just fantastic!  Oscar thought it was pretty cool!

In!

And out!  :-)

Oscar was all ready to go for another ride.  Unfortunately we weren't going anywhere so he's gotta settle for going in the house and playing with his precious.  :-)  The baby Ava! 

Mine!  No Mine!

Take this!  No!  You take this!

Baby Ava got in a little practice time as well.  She sure is a wiggler.  It's tough to get her to stand still.  She's got ants in her pants!

Agh!!  Just stand still!!

But eventually we did get to stand still just for a milli-second!  But not too long though!!

Only for a milli-second mother and only if the treat is good!

She's my Cutie!!  Cutie Patootie!!  :-)

I Love you!  I love you too!!

And then it's back to the kitchen to cause trouble!  :-)

What can I chew on now??!!

Thank goodness for friends!

Since my last dog show was such a bust with Oscar not liking the judge, I've been a little nervous with how he was going to handle the next one in a few weeks.  I've been stressing it so I asked my friend Mark to help me out and see if we could work with Oscar a little bit.  We met at Mom and Dad's house.  I thought it would be good to be in a different place and not home where Oscar is comfortable.  Mark was dog show judge for a day.  He did great.  I think maybe there's a new career there somewhere but he'll have to invest in a suit coat!  ha ha!
Oscar actually did great too.  He didn't even flinch and stood like a champ.  I'm feeling a whole lot better about the show now.  I think we will be fine. 

It's fun to take the dogs and run to Mom and Dad's.  But Lola tuckered out and took a nice long nappy nap.

zzzzzzzz

Oscar decided he needed to lay down next to his baby and keep her company.  Awww.. So cute!

But on the way home, Oscar was tuckered out himself with all the dog show practice!

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

While we were down in Quimby visiting Mom and Dad, Lola was out enjoying the beautiful day with Molly and Rasmus. 

Rasmus, Molly, and Lola

Daughters are wonderful!

I miss them so much!  They are so much better than I ever was....

Mini Me!

Ava has been here a week now and she's already pushing poor Oscar around.  At first I was a little nervous that Oscar would be too rough on her but not true!  Baby Ava picks on Oscar mercilessly..  I think she looks just like him except maybe her coat is a little different texture.  But as far as size, she's sticking right with him.  She's 32 lbs now..  Solid!  I think I pulled a rear end muscle picking her up this week!

Mini Me!!

So Oscar and Ava spend a lot of time wearing each other out.  That's okay.  It looks pretty fierce but it's really pretty tame.  Most the time Oscar comes out on the short end of the stick!  He is very gentle with her.

Chomp!!

Who's gonna be the winner here??  Ava is!

Ava and Dora gang up on poor Oscar!!

Oscar hasn't been burning all his energy with just Ava either.  Oscar has been lucky enough to have Lola, one of our previous puppies staying here.  Yep, we've been babysitting.  Oscar and Lola have been spending the last three days romping out in his lot.  Here you can see them playing tug o war!  It's pretty comical to watch.  :-)  Lola has really grown into a beautiful fawn mastiff.  We've enjoyed having her here for a few days.

Mine!  No, Mine!

Ava also did a little practicing this week.  She's not catching on quite as quick as Oscar did but heck she's only 9 weeks old.  We'll get there!

Pretty Girl!

Ava and Oscar both got baths late this afternoon.  We are gonna go visit Gpa Jack and Gma Helen tomorrow.  Oscar is gonna do some practicing for our next dog show in February! 

Sorry Ma am' No puppies on this flight...

Well, if you are wanting to make me mad, I did find out that quote will do the trick!  What do you *&#@ mean there are no puppies on that ^*#@&* flight??  ha ha.  Yes, it was a moment of high tension but then found out our helper was looking on the wrong air flight...  Then we all relaxed a little as they went out to find poor little baby Ava out in the warehouse somewhere.  Finally we got our little pumpkin.  Poor thing had been in that crate since morning.  She flew from Ohio to Detroit to Des Moines where we picked her up.  Ava weighs in at a whopping 25 lbs at 8 weeks old!  Good thing we flew her now, she might bypass the weight limit if we had waited much longer.  ha ha!

I don't know you lady but I'll smile at you anyway!!  :-)

Tell you what, Ava hit the ground running when we got home.  She never missed a beat and soon was ruler of the kitchen.  Apple and Dora again thanked me with their glares for bringing home another annoying puppy to house break..  But seriously, Apple and Dora do such a fantastic job helping house break the puppies it really is amazing!!  Puppies just get the whole process faster by observing.  I'm not kidding you.

I think I'm the new queen of this place....

This place is strange!

I need an eye lid tuck!

Sunday we got busy and did some practicing already.  Yep, those razor sharp baby teeth are just like I remember.  Painful!!  But we will only get better.  Here she is, our future champion!! Whoop!  :-)

Ouch my fingers!

Getting to know my new mom...  I don't know about her yet.  She looks kinda mean!

I can't believe this mammoth used to be this small....

Baby Ava!

Here she is!  My Christmas present and 2012 show dog.  Her registered name will be Midknight's Madeleine but her kennel name is Ava.  Kasey liked that name so Ava it is.  Ava was born on November 10, 2011.  She comes from Midknight Mastiffs the same kennal that Oscar came from.

Last Thursday we finally got the news she passed all her health tests so Ava is ours!  She will be arriving on Friday January 6th, flying into the Des Moines airport.

Look at that beautiful mask!  I'm so excited to start working with Ava and take her to some shows.  She will be old enough to hit the circuit in May so watch out other Mastiffs!  Ava has arrived to kick your hiney!  Ava comes from two championed mastiffs in Ohio.
I know I said I wasn't going to dog show this winter but I just can't take it.  There's a dog show mid February in Des Moines so I think Oscar and I are going to catch that one.  Once more show before Oscar heads to Ohio for the summer.  :-)  I'll sure miss my little boy but I'm sure I'll be busy with Ava.
Catch ya next weekend!

Who's the Birthday Boy!! Oscar is!

The day is finally here!  Oscar's first birthday.  Where has the time gone!  Oscar was king for the day!! (Mike says "how's that different from any other day?")  Okay...  good point I guess.  Anyway, we started his birthday with a trip to the spa.  What a great way to start your birthday!  He was so relaxed he did drool a little but don't tell anyone.  We don't want to embarrass him.  :-)

Ahh, come on in, the water is fine.  Pool is small but water is fine!

Then Oscar got a back massage and yes, a big smooch from his masseuse. 

I love you!

lower...  little to the right!!

After the relaxing morning at the Spa..  The cook decided it was time to start on Oscar's special meat loaf "birthday cake".  So I got out my secret recipe and got started while Oscar watched.  So you are wondering what my secret recipe is..  It's a secret because I don't even know it.  Yep, I usually just make it up as I go so it's always a surprise at the end!  A surprise if it works out that is.  ha ha!! 

Cmon!!  Get cookin already!!

Finally the cake/loaf was ready to go into the oven.  :-)  Oscar was happy yet sad because he didn't think he could wait any longer!!

How long did you say it would take Mom?  Is it done yet??

Finally the cake loaf was done!!  And it's a beauty!  Okay so I did have a little bit of trouble with Oscar's name.  I ran out of room for the R so it's on the third line.  Hey, ever tried writing with ketchup??  Didn't think so..  It's not as easy as it looks..

gimmi my loaf cake, gimmi my loaf cake!!

 The loaf cake was actually quite tasty along with the mashed potatoes.  Oscar was so excited.  He got a little mashed potatoes on top too just like frosting!  Yum!  I made him wear his new hat for this special occasion!  But the hat didn't last too long as Oscar was concentrating more on his birthday meatloaf cake.

The mashed potato frosting is delicious!

Gulp!  Oops..  did I eat the candle?

 After his delicious birthday lunch, I wanted to take a few pics of Oscar at one year old.  So lucky Mike got to take pictures of us AND watch the Vikings hopefully get beat all at the same time! 

Mom, you are choking me!  The reach was never this far before!

What a handsome birthday boy!!

Oscar has changed so much in the last year.  It's amazing how fast a mastiff will grow.  When I look back at some of his baby pictures, it really just blows my mind how big he is now compared to when he first came home.

Pretend dog show!

Ahh..  I remember when my fingers were bloody stumps from Oscar's razor like baby teeth.  I'm soooo glad he has learned the art of nibbling instead of gnawing like he used to.  :-)
And that pretty much brings the birthday excitement to a close.  Everyone is sleeping now but me.  It's a windy blustery cold first day of January.  Good day to be sitting inside celebrating my little boy's birthday!  :-)  Happy New Year!