Happy New Year!!

JD - We've been meaning to do this post for a few days now...

Max - ....but FH went and got something called 'flew' and O-M-D the FUSS she's been making!

JD - We'd have thought she would like having this 'flew' thing and would enjoy being able to float around and fly here and there, but ALL she's been doing is moaning and whinging and lying in bed - she's SO lazy!

Max - So we've been having fun with MH - all boys together! He's been taking us on our daily walkies and has been giving us our food and has been really generous with our treats....

JD - ....and now we're starting to wonder what it is that we actually need FH for - he he he!

JD gives one of his new Christmas stuffies a piggy back ride!

Max - But now we know! FH is getting better and is now out of bed and now WE'RE poorly with very bad tummies! Me especially - I've been barfing for a whole day now....bleurgh!

JD - Well, I'VE been a bit icky too - bleurgh!

Max - So now we're glad we've got FH back in action as, you know, she's REALLY good at clearing up after us, much better than MH apparently - well, according to us and MH anyway!

JD - So you see FH, we really HAVE missed you and we think we did well to hold off being poorly ourselves until you were well enough to take care of us - we're good like that!

Max - Anyway, we're finally going to show you a video of us opening the Christmas pressie that we got from FH and MH - we apologise in advance for FH's constant squeaking during it!

JD - And yes, you DID notice correctly that our pressie was wrapped in newspaper! We so enjoy tearing the wrappings off a gift that FH and MH now just wrap the majority of our pressies in newspaper - they claim they're saving the planet....

Max - ....but we know they're just tight, he he he!

JD - But regardless of our stingy humans we LOVE our new giant octopus - he's fab and REAL fun and VERY noisy. FH didn't realise quite HOW noisy he was when she got him for us - ha!

We show off Olly - he is totally COOL!

Max - However, even our fabulous new giant stuffie wasn't our main Christmas pressie!

JD - We're still so excited that we can hardly begin to tell you what it was that we got for Christmas!

Max - You see, our gift was the culmination of 2 years hard graft!

JD - Yes indeedy! After 2 years of living with our humans, of training them on a daily basis, of constant tutoring and patient guidance we have finally - FINALLY - got our humans well behaved enough to allow them to sleep in the same room as us!

Max - This is something we've been wanting to do since we first arrived here on the 19th December 2008, but we knew that the humans were FAR from ready!

JD - It has been a labour of love but they finally got there - we never lost hope!

FH - I'd just like to say that I've wanted the boys to sleep in the same room as us for a while but it's taken us a long time to get the house suitable as well as getting the boys comfortable enough with it. JD likes to sleep in his bed by the side of our bed - I now often wake up to JD staring at me - he's a good boy and waits for permission to hop up on the bed for a cuddle. Max likes to sleep at the foot of the bed draped across any convenient foot, which is especially nice at this cold time of year! Before they were allowed in the bedroom I'd been getting up at 5.30 am every single day as they used to make such a racket at that time . I now realise I have a couple of dogs who are very happy to sleep in and on Christmas Day I was treated to a lie-in until 8.00 am which was absolutely wonderful! So I'm pretty over the moon about this situation too!

Max - Okay FH, enough of the 'blah blah' - this is OUR blog we think you'll find!

No real reason for this photo except that FH really likes it - and we think our tails look pretty nifty too!

JD - We hope that everyone had a happy new year! Unfortunately FH was too poorly to enjoy it and says that we're going to celebrate next weekend instead!

Max - We think that means she's going to open some bubbly and wear something other than sweats with dog-slobber on....

JD - ....which means she'll expect us to be on our best behaviour - sigh!!

Images (and a few words!) of Christmas 2010

JD - Hi all - we hope you've had as fun a Christmas as we have!

Max - Here are some snaps of what we've been up to over the past few days....

All shook up! A new Elvis squeaky chicken from our blog sweetheart Sasha!

Plus a cool squeaky Roo - he's a tough little fella and has resisted our chewing thus far!

December 2010 has been the coldest in the UK since records began in 1910! We wanted a drink from a water trough whilst out on our Christmas Eve walk and FH managed to heave the top lump of ice off it for us to have a slurp from the cool, unfrozen stuff underneath. Here's JD posing with the ice!

Max ambles alongside the frozen river!

JD totally freaks FH out by walking on the frozen river - she was squawking and shrieking at him to 'get off NOW!' (The odd box thing you can see in the river is a hide for otters - don't forget, we walk at a nature reserve!)

Our advent calendars!

Us waiting for a nom from our advent calendars!

We open a Christmas pressie - ripping the paper off is great fun!

FH tortures us by making us wait to open a pressie from our great pal Syd, a rescue greyhound!

The torture continues as FH makes us pose with our fab new stuffies from Syd!

At last - let the playing commence!

Beach sunrise, Boxing Day morning

A well earned rest after so much excitement!

JD - And we haven't even showed you what MH and FH got us yet - can you guess what we got?!

Max - We can't wait to show you - it's JUST what we wanted!

Amazing pressies from our best pal Gus!

JD - We have had SUCH a fun few days!

Max - It all started when our neighbours brought round a parcel they had taken in for us. They were very apologetic as they'd had it for nearly a week!!

JD - But the main thing was that we finally got it! Gosh, we were SO excited when we saw our names on it - who could it be from?!

Max - *Sniff! Sniff!* "This smells schnauzer-ish JD, I think it's from one of our blog pals!"
JD - "Oh wow, oh wow, OH WOW!"

Max - We opened the parcel and immediately pulled out a note! It was from Gus, our great and extremely handsome black schnauzer pal from across that big pond thingy!

JD - He explained that his FH had made some gifts especially for our FH and that he had paw-picked some gifts especially for us. Well, we were beside ourselves!

JD - "Oooh, doesn't Gus have wonderful paw-writing Max?!"
Max - "He's obviously a pup of many talents JD!"

Max - The first item we pulled out of the parcel was a bag of noms!

JD - Milk bone biccie noms - they smelled GOOD!

"Open, open, OPEN!!"

JD - "NOM!"
Max - "I want one, I want one, I WANT ONE!"

Max - "At last - NOM!"
JD - "Best just check for crumbs....!"

Max - FH always rations any new noms - sigh, she's SO militant!

JD - So we turned our attention to the next wonderful item out of the parcel - a new stuffie each!

JD - "FH gave me the goose that she said matched my collar!"

Max - "Ooh, ooh! JD, JD!! The geese squeak! They do, they really do! Go on, press it with your nose, it's really fun!"

Max - "Um, I think you'll find you've got MY goose there bro' - hand it over!!"

Max - "Grumble! I'm taking MY goose off the sofa so JD doesn't try to STEAL it again - humph!"

Max - There was also a new doggie tennis ball in the parcel for us!

Max - "S'alright JD - I'm QUITE happy to try the ball out for you. No no - no need to thank me!"

Max - "Surrounded by our new goodies - now THIS is living!"

JD - We told FH we were more than happy to check out her gifts too - we're kind like that!

JD - "Oooh, cool bag FH! Did you put our milk bones in here - hang on, just let me double-check....!"

Max - Look at this cute bag that Gus's FH made for our FH! FH can't even sew a button on straight so she's so impressed at how talented Gus's human is!

One side of the bag with a cute button and bow detail!

Max - "Here's me enhancing the button detail!"

The other side of the bag with a cute black doggie and bone detail!

Max - "And here's me enhancing the cute doggie and bone detail too, he he he!"

This detail proves that we have a 'Designer Gus' exclusive product! The black doggie with the red bow is so cute and look - Gus even had the bone engraved with the message 'best friend'! That Gus - he's SO cool! He's the best pal a couple of doggies could have!

Max - Gus's FH also made a cosmetic bag with some cute doggie material!

A close-up of the cute doggie material!

Max - "Eh? What do you mean it's a cosmetic bag and NOT a new toy for me? FH - you're such a spoilsport!"

JD - There was a also a glasses case made from doggie paw-print material!

You can't blame US for THESE pawprints FH, he he he!

Max - And finally Gus's FH had made our FH a really sweet tissue holder out of some really cool 'Java' material.

JD - It has a tie-up front and Gus's FH has suggested that we could also use this to keep our noms safe when we go out - we think this is an EXCELLENT idea!

JD - "Isn't the design brilliant?! I especially love the idea of this holding our noms in the future....!"

Max - We were thrilled to receive such wonderful gifts from Gus and his FH. Thank you so, SO much! We've been having so much fun with our new toys and FH has been showing off her new items to everyone!

JD - Yup, she's taken her new bag nearly everywhere with her since she got it, she absolutely loves it! Thank you SO much!

JD - "We're so pleased we get to have our photo taken with handsome Gus!"
Max - "Gus - thank you so much for ALL our goodies! You ROCK!"

Amazing pressies from our pal Lily!

JD - Hi everyone - oooh, we've had the most exciting day!

Max - We sure have! I've informed FH that I now expect EVERY day to be like today, he he he!

JD - You see, when we set off for our morning walk we found that our beautiful GSD pal Lily had left not one but TWO parcels of 'get well soon' goodies in our porch for me!

Lily - isn't she a beautiful girl?

Max - Lily is a good pal of ours - we often get to play with her at the nature reserve. Actually, I have to confess that I'm just a tiny bit nervous of Lily - she's very good natured and she loves to play, but she does have an extremely loud bark which makes my tail droop a bit! (Admittedly, whenever my tail droops her humans really, really fuss me, so - um - sometimes I'll droop my tail JUST to get attention and sweeties from them - it works every time, he he he!)

Group hug!!

JD - Lily is such a sweetie! Whenever I see her I go ZOOMING over to her to say hello! Lily loves to play zoomies and bitey face and she's taught me how to carry out a really effective neck-grab - I use this move on Max all time now, he he he!

Lily - "There's a really good sniff right about HERE JD......"
JD - ".....I'm right behind you Lily!"

Max - FH wouldn't let us open the parcels until we got back from our walk - she's such a spoilsport!

JD - So during our walk we speculated on what goodies the parcels might contain! We know that Lily is a very discerning young lady who likes to have fun, so we knew that whatever she had chosen for us would be wonderful!

Max - We dived straight in as soon as we got home!

Max - "Oh wow, this one smells AMAZING JD!"
JD - "This one's really squidgy Max - I reckon there's a really cool stuffie in here!"

JD - "*Sniff! Sniff!* Wow - you were right Max, we've gotta get into this pack, it smells divine!"

JD - "Hey, FH! Yes, you with the flashy box! Enough of the 'snap snap' already - put those opposable thumbs of yours into use and OPEN THESE PARCELS for us already!!"

JD - "Oh, oh, oh! I was right - it's a really cool stuffie!"
Max - "I wannit, I wannit, I wannit! FH, FH - can I havit?!!"

JD - "I think you'll find it's MY stuffie Max - I'm the puppy with the poorly paw!"

Max - "But it's SUCH a cool stuffie JD! There's a big squeaker in the octopus's body and separate squeakers at the end of each leg AND each of the legs makes that fun 'scrunchy' noise that I really, really like....!"

JD - "Sigh!! Okay Max, we can share the stuffie!"

JD - "As long as you remember that it's really MINE, bwahahahaha!!"

JD - The first parcel we opened had an amazing octopus stuffie in it! It has loads of squeakers in it and the legs also make a fun 'scrunchy' sound - I absolutely love it. And so does my brother - sigh.....!

Max - Oooh, this stuffie is amazing! I've already named him Olly and I've introduced Olly to my favourite squeaky chicken and I also offered him my squeaky donut and my crinkly-stuffie-bag of smokey barkon crisps in case he was hungry - I really wanted Olly to feel at home!

JD - Talking of feeling hungry the other parcel from Lily was full - and I do mean FULL - of super yummy noms!

Max - But our mean FH is rationing everything - she's such a spoilsport!

JD - Yeah! Don't you realise I'm ILL FH? I need sustanance!!

FH - Don't push your luck JD! Hey, and don't roll your eyes at me either - I SAW that!!

Max - I was delighted to see my name on the parcel too - Lily and her humans are so kind and generous! Just LOOK at all these goodies!

A bag of tasty mini-bones, some yummy Schmakos, a hot-dog treat each and a cute little treat crocodile each too! (The crocodiles have already been nommed - they were so YUM!! JD's tail was even wagging whilst he was eating his - he LOVED it!)

JD - We can't thank you enough Lily and your humans! We can't wait to see you in pupson so we can give you all a huge schnauzer snuggle each as a thank you!

Max - Oh yes, I can't wait to give everyone a HUGE wet-nosed kiss - I know how much the humans love that, he he he!

JD - Lily doesn't blog, so if you'd like to let her know how pretty she is and how generous she is please leave a comment here for her and we'll pass it on!

Max - "Stop abusing the octopus FH and take it off my head IMMEDIATELY!! You're not big and you're not clever. Well, okay, maybe you're BIG.....he he he! Uh-oh - gota run, I think FH might have heard that last comment.....!"