Tagged by Huffle

Huffle tagged us to play photo tag. We're supposed to post the fifth picture from the fifth folder. We used Mom's flickr account and this is what we found.

This is our Aunt Kari. That's Wilbur on her shoulder. This picture was taken in April 2005, just a couple weeks after Mom found Wilbur at the Fort Worth Animal Shelter. Wilbur had taken his first plane ride to fly with Mom to Missouri to help Aunt Kari plan our wedding. Our Missouri grandparents don't like animals in the house, so Mom had to promise that Wilbur would stay in the basement. Wilbur worked his magic though and before you know it, he was running all over the house. He made several trips to Missouri after that and even stayed there for two weeks while Mom was on a business trip (that's in the pre-Dad days when Mom didn't want to leave Wilbur home alone). Can you believe that our Missouri grandparents, who don't like animals in the house, actually drove to Texas to pick Wilbur up and take him home with them? Obviously Wilbur's cute face did it.

Too bad he grew up!
Woo,
Steve and Kat

New Blog

For those of you who live in the Pacific Northwest, we have some news for you. Our mom has started a new blog, documenting the trails we have visited. She has been having trouble finding information about which trails allow dogs, so she decided to start writing about the ones we have used. So if you need some good trail advice, check it out. So far she only has two trails on there, but she promises to put up more soon.

It's called: Pacific Northwest: On Leash!

If you live around here and want to post a review of your favorite trails, just let us know. Otherwise, stay tuned to read about our favorites! We'll be talking about trails for hiking, snowshoeing, biking, and just about anything else we do.

In other news, if your blog uses the comment form where you can select your account at the bottom, we can't leave comments. Other dogs can, but apparently our mom is retarded and can't figure it out. So we are not ignoring you on purpose.

Hiking in the snow

On Saturday, we packed up the 4Runner and went to the mountains to go snowshoeing. When we got there, the trail was packed down so Mom and Dad didn't wear their snowshoes and we just hiked.

Here's a view of the trail.

We stopped for lunch and Kat and I camped out on a snow mound. Mom decided it was a good time to take a quick picture over her shoulder.

The ground and trees were covered with ice crystals. I tried to take a picture for you.

We decided to take Mom and Dad down to the ice caves. Here we are leading the way.

We got to the bridge we needed to cross to get to the caves and look what we discovered!

The bridge had washed out! I tried to look for where it went, but I didn't see it.

Mom made us pose for a picture.

Finally when we were almost back to the car, Mom made us pose again. (We're so cute, she just can't help it.)

We like it better when Dad is holding cookies.

I complain a lot when I have to put my backpack on, but really, I love it!!
Steve

Walking with Steve and Kat

We've been horrible at blogging this week. It's been over a week since we posted! How horrible!

Anyway, last Monday, Mom was off work, so we went for a walk. We decided to video it.

We'll be back soon to show you what we did yesterday!
Steve and Kat

Awards and other news

I have been pretty lax about blogging this week. There is a lot to catch up on.

First, we have received some awards. Khyra gave us this one:Obviously she thinks we have a 5-star blog and we think the same about her!

The OP Pack, Tibby, and Kelsey gave us this award.This award is the Bloggy Friends award. Our favorite things about blogging are the friends we have made, so we really appreciate this award.

Also, King Sky Boy inducted me into his Royal Siberian Court. I am now a knight! How cool is that? My official title is Sir Steve of the Washington Woos. I am really excited.

And finally, I thought I'd end with this picture. Ozzie likes to talk about how the lap of his 1973 male is really great, I am fond of the feet of my 1980 male.Happy Friday!
Steve

The 4Cs - Canine Chocolate Chip Cookies

Hey pups! Welcome to the first installment of Kat's Crazy Kitchen! Today we are making Canine Chocolate Chip Cookies. Since this is my first episode, I had a bit of a disagreement with my producer. It went something like this.

Me: Producer Mom, I would like to put all of the ingredients in little bowls, just like on the shows on the Food Network.
Mom: Kat, I don't want to wash all those dishes.
Steve: I'll do it!
Me: Steve, stay out of this. It's not your show.
Steve: I'm just trying to be helpful.
Me: Whatever, you just want to lick the bowls.
Steve: That is not true!

At that point Steve and I started wrestling and Mom said she won the battle. I agreed to compromise with her and we just took a picture of everything in packages.Here are the ingredients you will need:
1.5 cups brown rice flour
1.5 cups oat flour
Note: You can use whole wheat flour if you desire and do not have any food allergies.
1 egg
1 cup carob chips (Do NOT use real chocolate chips.)
1 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix everything together and it will look something like this.Now preheat your oven to 350F. Scoop cookies onto an ungreased cookie sheet. The cookies do not expand while baking, so you can put them close together. Here's what we did.Now bake the cookies for about 20 minutes or until they are just golden brown. I let Steve make a guest appearance and show you what to do while the cookies are baking.Once your cookies are done baking, you'll want to let them cool on a wire rack. Here's me with the freshly baked cookies.Once you let the cookies cool completely, it's time to do a taste test. Steve and I are always ready for that step.The cookies were delicious! This recipe makes about 40 cookies, if you make them with balls about the diameter of a quarter. Next time, Mom said she would flatten the cookie dough before baking so they weren't balls and were more like cookies.

I can't wait to find out how your baking goes. Stay tuned for my next recipe!
Kat

Cookies and New Blog Feature

Hey pups! Kat here. I have a big announcement. I have a new blog series for 2009. It's called "Kat's Crazy Kitchen". Mom was going to call it "Kat's Krazy Kitchen" but Dad told her that was a bad idea for some reason. (He didn't like "Khat's Khrazy Khitchen" either, Khyra.) I'm not sure how regularly I will post new cooking recipes, but I promise it will be at least once per month. As a sneak peek, I'm going to reveal the first project. This weekend, we will be making good, old-fashioned Canine Chocolate Chip Cookies. Yum!

Speaking of treats, cookies, and baking, we don't want anypup to think that we have completely started eating Mom's treats. Oh, no, we are still forever fans of Happy Hearts Cookies. In fact, we have something new to share about the powers of the Happy Hearts Cookie. I'm sure you pups have heard the old adage:

A Happy Hearts Cookie a Day,
Keeps the Ole Vet at Bay!

We had heard that but we thought that was just some old mom's tale (especially the part about just one cookier per day). Well, apparently there IS something to it! You see, Steve and I each get two small Happy Hearts and one big Happy Heart in our Kong every day. Yesterday, when we went to the vet for our checkup, the vet told Mom and Dad (and I quote), "Steve and Kat look great. I wouldn't change a thing!" So obviously it's the Happy Hearts! So for all you pups who's parents complain about spending too much money at the vet, just get some Happy Hearts cookies. They are like vitamins! Steve has also done some experimental tests and has determined that the correct dosage of Happy Hearts is 1-1000 cookies per day, depending on how good you are and how good your parents are.

Well, that's it, pups. I hope you all are having a great week!
Kat
PS. I've added an area on the sidebar where I will keep links to all of my recipes. That way, when you're in the mood for cookies, you know where to send your Mom (or Dad).

Reader Requests

Back when we posted about our Christmas presents, a few pups asked to see pictures of us in our harnesses. We never want to deny our fans, so here you go!

Handsome me:Cute Kat:Here we are with Dad getting ready to go biking. We have Walky Dogs and they work great for us. We are always VERY excited to go for a bike ride, if you can't tell from this picture.We also got requests for our Wooscotti recipe from our new readers. Well pups, you're in luck! Kat provided excellent illustrated directions for Wooscotti back in the summer. Check out Part 1 and Part 2. Trust me, Wooscotti is easy to make and delicious!

That's it pups! We love your requests, so keep 'em coming!
Steve

We've been published

If you see this magazine, you should buy it.

Then go to page 23 where you will see this:

That's right!  We got our wooscotti recipe published!  We are feeling pretty awesome.  (We also thought we were going to win a prize, but that hasn't arrived yet so maybe Mom is hiding it.)

Steve and Kat

Last Christmas Video

This will be our last videos of this Christmas. Mom thought we should try to open presents, so she wrapped up these presents for us. (Thank you very much Forget Sit and Stay gang!) She didn't have any Christmas paper, so our presents are actually wrapped in wedding paper. We didn't care. The paper had hearts on it so we just thought Mom was trying to tell us that she loves us!

Anyway, we didn't really know what we were supposed to do with the presents. I was much better at it than Kat!

Inside were these really cool stuffies!

I especially like my santa and have been really trying to eat the puff off the end of his hat. So far I've been unsuccessful, but I don't give up easily!
Steve

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! Did you all make it until midnight? We took a lot of naps, but technically we were awake at midnight. Then we went to bed and stayed asleep until 6:30! Can you believe that? We never sleep in like that.

2008 was a big year for us. We went snowshoeing for the first time. We had our first camping experience. We moved into our house and got a huge yard so we can run and dig (Mom doesn't like that last one). We also starred in our first commercial and learned about the wonders of Dairy Queen. We had lots of other exciting times as well and we can't wait to see what we get to do in 2009!

Steve, Kat, and Wilbur

Playing Baseball with Dad

Aunt Kari and Uncle Joe sent us some cool presents for Christmas, so I thought I'd share one with you. They gave us a bat with a basket on the top for throwing balls. Now, you know that Siberians aren't too big into chasing balls. Well, actually Siberians might be pretty good at chasing balls, we are just very challenged at bringing balls back. I am pretty good at bringing balls back, but only in the house. Most of the time I won't play fetch outside, but Mom and Dad recently bought us new cuzes and I really like to fetch that outside. So Dad decided to use the cuzes with our new bat.

Mom said we had to play baseball outside, so here we are.

We had a lot of fun with the bat and Dad enjoyed it because he could scoop up snow and throw that at us too. As you might have noticed in the video, a lot of our snow had melted and if you look outside now, you won't see any! It's horrible.
Kat

The Orange Thing

I've gotten lots of comments on The Orange Thing I received for Christmas. Here's a video from Christmas morning. I'm not sure what to think about it, but I like the toy on a stick.

Meow,
Wilbur


PS. Happy Anniversary to my humans!

My last snowy walking video

I promised to take you all back to one spot where I found some really cool Christmas lights. So on Christmas Eve, I got Mom and Dad bundled up and I took them (and Kat) out for a walk.

Here's what happened when we got to my cool lights spot.

Unfortunately, the lights didn't work. Mom thinks that since they were motion sensored, the motion sensor was probably under so much snow, it couldn't sense any motion. The Santa lights were really cool though and I really freaked out when they started talking to me!

Later, we found some other really cool lights. Kat and I were very interested in one house, but Mom wanted us to pay attention to a different house.

Well, that's my last snowy walking video too as most of our snow has been stolen by the snow thief. Hopefully we will get more snow, but I have a hunch it won't be the same.
Steve

We must have been nice

Yesterday was Christmas morning and we got so much stuff, we must have been really nice. It's interesting though that most of the stuff we got was from people who don't live with us! We put together this slideshow of our Christmas.

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas from our house to yours!  Here's our Christmas card picture.

We hope Santa Paws found his way to your house!

Steve, Kat, and Wilbur

More snow playing

For Christmas eve, we are going to share a couple more snow videos.  The snow is coming down again right now.  These videos were taken before we had as much snow as we have now.

Steve doesn't like this video because Mom is mean and calls him a name.

Well, that's it for now.  We hope that by sharing these videos, all you puppies without snow can share our fun.

Kat

PS. Steve wants you all to know that he hasn't forgotten that he has to go back and video Christmas lights.  We are going to do that tonight.  It's been slippery out and Mom has been walking us in the daytime, but we will go back and video Steve's special surprise lights today!

More fun stuff to do on snowy walks

I'm here again today to tell you about some more fun stuff to do while you're on a snowy walk.

I like to walk close to the bushes and trees along the trails and sidewalks.  It's great fun to brush off all the snow onto your back and perhaps onto your mom.  (My mom thinks it's cold, but what does she know?)

Next it's fun to pair up with your sister and zig-zag all over the street.

It's also fun to plow snow with your head and make your mom giggle.

Finally, Kat demonstrates the art of blazing a new trail.  The sidewalk we were walking down here is covered with new snow, so Kat was trying to clear the way.

Well, that's it for my instructional videos.  I can't wait to see your videos of you trying these techniques!
Steve

Dreaded Gentle Leaders

My buddy Ozzie had been complaining about wearing a Gentle Leader.  I admit, they are the most awful husky torture devices ever invented.  I can't believe Santa ever thought I wanted one for Christmas last year.

Today Mom decided to walk us.  She doesn't like to walk us together so she made us wear our Gentle Leaders so we would be more controllable.  She also has a walking belt now so her hands are free.  Why do you think she needs free hands?  Because she wanted to walk to the nearest latte shack and get something warm.  Now we see where her priorities lie!

Anyway, after she cornered me and bribed me with a Happy Hearts cookie, Mom put my Gentle Leader on.  I had to immediately go to work trying to free myself.

I didn't have any success with freeing myself inside, so I agreed to go outside and pretend to walk.  I was really looking for opportunities to free myself outside.

Here's a video of Kat making doggie snow angels and then later in the video, we sort of walk like proper sled dogs (aka side-by-side).  

I have more videos of my antics, so I will share those in the days to come.

Steve

Announcements

We have two announcements for today.

The first: If you haven't heard, one of our dear Siberian friends has gone missing. A cute girl named Stormy and we really want her to make it home for Christmas, so if you live in Colorado, please keep your eyes out for her. For more information, click here. If you don't live in Colorado, just keep your paws crossed that Stormy comes home or someone sees her.

Second: Huffle, our favorite feline friend in all of Australia, gave us this cool award.Here is what the award means:
"This blog invests and believes the PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

Now we are supposed to give this out to eight more bloggers, but we're sort of behind on blogs and don't know who has received this and who hasn't. So we're just going to say that if you don't have it and you're one of our blog readers, then you are definitely cool enough to win this award from us!