Baby Turns 4

Tomorrow is a big day - Pippin's 4th birthday! I can't believe it. It seems like just yesterday when we brought him home on a blustery October day. He was so tiny you could just hold him in one hand and he weighed all of 4 pounds. We wouldn't even have a Pippin to talk about if Brent and I hadn't taken a whirlwind weekend trip to Chicago, if he hadn't eaten one last Chicago chili dog at the airport that left him with a week long bout of food poisoning. I'm a smart girl and I know to press someone when they're down. Brent never wanted an inside dog, and I know it took him a long time to become friends with Pippin but I don't think they'd trade each other for the world now. Is there really a better friend than your dog? Does anyone else ever love you so unconditionally? Do you ever forget that childhood dog you romped around with in big piles of leaves, that you basically grew up with telling all your secrets to? It truly hurts my heart to know that he ages 7x as fast as we do, and that this is his last birthday where he will be "younger" than we are, but I also see Pippin as being legendary, a dog we will forever compare all future dogs to. There truly is NO other Pippin!!

To prepare for the big day I've been baking a dog-specific cake for the little guy. It's a peanut butter carrot cake, and I already know he's going to love it as he's been stalking me in the kitchen all night!! The cakes I've ordered for him in the past are hella expensive - the cakes are wicked expensive and as this is Tennessee in August and it's freaking over 100 degrees every day and impossible to even breathe - they have to be shipped priority overnight. Ridiculous expensive. So, I got some recipes off the 'net and made my own. I'm going to make the icing out of his favorite things - peanut butter and cheese, decorated with Pupperoni "candles". He's gonna LOVE it!! This boy can literally hear a cheese package open from outside, with the door closed. It's his favorite treat, thanks to his obedience trainer Miss Mary (yes, I know, it is hard to believe he graduated from obedience school). So, it should be a fun day tomorrow!

Finally, as our ode de Pippin, here are some pics of the little guy over the past year. Enjoy!!

Pippin's First 4-wheeler Ride:









Pippin discovers how great fish food tastes:








Pippin still doesn't like snow - esp when his leg was all shaved following surgery:








Pippin loves Phog 4eva:









Construction does not interfere with naps:









Pippin can read the instructions: