The day before New Year Bart and I took the dogs to a wonderful forest area in Zeist where there are open areas with sandy dunes here and there. The forest was crowded with people with dogs enjoying there day off. Something I as a Swede, used to loneliness in the forest and loving that, did not appreciate so much, but the dogs were in a very happy mood and had uch a lot of fun together!

Swedish Golf courses are great in the winter time! They open up for the public including dogs! Here Moët is enjoying the freedom on her favourite golf course in Danderyd! 

It is so wonderful to have time to just be together during Christmas - and cuddle with our cuddle bears!

A traditional Swedish Julbord comes with so many delicacies - for humans and dogs alike! Cooked ham, smoked lamb, gravad lax, sausages and Swedish meatballs of course! The dogs were waiting and waiting for their share -  which they got on their own plates just the way we always do it! (Sorry about the artistic filter in these photos, a mistake in the settings)

There were so many Christmas gifts under the tree, and after having unpacked and eaten her largest bone the first day here (without permission!) Yatzie tried to wait patiently for Santa Claus just like Moët. Finally he arrived and they both got countless bones and sweets to keep them happy and busy the whole evening -  the way it should be on Christmas!

We are spending our Christmas holidays in Sweden with lots of fun and cosy family gatherings. Yatzie already found and unpacked and ate her Christmas gift that was laying under the tree.... that was not the idea but we could not blame her, it just smelled too nice! Moët is more well behaved and is waiting for Christmas Eve for hers! We wish you all a wonderful Christmas time and a Happy Year 2016!

Amaro is getting ready for Christmas and sends Christmas wishes to all his sisters and brothers!

This great shot was made by Chris Pepper, Canada, when he came to pick up his puppy Osher! Luv it!

Ain't I lucky that one of the puppy owners this time is a professional photographer! Chris Pepper (North of 49 Photography) made these lovely photos of Osher back in Canada. 

Our Christmas Tree is ready and Moët is lazily laying around waiting for Santa! She will have to travel far to see him though - we are celebrating in Sweden this year!

Dec 13 is a special day for a Swede -  we then celebrate the Italian Saint Lucia, we dress up in white and sing Christmas songs. This year Corine and Wouter with Yeye and Elvi came to celebrate with us. Of course we ate lussekatter and drank glögg too!

Sorry that it was so quiet on the blog suddenly. A puppy period is very exhausting and once you see the last puppy leave you sort of collapse for a while... Almost every day I get messages and films from the puppy owners and it makes me very happy! I will share some with you soon. As a family we have been adjusting to normal life again. The living room is back in shape and at the moment also beautifully decorated for Christmas season. Yatzie and Moët get longer walks and they also have more time to relax. We will leave for Sweden in  a few days and are hoping for a white Christmas there. 

Here is a mix of photos and films from the last days with Osher. We really enjoyed having him here a little longer and phuuh do we miss him now... So quiet in the house...

The time has come to say goodbye to the last Miracle puppy - our sweet and happy Osher! His new daddy Chris is flying with him in the cabin to Toronto where his new mummy Ula will be waiting for him. Osher will join the big pack of barbets at the kennel The Friendly Barbet, located in Ontario. His new owners have big plans for him. He will be trained a hunting dog and if he does well in the ring and passes all the tests he will be used as a stud dog in their breeding program. We are very proud that Osher may                           be contributing to the development of the barbet breed. He is a well built barbet with a happy and loving character, he is open and confident. It is very hard to part from him, having had him with us longer than the others. But we know that he will have a wonderful life with the friendly barbets in Elmira, Ontario and be a blessing to his new owners! 

This is Chris Pepper from the kennel The Friendly Barbet in Canada, Osher's new owner, that has come to stay in the neighbourhood for a few days before he flies off with his little Esprit de bonté puppy on Sunday!

Thursday we had Merveille and Yeye staying for the whole day! It was a lovely sunny day and together with my sweet neighbour MIchelle and her bouwier Winnie we took all the dogs to the nearby lake. Both Osher and Merveille were so brave and followed the big dogs into the waters! 

Today we had a special visitor -  Amaro! Moët was very happy to see him! The two brothers played intensly non-stop for hours, with a lot of short serious fights to try each other out: "I am the strongest!" "No I am!" Finally they rested together so sweetly in front of the fire place!

These special days with Osher I bring a back pack along on the walks. Yatzie and Moët need their regular walks of course and I bring Osher along every time. When he gets tired I place the back pack in front and he sits there for a while watching the world from above which he really likes. Then he wants to run again and gets restless. 

It is so sweet to see Moët and Osher play! Lately they play more and more, sometimes quietly rolling around on the floor, like in film 1, and sometimes more rough as in film 2. It is clear that they both really enjoy it, and are learning each other's body language along the way. 

The cold in Denmark came to Holland too today and I had a lovely, sunny frosty morningwalk with the three doggies. Yatzie and Moët always get very active in the cold, and here you can see them happily chasing each other on the field.  

Before Osher moves out to his new home in Canada we try to teach him as much as possible about his Dutch roots! Today Sinter Klas and all his Swarte Piet helpers passed by the house and Osher was sitting on my arm watching the procession and the beautiful dark horses pulling Sinter Klas' sleigh. He first got a bit restless hearing the music and seeing all the people but he quickly became quiet and watched it all with full attention. 

This weekend we refurnished our living room into its pre-puppy state! Osher found it a lot of fun, with many new obstacles to climb and to chase that noisy vacuum cleaner! He is such a sweat heart! When all was in place he chilled with mama Moët on the couch!

It snowed in Denmark and Vera (Peliyah) was over joyed! says mum Tanja. I can imagine since both Yatzie and Moët are very happy in the snow.

We are now enjoying one week with only Osher! He is going to move to Canada and must be 10 weeks before he can fly. His first afternoon we took a walk by the nearby lake where he was very impressed by his mum and grandma, running into the waters and chasing around in the bushes. He stayed neatly by my side most of the time. Osher always had, and still has, very special eyes that you can see in these sweet pictures on the beach. 

Our big boy Benoit - believe it or not but he today weighs 7,4 kgs! - is moving in to a lively and loving family of 5 in Zeist. This will be a perfect place for him, where he will get a lot of love and attention. Benoit is a very special boy. He will very clearly let you know what he wants (and he knows what he wants!), using his voice in many different tones, without barking! He needs and asks for a lot of attention, but he is so soft hearted that he most of the time was the underdog here in his position towards his siblings. He is simply a big bunch of love and will surely find a place in the heart of everyone! We will miss you darling Benoit - or Bink which is his new and very suitable name! Promise to come by soon!

Moët seems to know which puppy that is supposed to leave. It happened every time that she focussed on exactly that puppy the morning of the departure. I find that amazing. She will play, smell, cuddle and lick that puppy then. And the rest of us also spend extra time of course with that same puppy... 

The night before leaving for their new homes the pupppies always get a bath. Benoit had his bath with the help of Bas and Margot and he did very well in the bath tub!

After sleeping so sweetly the two boys got hungry again and decided to break into the food back that was laying in the hallway!

Seeing the puppies leave one by one is not easy. When one leaves things change in the group and it is also nice to see the puppies interacting in new ways with each other. Peliyah was mostly playing with Benoit when she was still here. These past three days we have been enjoying seeing the two brothers Benoit and Osher having a lot of fun together at home. And we also went for some adventures, and got to know two angry swans with their baby swans, we visited the schoolyard where the kids totally adored these two young boys and did some sweet searching in the trees around here! Enjoy some of the photos of all the "busyness" of the bothers and their mum and grandma!

Peliyah was from the very beginning a very happy and active puppy. I remember her doing salto's in the whelping box just a few weeks old. Since then her tail was constantly wagging and every time she saw you she would kiss yuor face passionately! She was the smallest of the puppies but so strong and full of power. Our energetic miracle Peliyah is moving in with a 5-year old male Barbet "Helmuth" and "Vilma" a German Pointer 7 years old in a big farm in Denmark. There could not be a better place for her, where she can use up all that energy and spread the joy she is so full of. Lovely, sweet Peliyah -  have a very happy life and please come by here in Holland one day to give us those happy kisses again!

Our beautiful and strong male Amaro will be sharing a house with the cat Chico, a lot of doves and parakeetes! He will have a prominent position in the company of his owners and take part in their meetings and guard the office! This sweet and soft hearted boy, with his stunning wide barbet head, will never come short of the loving attention that he deserves. We love you Amaro and hope to see you around a lot! Come play soon with your brothers!

Our venturous and strong girl Merveille will move in with Yeyezel, from Yatzies last litter (sister of Luna) and her sweet family here nearby us in Maarsen. We are curious to see what will become of this nice combination of initiative-taker and observer. Her soft character will be a great asset in combination with our whirl-wind Yeyezel and the two sweet kids Yurian and Idrith. We are glad you are so nearby darling Merveille and we hope to see you and Yeye often!

Moët tries to play with the puppies these days but it is a bit tricky. They still bother her by trying to drink, even though the milk is over now. But here I was able to catch one of the short playful moments.  

Sharing a lot of photos of the puppies playing in the garden these last days. 

Now that the puppies are allowed all over the house one has to keep a good eye on what they find laying around! Anything they did not smell and chew on before is super interesting. The  kitchen towel gets dragged around a lot!  I laugh so much around these puppies!

Tomorrow the puppies turn 8 weeks old and the first one will be leaving... This is a heavy period for a breeder emotionally. I try to enjoy them all as much as I can these last days. Four puppies, one puppy per day, will leave the coming days. Two boys will stay a little longer. That makes it easier for Moët aswell, to have some puppies around for longer. Yatzie always found it hard to see her babies leave.

Today Marita, the owner of Angel from Yatzie's second litter, came to visit with her daughter and kids. With so many hands around it was a great chance to practice "on the leash". But the walking turned more into running on the leash! Big mess but a lot of fun! The puppies are so happy to discover the world. They are ready for all the adventures awaiting them in their new families! Angel did very well around the puppies, that were eager to get to know their new friend. 

For more than a week now the puppies have been allowed in the whole house and we have so much enjoyed having them all around us! So have they - they especially enjoye the kitchen and all the nice things they get small tastes of! All the puppies -  and Yatzie! - love cheese! Here they are on my lap getting small pieces from my hand! In the video at the bottom they have found some food left over in the adult dogs bowls and they are very happy. It is good for them to try different foods (since it is from the same brand it will not upset their sensitive stomachs) and I like to support their creativity.

Lately the puppies love tugs of war. Whatever they can find lying around becomes a prey to fight over! Here they are busy with an old gardening glove!

The puppies today for the second time got to chew on a fresh bone. I had two left and they shared without too much fuss! Once they were done with whatever meat they could rip off the bones, which was very little, Yatzie and Moët got to finish the bones. They eat almost all of it! Moët is still so lovingly giving the puppies of what she has eaten every day, and fortunately I realized that today she had quite big pieces of bones in her stomach, that could be harmful for the puppies, and could remove what she had given them. 

As you might have noticed in the videos or photos the far end of our back yard is a big mess. That is because our next door neighbours are rebuilding. That is very good noise traning for the pups and for the workers the pups provide a nice distraction from work. They come to cuddle with them a few times day!

Daily you find the puppies sleeping in such cute positions!

With the help of my sweet friends Bea and Michelle with her family we took all the puppies on a walk in the area today. This was the very first time that they had a leash on and we captured that moment, as we walked out the door! They first found it very strange, but already on the way back it seemed they had gotten a little used to the feeling. We walked them leashed to a grass field where they were allowed to run free. They stayed near by us, but were also curious about the people passing by. 

Two videos with the puppies playing inside. They are getting very heavy now! The two biggest boys weigh over 5 kgs and the rest between 4 and 4,5. They have differents ways of playing; some times very wild and sometimes more quitely like in these videos. The wild playin moments are hard to catch since they just fly by the camera!g

Sorry mum, I forgot I was not allowed to chew on the plants...

Today we took all the puppies to the beach, together with the energeticLuna, from Yatzie's second litter! Luna wil get a "sister" from this litter! It was the puppies' first adventure outside the house. They were surprised about the big grass field where we put them down. When Luna went into the water Benoit, who had no idea about what a lake is, just followed. Was he surprised to feel the water surround him! Back in the car, after half an hour on the beach, all the puppies fell asleep in a second! And kept sleeping at home for very long. What an adventure!