A Date:

Last week we went a date to a corn maze in North Georgia. I found a 2 for 1 deal on Groupon that allowed us to go on a hay ride (which ironically had no hay) and do the corn maze and 3 other attractions.

One of the "attractions" we did was an apple sling shot. It was so fun! Brad kept saying that when we have a backyard he wants to build one.

A camping trip:

Just this past weekend we went camping with some friends up near Amicalola Falls. Unfortunately, I had class on Friday until 6, so we didn't get up to the campsite until about 8. We set up our tent in the dark and just talked around the campfire for a while. In the morning we hung out in our tent and let Killer play with her most favorite toy EVER.

She's so spoiled. 

It was still pretty chilly when we finally got up and started getting breakfast ready, and poor Killer was shivering so Brad did everything he could to keep her warm.

Before we had to leave and pack everything up we went on a hike to the falls. It was gorgeous!

 

Both the other couples also had dogs, and Killer had a great time playing with two new friends. In fact, after only about 10 minutes on the drive home she fell asleep.

Stay tuned for Halloween pictures!

Love, Brad & Courtney

Vote for Killer!

For all of you who were worried about our poor Killer and thinking about reporting me to puppy services...she is liking her dogzilla costume much better. We've forced her to wear it for about an hour or so every day so she can get used to it by Halloween.

Don't even tell me that's not the cutest thing you've ever seen.

Anyways, we entered her (in costume) into a Petsmart costume contest. The grand prize is being in a commercial, which we could care less about. But some of the runner-up prizes include gift cards to Petsmart and cash prizes. So if you could all kindly vote for our sweet pup, we'd greatly appreciate it.

http://apps.facebook.com/petsmartcontest//showentry?entryurl=%2Fcontests%2Fshowentry%2F566625%2Fnull%2F4&fb_page_id=77978885595

On a side note, she's still loosing teeth. Not quite so rapidly anymore though. However, now we've moved on to bigger teeth, like this monster fang.

Love, Brad & Courtney

DOGZILLA!

When we first got Killer I swore I wasn't going to be one of those people who humiliates their dog by dressing them up in ridiculous outfits. Like this:

Well, it turns out I am one of those people. One afternoon I was looking on Amazon and decided to just browse the dog costumes. Bad idea. As I'm sure you know (or can tell from the current state of my blog) I LOVE Halloween. The reasons why could be their own blog post (which I will write at a later date). So after seeing so many adorable Halloween doggie costumes I just had to get one, which I justified by the fact that it was only $5 and Killer would only wear it a couple of times unlike the dogs pictured above who are probably tortured every day by this nonsense. This is the costume I bought for poor Killer:

 

DOGZILLA!

Adorable right? I mean if it's cute on this dog, mine will definitely look good in it.

Well, dogzilla arrived in the mail a few days ago. Brad and I immediately opened it and proceeded to force our puppy to wear it while we took a video of just how much she hated it.

Killer probably isn't going to enjoy Halloween quite as much as her mommy does...

Love Brad, Courtney, & Dogzilla

The Zoo

We got a free pass to the zoo in the mail a while ago, so we finally decided to use it last Saturday. The weather was perfect for zoo exploring.

Definitely wouldn't want to encounter that tongue. It was probably as big as my face.

Hey there Mr. Komodo Dragon.

Isn't that just the cutest thing you've ever seen (besides Killer of course)?! It's a little red panda sleeping in a crate 30 feet up in a tree.

Brad loves otters, and every time we've been anywhere that has otters they are ALWAYS sleeping, so he never gets to see them play. We walked by their habitat, and they (no surprise) were sleeping. So after visiting the reptiles we swung back around and found them playing in the water!

If you look really close you can see a leg sticking out of momma kangaroo's pouch. She just had a joey a couple months ago. I kept waiting to get a picture of baby's head, but whenever he tried to peak out she would push him back in there (well all of him except his leg anyways).

Love, Brad & Courtney

Recipe of the week (actually made a few weeks ago)

First, it's always fantastic when Brad not only makes dinner but offers to do so! Second, Brad's dinners are always delicious (an added plus). A couple weeks ago he made a Pachuca, Mexico special: chalupas! They're so easy and so yummy!

First you have to make the tortilla dough. You have to have corn flour. We use this ma se ca stuff. Just follow the directions on the back of the package. Instead of all water we put in some lard as well. Gross, I know, but it makes the tortillas really pliable, which is a must.

Roll your dough into little balls. You'll want them to be pretty small, because your tortillas won't be very big at all.

We use a tortilla press to flatten our dough into tortillas, but a simple rolling pin would work too.

Now it's time to bake those little guys. You know they're done when both sides gets bubbly like this.

In the meantime of making tortillas, have potatoes boiling to later mash.

Cook and shred some chicken.

Chop up some radish and cilantro, and shred some mozzarella cheese.

We put everything out like a little assembly line so it would be easier to put it all together.

Tortillas, mashed potatoes, shredded chicken, chopped cilantro, chopped radish, shredded cheese, green enchilada sauce, and red enchilada sauce. If you only like red or only like green sauce just pick one. Brad likes green and I like red, so we used both. At the end of your assembly line you'll want to have one frying pan lined with hot oil and another frying pan that's hot with no oil.

It's time to put the chalupas together!

Flatten some mashed potatoes on top of your tortilla. Sprinkle on some chicken, cilantro, and radish. Put some shredded cheese on top of that. And lastly, dribble on some sauce. Place in the oil pan for about 20 seconds and then transfer over to the hot pan for about one minute.

Enjoy your yummy chalupas while they're hot!

A special thanks goes out to my wonderful husband who made this delicious dinner. I love you, and appreciate all the simple things you do that show your love for me.

love, Brad & Courtney

Happy Birthday Mom!

Yesterday was my wonderful mother's birthday. I won't tell you how old she is...you can guess. You'll probably be wrong though, because she looks a lot younger than she really is.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Love, Brad & Courtney

All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth

And Maybe Just Throw Some Extra Ones In There Too

That's right. Killer has finally started loosing her puppy teeth. We thought this day would never come, but man oh man, did we pray for it. Those little teeth are the sharpest things I think I've ever felt. What was meant as a little nip will make your hand, ear, or nose look like you failed at a homemade piercing job. 

Killer has also lost four teeth on bottom.

She's so pitiful. She can't keep anything in her mouth. Everything just falls out the MAJOR gap in the front of her mouth. Her teeth are hurting so bad we've had to start wetting her food so she will eat it. Poor thing. We hope this stage of loosing and growing teeth comes to a close quickly. By the looks of things, we're in luck:

Look at the top of her mouth, those two teeth she lost Monday are already being replaced by adult teeth. Hooray!

Love, Brad & Courtney

Birthday Festivities

My 22nd birthday was jam-packed with fun activities all week. When we checked the mail on Monday I had two packages waiting for me. Well...I was so excited that I couldn't wait till Tuesday to open them.

Grandma Jean and Grandpa Don sent me these super cute earrings and bracelet.

Sara and Steve sent me this adorable skirt (which I wore to church today and got several compliments on).

Brad gifted this awesome book upon me! Mockingjay, the last Hunger Games book. He's so sweet - just listen to this story. I always have the car (we only have one mode of transportation), and when I don't Brad is always with me. When's a boy to go buy his wife a birthday present? He walked to the bookstore during his lunch break one day. So sweet!

We also celebrated Friday night by going to Six Flags with our good friends, Brian and Kayla Caldwell. Brian works for Lockheed Martin and they had a stellar party at Six Flags. Free parking, free buffet, and no lines. Best night ever. We rode every single one of the roller coasters.

Brian and Kayla, ya'll are so great! We love hanging out with you! Thanks for making my birthday so great!

The final birthday celebration was Saturday morning when we went to the High Museum of Art to see their Dali exhibit, which was fabulous!

Hooray for turning another year older!

love, Brad & Courtney

The Terrible Twos

We're pretty positive that 3 1/2 months in dog years equals the terrible twos in human years. Killer has become quite the hand full these days. As soon as the door opens out she goes. She thinks it's so fun to run away when you're trying to catch her, which means she constantly has to be put on a leash. She also has started peeing when she's excited. I've had my foot peed on at least twice, along with a leg, a hand, and various other body parts. This girl sure does love her daddy though. Tonight she really proved it by marking her territory while sitting on his back.

Her new favorite activities include pulling everything out of the trash can and this doosey: 

That's toilet paper in her mouth...yum.

She loves ripping things to pieces by thrashing them around until they disintegrate. She's become quite the little climber/jumper/monkey dog. We have mushrooms that grow around our complex where we take her out to go potty. She loves to do her business then run straight to a mushroom, grab in her mouth, and run away. We can usually catch her and pin her down long enough to pull it out. But one night she was more crazy than usual and Brad's certain that she was high on shrooms.

Despite her occasional awfulness, we do love this cute little thing.

love, Brad & Courtney

her name is KILLER afterall

  A big milestone for Killer happened today when she finally realized she could go up and down the stairs to and from our apartment. She practiced a lot at my grandparents' house this past weekend while we were visiting for a family reunion. She had several mishaps like falling down stairs and running full speed into them since she neglected to jump but she kept trying and she finally got it. The stairs at our house are a little scarier though. They're a bit steeper, and they're only platforms. We think she was nervous to go up them because she was so small that she couldn't see the next step only the ground between the steps, but she's grown quite a lot ... to the point of mastering the stairs.

So ... with all that being said, Killer doesn't wait for us to pick her up to go down the stairs outside to go potty anymore. She can now run down them full speed, do her business, and then find other mischief to get herself into before we even get to the bottom step. 

Tonight Killer finally lived up to her name. Our 12 week old puppy is a murderer! She ran down the stairs, found a big green bug, ran back up the stairs away from Brad (because she knew he would try to take it), and looked down at him while chomping away. NASTY! No kisses for her tonight.

I know, she looks so sweet and innocent and then ...

she attacks! (even poor innocent big green bugs)

Love, Brad Courtney & THE Killer

Happy 26th Anniversary Mom and Dad!

26 years ago today my wonderful parents were married. 

 These pictures were taken during their recent visit to Utah for our graduation.

Happy Anniversary! We hope you have a great day!

Love, Brad & Courtney