A Puppy Christmas

Christmas came early for our little brownies! For the past couple of days presents had been coming in and Bella and Samson would watch us open the boxes and put their presents in our closet to keep from them. The pups knew where their gifts were so we gave in and let Christmas come early for them!

Here are all their new toys!

We use PetCareRX as our website to order our dog food. Each time we make an order we receive extra points that we can use on anything. So first the dog food is cheaper than in store, it is free shipping to our door, we do not have to go to the store to get it, and we get free points to use on anything we want from each order. So we used our points and got them new toys. We were able to throw out some of the old dog toys Bella has ruined and replace them with new ones without her noticing. 

After we took the picture we put all the toys in a box and put the box on the floor. Bella and Samson went crazy pulling out the toys and throwing them around. It was so funny watching them play with their new toys. Every toy Samson put in his mouth Bella ran over and snatched for herself.

Not to long ago when we were trying to leave Bella out of her crate when we were not home, she decided to eat her food bowl. (Needless to say, she stays in her crate now when we are not here) Since the bowl was still useable we continued using it till today. We replaced her bowl with another one just like it. She uses a bowl that helps slow her eating because she without it she literally scarfs down her food without chewing. This bowl makes it more difficult for her to eat since it has sections that separate the food. 

First thing this morning Bella took out almost every new toy they got and played up and down the hall with them. And poor Samson, every time he wants to play with a new toy, Bella runs over and snatches it from him. 

Bella is already on her way to tearing apart some of the new toys. The santa hat is already off one of the squeaky long Christmas dogs and not too much longer till the stuffing is out of them. Her favorite thing to do once the stuffing is out is to throw them up in the air like a crazy dog and go nuts!

Right now they are playing tug of war with the cute giraffe enjoying their early Christmas presents. We sure do love these sweet little pups of ours!

Holiday Decorating!

This is my favorite time of the year and I could not wait to start decorating! Thanks to Pinterest I had high hopes for making tons of new holiday decorations, but due to the size of our place I settled on making one. 

This is my cinnamon stick wreath. 

I found a thin piece of craft wood shaped as a circle wreath. I wrapped the wood with some brown burlap ribbon that was the same color as the cinnamon sticks. Then I tried to lay out the cinnamon sticks to all match up (which is SO difficult) around the wreath. I warmed up the hot glue gun and went to work. This step took a little longer than I had expected because the power kept going out causing the hot glue gun to cool down, so I kept having to take breaks. Once I finished gluing the sticks, Michael’s mom helped me make a pretty bow to tie to it. We made a loop for the back and now it's hanging inside on our door.

Here is a picture of what our door looks like right now. Michael hates hanging the garland, but he is so good at it! We had a little mistake with Bella. As you can sorta see in this picture to the right we have a little table that has blocks on it that spell out Merry Christmas, but behind it I had a really nice vase type of thing that I had put left over cinnamon sticks in. Well Bella went crazy when Michael was trying to either come in or go out, (I can’t remember) but she slammed into the table and the pretty vase hit the ground and shattered. After going to Hobby Lobby and Michaels we still were not able to find anything to replace it :[

 

We got our Christmas tree about two weeks ago (if it would have been up to me it would have been the day after Thanksgiving, but Michael talked me into waiting). We bought it from Lowes and we love it! The only thing that was not so good is that the one we picked was about two feet too big! Opps! When we got it to the house and tried to stand it up (even without it being in the tree stand) it was bending over. Here are a few pictures:

 

Michael had to saw about two feet of it off in order to get our tree topper to fit on the tree. My fault, but Michael is really handy and fixed the problem!

Here is our tree all decorated.

We went to an ornament exchange and ended up with two pretty ornaments! Last year we took one and we got one, and this year we had the choice of bringing either one or two per couple so Michael wanted to bring two. I was the last person to pick so I got to see all the ornaments that were still available and ended up choosing one of the ornaments we took to the party. Michael had a few in mind he really wanted, but they were either frozen by his turn or they were stolen from him and he could not get it back so he ended up picking the other one that I really liked. Here are the two we ended up with!

 

Last part of decorating was the stockings! Last year we found a great stocking for Samson. It is Rudolf with bells on his collar. It is a white somewhat shinny fabric so this year we had to get Bella one. The only thing was I wanted to try and find one that was like Samsons but Hobby Lobby did not have the selection they did last year and I had to settle on the only white shinny one they had that I only sort of like. Here are our 4 stockings. 

We can not put anything in them till the day we decide to celebrate Christmas at our house because Bella would end up pulling down the stocking immediately.

We have not had any issues with Bella and decorations which was one big worry for us. She has surprised both of us and we are so happy about it. She has turned into basically a new dog since she finished her first heat cycle. I am not sure where the old Bella went, but we are loving this calm and sweet little girl we have had for the past month.

B/CS Restaurant Bucket List Update

I blogged earlier about how Michael and I came up with a list of restaurants we want to eat at before our time comes to an end in the Bryan/College Station area. You can read about it here.

Today I am going to update you on some of the places we have gone that are on our list.

Our list is as follows:
La Bodega
Martins Bar-B-Q
Los Molcajetes
Maddens
Koppe Bridge
Lakeside Icehouse Grill
Coco Loco
Pho John
40 Tempura
Top Of The Hill 
Cafe Eccel
J Cody's Bar-B-Q
Sodolacks
Christopher's
Good Time Charlie's
Haiku
Hullabaloo's Diner
Carter's Burgers 
We added:
BJ's 
The Village

As I mentioned in my first blog, the list is in no particular order, they are just added as we drive by and think to ourselves we want to eat there soon.

Martin's Bar-B-Q -- Let me just start by saying DELICIOUS! It has been family owned since 1925 and they have been cooking the best bar-b-q around since then! When you walk in you can smell the smoke from the smoker and you can basically taste what you are going to be eating in the air. When we went the first time (it was last week) we went for lunch and I have not been able to stop telling people about it. I will warn you, since it is a family owned restaurant they are a little slow, but it is worth the wait. The second time was this weekend (3 days later haha) and we tried new items on the menu and were even more impressed! Michael had been wanting to go for so long and I finally gave in, thinking to myself, I am not sure if I will even like bar-b-q that much and woah, I have been missing out. You have to go to Martin's Bar-B-Q if you are in Bryan!

Madden's -- Michael actually has not been yet, but I have been about 5 times now so it can no longer be on the bucket list. I work 3 blocks from Madden's so the girls go to lunch there a bunch. The restaurant is located inside a store, Old Bryan Marketplace (if you have never been you need to go, Christmas season is the best time) so if there is a little wait there is plenty to look at to keep you busy. The food is delicious and looks as if it came out of a magazine. Now we just need to get Michael to go!

Koppe Bridge -- Another new favorite! And everyone elses as well. Both times we went the restaurant was crazy busy, but the food did not disappoint. The french fries are delicious and their burgers are a little greasy, just like we like! We have been back twice and the last time we were there Michael had the chicken fried steak and it was very good.

Carter's Burgers -- We went on a Tuesday, which is half price burger night, so before we even ate we were happy. Michael's mom was in town and went with us and we all enjoyed our burgers.

BJ's -- We didn't know a chain restaurant could be this good. We went to BJ's with my mom and dad and could not believe how good it was! We shared all 4 dishes we ordered and had a yummy appetizers along with some of their home brewed beers. We will be going back!

The Village -- I had heard lots of great things about this local place and we finally tried it! We ate here with Michael's brother and sister and enjoyed our dinner while listening to a local artist. There are so many options on the menu so I will have to go back as it is 2 blocks from my work.

More to come soon!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies

In an earlier blog about Tasty Thursday I showed a picture of chocolate chip cookie dough brownies. They are really easy to make and delicious!

Ingredients:
For Brownies:
4 ounces unsweetend bakers chocolate
1 cup of butter, room temperature
2 cups light brown sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup of flour

For cookie dough:
3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup light brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
3 tbsp milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

*For the chocolate drizzle, you will want some extra chocolate chips and shortening


Make the brownies first:
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees and spray a 9x13 pan.
2. Cut up the bakers chocolate. Put in a microwave safe bowl and cook for 30 seconds at a time, stiring each time. Once smooth put aside to cool.

2. In a different bowl using an electric mixer, mix butter and brown sugar. Beat in the eggs and the vanilla extract. Once combined, mix in the chocolate then the flour.

3. Spread mixture in greased pan and cook 25 to 35 minutes. Let the brownies cool completely.

Now to make the cookie dough:
1. In a bowl, mix butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Then mix in the milk and the vanilla. Once combined add the flour and then mix in the chocolate chips with a spoon.

Making the final product:
1. Once the brownies have cooled completely top with the cookie dough and put in the fridge till dough is firm.

2. For me, I cut mine into serving sizes and used cupcake holders to place them in. I also melted some of the chocolate chips with 1 tbsp shortening and put it in a ziploc bag. I cut the bag corner and drizzled the chocolate over the top of individual servings.

Since there are no eggs in the cookie dough it is fine to eat raw. These things are delicious and addictive!
Enjoy!!

Oreo Crispies!

Thank you Pinterest for another good one!

I was looking for something yummy and that I did not have to actually bake to take to my women's bible study last night and ran across this recipe that I will be making again!

Oreo Crispies is what I am calling them:

It is a very simple recipe! They are made just like rice crispie treats, but instead of using rice crispies, use crushed oreos, genius! I altered the recipe from what I read on the blog, so here is what I did.

Ingredients:
1 bag small marshmallows
4 tbsp butter
1 package of oreos

First, coat an 8x8 pan with butter.
Put package of oreos in a Ziploc bag and using a rolling pin crush the oreos.
On the stove melt the butter and marshmallows, stirring continuously.
Once melted quickly add the crushed oreos to the mixture, mix, and pour into the butter pan.
Let sit about 20 minutes, cut, and serve.

Delicious!

Halloween Puppies!

We came to a decision! If you did not read my earlier blog about what Bella should be for Halloween, click here to catch up. Michael and I could not decide on what she should be, then we heard that PetsMart had their pet costumes 75% off. When we got there we found it, and it was only $4.25 which made it even better!!

Here is Bella on her first Halloween!

 

We decided on the chicken! We thought the orange legs and the beak were perfect! Also how cute is it that there is a part for her ears to stick out! She was a little curious about the legs but gave up on trying to eat them shortly after.

Here are the brownies all dressed up!! Enjoy :]

The only candies they got were doggie treats so they did not push their way out the door to greet all the cute kids!

A Weekend in College Station

I have never blogged about activities that take place on the weekends we stay in town and I think this weekend was one worth sharing about!

On both Saturday and Sunday morning we took the pups to the lake to drain some energy! They loved it and so did we!

Bella and Jake

Samson -- "throw my ball!"

On Saturday Michael's sister Julie got into town and we went right to campus for a breakfast tailgate! We met up with some friends and went to the game. It was very cool in the morning, 34 degrees when we were at the lake, and it was only 2 and a half hours later so we had all dressed warm and stripped off layers and had them under our seats. We basically had a whole wardrobe under us. Sadly out of all of us, I got super burned and now I look ridiculous!

Our group!

Hubby!

Aggie Band -- the best part of the game

After the game we went to Casa Rodriguez for dinner (delicious) and came home and carved pumpkins. Thanks to Pinterest I got a new idea for carving our pumpkins this time!! We used a drill to make the holes which was so easy and super fast! Here they are

On Sunday we went to the Renaissance Festival, it was our first and last time to ever go. We have been told by many people how much they love it, but we did not agree one bit. We knew there would be some people dressed up, but I had no idea that about 50% of the people would be! When we first got there Julie went to meet up with some friends, so Michael and I wandered in and went to the Birds of Prey show, the best thing we did. I learned a few new things, Michael already knew them. Later we ate some yummy food, watched a few more shows, and did so much people watching. There were so many costumes that at first I felt bad taking photos, but then I realized they want their pictures taken. Sadly I missed some of the best ones from the beginning, but I got some others later on during the day. In the end we are glad we went to be able to say we went and experienced it, but do not care to go back. If you have never been it is something to see. We were shocked by how many people get into character and what people chose to wear out in public. Here are just a few pictures from the day.

King Vulture

WHAT in the world!?!??!!

Julie shooting an arrow

His job was to stand there and have tomatoes thrown at him all while he made crude jokes at the people throwing them at him

Good gracious!!

Men dressed up like this EVERYWHERE!

How does this fit in?

All of us at the end of the day! It was so bright, lucky Michael had his sunglasses on

This weekend flew by, but that is how all weekends are. We are so glad we were able to spend time with Julie since she is normally going somewhere fun every weekend!