Back from Vacation

We have been away for almost a week now visiting our family and friends in Maine.

We had an absolutely amazing time and my cousin's wedding was beautiful (another post about this later this week). 

Here are some pictures of us at the beach!

Me, Mom and Sister Cindy

Hubby and I with Guiness

We had a great time picking up Sand Dollars and Seashells

And my favorite picture of the day!

(all taken with my iPhone)

xoXox

Super Mario Party

I honestly cannot believe how long it has been since I posted. I am SO sorry to all of you readers out there.

Things have been absolutely crazy around here.

We have been trying desperately to do some work around the house and I have been having some random health things going on that needed a little attention

(don't worry - I am ok).

So I wanted to tell you all about my Sister-In-Law's absolutely amazing 25th Birthday Party. She is a lover of Super Mario Kart and decided that she wanted to have a Super Mario Kart themed party. 

My Father-In-Law started only mowing where the obstacle course would be. Everyone had to bring a Kart of some sort, and everyone had to come in costume. Rob and I supplied the cake as Christiane's Birthday present which was OF COURSE decorated by Cinderellie's Sweets! 

Here are the pictures and a video at the end. I completely forgot my camera so all were taken with my iPhone (sorry!)!

The amazingly fab Birthday Cake!

Rob and I were Mario and Luigi and Guiness was Yoshi! Rob and I made the costume with felt, thread and velcro. It came out really cute and he basically just chilled all afternoon.

My lovely little family!

<3Love

Rob was getting ready for the party and wanted to check out the obstacle course on his Sister's bike. Guiness was chasing him the entire way around :) 

I promise I will be back sooner rather than later. XoxoX.

Operation Dog House: Day 4

I have so much to update you all on! We went camping over the weekend and now today we have amazing 4th of July plans with my in-laws. 

But first, I want to tell you about what happened on Thursday of last week; day 4 of Operation Dog House. 

WE HAD SUCCESS! 

I gave him the new bone in the morning and when we got home, everything was in it's place except for 1 sandal which Guiness didn't even chew! He just moved it to the couch to lay with it (hahaha. ew). 

So we are officially a crate free home right now. 

I am not holding my breath that things will go perfectly next week, but at least now we know that it can be done! 

And of course, Happy 4th of July everyone! 

I hope you are enjoying it with your family and friends!

Operation: Dog House, Day 3

Soooo ... the past two days have been much better than the first. 

Yesterday we found that he had chewed up our home phone a bit, but that was basically it. 

And today he found a wedding card that we had saved and ripped that apart. 

All in all, he is getting better. 

I have a few other things that I want to try over the next few days.

1) I want to give him a special bone tomorrow - a brand new one he has never seen before. I am hoping to make this his 'home by myself' bone.

2) If that doesn't work - I am going to take him for a long walk/run in the morning (this would be on Wednesday since that would be the next day he is home alone. 

I am really hopeful ladies! I just hope he keeps getting better and better!

Go Guiness!

Bad Dog!

Oy. It has been so long since I last posted. I am SOOO sorry! Especially since this is ICLW week and I have had such lovely visitors! 

Tonight I am going to share some drama from today and then some specifics from our lovely evening!

So we have been trying desperately on and off for the last few months to get Guiness to the point where we can give him the whole house while we are away at work. The last time that we did this, he ended up chewing up some books and papers - so we took the house away. 

Now we are DETERMINED to let him have the whole house. He is almost 2.5 years old and I am so sick of the gates in the house. It is definitely time.  

So yesterday I cleaned the whole house. I 'Guiness-proofed' and got rid of all books that he could get his teeth on. I even put the gates that used to keep him in the kitchen, in front of our two book cases so he didn't get tempted to go for those anymore. 

I left him with ALL of his toys this morning, and his favorite antler chew. 

And THIS is what I came home to. 

*all photos taken with my iPhone*

~First I saw my sneaker in the middle of the living room, and then realized all these flowers were scattered around~

~Yup. He pulled my dried wedding bouquet from our living room and pulled it into pieces. Thankfully  he didn't eat any of the pins, but half of my bouquet is missing now (if you look in the background you will see where the rest of the flowers went)~

I honestly cannot believe that he did this. He left his antler chew in the EXACT same spot that it was this morning. Grrrrrr.

Thankfully, he is a cute puppy.

*picture taken yesterday*

So my question is.... 

how did you all get your dogs to behave during the day? 

I am just at my wits end here. When we came home we showed him the mess and yelled, and he knew as soon as I walked in, but I am not sure what else I can do. We are going to just keep trying and trying but I would love some input.

Now after that, I decided it was time to get dinner cooking. When I went grocery shopping this weekend I decided to try a few new things. 

First, I made Kale Chips. 

Mmmmmm.

So you preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Put some foil or parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Cut the kale stems off and take just the leaves and cut into bite sized pieces (I just used kitchen shears). Then put all the kale on the cookie sheet and drizzle with olive oil, salt and a bit of chili powder (all to taste). We ATE those babies UP!!! hahaha! Rob was like - these taste ALMOST like potato chips. Mmmmm they were sooo good!

Then I made stir fry to go with the Salmon we were having for dinner. We actually decided to try those cedar planks for the salmon and it was mmm mmm good. 

I put baby bok choy, garlic, onion, and yellow & green zucchini into the stir fry. I would have added peppers too but I am doing a gut cleanse with my nutritionist right now and I can't have peppers. 

More pictures:

~Plank~

~Oil, Garlic, Onion, Zucchini~

*in that order - about 2 minutes in between each*

~Baby BokChoy Stems~

~Added the stems, then 2 minutes later, the Baby BokChoy Leaves~

~My Favorite Taste Tester~

It was all absolutely delicious. We also shared a yam with a pat of butter and some cinnamon and that just was mmm mmm the perfect end to the meal. 

Deliciousness all around! 

xoxox

Worldless Wednesday

Nap*Time

This is what naptime looks like at my house.

Time on the couch with Guiness on my legs. 

I know I share way too many pictures of this puppy ... but I hope you are not tired of him yet! 

XoXoX

Whino!

Usually Guiness is a very well behaved little dog. 

The areas where he could improve in his behavior would be when food is around, or when he gets bored and we are not home - he likes to find things to destroy. 

I was able to record him begging today. I usually do not let him go on this long but I wanted to show you how silly his whining is! O.M.G. he is so cute!