Happy 4th Adoption Day, Kusko!

Today marks 4 years since we adopted Kusko from the Rocky Mountain Great Dane Rescue. Many may not know that I dreamed of having a Great Dane for several years before I even met Milton. When I told him that I was going to have a Great Dane someday he thought I was crazy. He couldn't understand why I would want such a big dog. A month after we got married I started looking and Milton was convinced that he still wanted nothing to do with a Great Dane. Well, after realizing that I wasn't going to give up he started doing his own research about the breed and became interested. We then went to an event that the rescue was doing at a local dog show and Milton had his first Dane experience. He was hooked. A month after that we had the home check, paperwork all filled out and was ready to adopt our first dane. Luckily, the people at the rescue knew what they were doing and fit us with our perfect match, Bruno (aka Kusko).

The day they called to say he was ready to come home I cried and couldn't wait for him to arrive. Once he did though, the realization of how big they really are hit and we were all in for a bit of an adjustment.

However, it all went great and we have loved this guy since! The pic above was taken today. He really doesn't look bad for the condition his body is in and that he is 7 years old (which is pretty old for an extra large breed).

This pic was taken the night of his adoption after they had left. We let him on the couch for the first few days, but realized that we would no longer have one if it continued (he doesn't share).

Our adoption pic

I wish Costco still sold these beds! They were huge and very fluffy.

Kusko in his better days. He really had some moves for a big clumsy dog.

Kusko has always been the top dog.

Dane Deer

Hope we get to celebrate another anniversary with you Kusko...we know our days left are short, but are glad you've been a part of the family.

What a Monumental Day!

Our Ayla is such a big girl now! This past week I had to go through all her clothes to determine what fit and most of her 12-18 month clothes had to be boxed up. She's now mainly wearing 2T which is a bit surprising since she's only in her 20th percentile for weight and just turned 18 months on the 1st of February (which means I'm going to have to get her a belt soon for all her low riding pants).

I'm also super excited that we were able to get her hair into a complete ponytail today! I have no idea why it is so monumental to me but I couldn't be more excited! Hopefully she'll leave this hairstyle alone so we can actually have her hair out of her face for a change.

She is just so adorable and already knows how to "cheese" for the camera. We have one adorable little girl!

Ayla's 1st Real Snow Experience

Finally, it's February and we have enough snow and warm enough weather that we attempted Ayla's first play in the snow. She loved it much more than I thought she would and we ended up out there for over an hour today.

She was in explore mode the whole time. Since the boots I bought her are about 2 sizes too big, in hopes that they will fit her next year, she had a harder time walking in the snow so she mainly kept to the sidewalk (luckily we live on the corner lot and had a lot of sidewalk for her to travel).

In this video she points and says dog just before patting her leg when she hears one barking.

Mama's Little Helper

Ayla is truly my little sweetheart! Even though she can still be a girly diva she usually has such a sweet and loving personality. She's always good about helping me pick up her toys (even though her attention span may not get the job completely done), she loves to help me unload the dishwasher and now she is even starting to vacuum.

I have to be honest and say it's much quicker to do things myself, but I try to make it fun for the both of us and hopefully someday it will be easier to get her to do her chores.

I'm so blessed with such a wonderful daughter who is always so easy going and wanting to experience new things. She even started going to nursery a month early without any problems. She LOVES it and so do we! We love you Ayla!