Ingredients for the soup:*2 cooked chicken breasts OR an already fully cooked chicken from the grocery store (I use the latter)
*2 large cans of chicken broth OR 2 boxes of chicken broth
*1 can of corn, drained, OR one bag of frozen corn
*1 tsp Ground Cayenne Red Pepper (you can add more to taste, but I found that anymore makes it really spicy)
*1 jar of mild salsa
*1/2 jar of a 5.75 oz bottle of minced onions
*2 carrots
*2 stocks of celery
Ingredients for soup topping:
*Tortilla chips (I use the Mission Tortilla Strips)
*Avocado
*Sour Cream
*Green Onions - chopped
*Cilantro - chopped
*Cheese
Preparation:
*If using chicken breasts, bake in oven at 400F for about 30 minutes until the juices run clear, flipping every 10 minutes. After it's done, tear it up into bite size pieces and set aside. If using an already prepared chicken, tear it up into bite size pieces and set aside.
*Cut up carrots and celery into bite size pieces. Put carrots, celery and the above ingredients into a large pot with chicken broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until the carrots and celery are tender (about 20 minutes).
To Serve:
*Crunch tortilla strips and put at the bottom of the bowl
*Cover tortilla strips with soup mixture
*Garnish the soup with avocado, sour cream, green onions, cilantro and cheese.
This recipe serves about 6-8 bowls of soup. Since it's just Travis and me, I cut the ingredient list in half. You can also freeze this soup and have it later (which is what we do)!
Now it's time for an update on this little man:
Okay, so he's not so little anymore, but he'll always be my baby. He just turned six months old a few weeks ago, and he's probably somewhere around the 100 lb mark. Just look at how big he is compared to Sedona.
Sometimes I get a quick glance of the two of them out in the yard, and I can't tell who's who! It's hard to remember that he's still just a baby, but his cute puppy antics never let me forget! He still naps pretty regularly which is nice, and his favorite place to snooze is directly in the sunlight that streams through our big front window.
He loves the sun so much that he actually seeks it out no matter where it's hitting at the time. The other day it was on the couch, so he did what he needed to do.
When I asked him what he was doing, he just gave me this look like, "Ah, mom! I'm sunbathing!" 
I was cleaning out my e-mail the other day (I had almost 500 e-mails in my inbox - ridiculous!) and came across this picture that my friend (thanks, Aprile!) took of Owen and me when he was just a baby-baby. I think he was about 12 weeks old in this picture and getting to the point where picking him up was a bit difficult.
I also stumbled on this picture from when we took Owen to my parent's house during a trip to get his parvo shot. If I remember correctly, he's about 18 or 20 weeks old. Look at how little he is!
Now that the weather has cooled off significantly, I take the kids out for a walk every afternoon. We have a big patch of desert right in front of our house that the dogs love to explore. Owen does extremely well on his leash, and he knows how to "heel" and "wait" during our walks. Most of the time I let them just wander where they want to. After all, it is THEIR walk, not mine :) The other day Mr. Owen must have gotten a bit too close to a creosote branch because I later noticed that he had a tiny cut under his right eye. Poor thing! It has completely healed since then, thank goodness. If that's the worst of his puppy ailments, then I'm good with that!
Of course I can't forget to mention Ms. Pebbles who is never far away from her two big Great Danes :) I love that little quizzical look she's giving me in this picture.
You know, I talk an awful lot about the dogs mostly because they are a constant presence and Owen needs a lot of attention right now. However, we do share our lives with three awesome kitty cats who are just as loved as the puppy dogs. We are very lucky in that we have a very harmonious house. Everyone gets along with each other. None of the cats are destructive in anyway. They are very sweet, very affectionate critters who love us and the dogs.First we have Attila who just turned 13 years old this November. He's a very loving, very loyal boy who loves to sit in the bathroom with me while I take a shower. His favorite place to be during the day is on our bed snoozing with his two girls, Abby and Kellie.
Next we have Kellie, aka Kell-Kells. We're not sure exactly how old she is since she is a rescue, but she can't be more than a year and a half. She's definitely a kitten all the way though! Her favorite thing to do is sit besides us on the couch when we're watching TV at night. Her and Pebbles sleep back-to-back most of the time for hours on end. She's very much a mama's girl who loves to follow me wherever I happen to be. And my-oh-my if you could feel this girl's fur through the computer! She feels like a chinchilla!
Last up is Abigail, aka Abby and Abby-Gabby-Budah-Belly, our blue-eyed beauty. Found wandering a parking lot tired and dirty, she was brought into the rescue I used to volunteer for as was Kellie (that's how both of them came to be with me). Abby is the sweetest, oddest cat I've ever met! She LOVES sitting on my lap and getting a belly rub. Just like Kellie, she often falls asleep on my lap while I'm watching TV. She enjoys being in the same room as me, so she has her own basket in my craft room that she uses quite often (you can see a hint of Kellie's brown basket in the top left of the picture). Another interesting bit about Abby is that she's fully declawed, a practice I find rather barbaric. Claws or not, she's still the sweetest thing ever.
Thanks for stopping by today! Enjoy your weekend :)
