Oh Boy!

Well needless to say it is quite busy around here (the reason why I am going to do our Mammoth vacation in parts-see part 1 below). For those of you that don't know...we have a new family member!

The kids have been wanting a dog now for over a year. Well I should say Kendra has been wanting a dog and then Drew just always says whatever she says. But I will say they both love all types of animals, especially dogs. One of their favorite part of our desert riding is all the dogs that come out with us. We have pretty much been looking for a dog the past year. Not specifically or really looking hard, but just casually looking at other dogs and pet stores to see if there was a small dog we might fall in love with. During this process we one, didn't find anything we really were thinking was a fit for us, and two the specifics of the dog got pretty funny the more and more the kids started talking about it. Drew said he wanted to name a dog Ariel (this is what you get when you have a little boy who is always playing with his big sister who loves princesses). Kendra wanted to name her dog Belle. She was even specific enough to say she wanted a brown dog because Belle's hair is brown. Well of course Drew caught on to this, obviously loved the idea and both would tell us daily how they wanted a brown dog. Now to find a brown dog. We started looking on the internet to try to find a smaller dog but after going through pictures and visiting pet stores, there wasn't a smaller dog that we all had to have.

So Dan decided to show me a picture of a chocolate lab. I just kept telling myself, it would be so much work, we can't...well to make a long story short, we did and we are. One thing I do have to note is that we were praying specifically for the right dog for our family and again to make a long story short, this dog came known to us from circumstances that was confirmation to us that God had this specific dog in mind for our family.

Without any further adue, I would like to present to you Belle:

Belle in her favorite spot she has found under our entry table.

Daddy holding Belle...we took her to his work so he could meet her :-)

Drew taking a turn at brushing her.

Kendra watching a movie while laying with Belle.

One of her sweeter moments.

I think their smiles say it all! We had to pick Belle up from the airport and it was the most amazing thing to see the joy such a cute animal brought to our kids! This is a moment I will never forget and one I will treasure forever!

Yes she is as cute as she looks! The kids are in love with her, and Dan and I are also very happy we have a new family member. At this point in puppy time I will say I love the dog but that doesn't mean right now that I always like her and other than that I will keep quiet :-) I will say I am sleeping though and only have had to get up a couple times so that is a huge positive.

More to come on our trip and Belle soon...