The Countdown is ON!

We are counting down until next Friday, the 18th, when the newest member of our family joins us!

This picture is of our new puppy (or one of his brothers or sisters). They all look alike, so even if this isn't him, it will look just like him. :-) Many of you know I've been wanting a dog since before we got married. I talked to him about getting a dog before I ever mentioned wanting children! So, yeah, the doggy fever has had me for quite a long time. I realized that this was the year to do it. Livie's finishing up preschool soon, so for now, I'm still a stay-at-home mom and I can devote the time necessary to train a puppy. And, if we got him in the spring, I would have all spring and summer, with the kids, to get him used to our family and give him the attention he needs from all of us. So, after much persuasion, Pete finally agreed! I think it was the picture above that did it too. He fell in love with this little guy and said, "I want HIM." So, I called the breeder, found out that she had a litter available on the 18th. We sent in our deposit and are just waiting on a phone call to set up our appointment to come up and pick out our new puppy. We're thrilled to pieces! We have the crate all set up, a bin full of doggie toys, and everything else he could ever want. Now, we're just waiting for our little guy. We even picked out a name. His name will be "Darth Tater Sock Frog Trolinger". I know that's quite a mouthful, but everyone wanted one part of naming him. We call that his "show name". But, in everyday life, we'll just call him "Tater". We even scoped out a Cubs collar for him and plan to take him to the store once we get him and let him pick it out himself. Who knows? Maybe Tater will bring some luck to the Cubbies this year and we'll go all the way! So, to everyone who's been wondering about my not-so-cryptic message about the puppy - YES - we're expanding our family! Since Cara and Em are both having babies, I thought I'd join in and have a furry baby of our own. ;-) So, the countdown is on until you get to see our sweet Tater here with his new forever family. Hope the next week flies by!