Mister Benson

Please give a warm welcome to Mister Benson! We got him this past Tuesday and he is THE cutest little chunk ever.  God really answered our prayers and met needs that we didn't even know we had. 

Did you catch in this post how I kept saying "she" when referring to our future pup? We were so intent on getting another girl dog.  In all the pet sites we put in that we were looking for a female and at the humane society we really only concentrated on the female dogs.  We even had one of my mom's friend's nieces (did ya follow that?) looking for female puppies.  And we knew we wanted a dog that wouldn't shed. We even thought we knew what breed we wanted: a german-lab mix. Or a lab-something mix. We saw and met so many sweet dogs that all would have most likely been fine with our family.  But none of them felt like "her."  

This past Monday night my mom's friend's niece texted my mom and asked if we had found a dog over the weekend.  My mom replied that we hadn't, but were open to perhaps looking at different breeds of dogs or even dogs that shed.  The lady responded that she had just gotten off the phone with a rescue organization that had two five week old golden retriever puppies.  The only thing was, they were both male.  My mom asked her to send us a picture of the two and we about melted.  They were SO stinkin' cute.  My gosh, you guys!  We knew that this was what we were supposed to; it just felt right.  After sitting on the edge of our seats waiting to hear if they were still available (there were three other interest families) we found out we could have one!!  

Tuesday afternoon the lady brought them both over and we chose Mister Benson (choosing his name is AN ENTIRE other post.  Getting six people to agree on ONE name for the little chunk was such a tiring feat!).  He has been such a good puppy and we could not love him anymore.  God has been so faithful to us in our search for a puppy and he has given us the right dog for us.  We know that we aren't replacing Sadie (we never, ever could), but that we are opening up our hearts to love another dog.  I can't wait to see how our little chunk grows and we have all loved getting to know his sweet personality (except for at 5am.  At 5am his personality is a little much for us...err, Mom. She's the one who has been taking the 5am shift.).  

(I think we also all forgot how much work a puppy is! We can't leave anything on the ground because he loves to chew on everything.  Not to mention chew on us.  But he is oh so cute, it sort of makes up for it.)

And now for proof of his adorableness: 

My confession: We are so in love with Benson; a puppy only God could have gifted us with!

If you wouldn't mind praying

for our cat, Zoe.  She isn't taking the 

additional member of the family too well. 

Thanks, friends!

sadie girl

After a little bit of a health scare with our dog, Sadie, this week, I thought it was appropriate to dedicate a post to her.  She is THE cutest dog out there, so you are in for a treat (no bias, whatsoever)!

We got Sadie when I was in the sixth grade.  It was a COMPLETE surprise.  We hadn't been talking about getting a dog, and in fact, my parents had told us no pets (although we did have a cat, Bella, but that is a story for another time).  I had gotten home from school after a pretty crummy day to this sweet, adorable little puppy.  I thought she was an employee's of my dad's dog (for some reason I thought this guy always had puppies with him) and thought nothing of her.  I played with her for a little while and asked the guy what her name was.  He replied that he didn't know.  I thought that was odd, and then asked my dad.  He said that we would have to wait to see what the rest of the family thought.  It took me a minute to realize what he meant.  WE WERE GETTING A PUPPY! This happy little puppy with paws bigger than her body was ours!  

Side note: This is how Sadie ended up in our family--  Our backdoor neighbor's grandma lives out in the farm area.  Her neighbors are dog breeders and one night a golden retriever momma got out of her kennel and found a black lab, who was apparently a hunk, as Sadie was thus a result of their "friendship."  All the puppies were golden, and thus able to be sold, but little Sadie was black and couldn't be.  So she was given to the neighbor, who gave her to our neighbors, who gave her to us.  All so random and spontaneous and wonderful!

Sadie is such a good dog.  And I'm not just saying that.  Other people will agree.  She doesn't bark (unless an unknown stranger is in our yard at an obscure time.) She has never even tried to bite anyone.  She loves meeting new people.  She is a fantastic snuggler and always seems to know when one of us is having a ruff day (see what I did there?).  She doesn't give out many kisses, which I'm fine with as I find that a little bit gross.  She also inherited all the best qualities of a golden retriever and those of a lab.  Not to mention her hair is long (I am not a fan of short/medium hair dogs. although that does mean more vacuuming for mom...er, us four kids. although we don't' mind, because we love her too much to care).  She is great with kids and just wants to give out some sadie-love.  Such a good puppy.  How we ever got so lucky, I'll never know. 

Not to mention, she's pretty cute (: see below for proof! 

"oh stop, i'm camera shy"

Sadie loves the snow, don't let her face in this picture fool you. trust me. 

My confession: I truly have the cutest, bestest dog in the entire world.  No need for a competition, my Sadie girl would blow all dogs out of the park.