Brucey

We have a new family member in our house!

Meet "Brucey".

Brucey, as in Bruce Banner...aka The Incredible Hulk (Avenger loving boys live in our house).

I had originally said we would wait to get another dog until Tanner turned two, but who are we kidding here? I wanted a puppy just as badly as the boys did!

Brucey has snuggled/wagged/puppy breathed his way into every heart in our household. 

Now, Nathan and I knew that Brucey was coming for quite some time before he actually arrived but we chose not to tell the boys until the day he actually showed up.  We've learned over time that telling the boys about things they have to wait a while for, just leads to months of asking daily when their puppy (in this case) would be arriving. Always better a surprise. So, on the day Brucey came we told the boys that we had something for them and had them sit down blindfolded on the couch. 

Jenn and Burkie came over to sneak in some new puppy squeezes, I mean, help with the surprise.....

Nathan had gone to pick up Brucey 

so once he was inside, we had him stand in front of the boys with the puppy and then we let the boys take off their blindfolds. Collin's face....

I think I mentioned a little while ago that he has been asking non-stop for another baby and or a puppy to be added to our house. To say he was excited would be an understatement!

I've learned Brucey is a lap snuggler. If you sit down, he'll almost always come and sit with you.

....and if the lap he's looking for is already occupied, he'll squeeze in wherever he can fit!

This little habit might be a wee bit more interesting when he's an eighty pound dog instead of a puppy.

If you couldn't tell already, we are majorly loving this having a puppy business. ;)

Miss Maddy

Ok, this is embarrassingly long overdue, but the most beautiful, squeezable, tiny niece was added into our family back in March and I have been such a slacker blogging lately, that I have yet to write about it! Nathan's sister and our brother-in-law had Miss Maddy on Saint Patrick's day and she is just perfect! I was in l-o-v-e, love with her when we first visited her in April and have eaten up the time I've had with her squishy, baby goodness ever since. These things I expected...

...What I didn't expect was how absolutely smitten Nathan would be! 

He is a total, one hundred percent, hands down baby hog!

That is, until my brother-in-law pulled out his shiny new Terraferminator and the lure of a free trial run with it at the cost of mowing their front lawn pulled Nathan away from "my" baby and into the great outdoors. (That front view? Swoon, right?).

Phew! Dana, I still owe you one for freeing up "my" baby again for me!

I was cracking up at the faces this cute girl would make!

Snuggle time with Miss Maddy was just the best! Eventually though, hungry babies do indeed have to be surrendered over to their Mommas... 

....and when I finally handed her over, I got to see just how beautiful being a Momma looks on Kimmie.

Seriously.

For that matter, it looks pretty good on Dana too! ...Not the whole being a Momma thing, of course, but the being a parent thing! Kim and Dana are both so smitten with her, as well they should be! It was fun to see!

Anyway, like all our other trips up North, this one was over far too quickly! Fortunately for me though, Miss Maddie came down for a visit shortly after we had been up to see her and this time-- I got. to. babysit. (Eeeek!).

More snuggles!

And this time, not only snuggles, but smiling too! Even better! The boys gave her a crash course in "Intro to Boy Cousins 101" and clearly, she passed with flying colors! (Those would be Tanner's giant hands patty-pat-patting her head).

The boys love Maddy and would play, play, play with her until she crashed! She and I would then snuggle away....

....while the big boys ran amok in the house. Sigh. Such is life. Those baby snuggles were well worth it!!