It's A Boy!

My kids have always dreamed of having their very own dog.  It makes the top wish on Santa's list every year.  But there has always been one thing standing in the way. . . asthma.  Ryan has always had a problem breathing around dogs.  It started when he was almost 2 years old.  I started to get a little bit of hope that maybe a dog was a possibility when he was able to go over to his friend's house and wasn't having a hard time breathing around his cockapoo.  By some random coincidence I heard about another breed, Havanese, that was supposed to be good for allergies and asthma.  Unfortunately they were all really expensive when I started looking at buying one.  Then I found one that was almost a year old and lonely.  His owners worked all day and he spent the majority of his day in a kennel.  And he was half the price of a puppy.  I loaded up the kids, drove 30 minutes away, dropped $500 on the owner's counter and headed home with our new family member. 

I was smitten with his cute little face and didn't think about working out a game plan before taking him away from his previous owner, like asking him if we could take his dog for a trial period while we made sure this hypoallergenic dog lived up to all of the hype and that Ryan could breathe around him.

We got him home and tried to decide on a new name.  No one was excited about his previous name, "Chaz".  Not even the dog.  He never really responded to it so we felt like he was open to change.  I googled the top dog names and after some discussion, everyone decided on "Zeus".

I found this school paper in Hadley's room when I was cleaning up all of her many paper piles.  She wrote it before she knew that a dog was even a possibility for our family.

"My Greatest Wish"

My greatest wish would be to have a dog!  I've wanted one ever since I was 2 1/2.  I went to my friends house and saw their dog.  And immediately I fell in love with dogs.

To have a dog has always been my wish.  I have wished for one on every first star, candles, 11:11, etc., and just about every lucky/wishing thing.  I don't care what kind, as long as it's a dog.  I hope I get one.

She's one happy girl!

Unfortunately Ryan's not doing as well as I had hoped.  He does fine during the week when he's at school for most of the day but his breathing is more labored by Sunday night after being inside the house and around the dog all weekend.  He's taking his meds, using his inhaler and begging for allergy shots, which he has an appointment in a few months to start the shots but until then we need to make some big decisions.  It's crazy how quickly a dog can feel like family.  We've only had him for a week but I'm already sad thinking about having to sell him.  Hopefully we can find him a good family where he'll get as much attention and love as he does in our home.

Zeus wasn't the only new addition to the family last week.  My sister and brother-in-law, Brittany and Jamie, welcomed their new baby boy, Isaac James,  to their family on April 3rd.  All 9 pounds of him!

He's going to get lots of love and attention from these cute, big sisters!

Look at all of those cute rolls, peach fuzz and strawberry wisps of hair!  We can't get enough of him.  My kids were trying to convince his parents to let him stay at our house for a few days.  Weird, but they didn't go for it!

Everyone is so excited to have a new baby cousin to love and to hold.  They just needed a little practice and reminders on how to hold a newborn since it's been 3 years since we've had a little one in our home. 

We've got the first signs of spring in our home . . . baby sunflowers and Easter grass, growing by the kitchen sink.  The snow has finally melted, taxes are almost done, and were getting ready and excited for an adventurous spring break.