It’s That Time of Year…

Not to be lost in all this puppy business is the fact that we have a little girl in our house getting ready to start Kindergarten!  I can’t believe our Lyla is going to be a Kindergartener in a few days.  It will be a bittersweet day for me.  I’ll be happy to see her off to a new adventure, but I will miss having my little buddy/pest around during the day.  Yesterday we went to the school so she could meet her teacher and see her classroom.  She has the same teacher and assistant pair that Nina had for Kindergarten (which we were so happy about), so Nina was very proud to escort Lyla to her classroom and show her around. Tuesday is going to be a big day!!!

   

Cayenne

Admittedly, I’m one of those people who thinks their puppy is the absolute cutest and thinks that other people want to see pictures of that cutest pup.  I promise all future blog posts won’t be solely about Cayenne, but she’s just so cute, it’s hard not to take pictures of her. 

She’s a very good little puppy so far.  She is very sweet and seems very smart and wanting to please.  She cried some the first night we had her, but last night after we put her to bed, she didn’t whine or cry and slept all night long.  Although, I don’t know who was more tired last night – Mark or Cayenne.  I snapped this picture with my camera phone while wondering which one to put to bed first…

After a full night’s sleep, she wakes up ready to play!

   

She’s a typical pup who loves to dig, chew, play, but she loves to be snuggled right up next to us.  I think we’re going to have a bit of a lap dog!

Both yesterday and today, we took her on some exploring walks to woods in the neighborhood.  I snapped a few pictures with my camera phone, so they aren’t the greatest, but she loves to sniff, climb rocks, and play in the water. Then she gets tired and needs to be carried home!

   

She was so funny this afternoon.  She climbed inside her toy basket and just sat there and posed for the camera.  It looks like I put her in there, but she did that all on her own.

Needless to say, we’re really happy with our little pup so far!

She’s Here!

The day was finally here.  We couldn’t believe it!  It was a tough morning of waiting for the girls, but by noon we were sitting in the Delta Cargo building, waiting for Cayenne.  The waiting was so hard.  We knew her plane had landed, but we had to wait for her transport from the plane to the cargo building, and for the girls, it felt like it took forever!

 

She finally arrived, and we signed off on the transfer paperwork and brought her home!

Once she got home, she really was so happy.  She ran, played, ate and drank, did a little napping, and lots and lots more playing. 

To say that Nina and Lyla are completely in love with her would be an understatement.  Was it worth the wait for Nina?  ABSOLUTELY, and it was such a joy to watch her love on her puppy after waiting all these years for this day to come!

    

She even got a visit from Mousey and Poppy, and then played some more until she completely tuckered out tonight.  I don’t know what tonight will bring in terms of whether or not she’ll be up whining or not, but all I know is that she is so exhausted right now.  Let’s hope we all get a good night’s sleep tonight!!!

Let the Countdown Begin

It’s been a long time in the making.  For Nina, it’s been years in the making! Nina loved dogs as a TODDLER, but I think the first time I posted seriously about it was HERE when Nina was getting ready to turn four.  Then there was a VERDICT of No on the dog.  Then she waited another year, had a DOG THEMED PARTY and still no dog.  Then she resorted to TREATING LYLA LIKE A DOG.  By the following summer, she was still dog obsessed and had taken to WEARING DOG EARS from morning to night as a sign of her desire to have a dog.  She even made it in THE LOCAL PAPER with her dog ears on.  I have so many pictures of her with the ears on – she wore them for months.  These are just a few.

     

We finally told the girls on Nina’s 7th birthday that we were getting a puppy.  The puppy isn’t for Nina solely, it will be a family pet.  Lyla is thrilled about getting a puppy, so we’re all excited for the pup to be here.  As I posted before, we got a Vizsla puppy, and she’s turning 8 weeks old on Thursday of this week.  We named her Cayenne, and she’s flying on a plane on Thursday morning from her current home at Countryside Kennel Resort to our home, so the countdown is on.  Her flight comes in just before noon on Thursday, so we’re well within 48 hours of her arrival.  Of course I’ll post pictures when she arrives, but we’re very excited here.  It’s going to be a long day of waiting tomorrow!!!

A Visit Downtown

Yesterday, Shen and I took the girls downtown to visit the Natural History Museum and picnic on the Mall.  Like I said in my previous post, I’m going to miss these days of just “doing whatever” without the school schedule to factor in!

The girls really enjoyed the museum.  Nina, Lyla, and I visited here last summer, but it was still fun for my girls to visit again – especially with their cousins this time.  Here they are in the jaws of a Great White Shark!

The dinosaur and fossil exhibits are always a lot of fun. 

  

We had Ryleigh take this picture by the big bird skeleton because when she was three or four, she was pecked on the shoulder by an emu at a little animal park down at Hartfield.  The story has gone on to be highly dramatized between the cousins with everyone now very wary and concerned over emus. 

We also visited the butterfly exhibit again this year.  While I thought the variety of exotic looking butterflies was a little less impressive than last year when we went, we still saw some beautiful butterflies and moths, and it was always exciting when a butterfly would briefly land on one of the girls.

 

 

This guy, hanging on the bottom of a leaf, was one of my favorites!

We weren’t supposed to touch the butterflies on purpose, but if one landed on us, we didn’t have to remove it.  Nina was so excited when this one walked on her hand.  It just so happened that Nina’s hand was sitting flat on the wall where the butterfly was crawling along.  She was thrilled that it crawled on her hand and she got to hold it there for a bit.

After a full visit at the museum, we did some snacking and people watching on the mall and then ventured back home before the five little cousins turned into five little monsters!