Celebrations

We have a lot to celebrate around our house!

Saturday, we moved Issa home for the summer. She had done so much packing and bringing home that we were completely finished moving her out in less than an hour. We still have a lot of unpacking and sorting to do at home, but it's good to have her home. 

Sunday we also started celebrating Evan's big sixteenth birthday. Mom and Shannon came over for steaks and Brad's new layered oreo dessert. This year, he rounded out the usual clothes and video games with some of his favorite snacks:

He is so easy to celebrate:

 The big news and biggest reason for his smile is our new family member:

Evan has been stalking the animal shelter websites for a few months. We lost Neela almost 10 months ago, and he has been more than ready to add a puppy to the family. We realized this is kind of the sweet spot when we would all be home, so we went just to look on Saturday. Issa was all too happy to push move out to the afternoon for the chance of a puppy.

We went to see a pup that had actually already been adopted, but we fell in love with Bella. She is only four months old, so we couldn't do a dog meet at the shelter, so we were banking on Buddy's positive reaction to her scent on us as a good omen. We also had hoped to bring her home after a couple of days to prep, but they are so crowded they are only doing same day adoptions, so Bella came home Saturday. Thankfully, she and Buddy and fast friends:

And she has definitely claimed Evan:

It has been fun watching Buddy teach her how to be a dog:

And she is incredibly smart. She has come and sit down, and she is getting the whole house training incredibly quickly. She even sleeps through the night! She also got her first bath last night when she discovered our frog pond. We are all trying to find new routines, but I'm so glad she joined our family!