Colin's a TEEN!

Not long after we adopted Cooper, Colin celebrated his 13th birthday! It's crazy to think that we're a 2-teen household now. He's definitely growing up! He got his braces, his voice is changing, he's taller than me and definitely has bigger feet than me, and he even has some dark hair on his upper lip! He's a funny kid that makes me laugh a lot. School comes to him pretty naturally, as do most sports. He's still excelling in baseball and loves to cook. He's even made some dinners following my recipes while I'm at work!

We had fun celebrating that weekend and started with birthday doughnuts.

His request for dinner was Olive Garden! I embarrassed him by telling the waitress it was his birthday, so she brought him a piece of cake!

Colin also requested ice cream cake - we went with Choco Brownie Extreme from Dairy Queen. It was so good and lasted us days! 

He's a pretty cool kid. 😀

Introducing, Cooper!

On Thursday, May 14th while Cadence was at her driving lesson with her instructor, Danny and I grabbed some dinner to kill time. Both of us felt it was kind of crazy, but we agreed that we needed another dog in our family. The loss of Oden was so abrupt and sad. He had a lot of life left to live. We started talking about the idea of a new dog as a family, and even though I thought I'd never want a puppy, we thought it was best to rescue a puppy. The kids would be out of school soon and they could help train a puppy. We would also hopefully avoid any abuse that an adopted pet could carry with them. We all started looking at rescue sites and mom sent me pictures of puppies from the Licking Co. Humane Society. One of those puppies was named: Hennesy :)

I was talking to Kim at work about the loss of Oden and she described getting another pet perfectly:

Here was the post that melted our hearts. Look at that nose!

The very next day, we all headed to the shelter, Momma included, and met Hennesy. We also met one of his littermates, but we decided Hennesy was a better fit (Scotch was black and brown and kept chewing on my shoelaces!) He also had a sister, who was mainly white with some brown, but she was already adopted. It was probably for the better or we would've come home with TWO dogs!

Unfortunately, we could not take him home with us yet - he was scheduled to get neutered the following Tuesday. We all made the trip back out to the shelter on Sunday to play with him outside. We couldn't bear the thought of him stuck in his run at the shelter. We had so much fun with him. Even as young as he was, he did a good job of playing fetch!

We kept researching puppy names and tossing around ideas.

That Tuesday, Danny and Cadence went to pick up our pup while I was at work and Colin was at baseball practice. We landed on the name: Cooper! John Cooper was head coach of the Ohio State Buckeye football team before our time, but it's an OSU nod nonetheless!

We're slowly making him a lapdog

While we ate dinner, we put him in the portacrib my mom loaned us. Even though he was in the kitchen with us, he whined a bit before falling asleep.

We're trying to teach him "get on your spot," but his default is anywhere on the coach. My mom got us this surgical suit so he'd leave his incision site alone. It was pretty cute on him!

Hanging out with me while I worked from home.

Taking him out on a leash in the backyard because he likes to eat EVERYTHING.

Grandma loves him, too! Before we even adopted him, she told us she'd watch him during the 2 weeks we'd be in Europe!

He has some cat-like tendencies 😂

He's a sweet pup and we're glad he's home with us! He's done pretty well with potty training and I think it took him literally a day to master, "sit." He fits in with us so well!

Random Stuff in May

May is always busy with Mother's Day, the pool opening, school wrapping up, and Colin's birthday (along with other family/friend birthdays)! Check out what we were up to this past May...

The kids spent some time at the Rileys' house - Colin came back with red eyes after a sleepover. He's allergic to dogs and cats, so we think that's what was bothering him. Cadence was a good big sister and helped him with eye drops. 😍

I'm a sucker for a beautiful array of chicken eggs. I had to document to show a coworker at the office.

The middle school had service day - Colin helped mulch around The Square. He was featured in one of the photos that the school posted. They did a good job!

Cadence took a couple art classes her sophomore year - sculpture and drawing II. She replicated one of Kendrick Lamar's album covers with "scratch art" and I think her piece is better than the original! It's amazing!

Danny went from wanting to order a shed to use as a pool house/office to having Scott build us something custom. While Danny was out of town, I sent him progress pictures:

Danny drew this on his iPad so you can get an idea of what he's going for! More pics to come!

Another beautiful sunset on May 26.

We Miss Our Beautiful Pup

It's really tough being behind on blog posts - I go back through my phone and see old pictures of Oden and miss him all over again. I'm reminded of what a good dog he was for our family. I had cosmetic surgery on my chin at the end of April. I was lucky to have this pup by my side during recovery. I worked from home for 2 weeks after the procedure and loved finding him in different spots around the house throughout the day. What I wouldn't give to bring him back...

Gosh, so sweet, right?

He loved sitting on Cadence's bed and scoping out the neighbors

Colin's bed was prime real estate in the morning

Cadence painted his nails while I was at work!

He accompanied us on a ride to pick up Colin - I sent it to Danny while he was out of town and said Oden looked so regal. I didn't know at the time that it would be the last photo I would take of our sweet pup. He freaking loved car rides.