We got a puppy!!

What do you think this means?

We got a puppy!!

Swicey gets too much love from Maddi. 

 Swicey loves to snuggle with Audrey.

 Kimee is great with her, and a very good helper. 

She has done every dog-related chore I have asked her to do, and hasn't complained once.

One of Swicey's favorite places to play is under the Christmas tree.

The full story:

Ever since Kimee was little, she has wanted a puppy. We told her that when she was old enough to take care of it, when she was eight, she could get a puppy. Well, Kimee turns eight this summer and she has not forgotten that she soon gets a puppy. I didn't want to get the puppy right in the middle of the summer, so I thought we would get it around Spring break. That way we could get her house broken and that while we are still in school. Well, in April my sister Lora might be moving in with us, so I thought that might not be the best time to get a new dog. So we decided to move it up a few months.

Last Christmas, Dave's sister Carol's family got a schnoodle (schnauzer/poodle mix) for Christmas. That was when I learned about Schnoodles. I did a little more research, and they seemed like a good fit for our family. There was a really cute litter of toy Schnoodles on KSL that I had been watching for a couple of months. It was down to only one left of the apricot color that I wanted. On Dec. 4, we took our kids to my parent's for Grandma's Christmas Day. On the way home, we were talking about what we could do without the kids.  We were just about to Lehi when I said, "What if we go look at that puppy?" It was the perfect time because we didn't have the kids with us, and we were already pretty close to Eagle Mountain, where they lived. So we made a quick call and went out to see them. On the way back, we had a lengthy discussion about it all the pros and cons. But basically, if we were going to keep our promise to Kimee, this was the right dog and the right time. 

Once the kids were done at grandma's we drove back out and picked up the puppy. On the way, we had the kids guess what we were doing. They were really surprised. We stopped at PetSmart and picked out some toys and supplies. In the car, I told them all the rules about the dog. One of which was that the dog will die someday, and it will be sad. It's funny because Audrey still repeats the rules from that day like, Swicey can't eat human food. And Kimee asked the other day, "Mom, if Swicey is still alive at Halloween next year, can we get her a Halloween costume?"

So we picked her up, and we had to decide on a name. We had a list of great ones: Cutie Pie, Cupcake, Fiona, Peanut, Peaches, and Squirt. Dave didn't really like any of them- except his choice of peanut. We decided to wait until we actually got her to decide and see if another name presented itself. Well, just as we picked her up, Dave thought of a funny story with the perfect name. When Kimee was little, she was playing animals with Easton and Skyler. Skyler was a lion (or tiger) and he asked Kimee, "What's my name?" Kimee immediately replied, "Swicey." We all thought it was funny that she came up with such a unique name so quickly and with so much confidence. So Swicey it is! Unique, with a story behind it,  and a Kimee original.

We have had Swicey for almost three weeks now, and it hasn't been too bad. Yeah, I've got to clean up after her, but what's new? I've got to take her to go potty, but what's new? I feel like this is my stage in life right now anyway (poop, pee, feeding, cleaning up, etc.) so it's not that big of a deal. The biggest thing is keeping Maddi from hurting her (out of too much love and excitement). That is getting better as they get used to each other. Hopefully, things will keep going well and we will love having a dog in our family.