Our Lily Girl

I've got a lot of catching up to do on my blog, but before I try to tackle that big project, I have to formally introduce the newest member of our family, Lily!

We've been waiting for Lily to join our family for months. We've had her in our thoughts and in our hearts even before she was born and have kept up with her through weekly pictures from her breeder in Missouri. We were able to pick her up, a day shy of her 8 week birthday, during our Christmas travels and she is far and away the best Christmas gift we could have ever dreamed of.

Lily is a golden retriever and is playful, loving, unbelievably soft, and so much fun.  She enjoys snuggling with us, but she can also run around in the yard to the point of exhaustion.  Drew has big plans for her to be his long-term bed partner, but he's definitely not ready to take her out multiple times a night.  Until she gets a little older, we'd hoped to have her crate-trained at night, but little girl has let it be known that she doesn't love that idea.  And it looks as though Matt and I aren't any more willing to let our puppy cry-it-out as we are our children.  We had a few nights of poor sleep and then we discovered she absolutely loves our master bathroom.  It's her favorite place to rest/nap during the day, so last night we let her sleep in there and she did incredibly well.  I hope we'll be so lucky for that trend to continue!

The boys, especially Titus, are positively giddy over Lily.  They love running all over the yard with her and anytime they fall on the ground, Lily will hop all over them and lick them like crazy.  She's definitely going to help us be a more physically active family, which will be great for all of us. 

Lily is already learning her name and that she earns a treat anytime she does her business outside.  She has a few nicknames already including Lily Vanilli, Silly Lily, and Lils.  She's also having a good time exploring our house.  She learned to go up the stairs in no time, but is a little more hesitant on coming down them.  And as I write this, she has scooted completely under our bed and is chewing on who only knows what.  Chewing is definitely her favorite pastime and yesterday we had to go stock up on more bones to try to keep everything else in our home from being all chewed up.

No doubt many, many adventures await all of us now that Lily is a part of our crew!