Welcome home, Bender!

After years of promising and waiting, we finally got our dog!

We picked him up at 10 weeks old from a lady in Palmyra. Her Australian Shepherd had a little rendezvous with the neighbor's black lab and tada! 10 puppies. 

Bender's family for the first 10 weeks of his life:

Lance was at his dad's house when we brought him home so Jude and Cole got some one-on-one time with the little guy.

It was cute to see a puppy running around our yard. We got to surprise Lance that evening when he came home. He wasn't expecting the puppy for another day.

Amy was in town for a convention and she stopped by to say hello. It's always fun having her!

Look at that sweet face!

The boys are totally enamored by him. It's really cute. Lance is convinced Bender loves him the best. :)

 Poor baby can't even get rest when he's asleep.

The first full day we had him, Lance wanted to take him to the creek in our neighborhood. Bender is part water dog so I figured he'd take to the creek like, well, a water dog. Nope.

 He did NOT like that water a bit and would march right out and climb into my lap whenever Lance got him and placed him in it. (We have since taken him back a couple times and he's warmed up to it.)

 So, the boys played while Bender, Lily and I watched. And yes, Lance is just in his undies. 

So far, it's been fairly easy, although every day there comes a point where I question what I was thinking getting a dog with three boys and a baby. Bender's pretty smart and is catching on fast, though. It's so cute to see him sit, shake and lay down on command. Now we just need to work on a consistent "come".

Puppies really are like toddlers. They run around happily in their own little world and think everything is interesting.

One of my favorite things about Bender is he's a snuggler. He thinks he's a lap dog and if I sit down, he crawls right into my lap. I love it. I probably won't love it as much when he weighs 40 lbs.

We are loving our little puppy!

I think he's going to fit right in. :)