Our New Addition

Have you ever taken a trip that completely changed your life?

One month ago... we did.

Remember THIS?

Well, after saving and saving.... finally their work paid off!

It was all planned! The day of our eight hour road trip to Oregon to pick up our puppy was finally here. The excitement of Christmas morning even felt incomparable!

First stop - to buy a collar for Gunner. We all agreed that red would be his color after seeing all the pictures that the wonderful breeder had been sending us the past eight weeks.

Now, there was nothing to stop us.... well.... except for the coolest looking slide at a park in Oregon!

AND some beautiful scenery .....

After that, we just couldn't get there to meet little Gunner fast enough!

Once there, we were taken on a wonderful tour of Thornwood Labradors. Imagine forty-five beautiful English Labradors all extremely excited to see us! It was quite overwhelming!! It was hard for everyone to wait.... but finally the time came. Finally, it was time to meet the puppy who would be coming home with us to stay!

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It was love at first sight... for everyone!

The kids didn't want to go to the hotel that night without Gunner, but we all knew we had to. We had fun that night, talking about what it was like to meet him and what it would be like - life with a dog. (I don't think they had a clue what this was really going to be like!)

You can imagine how excited everyone was to wake up and get ready the next morning, the day we actually took Gunner home!

The drive home was great because Gunner was so calm, just trying to figure out what the heck was going on!

Every hour, on the hour, we stopped so Gunner could pee. We have read that he needs plenty of praise when he pees outside..... well, he definitely isn't short of praise around here!

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This is a big swarm of praise around him!

Poor Gunner had no privacy - the kids all watched intently till he peed - okay, we all did.

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Even when he ate, nobody could take their eyes off of him! During the drive, everyone sat in the official "hold Gunner" chair for 1/2 hour at a time. They could all hardly wait their turn to stare at and snuggle with him!

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Introducing Gunner to his new home was really fun for the kids (and chaotic and crazy too)!

Welcome to your new home Gunner! We really think you will love it here with us!

After such a looooooooong day.... what we all really needed, was sleep.

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And if you think that really happened.....THINK AGAIN!!!

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It has been one month since we welcomed Gunner into our home. It has been wonderful, terrible, difficult, exciting, frustrating, fantastic, and exhausting. After four children, I can honestly say, that these puppy days have been just as overwhelming as those newborn days. But I can also honestly say, that I KNEW it would be this hard, and thank goodness I had been mentally preparing for almost a year now. I would have gone completely insane by now had I not!

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So, it's a new world for the Schultz's. But you know, perhaps the most interesting view about this whole experience, is right through Gunner's Eyes!

Notice Anything Different?

Metal Mouth....

Brace Face.....

Tin Grin.....

Yep, we got one of those now!!!

AUBERINO.... AUBS..... AUBREY MAY..... - SHE'S 12!

The birthday fairy struck again.....

A second child to be old enough to be in YW - the church's youth program. Seems impossible!

We had a fun family get together for the two March b-day girls - The kids always look forward to gatherings with cousins!

We usually let the kids have a "real" party on their 12th. Aubrey thought and thought about what to do...

My husband is brilliant. He came up with a "Downtown Picture Scavenger Hunt"

Brilliant because a) - the girls had a blast and b) - IT WAS FREE!!! Aaahh - I love that word. That, in my opinion, is brilliant!

We drove the girls to downtown Boise - we realized last minute that we couldn't responsibly fit 7 girls and Chip and I in the van - (can you imagine that conversation between the girls' and their moms?!) so thank goodness Aunt Kelley was available - not only was she a driver, but she also took Taylor, Hannah, and Jack to the mall during the pizza part of Aubrey's party. Again, brilliant!!

Once downtown, we gave the girls a map (beautifully hand made by my talented map maker of a husband) and the coolest list of pictures they had to get with Aubrey's camera. Chip and I thought they'd be apprehensive about asking complete strangers to take their picture. Uh.. think again!

Here are just a few:

A picture of all the girls in sunglasses...


A picture with everyone's hand on a big bell... (they had to find the bell somewhere downtown)



Aubrey with a cook...


A picture of all the girls with the capitol in the background...

And the one that made me, Chip and Kelley laugh so hard - They had to get a picture of all of them in front of City Hall. The first people they saw was a sweet senior couple taking a leisurely stroll downtown. Without hesitation, all seven of them ran full speed to ask them to take a picture. So, the nice man did... BUT... the girls weren't happy with it because they did not see the words "City Hall" in the picture. So, they asked him to "get down a little" and take another picture. Well, he didn't just get down a little - he down a lot! After the girls stopped giggling, Aubrey went to get her camera from him, and he asked for help getting up....

When he walked away, he had dirt all the way down his sleeve... we felt so bad, but couldn't help but laugh about that all night!! But at least he got the picture they needed!! He was such a sweet man. The girls are trying not to burst out laughing here...

After downtown, they came home and had fun being 12 year old girls. The conversations of 12 year old girls are quite entertaining, to say the least.

Perhaps the ride home was the best part! Yes, we did squeeze for these few minutes in the car - ssshhhh.... we aren't telling!!!

Aubrey always has us all in stitches - a special girl she is indeed! Sure love you Miss Aubrey May!

Taylor's 14th Birthday Couch

Actually... this is her 12th. I came up with the idea when she was turning three. The birthday couch fairy really looks forward to birthday couch creating...

A new teacher at church paid Taylor a visit - she's simply the best.

And a sweet friend made a clover cake for her.

A day of fun surprises and her favorite things.

I guess it doesn't matter that I don't feel ready to have a 14 year old - I mean nobody asked me how I felt about it first!

Thank goodness she is delightful. We love her to peices.

Let the Season Begin...

Do ya think Jack was excited for his first baseball practice?

This was a dead give away.

Let's Go To the Hop! (and the Monster Truck Jam)

What a great weekend we had!

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Friday night:

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I don't think Chip and I would have gone to the Stake 50's Dance just because. But I wanted to support our good friend who put the whole thing together. And what do ya know, we had SO MUCH FUN!! We had a blast with friends, and Chip even won the costume contest for the guys!

It was hilarious.


Saturday:

Chip and Jackson never miss the Monster Jam!! Jackson wanted so much for me to "experience" this event - I tried to talk them into it being a special boys day together, but it was pretty important to them that I go along....

Thank goodness for earplugs.

It WAS fun - and pretty exciting! But I think this is one of those "if you've seen it once...." type of things for me. The announcer's voice is still ringing in my head - he made me laugh the whole time. The whole rest of the day, Chip and I couldn't help but talk like him...

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(Imagine a low, deep, loud, growling voice)

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"WHAT SHALL WE HAVE FOR DINNNNNNNERRRRRRRRRRRR?!?!"

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"GRIIIIILLLLLLLLLLLLED CHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESE SANDWHICHEZZZZZZZZZZ!!!!!!"

Day at Camel's Back

We have lived here for four and a half years and had never been to Camel's Back Park here in Boise. But I think in the last month, we have been there three times!! This is where we went on their most recent day off of school.

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First, we climbed the famous (or infamous, however you look at it!) hill.

Aubrey was first!

Hiking down the trails on the other side is my favorite part!

Off to the playground - we had never seen one of these - it was really bouncy and fun!

The big open field there is perfect for frisbee, playing fetch with the dog, soccer, etc. All Jackson wanted to do was play soccer with his sisters. After rolling their eyes and dragging their feet - I got the girls out there. Guess who had the best time ever?

Then..... it happened. Check out the next picture - see Taylor's left knee? Take a look at where it's headed.

Right. where. it. counts.

Yeah. That pretty much ended our day at Camel's Back.