A little poo-pooh

I bet by the title you were getting nervous! I almost forgot we had this Pooh outfit. He only got to wear it a few times, but at least we got lots of photos of it!

Meeting Grandpa Dave

As I've noted before, Dave's cemetery in Rensselaer is so beautiful. Woodsy and comfortable, it's so peaceful and calm.

This was our first family photo with the dogs. They were happy to visit Grandpa Dave because they get to run around off-leash.

It was so nice to finally have Eli there. I love that Eli is right next to Dave's name in the picture, since after all, his middle name is after his Grandpa Dave.

We didn't have much time to spend there because we had to turn around and rush back to be in Zionsville by 7 pm for our first session of "Growing Kids God's Way" parenting class. I couldn't believe we drove all those places in such a short time, with a baby and dogs no less!

Mouth wide open

Just have to love this picture of Peanut sleeping with his mouth wide open!


And what's not to love about a screaming baby? Bear's trying to figure out what's wrong. He looks so tiny is his clothes!

Who need a Boppy when you have Bear?

Bear makes a great Boppy! He is so careful with Eli. He was very attentive to the fact that he had a little Peanut using him as a pillow. Bella on the other hand was not into being a Boppy at all. But she had her moments too...




They both look so comfy!

The first sniff

Bear and Bella spent 5 days at the luxurious, all-inclusive outdoor adventure vacation destination, George's Jungle, (a.k.a. my sister's house). They loved it there because they got to play with their dog, Ranger, and run around on their property. They just loved being able to run free in the outdoors and trample through the fields. They didn't come home until the second day we were home, which was nice so we could get Eli settled at home.

Needless to say, they were exhausted when they arrived. This was great because they sniffed, then snoozed :) When went to a class to learn how to prepare dogs for a baby and it really helped. When we first came in the door, Bella came right over to me. She could tell I was different. Then they went to check Eli out. Bella was very interested and Bear acted like it was no big deal. Bella went and fetched his Pooh and brought it to us. She was eating a lot of his furry friends, so I'm not sure if that was her plan or if she was just being helpful. It was cute either way.

After a minute or two of vigorous sniffing, they went and slept on the floor. It was great for them to be so tired!


We bought them new bones since they were a big brother and sister now. I love this picture of Bella! She's camera shy and it's hard to photograph her since she is black. They loved their big sibling presents!

Nursery progress

After many weeks of making a little bit of progress in Peanut's room, we are finally painting! I wanted to incorporate the original lime green (it was previously my office), but Mike preferred blue. In the end I was happy with what we came up with, the lime was a bit bright for a nursery.

We are re-painting the stripes, which were a huge pain the first time. We are hoping it's easier this time. Here is my drawing of what it will look like when it's done (the big brown square represents the crib).

The dogs were in there sometimes (they've never been around paint) and eventually our happy Bear with the crazy tail brushed up against the wall and got paint on himself! Luckily it was just tacky and just got on his fur and not anywhere else.

The second night Mike was painting, he decided to do it in his Driven attire. I was a little concerned that he could get something on it, but then I forgot about it. I went in the other room to leave him by himself. Then I hear "Babe, I have a little bit of a problem in here." He was so calm, but when I went in there, I realized he had spilled the dark blue paint all the way down the front of his shirt and shorts – all over his Driven uniform!

I worked and worked on stains and was able to get most of it off. Not all of it came out and I had used Dawn soap to scrub it and it kind of lightened/bleached his clothes. I guess it could have been worse, he could have spilled it on the carpet! I was pretty proud in his 'new dad' control because he did not cuss at all when it happened :)

Puppy Love

It's so cute to see how much the puppy siblings love each other. Sometimes they play ferociously, and other times they cuddle lovingly.

Chilly Dog
It's no secret that Bear loves ice cubes. He patiently waits by the fridge for someone to give him hand fulls of ice cubes. But sometimes he eats so many that he is shivering, even in the summer! Yet he will still sit by the fridge for more.

As silly as it sounds, we hate to see him shiver, so we wrap him up in their blanky and try to warm him up. We usually lay on top of him to squeeze the shivers right out of him. We make a Bear Burrito. I have to admit, he makes one cute Chilly Dog!

Surprising Grandma Shumaker

Also during the trip to Rensselaer, we got to visit Mike's Grandma Shumaker, who is in a nursing home (which used to be a hospital and was where Mike was born!).


We haven't seen her in a very long time. Most of the time for the past few years, she doesn't know who people are and she can no longer talk. So it makes it difficult. But this time was special. After Mike woke her up from a cat nap in her chair, she looked at him and then dosed off for a few seconds more. Then, when she woke up again, we could tell that she knew who we were. She had a glisten in her eye and they welled up with a few tears. Even though she could not talk, we knew she was there.

We told her all the new things going on with us – the dogs, the business, and our big news of Peanut. We showed her the photo album of our ultrasound pictures and also pointed out that Peanut had the Shumaker nose!

A little later, we asked the staff if we could take her outside to meet the dogs. They said we could even bring the dogs through the halls. So Mike went and got them. At some point, we would love to be able to do visits and therapy with the dogs and even though not many of the residents wanted to pet them, they did a great job walking through the halls.


The rest of the family joined us and we were able to visit outside with her. It was really great to see her and even more special that she was understanding us. We could also ask her yes and no questions and she would nod with her answer. I couldn't believe how lucid she was, it was truly a blessing to have these moments with her!

4th of July

Every year for Forth of July, Mike's family goes back to Rensselaer to celebrate. We have a family reunion for Jill's side (Mike's mom) and we also celebrate Dave's birthday (Mike's dad). This year would have been his 64th birthday. And this year, the trip was obviously different than past years.

We went to the cemetery to see the headstone. Those take months to get in and we had not seen it yet. The cemetery is the most beautiful and peaceful one I have ever seen. It's way out in the boonies, along an old dirt road. There is an old school house along the way that Dave and Jill attended elementary school in. The cemetery has woods around it and it is so quant and beautiful.


I was a little worried because we had the dogs with us and I didn't know what to do with them. The cemetery is fenced in and there was no one else around, so Mike let the dogs go and they ran all around – free as birds, and loved it. After about 2 minutes of that, Bear ran over to us and laid right down in front of Dave's headstone. It was as if there was no place else he wanted to be. He wanted to say hi to Grandpa Dave. It was such a cool thing to see and made us feel very comforted.


"Shu" fly, don't bother me!
Another funny thing happened during our visit. Bear had a pesky fly that would not leave him alone. The fly would land right on the back of his neck, just in the perfect spot to where he could not reach it. It drove him crazy and he jumped, scratched and danced all around trying to get the fly off. It was hilarious and we know that Dave was entertained by it too.


Most people would think that this would have been a very somber experience, but it was quite the opposite. We picked the perfect time to go since it rained the rest of the day (we only had a few sprinkles when we were there) and with the dogs there, it really helped. It was nice to visit Dave and we miss him dearly. We were also glad that Peanut David got to visit too.

6th Anniversary / Babymoon

Flashback: June 21st, 2003
It's hard to believe that we got married six years ago! We've been together for a decade now!




Dinner for 2 (no high-chairs please)
To celebrate our anniversary, we went to dinner at the Coachman. We don't go out very much anymore so we were really looking forward to it. Maybe it was because I'm pregnant, but they ended up seating us in a room full of families. We were the only people there without small kids! I know we will end up getting our kiddo fill soon enough, so I would have preferred just adults. But some of those whiny kids did test our patience!

A babymoon Dave Ramsey style!
If you haven't heard, the new rage for preggers is to take what's called a babymoon. It's like a honeymoon, only it's that one that last trip before the baby comes! Most of my friends went to Florida for a week, but we are on the Dave Ramsey plan, so we economized with boating (free), dinner & tip ($40) and a complimentary stay at a hotel in Plainfield (free), which equals one priceless good deal! It was fun, but I wish it could have been a little longer, we were only gone from the puppies and home for less than 18 hours.

Can we swim yet? (a variation of 'are we there yet?)
Earlier in the day we went to Heritage Lake to take the dogs out on the boat. It was also the same weekend as Father's Day, so it's something Mike's dad would have enjoyed. Unfortunately, the pontoon motor was acting up, so we had to unload all of our stuff (and excited puppies) into the fishing boat. The pups were sad that we were so close to swimming, yet so far.

Not sure if you've ever had 2 adults and 2 big, wet dogs on a fishing boat, but it was interesting! It was easier to get them in and out of, but there wasn't much room to relax. I had brought some things to read while baking in the sun (a baby name book, baby magazine, baby bargains book). Needless to say there was no time or space for that and it all got wet!





The dogs love the water, they just forget they don't have to work as hard with their life jackets on. They would fight over who got the tennis ball and who would get into the boat first. It was so funny, they would swim for a minute and then come over to the side so Mike could pull them in. Then they would rest for only about 30 seconds and then jump right in again. Just like kids, couldn't make up their mind what they wanted to do! They were tired, calm pups on the ride home (that was our plan :)

Overall, it was a great weekend, but it went really fast!

The Puppy Part :)

So here are our little puppies (that turned into big puppies)! Bear is on the golden one, Bella is the black one. Apparently, 3 out of 4 of our pet's names began with "B' and I have no idea why.

I call them my first babies (well, my first furry babies). The bunnies are hard to cuddle with (they won't let you pick them up) but the puppies are very cuddly.