Cinnamon Roll (and one week picture of Abby's ear)

 Abby was telling all the doctors and nurses that she was going to get a puppy.  She was so excited about it and she managed to sweet talk her daddy into picking up the puppy on the Tuesday she was released from the hospital.  (We had previously arranged to pick the dog up on the Monday but then with everything going on, we had to push it back and we thinking more like Thursday.)
You can see in this picture that they are all ready to meed the puppy and that Abby and Brandon are still wearing the hospital bracelets.  Brandon pretty much dropped her off at home and went to get the puppy.

 Abby was the first one to pet her.

 Then she explored the house and sniffed around.  She was pretty scared that first day, but she seems to have settled in and seems to love this new home.  We named her Cinnamon Roll.

 First time outside...possibly ever...she was kept inside at the breeder's house so I imagine this is a big, scary, cold, wet way to be introduced to the world for the first time.

All the kids love her.  Abby, Isaiah, and Jubilee seem to love her the most.  Jubilee will pretty much never leave her alone.  Isaiah likes to take her outside and play with her (less stress for messes?) and Abby likes to do most everything with her.  Noah the dog lover likes to watch her more from the distance but isn't really into petting or touching her much.  Emma is more of the motherly type.  (that might not be the right word...) but Emma keeps the puppy on the hard floor and takes things away from her if she's not supposed to have them and follows her around making sure she's not getting into trouble.  Maddie follows close on her tail but doesn't often touch her if she's awake.  (She's not into the licking or jumping...don't worry.  We'll train that out of her.)  Maddie says, "Dog-dog!  Dog-dog!"  She doesn't mind touching her if she's asleep.  Let's be real here, though.  The real dog owner in this house is Brandon.  (He has her spoiled.   ;)   When he's home, she knows she can sit on his lap.  When he's gone, she doesn't even try to get on my lap.)

 Comforting the puppy upon arrival when she was crying for her family.

 "Good night, puppy!"

 She wouldn't go potty in the freezing rain so I took an old sweater that had a hole in it and had begun to ravel and I cut the sleeve off and cut a few slits for legs.  It won't last forever, but it will get us through this icy rain.  She can stop shivering long enough to actually potty this way.

 Jubilee loves to carry Cinnamon around.  She's a little too big and wiggly for her to handle though and so Jubi often gets in trouble for this.

 She is allowed to sit down and hold the puppy and this she does often.  (Whether the dog likes it or not.)

 However, if wagging tails mean anything, I think Cinnamon Roll has accepted the fact that Jubilee loves her and that she'll pretty much never walk again...so she is usually found wagging her tail and possibly kissing Jubilee.

 They all wanted to take a turn taking pictures holding the dog.

I actually have a picture of Noah doing it too, but for whatever reason, it wouldn't load up on here.

 Emma wanted me to take a picture of this house with a swimming pool on the roof that she built.

 This is a bad picture, but the camera was having a hard time focusing since it was raining so hard.  See how fast the water is pouring out of the neighbor's spout?  This is the biggest hindrance to our current potty training adventures...  it's ALWAYS raining.  (which is okay with me, but not with anyone else)

Again, you can't quite see it, but the rain is coming out of the down spout so hard behind that trash can that it's hitting the ground and shooting up about 2 feet above the trash can. (but that's REALLY hard to see.)

Abby's ear--one week after surgery.  She's looking so much better and feels great!  She says nothing hurts still.  I expect if she got this far without pain, she'll probably not feel anything more from this.

We're still dealing with the goo in her hair so it's a bit greasy looking by her ear and it kind of wicks oil into the surrounding hair so eventually, all of her hair gets pretty bad and she showers to get the yuck feeling off.  I makes parting her hair hard too, because it's stuck in weird clumps and won't separate easily while it's greasy.