Thanks to Sally for suggesting I share some photos of our "ornery" puppies! I do love sharing pictures of my kids 

I hope this finds everyone doing really well and having had a great summer!

Our hearts are never far from our Lily, Elliott and Bogart. It was a heartbreaking 15 months losing all three of them so close together. The remains of all three are together, where they would want to be, on our mantle and you can almost see the three of them running around when we go to our "spot", a field across the street from our house where we spent so many hours walking, playing and laughing together. 

The Dane baby we adopted, Augustus Danius (aka Auggie), is still growing and we absolutely adore him. I like to say that he's brought the laughter back into our home and I know that Lily would absolutely approve of his love for chasing squirrels that he will never catch. Continuing to carry on her dream 🙂

Auggie is so different in so many ways from Lily but so much the same in all the ways that count! Absolute devotion to his family, goofy to the core - and a big, wussy Momma's Boy who is not afraid to cry to get his way 🙂 He is 16 months old now and has done all of the obedience classes and his instructor suggested a trick class to help him build some confidence (he was a little shy). Boy did it ever! He has become a social butterfly and I am amazed at how quickly he picks up every trick! The instructor has said on several tricks that Auggie probably won't be able to do them since he's so big. Wrong every time! He knows how to roll over, play dead, crawl, wave, chase his tail, sit "pretty", say his prayers and many more! Last night, he learned how to "say he's sorry" - he lays down and puts his head on the ground and looks up with his mournful eyes. I have a feeling that is going to work well for him while he is going through this ornery teenager phase.

Enter Isabelle (aka Izzie): In July, we adopted a large 1.5 year-old Labradoodle from Doodle Rescue. Izzie had a rough start in life but her face screamed at us when we saw her. My mom, Auggie and I drove up to Iowa and picked her up. It was only when we got her home that we realized that she is terrified of men (she was fostered by a woman and her daughter)! It took a week and a half for her to work things out with my husband but she really fell hard for him. We *really* wrestled with whether or not to keep her as Auggie is afraid of children and we were afraid the two fears may not play well together. But, in the end, we couldn't let her go and we do feel like, with no children of our own, we have the time and the willingness to work with her and she is such a love! Auggie and Izzie have become inseparable and we are still finding out new things about her every day. We just found out last week that she is a frisbie dog (my first)! Her original name was Furry but we changed it to Isabelle....she needed a good name that also had a great tomboy nickname. We love that Augustus and Isabelle sounds like a real love story....but "Auggie" and "Izzie" so suits them cause they are such a mess!

I apologize in advance for the overkill on pictures....it's so hard to pare it down when I look at those faces 🙂

-Kerry & Jevon - always with the spirits of Angels Lily, Elliott and Bogart -  and with the hearts of ornery Auggie and Izzie