Hey guys!  I am hoping to do more blog posts in the next few weeks since I’ll have more time!! Recently I’ve been busy with school stuff, front porch sessions, and A NEW PUPPY!!!  River joined our family exactly one week ago but we had been talking/thinking about him for awhile.  Craig will tell you, he is the BEST and luckiest thing to come out of quarantine.  If it hadn’t been for quarantine, I probably would have wanted to wait until the Fall to get a puppy but I caved once I saw how much time we had on our hands to raise the little guy.

Craig grew up with a male, English yellow lab and I grew up with a female, American yellow lab.  We both agreed that we wanted a male and were open to either English or American!  We looked on petfinder for a few months and even registered with lab rescue.  We always promote rescues, but we were so ready for our guy and they currently didn’t have any yellow labs.  My dad sent us an ad that was in the Richmond Times Dispatch for a breeder in Danville.  We reached out to him and the next day we were on our way to meet 4 week old River.  Those next 3 weeks felt SO LONG.  We had a countdown until the day we could meet him.  The breeder called us and told us we could get him 2 days early and we were so happy.  Our little guy was born on leap day, Feb 29th and came home at only 7 weeks!

Craig and I talked about what his name would be a lot!  We wanted his name to have a personal meaning to us both.  We talked about naming him Ty, Parker, and Sunny.  Nothing really stood out to us until Craig mentioned the name River.  We both grew up in the River City and absolutely love going to the river here in Richmond.  My family also has a river house that this guy will be spending LOTS of time at.  I’ve never met a lab that didn’t love the water so we’ll see how he does when he can swim!  The very first question I asked the vet was when we could take him to the river.  He said we could take him now as long as he is in our site!

We love him so much even though he is quite the handful.  He’s had about 6 accidents in the house in the past week, 3 of them being VERY dirty in his bed.  He’s gotten 3 baths at 5am, yikes!  He is a very curious pup and chews anything and everything.  He also gives the best snuggles and already knows we are mom and dad.  He has met lots of close friends, family, and other dogs already!  We love you River boy!!!

This is how we had to pick him out!!! How would you choose in this precious pile of puppies?!? There were 5 boys and they all looked the exact same.  River has a little scar in between his eyes that we liked and he also was the most awake when we arrived.  This is Craig holding him for the first time, love at first site!! My mom came over the day we got him to take a few photos of us with him!! All that extra skin!!! The vet told us yesterday that he would grow to be 90 pounds, oh my gosh!!!
Auntie Emily gets all the kisses!
Uncle Steven has gotten to spend lots of time with River!



He looks cute here but he was probably eating a handful of mulch or waiting to pounce and chew my ankles, ha!
This is how mommy feels when she gets up three times at night!
I was scared that River would be nervous to go into the vet.  NOPE.  The vet gave him treats and he cried like a baby when we left.
Craig and I are so excited for him to be able to go on long walks with us!  For now, he goes to the other side of our yard and plops down and gives us this stare, ha!!!

River already loves car rides and is very brave when meeting his new doggy friends!
He always has to be in our arms!  He was used to curling up with 7 brothers and sisters so he loves all the cuddles.
Apparently he likes cleaning supplies as well….
During the day, River helps dad at work and sneaks into the dishwasher.
He LIVES for meal time.  He shoves his whole head in his bowl and even looks under the bowl for more when he is done.

I love my little guy so much!

Thanks for stopping by!! To see what I was up to the first part of quarantine click HERE.

Ashley Edmunds