Meet Rico, our "rich chocolate" lab

We hadn't even been home from Washington for an hour, when Todd was on his way to the neighbors house to pick up our new puppy. We spent the entire day last Saturday (the day before we left for WA) building his dog house. As you can see, it's not quite finished yet. We still have to cover up the "pink board" on each side. At first I was hesitant to insulate the dog house. After all, this blessed dog house ended up costing more than the crib our babies slept in! But now that we have snow, I've decided it's better to have an insulated dog house, than to have to bring him inside if it gets too cold!
We considered making the doghouse look like Uncle Rico's van in Napoleon Dynamite, but thought better of it. I prefer to think that his name is Rico (which means rich) because he's a chocolate lab. (he's also got brittany spaniel blood).
He was free, except for the cost of the doghouse, the leash and dog run parts, his food, the container to store his food, his dog dishes, his toy, doggie biscuits, and the upcoming shots and vet bills. I'm starting to think we could've finished a room in our basement!! The boys love him, though, (especially Todd) so I guess it's worth it. The boys will have a job now, too. I bought a special container for the dog food that they could reach into, so they can feed the dog every day. A giant garbage can would've been cheaper, but I've said all along that if we ever got a dog he has to stay outside, and I'm not feeding him every day! I have visions of my poor mom trudging through the snow to feed our dog that everyone else neglected.
Our neighbors have graciously agreed to feed and take care of him when we have to go back to Washington.