Shaz, I love the video, that was really neat!
Amanda, Charlie is so sweet and so is Harley. I can't believe he is just a month older!!! Wow, that really motivates me to keep clicking!

Everyone have a wonderful holiday season!

__________________

Happy day after Christmas, everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful day yeaterday-we certainly did! We had an open house Christmas Eve, too, with lots of people and Thelma Lou was so thrilled at all the cuddles she got.
I have to go meet up for a championship round of Mario Kart in a sec, but I wanted to share a picture from her vet appt this morning.
12 pounds! I wish we could stop time for just a little while (for the kiddos AND the puppy.....)
Have a great rest of the week!

Eta: no idea why the pic is sideways. I'll try to fix it later...

Attached Thumbnails

 

__________________
L, wife of a soldier, mom to 4 humans, 2 felines, and 1 adorable puppy

Thelma Lou is already 6 months old! Time flies....

Hey everyone! What a whirlwind holiday season this year! It seemed to blow by with the dogs. They were right up in our laps while we all unwrapped our gifts and slept politely in the hall while we had guests over for Eve's dinner. I was really proud of them!
Peaches had her vet appointment yesterday. She weighed in at 14.4 pounds at 10 weeks 1 day. She has perfected fetch and drop it now. And she patiently sits and waits for every new situation. She hasn't really changed too much. She is just a little more energetic and very lovey to us. She has gotten herself on quite a schedule and is ready for bed at 730 to 8 every night. She gets right in her crate without any issues now and just settles right down. She now sleeps a full 8 hours until its time to potty around 4 am. Then she sleeps till 6 am.

She also has made huge strides in house training. She goes to the door and waits. the first time we didn't recognize it and she pooped by the door on the tile. But all other times we've been on high alert. I wish she'd bark but she just waits but we're happy about that!

Really she is an excellent puppy. I couldn't ask for more. I really love her and her personality suits our family perfectly.

I have some photos but they are all too big so here is two of the smaller recent ones.

__________________

Oh, Peaches is still such a cute little fuzz ball! And she looks so small to me, compared to Thelma Lou, who weighed 12 lbs at her appt on the 26th. Maybe because I see her next to Katniss? I don't know. She's definitely fluffier than Thelma Lou!

She sounds like such a good fit for your family and I'm so glad she's settled in to a good sleeping routine. Does she not nip/bite you? You didn't mention it. That is our biggest issue right now. We are working on "easy" and "off" which she does fairly well for me, but not so well for the rest of the family, especially the 9yo. Maybe because she has Kat to teach her how to behave.

Thelma Louis an excellent sleeper. She goes to bed around 9 and sleeps until 7:30 or even later if the house is quiet. And she's really good at holding her potty, if not quite so good at letting us know when she needs to go out. She does occasionally whine at the door, but it's not loud or long so if you don't catch it, she'll just move on and find a spot on the floor-usually only poop. She hasn't had an accident in several days, but I think it's just because we take her out on schedule still, not because she's letting us know. Thankfully she doesn't have to go very often, though, so it mostly works out.

I'm so impressed at her "fetch" and "drop it." Good job! I'm still trying to figure out how to get TL to lay down. I've tried all the training tips, but she doesn't respond the way they say she will (like moving the treat in a diagonal line down and she is supposed to lay down to get it. She just looks at it and then at me and stays sitting.) so we're still sticking with sit and shake and come. We've had to keep her on a leash outside most of the time now, because she's discovered fun hiding places in the hedge and runs right for them if we let her. But that's good, because she's getting better about being on the leash. And we've been taking her out the back door every time but had to change it up b/c the other day we went out the front and she was really timid about walking through the front door! Didn't think about that before. So now we switch it up on her.

Have a great weekend. Hope everyone else finds time to check in, too!

__________________
L, wife of a soldier, mom to 4 humans, 2 felines, and 1 adorable puppy

Thelma Lou is already 6 months old! Time flies....

I, too, am hoping to hear how our other pups are doing! I'm so glad that Thelma is doing so well. I can't imagine Peaches sleeping that long, it would be in my dreams to not have one potty break in the night, ha ha.
I haven't tried lay down yet with Peaches. I pretty much tell Katniss go lay down and she does and then Peaches will watch and follow. I need to work on more with Peaches. It just seems to be going by so fast and a lot of our exercise and training is going out for a walk and then fetching. I need to practice more inside stuff. Perhaps I will do that tomorrow.
I feel like I have a newborn baby, my days are passing by and I feel like I haven't accomplished a thing besides making sure my family is fed and clothed, ha ha.
As far as biting, yes, you are right, Katniss helps in that department. Peaches does bite when she gets excited but we hold her muzzle shut and say no bite and she usually stops for a while. If she tries biting on my shirt or robe we spray bitter apple and boy does that work like a charm! we don't even correct her. We just quietly spray the area she is biting and she moves on. She hates that stuff and we LOVE that stuff, ha ha!!
Well, I am off. We just got home from The Hobbit and my brain is fried. That was so boring to all of us!! Now I need to play with the puppies after they were in their crates for so long. No rest for any of us! LOL

__________________

Sorry for the delay in updates! We have been quite busy and actually got engaged on Christmas! So a lot of my GRF time has been converted to online wedding planning time. We've already decided that Charlie will be the ring bearer

But on the Charlie front, he just amazes me every day with how fast he learns and grows. He knows "sit" perfectly at 9.5 weeks, and we're working on "fetch". "Down" seems unattainable at this point LOL. He loves to jump up and put his paws on the ottoman - he needs to quit it.

Accidents are getting less frequent and he usually goes to the door when he has to go. The only issue is that sometimes he waits until the last second and will pee right by the door if we aren't quick enough But Charlie never poops in the house or messes in his crate at all, which is good.





Sent from my iPhone using Petguide.com Free App

Yay Amanda!!! Congratulations!!!! Are there details? How did it happen, ect. How exciting!

__________________

Charlie was actually involved! We were opening up Christmas presents and I thought we were done, when Adam "noticed" Charlie chewing on another little present. It was the size of a necklace box so I didn't really get too excited. But then in the box was a note saying to look on the tree. And in one of the ornaments was my ring! It's so gorgeous and special. The band belonged to Adam's great-grandmother and is engraved on the inside with their wedding date in 1928! He then had the diamond and halo added which is what I've always wanted, but I really had no hand in designing this here's a picture:



And here's some Christmas pics of Charlie, since that's what we're all here for!
Being an angel:


Hanging out under my mom's tree:



A little impromptu family photo on Wednesday night:



Sent from my iPhone using Petguide.com Free App

oh wow! Your ring is gorgeous and I love the inscription, that is so neat. What a sweet beautiful couple and family you guys make. AWWW thanks for making my heart smile this morning, I'm thrilled for you!!!

__________________

Congratulations, Amanda! What a sweet story. When will the wedding be? My youngest sister just got engaged, too. Lots of romance in the air this year!
Our oldest son just got married in September-a word of advice: give Pinterest (and yourself) a break. Go for personal and meaningful-not necessarily pin-worthy.
I love the pictures-Charlie looks like he's pretty happy with his new digs!

__________________
L, wife of a soldier, mom to 4 humans, 2 felines, and 1 adorable puppy

Thelma Lou is already 6 months old! Time flies....