Quiet and still

As I mentioned recently, Allen is back to sleeping in his own room (with the exception of his request the other night). This has been successful primarily because Mommy snuggles with him in his bed until he falls asleep. He always does so quickly and peacefully, and last night I was able to capture his restful slumber on camera (plus his new sleeping companion).

Murphy's New Look

As some of you know, Brian is not a fan of paying to get his hair cut. Or his dog's hair cut. He's of the mind that if he can do it himself, he should. That's fine with me because it frees up more hair-cutting-dollars for my own locks (autumn reds here I come!).

He cut Murphy's hair once before with his own hair clippers (we won't get into the hygiene aspect of that right now), but human hair and dog hair are very different ... well, animals. So, last night we finally invested in some dog clippers. And Murphy got a brand new look ...

He looks adorable and he's so soft. I do miss his reddish brown coloring though. Hopefully, as his hair grows in, we'll take better care of it and it won't get as matted as it was before.

So anyone want Brian to cut his/her hair? He's taking appointments ...

xoxo,

leggy

Devotion

This is how I blogged for much of the evening. Now that's devotion!

Love ya'll!

xoxo,
me

Murphy love

He's taken to laying on the steps. He doesn't have a preference ... any step will do.

Isn't he cute?

xoxo,

Murphy gets a haircut

Mommy was sick today. I stayed in bed most of the day, so Daddy decided it was a good time to give Murphy a haircut (Mommy may have made a comment last night that Daddy was not to go near Murphy with a razor; therefore, Daddy may have taken advantage of the fact that Mommy was sound asleep upstairs).

Here's the Murph-man before he got hacked, I mean groomed:

And here is afterwards:

He no longer resembles a dustmop. And we can see his eyes. I guess those are good things. But I kind of miss his furball-ness.

xoxo,

The smartest kid ever

I am not biased. In the least. My kid just happens to be a genius. Don't believe me? Watch this (and keep in mind that he's not even 2 1/2 yet) ...

See! I told you he's a genius. Smartest.Kid.Ever. Seriously. It gets better, too (well, sort of ... I have not gotten successful video of this yet, so you just have to take my word for it). By the day after this video, he was including the letter "E" and he stopped saying, "H, I, J, I'm OK" and just said, "H, I, J, K." Granted, he started saying, "Oh no P" afterwards. But he quickly moved on from that an says, "N, O" pretty clearly. We're now missing L and M. But I'm sure he'll get those very shortly.

Some other cute/smart things he has said or done this week ...

• "Shoo bugs ... stinkin' bugs." In response to the gnats we have blessed with here lately.
• His new favorite thing -- thanks to Miss "S" is picnics. Apparently they don't lunch when she's here. They picnic. So much cooler ...
• We recently got him these Cars juice treats. He loves to bit the tires off the cars, and then say (a la Cars the movie), "Oh no! [insert car name here] blew a tire!"
• Singing, "Yay yay yay" when he knows Miss "S" is going to arrive soon.
• He finally got to "give people tacts" out in service Tuesday. He was very happy about it and proud of himself (and so were Mommy and Daddy of course).
• "Murphy, yet go of that tail!" He yells this to Murphy as he tries to grab his tail and drag him around the room.
• "I was being naughty," he told us as we left meeting Thursday night. And he was right, he was pretty naughty that night.

That's all I can think of for now. Hopefully I'll get a nice video of his current ABC skills soon!

xoxo,

Capes

Since Allen's first trip into Mia's crate, it's become his regular hangout. He goes into Mia's "cape" (as he calls it) several times a day. Yesterday, he decided to join Mia in there. You can see how much Mia enjoyed that ...

He looked a little dejected after Mia decided she'd had enough and vacated the "cape."

Since he was enjoying Mia's "cape" so much, he decided he would check out Murphy's (smaller) crate as well. He got in there, but it was definitely a tighter fit, and he announced to Mommy as he was getting out, "I'm in stuck. Hep!" (I'm stuck, help).

xoxo,

Shrine, Not forgotten

We updated the shrine today with those unbelievable photos from the fabulous Sean Randall. You can't really see most of them, but you get the idea. Just wanted to share :)

Also, I felt bad tonight as I looked at little Mimi because I realized she hasn't been getting any blog love. So, lest you think we don't love her anymore, here's a picture of our first baby.

And because all of you have been so concerned for her (thank you), I want to let you know that she's really warming up to Murphy. They are play-fighting a lot, and the other night after we'd put Murphy into his crate and gone upstairs, she started to cry when she heard him crying. She was worried about him. So, while she likes to pretend that she is mad that he's around, we think she secretly looooves him.

xoxo,

Murphy Update

As you can see, Murphy is getting bigger each day, and bolder too. He decided to steal Mia's "monkey." Murphy is quickly getting comfortable in the family, snuggling with Allen, playing with Mia, and chewing on Mommy and Daddy's fingers and hands.

xoxo,

Murphy Day!!!

The waiting is finally over. Murphy was delivered today. We had prepped Allen, so all morning he kept saying, "Muphy Henicks comin' !" He couldn't wait to see him. As soon as Lori and Carol arrived, Allen wanted Murphy to sit on his "yap." Here they are getting to know each other a little bit.

(Notice the lovely quilt, made by Carol. She made one for each of the pups. Isn't that sweet??)

Here are some other lovely shots of the little guy ...

Sleeping on Lori

Sleeping on Daddy (he does a lot of this)

The happy family

Cute little face

Bedtime Story ... both boys so sleepy!

Playing next to Mommy

So far, he's a perfect little pumpkin. The perfect puppy for Allen because he is very content to sit on someone's "yap" and sleep. He's done some exploring, but I think he's pretty worn out from such a big day.

Thank you so much to the Clark family for such a wonderful puppy. And thank you Lori and Carol for driving him up here to us today. We love you all so much!

xoxo,