Puppy LOVE

This is our new puppy, that we gave the kids for Christmas...it took almost three weeks, but we finally settled on the name, YANKEE!

Some of the other name options were pretty interesting, to say the least, and everyone had a favorite, on which, they wouldn't budge. For instance, Elisabeth wanted to name him "PEACHES" from the very beginning...there was NO way the boys were going to call him that, they were completely appalled that she would even suggest naming a male, "PEACHES". We had a harder time naming this dog, than any of our four children (of course, there wasn't a nurse holding us hostage at the hospital, either), so we took our sweet time with the name, and hopefully our kids learned what it means to compromise, which apparantly is not a huge strength for our family.

He is a German Shorthaired Pointer, they are used for tracking/ hunting, but they are also bred to be excellent, family dogs. He came from a breeder with four kids, almost exactly our kids ages, so that part has been pretty easy.

His favorite toy is a monkey that Nathan gave him...he is getting really good at playing fetch.

His favorite spot to take a nap is up on the deck in the sun. He will also come up on the deck when he wants someone to come out and play, he comes right up to the dining room window and whimpers until someone pays attention.

Nathan and Annie are the ones who have consistently shown the most interest, they are both really good with him. Alec is great about taking him on walks and Elisabeth is still pretty timid around him, he can just about knock her over in his excitement to see her. Andy has taken on most of the responsibilities involved (baths, training, etc...) which has been nice, as I am not a huge dog person, don't get me wrong, I like dogs, but I am not one of those people that completely adores them. Andy is not a huge dog person either, but has done such a good job with him (he's read all the books and watched the training DVDs) and he has really enjoyed having a dog. We both went into this, a bit unsure, you hear all these horror stories about puppies and all the trouble they can get into...but (fingers crossed) so far, so good!