Full of Mischief

The Two Males

Here are a few pictures of the puppies from this afternoon. They are doing very well and are getting anxious to meet their new families!! Its hard to imagine that its only a week away for some of them. They had their 5 week puppy checks on monday and all have a clean bill of health! The vet commented on how well they were all doing. We gave them their shots when we got home, and none of them squealed too much. The boys more so than the girls, but thats always the case. They are really getting active and starting to venture out. I have to watch them a little more closely. I was busy doing yard work tonite and all the sudden I didn't see any of them so I got a little nervous. Fortunately they were all tuckered out after playin outside for over an hour and when I went in the shed, they were all sleeping in Belle and Remi's crate!!

As you can see they are getting more and more rambunctious by the day!! They are getting to be a lot of fun, but Gracyn doesn't always like them jumping and biting on her clothes. She usually asks to sit in the chair when they start that.

Boden Gerrit Franken

(The 2 million Dollar Family)

They claim that a boy and a girl make a million dollar family so I guess my theory is that we doubled that when Boden came into our lives!!

On Thursday May 12, 2011 the Lord blessed us with the birth of Boden Gerrit Franken. He was born at 2:40 p.m. in Sioux Falls and weighed 7lbs 1 oz. He was 20 3/4 inches long and the very first thing he did on this earth was pee all over the nurses (twice) haha. I told them you can't hardly blame the kid its a lot colder out here! Needless to say, I don't think that will be the last time it will happen either. He got me today when we got home, my wife once, and another nurse, so if this is any indication of how good he will be at bringing down roosters, I better start practicing. It was a pretty special day and a pretty special birthday gift for me. On thursday I celebrated my 30th birthday and I can't think of any better way to celebrate than this precious gift from God!!! It is a day that I will always be able to share with my son, and even though from here on out the focus on May 12 will most likely be shifted towards him, I am good with that!!! We spent Thursday, Friday, and part of today in the hospital but we had plenty of visitors. I was ready to get home, but the time with Robyn and Boden was good too!! Our other three kids came up first thing after school on Saturday and it is sure going to be good having them around with Gracyn and Boden being so close. Maddy and Austin spent a good part of today just sitting and holding "Bo" which is pretty good considering they are both as busy of bodies as you can get. I know these aren't puppy pictures, as much joy as I get from the pups nothing can quite compare with this moment!!!! I'm not the best at the "who does he look like" game, but I would definately say at first he looked like Gracyn. Some say they see Austin, some see Maddy, but no matter who it is he's pretty dumb cute baby!!! We're just thankful that the good Lord blessed us with a healthy child, and pray that he continues to grow healthy and strong into a fine Christian man some day!! (Boden's Going Home Outfit)


(Handsome young fellow gets his charming good looks from Daddy)

(If you ask Robyn, he probably gets his sleeping habits from me too!!)

Wow!! The pups changed alot in the two days I was gone! My wife and I were up in Sioux Falls for a couple days having a baby so I had to step away from the pups! I think that's a decent enough excuse??? When we got home today they seemed as though they were twice as big, twice as fast, and twice the mess. I was hoping to get through the weekend without any jumping out, but my oldest son Austin told me that by thursday (which was the day we left for Sioux Falls) a couple were already climbing out. They were in good hands though. Austin had everything under control while we were gone. He changed from carpet to wood chips (easier to clean) since Belle isn't any more. I assume when the two got out they got into Mom and Remi's food and after that happens no more cleaning up messes for Belle. He started them on soft food, as you can see from the last picture they enjoy it too!! I couldn't believe how fast they were Gracyn could out run them last week wednesday when we left, but not any more. They are right on her heals now. They really venture out now as well. No more sitting by the shed and whining, they are having too much fun checking everything out. The third picture even shows one of them showing their first signs of pointing. I counted and it was a good 45 seconds (ok maybe I'm exagerating a little bit) but she was definately "flash pointing" which is one of the first tell tale signs that once again these pups have what their mother and father have. They'll go in on Monday for puppy checks and the first round of shots and I'll probably start marking them this week with nail polish so I can tell which one does what and try match them up to what you're looking for in a couple of weeks!! Its hard to believe that time is almost here!

Here are a few pictures of the puppies from today and yesterday. My nieces Maryn (top picture) and Laney (third picture) love to come over and spend time with the puppies. My oldest daughter Maddy( 2nd picture) also spends her fair share of time with them. It seems like they stop by just about everyday to see the puppies and now that it is nicer and the pups are bigger, they enjoy playing with them outside and carrying them around. They are getting durabable enough for Maryn to tote around a little bit, but we have to remind her to be gentle!! She's kind of a gentle giant!! haha. As you can see from the pictures the pups will be plenty accustomed to kids.

A few pictures from today. It was an absolutely gorgeous day. I think it topped out at about 80 degrees and this evening the wind died down so it was fun to watch the pups outside. They did a lot more (we still had a few whiners) but for the most part they checked out the surroundings a little more. The top picture is of one little girl that wasn't afraid to go anywhere! She would try follow Remi (big sister) and mom around but can't quite keep up yet. All in all they are growing fast and doing great.

Puppies Playing

The puppies got their first taste of life in the great outdoors today. It was absolutely gorgeous out (for once) Sunny and no wind which we haven't had much of this spring in Iowa. They enjoyed it pretty well, and my daughters enjoyed it even more. They didn't venture out too far, but they didn't whine too much either. I think I got one shot of one of the pups howling a little bit, but they did pretty well. The first picture the pup even put its nose to the ground and started sniffing. Unfortunately I don't think it was b/c she was birdy, she just smelled home (aka the whelping box) ahead of her. My youngest daughter kept lifting her shirt and she was saying something we couldn't make out for a little bit. We finally realized that she was saying "puppy eat" she was lifting her shirt so they could eat off her tummy like they do Belle (pictures 2 and 3). It was pretty cute, and she's way too smart for her own good. She kept trying to put the puppies by her tummy and I guess in her little mind she was mothering them. Like I said it was pretty cute, and we laughed pretty good once we figured out what she was doing. Hopefully we get some more nice days so we and the pups can enjoy more time out in the yard.

Puppy in the House!

Tonite my daughters Maddy and Gracyn took one of the pups in the house for a while. By the time they go home, I'm sure they'll all have hand spent their fare share of time in the house. I don't know if I mentioned earlier, but my older daughter Maddy has snuck a few in already, but it's nice to wait til they're about this age so they don't cry and whine so much! This is one of the males, Maddy picked out names for them Gage and Hunter. Not sure if she'll be able to tell them apart yet, but it's something she loves to do!