Christmas cards and family updates

Okay, as Jenna tells me I must, I'm going to type quickly while Kiernan sleeps and give a quick update on our family. Let's see if I can get this written out before Little Boy recharges!

Kiernan is doing great. We went back to the doctor for his 30 day weight check a few weeks ago and he had gained nearly two pounds (when they had said he would be great if he'd gained a pound by his recheck). So, even though he's still further down on the percentile chart for weight than we would prefer, he's doing great and we're very happy that he's doing so well. Please keep those prayers coming that he continues to gain weight well.

Second bit of Kiernan news, he's coming dangerously close to walking. We went to San Francisco with Billy's family to visit his grandparents for Thanksgiving and Kiernan was just starting to get the hang of cruising. Well, that was a couple weeks ago and he certainly hasn't slowed down! He can now stand and keep his balance without holding onto anything, but has yet to take a step without holding onto something. I think those days, however, are quickly coming to an end!

Third bit of Kiernan news, we had our first real fit yesterday. I was doing a little Christmas shopping at the Sam Moon nearby with a friend of mine and, after letting Kiernan carry around a beaded purse (oh hush, he's just a little boy), I tried to put it back before we left. Um, without saying the word, Kiernan certainly told me "no"! Wow. He calmed down within a minute or so but that was the first real time I saw him have such an opinion about not getting something he wanted. Sheesh, I think I was a bit in shock!

Last bit of Kiernan news is that I think he's also just about ready to say his first word other than "Dada" and "Momma" (and, while I'd love to say Momma was his first word, I'm afraid it was really Dada). Anyone want to take a guess? That's right, "dog". ;)

Finally, here are some of the Christmas card designs by Fiona (is there anything this woman can't do?) that we were considering. Can you just imagine how cute the card is that we finally did pick? A-dor-a-ble!

Belated Halloween pics

Here's Kiernan and Daddy on our way to go trick-or-treating at the neighbors' houses. Kiernan thought visiting the neighbors for prizes was a pretty cool way to spend the evening!

And here are the photos we had taken of him at J.C. Penney's earlier that afternoon. Of course Fiona's would have been a million times better, but we had two free photo sessions at JCP so we decided Halloween was a good time to use one. I actually called Fiona from the parking lot of JCP just to say how much better it is when she takes pictures of Kiernan! The photographer was barely trying to get Kiernan to smile and it was all very rushed. Oh well, we did get a couple cute shots of our little monkey so I guess all's well that ends well, right?

Our "foster" land

Yesterday Billy, Kiernan, and I went out to Possum Kingdom Lake (PK, as it's known around here) to dream about land and a cabin that we might like to someday have. Of course we fell in love with a gorgeous lot and of course we can't afford it. Seriously, can you just imagine sitting on our back porch with this as the view?

As my sister Tamara said, this is our foster land. We keep it for a little while, love it dearly, and then sadly pass it on to its forever family. :(

Someday....

What a handsome boy!

Monkeys, monkeys everywhere

Gramma (Billy's mom) bought Kiernan this super cute monkey outfit for Halloween. For those of y'all in the DFW area, however, you know that it was about 50 degrees today so Kiernan broke in his very warm monkey outfit a bit early over at Fiona's.

A-dor-a-ble! ;)

Well, it can't all be good news...

Alas, it is not all puppies and rainbows over here at the Boettcher-Burkes.

We took Kiernan into the doctor yesterday for his 9-month checkup and, although there was good news, there was some not-so-good news as well. First, ever the optimist, I'll report the good news: Kiernan is nearly in the 75th percentile for height. He's grown 2 1/2 inches since his 6-month checkup! Wow!

And the not so good? He's actually LOST weight since his 6-month checkup and is now in the 3-5th percentile for weight. Poor little monkey! You can imagine that Billy and I were very worried about what might be going on with Kier Kier, but the doctor assured us (after being told in no uncertain terms that we are NOT going to give him formula; sidenote: I'm always amazed by the things that both doctors and vets are not that knowledgeable about) that with a month of pretty constant nursing we should be able to get Kiernan back on track.

Between that and Kiernan getting a vaccination, we were all ready to call it quits at the doctor's office. We'll go back in a month to check his weight, but please everyone say a prayer that he makes a complete turn around and gains weight like a champ!

The notorious seven (or is that Seven?)

My husband is a patient man. My husband is a kind man. My husband is an animal lover. However, my husband had no idea of the *scale* of pup madness he was getting into when he said "I do". Examples you ask for? How about the litter of seven GSP pups I brought home on Tuesday? We're down to only one pup at our house (named Seven, of course) and she'll probably be adopted by this weekend. So Seven plus Early, the Ridgie foster, and we're at our lowest foster number in quite a while. Like at least a couple months. Go ahead and add saint to that list of husband qualities. ;)

Here are each of the seven pups. Of course I managed to find the time to shuttle everyone to Fiona's!

Our beautiful little girl, Seven:

The death of a cell phone

With a little help from Kiernan, my cell phone took a plunge to the floor that, I'm afraid, it cannot recover from. Fear not, for Sprint (after a little cajoling and fit-throwing) has come to my rescue with a new phone. That curious noise you hear in the background? That's Billy's grumbling about how it's time to upgrade to an iPhone.

In the process, I did get all my old pictures off my phone and thought I'd post them here. Quality is a bit hedgy because obviously I'm not Fiona and this is just a camera phone, people. But enjoy!

Our foster dogs by Fiona

Well, we all knew that I wouldn't do them justice. Of course these are from Fiona!


These are shots of Quinn, our 3-year-old Australian Cattle Dog foster. I just love the photo of him running! He's a very loving pup and he's made big improvements since being at our house. We're proud of the little monkey!

These are shots of Saba, our Australian Cattle Dog foster. This was the pup that Billy found when he was out running one morning. She's a very sweet girl, even if she does want to eat the kitty.

These shots are of Cooper, our 3-year-old German Shorthaired Pointer foster. Unfortunately, he's heartworm positive so he'll be with us for the next couple months while he's treated.
A total doll!

As Gramma says...

I buy him books and buy him books and all he does is eat the pages! ;)

Ransom and Rawling

No blog update would be complete without a picture or two of some foster pups. Here are the two little GSP boys, Ransom and Rawling, who are now in their new adoptive homes. Rawling is the liver and ticked, Ransom is the liver and white. Aren't they just adorable?

More like his daddy every day

Now, people comment on how much Kiernan looks like Billy practically every time we leave the house. If it weren't for the blue eyes (which are still holding in there! yeah!) I would probably demand a DNA test for this little monkey.

After reviewing some pictures from that August visit to Austin, however, we have found another convincing reason why Kiernan is most certainly Billy's son. For those of you who, after a night out drinking with my sweet husband, have had the pleasure of learning a brain-numbing amount of intricate detail of the Roman empire or been puzzled by the depthless knowledge Billy has of useless trivia, I give you Exhibit A:

* I don't know when Kiernan would have started the boozing, but you can see from the picture below that his gift of gab is being bestowed on his cousin Bailey. He's probably telling her how to rebuild a carburetor with nothing more than floss and an aspirin tablet.
Exhibit B: Now we've moved onto the I-love-you-man part of his night of drinking. You can see that Bailey is not going to fall for any of these cheap lines.
Finally, beginning to sober up, he looks a bit nonplussed by the presence of the camera. It's much easier to deny the next day without documentation. Pesky, pesky documentation.

It's been a while...

Alright, alright, I know I've been slacking. However, unless someone can teach a foster dog to type, I'm afraid you're at the mercy of I-get-to-it-when-I-get-to-it.

To make up for my slacking, I'm finally posting some updated pictures of Little Boy. This is a picture from the August birthday party for his Aunt Tammie (Billy's sister). As a side note, isn't it funny how Kiernan ended up with two Aunt Tams? Seriously, it's not a very common name and somehow Billy and I both have sisters named Tamara.

And yes, he is the cutest little thing I've ever seen! ;)