Welcome Murphy

Murphy is from Cedar Rapids just like Robert. 

Robert drove over to meet him when he was about 5-6 weeks old. (Not our kitchen and not our ultrasound pictures on the fridge!)

 This is a picture of Murphy at 9 weeks old, saying goodbye to his mom and dad.  Dad is the yellow lab. The parents seem a bit smaller and shorter than Bo was, if you want a reference. Murphy was the smallest dog out of the litter, but not so small he was considered a runt.

 He weighed in at 12 lbs when we brought him home. 

 First night home! We got back to Ames late, but we stayed up to cuddle and play a bit. 

 First day. Dallas thought he should nap near him.  We put a cardboard box in his kennel for a couple weeks to take up space so he wouldn't think he could use the bathroom in the back half!

 More cuddling/napping. 

 I think he looks like a completely different dog in the belly rub position. 

 In his second week with us he got to take a long car ride and spend the weekend/family Christmas with us in Southern Iowa. He wanted to eat all the cords at in the cabin, but only had one indoor accident so we will count it as a win!

 You'll notice all of our pictures are in the kitchen. He hasn't earned the right to be in the living room or on carpet yet.  We hope soon! At four months he still considers everything is edible and should go in his mouth to be eaten or chewed.

 Really her dog. A puppy has been on her Christmas list for 4 years running! 

Evidence of the chewing. Robert loves getting texts from me during the day of the next victim.

Overall we love him and he has been a great addition. He can hold it 6-7 hours (all we have tested) during the day and 8-9 hours overnight in the crate. We need to work on his table manners- he likes to steal our food. He quickly learned sit, lie down, and shake and will perform at will. He is fairly good on the leash with Robert and I, less so with the kids, but they don't really enforce any leash manners.
Now that he is four months his fully vaccinated and we wait for the snip-snip after six months.
I would say that Emily likes him best, Noelle takes the least sass from him, she will put him in his place when he jumps or nips, and typical of all things Dallas, he loves him in the good moments, and wants to sell him in the poor- like when he had his basketball shoe in his mouth.