Jodie,
I was just cleaning out my email and realized I never sent you any pictures. Cricket is doing great. As you mentioned, she loves playing ball in the yard. She'll bring the ball or toy back and drop it now instead of just playing keep away after you throw it. She's got a few other tricks down. Sit, lay down, take a nap, roll over, shake, wave, leave it, go get it, touch. We're working on turn left and turn right, she's almost got turn left down. She's still pretty dog aggressive. We've tried socializing her with other dogs that we're around a lot, but she hasn't made much progress. I'm looking into a Feisty Fido class in Madison. She loves being outside in the yard, weather permitting. Sometimes it's hard to keep her in at night, she'll usually whine and chirping for a while until she realizes she's not going back out. She also loves it up at my in-laws place, with 40 acres of woods to run through (we've got the tick collars on already). She gets along great with the kids. Oscar, the 4 year old, gives treats using our commands to sit, stay, leave it, and go get it. Jasper, the one year old, gets plenty of kisses from her, which I often have to break up. I haven't weighed her lately, but she's filling out well, you can't see her ribs anymore. I'd guess she's somewhere around 60 pounds. We all love her and are glad she's part of the family. Hope all is well with your family too. Thanks.
Dan