Anyone have any suggestions of websites that will publish blogs to books? I used to know a couple and can't remember them anymore! Thanks!

New Addition to the Family

I guess it would be 'New Additions'. My dear Sadie Mae had her puppies on May 26th. She had a pretty hard labor and had 8 puppies but unfortunately only 4 puppies lived. She started giving birth right after the school bus dropped off the kids so it was pretty crazy around here. Luckily, Andrea was able to come over to help. I should mention that Sadie is a very, um... unique? dog. She is so very attached to our family and actually gets pouty and depressed if she is left for more than a couple of days. I actually believe she thinks she is one of my children. Needless to say, she was fine as long as I was next to her helping her deliver, but whenever I left the garage to take care of the kids, she got very panicky and anxious. I am pretty convinced that had she given birth during the night and had my full attention,I know I could have saved at least two of the dead pups.
Anyway, I will say that I surprised myself at my canine midwivery skills. (As long as I had on my rubber gloves). I won't go into details with the fatalities, but the four surviving pups are beautiful. They are born with dark gray/black fur but will lighten up to be the same color as Sadie. The stud we used was amazing. His name it Titan and he is over 200 lbs. These will be some huge dogs and amazing family companions. So... anyone interested??



These two pics were taken 4 hours after they were born. They were tiny. It's been 2 1/2 weeks and they are at least four times this size now.

--Goblin Valley--

We made another trip to Goblin Valley this spring. My dad and sister Andrea came with us. Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate as well as last year, but we still had a fun time. The first night and day we were there it rained and rained and rained some more so we loaded up and drove to Capital Reef National Park. Saw some great sites and by the time we got back to camp, it had cleared up and the sun came out. So we took a hike down to the "Goblins". We had almost the entire park to ourselves as most people packed up and left due to the rain. We had a great time jumping off rocks and climbing. The kids could spend hours there as there are so many places to explore. We discovered Andrea's new talent of jumping off rocks while I take the action shots.







These were taken at Capital Reef. It was so windy, but at least it wasn't raining.

Back in the Saddle Again...

So I finally made it back to the blogging world. We are all doing really well, and staying busy. I can't claim our lives have been so full of activities that I have gobs of stuff to post, but I'll start with a few of the things we've been up to. Spring is finally here and I couldn't be happier about that until I step outside and look at all the projects I've set myself up to do. I can get the lawn fertilized and mowed and the flowerbeds weeded, but after that I am completely overwhelmed. I haven't even cleared out Millie-goats pen yet and it serves as a sad reminder of our great little pet. The kids seem to think I'm going to get them TWO goats now...as much as I would love to, I want to wait until we have a bit more land and not so many neighbors. I have decided to possibly raise chickens instead. Who really cries about a dead chicken, right? I can't imagine they will try to jump a 6 foot fence and if they do, good luck. We are also having our back fence moved to the correct property lines as a previous owner didn't think it was necessary to fence in the entire property. Who knew just moving an existing fence would cost almost as much as putting in a new one? It will give us more yard, a much bigger garden and a larger place for my future chickens. (Matt loves my desire to be a farmer, really he does.) I'm on a total food storage kick and have set myself to be a full-time canning freak. I've got all the seeds and vegetable plant purchased and just waiting another week or so to get my fabulous garden planted. For Christmas my Dad gave me all the supplies to do my own canning and I can say that right now I am totally excited, but ask me again in August and my answer may be different.
School is almost out as well as dancing, gymnastics and pre-school and I can't hardly wait as I am so tired of driving everywhere.
Ok, now that I've rambled on long enough I'll get to some pics. We made it over to the Baby Animal Days at the American West Heritage Center in Logan. It was rainy, but the kids loved it. The chicks and bunnies were a hit but nothing else compared to the baby pigmy goats. Madelyn shed a few tears when we left but it really was so fun to see how much they love these silly little animals.








Who knew that three pairs for reading glasses (without lenses) would get these three monkeys to play so nicely together? Gotta the love the treasure you can find in the dollar section of Target!

We had a fun Easter, mostly because the weather was so nice and because we bypassed all the public Easter egg hunts and had our own big hunt. Dad, Dennis, Andrea and Matt hid over 100 eggs and the kids went to town. I love that I can just sit back and watch and not have to worry whether the kids will find any eggs or if everyone is being fair. I put lots of coins in the eggs and after Miles found all his, he separated all the money from the coins and ditched all the candy.

I'll Be Back....

Just wanted to let everyone know that we are alive and well, just without a computer. We lost our hard-drive in our NEW computer and have not gotten it fixed yet. To be honest, it has been really nice not having a computer for a while... I have found myself with a little bit more free time and more productive afternoons. Luckily I do have Internet access in my ITouch, which is how I am posting this. Anyway, I will eventually get back to blogging, it just might be a bit longer.

...this boy's best friend...

A picture is worth a thousand words....this kid LOVES his dog and I'm pretty sure Sadie loves him right back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mason & Madelyn

Our great friends from Reno, who now live in Texas, were in our area over the holidays to bless thier baby. We have a pretty good history with these folks as their son Mason and my Madelyn have planned to be married when they are old enough. We were lucky enough to be the Cochran's friends and neighbors for 2 years while living in Reno. The two of them along with Mason's little bro, Bobo were as good of friends as you can imagine. Madelyn and Mason declared their love for each other when they were just 3 years old. While waiting in the car with the kids one day waiting for Mason's mom, Hayley, to run some errand's they had a conversation something like this:
MAS: Madelyn, do you think we should get married?
MAD: Of course Mason, do you love me?
MAS: Yes I do. We probably will get married in the temple.
MAD: I want to have 2 babies, oh, and you need to get me a ring. A big one.
MAS: I will get you the biggest ring ever. What about Bobo? What will he do?
MAD: Bobo will live with us and be our little brother.

I have the entire conversation written down somewhere, but this is what I could remember off the top of my head.
While living in Reno, we would spend every single Saturday in the summer with our friends, the Crouch's and the Parkinson's, at SandHarbor beach in Lake Tahoe and Madi and Mason would play the "married game". They would pretend to be Rob and Andrea. (The Parkinson's who didn't have kids at the time) They would play under a beach umbrella for hours and Bobo would be their little boy or their dog.
When we weren't at the beach, they would play "family" with stuffed animals. Mason was the best sport I've ever known when it comes to playing with Madelyn as he was so patient and let her take charge.
We miss the Cochran's and are so happy when we get a chance to see them. The kids get so excited to see each other and even though Madi and Mason act very shy at first, they are the cutest thing ever! It's times like these that I wish we could have arranged marriages for our children.

 

 

Four Years Ago....January 2005

It's hard to believe it's been 4 years since Miles got his new noggin. It seems like a lifetime ago. This time of year I can't help but feel so grateful for this boy.
Miles was born with a condition known as Craniosynostosis, or more technically, Sagittal Synostosis. In other words... he was born with no 'soft-spots' in his head. The skull plates fused together in-utero. (No soft-spots AND 9 lbs, try pushing that out!) Within a few hours of birth, Matt and I knew something was wrong with his head, but the doctors just kept telling us it was normal. It wasn't until I changed pediatricians 2 months later, that someone finally listened to us. A kid with a head shaped like a football was NOT normal and it would only get worse as his brain grew. I know all parents believe their kid is the most beautiful child in the world, but if I'm being honest, I thought he was one funny looking kid.
We were referred to one of the top pediatric neurosurgeons in the country located at Stanford Medical Center in Palo Alto, CA. I refused to let anyone in the great state of Nevada touch him. (We didn't have many great or even decent experiences with the healthcare system in Nevada). I absolutely love Dr. Michael Edwards.

 

I won't go into the gory details of the surgery other than they cut out a chunk out of his skull about an inch wide running from the top of his head down to the crown with barrel cuts along the side. They basically gave him the 'soft-spots' that he should have been born with.

 

 

It was amazing how within hours of the surgery, his head was round!! A football shaped head wouldn't be very flattering on any kid. It's funny now because whenever Matt or I hold a newborn, the first thing we do it feel for the soft-spots in their head.

 

I couldn't believe how much different he looked within a week after surgery. As intensive as the surgery was, he was only in ICU for 2 days then we came home. He had to have 2 post-op check-ups in the next year, and his soft-spots closed up just as any other baby's would. It was amazing and we were very blessed.

Four years later, I can say that Miles is a very handsome 4-year-old with a beautiful, very hard, round head and a super cool scar. I love this kid more than I can say and am so grateful to be his Momma.

 

Lake Natomas

It was such great weather we had headed to Lake Natomas in Folsom. The minute the kids saw the ducks and geese, I had to scrounge around the car for baggies of goldfish, pretzels and Froot Loops to feed them. Lucky for us they were hungry, but not near as aggressive as the geese we used to encounter in Reno. (Many times Matt and I had to literally fight off the geese in Reno to save our children's fingers).

 

 

 

After feeding the birds and THEN spotting the signs asking that nobody feed the wildlife, we went on a long hike around the lake. (I really don't like California for these kinds of laws. No chasing or feeding fowl of any kind? What do they expect kids to do? Simply watch them?)