Gillian is a Mother!

This is what a "Carkie" puppy looks like (via Google)


Lately we have been impatiently awaiting the arrival of Gilly's puppies. So yesterday morning Josh went downstairs to let the dogs out to go potty and discovered that she had just barely delivered her first puppy. I heard it crying and went straight to her side to help her deliver the rest. A few weeks ago I took her to the vet to get checked out and they x-rayed her belly to make sure everything was ok. She said that the bones of the puppies had just started forming and was about 2 or 3 weeks away from delivering 4 little ones. they showed me the x-ray and I counted the 4 little skulls and prepared myself for the delivery- we even went and bought one of those small, blue plastic children's pools so we could keep them in it for awhile. So you could imagine my surprise when Gilly delivered 6 prefect little babies- 5 females and 1 male. One of them is black looks like a Yorkie baby and the other 5 have some brindle like Gilly and look more like Cairn Terriers.



She was a trooper the whole way through and we actually thought she was done with five. About hour after the fifth one was born we had moved the mother and pups into the kiddy pool with fresh blankets and towels. Gilly was sleeping and feeding the puppies and all of the sudden she stood up and delivered one more. Some x-ray, huh? Here I was thinking I had possibly gotten rid of all 4 babies before they were even born and I was in the clear. I told Josh that if one of these girls looks like Gilly and has her temperament that I'm going to keep it. lol. But we will see. Gilly is such a sweet girl and such a good mother. She wouldn't let Jasper come in the house after the birth, so he spent the day outside, but now she has settled down a bit, Jasper won't even go into the room where the puppies are and he is very curious- and nervous as usual. haha.

So tiny!!!


This first born little girl sleeping with her momma

another "Carkie" puppy

Adventures at the Veyo Pool and looking forward to some changes

As some of you may know, I am having a surgery on the 29th of this month to "lighten my load" (haha). This surgery will leave me pretty immobile for about 2 weeks and sore for several more. So, since my summer fun will pretty much be over in about 2 weeks we took another trip out to the Veyo Pool, one of our favorite places to go to beat the summer heat. We were accompanied by several friends and their families and just enjoyed ourselves. Here are a few pictures.

I swear this man can never just give me a smile, but he is such a good daddy!

Cooper loves the water- just like his big brother did

This face just cracks me up!

Catching crawdads down in the river

Atreyu and Corbin- some of our friends' boys

Just being Kaleb

I THINK he had a good time

I made him pose for this picture- can you see the excitement? Still too cute!

So the closer it gets to my surgery date, the more I am scared. I'm not sure about what scares me the most.... the pain I will most surely be in or the fact that I will need help to do daily functions (like walk!) for awhile. One of the things that hurts the most is that I may not be able to hold, comfort, or rock to sleep my baby- this KILLS me. :-( My mother will bring me home and take care of Cooper and I for the first night and next day until Josh gets home from working out of town in Moab- then he will be with me for the next 10 days as I gain back my mobility....... yes, Josh. Let's just hope he doesn't become resentful- because I think it would be hard. He will have to take care of me, a 9 year old, a baby, the laundry, the cooking.... everything for 10 days. Maybe he Will learn what it's like to be a wife and gain a new appreciation for me? haha. Maybe I will even learn to let someone take care of me for a change- let go of the control of the house for once. Either way, wish me luck (and Josh too)!

Oh yeah he will be taking care of Gilly and her puppies too! Good thing that for the first few weeks their eyes won't even be open and Gillian will do most of the work. The Vet & I think it's going to be some time next week- besides, I don't think she can get any bigger. Poor thing, huh? I keep telling her that I'm sorry for doing that to her. We thought it would be a good experience for Kaleb to see our dog have puppies and take care of them- at poor Gilly's expense. If anyone knows how it feels to be huge, pregnant and miserable it's me, so I especially have sympathy for her..... and I feel guilty too. But these puppies sure will be adorable!

Coopers Newborn Pics

So when I was about 4 months pregnant, I did some trade work with my good friend Corey Allred. She is a talented photographer with an amazing eye (check her out at http://www.coreyallredphotography.com/ she took beautiful bridals of my best friend Mandie and her husband Brian). The bookkeeper for her business needed some training on Quickbooks software, and since I am such an expert on the program (pats self on back for being so awesome) I trained her and Corey offered to take newborn pictures of the baby-to-be in trade. When Cooper was about 10 days old he broke out in some MEAN baby acne that didn't clear up for several weeks. Therefore, Coopers "newborn" pictures were taken at 2 months old. Since Corey and I have been so busy and taking our summer vacations, we haven't been able to cross paths, so today we decided to make a lunch date and finally I got to see these pictures. Looking at them is a little bittersweet for me. They were taken 2 months ago- before his hair fell out, before I was getting any sleep, when he was barely leaning to smile, before he was laughing, before he let anyone but mommy hold him (ok- the little mommas boy still is struggling with that one). Where did time go? When did my newborn baby boy turn into a 4 month old (well- almost 4 months- but who's counting)? Not that I want to go back to sleepless nights, early mornings, being stuck at home and unable to shower daily, but I wonder if I am going to turn around and have a toddler and miss his baby breath and rocking him to sleep. Certainly time didn't go this fast when Kaleb was this little? Or did it? When did my first-born become a boy? And the most important question of the day- When did I grow up? Life is passing me by so quickly. I better start documenting these boys lives before they become parents themselves............. and me a grandparent (ahhhhhhh!). Stay tuned for more of my adventures in mommy-ville!

Teaching Amanda to post pictures! You can see how cute my Nephew Cooper is for now! ;)