Snow White and the Seven Dwarves...

The dwarves spoke with each other for awhile and then said,

"If you will keep house for us, and cook, make beds, wash, sew,

and knit, and keep everything clean and orderly,

then you can stay with us, and you shall have everything that you want."
"Yes," said Snow White, "with all my heart."

For Snow White greatly enjoyed keeping a tidy home.

-From Grimms Fairy Tales

Yup...Snow White...that's me!! (C'mon...you know what I mean!) :O)

Who knew that being the grandmother of seven little puppies would be so much work?! There's bedding to be changed, boxes to be wiped clean, giving them to Bailey to feed, moving them back to their box again, getting up in the night for feedings, coming up with progressively larger boxes for them, making sure Bailey's not squishing them and keeping their momma in food so the milk keeps coming! There is a certain new, subtly pervasive smell in the air at our house that, no matter what Snow White tries, lingers on. Ah, well, unlike Snow White's dwarves, these little ones are growing REALLY FAST. Today marks their one week birthday so I thought I'd put some pictures up. I don't know if you can compare to the previous ones and see what I mean as I didn't zoom as close, but you get the idea. I'll put them in the same order as I did the last ones.

Their eyes are not yet open, but they look less like rats each day and are stronger, quicker and seem more aware of one another and us.

Have great weekends!! Love,

Snow...er...Christy

AWANA Games...

Hi Everyone,

On Saturday, Todd, Brennen and Kindrid travelled with some friends (thanks, Huberts!!) to Scottsbluff, NE so Brennen could compete in the AWANA games. It's sort of an Olympics for this region of AWANA clubs. The games are all played on a circular court. There is an identical court at our church where Brennen plays these games each Wednesday as part of his time at AWANA. Brennen played on both his own age-group team, Sparks, and on the next older team as they needed extras, T and T (3rd-6th grades). Both teams took first place!!! As I wasn't there (someone had to stay home with the babies), I can't tell you much about the pictures, but this must be opening: Brennen is just in front of the ref:This is Brennen's good friend from school, Brennan. :O) Brennen invited him to AWANA several months ago and he's continued to come. What a great kid he is!!Kindrid went along to cheer in my place. Here she is with her friend, Chloe:

A winning team!

Another winning team:

They arrived home after 10:00 p.m. Brennen was wiped out but super proud of his first place ribbon and medal!!

And what did I get? I had a whole day home alone!! I took care of puppies, worked on Vacation Bible School and napped. I can't remember the last time I had a day at home alone. What a blessing!

Love you all,

Christy

Puppies Close Up...

Hi! I'm posting these at the request of several folks interested in the puppies. There are two shots of each puppy. They are kind of tough to photograph right now. :O) They are cute now, but in a few weeks, will be even cuter and more photogenic! Also, I'm not totally sure about their sex yet, so take that with a grain of salt.

Puppy 1: Female. Black and white. White stripe nose to shoulders and then across shoulders. White tip on tail. One of the larger puppies.

Puppy 2: Female. Hard to tell it in the picture, but it's a really dark brown puppy, not quite black. Stripe from neck down left shoulder. White paws. White tip tail. White blaze on forehead. One of the medium puppies.

Puppy 3: Female. Mainly golden brown. Darker face. 1/2 white stripe down right shoulder. White blaze on face. White paws. White tip tail. One of the smaller puppies.

Puppy 4: Female. Mostly white. Brownish ears. Big black patch around left eye. One of the larger puppies.

Puppy 5: Male. Almost completely white with exception of brownish ears. One of the larger puppies.

Puppy 6: Female. Almost all black with white chin, tummy. Tip of tail is white. One of the smaller puppies.

Puppy 7: Female. Mostly black. Some white on face, tummy, chin, feet. White tip tail. One of the smaller puppies.

Those are our babies!

:O) Christy

Todd, Christy, Bailey, Kindrid and Brennen Plus Seven....

We have SEVEN new family members! Bailey was pretty cute last night. You know how I've mentioned that she doesn't play at all? She never goes and gets her toys or really even pays them any attention? Well, last night she went and got her white "bear" and carried it up to her bed and anywhere else she went. She didn't eat. She was resting a lot. We were pretty sure her time was near. She had an extremely restless night and at about 6:30 a.m., puppy number 1 came along.

Here is proud Grandpa with the first black and white one:
The next puppy was all white:

There are now two white, one lighter brown, one darker brown and three black. Each has unique markings (like brown ears or white tip tails.) They are darling!! Bailey seems to know just what to do. She's had breakfast and been out. She's busy nursing and licking. What a good girl!
I did break the placenta of one that was having trouble getting its head out and had to tie of the umbilical cord of another one as it wouldn't stop bleeding. Other than that, so far, so good. :O)

The kids got to see a number of puppies born right in front of them and witness how Bailey cleaned them up and took care of them. I don't think Brennen is going to be very focused at school today! :O) They LOVED seeing the puppies! Kindrid is already on a major lobby to keep at least one. Uh huh. This would NOT be the day for me to think about that! :O)

Bailey is back to as thin or even thinner than when we got her. We'll be giving her plenty of food and lots of love these next few weeks.

Happy Puppy Day!!

:O) Christy

Their Home On The Range...

Hi Family and Friends,

Our realtor (that helped us find the perfect home in Casper) and her husband invited us to spend the afternoon with them last Saturday on their ranch in nearby Glenrock, a town about 15 minutes away. As pictures are worth a thousand words, I'll let them do most of the talking today.

Their property has an older house our friends are restoring. At some point long ago, someone carved this at the beginning of the sidewalk:
Flat Stanley is once again visiting us, this time from our friend, Anna, in Minnesota. Stanley thought the cows and horses were pretty cool! The kids both got to pet a newborn calf. The calves were so fun to watch as they frisked around on this gorgeous Wyoming spring day.Our hosts, Stan and Karen Mitchem. They have a lovely little river running through their property with many rock beaches and even a few little sandy ones.
The beavers have been as busy as, well, beavers (pathetic...I know...but I couldn't resist). Here is a stick to show how they leave the ends of branches through which they've gnawed:
They (the beavers) have several dams on the river. Here is the larger of the two:
The dam is behind us here:My favorite part of the day was just watching the kids explore as they threw rocks in the water, floated sticks downstream, walked through the thick mud and got wet feet despite rubber boots. What a great place to be a kid!

We stayed to dinner and were treated to delicious "home grown" steak! It was a wonderful visit with warm, kind friends. Thank you, Mitchems!

Love,

Christy

PS...No puppies, yet! :O)