5 more mouths to feed

Some of you may remember our new dog Abbey. We adopted her from an animal Shelter in Cedar city a few weeks ago.

Well, sometime after we adopted her I thought I noticed she was getting a belly. When we took her to the vet he told us that it had appeared that she might have just had a litter.

We watched her tummy and I did some reading on pregnant dogs and found that their belly will start showing only weeks before delivery. We noticed her belly right before we moved and hoped that IF she were pregnant, the babies would come after we moved.

Exactly one week after moving to Idaho I woke up at about 2:30am on March 21st (early Saturday) I thought I heard Paxton crying in the night. It wasn't like him to do this so I jumped up and went running. When I passed the kitchen I froze. I realized the crying was coming from there. When I turned on the light Abbey had three puppies on the ground.

2 live babies and 1 still birth. I cried for Ryan to come and help. He jumped on the computer and start researching what we were supposed to do while I got towels and started both cleaning and helping Abbey deliver her pups.

Nine puppies later she had delivered 3 still births, 1 runt and 5 healthy puppies.

Ryan did a bunch of research about how to feed the runt since she wasn't sucking on the nipple and that night (by syringe) we fed one baby and watched Abbey take care of her babies.

The boys were all excited when they woke up the next morning, to have a bunch of puppies. They watched them and tried to tell us whenever they thought anything was needed.

We couldn't believe what had happened. At this point we hadn't been sure that Abbey was pregnant and we had only had her for 3 weeks now.

Sunday afternoon Ryan looked in on the puppies and noticed that the biggest puppy-the brown one wasn't moving. He was underneath Abbey and was lifeless. It appeared that she sat on him.

Ryan could tell that the boy was still alive but barely. We knew what to do because we had read up on the runt.

We put him under the faucet and shocked him with cold water and then with warm water and Ryan stimulated him and breathed in his mouth. The pup responded to the shocking cold water and started to move. We already had food mixed up and in a syringe to feed the runt so Ryan had me grab it and began feeding the pup. We decided that he had really low blood sugar and maybe that was because he was the biggest. This caused him to be unable to whine when Abbey sat on him and she didn't know he was there.

We tested his skin and realized he was totally dehydrated too. Then Ryan and I tested all of the other pups only to realize that they were all latched on to mommy, but she was dry. They were all dehydrated. They had been starving for over a day now.

Because of the little runt we had food ready to feed and we fed them by hand, every one of them.

Ryan continued to do this with every pup every single day, every three hours. I helped at first but Ryan has pretty much taken over and raised every one of these pups. We realized that night that the runt had a cleft pallet and it died laying with Abbey the next day. This left us only 5 pups.

I took Abbey to the vet and confirmed that she is totally dry. We went to the store and got a bottle instead of a syringe. Luckily they have all started eating really well and today they are big fatsos...well, all except for the smallest girl. We call her Slim.

Abbey is still a good mama. They latch on to her all of the time, she keeps them clean and stimulates them constantly. I don't think she knows that she is dry but she has been really trusting with us. She hasn't given us a hard time about handling her puppies at all!
We read that within 12-18 days they are supposed to open their eyes. We can't wait!

Let me introduce you to (left to right)

Big sky (girl), One ton (boy), Two ton (boy), Porter house (boy)and Slim (the little girl)You can probably imagine our schedule now. Feed Shelby every 3-4 hours, dogs every 3-4 hours, and 2 big boys. We really thought that we would be able to relax when we got here but that hasn't quite been the case. We love these pups now though, Ryan especially. He talks to them when he feeds them and he has bonded with all of them. He is such a sweetheart! Just shows you what a good man I have!

Idaho

When I told people that I was moving to Idaho I got a lot of different responses. Especially from my Dad. Since I was little he has made fun of Idaho and he used to threaten us..."You better not ever marry anyone from Idaho" Of course that was all in jest...I hope so anyway because I ran off and married an Idaho man.

When I told some of the officers I was moving I got some funny responses...the most memorable one was "who is making you move to Idaho?!" No one has been able to understand why.

Well, ever since we moved here, almost three weeks ago now, not one day has gone by that we have regretted this decision. Well, maybe the first night we arrived. I was a little scared that night but in the morning it was all better.

I can name quite a few reasons one might move here:

Not the first reason but pretty close...

We bought that rib eye not too far away, cheaper than a rib eye at Walmart and the man cut it for us when we arrived. It has never even been refrigerated!! It is the best piece of meat I have ever tasted! We have had more than I dare to admit since we have been here!

Second-there are so many animals! Right off the freeway you see cows and horses, goats, sheep, ducks flying in the sky, and there are places for a dog to run. We don't have a place like that yet, but that's the plan!

Ryan and I went on a walk the other night around our little neighborhood. This one is number 3. No noise. It is completely quiet at night and number 4, you can see every star in the sky. This brings me to number 5

the big, no...HUGE sky! It goes forever and the days are longer!

6-people are nicer here... at least nicer than in Utah. I don't mean to give Utah a hard time but I hated going out and shopping because people are so rude. In fact I almost refuse to shop at Christmas time due to this fact!!! Here, everyone says hello or uses manners when you encounter them!

7- one word J105. It's a radio station here that plays rock. Its classic rock too though. When is the last time you heard Jimi Hendrix or Pink Floyd (other than Money) being played on the air?! This radio station is committed to classics and it is AWESOME! It rocks baby, it J-rocks!

Let me give you a taste of one little day here:

The air smells clean. Not one day of red air alert due to the inversion...in fact you always smell fire in the air because someone is burning a ditch bank and no matter what you see birds flying in the sky whenever you look up

Ice cream cones...I think they taste better!

and if I haven't made my case yet...I have taken a picture of the sunsets almost every day since I have been here. Here's a little taste...

This is just from our little backyard you guys!

If you look close you will see a HUGE "V" of birds...HUGE.

Its going to be a great Summer! I sure wish you were all here!!

Cabin fever

While we were packing things got a little crazy around our house. We actually took three trips up to Idaho to get everything moved so we thought that this third trip would be a peice of cake. It wasn't. We had so much to do and so much to clean that things were pretty much chaos for the whole week. The kids had a hard week. There was a lot of impatient mom and dad expecting them to let us work but it didn't seem to get them down. I found these pictures on the camera from our last week in Provo. Now this picture seems pretty innocent. In fact, we were pretty impressed to see Gauge get into some light magazine reading to pass the time... thats when we saw what he was so interested in!
This was a proud moment for Pop, and a moment where I reaized that it might be time to cancel my subscription!
Old enough to appreciate, too young to be embarrased!

We don't know! This one is Ryan's kid!

Last week on sleeping bags! Phew!

Our sweet Shelby

is even a clown!

My Trail of Tears

My trail of tears. That's what I decided to call it on my way to Idaho. We got the okay to move early in March and finally got our things put together and cleaned up by March 14th. My last day as a Utahn.

I don't mean to be a drama queen, but I have lived in Utah for 28 years. I really didn't think it would be hard to go until this day.

Something my Dad told me right before I left was to be strong and to never look back, so here goes...
My last look at my house. I met Ryan here. Our whole relationship has been in this home. We fell in love, were married and had our children here. We have put everything we have into this blood sucking house...and now we are moving on.

Ryan locked the gate and the front door while I waited outside. When he locked up he turned around and hugged me. We held each other for a long time and we both cried...

and now we're moving on

Last look at the mountains. I grew up only a few blocks away. These mountains have been right out of my front door my whole life. Now I'm moving on! It looks so vacant!

All packed up and ready to go. We hit the road in the late afternoon.I gave a wave to dispatch and waited at the light...now I'm moving on! It took me to about the point of the mountain before I broke down and bawled. I called my sisters and my brother Chris and bawled half way through the calls. I told them all goodbye and told them I loved them.

This was my best attempt at getting the Salt Lake temple. That's where Ryan and I were married March 23, 2002. Seven years ago. Now, we're moving on!

We've been on this trip quite a few times now but today it was so beautiful! That made it hard to be too sad.

A quick stop in Snowville to feed my sweetheart

A snapshot into the back seat, I was getting pretty bored...

It was a beautiful trip. I started noticing the mountains get smaller and smaller

Finally Sunset hit. We chased that sun and enjoyed the sunset for almost an hour...

It just kept going and then when we hit Burley we had beautiful fields in the sunset. It was gorgeous!

That's when I started to remember why we were moving. As I was taking in the view and beginning to get excited about a new life ahead I got a text from Sarah telling me she couldn't wait for us to get there.

That's when I stopped crying and got strong. I felt a confirmation about our choice to go to Idaho.

This decision is one that Ryan and I have talked about for years. We want to raise our boys here. We have family here and we are happy here.

So goodbye Utah!! I am going to miss you! but I am doing good. I am in Idaho now and we aren't looking back!