Sitting big

He turned six months old yesterday...so today we made it his first day to sit up in a chair and give his first college-try at eating some yummy carrots.

I don't know if any of it made it into his stomach! He had more fun chewing on the spoon! He was definitely very interested in the spoon as it moved towards his mouth; it was all I could do to get the carrots in before his hands grabbed the spoon! Very different from his sister! :-) I'm glad for that. I think he rather enjoyed this experience...and his sister enjoyed the entertainment from the sidelines!

Family update (incl. puppies)

Wow...the puppies are almost 1 week old now. It has been a busy week for all of us. I guess that is how time passes by so quickly. Puppies...middle-of-the-night vomiting episodes...visitors (many to see the puppies, of course)...MOPS consignment sale...Irish cream and Fat Tire with friends late on a Friday night...vet visits...all the other regular weekly activities...and here we are, another week gone by. Whew! Thank you, Lord, for your gracious hand upon us!!

Here are the group of puppies yesterday. Compare this photo with the one almost a week ago. Haven't they grown SO MUCH?????

This is our cute little chocolate female...I was trying to take a picture while holding her at the same time, and so the photograph is a little awkward, but hopefully you can get the idea. She is getting so big and is so cute! (P.S.--This is the only puppy so far that is absolutely spoken for and has a downpayment on her. Marc is so excited to finally get his puppy from Lucy!) Oh, and by the way, I discovered a few days ago that we do have a second female! I was rechecking the puppies "parts" and realized that we had double-counted the males, and we actually have a yellow female. Wahoo! :-) So the final count (believe me, I've checked them over several times now) is 6 males, and 2 females.

As for my little munchkins, I have to include a picture of them, too. Lulu was asleep, snuggling in next to her brother--how cute is that???

PUPPIES!!!!

Our laboring dog...
1/3 way through...
Here's all eight of them!
She's getting her turn to gently pet them...

We were up all night--mostly. I slept from 9:30 until 11:30, and then 5:00 am until 7 am. He didn't sleep at all until this morning (and is now at work!) We were anticipating that this would be the day for puppies since Lucy's temperature dropped below 99 (the sign that she will be in labor in 12-24 hours) yesterday. Sure enough, by afternoon, she was panting, and late last night she was showing obvious contractions. She kept trying to go outside (the urge to push!) Right between 1-1:15 am, puppy #1 arrived. A black first, a yellow second, and a chocolate third! We were thrilled that all three colors emerged within the first 3 puppy deliveries. By the end of it all, eight healthy puppies later, it was 4:30 am. There are 3 blacks, 3 yellows and 2 chocolates. It appears that 7 are males with one chocolate female. We are so proud of Lucy! They are all doing well, and I think the hardest work for us lies yet ahead. However, we made sure to remind Lucy that we really did love her since we stayed up all night with her. :-)

They're all growing!

This little munchkin is showing off his new ability to hold himself up...after rolling all over and almost off his blanket (which is large, I may add.) Doesn't he look proud of himself?





This one to the right, however, isn't looking so cute...she just feels BIG. Lucy is at day 52 today, and will be delivering her puppies in the next week or two! Yikes! (I don't think she knows what she's in for.)



And isn't this little princess just adorable?
I had to add another Easter picture...she is so cute! This would be her smile when she's told to smile. :-)

Easter

Needless to say, but since I've been sick all week, I am just now posting Easter pictures from last weekend.
We tried out the local Easter egg hunt on Saturday...and after that, we agreed on one thing (although I know we can provide lots more commentary on that): we won't do that again. It was like we were being corralled like animals and given a countdown to be released into the park for a 2 minute frenzy of kids greedily grabbing at every egg they could get their hands on. Very few seemed to abide by the "5 egg limit" rule. (Not that they were egg-stra special eggs, just a plastic ones with one piece of cheap chocolate.) And if a child got fewer than 5 eggs, it was probably because all the bigger kids gotten them already. Thankfully, at least our little cub had her daddy's help, so she brought all of 2 eggs back with her. And after our tardiness of missing the 1-5 age group (we were just a few minutes late...that shows how quickly it was over), it was just not worth it...except for the cute pictures she got with the Easter bunny. We will definitely be doing our own hunt next year! (OK, so maybe that was a little more commentary than was needed!)

On Sunday, we had a nice packed church service, and then went home. No Easter plans. It felt kind of awkward at first, thinking we should be doing something, but then it was nice to not be driving somewhere (we contemplated visiting my dad who was without a wife for Easter--she is in Minnesota helping Kelsey and Ryan with their new baby, Samuel)...or going for a hike...but we just needed to NOT do something and rest. We were both glad that was what we did. Nothing....other than enjoying the day.

Aren't the kids cute in their Easter outfits?

Tulips!

It was the most perfect day to visit the Tulip festival. As you can see, we all had a great time...and we all got enjoy the beautiful sunshine. It was definitely a "teaser" sort of spring day in April...one where you think summer is almost here, and then the next day it rains all day.


Isn't she beautiful among the tulips? (there were so many cute pictures to choose from!)