1 week old

The puppies are 1 week old today. Tiny as they are, they have definitely grown a lot in the past week! Here's a link for the daddy dog. Their eyes are still closed, but should open some time next week. And by next Friday, they may be able to stand on all fours.

Recent Pictures

Puppy update: I'll post puppy pictures tomorrow when they turned 1 week. All are doing well!

Our weather has been fluctuating lately between Spring and Winter, but we sure are enjoying the Spring days outside! Sarah is SO happy outside! She walks everywhere when we're inside, but still crawls a lot outside (after a few face-plants trying to walk in the yard, she resorted back to crawling)

Sarah's latest thing to do with her fridge magnets is to simply swipe the fridge clean as fast as possible :)

She loves walking around with her soccer ball, and already attempts to kick it (yes, Jon is thrilled!) but for someone reason she was about to melt down when I took this picture
Easter Sunday
I had planned to get a family picture and pictures of Sarah in her Easter dress ... but things never seem to go as planned with a 1 year old! She was grumpy as can be by the end of church since she hadn't had a morning nap, s we rushed through a yummy lunch at my parents and put her to bed while we watched March-Madness

Easter Egg Hunt & Puppy pictures

Friday morning, some friends from church came over for a little Easter Egg Hunt for the kids. It was a lot of fun! Sarah found about 2 eggs, and then became far more interested in trying to raid the other kids' baskets. Enjoy the pictures.

Around 11:30am, it dawned on me that Mattie hadn't been barking (which NEVER is the case when people are over). I went down stairs to check on her and discovered 4 puppies! Over the next few hours, she had 4 more. Jon and I laughed because we had been so sure she'd have the puppies Saturday or Sunday, that we felt completely unprepared! Her instincts kicked in just as they are supposed to and she did great -- and is doing great! We have 3 girls and 5 boys. It truly is amazing to watch Mattie take care of these tiny little puppies. I'll post plenty of pictures in the days and weeks to come, but here is a start.

PUPPIES!

Mattie has 8 puppies!! I'll post pictures soon. Needless to say, it's been an exciting morning. A group of friends were over for a little Easter Egg hunt for the kids (pictures of that to come as well) and it dawned on me that Mattie hadn't been barking at all ... when I went to check on her she had already had 4. They are all chocolate, and so tiny!

Beautiful Day

Thursday was a goregous, warm Spring day. Sarah had her energy back, so we spent much of the afternoon outside. Since we moved here in the dead of winter, she hasn't had much opportunity to explore our yard. She had so much fun crawling all over the place (she's walking more and more, but still crawls a lot). Enjoy the pictures! -- the last one is my favorite :)

European Vacation

I don't think I've ever been so glad to be home from a trip! Don't get me wrong - the trip was absolutely incredible! Zurich, Switzerland is a beautiful, fun city; the skiing in St Anton am Arlberg, Austria was great; the alps are breath taking; the family time was superb.

Traveling to Europe with a 1 year old who gets sick the last couple days = exhausting.

Sarah, in her usual way, handled everything far better than we could have imagined. She adapted to the 6 hour time change well. She LOVED the constant audience of my parents, brother, and his girlfriend. But Thursday night she started getting sick ... by Saturday night, our last night, she was sick enough that we called a doctor. I think the U.S. should take notes from the Swiss medical system ... instead of going to an ER, you call an "on call service" and a doctor comes to you! So for far less than a typical ER visit would cost, we got to stay in our hotel room and a doctor came to us (at 2am). Thankfully, he said Sarah's breathing issues were all in her throat and not her lungs ... BUT ... she had an ear infection. He gave us several different medicines which did the trick and her ear was better enough that she did not scream on the flight. She's still not back to her perky little self, but is getting better. And she is so glad to be home! -- when she has the energy, she crawls around in sheer delight from toy to toy!

The big Sarah news is that we can officially say she learned to walk in Austria!! 1 evening last week she started taking little steps towards people. Our reactions spurred her on - we were all sitting in a circle and she would walk across to whoever we asked her to walk to. She then decided to truck off down the hall to our bedroom and back! It is still a means of entertaining us rather than her primary means of mobility (crawling is still far more efficient and safer in her opinion!) but she is walking more, and will walk on request!

I can never choose just a few pictures after a trip like this, so I figured out how to do a slide.com show. We flew into Zurich last Thursday morning, as did Jamey and Dana. We spent Thursday and Friday seeing Zurich and adjusting to the time change. Mom and Dad flew in that Saturday morning, and we head to St Anton by train Saturday afternoon. This 1st slide show is from Zurich and the train.

This slide show is from St Anton. This trip was my 1st time to the Alps. They are stunning. The pictures don't come close to doing justice. Also, the St Anton am Arlberg ski area is 9 times the size of Vail, CO. That's HUGE. We didn't come close to skiing everything.