One Huge Surprise!!!

A couple of nights after Mema left us to go home, we heard a knock on the door and it was Grandma and Grandpa Collins.  They surprised us all the way from California.  It was such a fun surprise....the kids were especially so excited.  It was so nice to have them here for a few days and spend New Years with them.  While they were here they took Brody out on a birthday date, Brody really wanted a build a bear, so that is what they did.  While they were here we did some shopping, eating, and swimming at the hotel pool.  On News Years Eve Bryan and I went out for Brazilian food with his parents.  When we came home we played some "headbands" for a little while and celebrated with sparkling cider and cookies.  We celebrated a North Carolina new year, that way we could get the grandparents to bed on time so they long the drive home the next day.

Merry Christmas

 So you were probably expecting some pictures from Christmas, but seriously these puppies were a big part of it.  It was actually kind of nice because the kids were home during the break and helped out so much with the pups.  It was a nice distraction for them and for me.

 We did have a nice Christmas though, we expected it to be quiet and calm and it was.  It was so nice spending it with mom, but we missed all the other family too.  We went ahead and let the kids open their cousin gifts on the morning of Christmas Eve so they could enjoy them all day.  For dinner we decided to have an Italian style meal, since this is what we use to do when I was little.  We had raviolis, bread, christmas salad, and Italian sodas.....yummy!

  After dinner we went ahead with our reenactment of the birth of Christ.  We knew it would be hard to fill all the roles and it was.  No body really wanted to be Joseph or the angel, but we some how convinced a few to help out, including yours truly as a sheep.  We also recruited the dogs to help.  Baby Jesus was one of the puppies and Rex was.....well Rex??  Maggie was probably feeding the other puppies.   We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas....ours was a new one and it was memorable just like the others.  We won't forget driving around for awhile Christmas day looking for a quick meal for lunch, and ending up at a Mexican restaurant and eating way too much.  It was also a white Christmas, which was very cool.  Although it made taking Mema to the  airport the day after Christmas a little crazy with slippery roads and all.

A Salt Lake Christmas

 Since the puppies were born it was hard to find time to get away from the house for any extended day trips at all.  But finally we were able to make time on a Saturday to go to Salt Lake for the day.  Mom was especially interested in going to the Family History Library while we were there.  So that was our first stop, and it was pretty cool.  We were able to look up some of her family and actually find some family names.  It was  pretty exciting and we even went home and continued to look up more names.

We took sometime to tour the Beehive House before dinner.  This was the house that use to belong to Brigham Young and his family.  Afterwards we headed to the Joseph Smith Memorial building to check out the view on the top floor.

 After our dinner at the mall we headed back to Temple square to check out the beautiful Christmas lights.  It was gorgeous, I'm so glad we were able to make it to see this.  It wasn't even too cold out which was an added plus.

Twelve Goldendoodles!!

On Dec. 15th around 9:00 am, Maggie began to labor.  She was pretty calm and stayed in her whelping box sleeping most of the time.  At this point I knew she was getting close to having her puppies, but it is still a guessing game.  Its definitely a lot harder when your dog can't tell you how she is feeling.  

The night before she went into labor I took her to vet to be examined because she had been feeling sick.  She wasn't eating her food, which could have been because she was so big.  But I also suspected that there was something wrong with her eyes and ears as-well.  After several tests, including an ultrasound, the conclusion was that she had two ear infections, two eye infections, she was anemic, and she was probably going to have about 6-7 pups (which we all know wasn't true).  

 Right before the first puppy was born at about 2:30pm, Maggie became restless and even cried a little bit.  I glanced over at here and sure enough a puppy was beginning to come out.  It was so exciting to see and something I will never forget.  Little did we know it was just the start of a four hour process that would result in TWELVE beautiful golden doodle pups!  We were shocked and amazed how many different colors came out of her litter, red, white, blonde, and greyish.  There were about four puppies that were very tiny, no one stood out as a runt, just very small.  I was so pleased that the whole birthing process went so well.  Little did I know that the next couple of weeks were going to be the real test.

 Shortly after giving birth, Maggie still wasn't eating like she should.  Not even close to what she should be eating for a dog who needs to nurse twelve pups.  We had to switch her to wet  food because she refused the kibble.  I thought maybe her runny stools were from the switch, but when the diarrhea became worse and worse I knew we had a problem.  I spent numerous nights up with her letting her out to the bathroom about every 15 minute....it was exhausting. Because she was so nervous around the pups I had to help her in and out of the whelping box as-well.  After a few trips to the vet, they put her on amoxicillin and we began to see her get better.  After spoon feeding her for about two weeks, she finally began to eat on her own and we never had to supplement the puppies.  It was a miracle in my book.  I listed the puppies on a local classified listing when they were about 2 days old and we already began to receive calls.

Because Bry was in Canada missing out on all this action, we wrote a song and sent it to him.  Here are the words to the tune of a Partridge in a Pear tree:

Eight little girls
Four chubby boys
One tired mommy
Five crazy kids
Mema cooking dinner
Lots of squealing puppies (five golden rings)
Twelve golden doodles.....Holy Cow, Rex is concerned
And a puppy just pooped on me.

Mema's Big Surprise

 I had known for a weeks that my mom was going to come and stay with us for a couple of weeks in December.  We decided it would be fun to surprise the kids though.  So I packed them all up and headed to the Salt Lake Airport one night with no idea what I was going to tell them.  Along the way I decided I was going to tell them that we were helping our friend Melinda pick up a friend at the airport that was coming to visit.  My lie was terrible actually, I told them her name was Sherri and that the reason that Melinda couldn't pick up her friend up was because she forgot she had to be somewhere else.  How lame of a lie, I was never good at lying.  It was such a fun surprise to see Mema coming down the esclator at the airport.  I think Cambree said something like, "What are you doing here?"  She arrived just in time for Emery's birthday party and Maggie's puppies being born.  

So just for the record it's hard to wait for puppies to be born, it's about the same as waiting for yourself to go into labor.  It's was nice to have Mema here to help pass the time and keep us all occupied.  We baked, made crafts, shopped a little, and made crazy faces!  I was so glad she was here with us!

Emery's Golden Birthday

Wow.....I actually have a teenager now!  Thirteen years have gone by and it doesn't seem possible.  We are so blessed to have this girl for a daughter and a sister.  She is so helpful, smart, fun, and responsible.  To make it extra special this year was also her "Golden Birthday".  She turned thirteen on December 13th.  Hence the golden wrapping paper!  We kept her celebration pretty low key since Maggie was due to have her puppies around the 14th of Dec.  So we had dinner at In-n-Out and than invited some friends over for ice cream cake.  It was kind of nice to not have the puppies born yet so we could just focus on Emery. We were missing Bryan though.  He was stuck in Canada hoping to open a Costa Vida there....that's a whole other story.  His gift to her was the biggest recess peanut butter cup he could find, and she was WAY excited.  Happy Birthday Emery Rose!!!

Thanksgiving Break

 We needed to decide if we were going to visit California during our Thanksgiving break or our Christmas break.  Thanks partly to Maggie and partly to weather we decided to go during Thanksgiving.  I'm exhausted just looking at these pictures.  I'm actually uploading these pictures a few months later and it was so much fun to go back to that trip.  We packed a lot in during our week there.  We wished that we could have spent some time in Yuba City with friends there, but it just wasn't meant to be this trip.  We are so grateful to everyone who is willing to let us sleep on their floors and drop in on a dime.

  It was so much fun to finally meet our new nephew Tanner Retherford.  He was so sweet and at that perfect "I just want to gobble you up" stage.  Cambree was enjoying reading to Carter one morning.  She is such a good little helper and LOVES to read.

Go back to Sunrise park always brings back so many memories for me.  I spent so much time there growing up.  This is the park that is right next to my parents house.  In one of the pictures you can see a tree full of beautiful leaves across from the park, that is where my bestfriend lived.  We were so lucky to live so close to eachother.  Someday I need to write down all of our memories, and I would love to get Ang and Julies versions as-well.

This little doll, grew way too much.  So glad she is so social and was willing to play with us.  Bryan and I couldn't get enough of her.  Her and our other nephew Lucas have changed the most.  I didn't get any pictures of Lucas, which stinks.  

 We realized on this trip that this would probably be our last time for awhile to visit Monterey.  This has become of our favorite places to visit.  Ang and Jeremy will probably be off in Maryland this time next year.  So sad for all of us that they have to be so far away.

 

 I can't remember the last time we had Thanksgiving with my whole family.  I think it was way back in Yuba City sometime.  We had a great time, despite Stacey getting lost, me burning the yams, and Ang forgetting to take the Ambrosia salad out for dinner.  It's so fun that we can laugh with eachother about all of our mistakes.

 We were able to help Grandpa set up his Christmas decorations.....including his tarheel ornaments ;)  It got us all excited to go home and get our decorations out too.  Although it made us a little sad remembering how different this Christmas was going to be for our little family.  I tried to help update some of grandmas pictures of her grandchildren.  Again, we were missing Lucas.....where was he?  Just kidding, holidays are tough to see everyone.

 Chrystina and Craig were brave enough to host a cousin sleepover at their house.  Landry was actually the first to fall asleep.  I slept over with Jeannette and had a fun time staying up late visiting and eating ice cream. Craig brought his bow and arrow over to the Collins house for the kids to have a fun competition.  Excellent idea and no one even got hurt.....awesome!! It was a great vacation, complete with a healthy trip back home ;)  No sickies in the car equals a happy mommy.