For Aunt Jodie

A list of Sam's words:

Da da; Daddy
Mamma
more
Lady
Trucker ("ucker")
ball
Cooper ('per)
Anna
Nanna
Honey
Papa (always said in a whisper! I think this is because Papa Tom used to always whisper it in his ear!!!)
Pops
Nana (for banana)
milk
Bye Bye ("buh bye")
hi
no

There might be a few more, but I can't think of them right now.

Sam loves, loves, LOVES to collect rocks. He will meticuously pick one out and then bring it to me like it's his most priced possession in the entire world. He also loves dirt. Any kind of dirt. We're all boy at the Kenley house!

Riding to "school" this morning

Sam loves his daycare. There are two other kids in his class (we're super fortunate that it's such a small class!!!). Their names are Anna and Cooper.

This morning in the car....Sam is eating a banana and drinking milk in his car seat.

Me: Sam, are you ready to go play with your friends today?
Sam: (nodding head yes) 'per, Anna
Me: Do you want to play with Cooper?
Sam: (nodding head yes) ya
Me: Do you want to play with Anna?
Sam: (pointing his finger) No! Anna!

lol. I guess Anna isn't his favorite friend. lol. I think he and Cooper have a boys only club going on right now.

Sam also wants to walk into his classroom. So - as soon as we get in the door he wiggles down and takes off. He stops at each classroom before his and calls out "hi" to the kids.

Yesterday when we were leaving he said "buh bye" to everyone. When we got to the door to leave the building he called it out as loud as he could. I looked behind us an no one was there. lol.

The Kenley's are MOVING!!!

Across town! :)

They officially started our house this week. They have cleared our lot and set the forms for foundation. Now...we wait for them to lay the pipes for the plumbing and then pour the foundation.

We are so excited! It's a great neighborhood that will be perfect for Sam. It seems like a lot of young families. Our friends, the Ruples, will live just behind us. :) Across the street is a huge park area where our new puppies can run around.

Right now we live on a pretty busy street and we really don't know our neighbors. This will be a completely new experience.

Scott and I have been working on these plans to move for about a year and a half. It's fun to see how God is answering our prayer.

We went to take pictures last night, but we'd left the camera at a friend's house. SOOO...look for those soon!

4 am feeding

I love this little guy...he always sleeps upside down like this. It's exactly how my Lady Bird use to sleep. I think we're keeping him! :)

We have good news here. Our little girls who have not been eating much at all took the bottle at the 4 am feeding this morning. One took 5 ounces and the other 3. They did amazing! And just in time...we were headed to the vet with them this afternoon because they were starting to show some very obvious signs of dehydration. Yeah for healthy puppies and double yeah...hoot...holla...thank the Lord...for avoiding another vet bill!!!!! :)

I think we are all going to make it now. It was so good to see those girls with full bellies. Scott and I have been getting pretty worried about them.

We still have 3 pups who need homes. So...if you are a dog loving...pet welcoming...kinda person. Give us a call. We have some of the cutest little boogers around!

Update on the puppies

An update from puppy central:

We're all doing fine. The puppies seem to be thriving. It's amazing how much they are changing every day. The 5 boys are doing especially well. Our little girls are hanging in there. They have a more difficult time taking food from the bottles. They just don't have the sucking reflex down as well. They seem younger, too. However, they are getting better. We are force feeding them only when absolutely necessary.

It's been fun to see how much they remind us of Lady Bird and Rocky. One little boy really reminds me of Lady Bird. He sleeps completely on his back just like she use to do.

They eat 5 times a day. It's almost like having 7 little newborns in the house. It's an interesting routine, but thankfully we've had lots of help. Our friends, Uncle John and Aunt Robin were over the night these pictures were taken and they helped us feed and bath the puppies. Robin got some great pictures that I wanted share.

All curled up after a feeding:


I think this is one of the little girls. John took some time to baby her and she curled right up on his shoulder. Can you see the Rocky resemblance here???


Drying off the pups after their bath:


Oh my goodness, this little guy is a heartbreaker!


Here is how we are feeding the pups right now. Hopefully the boys will be on some soft puppy foods by the end of this week.



This is a bad picture of me, but I love how happy Sam is here. He's been a real trooper with all these pups. He's not sure why he's not the center of attention all the time anymore, but he's started to warm up to the puppies. :) Can you tell he's learned to smile for the camera???



This picture is from dinner on Saturday night. The boys sat outside and shot the bb gun. It was a TOTAL redneck affair! Sam loved it!


Ok...we'll check back in later this week.

Goodbye Lady Bird

This is a terrible, horrible, awful, no-good rotten day. Lady Bird Kenley was killed this morning by a car on the road near our house. We are heartbroken.

Lady Bird joined our family a few months after Scott and I married. She has grown with us. She's been a house dog, an outside dog and everything in between. When we lost our first two pregnancies she was my constant friend. She slept with us for almost a year before Sam was born. She was truly a part of our family in every way. Sam loved her and now every dog is named Lady.

Lady Bird loved to fetch. She was always wanting us to throw something for her. She also loved water. I remember when she swam for first time.

One of my favorite memories is when Scott and I took Lady Bird out to camp creek. Scott had a job to do and Lady Bird and I played in the water. A huge herd of deer came running by and Lady Bird got a glazed look in her eye and took off! I thought we'd never get her back. She had so much fun that day!

I also remember our first trip to Oklahoma with Lady. We drove a two door pontiac grand am at the time and she was pretty smooshed in the back seat. We stopped about 50 times on that 5 hour trip to let her out. We also bought a new expedition on the way back from that trip so we'd all have more room!

Scott and I are now hand nursing her puppies. We are a wreck, but they are doing great.

Here are some of my favorite pictures and memories from our time with Lady Bird.



Sam and Lady Bird. He loved her so much! He would chase her tail and pull at her ears.



This is one of my favorite pictures because she was so happy that day. She had a wonderful disposition.


Sam and Lady Bird again...



This was Lady sitting patiently waiting for something to be thrown.







Lady Bird would always...ALWAYS jump up on our backdoor. This was the way she greeted people who came through the door. I remember when we had our house painted and the painters begged us to redo the door. We wouldn't because we knew she'd keep jumping up.


This was me picking Lady Bird out from her litter. She was so tiny!


Lady Bird's first day home...we bought her that stuffed duck and she loved it. She peed on everything!

Goodbye my friend. May you rest in peace.

We're on the move again!

We're up and running again! Sam is well! Hoot, Hoot, Holla Holla!!!!!!

Praise God the stomach bug has left the building.

This is a very exciting day...and just in time for our weekend activities.

Kristie Mae

Kristie leaves for basic training with the army on Thursday. She is my cousin who just graduated from college last Saturday.

She's nervous. I'm nervous for her.

Please pray that God protects her and keeps her safe. Pray for her commanders; pray for her buddies; pray for her mother.

Poop and Puppies

Unfortunately, I don't mean puppy poop.

I'm talking the other one.

Sam is sick.

He has a horrible, awful, terrible no-good stomach bug.

And I'm up to my eyeballs in poop.

This is a gross day.

So, I'm recording it.

If you think of my sweet boy...pray for him. We've battled this bug since Saturday so I'm hoping we're on the tail end of it. We have too much to do this weekend to be sick. :) Friends are coming to town. We need to be ready to party.

In other news, the puppies are doing great. They had their first trip to the vet today to remove their dew claws, get a shot for worms, and a little antibiotic. They did great. I'll try to get out to the barn with the camera tonight.

Ok...back to the kid...and the laundry...and the poop.

(I can't believe I titled a blog with the word poop! :) )

The puppies are here!

Our Lady Bird is a momma! She's doing great. She had 7 puppies on Friday afternoon; 5 boys and 2 girls. They seem to be growing so much every day. They are all in the barn in our special puppy area.

This was a few hours after the birth. Lady Bird was tuckered out! The puppies have all been nursing great and seem to be about the same size.

Look at that big, roly poly pup on top!


A close up of one of the puppies...They will open their eyes in 1-2 weeks and we take them to the vet for their first check up (to have their dew claws removed and their shot for worms) on Monday.


Sam wasn't quite sure what to think of these little guys at first. Now he's loving going to the barn to check on Lady. Aunt Jodie - notice his boots. We wear these every day for our barn trips.

Ok - I'm sure there are more puppy posts to come!