Happy 2 Years!!

As of today, I have been blogging for 2 years! It has been a great way to get to know other raisers and agility people, as well as keep track of everything that has happened. Hopefully I can keep it updated once Kaylee gets here and takes up all my time!

Fluff Friday Giveaway, and Diapers for May!

Kelly's closet is doing yet another giveaway, so here is the information!

What would you win:

1-AppleCheeks Envelope Diaper
2-AppleCheeks Inserts (bamboo or hemp-customer choice)
1-AppleCheeks Booster



I hadn't heard about this diaper brand yet, so I will be super excited if I win!

And because I haven't posted about my diaper purchases for this month, here they are


I found a site that was selling the Fuzzi Bunz OS (one size) at a much lowered cost. This is because FB is coming out with a new version of the same diaper. I didn't much care if mine had "hip snaps" or not, so I took advantage of the discount! I also didn't pay any shipping on these ones.


I got another Gro Baby plus 2 more snap-in soakers


and a pail liner


and a dozen pre-folds which will probably be used mostly as inserts or burp cloths

All of my May diapers

And last of all, a shot of my cloth diaper stash!

There are still a couple other kinds of diapers I would like to try such as:

Softbums AI2 (all in two)

BumGenius Organic AI1 (all in one)

Rumparooz - both the new G2 and the Lil' Joey

AppleCheeks Envelope Diaper

Husbands and Heels

The past week I have been having a really hard time walking due to a bruised (or something) heel. I tried to walk the dogs after a week of rest, made it 4 houses down the block, and wanted to crawl back because my foot hurt so badly. I didn't go to the doctor that night because we hadn't figured out which urgent care/ER we are allowed to use with our insurance. We figured it out the next day but my foot suddenly felt almost 100% better and I was able to not only walk on it but balance on just that heel with hardly even a twinge of pain. So we didn't go. Now it is still pain full, but I can at least walk on it.....most of the time.

Needless to say the dogs have been rather restless without their 1 hour walk they have gotten almost daily for over a year. For the first few days the dog park kept them happy, but they quickly got bored with that.

I don't know if this is going to be how it is until I have Kaylee in just under 2 months. If it is, I am going to be miserable, but I don't want the dogs to go crazy because of me. Robert hasn't been in to walking the dogs, or walking with us, so I thought that was out of the question. But he has decided to try to get in shape enough to run the Ironman in May next year. It is in St. George, so we wont have to travel too far for it!

That is great news for the boys because Robert offered to walk them in the early mornings before he goes to work. Now, not only will they be getting at least 30 minute walks in the mornings, it will be early enough that they aren't walking in the heat of the day. On Monday I am going to try to go with them on an evening walk to see if my foot is improving at all. If it isn't, I may end up making an appointment with an Orthopedist or Podiatrist to see what is going on.

I am really glad that Hobbs and I are still working on Agility stuff that doesn't require me to run! As it is, I want to just sit in a chair and practice sending him out over a jump or around a tree lol!

My Foot

For the past (almost) week my feet have been really sore, to the point that I thought I had bruised them somehow. Especially my right heel. It has been too sore to even stand on let alone walk. I have been walking on my left foot and the ball of my right foot. And for anyone who was wondering, that is NOT a nice way to treat pregnant person calf muscles! I have had more leg cramps this week than the whole 8 months!

Well, by Sunday I was taking Tylenol to help with the pain, and planned to go to the doctor the next day. Monday morning, I woke up almost completely pain free, and decided that my resting it was enough. By that evening, I was sore again only it was just my right heel. I put off the doctor both Tuesday and Wednesday, and on Wednesday felt good enough that I decided to walk the dogs. Yeah, that lasted all of 4 houses down the block. By then, I could hardly walk. All evening I was almost in tears it hurt so badly. I didn't go to the doctor because they were all closed except the emergency room and I didn't want to risk spending hours waiting there.

The plan was to go this morning to an urgent care place, but we couldn't find one near by that our insurance covered. Also my foot wasn't hurting very much for most of the day. Robert and I drove to the emergency room this afternoon, and I walked almost completely pain free into the waiting room. I felt incredibly stupid, and after waiting for half an hour while I was able to stand on just my right heel with hardly any pain, we came home.

Now I don't know what to do. I got some new tennis shoes in hopes that the pain is from my wearing 2-3 year old shoes. Amazingly my most comfortable shoes are my sandals from Hawaii!

Don't they just look amazingly supportive and comfortable as apposed to $60 tennis shoes with arch support inserts?

My plan for now is to wait until the next time it hurts a lot, and then go immediatly to the ER for x-rays.....or hopefully it will continue to get better!

Another Patriot Update

Just 24 hours after getting his shot, Patriot is itch free, and happy again! Now we just have to figure out how to get 28 days between shots without an itch.

I am waiting for the actual vet doctor to call me back......

***UPDATE***
The vet called, and said to try to go 7 days after this shot, and if the itching returns to call him and he will call the actual allergist vet to ask him what we do. I think I may ask for the allergist's number so I can talk to him directly.

Patriot Update

I haven't posted about Patriot in a while mostly because he has been doing so well!

He is over a month into his allergy therapy, and all his rashes have completely cleared up, and the itchiness has disappeared. He has even gotten more hair growing on his belly, which he has NEVER had! I am so happy to see him comfortable, and happy.

...until this week. We had been doing injections every 4 days and this week it was extended to 7 days. We are supposed to gradually extend the time between shots to 28 days. I think he made it through day 5 before he started itching. I was so glad to be able to give him his shot this morning, but I ended up giving him a benadryl to stop the itching. If he is still itching tomorrow, I will call the vet and ask what we should do. I can't even imagine extending the time between shots to 10 days this week!

I am hoping all he needs is a bigger dose and that he isn't building an immunity to the shots.

Easy Class

Yep, thats right! Class last night was somewhat easy for us. Like last week, there were 3 stations with separate instructors.

The first one we did was the Dog Walk, lowered to about 2'. We had each dog just run straight over to a target with treats on it to get them into the 2o2o position. I have been using the command "Place" just before he enters the contact zone. But last night when I would say it, he would stop and look back at me then slowly go to the end of the contact zone into 2o2o. Next week I think I will just stay quiet and see if he does it on his own. I was watching a couple videos from his class last fall, and he always stopped in 2o2o automatically, so I think my "command" is confusing him.

The second station was a combo of a jump grid and the table. The jump stuff was easy, just a small "stride jump" followed by a double bar jump. Hobbs handled it beautifully! With the table, we talked about what our vision of the "perfect" behavior will be for our dogs. I would really like Hobbs to automatically go into a down on the table. We had all 3 dogs in our group get up on the table, and then we walked all the way around while they stayed in place (no particular position). Then we had them get up and then asked them for a "fold back" down. That is where they lay down with all four legs at the same time; no sit first. Hobbs can do it, but being the sensitive dog he is, he wants to take his time on the uncomfortable surface. I am sure he would appreciate it if the AKC ever added a pillow top to the table lol.

The last station was the tire jump, which again was super easy for Hobbs. Luckly the instructor could see that it was too easy so she had me setting him up on an angle, and having me send him through without me moving. Even that was easy, but the other dogs in class aren't too far behind him, so I don't feel like we are wasting our time.

Next week is supposed to be the Dog Walk and Table again, more jump grids, and I think she said the A-frame....but I am not sure.

Belly Pictures!

I decided to make up for not posting my belly picture yesterday by posting 5 of them today!

32 Weeks!

This week seemed to go on forever, but I think part of that was due to the long weekend. I have been more comfortable heat wise, but have been getting some very mild heart burn most of the week. Last night was the most uncomfortable so far, so I may need to get some medicine just in case it gets worse. Kaylee has been slightly less active this week, but that is almost a good thing because she was making me quite uncomfortable.

For almost 4 days now my feet have been really sore, almost bruised feeling. Particularly my right heel which is so painful, it has me walking on the ball of that foot rather than the whole thing. It throbs when I am not walking on it, and on Saturday night and most of Sunday I was taking Tylenol just to survive. I have been staying off my feet as much as possible, but it isn't really getting any better so I may be going in to the doctor.

Last week's weight was accurate, unfortunately, so I have concentrated on eating healthier foods this week, and I guess one of those 5 pounds wasn't needed so it went away. My doctor hasn't said anything about my weight though so I guess I am doing fine.

I only have 3 doctor's appointments left!! One in four weeks, then one in two weeks after that, and the last one a week after that. It just amazes me that I am so close to having little Kaylee!

• Weight: 179.2
• Waist: 43 1/2"
• Bra size: Maternity Large...or 36 F
• Sleeping Schedule: Go to Bed @ 9:00-11:30pm and wake up @ 7:00-8:00am
• Exercise Schedule: 60 minute walk with the dogs 3 days, 90 minute hike with the dogs 1 day, exercise ball 3 days

I didn't get around to taking a picture for the week, but I promise I will tomorrow.

Ups and Downs

On Wednesday after our last agility class I got out the jumps and weave poles to practice combining them in a sequence. It didn't go well. I videoed it but deleted them both because it frustrated me to watch them.

Hobbs was having major problems with his weave poles! He would either run past them, start half way down, or pop out half way, or just skip some poles in the line. Then I angled them some more, and he jumped through them, rather than weaving. I think out of 10-15 sends, he got 2 or 3 full lines right. I stopped once I realised that I was frustrated, but it made me worry about his weave poles.

Yesterday I left the boys at home while I went to watch an AKC agility trial. I spent the day sitting with the puppy raisers from Hobbs' class. It was great to talk about agility and puppy raising. They aren't raising anymore, and probably wont again for various reasons. I have been going back and forth about raising again ever sense Hobbs' career change and my internship.....but that will be another post entirely once I get my thoughts and feelings about it in order.

The trial was wonderful to watch because it was cloudy most of the day, and although it was muggy, it wasn't too awful. I got to watch just a little bit of Jumpers with weaves (JWW) when I first got there. It was the novice division which didn't look too hard! I really think Hobbs and I could have made it around the course....except for the weaves. Then I watched all three classes (excellent, open, and novice) of standard, which took most of the rest of the day. Last of all, I watched some of the first class of FAST (called Gamblers in other organizations).

Here are the two pictures I took with my phone....because I once again forgot my camera

This was during one of the standard classes

Watching these classes makes me hope even more that Hobbs measures under the 22" so he can jump in the 20" class. It is the biggest class in most trials, with the most dogs, but 24" is REALLY high! I think if he measures over 22" I will probably run him in preferred, which is the next height down so he would still be able to jump 20". Then he will get different titles, but it is basically the same!

It was a long day, and I got really sun burnt on one arm, but it was great to watch different handlers and dogs run each course. While we were talking about agility and guide dogs, I mentioned my problems with the weave poles, and got some suggestions of small things I could do to help Hobbs. One was making sure that if I was sending Hobbs from my right, my feet needed to be aligned with the first pole straight on, and if I was sending Hobbs from my left, my feet needed to be aligned at an angle with the second pole.

So last night, after I got home, I got out the equipment and tried it again. I don't know if I was just really concentrating, or if Hobbs was just having a good day, or it the suggestions helped that much, but Hobbs did AMAZINGLY well! I didn't want to over do it if he was doing well, so I only sent him a few times (like 6). He missed all of 1 entry! Encouraged, I decided to send him over the sequence I had set up. I walked it several times making sure that when I got to the poles I could get my feet aligned properly. I put Hobbs on his wait, and lead out a bit, then released him and it was perfect! Even the front cross I did right before the weaves worked out, and he drove straight down the weaves and to his bait bag, which I threw for him. It was amazing, and felt really good so we quit with the weaves and just did some serpentine practice with my three jumps.



Hobbs did really well, so I started placing his bait bag at the end of the line of jumps and then sending him with a "Go" command over all three while I stayed at the start line. That REALLY jazzed him up and he would do labby scoots around the yard after getting his bag. Overall the practice last night was really perfect, and made me feel like less of a failure than the one earlier in the week.

Crib and Mostly Finished Nursery!

We finally got our cirb yesterday, and put it together last night. We still need a mattress for it, but I put in the bedding anyways! So here are some more pictures of our mostly finished nursery.


The crib!

It has already been stocked with the warm/bigger blankets

The bedding finally has a home!

It goes perfectly right below the letters

The matching set

It is a little crowded for now.....

because the swing is still in the baby room rather than the living room

The closet is looking a little empty though

Probably because much of the clothes are in boxes

I am so happy to have this room almost finished! I am going to be getting some curtain rods for the windows, and maybe some more decorative things for the walls (they look a little barren) but other than that, it is finished!

Yay for agility!

Hobbs and I had our first beginning agility class tonight, and it was great! First we did an evaluation of all the dogs which included:

Heel on either side while paying attention to its handler
The instructors pet and handled each dog to make sure they were ok with strangers touching them
Recall -easy on leash from a sit/wait

Then there were 3 stations with an instructor for each. The first one we went to was the chute with the material on it and everything! The instructor held the end open for Hobbs the first time, and he had no problems, so the second time she just lifted the corner. He few through every time, and immediately went after his bait bag that I throw for him. I was really glad that he was ok with the chute as that is one of the only pieces of equipment that we didn't use in our very first class.

There are some ex-raisers in our class, who are very impressed by Hobbs' abilities. I told them about his being cc'd for fear issues, and they said they never would have guessed he was a fearful dog. They have a little golden retriever puppy, who is also doing very well.

The next station was the regular tunnel which I can tell has the potential to become an issue for Hobbs. He LOVE it and could very easily become obsessed with it to the point of taking it without permission on course. Hobbs stopped once in the tunnel in class to look for treats, so I need to really reward him for going straight through.....I hate that he found treats in the first tunnel he ever went through!

The last station was jumping, and we were each assigned to a single jump and we worked on front crosses, and start line stays. Hobbs had some issues with his stay, so I was returning to him more often than not to reward the stay. By the end of the evening, he was staying very well. I was very glad that it has cloudy and cool during class! It was so HOT until 7:30 or 8:00pm yesterday that I was kind of dreading tonight. Hobbs still got very thirsty, and I gave him a break between each station for water and he was very appreciative of those breaks.

Last of all, the instructors set up a sequence of three jumps on a slight curve and then the curved tunnel. I did a big lead-out and Hobbs still took all three jumps, and then dove into and out of the tunnel and was rewarded with his bait bag! I was very happy with him, and he was happy with himself even after an hour of non stop class. I wish he was that happy to practice at home! He gets bored and quits when we are home.

Sorry, no pictures! I am hoping Robert can come with us next week just to take pictures. Or I will take my camera and hope someone will take some for me.

Next week is supposed to be a much lowered dogwalk, table, and tire jump. I am anxious to get Hobbs back on the dogwalk to see how he is on it. He still remembered the teeter, but he never had a problem with it like he did the DW.

This week Hobbs and I are going to work on his end position on the board we have. Also I am going to try to find a hoop for him to practice jumping through.....or figure out how to make a tire jump.

Week 31....

This week has been good, but a little tough. I have started to notice my hands getting swollen when I get too hot, and the last two days the swelling hasn't gone down much during the night. I haven't noticed my feet being swollen, but I am sure they are a little. Sadly I haven't been able to really wear my wedding ring for almost 4 days now:( My spare ring is unfortunately the same size so it doesn't fit either! Other than that, I have had a good week!

One really great thing we found out this week is that our insurance covers 90% of a breast pump purchase! We would have to pay all of it up front, but would be reimbursed for most of it. This means I can buy the best pump we can find, new, and not have to worry about the cost! We were very excited about it. They also cover IUD's for birth control 100% up to like $350! I really didn't want to go back to any other type of pills or chemical control, but I had been worried about the cost of an IUD. Not anymore though! Our insurance is wonderful!

We found out on Friday that Kaylee is going to have a little girl cousin in September! Jenetta and James found out that they are also expecting a girl, which will be so much fun! I already can't wait for the road trip out to see them when she has her. My mom and I are going to head out as soon as she is in labor, so we will get there soon after their little "Evelyn (Evie) Marie" is born.


I still can't believe how close I am to having a child! It hits me every once in a while that in just over 2 months Robert and I will be responsible for the life of another human being!

• Weight: 180.4 - I don't think this is accurate. At least I really hope I didn't gain 5 pounds in one week! I think a lot of it is water retention weight because it has been really hot in our house the last couple days. I will probably update this weight when I go to the doctor tomorrow....or I will post ranting about stupid weight gain.
• Waist: 43 1/2"
• Bra size: Maternity Large...or 36 F
• Sleeping Schedule: Go to Bed @ 9:00-10:30pm and wake up @ 7:00-8:00am
• Exercise Schedule: 60 minute walk with the dogs 3 days, 90 minute hike with the dogs 1 day

My belly is getting HUGE! I can't even imagine what it will look like in 2 months!

Fluff Fridays Giveaway

I have missed a couple weeks of advertising I think! So here is the giveaway for this week:

What would you win:

1-Rumparooz One Size (aplix) lazy lime with 2 Rumparooz 6-r micro terry inserts (given by the manufacturer)

1-Rumparooz One Size (snap) with 1 Rumparooz 6-r micro terry insert (given by Kelly's Closet)

Anyone who is thinking of cloth diapering should check out The Cloth Diaper Whisperer blog, as well as Kelly's Closet (where I order most of my diapers from). They are both great!

Belly Comparing!

Jenetta was here in Utah visiting during my sister's wedding, and we took this picture comparing our baby bellies:

Jenetta was just short of 20 weeks and I was just short of 30 weeks

New Wheels!

The boys have a new set of wheels to ride around in! I am not sure if they are too thrilled about it yet, but they will have to get used to it.


It is a 2006 Suzuki XL.7

The boy's area. We are planning to get a grate to keep them in the back at all times, and a cushioned pad for the floor. As it is, Hobbs thinks it is too hard to lay down on....silly boy!

So we put a blanket in for now

Patriot will eventually need a ramp to get in the back, but hopefully that will come much later!

New Car!!

Robert and I have been wanting a bigger car for a while because we are not all going to fit in a small car after July. Hobbs and Patriot are in the car with us so much of the time, that we wanted something with room behind the back seats. We were originally looking for something like a Subaru, Toyota, or Kia, but today we found a good deal on this:


2006 Suzuki XL.7


with 51000 miles on it

It isn't actually white, it is an off white/eggshell color

I don't think it is a bad looking car!

It is leather interior (which will be much nicer to clean than carpet)

This is the back seat, which will be Kaylee's domain

Looking back through the car (which is already filled with a dog kennel!)

The back is small unless the third row of seats is down. We will keep them down until we have a need for the extra room. We are planning to get a grate to keep the dogs in the back, and we will make a custom cushion for the boys to lay on....sense it isn't very comfy as is. The dogs went for a ride first thing when we brought it home, and I think it will take them some time to get used to being in the very back. They don't have any other option though if they want to be in the car with us!

As Promised

Here are some pictures from our hike today. It was so beautiful!

It is really beautiful up there now that all the snow is gone!

The views from the upper part of the trail

The place where I "lost" Hobbs. I think about that day every time we go hiking.

Pretty flowers

They were both a bit stressed because there were about 30 people hiking over this creek all in a group. One guy had a big walking stick that he "tapped" Hobbs with to get him out of his way.....I gave him a piece of my mind when he did that! So both of them just wanted to play in the water, and forget about the people.

This hill is about 1/4 a mile long....so we go the other way and hike down it rather than up.

More flowers

Hobbs always gets super silly at this point in the trail

He runs away from me....

banks off this hill.....(enlarge this to see the dust he kicks up)

and runs back to me. Over, and over, and over!

I love both their faces in this picture!