The Making of our Christmas Card

Well, since I've got nothin' to keep me busy these days since there are no puppies and the boys are wrapped up in their new toys,
I thought I'd share about the making of our Christmas card.

We started out bringing all the puppies in the house.
Wait, that's actually not too bad.

I think it was something about Sam's huge looking feet that turned me off of these.

We went with one similar to this one.

The ones of the puppies on the porch steps were funny.
My sister in law had the camera on shutter speed so it just snapped one after another. 

As you can see, the pictures had to be cropped in a lot to cut out Annie, Sam, and my niece.

Here they are again.
If you notice, there were nine pups in the litter and only seven in this picture.
Don't ask me.

And then, the hard part. . .
we tried to get in it.

As did Annie.

As you can see,
this wasn't easy.

But as you can see (I thought I'd say that one more time), we managed to get one.
It wasn't the perfectly posed picture that I had imagined in my head but it worked.

We started heading down in the field where I thought we could get some good ones.

But we slowly started losing track of all the puppies.

And about halfway down, we could only find one puppy and no one was looking at the camera.

I thought this one was cute but the quality wasn't clear.

I took these back in April of our March litter.

They have always been some of my favorite photos.

There were literally about 100 pictures taken that day but there's no way I could have made them entertaining.

"Mater's" Delivery

What seems like forever ago, someone called about a puppy.

He wanted one for his kids.
He wanted to give him as a Christmas present.
We live for this kind of stuff!
Kids, Christmas, puppies. . . We were all for it!
So Green Collar was the one reserved for them.
My boys called him Mater since that was their name for the original Green Collared puppy who is now Murphie.
So the plans went on for months.
This puppy would be delivered to them on December 23rd.
He would stay with cousins until Christmas morning.
He would be waiting for them on Christmas morning as a gift from Santa.

We gathered up the boys for another puppy delivery and headed to the cousins' house.
By the time I'd texted pictures of this puppy on almost a daily basis for about 6 weeks, the parents were just as excited to finally have him as they were for their kids to get him!

Now, about me. . .
I have to admit, once the puppy is in the hands of the owners it's a pretty big relief.
This was a lot of pressure, holding this puppy.
If I had let something happen to him, I would have ruined Christmas!

Here he is meeting Dawson, the cousins' family dog.
Dawson wasn't happy about it.
In fact, he went straight back into the house,
sat with his back to everyone,
and pouted.

And the boys came out of there with Spider Man toys and all the cookies they could eat!

Here he is with Dad.

Well, at least someone will like him if it turns
out the kids would have rather had an iPad.

He found himself a good place to rest.
Get it now pup, in a couple of days there will be no resting.

And then the inevitable. . .it was time to leave.
This was our last puppy of this litter.  There would be no more waiting at home.
This wasn't easy for anyone to watch.
What were we to do?

So we took them to the Wild Lights display at
the zoo.
That seemed to help.

And they got a little present from Santa, too.
Although, it was really cold.

As for the Christmas puppy,
he was a total surprise!
A great surprise!
In the words of the oldest, "Am I dreaming or is that really a dog?"
What fun to take part in that!
And his name. . .
LEO!
Merry Christmas everyone!!!

P. S. Sending me Christmas pictures of your dog would be welcomed here!

These are a few of my favorite things. . .

One of my favorite things about the Christmas season is the Christmas cards we receive.  I love sending them out and I love getting them.   

Many of you puppy owners received one of these cards.  I'll post about the fiasco that was someday.

 I really love getting cards from people who have bought a puppy from us!  I love that you think of us and that you include your dog on your card!

This is from Finley's owners (the girl Finley, not Fin).

This is from Murphie's owners.
Murphie was our 2nd puppy born on our farm.
I remember it distinctly because he was HUGE!

This is from Leo's owners.
The boys named him Huggy when he was here.
So his full name now is Leo Huggy.

 Here are a few of the other cards I've received from our special friends and families.

My family.
My brother and his wife and kids, and my parents

My brother and his silly family.
My older niece there is lots of help with the puppies when she comes to visit.
The other two, well. . . not so much.

My little nephew.

Some of our great friends who've supported us from the beginning.  When we brought home 8 week old puppies, Candy and Sandy, and 10 month old, Huck, they gave us positive feedback. Most people thought we were crazy.
They've seen us do lots of crazy stuff since we've known them though so I don't think we're going to surprise them with anything we do!
We are grateful for their friendship!

Another good group of supportive friends.
Again, never got a "you already have 3 dogs, why did you just get 3 more?" question outta them.
I couldn't have managed these puppies without the help of Miss Sophia either!  She will make an excellent mother or dog owner someday!

Not quite dog lovers. . . yet,
but they have their hands full.
Good friends, plus they had twin boys this year so I'm putting them on here!
If you have multiples, you WILL go on this blog!
Back in the fall, I did her maternity leave substituting in her classroom.
And we're still friends so you know there's a bond there!!!

And here's the one of us we sent to friends and family.
This has been a truly overwhelmingly blessed year for us and we thank all of you for your support, business, kind words, and dog-loving hearts.

So that's all I'll put on of my card collection, unless you want more.
These are a few of my favorite things because they're some of my favorite people.  
Don't expect more of this "favorite things" stuff, I'm not going to put myself up for that.

Amos' (Jaxon) Last Day!

This is the story of Jaxon. . .
who is now Amos.
This is the story of how Jaxon became Amos.
There once was a puppy named Jaxon, who then became known as Amos.
Anyway. . . here he is.  There was a little bit of confusion with this puppy, but it has a very happy ending.

This was taken on Friday.
Our remaining two puppies with their mama.
Today, there is only one remaining puppy at our house.
Can you guess which one is the happiest about almost all the puppies being gone?

This weekend, we made a road trip to Kansas City.
It was a good half way spot to meet up with Amos' new owner.
Before we left, Amos got a bath.

The boys love a good puppy roadtrip.
Along with the Maters, T-Rexes, and cars, it gives them one more thing to fight over.

Going to Kansas City gave us a good excuse to visit my family.
Amos couldn't get over their dog, Harry.
He says, "So let me get this straight, you call yourself a grown up?"

My cousin and uncle loved Amos.  This is them begging my aunt to keep him!  Luckily, she said no or I would have had some explaining to do to his new owner.

My boys enjoyed playing with him one last time.

And here she is!
Remember this lady, Hoss' owner?

She's now Hoss AND Amos' owner!!

Amos was happy to see her and ready to go!
He even managed to turn on the hazard lights!

And off they go!
Home to see Hoss.
Can't wait for an updated photo of the two of them.
I told you it had a happy ending.