Babies

It was definitely baby week for the Hills Family. On Wednesday, April 16, Lucy finally decided to give birth to 5 cute little puppies. She had 3 girls and 2 boys. She was a little past her expected date of delivery and I was getting nervous because Dallas' due date was coming up fast. I wanted to be at both births. When Lucy finally started having her puppies it was the middle of the day. While I was sitting with her I called Dallas and she told me she was having contractions but didn't know if it was the real thing yet. Later that evening, she called and told me she was still having contractions but was going to wait until Survivor was over before calling Tim's Mom. I decided to go to bed and try to get some rest. It was really hard to fall asleep because I was so excited. I finally fell asleep and about 15 minutes later Tim called me a said they were at the hospital and Dallas was at 3 cm and her water broke. I hurried right up there and made it just in time for Kaven's birth at 3:00 am April 17, 2009. It was great. Way to go Tim and Dallas. I was lucky to get to stay with them for a few days also. It was so neet to get to know our new little Kaven better. He is such a little sweetie. Life is Good!

Fair come and Gone

We had a very busy and fun week. It is always that way when the fair comes to town. It was especially fun this year to have most of the kids and grandkids come share in the fun. Erin did a great job with her 4-H goat project this year. Lucky, the goat won a Blue ribbon for market and Erin placed 4th in showmanship. Our 4-H club won first place for overall best club at the show. We won 1st place on our educational display on Chickens. Thanks Dallas and Tim for your help with the display. We also won the Herdsman award for having the cleanest and most orderly animal stalls. What a great learning experience.

Leslie entered her 2 goats, Black Lamb and Alvin the Chinchilla in the Small animal exibit. She won best of show with Buddy, the black lamb. Alvin was stressed out with all the people and had to go home.

Erin won a Blue ribbon on her drawing of a ladybug on a leaf. I won a Blue ribbon on Leslies denim quilt.

Now it is much quieter at our house. I miss our animals. King also left to go back home for the summer with Jodi and Chris. He is such a sweet horse. Hopefully he will come back next winter to stay with us again. I don't know if Chris and Jodi will trust me with their pets though in the future. Leslie will miss her rides on King but maybe all her battle wounds will heal. Jay is almost through with the Chicken Hotel. It is fun to watch the chicks grow.

Spring Project

We had a great week. Jay has been working hard at our chicken coop. I think it looks more like a chicken hotel resort. The chickens are going to love it and I am too. Our first batch of hatched chickies are anxious and ready to move in. As they move out of the garden chicken warmer, the 30 something other littler chickies will move to their old spot. They are so cute.

What a great weekend. Baby Gwen received a beautiful fathers blessing from her Daddy Zach. What a lucky little girl to have such great parents and a big brother, Lincoln. Baby Gwen is a beautiful little girl. I am so excited about having her as a part of our family. She not only is a beautiful a baby but she has such a sweet little spirt. I'm sure Grandma Gwen is smiling down on her, as she was named after her. When I hold her I think about my Mom and how much she loved babies and how much she would love to hold her in her arms and snuggle her, rock her and talk to her. Lucky me. I get to do it for both of us. It will be fun, as she grows to tell her about her Grandma, who is living with Heavenly Father. For me, having Gwen brings back lots of good memories. Thank you Zach and Nikki for bringing her into this world for us.

Gardens up and Going

First Tomato

Yahoo! The garden is up and going. The beans should be poking their heads up next. I'm so excited. We should have some great tastes here soon so get your jars ready kids. We want those grand kids to grow some good muscles. By the way, this is just a warm up for Chris and Jodi's garden to come.

Cabbage and
Beets

Peas

Carrots

Spinich
Peppers

This week Leslie decided to become a Cawgirl. Her latest new favorite pet is King. She has been out riding every day but Wednesday. That was singles night out. King seems all cheered up now and is loving all the attention. This morning he got new shoes. We figured it was worth the investment. He makes a great riding horse for both Leslie, Jodi and the kids. We suspect they are going to be doing a lot of riding in the next part of the year.

Sad Times and Happy

Lots of interesting things have been happening at our house. Some fun and exciting and some very hard.

In Loving Memory of Daisy

I might as well get the not so good over with. I have a new page to add to my life of tragic events. I always try to make each life event a learning experience. Something good has to come from everything. right? Sometimes it is just extremely hard to feel uplifted from hard things that happen in our lives. Especially when we are in the middle of experiencing these growing times. This week I buried one of my most favorite son in laws most favorite pets. It was his horse, Daisy. I am still trying to get over the shock of it all and pick myself up from this tragic event. I love animals. I always have. I have lost pet dogs, goats,hamster's, fish, birds, lizards, chickens,and the list goes on and on. Some have been harder to lose than others I must admit. Losing a horse though, is quite an experience. It really is a big loss. (at least 1200 pounds). With her passing, it was not only very hard and tragic for me emotionally, but also a lot of work. Not only did I have to disassemble my horse corral, but I had to find someone with a back hoe, dig a really deep hole, move her, (get big long chains like to haul cars with), get the huge heavy horse into the hole and bury her all while I watered her down with my tears. Much harder than the little Rat funeral I had with Leslie at the age of two, and I'm a Grandma. To top all this off, I have to deal with the guilt of knowing that her passing is my fault. It all started last Thanksgiving, when Jodi and Chris so kindly decided to let us winter two of their horses to let us see if we liked having horses around. All of my life I have loved horses and my Mom never would let me get one. Then, like almost all little girls, each of my daughters all begged me for a horse at some time in their life. With the exception of Camrin. She wanted a pet elephant to ride instead. Well, I finally broke down and gave in to the baby daughters, Leslie and Erin. We could just give these two horses a test drive for the winter and see how much we liked being horse owners. Of course they came and started changing our lives. I am the one who ended up caring for them since Leslie and Erin were just too busy and didn't seem to have the interest that they thought they would have. Along with their daily care, of course I bond with them. I have had extreme, large experiences with these two horses. Especially Daisy. First of all, she was an extremely beautiful horse. The first time I ever saw her I thought she was the most gorgeous horse I have ever seen. But now for the challenge. The first day I tried to ride this jumpy horse I crashed to the ground and still have a sore wrist from the event. After watching this horse buck Erin of and then sending my dear friend to the hospital after another tragic fall I really knew I had my hands full and a full blown challenge. I nearly gave up on her but then Jay reminded me that I had grandchildren that would be riding this horse. I then received lots of help from kind neighbors and horse loving friends, I decided I was going to concur the challenge of Daisy while she was here at my house. After all, when she went back to Annabella, my grand kids would someday be riding her, and I didn't want any of them to get hurt. We suspected that sometime in her past, she had probably been miss treated by some cruel human. I decided I was going to try to help her to overcome this tragedy and help her to re-trust the human race. Every day I would work with her for about 1-2 hours. She was a very smart horse and we were always playing mind games with each other. Just when I thought I was making great progress she would let me know that she thought she was in charge. Well, as time when on I grew to love and respect this beautiful animal. I will always remember and love her. Along with all of the scary and crazy experiences I had with Daisy, embedded in my mind I will never forget watching Chris take her for his last ride on her. On his last visit, he went and brushed her all out, saddled her up, mounted her and rode of into the dessert like a pro. I watched from a distance in aw. It was beautiful. I knew that Daisy loved him and was a one man horse. She was his horse and he was safe on her. But only him. I am so sorry I fed her fresh grass clippings. I didn't know I was going to give her colic which would lead to her death. She died with her big heavy head in my arms. Even though she was Chris's horse, she looked to me in her final days and she loved me too. I stayed with her and worked with her to the end. Not only in her pain and death but also in helping her to overcome and re-establish her trust and friendship with us humans. I loved Daisy and I know she loved me. I will miss her.

There she is in the corner of the corral.

Now for the good news. May I annouce the arrival of Jay's new babies. He has hatched a new bunch of baby chicks. Congratulations Jay. You are such a good mother. Now it is time to start building the new chicken coop. I am so excited. It will be great to gather fresh eggs again. This time it will be better and we won't let it colapse upon us. We are still trying to decide on it's new location since we decided to make the old spot a great addition to our expanded garden. All that old chicken poop is like a gold mine for our garden. We should be able to grow some great stuff there.



Erin performed in "Strings Festival" in Cedar City. It was a great day. We stayed with Dallas and Tim. That was fun. I loved hugging and loving cute Emery. She cheered me up with my horse sorrows. Thanks cutie. I needed you. Erin recieved an Excellent score for her performaces. I was proud of her. We then went and checked out how to audition for scholorships at SUU. This was exciting as she is starting to think about college and her future. Oh, I almost forgot, she has a new crush on a cute cello player. Fun.

Leslie has been approved to move to a very nice group home in Mesquite with some very nice people. She is excited about this great opportunity to become more independent. We feel very blessed to have her receive this opportunity in her life. With this event, we feel we have devine help from the other side and we believe we have some very special angels working in our behalf. We feel much gratitude. Hopefully Alvin will be able to go with her.