Goodbye Sweet Claire

Today we had to say goodbye to our sweet Clairey. She was Born May 5, 1999 and died today, December 15, 2007. She was so dear to our family. Her life was too short. Everywhere I turn I am reminded of her. From the mess left under Shawny's chair with no Clairey to clean them up to no one there to greet me at the door. I know I will have a hole in my heart for a very long time. This has been a very painful day. She will always be missed. She was a very good dog. Claire with a 12 year old Santa. Can you tell we didn't have children yet. We must have been desperate, bringing our dog to see Santa:)
If you are wondering what happened to her, here it is. We returned home from Muskegon Sunday night and Claire appeared to be doing fine. Monday she kinda laid low. Tuesday I said, "I don't think Claire is feeling to well." She just kinda laid around. Not much spunk. Wednesday I noticed she wasn't eating or drinking much and her urine was kinda dark against the snow. Thursday I knew something was wrong. I encouraged her to eat a little meat and gave her a Tylenol (Bad move by the way, Tylenol is toxic to dogs). I also gave her a bath and a hair cut. She looked nice and I was sure it would help her feel better. Still no improvement. Sleeping a lot, no eating or drinking and really dark urine, no other symptoms. I let her sleep a lot on Friday but around 6pm picked her up to give her some love and noticed her belly was yellow. Not kinda yellow but really yellow. At that point I could see all of her skin was yellow. I instantly knew this was an emergency. We had to wait to see the vet until Saturday at 8am. When we saw the vet we were told Claire was in severe liver failure. The costs of treating her were to high and the chances of her being cured were slim. After many many tears we made the painful decision to have her put to sleep. I have never had to endure this before and don't know if my heart could handle doing it again. It was one of the most painful decisions I have ever had to make. I am just thankful Claire isn't in anymore pain and that the live failure hadn't progressed any further. From what I was told, the later stages of liver failure are much worse. Lyle dug tearfully her a grave in the semi frozen ground behind our house. She was so loved and we will miss her dearly. Now I must head to bed without letting the dog out and having her follow me to my bedroom to sleep. I'm so sad.

My Little Man

It's tough to be a man. Why, with all the shaving you hardly have time for anything else.

Grandma Joyce bought Shawn a toy shaving kit. For a few days, each evening he would lather up and do a thorough job of shaving. I got such a kick out of it. Take a look. He's very serious.

I could just kiss those sweet cheeks!!!!

Decorating the Christmas Tree

As usual, we bought our tree the day after Thanksgiving from Williams Tree Farm. The unusual part was picking it up on our way home from Muskegon, at 8pm, with our little Escort loaded down with luggage and hunting gear. The next day we decorated. The kids were so excited. This is the first years they have actually been a HELP in the process. You know how it can get. About the time I couldn't handle one more decoration being broken the Clark kids called to see if they could go sledding with Sierra and Shawn. They headed outside and stayed out for about 3 hours building snowmen, snow forts and sledding. Sierra set up the nativity with a little help from Shawny.
Shawny helped check strings of lights to see if they were working and set up, or partially set up about every other decoration we have. He was everywhere. Wow!! what a mess:)
Sierra, sporting the Mrs. Clause glasses. Oh yeah, I have to tell you we went to see Santa and Mrs. Clause at the Mall. Shawn & Sierra are sure this is the REAL Santa. After she sat on his lap, Sierra leaned over to me and whispered,"Mom, Santa has stinky breathe. Don't tell him though." She also said Mrs. Clause must have went on a diet. She was very thin.
Sierra and Shawn gave our little Santa and Mrs. Clause a makeover, brushing their hair and washing them up.

Our First Broken Bone & School Pictures

We had quite a day today. I know this x-ray doesn't show up well but Shawn has a break right below the wrist through his radius bone.

On Monday the kids were home from school because of a snow day. In the afternoon the kids were sledding with the neighbors. With a little help from Sierra, Shawn and Abby flipped off their sleds and Abby landed on Shawny's wrist. I could tell Shawny was hurt because he had that look in his eye. We mom's know the look. Not only did he have the look, but he had no desire to play for the rest of the day, from 3:30 until bed time. Normally he just shakes it off and heads back outside because he doesn't want to miss a minute of play time with his friends, Jon-Michael, Abby and Jerad Clark. To shorten this story, we went to the doctor this morning at 9am, Munson for x-ray's at 10am, waited at Munson until 11:30am, want to the Orthopedic specialist at 2:45pm and left with a cast around 5:15pm. From there we had to go to Wal Mart to pick up a Sharpy that could write on a black cast don't you know:) Well we can be thankful it was a typical break and shouldn't effect his growth. He should only have to wear it until January 4th.

While I'm posting I figured I would include the kids latest pictures. They are growing and changing so quickly these days!!! Where have my babies gone?