Pull up a chair, grab a cup of tea and put your feet up! This might turn into quite a long post. 😉

Some of you might have read a post I did a week or two ago about our potentially “Full House”. If not, I’ll fill you in a little.

My husband and I have three sons (the oldest two being twins). The oldest and his wife (and their Cavapoo) live near Denver. His twin lives in Spokane. The youngest lives here with us because he works in our teeny tiny town.

The oldest got married and moved away last summer/fall. So they had planned a trip home in April for a visit. They would be arriving April 22nd, as would the Spokane son, his girlfriend and her Boxer. So we added four adults and two more dogs to the household for a while. The girlfriend and her dog only got to stay through Monday as she had to return for work. And our Spokane son stayed through midweek.

In March, my elderly uncle passed away (he was 95, a true family treasure and had a good, long life.)  <3   My aunt waited a while to do the memorial service so all his kids (my cousins) could be there. The service was planned for last Sunday (May 1st) in Walla Walla, Wa (about a four hour drive from us).

After my uncle passed away, I heard that my dad and brother would be coming up from CA to my uncle’s memorial. I thought they’d just fly up for the weekend, but was thrilled to find out they were staying a bit longer. So they flew in last Friday and just left this morning.

(Sorry, if I’m boring you with all the details, but just wanted you to have an understanding of the busyness we’ve had the last 10 days). And I’m not complaining, I loved having them all here. <3

So now that you have the background, here goes the crazy day!

I have some relatives that live nearby in Idaho, so I had invited them over for lunch Saturday so they could visit while my dad and brother were here.

Saturday is our church day, but since my family was here and Jules was getting close to her due date I decided to stay home that morning. Sixty-three days from the first breeding actually would be tomorrow, but none of my girls usually go that many days. I was hoping and praying she would do something before I had to be gone all day on Sunday to my uncle’s service. I had a capable friend coming to sit with her, but I really wanted to be there when it happened if at all possible.

So I got up that morning and started on my regular chores. For those that don’t know, we have a little “farm” here; besides the dogs, there are barn cats, horses, chickens, goats, rabbits and a crazy parrot.

I had bred both my female Lionhead rabbits about a month earlier (their gestation is about 30 days), but only one had made a nest and I had checked the day before and hadn’t found anything. But this morning, I found two little, pink, hairless creatures in her box! Bingo, baby bunnies!

Later the family arrived, we had lunch then wandered around the farm and visited. My uncle is quite the avid photographer so we visited the different animals as he snapped some pictures.

The two Nigerian Dwarf goats were both expecting and getting plump but were contentedly napping or eating when we checked on them.

About an hour later another close friend, his daughter and her baby (who were visiting from out of state) stopped by. She’s an animal lover like me, so of course she wanted to see all the critters too. So we headed back over to the goat pen. And wonder of wonders what did we see, but Violet the goat in labor!!! Without going into to much detail (for the faint of heart), she was really pushing hard to get that kid out. My friend quickly passed her baby to grandpa, we grabbed some supplies and we went in the pen to see if Violet needed assistance. The baby goat’s head and front feet were just starting to show, but mom was backed up against the fence. I started to clean the little face off, then as Violet gave a good push, Natalie (my friend) pulled her away from the fence and the baby was born! <3

Just arrived and getting dried off/All dried and trying to find the milk faucet. 😉

Wow! That was pretty exciting. And there’s not much cuter than a baby goat. <3

As evening came we headed inside. I took Jules evening temperature which turned out to be fairly normal. It had been down that morning and the day before, but not low enough to make me think anything was going to happen soon. And with the evening temperature as it was, I figured she wouldn’t probably do anything now, but wait until Sunday while I was gone.   :/   I hoped she’d at least wait until Monday so I could be here with her.

I settled her back in her crate and started visiting with people. When all of a sudden, Natalie said, “she’s having a baby!” And sure enough, she was contracting and trying to push that first puppy out! And of course she wasn’t in the big whelping crate where I needed her to be! (Rosie was still occupying it.)

And in the middle of all this, my in-laws stopped by to visit and brought their little dog (which they promptly took back outside). Jules was a trooper. Even amidst the talking, visitors and small crate she pulled it off.Without going into too many details at this point (you know how I am) 😉 she went on to successfully deliver her litter and we got her settled in for the night, in the bigger crate. 😉

Oh, and his all happened on my birthday, which is a pretty cool bunch of “presents” for an animal lover. <3

And I truly don’t remember such a crazy, busy, memorable birthday ever!