Week and a Half Old Pups

As you can tell, my pride and joy, at the moment, are these sweet puppies. I have enjoyed taking care of them over the Christmas break. I wish I could just stay home with them a little bit longer. I'm very attached and want to keep every one of them. These are their pictures around Christmas. See how much they've grown in just a little over a weeks time. I'll post more recent pictures soon.

The Pups are Here!

Well, the pups were born late Thursday night into Friday morning. Wow!! It was quite an experience. It has worn us out! Freckles had 9 puppies but as of now, only 5 have survied (second picture). About half of the litter must have been conceived later than the other half because they were premie. It's SO hard on me to loose a pup. I've felt so helpless. I hate that feeling. I understood going into all of this that usually one pup will not make it, but having four die has been so very hard. To top things off, Freckles isn't making enough milk for them and we are having to bottle feed them every 2 hours. Since we've got 5 pups we feed each for about 10-15 minutes..do the math...we only have an hour break between feedings. Last night Dustin and I swapped off so we could get a few hours of sleep and it worked, but I'm pretty sure this is going to catch up with us soon. If you think about us anytime during these next two weeks, please say a little prayer. This time of year is already stressful with traveling, Dustin's sister's wedding and then we have an added stress of keeping these puppies fed and healthy. Especially think of our littlest one, "Little One", (picture below) she needs to catch up to the rest of the litter. I'll keep pictures coming so you can see their growth. I sure love these little babies. They are so very sweet!

Loving Family!

I just love this time of year! One of the best parts is being able to spend time with family. I absolutely love my family....my parents, in-laws, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. They are all so special to me. I can't wait till Preston is here where he can enjoy family with us. I feel like our family is very unique because we are all so close. I'm so grateful that he will be able to experience true family love.
Just this past week, Dustin and I were discussing how no longer will 'we' be a 'couple' but a 'FAMILY'! Our own little family! It's so exciting to be starting a family, just like how my grandparents started their little family that is constantly growing. Enjoy your family and feel blessed to be around them this Christmas season!

This is a shot from my second photo session. I was a little over 22 weeks pregnant (5 1/2 months).

More Slaton Babies on the Way!!!

All of the excitement is at our house!! We just realized last week that our puppy (who is no longer a puppy), Freckles, is going to be having puppies in the next few weeks. They will be arriving at a very hectic time. She's due about 3-4 days before we head to Jacksonville for Dustin's sister's wedding and Christmas. These are just a few picture of her from when she was a puppy. She's was the cutest puppy I had ever seen. She's going to probably have the cutest puppies EVER!! She and the boy dog are registered Cocker Spaniels. Freckles is black and white and Tanner is orangish-tan and white. They both have a different look than most cockers because they have little 'freckles/spots' on their noses, legs and back. We are going to try to let my parents take Tanner for a few weeks to give Freckles a break. Even though it will be pretty rough toting a momma dog, puppies, and a fat pregnant lady at Christmas, it just adds to all the excitement.

Baby Slaton has a Name!!

After much thought AND I was scared Dustin and I would slip up and accidentally say his name, we decided to tell our family our little boy's name. I was really wanting to hold out till Christmas, but Thanksgiving was a good time. I made a Thanksgiving card to give them that said, "We are thankful for our little boy." Then we had our most recent sonogram pictures scattered around and at the bottom it said his name,
"PRESTON LYLE SLATON"
Lyle is Dustin's middle name and Dustin's father's middle name so he wanted to pass that along to our first born son.
At first, I was scared to go ahead and tell his name because everyone seems to like to voice their opinions. I felt like if someone told me they didn't like his name I would be upset. Dustin and I had "Preston" picked out several years ago so it's a name we were set on. I figure if someone is really rude enough to say they don't like his name, then they must not be much of a friend. Dustin's family said they were going to call him Rufus until we told them the name...so that helped urge us on a little.

He's 100%

Our last visit to the doctor on November 15th (19wks.), they did another sonogram to check out his organs and his growth. They said that he is growing just like he should and he checked out 100%. What an answer to prayer! We should never take it lightly that God is in control and is taking care of us.
It is very obvious that he has Dustin's nose and on the video we could tell that he probably has Dustin's chin and mouth, too. He's so CUTE!!!

It's a BOY, Pictures

Here are the sonogram shots from my doctor's appointment last month when we found out we have a boy. (October 25th- 16wks.- 4 Months)