Christmas Time :)

It's that time of year!! Snow has been falling and it is cold outside. I guess we better get our Christmas cards out! I saw a post on a friend's blog about Shutterfly and a great deal they are offering. If you do a post on your blog about their website/cards, you can get 50 free! (check it out)

This year we will only have one dog to put on our Christmas card since Kaiya is no longer with us, but Lexus will do a good job looking cute on our card. We are looking forward to using Shutterfly next year since baby Cox will get to be on our card!!! It will be a great way to show our friends and family how much our baby has grown :)

What is great about Shutterfly is that not only do they have Christmas cards; they have cards for every occasion. http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery That means in May when baby Cox arrives, we will be able to search for the perfect birth announcement :) http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/birth-announcements

Now I need to decide which Shutterfly card I want to use this year. It won't be easy since there are so many great cards to pick from! Here are some I really like, but check out their site for many more great options: http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards

Here are the links if you want to purchase these cute cards:

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/gifted-tag-christmas-4x8-photo-card-4x8-photo?sortType=1&storeNode=93496

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/sweet-snowflake-holiday-4x8-photo-card-4x8-photo?fg=64&sortType=1&storeNode=93496&fe=4

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards/santa-paws-christmas-4x8-photo-card-4x8-photo?sortType=1&fa=2&storeNode=93496&fe=4

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Good Luck Kaiya!

The hard work and time we put into training our precious Kaiya has paid off. We were notified in July that a family had been found for Kaiya. We were going to head to China for 3 weeks for a mission trip so Kaiya went down to Bowling Green, KY to stay with the Blessings Unleashed trainer. We got back at the start of August and it was decided that Kaiya would stay with the trainer and start her official training to get certified. It was hard news to hear because I missed her so much but it was what she was born to do.
Todd and I were able to drive to Bowling Green one afternoon to meet the family she would go to. They are from Wisconsin and drove down to meet Kaiya for the first time and make sure she was the right dog for their child. I can't explain how great it was to meet this family. It made all the work and difficulty of giving her up, worth it. Knowing that Kaiya would be used to improve the life of a child is amazing!! The family is so sweet and I know they will love her :)
The past few months Kaiya has been in intense training so that she will pass the certification test while the family raised the money for Kaiya. Once she is ready, she will go to her new home and new family!

Kaiya was a blessing to us during the two years we were able to give her a home and she will always be in our hearts!

Past due for an update

It has been a long time since I wrote anything on here. Time sure does fly! Kaiya is still with us. It has been a year and a half. She is on the top of the list with Blessings Unleashed. That means as soon as a child is found for her, she will leave us and go to intensive training before going to her forever home. I'm going to miss her so much!!! My hope is that she finds a home here in Lexington (maybe even at Southland) so I can see her once in awhile.

Last month Todd had to go to Gatlinburg for work. I decided to go with and we got a cabin for the weekend. We were able to find a pet friendly cabin so we brought Kaiya along. It was a great weekend! We were able to relax but also take her out to restaurants and to the outlets for training. It was a good experience for her. She did very well! Kaiya is always well behaved in stores which is good.






Last September our neighbors took Kaiya to a local pool that opened it up to dogs for the day. She had a blast! We had taken her last year but she was so young and scared of the water. This year she had so much fun jumping in and swimming. She is a true lab! I love this picture. Molly, the little dog, had not interest in playing with Kaiya and she let her know!

Last October we took both dogs to a local orchard. We met our friends there who also brought their dogs. We had a fun time and took some pictures.

Around the same time, some friends and I took our dogs to a Halloween dog costume event. We dressed the dogs up with the hope of winning best costume. Sadly, non of our dogs won but we still had a great time. Kaiya was a snow skier :)

That's all for now!

Update

Can you believe that it is June?! Where does the time go? I said I would post pictures from Kaiya's birthday. Well, they are only a month late :)

I think she looks so much older than the little puppy we got back in August. She is such a small lab that people still think she is a puppy.

This is a classic Kaiya face:) She is a dog that loves life. Notice the feet... If she plays outside after we cut the grass, her paws turn bright green! Guess it was bath time.

This is what Todd calls her "Grandpa" face. It makes us laugh :)

So, last month we were told that if her hips come back as "excellent", they may have a child for her. We we got the report back and they were marked as "good". This is still a good rating but not what the parents of that particular child wanted. So, we go on waiting for a child for Kaiya. They said we could have her for another 4-6 months. There are two other dogs in front of her that are being trained (specifically for a child). This can take several months and they focus on one dog at a time. After those dogs are trained, it will be Kaiya's turn, but only if they have a child waiting to take her. We knew going into this it could be a year to a year and a half commitment. It seems it could be even longer depending on a child. We'll just have to wait and see.

OFA X-rays

Kaiya went to get her OFA x-rays this week. We had tried to get them about two weeks ago at another place, but when we got there to drop her off, they told us it was going to be over $800!!! I was so mad! Needless to say, we did not have them done there. They kept trying to tell us it was the anesthesia that cost so much... I don't know what they were trying to pull. Anyway, I called around and found a place that does it for $116. Not even close to the other place. So on Tuesday I dropped her off in the morning and then picked her up after work. The Dr. said her hips looked great! That is a big praise because if they didn't look good, that would mean she probably couldn't be a service dog. She is young (only 11 months) so she could develop hip problems later on. It is normally detected around 2yrs.
We have to send in the x-rays to OFA and have them look at them. It is just a preliminary check since they wont certify her hips until she is 2yrs. The Dr. said they should pass with no problem.
This means she is one step closer to being a service dog!
Our year with Kaiya will be up in August. We could have her for up to another 6 months, but I know the foundation would like to get her going ASAP. Once she leaves us, she will need to go to extensive training. This is when they will find a child for her and teach her exactly what she will need to do for the child.
So what we are working on now it getting her ready for her last test she has to do before the advanced training. She also needs to work on not being scared by traffic and stop chasing squirrels! She is still very excitable and needs to chill out some. Gotta love lab puppies :) So much energy! Other than that, she is doing great. I can't believe that she will be 1 on May 1st! I'll try to remember to take some pictures that day and post them.

CGC Test

In order for Kaiya to get her service vest (training) she needed to pass what is called the Canine Good Citizens Test. This is a test created by the AKC to determine if your dog can be polite in public.
We arrived at Pet Suites in Lexington on Saturday night to have her tested. There were 6 other dogs there who needed to be tested as well in a very small room. I knew Kaiya could do all the test well but in a new setting with new dogs and new people I was a little worried. Kaiya was a very excited and playful when we first got there. She had to walk nicely on a a loose leash around other dogs and a people, sit, stay, down, come, ect - all without treats around all the other dogs. I told Todd when we walked in that I was nervous but it all turned out fine. We were able to calm her down so that she could focus and listen to us. After it was all done, she passed!! I was soo happy and proud of her. She will now get her vest and look like an official service dog!

Christmas 08

Christmas has already come and gone. It went by so fast! I hope you all were able to enjoy the holidays :) Our little family went to Michigan this year for Christmas. We put both Lexus and Kaiya in the back seat of my Saturn and drove the 7 1/2 hours to my parents house in Grand Rapids, MI. This was Kaiya's first really long drive and she did really well! She does like to take up most of the back seat (poor Lexus) ;) We stayed in MI for 5 days. During that time it snowed (they have had 60 in this winter so far), rained (melted all that snow), flooded, and then snowed again. It was a pretty exciting time! They river and lake in my parent back yard flooded the most is has since they have lived there (25 years plus). It got very, very close to the house on Sunday morning so instead of going to church, we spent the morning/afternoon sand bagging their house and the neighbors. It was something I've never done before and wouldn't like to do again, but I have to say, it is very cool to see a community come together to help someone out. There were probably 30 people in the neighborhood (even ones that don't live on the lake) that came out to help.
After that exciting day, slept in on Monday and then loaded the car for our trip back. We had great driving weather and would have made it home in good time except for the traffic we ran into in Dayton and Cincinnati.
All in all we had a great Christmas. We are enjoying our time off from work. We don't' have to go back until the 5th. Kaiya will be having her Canine Good Citizens Test this month so keep us in your prayers. If she passes this test she will get her official vest!
I hope you all have a great start to this new year!

Blessings ~Kristin