Introducing...

SONIC and TEDDI!

What are we thinking?!  A few days ago Nanny mentioned how cute it would be if there were a few lambs at the farm we call, "Ted's."  "Ted's" is an acreage/ farm land my parents purchased this winter.  It is a charming little place that makes it easy to invision all sorts of farm-related things...like, a henhouse full of chickens, a little vegetable stand, apple trees and homemade pies and a lot full of calves.

But what little farm would be complete without a couple of SHEEP?!

I grew up with sheep.  Big sheep, little sheep, old sheep, baby sheep.  I have so many great memories that revolve around sheep.  The year we moved to Eldora, I somehow talked my dad into getting two bottle lambs.  His cousin, Mike Buchanan, raised them near Hampton, IA and was happy to provide our family with our first two sheep...Oreo and Cookie, on March 10, 1985.

 I remember that day plainly.  We met Mike at Grandma Mary's.  When I walked in, he was leaning up against the kitchen counter with two adorable lambs in a box on the floor.   I was so excited.  Oreo and Cookie started our flock and lived for many, many years.  I can't remember which one, but either Oreo or Cookie was still alive when I was dating Ryan in 2001!

I mentioned to Ryan that I'd like to find a couple lambs for Drue and Lane...batted my eyelashes and ta-da!  Ok, not really.  We called back Mike, but he's raising goats now.  So, where else does one look for bottle lambs? ...Craigslist, duh! I would have never thought! But as I was working in the Sunday School office this morning, my phone rang.  Ryan had found two lambs and we'd be on our way after dinner at Mom & Dad's!

Luckily, we picked up minimal supplies last night in Waterloo, just in case.  When we arrived at the Stanhope farm, this afternoon, the farmer's wife reached down in a mineral bucket and pulled out a little wooly boy.  Oh.My.Goodness! He is tiny! Like, half the size of our cat, tiny! Lane has named him, "Sonic."  Sonic is one of a set of triplets. When he was born he hid under a feed bunk and his momma never claimed him. 

Next, the farmer reached in a pen and pulled out a little speckly girl.  Drue named her "Teddi."  Teddi is even a little smaller than Sonic!  She was still with her momma when we got her.  She is also one of a triplet, but was being supplemented with milk replacer.  She cried the whole way home. 

They are SO tiny.  So incredibly tiny.  So tiny that I can't bear to put them out in the big old barn at Ted's just yet.  So tiny that I can't even put them out in the garage tonight.  That is why I have two baby lambs in our kitchen at the moment.  They are sleeping, curled up in little balls on towels.  They'll spend tonight in Cash's carrier/crate in the kitchen.  I'll get up with them every 3-4 hours and pray that they'll eagerly eat their little 2- ounce bottles. 

Soon, they'll get big and healthy and noisy and jump around like crazy...just like my "real" kids.  Hopefully, Drue & Lane can make as many great memories with our wooly babes as I did growing up.  

We'll keep ya' posted! 

DD & Teddi

Dig & Sonic

Dig telling Teddi a story.  He says he will tell them the same stories every day.  The titles of the stories will be, "First Time at Home" and "Sheep Jump Over the Moon."  I do belive the memory making is well under way!