WARNING: This is another really long blog post. And it contains some really sad pictures.
...
Last week we said goodbye to our bunnies.
Friday morning, I sent Lexi outside to let the bunnies out of their hutch.
A few minutes later she came back to the front door
and told me that the bunnies weren't in their house or their pen.
While we were talking on the front porch and as she told me that the bunnies were gone,
I saw out of the corner of my eye something brown in the snow. It was Sven's ears.
I instantly knew that he was dead.
I pointed him out to Lexi and she became hysterical.
...
I was just in my robe at the time (the one morning I don't get dressed before school).
I put on my slippers and went out and looked at Sven. Yep he was dead.
But where was Olaf? We looked and looked but couldn't find him.
This all happened just minutes before the Hansen's came to pick up the girls for school.
When they pulled up, I told them what happened and that the girls would be staying home that day.
I called the school to excuse the girls and then went up stairs to get dressed.
...
Lexi could hardly breathe she was so upset.
I didn't know what to do. So I called my parents. A lot of times my mom can get her to calm down.
It didn't work. Instead, it just really upset my parents to hear Lexi so upset.
...
Finally when she started breathing better and was able to talk we went outside to investigate.
During the winter, it's cold and dark, so Lexi goes with Sean and Sean goes by himself
to put the bunnies in their house.
The previous night, we had forgot to put the bunnies in.
Sean felt awful. He felt like it was his fault. I felt so bad for him.
...
Sven didn't look like he was attacked.
He just looked like he had been pushed down in the snow and was sleeping.
There was a tiny bit of blood on the tip of his nose but that was it.
I've heard that bunnies can just fall over and die of a heart attach if they get scared.
Maybe that's what happened to Sven.
I so wished Sean was home that day.
I didn't want to go through this alone with Lexi.
I picked up Sven (that was the first time I've ever held anything dead. It was strange.)
I put him in a box and put it in the garage.
Avery should have gone to school that day. She didn't seem effected by the bunnies death.
She didn't even cry or seem upset. The bunnies really were Lexi's pets.
Avery wasn't very respectful or tactful or sensitive about the whole situation.
She would say things like, Maybe Olaf got eaten, or Maybe Olaf is lost or sad or alone.
And anytime someone came over she asked them if they wanted to see Sven's dead body.
Eli also wasn't helpful. He kept saying over and over all day long, "They killed. They killed them. An animal killed them. A lion killed them. A zebra killed them. A camel killed them."
The fence around the bunnies' house look untouched.
And there were no holes under it, so the bunnies didn't escape.
Something must have got in their and taken them out.
A few neighbors mentioned something about a fox in the neighborhood.
Maybe that's what got them.
...
I wasn't sure what to do to help Lexi.
This was her first experience with death
and I knew this could shape the way she handles it in the future.
I decided to help her focus on the good memories.
So found every picture that we have of the bunnies that morning.
Then we printed them at Walmart and made a scrapbook together.
That really did seem to help.
That night we went to West Jordan to go see cousins,
which really did seem to help get her mind off of the bunnies, for a little bit at least.
The next day several friends from our neighborhood came to visit Lexi.
She received so many gifts and cards.
I was so touched and grateful for the thoughtfulness of our friends.
Lexi received a homemade burial blanket
(which we decided was too nice to use so Lexi is keeping it in her bed and sleeping with it at night to help her remember the bunnies).
And she got an Olaf and Sven stuffed animal.
(Lexi said she wouldn't smile because she was too sad.)
She also got flowers. She was really excited about those.
Every time someone came over, Lexi would show them her scrapbook.
Talking about it over and over again helped it became easier to talk about.
That day it snowed all morning. Finally when it stopped Sean dug a grave on the side of our house.
Lexi made a bed and blanket of hay for Sven.
Lexi expressed that she was having a hard time with the fact that we didn't have Olaf's body too.
We said things we liked about Sven and Olaf.
And Lexi said that she wanted to be the one to cover him up.
I was so proud of her. She handled the burial so well.
...
Here are a few of my favorite pictures of Olaf and Sven.
The first one is the night Sean and Lexi first went to see the bunnies.
June 8, 2015
It was love at first sight!
...
Last week we said goodbye to our bunnies.
Friday morning, I sent Lexi outside to let the bunnies out of their hutch.
A few minutes later she came back to the front door
and told me that the bunnies weren't in their house or their pen.
While we were talking on the front porch and as she told me that the bunnies were gone,
I saw out of the corner of my eye something brown in the snow. It was Sven's ears.
I instantly knew that he was dead.
I pointed him out to Lexi and she became hysterical.
...
I was just in my robe at the time (the one morning I don't get dressed before school).
I put on my slippers and went out and looked at Sven. Yep he was dead.
But where was Olaf? We looked and looked but couldn't find him.
This all happened just minutes before the Hansen's came to pick up the girls for school.
When they pulled up, I told them what happened and that the girls would be staying home that day.
I called the school to excuse the girls and then went up stairs to get dressed.
...
Lexi could hardly breathe she was so upset.
I didn't know what to do. So I called my parents. A lot of times my mom can get her to calm down.
It didn't work. Instead, it just really upset my parents to hear Lexi so upset.
...
Finally when she started breathing better and was able to talk we went outside to investigate.
During the winter, it's cold and dark, so Lexi goes with Sean and Sean goes by himself
to put the bunnies in their house.
The previous night, we had forgot to put the bunnies in.
Sean felt awful. He felt like it was his fault. I felt so bad for him.
...
Sven didn't look like he was attacked.
He just looked like he had been pushed down in the snow and was sleeping.
There was a tiny bit of blood on the tip of his nose but that was it.
I've heard that bunnies can just fall over and die of a heart attach if they get scared.
Maybe that's what happened to Sven.
I so wished Sean was home that day.
I didn't want to go through this alone with Lexi.
I picked up Sven (that was the first time I've ever held anything dead. It was strange.)
I put him in a box and put it in the garage.
Avery should have gone to school that day. She didn't seem effected by the bunnies death.
She didn't even cry or seem upset. The bunnies really were Lexi's pets.
Avery wasn't very respectful or tactful or sensitive about the whole situation.
She would say things like, Maybe Olaf got eaten, or Maybe Olaf is lost or sad or alone.
And anytime someone came over she asked them if they wanted to see Sven's dead body.
Eli also wasn't helpful. He kept saying over and over all day long, "They killed. They killed them. An animal killed them. A lion killed them. A zebra killed them. A camel killed them."
The fence around the bunnies' house look untouched.
And there were no holes under it, so the bunnies didn't escape.
Something must have got in their and taken them out.
A few neighbors mentioned something about a fox in the neighborhood.
Maybe that's what got them.
...
I wasn't sure what to do to help Lexi.
This was her first experience with death
and I knew this could shape the way she handles it in the future.
I decided to help her focus on the good memories.
So found every picture that we have of the bunnies that morning.
Then we printed them at Walmart and made a scrapbook together.
That really did seem to help.
That night we went to West Jordan to go see cousins,
which really did seem to help get her mind off of the bunnies, for a little bit at least.
The next day several friends from our neighborhood came to visit Lexi.
She received so many gifts and cards.
I was so touched and grateful for the thoughtfulness of our friends.
Lexi received a homemade burial blanket
(which we decided was too nice to use so Lexi is keeping it in her bed and sleeping with it at night to help her remember the bunnies).
And she got an Olaf and Sven stuffed animal.
(Lexi said she wouldn't smile because she was too sad.)
We set up a little memorial for the bunnies.
She also got flowers. She was really excited about those.
Every time someone came over, Lexi would show them her scrapbook.
Talking about it over and over again helped it became easier to talk about.
That day it snowed all morning. Finally when it stopped Sean dug a grave on the side of our house.
Lexi made a bed and blanket of hay for Sven.
Lexi expressed that she was having a hard time with the fact that we didn't have Olaf's body too.
We said things we liked about Sven and Olaf.
And Lexi said that she wanted to be the one to cover him up.
I was so proud of her. She handled the burial so well.
...
Here are a few of my favorite pictures of Olaf and Sven.
The first one is the night Sean and Lexi first went to see the bunnies.
June 8, 2015
It was love at first sight!
The next day we brought them home.
For a few days the bunnies lived in our basement until we put up their fence and got their hutch.
Here's their first day outside in their new home.
I remember the kids being soooo excited.
The spent so much time out in the bunny pen last summer.
They loved caring for those bunnies.
The kids loved eating outside by the bunnies last summer.
When it got hot we put up a canopy for the bunnies.
And a few times we brought them into the garage and gave them a fan.
They were pampered bunnies.
Lots of the kids in our neighborhood like to come over and see the bunnies.
The people who had the bunnies before us didn't hold them a lot.
So when we first got Olaf and Sven they didn't like to be picked up.
Over time they became more docile, especially Sven.
This summer when my nephew and nieces came to visit, they really enjoyed holding the bunnies.
My niece Adalynn took the news of the bunnies death pretty hard.
She's cried a lot. She's got such a tender heart. And she's a big animal lover.
These bunnies were like Lexi's babies. She considered herself their momma.
I love watching her get more comfortable with them.
(She naturally is very timid and nervous around animals.)
Bunnies really are the perfect pets for Lexi.
Here's Olaf.
And here's Sven.
I like this picture of the bunnies. I just think it's funny.
They liked watching the crew put in our back patio.
Lexi and some of the neighbor kids created "The Animal Cuddle Club."
They would spend hours outside with the bunnies.
Here they are throwing the bunnies a birthday party.
This fall, Avery started getting a lot more comfortable with the bunnies.
She started picking up Sven all by herself.
I was so excited to see her feel less nervous and scared around them.
She an animal hater most of the time.
The kids loved picking weeds and making the bunnies beds with them.
Looking through these pictures has made me feel sad all over again.
Olaf and Sven were such beautiful bunnies.
My kids really did love them.
I'm so sad that they're gone.
...
But this year when it warms up we're going to be finishing our backyard.
We're going to put in sprinklers, grass, trees and fences.
We're going to put in sprinklers, grass, trees and fences.
And after that, Sean told the kids that they could get baby bunnies.
Lexi is so excited about that!
She said if we got babies than they really would think that she's their mom.
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