It's A Girl!

Well, we have waited a long time for another female to be in our house and that time is finally here. I am extremely excited and quite nervous too! I know boys very well, I don't know how well I will handle the change from transformers to princesses. Liam is very excited for a sister, but shad is mad. He keeps saying "I want a boy, the children are boys." I don't know where he got that from. I am sure that Tanner would rather stay the baby for awhile. We are going to name her Megan Kathleen Salmond. My mom's name is Kathleen and Wayne's mom's middle name is Kathleen, so she will have a name from both grandmas. I have wanted the name Megan since I was very young. I thought I would feel better with a girl but my morning sickness has not gone away yet and I am 19 weeks already. I am eating but I eat when I am hungry and eat until I am full, so I am eating less then I used to. I have lost 1 pound, but the doctor said that that is OK for right now. I don't feel lighter either. For the first time I could use flowers and hearts when I scrap booked her ultra sound pictures. That was nice. And I used a lot of pink paper, which before was just scrap paper. She is measuring a week behind and that is sooo nice. A week behind means that she will come out 8 pounds instead of 9 pounds. I would love to have a 7 pounds baby for the first time. And thank goodness they did not move my due date back to the date she is measuring, because that would have been Christmas Eve. Ugh, Santa does not want to be in the hospital on Christmas. I hope that I have her at least a week before. So that is our good news for the next few weeks, and we are happy with it. Now I will have to give myself a count down to the delivery. 4 weeks until school, 9 weeks after that to Halloween, 4 weeks after that is Thanksgiving and 2 more weeks to delivery. We will see if that works! Love ya.

Another bouncing baby!

Well, as many of you know already, Wayne and I are going to have another baby. We definitely are shooting for a girl this time, but that is not hard to guess. It did come as a shock to us though. I had my IUD taken out on march first because of abdominal pain, and that is that. i am due December 18. Doesn't that just sound stressful? One week before Christmas. So, our holiday plans now are: Thanksgiving, sibling family party, have baby, Christmas, tanner's b-day (10 days after Christmas) and my b-day (January 29). I am trying to keep this holiday season organized, by buying the gifts way before hand and having them all wrapped so Wayne can set them up. I have already discussed with some of my sister-in-law Katie what the Christmas plans were, talked her into wrapping my presents again, we are planning the sibling party to ensure it will happen before the baby come (can't take them out for 6 weeks when they are born in the winter) and planned where the kids would be the night before and the two days following. I don't like being unorganized and it puts my mind at rest to know that there is a plan that will work, and 2 of my sister-in-laws have already said they would help, which relieves a lot. Also, Wayne graduates a week from Saturday with his bachelors. We are excited to have that done. And to have the time back again to be with each other. We also bought another car, so I get my van back again, woohoo! AND, John's Suzuki is running and out or our garage. That is nice for them and for us! So, other than some morning sickness we are on the up and up! And hey, maybe if this is a girl, we will be done. We will see! love you all.

I have had some really nice walks the last few days thanks to the good weather and the lack of a second car. Because of that I have been able to exercise and the kids have enjoyed blowing off some energy. We stopped to see some pussy willows today, which the boys loved. Life has started to calm down. I feel a lot more organized, and I am catching up on my house cleaning. Our beloved giant gold fish, Goldie, died. That was the final straw in our run of bad news and now we are on the up swing. Wayne and I get to go to the temple together for the first time next Saturday. We are both very excited for it. Life is getting better and we are looking to the future. Love you

The Neon!

Yes, it's true. The neon is no longer the wonderful, reliable, commuter car it used to be. A 17 year old who ran a red light made sure of that. Wayne was trying to turn left, nearly home, and waited for the light to turn red and then preceded to turn and the middle lane driver went through the light and hit the neon at about 50 mph. The air bags deployed and Wayne blacked out until the car reached its resting spot. Wayne came to when a pedestrian that witnessed the accident tapped on his window to make sure he was OK. I am glad that it was the engine that took the hit, I don't know if any other place on the car could have taken that much force. Wayne ended up with a concussion and some good bumps and bruises, but nothing to brag about, the same cannot be said about the car though. It has seen better days. I bought the car brand new in 2000. It had 135 miles on it when I drove it off the lot. We have had to do no major repairs on it, unless you count the $40 clutch cable a major repair! It was due for an oil change and another year of registration, and neither had been done thank goodness. We are waiting on the insurance of the other driver to make a decision on what they are going to do about us as of today. It's sad, we really loved that car! In fact just a few weeks ago I went to lunch with Katie and Suzanne and Katie said "Do you guys still have that neon!" We were very proud to say yes. That car has driven home from the hospital at every baby's birth in our family! I hope that we will be able to find a car that is worthy to replace it. And just as reliable (not even I believe that one!) So this is a last farewell to our red car, it has served this family well!

Good Weather

I have absolutely loved the good weather we have been having, and mind you anything above 45 and not snowing or raining is considered "good" weather in our house! I have been able to hang my laundry outside and bring it in dry that same day! The kids have had fun playing outside once we get them out there. We always get a fight with Liam who would rather play smash brothers and beat the game for the next 5 hours. But once we get him outside he loves it and wants to help us whip our yard into shape, which will take a lot of whipping. Shad and Tanner love to go outside and will play out there until I decide in am too cold and we all come in. Life is good and the laundry is done! We love you guys!

Mc Donalds

I have found a new relaxation! It is Mc Donalds. Wayne gives me $10 every now and then and I and my boys get dollar menu burgers and fries and I let my children play for about 2 hours while I sit and read my ensign and what ever book I am on at that time. It is so nice to have that time to read and not be bothered. And if the kids are hungry, they can come back and finish the fries and have a drink and run and play some more. They have had sooo much energy because they are stuck inside most of the day and it drives me crazy and I am sure it drives them crazy too. So it works out well for all of us! Liam has received a score of 120% on every spelling test but one ( and let me tell you, we studied as much as possible and finally gave up, they were stupid words and they gave them 20 with 3 days to practice). He already has this weeks words memorized and it is only Wednesday! Shad is peeing on the toilet again! hip hip hurray! He is so cute. Because of the Saturday cleaning, I have had time to paint my toe nails, and the first time Shad saw them he said "Oh mommy, they are Utiful!" His speech has sky rocketed in the last month or so and will tell you "wait a minute guys" and always wants to say the prayer and will cry if you don't give him a turn every time. Tanner has more teeth in. He has his middle tooth and both side teeth and the other middle one is taking its sweet time coming in. He kind of looks red neck when he smiles! He is sitting at the table now when he eats. We took off the high chair tray and put the seat up to the table. He has learned to go down stairs which is a relief! Wayne has 16 weeks left of school and counting! Love you guys!

Life goes on

Tanner eating a cookie during the super bowl!

Well, things are finally calming down here. Wayne is helping me do my deep cleaning on Saturdays, because the boys refuse to allow me to do it during the week, which gives me time to get other things done like painting my toe nails and reading. That has really lowered my stress level, and kept my house clean, I don't know why it is so much easier to keep a clean house clean then to clean up a dirty house once in awhile. I am a little over whelmed with my cub scouts. I have 9 cubs right now and they all have different things passed off, which means they all have different requirements left. And I have to keep it all straight to help them get their bear. I hate being unorganized. So I brought their books home and I am scanning them into my computer so I can look at each while I am planning the next den meeting. It seems like it should not be this hard. I bet it isn't if you have only 2 or 3 cubs. Shad has his on and off days with the toilet. Today was an on day, he did great. Liam got mad at me today while I was helping him with his spelling words, like I was the one that gave him the homework. So we had a little chat. I told him that it was his teacher that gave him the spelling words and she was the one who would quiz him, not me. I was just trying to help him learn the words and if he wanted to stop we could, but on Friday he would not get another 100 on his quiz. At that point he calmed down and worked hard again. Sometimes they just have to be reminded! Tanner is so amazing at night. I put him in his crib when I put the other boys down and he just lays there without crying and goes to sleep. Absolutely amazing. But he does get up earlier, which is hard on me some days. Wayne has 3 1/2 classes and he is done. Hurray! I am loving life and living it! Love you all!

Happy Happy Birthday!

19th birthday (I was attacked with whipping cream!)

18th birthday

First grade

First Christmas

About 8 months old

Well, at least I am not 30, I guess. It is amazing to me how much a person can change in just a few years. It is hard to imagine my mom holding me in her arms as a proud new parent and it is hard to imagine me being little like tanner or Liam or shad. But it was not that long ago. Each year I am a new person, with new trials and new accomplishments, and I am happy for each year I have had. Some have been better than others, but all of them have brought me to where I am, and I am happy to be here. I love my parents, my children, my husband and my extended family. Thank you for all you have done to help me, whether it is just being a friend, or answering weird questions at random times during the day or being with my kids while I go to where ever I need to go. My parents gave me cash, which is needed (I need a new journal!), Cassidy gave me a giant box of candy hearts (Yum), my in-laws gave me a new puzzle which I have started on, Wayne told me I could get Pinocchio on DVD when it comes out, and Katie asked me what I wanted, so after all that I decided I need storage bins to help organize my kids storage clothes down stairs. I love the gifts :)Thank You again, and enjoy your day because I know I will!

Well, I haven't written in awhile, but I have good reason for it! A week ago Friday, Katie my sister-in-law came over to run errunds with me. Wayne wanted to replace the nasty toilet with a newer one we had, so I told Katie to give me just a few minutes to help Wayne and then we could leave. Ha Ha Ha! I should have known better. Well, $150 and two toilets later, we can use our main bath again. The funny thing is, once Wayne and John got some of the piping done and tried to put the toilet on we realized that the water in the back of that toilet had frozen while it was in our garage, so they hauled that one out and came in with another another toilet which they found in the garage. We had 2 in the garage, totally bizarre, but it saved us from having to buy another one. That project took a few days, with replacing 4 feet of sewage pipe. But we were able to still have some fun as a family. Wayne wanted the boys to make a snowman, but the snow would not stick so they made a very small snowman! and at one point we put Tanner's binki in the snowman's mouth, but Tanner didn't like that much. And we were able to fit in a movie night too. And thank you Katie for snatching the camera and taking a picture of me and my 3 boys. And, Wayne took his Clep test and pasted! Yeah! So he will not have to take that class, but school can't seem to change his schedule so he will still graduate in June but he will have a good 5 week break this spring. We will take it, and enjoy it, because the next break brings the school loans too! Love you all!

What a Merry Christmas!

Well, Christmas is done, but I wish we were still on vacation. We drove down to my parents house in Phoenix and spent almost a week there. It was nice to have a warm Christmas! But I think the weather felt bad for us and has now poured the snow down on us to make up for it. Liam woke us up at 5:30 in the morning wanting to open presents. We are not morning people, but we got up with him, after he woke up the other boys and opened the presents. We also got to go to a ghost town while we where there which was fun for all of us. We went on a mine tour and learned a lot, Liam thought it was really neat. Well, I am glad to have had a successful Christmas and to have it done, and with Tanner's birthday done, we won't have to do presents for awhile, which saves the pocket book. And all I asked for on my birthday was Pinocchio on DVD, which will be coming out this spring! Happy Holidays!

Happy Birthday Tanner!

It is hard to believe that a year ago right now I was very pregnant, and wanting to hear my baby's first cry. Now I hear that cry quite a bit and don't want too :) Tanner was born on January 4, 2008 at 7:21 pm. He weighed 9 pounds 4 ounces and was 20 and 1/2 inches long. I knew he would be a big baby, mostly because of how uncomfortable I was during the pregnancy. He is a very loving child and likes to spend time with his parents and brothers. It may take him awhile to get used to new people but once he knows you he loves you. He has learned to walk and says about 3 words, uh-oh, uh-huh, mmmmm which he uses when he eats good food. He also blows on his food now, which I am hoping will help him blow out his candles. We have also, just this week, moved him into his brother's room, which has worked out well so far, and gave us quite a bit more room in the living room. When I first found out I was having another boy I was frustrated, but I am so glad to have this little one in my life. He has such an unconditional love for me and the rest of our family. I am grateful to have my 3 boys, and wouldn't trade them for anything! Happy 1st birthday Tanner!