Mara Turns {2}

Still Here!

February 7, 2008 Hello everyone! It's been a while since I have written, maybe your glad about that, but I thought that I would fill you in on what has been going on. I went into labor on Sunday January 27th. Because I was way to early, I was put on bed rest. Yeah! That works with 5 kids! But Ryan was so good to help a lot and I had help from the ward, and then on Tuesday, my mom came up to help. It was so good to have her here. I was waiting to reach 36 1/2 weeks and to get my results from the strepB culture. I got those Friday,and because I was so sick of being in bed, I got up. ( I did have quite a few projects that still needed to be done before the baby came) And wouldn't you know. As soon as I got up and started doing things the labor stopped. Of course, It's Caleb all over again. So, on Tuesday I went to the doctor and she said I am only dialated to a 1 and will probably still go another whole week. I am sure I will probably go to my due date now. February 26th. My mom went home yesterday, and when we went to the school to tell the kids good-bye, Caleb was heartbroken. He had big tears rolling down his cheeks that he was trying desperately to wipe away unnoticed. It broke my heart. Poor kid. This morning he woke up and said "Mom last night I thought about grandma again and I couldn't stop the tears." We had such a good time with her. She is probably glad to be back home though so that she can rest. We made curtains for my room and Mara's, we put a continuous bias on a quilt, and did more laundry and ironing than you can possibly imagine and Ryan got the bathroom all painted and put back together. As a result, I feel much more prepared to have a baby. I have even geared myself up for the pain. I am so glad that she could come, but feel bad I didn't have the baby while she was here. She will probably come back up when the baby really does come. Today I am painting bead board that we are going to put up underneath our cabinets in the kitchen. It would be so nice if we could get the kitchen done before the baby comes, but we have to get new windows in the kitchen, and so we are waiting for them to be made and installed before we can finish that wall. We hope we can do the rest of the kitchen though, and I will be so happy to get rid of the baby blue paint and the flourescent lights. I was really hoping that we could get our Bathroom and Kitchen done before everyone comes up for the baby's blessing. We'll see. Well that's the news from Great Falls. We now just play the waiting game. I am fine with that, I like this part of pregnancy where you can feel all the little tiny feet kicking and I usually don't get to do this part very long. I'll keep you posted and of course let you know if it's a boy or a girl as soon as I can. Melly

Met the New Midwife

I finally had my doctors appointment with the new lady Elaine Becker, and I must say that I feel so much better about having a baby now. I am actually really excited. She told me that I have to make it until February 5th and I was so shocked. I can't believethat it is so soon. I can't wait, but time goes so fast, I don't feel like I'll have to wait. She is a really nice doctor, and has been delivering babies for 30 years, so I feel much more comfortable about delivering a baby now. In fact I am really excited about it.
We have heard that Utah is getting hammered with snow, and we don't have a lick. We are really sad about that, especially Ryan. He keeps saying,"Can you imagine what the ski resorts are like in Utah?" I just keep telling him to mentally move to Montana, since he already physically has. We just continue to pray for snow here. We really need the moisture.
The boys (Sam and Noah) have their pinewood derby contest next week, so Ryan spent the weekend painting pinewood derby cars.Joy! All I can say is scouts is a lot of work for moms. I shudder when I think that I only have two in there now and eventually therewill be four in at once.

The other day I was helping Mara go to the bathroom, and when she was done I flushed the toilet and water spurted out of thetop tank of the toilet all over the bathroom. I couldn't figure out what was wrong. So, thinking that it was a fluke, I flushed it again and it did the same thing. When Ryan got home he tried it and then tried to turn off the water to it so that no one else wouldflush it and the entire water turn off handle broke off. So we decided to call a plumber since neither of us have any idea how to fixit. I was just sick thinking about how much money it would cost to have a plumber come out. I figured since I would have to make the initial "come and look at it payment" I would have him look at our bathtub and see why it is leaking and why the wall nextto the tub was rotting. Oh the joys of owning an old home. I still look at pictures of our house in Farmington and wonder what theheck I did. Anyways, on Sunday Noah mentioned something in his class about the toilet exploding water and his teacher said " Ican fix that," So, he is going to come today and see what we can do about gutting the entire bathroom and redoing it. So I won't have to pay a plumber. I am so grateful for that.
Well we are all set to close on our house January 22, and the renter moved out, and I hope it will be smooth sailing from here on outI highly doubt it. I just seems like nothing in this transition has gone smoothly, but hopefully it will all be over soon. The kids seem to be adjusting well, and we are starting to get into the groove of things here in Montana. Now if we could just get some snow!!!
Melly

It's A Girl!

seriously so cute!

It's puppy love!

Gotcha!

I bet you thought that I was talking about our baby! Well I wasn't at least not the one that is human.We got a dog. A Australian Shephard. She is so cute, her name is Miya. I was so opposed to getting a puppyespecially with a baby on the way. I fought Ryan tooth and nail on it, but of course, he won out.

I was so notwanting to deal with a puppy, peeing and whinning and running away, but I have to admit I am so glad we have herthe kids love her to death and she loves them. She is a really good puppy. She wants to be by us a lot, she is very protective of the kids already, and is really smart. She will be a good dog that will look out for the kids.

Ryan drove down to Duboise, Idaho(a 4 hour drive one way) last Saturday to meet Brian (his brother-in-law) to pick up the dog.I sent some pictures of the kids with her. She is so cute. Big blue eyes, and chocolate fur. She fits our family.

I hope that you all had a great New Year's Celebration. We vowed this year to keep Caleb up until his birthday(he has never madeit) but everyone fell asleep except me and Noah. We played games and laughed and ate until 10:30, but then we sat down to watcht.v. and everyone fell asleep. Noah and I watched Mythbusters, and 15 seconds before midnight tried to wake everyone up. Sam sat updid the countdown and then said 'kay good-night.' and went to bed. Ryan was awake, but the rest didn't even stir. So maybe next year.

Maybe the next time you get a subject heading like this it will be about our baby. Maybe it will be the same, or it could say 'boy'.I have 8 weeks left, if I make it. I am usually so excited at this point for labor and delivery, but I am so nervous this time. Next week I meet the new doctor. I hope I like her. If not, I don't know what I will do. I have had nightmares about it. I am hoping that my nervousness is due to the fact that I am far from home and from my mom and I don't know the doctor, and I am concerned about what to do with the kids..... and not that something will go wrong.

Family Band! Christmas 2007

Christmas Morning 2007

Grandma and Grandpa Maughan's Christma Gifts

We wish so much that we were there. Hope you had a great time. The kids love the gifts and are having a great time playing with them. These are the pictures of them opening their gifts. Thanks so much. Have a very Merry Christmas.

Christmas Sunday Best

Sam Turns 9

Snowy Day

First she wasn't too sure, then she tasted the snow! "Snooow", she would say, over and over!