New Baby

There is no better way to bring in the New Year than with a sweet new baby in the home. Though I must admit we will not be staying up until midnight to celebrate, even though there is a good chance we will be awake. Kitt Lori Salmon graced us with her precence yesterday (Dec. 30th, 2011) arriving at 2:01 pm at 8 lbs 7 oz and 21 inches. Mother and baby are doing great! Pepper and Tabor came to see the new additional yesterday and both wanted to hold Kitt the whole time. I guess we will need to work on our sharing.

Her Own Style

For the most part Pepper has always worn hand me downs. We have gotten socks here or a white undershirt there but nothing we really had to "pick out". We were running low on long sleeve shirts so we went shopping. I let Pepper pick out a couple. I couldn't convince her to get the stripes or polka-dots... she insisted the one with the Guinea pig was her favorite. The shirt says "Be Yourself" and I do after all want her to be herself. She is a spunky one.

P.S. In the middle picture she is holding a lock. That is her watch. It tells her whether it is time for lunch, going outside or taking a shower.

thanksgiving + family = sick

We went down to Utah for Thanksgiving. And for the third year in a row sickness took over. Beforehand I planned a schedule for each day... and we definatly didn't feel up to doing everything on it. If we go again next year I am just going to plan a list of movies to watch and card games to play. But nobody was throw up sick (just fever, a serious cough, runny nose and ear infection). We did feed the ducks, go to "Jump On It", watch Robert play in a turkey bowl, swam at the legacy center, ate at Texas Roadhouse, hosted a Rook Tournament & went to culture night at the Kinghorns. Somehow the men didn't catch anythings so they went fly fishing and shooting as well. I am glad we went, it was fun although the kids whined a lot more then usual. Poor Korver couldn't touch Pepper without her crying (the top picture was a rarity for this trip)... I just think her body was aching and she was overly sensitive. She was still very sad to say goodbye.

grandpa is going to miss his helpers

No matter the weather my kids LOVE to be outside. They cry at the window whenever Grandpa tries to mow the lawn, take out the garbage, winterize the house or do anything else outside. So then I am a push-over and put on their jackets & boots and send them out. I am sure Grandpa loves the company :) But after following Grandpa & Grandma around constantly for almost a year we will finally be moving out of their house. The bank accepted an offer we made on a house in Monroe and if the inspection goes well, we get to move in mid-December. We will be about a half hour away. I think it will be perfect... we will get to see both the Salmon & Paxman grandparents on a somewhat regular basis, but not be in their constant hair.

from my window

Seattle is beautiful year round due to the blanket of trees EVERYWHERE. But most of the trees here are green year round. Green is good... but I have to admit my favorite tree has to be the red, yellow and orange one in our front yard. It really spices things up and makes it feel like autumn.

And I took a random picture of Pep because I like her :)

building blocks

Tabor is obsessed with these lego blocks. He spent hours building towers. Grandpa helped him build a "big big big big big big big tower" (he couldn't seem to fit enough bigs infront of the word tower whenever he pointed at it) and was so proud of it.

listening in church

This little man started nursery this month. It has been my first chance to listen in two and a half years. Okay so Robert took him every other week and it wasn't that bad but I am feeling true freedom now. At least until December when our baby girl is born. But hey I am going to live it up and soak in Relief Society while I can.

Potty Training Bribe

My mom found a hamster cage, food, shavings & accessories at a garage sale for a mere 2 dollars. Before we knew it Grandma was promising Pepper that if she would get potty trained she could have a hamster. At first I wasn't to keen on the idea, but it worked! We had a chart she had to fill up with stickers. She got a vegetable sticker each time she went wee wee & a star sticker whenever she went poop. And she filled her book up in no time. There was a few accidents the first couple of days but then Pepper went 3 full days without an accident!!! Hopefully she keeps it up now that we have the hamster.

P.S. Pepper is much more gentle with the hamster then I thought a 2 year old could be. But we have been taking it out during Tabors nap time. That little man likes to grab!

hooligans

The noise level tripled in our house last week. 5 kids ages 2 or younger staying in the same house is a lot of chaotic fun. When we lived in Utah Pepper could not talk, therefore did not verbally argue with Korver. Now they argue a lot. Randomly Pepper will point me out to Korver and say "that is my mom" and just for the sake of arguing he would reply that I was his mom as well. It was a 6 day on going argument. Nobody calls me mom unless they want Pepper to deal with... she is a bit possessive (although she thankfully does allow Tabor the luxury). Anyway I am glad they for the most part verbally fight instead of physically. Even though they argue they still LOVE to be around each other. They did lots of singing, jumping on the trampoline, swimming, parks and soccer while together. Tabor and Pryson are funny little boys. They will both play in the sandbox and do there own thing, occasionally hitting each other but no crying because they are both the tough younger sibling. Baby Laine is here as well, and whenever his pacifier comes out there is always 4 young volunteers to shove it back into his mouth for him. He is such a good baby and very tolerant of his older cousins.

today

I was having a heck of a time keeping my kids entertained this morning. We went from activity to activity doing each one for only a minute or two until someone started arguing or screaming about something. In the top pictures I am trying to distract them with rolling the pool balls and they were happy for a small portion of time and then you can see Pepper hugged Tabor a little to tight. Shortly following this picture Tabor was knocked over and our crying fest re-began. We were suppose to go to a lunch-in and I almost cancelled so I could put them to bed but I decided I would go for a half hour just to make an appearance. When I got there, their demeanor changed. The change of scenery totally changed their moods. Now maybe when they are cranky instead of throwing them in bed, I just need to take them to the park. But maybe when I get to the park I will have wished I had thrown them in bed. Children... I wish they were slightly more predictable.

Ward Camp Out

I felt like nearly every family in our ward who had primary/nursery age children were at the ward camp out (although that is not many compared to previous wards). Rachel and Emily were in town so they came with their 6 children adding to the fun. It was at the Ensign Ranch which has a slip in slide, rope swing into a lake and river, so there was plenty of water to keep us entertained. My kids actually sleep really well in a tent. Yay for camping!