MAXWELL

Well again it has been a VERY long time since we blogged last and a LOT has happened!!! The most important would be this little boy joined our family!!

MAXWELL GARNER SALMON

We just love this little one and he fits right in with our crazy family!!

The end of the pregnancy was a little rough as he was transverse, so he was laying across my belly instead of up and down. It made it pretty painful every time he moved and I kept praying he would go head down but he had other plans. My doctor decided it was best that we do a C-section. I was so upset over this and was scared to death as I have never had major surgery before and you only hear horror stories about C-sections, and to be honest a part of me was SO angry... because you would think after three babied I (or my body) would know how to do it! Anyways, I was scheduled to head to the hospital for the C-section on November 25. I had wrapped my head around the whole c-section and was happy it worked out so that he wasn't born on my birthday or our anniversary and I would be able to attend Ben's first primary presentation on the 23! Again this little guy had a different plan. I got up Saturday morning and started cleaning my house. I was scrubbing the bathroom and my water broke! Long story short we went into the hospital, they checked and he was still transverse so we still did the c-section just a couple of days early! Although it was sort of terrifying, it was sort of a neat and different experience then I had ever had. I only thought I was dying once and was scared out of my mind especially because Jeff was not in the room yet. All worked out and this little guy entered our lives. It was funny because I heard the doctor say I have a foot out, and because we didn't know what we were having I was excited to find out so when she said that I asked... what is it? She laughed and said well I just have a foot and both boys and girls have feet! I was well taken care of and was glad Jeff was by my side. The recovery was great actually. I felt really good and thought maybe I should have done all my babies this way :) We had lots of help from family and our ward was so good with bringing meals and making sure we were ok. 

He is an AMAZING little guy... sleeping 6 or 7 hours a night for the most part. He is starting to smile and we just can't get enough of him! Like all my other boys he has a TON of hair!! It is actually quite amazing and I am just waiting for it to fall out of for him to get a bald spot but nothing yet... just a ton of hair.

He is just over two months now and we couldn't love him anymore!! And his brothers LOVE him... sometimes a little TOO much!!

Here are a bunch of pictures of our little guy!

WE JUST LOVE THIS LITTLE GUY!!!

Autumn Fun

One can tell that Autumn has started by looking for one of the tell tale signs, leaves falling.  And falling leaves bring the exciting activity of leaf pile jumping. 

And what fun it is.  Especially when Dad rakes all of the leaves in front of the slide.  You of course are invincible when sliding down a slide into a pile of leaves.  The sliding can now be done with reckless abandoned.  Wind meet caution!

But the most exciting thing about piles of leaves in Autumn is finding ridiculous amounts of Ladybugs hibernating as the weather gets colder.  The boys loves to catch them.  You just have to make sure to not stress them out so they ooze there yellow blood on to you.

There is lots to do outside and we have to enjoy these last few days while it is still warm enough to be outside.  But there is always plenty for us to have fun with inside.

Ben made this tower that was bigger then him it is pretty neat with the marbles cascading down.  We only got a few tries before we moved on to a new game.

Garden Party: Lettuce Turnip The Beet

A. A. Milne once said that weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them.  And we are certainly good at growing those, however this year we thought we should try our hand at something different.  The prophets have always advise us to plant a garden and this year we finally did as we actually had a yard in which to do so.  So last spring we asked the boys what they wanted to plant and the conversation when a little like this.

Me: What should we plant in our garden?
Ben: WATERMELON! (Watermelon)
Me: It is not warm enough for watermelon and we should choose something else.
Ben: WATERMELON! (Watermelon)
Me: How about some carrots and peas or maybe beans.  Maybe we can try cucumbers? You really like those, don't you?
Ben: WATERMELON! (Watermelon)
Me: Okay we will try watermelon but I don't think they will grow.  You can help with the potatoes and radishes though.
Ben: WATERMELON! (Watermelon)

The parenthesis were said by JR who just repeats everything that Ben says

Well after that the die was cast and we were going to plant a watermelon.  So that is just what we did and to our surprise the plants actually started to grow.  And then even more shocking to use the plants started to flower.  And then the most unprecedented move yet pollination, fertilization and the various ova began to swell into small fruits, and CONTINUED TO GROW.

We all watched very excitingly as the fruit further matured and grew bigger then it had every been before, which I guess that goes without saying, but regardless they grew and grew.  Until one fateful day when.....

This happened! It is September 8th.  Unbelievable!  Well not that unbelievable as we do live north of the 53 parallel.

The watermelon plants are approximately 53 ° 32 ' 20 " N.  But the location can more precisely be represented in decimal, 53.538992.  And that is far north

So I quickly harvested a dozen watermelons as snow doesn't mix well with fruit.  Unless of course I was worshiping Dionysus and planned on making ice wine.

After a few months of caring for our garden we got to experience a real life application of The Ant and The Grasshopper as we did enjoy the fruits of our labours in the snow.  Watermelons in the Snow.  Sounds like a alternative punk band or a slightly racy young adult fiction book.  At any rate that was our experience today and the boys enjoyed the fruit.

At least two thirds did.  Ben was not crazy about the seeds.  Maybe we will do seedless next year.

Or maybe he is the figurative Grasshopper in this story...