I thought I would do a post on the differences between my 4 pregnancies, since they have all been so vastly different. With Ruth of course I had no idea what to expect, it started out fine, I was a little queasy but only lost my breakfast once. I was working at Trader Joe's at that time so most of my wardrobe consisted of Maternity pants, XL Trader Joe's T-shirts and Easy Spirits (only shoes I could stuff my whale feet into.) over all I gained just under 80lbs. The day they reached the end of the scale and they had to slide everything back to the left to start over with the 'next size up' block was a very dark day that eventually got darker when my weight passed up Marcus' and kept going. (He WAS at his best weight then from working auto glass but still...) You could squeeze my legs and feet and your hand print would take a few seconds to melt away from all the swelling and I acquired names like "Megasauraus" "Preggie Meggie" and "Megnant" from co-workers. Along with the swelling came stretch marks starting just below my neckline and ending mid-calf. I always tell Marcus he must have really loved me (or was hoping for a speedy recovery) because I was NOT cute. At all: Sick right? And we had only been married a year and a month when she was born.
Sadly it took me about six months to realize I wasn't going to magically drop the last 30 or so pounds by nursing and showing off my cute baby so I joined a gym and almost to the day that I lost all my baby weight I got pregnant again.
Round 2- With Neil I felt nauseated more often and did have to run to the bathroom or ask Marcus to pull over NOW please because I was sick a bit more (totaling 4 or 5 times I think, still not bad.) My weight stayed in the upper acceptable range according to "your pregnancy week by week" reaching a grand total of 35 lbs. I still had stretch marks but nothing like the zebra stripes with Ruth and even thought I was standing on my feet all day (still working at Trader Joe's) the swelling was far better, I could wear my normal shoes.
*yeah* All in all a pretty normal pregnancy, thought I was still working on the last 15 lbs of baby weight when I got pregnant with Liam.
Round 3- I started this pregnancy feeling great, thought a little worried about already being over the mark a bit in the weight department but I mysteriously lost the weight within the first 3 months. (Without throwing up once) Maybe I do believe in magic? Anyway I didn't gain a single pound or retain an ounce of water until my last trimester when I gained back 12 lbs. I should have kept my mouth shut, but I expressed concern to my Dr.about the lack of weight gain and then had to go in for ultrasounds every week to track his weight, which was fine even if he was a little on the small side weighing in at 6 lbs 3 oz. I lost the rest of the weight within a week of delivery which was still 15 lbs over my desired weight, but i was definitely not complaining.
Liam was my fav. pregnancy.
Round 4- This pregnancy I started out AT my desired weight but with gall stones and a small hemorrhage behind the placenta. Obviously everything has turned out fine but I was a little concerned to begin with. After I figured out how to control the gall stone pain with my diet everything has been pretty by the book, I gained 20 lbs (though the Scale at the Dr. office puts me at 25lbs, I know its wrong!) and have had no mentionable swelling. All in all # cuatro has been good to me. Here I am ready to head off to the hospital. Wish me luck!

Someone please tell me why it was so important for me to do this:and this:
the night before I have a baby? Seriously I wasnt even packed yet and their were 3 mountains of laundry to fold. BUT we have jam now and the blanket im making is one step closer to completion...
I think I may be a little nuts.

Ruth made this "toy" yesterday for the baby when she is born. I didn't have the heart to tell her that paper and tape were not really the best things for babies to play with, but I did tell her we could hang it up for her to look at. That's when she got out this bit of rope from last months combined family home evening.
Sometimes Ruth can be a bit tacky, like this morning when after putting on her Navy blue and Red sailor dress she put on lime green socks and Hot pink sandals. *sigh* I absolutely refused to let her go to church like that :::weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth ensue::: I had to physically remove the dress and take it away and make her put on a dress that had pink and green flowers on it. (It was easier than making her change the foot gear even though I shudder every time I see her wearing sandals and socks together.) Were going to Try again tomorrow to buy her something to wear on her feet to church. She has the shoes, its just the socks that we have issues with. She actually prefers pantie hoes, but gets frustrated when, while yanking them on, they rip. Never mind that I have told her a bazillion times that you have to do it carefully and I would LOVE to help her out when she puts them on... That was a total side track, back to the point which was the tacky rope on her picture for Adele. I asked her if she wouldn't rather have a pretty ribbon or something like that, but she looked at me like I was crazy and re-told the lesson Uncle Reddin gave about how families have to stick together to be strong like a rope and not stand alone like a string. The bit of rope she taped on her picture was given as a little reminder of the lesson, she felt it would be a good reminder to Adele as well. I was quite impressed with her little project and how she coordinated the family picture with the rope that represents us. Not sure about the fish and duck, that may be just for Adele's amusement.

Ruth <---pretty smart kid.
Uncle Reddin <---good lesson giver.

----------------------------------Tyler---------------------------------
------------------Could 2 brothers look any different?----------------------
------------------------------Big brother Myles--------------------------
-----------------------------Not so little Brother Tyler-------------------

How cute are my brothers? (I totally stole these pictures off Tyler's girlfriends facebook page) I told you about Travis and his amazing accomplishments with the border patrol, These are my other brothers, Myles and Tyler. They ran their first marathon together (well with a few of my uncles, cousins and some friends...and a boat load of other random people) It was the P.F.Chang's rock n' roll marathon held earlier this year in January. How awesome are they? Running a marathon has no appeal to me, I'm more of a mall walker kinda gal; but I really admire people that have that kind of drive. These pictures were taken at their second marathon in San Diego, I believe it was the P.F. Chang marathon as well, but I was too busy copy and pasting photos to read all the comments...

It's a BOY!
Well, we just brought home a new addition to the family, and yes, it was a boy.
My dog Maggie, who was adopted by my little brother quite without our even knowing he was doing it... was delivered of a healthy baby boy today after 15 hours of labor while we tried to find a vet to give her a last minute c-section. See, we knew she was prego, she even went to the Dr. on Monday to get examined and scheduled for her surgery. The only problem was the x-ray machine was broken and they dont schedule c-sections unless they have been x-rayed before hand. I asked the Lady in the Dr. Office what would happen if she went into labor early and she said it would be considered an "emergency" (ie. higher price) if she went into labor on Saturday or Sunday. Her due date was Monday and I was hoping and praying she would make it till then when she could have things done under office policies, but Mother Nature likes to thumb her nose at things sometimes. Like a cooperative pet, she went into labor at 1am on Saturday and kept me up all night crying and going in and out the doggie door in obvious distress. I was just another uncomfortable pregnant lady in no mood to sit by her crate murmuring soothing and encouraging words, poor dog. Tyler would be horrified if he knew (shhh) Sooo, after calling my vet at 9am when they opened, and being told they couldnt get her in until 3pm (a very unadvisable wait they told me), I called every vet within a 10 mile radius and the all refered me to a emergency veternary hospital. THEY wanted to charge me between 2-3 THOUSAND dollars.
Megan ---> :O <----Horrified!
So I went ahead with the 3pm appt. at my regular vets office not really knowing if it would be too late for the puppy by then but willing to chance it. As it turns out, the puppy: ie: George (Ruth deliberated between that, Harold and Max for a while and ended up saying "I'll just ask Maggie, it IS her son..." apparently Maggie liked George.) As I was saying, the puppy, is home now and doing fine. (As long as Liam doesn't help it out too much. He was giving it a drink of water from Maggie's water bowl once). When Ruth and I first brought them home he was curious as to why "Dat George" was chewing on Maggie's "pee-pees" All I kept saying was "It's not her pee-pees Liam". Was that too graphic? It was funny at the time, but it looks hugely inappropriate written out... i apologize if I have offended anyone. ;) So that's our exciting puppy news, that would be more exciting if their had even been at least one more puppy to be writing about. As it is were going to break even with the c-section and maybe have some change left over. I'm rambling, on to the next!


For Mother's Day this year, my brother Travis gave my mom 2 chickens and for 2 weeks they lived in blissful, bug-eating happiness in my moms back yard. (not that she has a ton of bugs mind you...) Then Rosie, her 3 pound Yorkie came home from her honeymoon at a family friends house (she is now the proud mother of one fat baby girl pup named Petunia, or 'Tunie') and during the night found a way to escape her enclosure, the side yard where the doggie door goes into the house, and Killed both chickens. :( My mom was devastated. I was astounded at her tenacity, the chickens were bigger than she was. Anyway, Travis wanted to make it up to her so he built a chicken tractor and brought her 2 new chickens over the 4th of July weekend. It's the coolest thing, almost like a chicken-wheelbarrow so you can move them around to different areas of your yard.
This is Liam looking into the coop (and Rosie down by his side pacing...)
this is what Liam is looking at, The little triangle above the nesting box opens up so you can get the eggs! How clever is that?
Rosie tried her darnedest to find a way in but thus far has been unsuccessful.



My little sister Hillarie left for Africa today. She had 3 suitcases and a backpack. (the black one is full of "Care for Life" humanitarian aid supplies. Ruth was wondering how she was going to carry all her luggage, I just love how she posed herself in the picture. What a nut! I love to travel, but I sure don't envy her the 36 hour flight. :p I must be getting old, or I'm 9 months pregnant. (or both?) The best part of this story is, I just found out Yesterday that she hasn't told her missionary that she is going. I also don't envy her that confession when he gets home in January. "Oh James, BTW, I went to Africa while you were gone... here is a nice Zebra head to mount on the wall of our new home." Hee-hee, I'm horrid.

Yesterday morning I was laying in bed waiting for the sounds of my ducks stirring in their beds signaling my need to get up when Marcus came in with one of them who walked right up to me and said "Hey mom". I opened my eyes and was greeted with this face: I had to laugh. I asked him if he had gotten a bloody nose last night and he told me yes and "I got mine tissue and I cleaned it all off." I asked him if it was still dark when he did that to which he solemnly nodded yes. What an intrepid little fellow to take care of the problem himself in the middle of the night and then to put himself back to bed. I'm just glad their was no big mess to greet me when I got up. Unless Marcus cleaned it up when he cleaned off his face...

I think Neil is bored and as ready as I am for school to be starting. *Yes those very words "ready for school to start" did finally cross my mind for the first time last week and i shouted out loud for joy when I saw school supplies on sale in the weekly fliers...* he seems to be finding a lot of "favorites" these days, more than usual at least. He found an old flip phone at Grandma Holly's house that were thinking his cousin left when they were visiting from New Mexico and it had just enough juice in it for him to turn it on and take pictures like mad for an hour. He was so entertained while we walked around 3 (YES 3) fabric stores and I didn't have to get after him even once. I was however quite insulted when the manager of a certain one of them got after my kids for me because they were standing to close to the empty shelf hooks and *gasp* touching them. She was "concerned" they would be hurt. I looked at them, then at her and said they were fine and went back to my perusing. Totally out of character for me to be like that to a stranger but I was irritated. Must be a combination of the heat and hormones. Yes, that sounds good, heat and hormones. ANYWAY, Neil must have noticed my indignation because he told me he was going to take her picture with his phone, like that was a menacing thing or something. I told him to please don't or we would probably get kicked out. She did hover until we left though. Good grief, talk about paranoid, I think I made more of a mess than my kids when I dropped a spool of lace! That's besides the point and I will step off my soap box. So the point (I seem to lose that a lot these days) was that the battery finally died in the old flip phone and Neil was driving me NUTS trying to fit anything with a cord and a plug into his phone to "charge" it. It finally dawned on me to see if Marcus wanted to give him his old razor, and he did, and Neil has been as happy as a kid starting Karate class, or getting some much coveted heeleys. So happy in fact that I found him like this just yesterday: Its actually funnier from this angle though: (Poor little dude was laying on a corn bag because he developed an ear infection over the weekend. He was fine all morning and then all of a sudden he was laying on the ground crying because his ear hurt. Thank goodness for the minute clinic!) Other than hearing U2 sing the corus to Mysterious Ways every 30-45 seconds the entertainment value of an old cell phone is endless.

-Last night Liam was on some kind of Crazy "I had an hour nap at 5pm" high and was bouncing off the walls being so darn silly. After we put Ruth and Neil to bed I tried to harness some of the silliness by laying in our bed with him in the dark to try to relax. HOWEVER dad joined us after about 2 minutes and some tickling ensued; hoping that laughing would exhaust him was a vain thought; It didn't. All the giggling was making the baby go berserk so they started talking to Adele. I asked Liam if we were going to have a new baby soon; he told us this: "The Dr. will chop it open and baby come out." (insert bemused laughter) We tried to ask him where he heard that but he just said "Cuz." (Probably Dr. Ruthie) then he said: "The baby will rocket out right...there." (here is where he pulled up my shirt and poked his finger down my belly button.) He said the whole "Rocket" thing two or three more times with his little hand zooming around over his head. Well I was amused. I also asked him if he rocketed out when he was born but he thought about that and said: "No, I probably (yes he said 'probably') came out my own" He did admit to crying but he told me that he said "No shots" to the Dr. and that they listened. When exactly did my baby grow up to be able to have conversations like this with me? It was just yesterday that he finally admitted to being a big boy!

-Ruth had her 5th and final (silently celebrating) play date with her best friend Adriana today. They are moving up to Oregon on Friday so she came over to spend the morning at our house with Ruth. Ruth was excited... no that's way to mild a term for what Ruth 'was'. She was like a little spastic poodle when Adriana got to our house. They played for a few hours repeatedly being warned against screaming in the house and encouraging Neil to 'chase' them. Poor Liam was exhausting himself running to me tattling in a bewildered voice about how Ruthie was not letting him in or Neil was running him over and other such disasters. At noon I took Neil, Liam and the two giggling tornadoes down to the school for Lunch. I kept feeling Adriana eyeballing me warily for all the times I was telling Ruth to "Stop it, NOW" but seriously, filling your mouth up with drink and dribbling it all over the cafeteria floor for as long as you can? And running up to the projector screen and jumping up to try to make shadow puppets in front of everyone? I know it will be hard for you, but think up the last time you remember her doing something silly/annoying and treble it. That's how she acts the SECOND she sees Adriana so you can imagine my relief at this being their final play date. Now I feel guilty, Ruth is losing her best friend and all I can feel is relief. *sigh* what a mean mom. Oh well, good-bye Adriana! Ruth will miss you.

Liam has said some pretty funny things lately. I haven't written them all down though so I hope I remember them off the top of my head.
-My current favorite is when you ask him something, even something mundane like "Do you need to go potty? he says: "Oh, yes!" I really need to video tape it, he says it like you have suggested the most wonderful thing in the world to him and he really appreciates how considerate you are to think of him.
-He also says "Actually..." in the correct contexts. For example I asked him the other day: "Liam, do you need to go potty?" his reply was: "Oh, yes! Actually...actually no, I don't need go potty."
-Marcus told me the other day he said that he wanted to "go watch a movie with those kids" Marcus asked him "what kids?" Liam looked at him like he was crazy and said "Ruthie and Neil!"
"Those kids"! too funny, it's just about as good as Neil calling Uncle Travis last night "That Man outside with the red shirt on"
-Travis and Callie came to town for their anniversary yesterday and Travis came with a very large toad, a very large lizard and a very large caterpillar, not to mention 2 chickens and a chicken tractor. I will talk about the chickens later after I take a picture of the devise Trav made, its quite amazing. But anyway Travis came bearing gifts for my kids, the toad is now living in our backyard hopefully eating the roaches off the wall that the bug man cant seem to kill, the caterpillar became chicken food, and Neil's Lizard got cooked in the bucket, so Travis promised to catch him another one for the next time he came up to town, or probably when we go for Carter's baptism in September. I totally forgot where I was going with this bit, but I'm pretty sure it was leading up to something funny Liam said...Oh I remember! Carter and Luke spent the night after a fantastic Fiesta we had yesterday as a going away dinner for Hillarie. (she is going to Africa, more on that later...) Seriously the food was amazing and I'm already craving the next one Callie. We had home made salsa and guacamole' chimichangas, enchiladas, Navajo tacos and topped it off with sopapias with honey and powdered sugar and banana cream pie. *melting in my chair* aside from the 3am heartburn it was heaven. BUT, back to the point, Carter and Luke were over and they were all playing a spy game and every time they went into Liam's old room he would pound on the door and yell "HEY! That's baby's room you GUYS!" he was very protective, not sure if it was a protectiveness born from all the happy thumb sucking memories floating around in there still, or because he is already sticking up for his sister...but whichever it is I got a good chuckle out of every indignant repetition of that phrase.
-Well its finally happened. I knew it wouldn't be long in coming but Liam has finally uttered those four little words I have been both dreading and hoping to hear at the same time. I told him it was nap time for babies and he gave me a dirty look
:( <--me
and said: "I NOT a baby!" I used to be able to ask him "are you a...(_____)" and I would fill the blank in with all of these possible answeres:
-boy? Liam' answer ---> no
-man? no
-girl? no
-human? no
-puppy? NO
-Daddy? no
-Big boy? no
-child? no
-little kid? no
-Baby? uhhh, YES!
His answers were always the same, now the only thing he answers yes to is "Big boy" *sigh* oh well, hopefully it's a sign that he wont be upset at this baby usurper coming to live with us in a few days. Jealously wars don't sound fun. Wow this is a long boring picture-less post...here, this picture of Liam and Abby always makes me laugh. Ciao!

It's the Fourth of July! One of my favorite holidays ever for a few reasons; the first being the most obvious as it is the day we celebrate our Independence, right? and don't we live in the greatest country ever? Yes, we do, and I'm so grateful for the chance to live here and celebrate what our fore fathers fought so hard for. A few of the other reasons I love this day are:
Hot dogs, fireworks, casual get together, a day off work for dad, no school and pool parties (ha! I wrote 'poop' parties at first, definitely not a favorite thing, just ask Marcus, Liam had a poop party today...) The perfect day in other words, am I right? So who WOULDN'T want this to be their birthday? That was the original plan when we (I) decided July would be a great time for a baby. Megan <---crazy. Now that the day has come and gone and I didn't miraculously go into labor :( we will just have to refocus (and believe me I have only been unfocused for 2 days now, I'm still a tad frightened of what 4 children will bring me) on the 22nd of July. I can totally do this. I still need a few things before she is here and I haven't tackled the mess in my laundry room...

So back to today, well let's start with yesterday when the partying started. We went to Lunch with Grandma and Grandpa Evans and Uncle Reddin, Aunt Karen, Payton and Kayda. Then we went and saw Monsters vs. Aliens at the dollar theater. Neil and Liam had been saying "Holy Flag-non" for the past little while and we had no idea where they learned it until we heard the Alien say it in the movie. Now we just have no idea when they learned it since this was the first time they have seen the movie. Ruth set up this picture after the movie, I love how she is holding on to Liam; such a little mommy.

Today we went to Swim at the Orange Tree Resort where Uncle Travis and Aunt Callie are staying for the weekend (It's their anniversary tomorrow:)I think sometimes I forget I'm pregnant, I put Neil there and then totally blocked his face with my largeness... Poor kid. P.S. Thanks Grandma Evans for the flag shirts! Carter set up this shot, he was so funny measuring everyone to make sure they were lined up shortest to tallest.
The kids were little fish, the pool was shallow so it was pretty warm (I actually got in!) and It was amazing how well my little people did swimming when they were forced to do so without goggles and floaters. So fun times, we saw some fireworks from the car on the way home and they all three fell asleep by the time we got there. How was your Independence day?

July 1, 2009
Day 2 of Karate class Neil is officially a "Little Dragon" now.


The last time we went to Disneyland (about 4 years ago) I made blankets for my kids to take with them in the car that had Mickey mouse on them. My mom made a princess one for the baby on the way, and that got me to thinking that Liam didn't have his own and we are Anaheim bound in September for both Neil's and My birthday on the 4th. Liam has been sleeping with Neils Mickey blanket but the moment I suggested making one for him, he has been adamant about having it NOW. It was the first thing he mentioned the next morning. So we went to buy fabric and I made the mistake of letting him pick. They had the cutest Mickey fabric I would have bought had I been alone, but he clapped eyes on this "Lightning Queen" stuff and wouldn't be dissuaded. I kept pushing other prints on him showing him the different colors but he finally pulled the whole bold of his precious "Lightning Queen" into the cart and leaned his little back against it and wouldn't look at anything else. Sooooooo I gave in, it just makes it that much more special right? Maybe he will become so attached to it that he will only suck his thumb when he has his blanket and I can then steal it, making the thumb lose it's appeal and...(a mother can dream right?)
I thought I had fabric for the backing but was mistaken so it didn't get finished on Tuesday (he slept with his scrap of fabric that night anyway.) We picked out the orange the next day (Wednesday the 1st) and out of a whole bag of rick rack that I own, not 2 strands matched to make up the 7 yards needed, so I had to make one more trip out to find some of that... In the end we got it done, Grandma Holly was nice enough to sew it up for him so he could go to bed this happy:

Here is Neil when I put Liam to bed with his new blanket.
...Raise your hand if you think he likes Karate.

July 1, 2009
There are 20 days until your due date on July 22, 2009.
You are 260 days pregnant.
You are 8.5 months pregnant.
You are in your 9th month of pregnancy.
Your 1st trimester: October 15, 2008 to January 13, 2009. (0 - 12 weeks)
Your 2nd trimester: January 14, 2009 to April 28, 2009. (13 - 27 weeks)
Your 3rd trimester: April 29, 2009 to July 22, 2009. (28 - 40 weeks)