Merry Christmas

I wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas!

An Awesome Snowy Day

This weekend has been awesome. Sitting around the house watching the snow come down. It was so peaceful and calming. I think we ended up with over 9 inches!

Alexis got to go and play in the snow for the very first time. SHE LOVED IT! The problem was that she refused to keep her hood on. She would take it off which led to very wet hair. Oh yeah, not to mention the fit when calling it quits!

Check out these pics

Winter Day 2007

Big News!

We may be needing to update the name of this blog in a few months... the Tomlinson Trio is becoming the Tomlinson Quartet! That's right, we're expecting a baby due June 6th, 2008. Here's how everyone is feeling:

Wayne: Wayne is super excited and can't wait for a new baby. He's been talking about adding to the family for a loooooooooong time, and is finally getting his wish. As much as he loves his little girl, he's hoping for a little Wayne Jr. to play football with.

Liz: Right this second Liz is feeling sick. In fact, Liz has been feeling sick for the past few weeks. Whoever said that the second pregnancy is easier was a big fat liar. This one is way harder. Liz is hoping for another little girl to do hair and wear all those cute pink outfits in storage. However, she had a dream that she gave birth to a little boy with lots of spikey sandy-blonde hair. So, we'll see.

Lexi: Lexi has no clue what's going on. All she knows is that mommy throws up in the sink a lot and is sometimes too tired to play as much as she'd like. When Mommy tries to sign/tell her that there's a baby in her tummy, Lexi gives her a look of confusion and sympathy, like Mommy's gone nuts because babies don't live in tummies. Babies are those funny little guys who squirm around and like to share their toys.

Above is a picture of Baby #2 at 8 weeks (now 11 weeks).

Boots and Sweaters

Fall has finally arrived here! Yay! It's rain, rain, raining, and the sky is wonderfully overcast. I got to break out a sweater today, and my arms feels wonderfully cozy. And boots! Thank heavens for the arrival of boots! For short people, it's nice to have cold weather and the excuse to wear comfortable heels. Hopefully this great fall weather will last longer than two weeks before we jump head first into the harsh bitter cold of winter.

Soft Ball Pics

The season is now over, but I had a ton of fun playing on our Firstline softball team. I cannot recal our exact record, but it was about equal wins to losses. I played 1st base and catcher throughout the season. I tried to pitch once, but after one home run, I called it quits. My personal best was a few successful stretch catches to get the guy at first. The worst folly was tripping while I ran to third base. I bruised my knees and felt it for like 10 days. Lucky for me our team was in the dugout along third base, and they all thought I tried to slide headfirst and just came up short! Yikes.

Softball

I have posted all the pics on the Firstline link: http://flssd.blogspot.com/

Swim time

We had a lot of fun going swimming with at Cory's dad's house. Mindy and Tiger were there as well, of course, along with Mindy's family. It was great fun. The night started out with a great dinner (thanks guys!). Then we hit the pool, woo! Lexi had a great time, which was nice since kids under five had been banned from public pools for the last part of the summer. Lexi loved hanging in the pool with all the kids, Mindy has some great neices and nephews. Lexi loves them! It was a fun night, and at the end, Lexi got to wear her new warm long-sleeved t-shirt. Best. Night. Ever.

New Alexis posts

A couple of new posts on Alexis's page, with pics. Click on her link on the right to see!

The Hemmen Girls!

I've had these pics for over a month now, and finally I can post them! My mom and I went to visit my sister and her daughter, Rachel, in Seattle at the beginning of August. We had a photoshoot with a very talented but completely mental photographer. SIX HOURS! Six hours to get our pictures done! It's a good thing they turned out so well or else I think my mom may have strangled him. I couldn't post them until today because the pictures were a surprise for my dad's birthday, which was yesterday. Aren't we all gorgeous?

Making a House a Home... one room at a time.

We have a great house... I love it! But it's very big, and needs a lot of stuff to fill it. But we bought the BIG house, with little money left for the stuff. So, the process is little by little, step by step. The family room is basically how I want it, with room for more small touches if as time goes by I find something that moves me. The livingroom is wanting only for a couch. The dining room is GREAT as it is, you know, minus a dining table ;). I had a design idea strike me today as I looked up at our hall upstairs where I will now put up black and white photographs of cities scenes... The guest bath and guest room are done, mostly just because I don't feel like doing much with them. I'll add more photos as I do more with this house. You know, as time goes by...

The Table... It's DONE!

I finally did it! Got the table painted and brought in to the livingroom. It looks just as good as I always imagined. It doesn't "feel" quite as good, but by golly, it was just so hard to sand! Next time I'm looking into the primer that Heidi recommended, because the final product is great but I hated the process. So now, with the addition of the sewing table, my livingroom just needs a couch to be complete.

We have a GARAGE! Woo!

For the past couple of months we've had the third car spot in our third car garage filled with random messy boxes from the move. FINALLY, we spent a day and put up shelves and organized everything. We still have some empty boxes in there, but those we're saving for Tom and Suzie's move in a couple of weeks. After that, we'll actually have room for a third small car if/when we have guests. Coolness! Ryan and Heidi, Justin and Jenny, Dick and Rosanne.... I think your cars want to come visit! Hint hint.

GOLF

Today Cory and I golfed in an Oracle tournament at Thanksgiving Point. It was a blast! This is the third tournament I have done at this golf course. The game was a scramble and my team finished 4 under par. Oracle sponsors gave away a ton of awesome gifts and took care of each of us on the course. The third person on our team, Steve won the longest marshmellow drive and won the Beer Keg Hat and Beer googles that I gladly modeled.

Although Firstline has not renewed their Golf perk for operations, I still have increased my golf skill with the few holes I have played this year. It is nice to finally have some control over where the ball will land.

Dental Dramas

Lexi had her first trip to the dentist on Friday. She had started crying during meals, so we were worried there was something wrong with her teeth. You would think that after her frequent trips to medical offices for her ears she would be used to it, but boy is she not. In fact, it's quite the opposite. The second we walked into the waiting room, she looked around and knew instantly what was up. Her radar was UP! And then once she saw the dentist's chair (which unforunately is very similar to the chairs they have in ENT offices), it was all over. She was crying and desperately waving "bye-bye", pleading with me with her face to get her the heck out of there. Sadly that was not an option. We skipped the x-rays, but the dentist and I were able to hold her down for an examination and cleaning. We went to a dentist who specializes in pediatric dentistry only, so he's very experienced working with crying little ones, and was amazingly fast and efficient. Good news: no cavities! Bad news: her gums bled a bit too easily (we need to brush her teeth for her as much as we let her do it herself), and all of her two-year molars and coming in, and he said they look awfully painful, which explains the crying. So in the end, she survived, and come out with a toy frog and a brand new toothbrush, one of favorite toys! And with the help of Motrin, she's eating a bit better these last few days. So, the dentist is done. Well, for six months, at least...

Labor Day

Liz, Alexis and I drove up to Cascade Springs today up the American Fork Canyon. It was a really nice drive, and we completed the entire Alpine Loop. We left our house in Lehi, drove up American Fork Canyon onto the Alpine Loop. We took the 7 mile detour to Cascade Springs then back onto the Alpine Loop past Sundance Ski Resort and out the Provo Canyon.

Once Alexis started to see the water, she just wanted in. Nothing else was fun except her pulling and prying to get any part of her body in that water. At the bottom of the springs there was a small stream that the public was welcome to play in. She loved it. The water was really cold, but Alexis stood through the pain until she was numb. Then it was all about [icking up rocks at the bottom of the stream and throwing them back into the water, over and over again. I let her throw the rocks as long as no other innocent child came within her throwing distance. The only victim was me, and ...Ouch!

Unfortunately, this trip lost all of its joy when we tried to get Alexis to leave. She absolutely had a fit. She did not want to go and made it clear by screaming the entire walk back to the parking lot and half the trip back down the canyon. She did finally get over it but that fit lasted a very long time.

Anyway, Cascade was a lot of fun and the Aspen Loop is awesome and very relaxing. It is so close, but always seems so very far away. Click on the picture below to view all the shots we got today.

Labor Day

I found an awesome Quote

I heard this qouted on KSL today. I loved it and I am always a fan for C.S. Lewis.

"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to" (Mere Christianity Lewis 1952, pp. 43).

What it feels like...to regain your hearing

Liz found this article on the internet that was interesting to read

http://men.msn.com/articlees.aspx?cp-documentid=5296488&GT1=10321

Daddy's Girl

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Sanding Sensations

A few years ago I inheritated an old sewing table that used to belong to Wayne's grandmother. It has the coolest black sewing machine, but the table was a weird medium brown. When I got it, I decided to sand it down and paint it black to match the machine. Fast forward three years, we're moving into our new home, and the table is still brown. So I decided to finally put my money where my mouth is and get the work done. DANG! Sanding is HARD! Lexi "helped" a bit, and Wayne took some pictures during the gruelling process. In the end, after two days I finally got the thing painted, but I ran out of paint before I could do a second coat. So... it's done... sort of. It's still in the garage, but hopefully I'll finish it this weekend. Will I do this sort of project again.... eh.... we'll see. I'll post pics of the finished project. Better be by monday or everyone has permission to mock me profusely.

Alexis Rocks

Rock Star

Superstar!

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Lehi House

Liz, Alexis and I just moved into our new home in Lehi, Utah. This comes after a year and a half living in an apartment. It is really nice to have a garage and a place for Alexis to "Spread her wings". We are very greatful to be in a home and look forward to years of enjoyment in this house. Another bonus to this home and the neighbor hood is that we live just around the corner from Cory and Mindy.

These pictures are of the house before we moved in. I will try to get some taken post move-in.

Waynes Job

My Job!I started working for Firstline Security in February 2003. I started as an installation technician in San Diego California and am currently working in operations.How it all began...read more

Young Love

This slide show is awesome. I found these old pictures that Liz and I had done for Christmas cards in 2002. We were married for just 3 months. My inlaws still have this picture up at their house and I get a kick out of it everytime I see it because, Liz used Photoshop to whiten our teeth. Our teeth were really white! I will try to find that one..but for now, here is what you get.

Newly Weds

Cochlear Implant

March 2006 brought sad news to our family. Liz started noticing that little Alexis was not responding to audible stimulus. We tried or a week or so to prove our theory. We made several attempts to get her attention by banging pans together or talking really loud behind her. Nothing worked! We took her into Utah Valley Regional Medical Center to test her hearing. We first tried a simple hearing test, but the results were in-conclusive, but did have a hint of hope that perhaps some hearing existed. Because Alexis would not relax we had to go to a certain test that required sedation....read more

Our New Blog

Liz, Alexis & I are happy to finally get a blog going. Thanks Mindy & Cory...