Our Heward Adventures

Off to a good start

2012-01-24T16:13:00.000-08:00

Made it through the indoor triathlon. It was awesome. Something that, surprisingly, I really enjoyed. Took 25th place over all.

It snowed that day a lot. Barely made it to the gym. I took this picture because I thought it was funny. I couldn't get my camera out in time to catch the two cop cars at the front and back, shutting down the main road (and highway for people going through). What was even funnier was when I started to recognize the people herding those horses. It was a family from my ward and a few of the young men. Aaron was super jealous.

This was on the way into the race. You can't even see the snow falling. It fell all day long. Lots of cars got stuck.

I wish I had my camera yesterday and today. I got stuck in Mindy's driveway while picking up kids for car pool. Got too close to the side and got sucked right in. She let me load the kids into her car and I took them to school and then went to my class in the gym. When I got back to her house, Aaron was there with our friend Phil and they successfully rescued the car.

Today, also picking up kids for car pool (I have filled my quota for the week) there was a car that was off the road. They were driving down a hill where their road "T"ed with another road and they apparently couldn't stop because they drove right of the road and down the hill. Made me laugh and groan for them.

Hope that the winter weather is treating you well!

Check this out

2012-01-20T13:24:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite web sites is called Make it and love it. It is a site where she does a lot of sewing and crafts. Right now they are giving a way this awesome scale. So go a head and take a look here and maybe try and get one for yourself. Because I know that every one of you out there are looking to lose a little weight for you new years resolution... and mine is to lose a little more.

Training hard, getting owies.

2012-01-06T12:24:00.000-08:00

Every January I set goals for myself. This year I want to do a lot of new things that push my me, physically. Last year, I discovered that I love to work out. I love to swim, I love to run, I love to rock climb, I love zumba... right now I am taking a circuit training class that I really enjoy. Last fall, I signed up to do an indoor triathlon in January. I have been working hard to be ready. But last Monday during a viscous game of volleyball with my husband and a few friends, I sprained my ankle. It hurt really bad for a couple days. You would have laughed seeing me crawl and jump around the house Tuesday morning getting Todd ready for school. Brooklyn has been asking me about my sore foot and then shows me her perfect foot and says she has an owie on her foot too. It is pretty funny.

The sad thing... my race is in 2 weeks. I have been sticking to the water since I got hurt. So, here's to healing and to kicking but in my first ever mini triathlon!

All things December

2011-12-29T12:39:00.000-08:00

December is a big month at our house. We celebrated my birthday near the beginning of the month. Aaron took me out to lunch and then we had a yummy dinner and my favorite, Gemman Chocolate Cake.

I didn't get any pictures from our "Christmas Eve" Party, which we now do the Saturday before Christmas. Where as this year Christmas Eve was the Saturday before Christmas, we pushed it back to the Saturday before that. It is at my Grandpa Meyer's house every year and is the only tradition that my family still does since my Grandma's death and my parents divorce. I cherish this tradition. The yummy dinner, the songs we sing and music pieces we prepare for each other, my dad reads the Christmas story every year and Grandpa plays Christmas songs on his harmonica. Then we open presents and enjoy being together. I forgot the camera this year, but wanted to mention it.

The picture below was taken on Christmas eve as we were preparing cookies for our Santa plate. The sugar cookies were in the oven and we were getting the frosting ready.
Later on Christmas eve we acted out the nativity. My sister, Lisa and her husband, Brad were able to make it early enough to participate.

The Wise Man

Joseph and Mary

The angel dressed in black visiting Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus.

Aaron wearing Mary's pink headband that she put on him and me enjoying watching.

In Brad's family they have a tradition that they read a story every year and so he brought it and shared it with us this year.

Todd and Brooklyn opened their new Christmas outfit on Christmas Eve this year. I couldn't get a good picture of them because all they wanted to do was dance. (It's that Heward blood in them.)

After the kids were asleep. Sarah and Liz arrived and we set up.

Christmas morning, we opened Stockings and a few presents before Church and then saved the rest for after.

It was a good Christmas. This was the first year we have had a home big enough to have family come to us. It was SO much fun having our Aunts and Uncle come. Sarah also played the piano for Aaron and I as we sang in sacrament meeting and it was great to have her be able to do that for us. I can't believe the Christmas has come and gone. We are looking forward to the new year and all that it brings.

The Holidays

2011-12-06T16:19:00.001-08:00

We had a lot of fun with Aaron's family for Thanksgiving. This is the classic olives on the fingers picture. Aaron's family plays a lot of Rook. It is the family favorite and a game we pull out at every gathering.
We love Grandpa!!
This is our Christmas tree. We put it up last night only to realize that we didn't have enough lights (many strands didn't work.) We laughed pretty hard as we striped out tree with the only two colors we had and left the top bare. The rest will have to wait until we can get to the store.
This is my favorite part of our house. I love the wood burning fire place in our family room. It has been fun to decorate this room, especially since we spend most of our time here.
This is Todd's version of our life. The log home, the one tree in the yard, only a little grass, the family and our dog buddy.
Last night for family home evening we worked on the food for our Christmas goody plates that we are taking out tonight. We made caramel apples and had a lot of fun smothering them in light and milk chocolate and then sprinkling on candy cane and nuts.
We also made caramel nut pull aparts. Yum! It has been hard for me not to eat them all day.
Santa has also come early to our home and I am loving our new car. It is a cross over- 4 wheel drive, seats 8, but is more like a car than an SUV and I LOVE driving it.
He also brought us our bedroom set. My sister is down sizing and gave us a really good deal on her bedroom set and all the extras (I am in love with the dual control electric mattress pad).

At our house...

2011-11-21T15:36:00.000-08:00

Winter has hit us hard already. The snow has been beautiful and we have loved going sledding, enjoying hot chocolate and using our wood burning fire place. Saturday we got about 4 inches. Aaron decided we needed to get the rest of our wood split so after cutting for a couple hours, we bundled up the kids and went out to stack the wood in the freezing cold temperatures. We actually had a really good time working as a family.The cold weather has brought the animals up into our yard. We have been visited by lots and lots of antelope and some deer. The kids love pressing their face to the window and watching them. Todd has figured out that the males usually have antlers and will count and tell us how many there are of each gender. Tonight we had 4 female deer hanging out by our swing set and the night we took this picture, we had about 20 antelope in the yard.
I was called to the Young Womans presidency about 3 weeks ago and am absolutely loving it. The funny thing is getting home and seeing how Aaron has put the kids to bed. He reads to them until they fall asleep on the couch and when I get home, we carry them to bed.
Cole got his first hair cut on Saturday night. Aaron put him in the sink and he played with everything on the counter while he cut his hair. It is nice to have Aaron cut the boys hair. Using the clippers, usually all the boys- including Aaron- strip to their underware and cut their hair. Done and easy as that- One night every month, and Aaron always does a really great job.

I have become a gym rat- I go in and work out for an hour every day (week days only). The kids love that lady in the day care and the people know me by name. I have recently changed my workouts and have picked up Zumba- which I love- and rock climbing. I do a women only rock climbing class two days a week. The kids play and we take turns watching them while we climb. I am really surprised how much I enjoy it.

We are really excited for Thanksgiving this week and Christmas. My kids have been enjoying our Christmas movies- the Polar Express and, surprisingly, a Christmas story. Last week the churh hosted a Thanksgiving dinner for the town and it was a lot of fun to help with. I look forward to heading to Idaho this week for Thanksgiving... and to making pies. I love to make home made pies.

Halloween Hoorah

2011-11-02T12:24:00.000-07:00

Our Halloween was really fun this year. As normal, my pictures are chronologically backwards- but since you were not here for all the parties, you probably don't really care. :) This was Cole and Aaron of Friday night. Isn't Cole the cutest little skeleton baby you have ever seen?! (It's a toss up though, Julie, between him and Preston).
Todd had a Halloween party at school. It was so much fun and I got to go and help out with it. They had a parade and lots of home made treats (what ever mom made those cake ball mummies is amazing. They tasted SO good!) and they all got to eat a doughnut off the string and play some fun games. It was really fun to see Todd in action and Brooklyn enjoyed joining in as well.

Brooklyn's preschool party was Saturday night. This was the door to go inside.
This picture is Aaron and I enjoying our church trunk or treat, also on Saturday. I will shamelessly admit, I ate all the chocolate bars out of my kids bags... and enjoyed e-v-e-r-y bite.
Me and my lion cub- I had 3 skeleton costumes and we used them for a party on Friday and I threw them in the washer on Saturday but they were not dry in time so we dug out our older costumes. A lion and a pumpkin. Todd's skeleton did dry in time.

Todd, obviously enthused to be in the parade and the ward trunk or treat.

One of the best parts about living in a small oil field town is that the (rich) oil companies do some really great things for the town. Friday nights party was at the Rec Center where all the kids got free shirts, flash lights, a bag of all sorts of fun things, free dinner and a whole bunch of really fun games, not to mention a bounce house and slide. It was so much fun!!
On a side note, Sunday was a big day. We have one ward in our small little town. But the numbers were almost 900 and some of us late comers (guilty) never got to see the soft seats during the meeting, only the hard seats in the far back of the gym, so they decided that it was time to make the split. It has been a pretty exciting deal, especially to some of the old timers who remember the small branch that met in a members home. Aaron was super sad to be released from the boy scouts to take on the slightly busier job of executive secretary.

We hope all you had a Happy Halloween!!!

The big number 1

2011-10-16T16:40:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Cole 1st birthday. (One week early though, because our family was here this week). I made the cake, which was nothing too grand, but a lot of fun to make.

This picture was taken today after church. What a handsome little boy!

Happy birthday Cole, baby!

Frowns and Smiles

2011-10-07T16:21:00.000-07:00

Brooklyn had picture day at preschool... or so I thought. I got her all ready and then I found out I was about two weeks early. Oops. This is her in all dressed up. Today, it snowed... a lot.... about 3 inches. I thought I would try and do a short photo shoot with Cole. Alas, it was very short. About 40 seconds. He was not having it. Poor kid. (Don't worry. I put him on a white towel so he wasn't even touching the snow. I was surprised he was so mad at me.)
Cole has been climbing many things. Yesterday I was folding laundry from the dryer and he crawled right in. He was pretty proud of himself. Note to self: always check dryer. (My mom tells the story of my older sister when she was three. The dryer turned off and my sister climbed in and fell asleep on the warm clothes. Mom turned the dryer on and... well, she was never the same. My sister also has the memory and it is funny hearing the stories from both point of view.)In our little town, there is one high school and home coming week is a huge deal. They shut down the main street and have a huge parade and all the kids in the school district get to march in the parade. It was SO much fun to see Todd. All the kindergarteners dressed as Abraham Lincoln. Look right above the girls beard in the front of the picture and you will see my Todd.

Cole the climber... more things to watch for. With the weather getting rapidly colder, we have already begun to use our fire place to help warm our house. I have been frantically trying to teach Cole that he can get hurt from the fire place. He has done pretty good and after doing a few time outs in the crib and telling him no, no, he seems to be getting it (thank goodness).

Todd and Brooklyn waiting for the car pool one morning before school. As I mentioned, we have begun using our fire place. The kids love to roast marshmellows - or smarshmellows as Brooklyn calls them. I think the Mr. loves to roast them too. We do that often for an FHE treat.

Mission accomplished (so far)

2011-10-02T13:26:00.000-07:00

So, now that September 31st has come and gone, I thought maybe I should blog about my big accomplishment. I have hit my goal and am down 35 lbs. I can now fit into my wedding dress again. It has been fun to buy a few new clothes, but now it's on to my next goal.

My sisters have a trainer at their local gym and he is great. He has let me come sit in on sessions, though I don't have a membership and my sisters taught me how to do the nutrition and calorie counting. After our big move in April, I joined a gym here and I work out 5 days a week for 1 hour a day and I count calories. It is amazing how much better I feel. I have signed up for a few races (a 10K at the end of September) and another 10K next May, and I have started swimming again. Yay! On to the next 10 lbs!

What we've been up to...

2011-09-07T20:15:00.000-07:00

Todd starts his first day of kindergarten, and Brooklyn goes to pre-school. Sad day for Mom, super exciting day for the kiddos. Camping over labor day weekend with Grandma and Grandpa Heward and a few of the cousins. It was a blast. We live on the edge of BLM land and therefore, really close to some great camping spots and a beautiful lake. It was a blast.
Fishing at the kids pond- which we also did with the cousins. I thought this was a neat picture of Todd.
There is nothing better than Fair week and the Burley Rodeo. Who wouldn't love family, great food and our yearly very highly paid babysitter that we get every year.
Aaron and I always try and get a picture at the rodeo every year. This is from this year.

10 Months

2011-08-23T08:09:00.000-07:00

Cole is officially 10 months old.

He is into so many things!

He knows that he can drop his food off the counter and watch the dog eat it... so he does... all the time. We have tried really hard to teach Buddy, our dog, that he is not to beg. He only gets fed outside or in the mud room. But now, when Cole eats, he hangs out right under his chair.

Cole is my super eater.

He loves spaghetti and chicken and rice. He loves to eat it and wear it. He also LOVES the occasional popcycle. He freaks out when we eat one in front of him.

Cole loves to play the piano.

He loves our poor dog. I am really glad that Buddy is good with kids because he sure takes a lot from them.

He is fascinated with the computer.

Cole loves to lay the smack down at the book shelf. Take that DVDs!! Take that tractor book!!

He is fascinated by the fish.

He is getting interested in books. That has been really fun to watch.

Cole is so close to walking. He is such a fast crawler and is a pro at walking around while holding on to things. He loves to play on our toy tractor. He can get himself on it and then he pushes himself around.

Can't believe how fast time flies.

What a life.

2011-08-11T19:37:00.000-07:00

Man, is this the life or what?

A day at the beach...

2011-08-05T08:13:00.000-07:00

We are lucky to live close to some really great lakes. We have spent many summer days enjoying the sun, sand and water at the lake near by. Here are some pictures.

Dear Lisa

2011-08-02T20:11:00.000-07:00

Lisa,

Do you remember when we were little and you had those wild curls? Do you remember mom making you brush them out? (I do- fluff head).

Well, check out Brooklyn's curls. They remind me of yours. I remember sitting in church and trying to break up your curls and you getting mad- because that is what makes fluff. Well, now, I love to run my fingers through Brooklyn's curls. Just look at them.

So, here's a shout out to you, baby sister! Thanks for teaching me how to do her hair- so she's not a fluff head. And, um... I was thinking for Halloween, you two could go at matching 70's chicks. Fro head and all.

Camping and boating!

2011-07-29T15:40:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was a busy one. On Friday night we had our ward camp which was a blast! We have a really terrific bishop and a super fun ward and we had a lot of fun. Friday night, the bishop made scones and we had scones and smores. One of the men in the ward (Aaron's buddy from scouts) made up a home made thing that sounded just like a bear and then he walked around the camp and it sounded like there was a bear. It was hilarious! Saturday, the kids played games and an older couple in the ward taught square dancing and it was a blast!! After the camp out, we went boating with a few friends at the lake.

Aaron was a pro. He knee boarded (as did Todd!!) skied and tried really hard to slolem ski- but couldn't get up on it.

Cole was getting really fussy, but loved looking over the edge of the boat. So I set him toward the edge so he could look over the water and he got quiet. After a while I looked at him and he was sound asleep. It was really funny. My kids are really scheduled and are used to napping at the same time every day. This day was hard on Cole. He fell asleep at the table during lunch (but I missed this because the young women were doting over him and took really good care of him) and then he took his second nap on the boat.

The kids: Todd is in the middle and Brooklyn is on the far right. The other 3 kids are our friends kids. Aaron and Mindy are knee boarding.

This was at the ward camp out. Watch out for that stick pull. Those rippling muscles in my bum ripped a gaping hole in my pants.

This is our bishop playing with the kids. He was lifting the kids in a dead lift. Aaron and the bishop did the stick pull and they were in a stand still for a long time. Eventually the bishop won and Aaron admitted that his pride was a little hurt. He is used the being the strong guy who wins everything.

Todd during the kids games. He got out...

What a good time!!

Memory Lane

2011-07-27T21:41:00.000-07:00

I was looking through my sisters pictures on her phone and found some really cute ones of my kiddos. This is Cole and my sister Liz when he was a couple weeks old.

Baby Brooklyn. Isn't she cute!

Little Todd and Brooklyn.

Halloween- Brooklyn was three months old and Todd just turned 3.

Time moves too fast!!

Our trip to the Oregon Coast- extended version

2011-07-07T12:31:00.000-07:00

We had a Heward family reunion a week ago where we spent a couple days on the Oregon Coast (Pacific City mostly).

We left on a Wednesday where we met all the siblings in Burley and then headed out Thursday morning. We took 4 cars, 16 grandchildren, 8 children (the parents) and 2 grandparents and drove the 9 hours from Burley to Portland. There we met up with the other two siblings and their 2 cute girls. Along the way we visited the Tallamock Cheese factory, saw the light house at Cape Meares and looked at the ocean and saw this really cool tree, then we went to our beach house and played our gutts out in the water.

Pictures of McDonalds on the way there.

At Josh and Whitneys house. We played and the kids the camped in the back yard.

Getting ready to go- the perfect place to pack the kids. On top by the Thule. Just kidding.

At the Tallamock Cheese factory.

Brooklyn taking Grandpa for a drive in the cheese wagon.

The two youngest grandkids- Cole at 8 months and Kira at 13 month.
Brooklyn's third birthday

Trying on wet suits

Brooklyn trying out her new "surf board" she got for her birthday. The water was really cold and this was the ONLY time she would get in the water.

The view from our beach house.

Ever happen to you?? Part 2

2011-06-16T06:21:00.000-07:00

So, as Aaron and I moved to this new town about two months ago, we had to get some things figured out. New pediatric doctor, new dentist, figure out the roads, adjust to the change in cost of living, etc, etc, etc. One thing we had to do was find a new bank. There are lots of small town banks in this place but only one large particially international banks so, naturally, we went with that one. We opened our accounts and got things up and running. Two weeks ago, I made a deposit of $600.00 from our savings in our old bank into our new bank. I deposited the check through the ATM (a cool perk of this large bank) and the next day the money was withdrawn from my savings account. I waited and waited for the money to show up in my checking account but it never did. So, I made a call to the bank where they are "investigating" the deposit. Ten days we have gone not hearing anything and as pay day approaches, I am very reluctant to deposit Aaron's check into the bank because of this mishap that is still under "investigation." Where could 600 dollars have gone and why after ten days has it not appeared in my account? I have record of it being withdrawn from my savings and I have the receipt of deposit from the bank.

This is such a strange mistake. And now the question... has this ever happened to any of you? I am seriously thinking about closing my account and finding a new bank. What would you do?

Ever happen to you??

2011-06-12T12:43:00.001-07:00

Today at church, my kids were wild. I was happy to send them off to primary and nursery. Todd's primary class has about 7 boys his age and now that he has made friends, he goes without a word. He really seems to enjoy it. (We have been very lucky when it comes to making friends. Lots of my new friends have kids that are my kids ages and we have lots of fun doing play groups and taking morning walks through our subdivision).

At the end of church, we met at the Bishops office so Aaron could get set apart for his new calling as the 11 yr old scout helper outer guy (he's so excited!). After we were done, I was talking to someone and Aaron was talking to someone and I was not paying any attention to where my kids were except for Cole, because he was breaking my left arm as I was holding him. I looked at a lady and she looked at my red head who was playing with something on the wall and then at me and then back at her. I gasped and grabbed her hand but I was too late...

So, have you ever had your child pull the fire alarm? As of today, I have. Oops.

Pretty funny...

2011-05-26T15:30:00.000-07:00

Check out this blog post for a good laugh!

Six Years

2011-05-20T14:20:00.000-07:00

Enjoy the sideways picture. I was having technical difficulties and was even lucky I got a picture on at all.
I just wanted to commemorate my six year anniversary last Friday. Another year gone by and still absolutely loving life being married to the love of my life!

I know that so many people are dying to hear about what is going on with us and I am sorry that I am a slacker. I wish I had a camera. We have to buy a new one because I dropped ours, so as of yet, we are still cameraless. If I could take pictures, you would see the deer that wonder into our back yard in the evenings- we often get to watch them during dinner. We live on the edge of BLM land, which means it is government owned and no one can build houses across that fence out back. Because of that, we see a lot of animals, which is kind of neat. There might be pictures of the moose that wondered into the park two weeks ago while we were there- I freaked out and loaded the kids as fast as I could and we were out of there!! There would definitely be a picture of our new dog- he is a german short hair pointer- and there would be pictures of us roasting marshmellows and making smores in our family room fireplace. And, I don't know... maybe there would be a picture of our washer and dryer because I just love them so very much!!

We are doing good. Aaron loves his new job and they have been very good to him. We live around a lot of good people and get to go to church with a lot of excellent people. I love, love, love having Aaron home in the evening and sitting down together for dinner has been a big highlight in my life. We do a lot of adventuring and cant wait for it to warm up so we can go enjoy the lake a little more. We are doing good!

Wow! After publishing the post and looking through it all, I realized I got more pictures on than I thought. These are all graduation pictures from April- obviously.

Ghost of Mother's Days Past

2011-05-09T05:39:00.000-07:00

Saturday night I laid in bed thinking about past Mother's days in my life and looking forward to the one yet to come.

My first Mother's day as a mom was 4 years ago. Todd was about ten months old. I had fallen in love with a necklace long before this day ever came and has hoping that I would get it. Aaron's sister had a jewelry party weeks before and I had seen the necklace in her magazine. I pointed it out, telling all the ladies there that I had wanted one of these for years and that one day, I would have one. Now, if you know Aaron, you know that he is not a big gift giver. He has a hard time being creative in that area, and usually has no idea what to buy (and I have to admit, if you don't know how to shop for womans clothing, I am kind of hard to shop for.) Well, lets just say, I goofed this year. I was walking around Fred Meyer one week before the big day and found the necklace I wanted at 50% off. So, sure that I would not get it from Aaron, I bought it. I wore it and showed if off to my sister in laws, who acted excited for me, but later told me how mortified they were. See, one week later, on Mother's day, I received the exact same necklace from my husband. At the party, his sisters saw how much I would love it. They schemed with my husband and purchased it for me for the big day.

Two years later, I was about eight and a half months pregnant with Brooklyn when Mother's day rolled around. We were in the family ward in Rexburg at this time and Aaron and I had slept in, so we trekked into Sacrament meeting about 20 minutes late. The chapel was full and we searched really hard for two seats together anywhere, knowing that we could hold Todd on our laps. In the overflow there were two seats by a family. We snuck back and as I sat down, the father looked at me and told me I couldn't sit there. His son would be back momentarily. So, Aaron grabbed the extra seat and saw one sitting against the wall, unfolded it and I sat on it, only to have it colaps to the ground, right under me. I sat there on the floor, mortified. People turend around and stared. The blond woman in front of me practically turned her self around in her seat to stare at me until I was able to get on my feet. Being as pregnant as I was, the only way I could get up was if I shifted to my hands and knees and pushed myself up- all in my Sunday dress. But before I had to do that, I felt the arms of my loving husband under my arms and he helped pull me to my feet. Aaron gave me the one seat we had that worked and scrambled to find another seat. That same blond lady then shifted herself in her seat once more to gawk at me, then she opened her mouth and plainly said, "That chair is broken." I smiled at her and told her that I now knew that. I sat there. Aaron found another chair and joined me and we listened to the meeting. But shortly later, I kept seeing heads turn from that same family who denied us their seat. The wife would whisper to her husband, look at me and laugh. She did this very openly- like she didn't care that I saw her laughing at my expense. This went on and on, and unable to bare any more, I went to the cultural and bawled. I cried, and cried, and cried. I couldn't stop the tears from coming. Aaron came out to comfort me, but I decided I wanted to go home. I left and he stayed to teach our primary class alone. After a while, I felt better and came back to help Aaron with all those kids. After church, I made my way to the library to return our chalk only to pass that same wife who, stopped in her tracks and began to laugh. As we were eating dinner after church, Aaron asked me if there was anything I wanted to do for mothers day to make it more special for me. I began to cry and told him I wanted to go Burley to be with his family. This is where the day turned great. We surprised them all. We pulled into Aaron's Grandma Crane's house and walked into the back yard where they were having a Mother's day BBQ. I remember Todd running excitedly to his Aunt Mandy and giving her the biggest hug his little arms could give. I was grateful to be there.

And so, Mother's Day. I admit as I laid there in bed on Saturday night and thought of all my Mother's days, I actually wondered if I could get out of going to church (I am kind of scarred from that one year- I've had that thought every year since). I wondered how my day would go. I don't know if it was watching Aaron in the kitchen with Todd and Brooklyn squished tightly around him as they made me a Mother's day cake, or if it was sitting around the table making and coloring cards for the Mom's (and Grandma's) in our lives. Maybe it was playing games in the family room as a family or watching Aaron frost the cake with a fork. It could have been to unbelievable talks that were given in Sacrament meeting. Whatever it was, I enjoyed it. Aaron let me take a nap right after dinner and he cleaned off the table and cleaned the kitchen with the kids. He changed Cole's diaper that exploded up his back. He held my hand and smiled at me as the kids laughed and squealed as we played games together. That is what I told him I wanted for Mother's day. I wanted to make cards and play games. And as the evening finished out, the power went out and we laid in bed with our kids and talked to each other. He told me stories from when he was a kid, he told me why he loved me and we talked and talked until we decided the power was not coming back on and ventured into our own room for the night.

Just a note, I wandered onto this blog a couple days ago. This wonderful man just lost his wife and newborn baby and is left with three young children to raise. I think they could use a few extra prayers.

Hooray, Hooray!!

2011-04-10T19:09:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the big day. Aaron and I finally got to walk the Graduation line... together. I finished school and got my bachelors degree last July and Aaron finished up Friday. I wanted to wait so that Aaron and I could walk together. It was such an amazing experience and as I walked into the BYUI center listening to the graduation song, I wanted to cry. This has been a long time coming (my very first semester of college was the summer of 1999. Got my associates in August 2002 and finally I have my bachelors!!) Aaron got his bachelors in Construction Management and they let us walk together in his group. It was an amazing day!!

We leave in a couple weeks to start our post college life. Aaron got a really great job (sorry, I don't want to say where on here. Internet is just so public) and we have a 4 bedroom house waiting for us that I cant wait to get into!! Packing has been craziness and I cant believe how much junk a couple can stuff into a two bedroom apartment (well, we did have our last 2 children while living here).

One of these days, I will post pictures. But I can't guarantee it will be soon. I managed to drop the lap top (ouch!) and the camera (ouch again!!) and now both of them need a little work. Soon, though.

Life is Good.

2011-03-22T07:48:00.000-07:00

Exciting news! Cole slept completely through the night last night. No feeding, no binky. How wonderful!! Aaron got two terrific job offers yesterday. Can't beleive it! I worked out with my sisters trainer yesterday. Today my quads can barely hold the weight of my body. I haven't felt this good in a long time. Life is good.

Lots of pictures of lots of fun!

2011-03-10T13:21:00.000-08:00

What do you think? Does Cole look like the other two?We have had a lot of fun today. Brooklyn pulled the tennis balls out of the toy box and was pretending they were her eyes. Too bad she couldn't see where she was going.
It has also been a beautiful day today. Warm enough that we could shed our big winter coats and trek around in jackets.
We have loved the nice weather and hope spring is on its way!!
Today we had Joy School. I taught and we spent the day learning about birthdays and doing birthday activities. This picture is out of order because the last thing we did was frost cup cakes but this was my beautifully decorated on.
We made little cats out of Rhodes Rolls. Start with 4 (ignore the big one. It snuck in there right before I took the picture.) Let them sit out 2 hours until thawed but still cold.
Smash two together and roll them out like a big snake. Shape as the body. (See ending picture) Take one ball and roll like a ball for the tale. Take the last ball and press flat and cut like a heart.
When all the pieces are put together, take scissors and cut the feet so it looks like there are two and then snip the body and tail of the cat so it looks like fur.
Let sit for 20 minutes to let rise a little. Then bake on 350 degrees for 20 minutes.
Let cool, play and eat. They were delish and simple enough that these little tykes could make them.

We also make cup cakes. I had candles printed on card stock and I let the kids color them and then they were heavy duty enough that they held up in the cup cakes.

I placed the cup cake on a plate and let the kids pick which color frosting they wanted and then I put all our decorating yummies on the plate and they were welcome to decorate their cupcake or eat them.
We colored a few pictures. We made birthday bracelet for the kids to wear. Todd is wearing his in the picture below.

We had a lot of fun and I had tons of fun preparing the lesson. It was fun to do what ever I wanted and not having to focus on a certain number or letter- although those lessons are fun too.

In other happenings- G's Dairy Delights is our very favorite ice cream place around. If you are ever in the area, you need to stop and get an ice cream place from G's. (It's also nice that they have a drive through window and I can swing by and get milk without having to haul all my kids in).
This is Cole enjoying his first ice cream- not really. I gave him the cone to take the picture and then took it away. He was a little sad about that. He is suddenly really interested in what the big kids are eating.
I think I was helping Todd eat his nasty bubble bear ice cream- bubble gum flavor and gummy bears... yuck. But it what he always picks and then he never can eat all his ice cream. (By the way, Todd took the picture below).
What good looking boys!!!
Anyway, we love being together and any time there is ice cream involved, it just makes it better. We love going to G's!

On my mind tonight...

2011-03-07T19:26:00.000-08:00

Here I am. 8pm. The big kids are finally in bed. Todd in snoozing away and Brooklyn is using every excuse under the sun to try and get out of her room. Not asleep, but none the less, in bed. Cole is on the floor, trying super hard to roll, happy after recently finishing his one daily bowl of rice cereal (come on! 5 hours of sleep in a row tonight again!) and I should be doing a million other things. There is a pile of top romin from dinner on the living room floor mixed with some broccoli that Brooklyn pulled out of the fridge from last weeks bountiful basket. The kitchen sink is full of dishes. Really, if I think about it, I think almost all the dishes are in the sink. I had a bowl of cereal after putting Todd and Brooklyn down and I actually pulled a plastic spoon out of the picnic stuff because I didn't want to wash one. My house is full of dirty laundry. Kids are out of pajamas, Todd is dangerously low on clean underpants, the bag of wet clothes from last Saturdays swimming party is starting to threaten stinkiness, and, lets face it, it's time to wash and replace all the sheets on the beds. The delima, only have 2 dollars in quarters which means I only have enough money to do one load of laundry. So what is more important? Lets see... defiantly underpants and.... hhmmm..... should I mention the poop I cleaned out of the tub? Nah. My mind is spinning, but the quiet feels so good.

I taught Joy School today where we had a blast learning about the letter H. I volunteered to teach on Thursday because of all the crazy schedules this week. (Michelle, you should bring Jack on over. Logan is gone so I have room for another body. Thurs 11-12, my place. Your drop him off and then pick him up, that's it. The rest is up to me. Text me and let me know if he is coming!! :) Looking forward to Thursdays lesson. We are going to have some fun. I decided not to focus on a letter but to have a craft or cooking activity. The wheels are turning and I am really excited about the possibilities. Also found out today that we will be losing one of the kids in a couple weeks. His family got into a bigger place and that is exciting (I can totally relate to having 3 kids in a 2 bedroom apartment) but I will be sad to see their family move out of our complex. Although, hopefully we wont be too far behind.

My diploma arrived in the mail a couple of weeks ago and Aaron is anxiously counting down the next 5 weeks until graduation and then hopefully we will be able to say goodbye to this crazy town and hello to a nice house with a fenced in back yard, dishwasher, washer and dryer, garage, hopefully a master bathroom and a couple hundred more square feet. Behold the wish list. Just thinking about it brings a smile to my face.

Well, maybe I should tackle the romin noodle on the living room floor and while the kids are down, decide what needs to be washed more and spend those last 8 coveted quarters. I also need to make some dinner for my hard working hubby who will be home soon. Lets see, pan- nope, spoon- nope, hhmmm spaghetti-0's it is.

A day in the life....

2011-02-24T18:58:00.000-08:00

There they are. My Todd and Brooklyn, or as they had me calling them all day, Diego and Dora. They have been rescuing animals and throwing their toys around all day- and having the time of their lives.

Todd was taking a go at it with the camera and he took this picture of Cole and I. Not too bad for a four year old.
Yesterday, we had Joy School at my house. Their attention spans were really small and I didn't plan enough activities- this was my attempt at getting them to watch a clip of Elmo's Numbers. We have a lot of fun at Joy School. Today it was at one of the other mom's houses and they learned about the letter G. All the kids planted a few tomato seeds. (Garden and Grow= letter G). Todd came home so thrilled. He explained over and over again how he planted a little tomato, called a cherri tomato because he likes little tomatos and we like big ones. He would run over to the table to check on the seeds and then exclaim that they hadn't grown yet. We told him it would take a little while. It was a super fun activity and I really hope that Todd's seed grows!!

On another note, I started training for my 5ks I am planning on running this summer. This year, Aaron and I have 3 planned. I am so excited for warm weather and all that comes with it!

Going Fishing

2011-02-07T12:32:00.000-08:00

My kids got this game for Christmas that we LOVE! It is called lets go fishing and I know it was purchased at Fred Meyer, but I am sure you can buy it other places too. If you have younger kids, it is a must have, I think. Anyway, we love it!

Playing hard

2011-02-05T20:58:00.000-08:00

We have been tying hard to stay busy these long winter days. I started up a joy school with a few of my friends and last Monday I taught for the first time. I LOVED it!! We have five kids and they get together twice a week. We rotate homes and each parent takes a turn teaching. I love the hour break I get twice a week (usually I try and plan Cole's nap during that time). Todd and Brooklyn have learned so much already and they have loved spending time with their friends.
We have also been able to ride our bikes in doors and the kids have liked getting out their energy (or I have!!!)
And, here's an ending thought...
If my life were a song, it would be called "The Never Ending Dishes." :)

Baby Cole

2011-02-01T09:30:00.000-08:00

Here are a few things Cole loves to do best:
Sleep- I never had a binky baby. With my other two, I tried to stay away from the binky completely. Neither Todd or Brooklyn ever had a binky longer than two weeks. With Cole's colic the first two months, I was open anything that soothed him. Now, that sucker is like magic. Pop it in to his mouth and Cole falls fast asleep.Stand. This is Cole loving his bouncer. Smile and laugh. We are always finding new ways to make him smile. I love it. It is hard to believe he is three months!!!

Sledding Fun

2011-01-24T17:22:00.000-08:00

Aaron took the Todd and Brooklyn sledding on Saturday. There were already some cool forts built and the kids had the time of their lives playing in them. Aaron said that Todd was fearless and loved the crazy hills while Brooklyn preferred to just play in the snow. Here are the pictures.

Enjoying ourselves

2011-01-18T09:19:00.000-08:00

Cole has been growing really fast and is such a boy. I have been surprised how alike my boys have been compared to Brooklyn. Todd loved his jumper. He would stay in it and play for a long time. As he got bigger, he learned how to move around in it. Eventually, he figured out that he could grab my blow dryer cord (the jumper was in my bedroom door and the dryer was tucked into a drawer on my vanity with the cord hanging out), pull himself to where his feet were not touching the ground and then let go to go swinging. This was before he could crawl or walk. So far, Cole has been the same way. He loves the jumper and is content in it for 45 minutes sometimes. He has figured out how to turn in circles and will turn to look at me when he hears me.
I mentioned in my last post that we were able to go miniature golfing and bowling with the kids on Aaron's night off of work last week. Here are the pictures from that fun event.
We tried really hard to teach Todd how to hold his putter but he just couldn't figure it out.
He would always hold it all crazy like and I am surprised was able to hit it.
The kids had a lot of fun. It was black light miniature golfing and Cole was content with looking at my glowing shirt.
Bowling was crazy. The kids loved it but were all over the place. We felt bad for the people by us because we were constantly pulling our kids out of their way.
Cole was enjoying bowling. So many things to look at! He sat on the table in his car seat and was happy the whole time!
As for winners, I think I won. Just kidding. Aaron and I tried to keep some type of score so that it was a little more fun for us. If I am honest with myself, I would have to say Aaron beat me... at everything.

2011-01-14T21:53:00.000-08:00

Enjoy the video. All the kids had a ton of fun riding the mattress down the stairs at Grandma's house. Great idea Aunt Whitney!!!

Some days life keeps me busier than other days. My children are full of energy and I have been unsuccessful at keeping them busy during these long winter days. So, here it is. Last week was there were a few of those crazy days. Early in the week, Todd stuck a pop corn cournal in his ear. I got it out with tweezers. I freaked out when he came to me and showed me. How was I supposed to get that out. I got lucky. Called a neighbor and borrowed tweezers. We were successful at getting it out- thank goodness. About a month ago he put one up his nose. His life must be very boring. That same day, I was napping (just one hour!!) and he and Brooklyn got the screw driver and unscrewed the latch from his toy box. Four screws. Pulled the latch completely off. If it weren't quite so irritating, I would be impressed. They also pulled out the permanent markers and colored an array of toys, Brooklyn's body and I have recently discovered, the television screen. Permanent marker does not come off the TV very well. I am just grateful that it was yellow and not too terribly distracting. Then later, I caught the kids playing swords. They do this a lot and I think they really love it. But then I noticed that their swords were the kitchen mop and Aaron's guitar. Yikes. Had to do some redirecting with that one. The day before we had the apartment manager come over to fix our toilet that had been plugged for 3 days. It had semi-worked. We could push the yucky water down with the toilet plunger but the toilet would never completely work. So we gave in and asked the manager for help. The culprit: Todd's toothbrush. Yummy! I'd wondered where that little sucker went. Two days before that, I took Brooklyn and Cole to the doctor. Colds. Bad colds. Cole had RSV and bronchitis. Caught it before it turned into pneumonia which I guess happens sometimes. I had time to get the nebulizer from Valley medical (for Cole's 6 breathing treatments a day- really, who has time for that?) but not the prescription before Aaron needed the car for work. So, we drove home, I moved the car seats in the SUV and buckled them in, moved the 2 tires from the SUV to the car that the tire store didn't throw away when they put on our studded tires, got the kids loaded- did I mention it was about 8 degrees out and Brooklyn was whining that she was so cold. As I drove out of the parking lot, I noticed the car was driving funny. Low and behold- a flat tire. Super, completely flat. I checked right at the entrance of the parking lot. So I backed it up and parked it as close as I could. Right next to the dumpster.

Lets just say, last week was a big one! And I am grateful to say I am chuckling as I write about it. My kids keep me on my toes, but they also make me happy.

I wish I could get my computer to up load my new pictures. Aaron got tonight of UPS and we decided to have a fun family night. We went to Fat Cats and played miniature golf. It was the first time ever that Todd and Brooklyn had golfed and it was hilarious to watch Brooklyn, who did not understand that once you hit the ball, you don't pick it up until it goes into the hole. Aaron would hit his and then I would hit mine just in time for Brooklyn to come running to him, his ball in her hand and a huge smile on her face. After we bowled one round and ate pizza. Then it was off to G's to use our free ice cream coupons. What a night- what a blast. I will try and post the pictures later. Until then....

Christmas Memories

2010-12-31T23:40:00.000-08:00

Here are a few pictures from Christmas. The favorite gifts for the kids: 3 dollar flashlights and Mr. Potato Heads. The kids had a blast and it has been fun to see them playing with their toys. We also had a nativity with the cousins. Something we enjoy every year.

Christmas

2010-12-26T06:22:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Christmas.

I spent a lot of time thinking about many different things.

The pine tree points us toward heaven.

The candy cane is like the shepherds crook.

The miracle of the birth of Jesus Christ.

Why was the birth of Jesus Christ such a miracle? Every year we decorate our homes and buy gifts and string lights and make goodies and I think that we forget that it's all supposed to be in memory of our Savior. He came. He was born. He lived. He died. And He did it all for us. For me and for my family. Because He was born and because He sacrificed Himself, a whole new world of possibilities open up for us. Our sins could be forgiven. We will live again. We can return to His presence and the presence of God. And the most important to me at this moment- families can be together forever. They can be reunited after death.

I thought so much about this yesterday. The miracle of the birth of our Savior. He gave me some of the greatest gifts I will ever receive. I am so grateful for these gifts. I am personally indebted to our Savior. To my Savior. I am so glad that He was born. That He came and lived and died.

Yesterday, Grandpa Crane died. I loved him very much. We went to his house and said goodbye at 9am. I made sure to kiss him. He always kissed me when he saw me. He always held my hand. He always loved me. From the day I married his grandson, I always knew he loved me. I loved to dance with him. Even though I didn't know how to dance the steps very well and Aaron had to teach me, I always loved to dance with him. I loved to watch him dance with Grandma. They were still madly in love. She still sat right next to him in the truck. He always found her a chair when they came to visit. They had been together since the sixth grade. He loved my children. Even when he started to forget and we had to remind him who we were, he always knew and asked for that curly redheaded girl.

It was good that he went. The alzheimers he was getting made him different. It was hard to watch this tough farmer deteriorate. But it was still devastating. I miss him so much already. And I will always remember that he loved me. And I loved him. That he would take my hand and give me a kiss every time he saw me.

And I will also remember that I will see him again. I will see him again because our Savior was born. Because He lived. Because He died. I will see all the people I love again.

My Christmas was different this year. I sat in the living room while the others said their goodbyes and stared at the tree and thought about many different things. The tree points us toward heaven. The candy cane is like the shepherds crook. The birth of our Savior is truely a miracle. I am so grateful for that miracle.

The happenings....

2010-12-23T20:43:00.000-08:00

Here are just a few more pictures of what has been going on around here.

Grandpa's Christmas party was last Saturday. It is always one of my favorite things we do at Christmas time and the only tradition my family still has. My parents divorce and my Grandma's death kind of wiped out all the others- but not this one. I love it. The first picture of Cole smiling was taken this week. I love it when he smiles. He smiles at Aaron a lot. That lucky Dad!
Last night, Todd fell asleep while watching a movie. He crashed right on Brooklyn's lap. Isn't it priceless??!!
The three boys I love the most!
And Brooklyn doing what moms do best. Loving her baby, nursing it and burping it and doing all those things that I do with Cole.

Thirty, Flirty & Thriving

2010-12-13T16:15:00.000-08:00

There has been a ton that has gone on since my last post.

1. Last week I celebrated my 30th birthday. It was a great day. Aaron was supposed to work a 13 hour work day and so I set up lunch with my girlfriends at Artic Circle (where the kids can play) to help me celebrate. Aaron came home for lunch and told me that the school gave him the rest of the day off so he could celebrate with me. He took the kids to the store where they picked out my present. I got a radio for my kitchen. Complete with a CD and MP3 player. I love it. We mounted to to the wall and I have been listening to the last Harry Potter book while I do dishes and make meals. It ended up being a great day. My sister sent me flowers (which I always love) and last night we played games with a few friends at our house. (Have you ever heard of the game Snorta? Our friends brought it and I laughed my guts out!)

2. Cole keeps getting bigger. He turns two months old this week and is getting more and more fun. He is starting to cry less and sleep better. He slept completely through the night last night all on his own. (Hooray!!) He also started smiling this week.
3. We decorated our tree. We pulled it out Saturday. We are not pulling out a whole lot this year. We have managed to stuff our little apartment full of all sorts of things and we decided that we really didn't have room for all the Christmas stuff. But our little tree is beautiful and we love to sit in the living room with only the tree lights on.

4. Yesterday, we delivered most of our goodie plates. On Saturday, I made ginger snap cookies, no bake peanut butter cookies, pumpkin bars and candy popcorn. Yesterday we took them around and sang a few carrols. Mostly Jingle Bells which is the song the kids know best.

5. Last week was our ward Christmas party. We ate good food and the kids got to see Santa who looked strangely like Bishop Sparks in a santa suit.
6. We helped Grandma and Grandpa Heward put up their Christmas stuff. The kids really, really enjoyed it and all Todd can talk about is Christmas and when he gets to open his presents.
7. Spending Thanksgiving break at Grandmas with all the cousins. The kids had a lot of fun playing together- this particular day they played alot with play dough.

8. Playing together. Aaron took this picture upside down- not exactly sure why. Aren't they cute??!!

9. THANKSGIVING DAY!!! Aaron has a huge family and they get the church where we eat and have some skits (this is Brooklyn singing the ABC's), then we play basketball and dance the Hokey Pokey and the Virginia Reel and have TONS of fun.

10. We blessed Cole (I can't believe I took no pictures). We blessed him in our ward here and then went to IF and had the meal at my Grandpa's house.

A few other events:

11. Todd cut Brooklyn's hair- and her ear. I didn't know ears could bleed so much. Does a cut to the ear count as a head wound? I know head wounds bleed a ton and now I know ears do too.

12. Aaron was offered a part time job at the school through next semester. We are excited that he has been given that opportunity. His internship has given him really good experience managing. He has been helping with the Manwaring Center and the BYUI center. He even gave a tour of the BYUI center to Elder Bednar a few weeks ago.

13. Brooklyn has been taking offer her diapers and the going potty where ever she is. That includes the couch and her booster chair at the table. I have to keep a really good eye on her to make sure she doesn't take off her diaper. Many times she will hide and go poops and then take off her diaper and put it in the toilet and then come and find me. She is ready to be potty trained but I am not yet ready to potty train her. I am waiting for Aaron to be at home a little more so he can help and I am waiting until Cole doesn't need to be nursed quite as often. Who knows though. It might be better if we just do it.

14. I ventured out on black Friday with Aaron's sisters. This is tradition. I love it. I save all year and do most of my Christmas shopping this day. This year, though, Walmart opened at 12am and so we never went to bed. It was Walmart at 12, JC Penny at 4 (where I got a really pretty new coat for 75% off- Happy Graduation to me :) back to Walmart at 5am- they wouldn't sell the electronics until then- Cal Ranch after that, then Ace Hardware. We usually go to bed and get up at 3am. Not this year, thanks to Walmart. No sleep at all and then when we got home, we had to watch our kids. It was too much and we decided that we will probably not hit Walmart right when hit opens anymore.

15. Aaron applied for graduation. Hooray!!! He will walk in April and then we are DONE! I am supposed to walk on Saturday but I am in the process of seeing if they will let me walk in April instead. It would be more fun if Aaron and I could walk together and easier for our families.

Lending a helping hand

2010-12-03T13:16:00.000-08:00

Last fall I took my Literacy II class and at my table sat a girl named Ashley Sullenger. She and I were the only moms at the table and we had the opportunity many times to talk and tell stories about our children.

This past summer her little girl fell into a ditch in Rigby and drowned. Her body floated two mile down stream where she was found by a farmer. She and her family spent a week in Primary Childrens Medical Hospital in Utah where she passed on.

Well, little Presslee Sullenger's 2nd birthday is on December 17th and in memory of her, Ashley and other loved ones are trying to put together baskets for other families who have to spend time at the Primary Childrens Medical Hospital. Many items have been filled, but there are still a few items needed. Their goal is to have all the baskets filled by Preslee's birthday- December 17th. So, if you can, this Christmas lend a helping hand. It's for a good cause in honor and memory of a beautiful little girl.

You can check their list of supplies (click on her Pay it forward link) and her story at www.patrickandashley.blogspot.com (notice I figured out how to make the link active).

Mother of the year

2010-12-01T20:38:00.000-08:00

I would rather have 10 percent of a good man that 100 percent of a bad one.

This was the advice given to me this past week.

Peak started this week at UPS. That means Aaron will now work even more hours and we will see him even less than we already do. That has me a little down. But I am so grateful for him. I am grateful that he is willing to leave early in the morning and come home and collapse in bed at night all because he worked really hard for his little family. I am glad for the 10 percent I get of my great man.

Life is overwhelming right now. Cole is super gassy and suffers from some mild colic. He cries a LOT. Some days are better than others. It was nice to have all the other arms that were so willing to bounce and burp and pat during our trip home for Thanksgiving. Today he cried for most of the day. I discovered that if I lay him across my legs with his tummy pushed against the side of my leg and my pinky in his mouth, he is more content. He sleeps for longer than 10 minutes in that position and seems to be able to work and grunt through the pain of the rumbling tummy. I've also discovered that if I stay away from chocolate, peanut butter, pizza and all red sauce, and the newest one, orange juice, his tummy hurts less and he is more content. But despite this, I am so in love with him. I have spent a lot more time holding him and cuddling him. I hold him tight and rock him more than I ever did with the other two and I am grateful for those moments.

Todd and Brooklyn were full of energy today and I was unable to keep them busy. We did go out for a few minutes tonight and I got pizza for dinner for them and Aaron (I got Jimmy Johns for me). I opened the box and let them eat it in the car. That's right. They each had a slice of pizza while sitting in their car seats out side of Desseret Book. But gets better. When we got home, Todd sat on the living room floor and ate and ate and ate slice after slice after slice. (I think he is going through a growth spurt- he is constantly hungry). I was frazzled and couldn't wait to have the kids in bed. I kept telling Todd that he needed to finish because it was time for bed but he kept eating. And so, I was mother of the year tonight (sarcasm) and put Todd to bed with a piece of pizza and a sippy of water. Some moms struggle with getting their kids teeth brushed when they are exhausted- I didn't even get that far. I put my children to bed with their dinner in hand.

And... well... life is crazy right now, either that or I am just overly tired. Both, I think. Tomorrow will be better. It is story day at the library and so I already know I will get the kids out. And I will be preparing for Cole's blessing on Sunday. Tomorrow is a new day. Thank goodness.

Love... true love....

2010-11-23T15:00:00.000-08:00

My sister gave me a disk with all the pictures she took at the hospital the day Cole was born. This is my favorite one!

Look at Brooklyn's face. If that is not love, I don't know what is!

Halloween and more...

2010-11-15T15:58:00.000-08:00

A while ago, we had some pictures taken of the kids. I have here are a few of them, and then my header picture is also one of them. I have had a few people ask me who took them. Check out www.rognonphotography.com If I knew how to make that an active link, I would. If you check out my favorite sites to the right, their link is active. They did a SUPER job and hope to get our family pictures taken by them in a few months.

As for everything else, life at our house has been really hecktick. Aaron continues to work 60 hour weeks. 40 at his internship and 20 at his regular job. We are really grateful for his one hour lunch hour. That is the only time we see him during the day. It makes the weeks extremely long for me. It is tough to juggle a new born and still entertain the older kids all by myself- but we're doing it.

The picture below was taken during Aaron's lunch hour. He took the kids out to play in the snow. Check out their rosey cheeks.Halloween was spent in Burley with Grandma and Grandpa. Aaron's sister had these cute Winny the Poo costumes. Todd was Eore and Brooklyn was the Honey pot.
We met Aaron's brother there so they could build the fence for the horses (time to move them again) and his sister and I dressed up the kids and took them out to see the boys.
And, introducing... the boy who never sleeps... well, he is getting better. In this picture he is three weeks old and extremely cross eyes, which is isn't usually. We have loved having him in our family. Brooklyn wont leave him alone and I have caught her many times carrying him or trying to pick him up when he is crying. She is also a pro at laying on him while he is in the car seat.
In our efforts to keep the kids busy, we made carmel apples and cup cakes for a few of the people who made us dinner right after Cole was born. Brooklyn was my big helper.

Its a ... BOY!!!!

2010-10-22T18:50:00.000-07:00

His name is Cole... and he is such a handsom lil guy, he arrived today just after 1 pm!!! We just love him soooo much! I'll write more later :)

More "False Labor"

2010-10-12T07:44:00.000-07:00

Today, I decided I wanted a second opinion. I decided that there was more to all this than "false labor" as my doctor called it. I was able to get back into my doctors office- but to a different doctor. The result: kidney stones, which is what the nurse thought might be going on when we spent Sunday night in the Labor and Delivery Unit. Today we discovered I had a few small kidney stones and a lot of fluid back up in my kidneys. I am so grateful to my wonderful husband, who was able to leave his internship early and get the night off UPS to go to the hospital with me and help with the kids. It was such a relief to have him there. This experience has been so overwhelming for me. I have so many different pains and feeling going on in my body right now that I feel strange, like I have no control.

So that is that. Now I just have to get through it all.

Today I was looking through the pictures on my camera. Last night, because Aaron was home, we were able to have Family Home Evening all together as a family. At the end of the evening, we lit our pumpkins for the kids to see and had root beer floats. All the kids wanted to do was stare at the pumpkins. So they sat on the rug by the door, watched their pumpkins and enjoyed their treat. (The pictures are out of order)
This was Saturday carving pumpkins with my Aunt Maureen's kids.

Really out of order- this was my two weeks left picture we took on Saturday.

Making the root beer floats for family home evening.

Labor Pains

2010-10-11T07:55:00.000-07:00

Aaron has been saying that the thing he will remember most about the month the this baby will be born is the cool weather, the rain and the beautiful color of the leaves changing. I think I changed that this weekend.

What a weekend.

I had contractions all day Friday. They were never consistent, but they did get to a minute and a half a part for a while. It was a crazy day. I laid down for a couple of hour after they started to see if I could get them to stop. They didn't. I called Aaron at work to give him the heads up and spent the day with my sisters, who helped pass the time until they stopped at 9pm.

Saturday was fine. I had a few small contractions, but that is normal. Aaron and I stayed busy- After a quick trip to the doctors office to make sure everything was fine, I ran to IF had lunch with my high school girlfriends and then we took the kids to carve pumpkins with my Aunts kids. They loved it. And for dinner, we had a BBQ with our Bishop and a few people from the ward.

Sunday... where do I begin. I couldn't sleep. I kept having weird pains and having the urge to go to the bathroom. At 3am, I gave up- grabbed a blanket and pillow and headed to the living room. I put in a movie and my pains got bad. They were so bad I couldn't stand it. I woke up Aaron and sat on the floor and cried until our friends got here at 4am. Thanks so much to Phil and Meggie for staying with our kids so we could head to the hospital. I don't know how to explain what happened at the hospital, except for lots of walking the halls, contractions that would get hard and then go away, having to urinate and not being able to and weird back and abdominal pain. None the less, at 9:15am, they sent us home. I just wasn't progressing. It was such a weird experience. With my other kids, it was easy. I always knew when I was in labor. I went in and left with the baby. I am confused about this one. Even the nurse told us as we left that she would bet that we would be back that night, but everything stopped.

So here I am. Monday after a crazy weekend. No baby- which, I can handle. I have just under two weeks left until my due date, and I didn't expect it to come early anyway. What I can't handle is the constant urge to go pee. It never went away. It feels very similar to a urinary tract infection but at the hospital, they checked me for that. So, the doctor just insisted that the baby is so low that it is pushing on things. I can't handle it and Aaron has been teasing me about the trips to the bathroom about every two minutes. So, that is what I got out of this weekend. What feels like an infection. Lucky me.

Oh, and those REALLY sore calf muscles from hours of walking the hospital halls.

The redneck in us

2010-10-07T14:57:00.000-07:00

The fair took place in September (I know, I am late with this one) and my families favorite things to do is go to the Derby. It's tradition. We fork out the 18 dollars each and meet up with everyone. We love it. There is nothing like watching cars crash into eachother. This year, during the compact car heat, one of the cars started on fire and the driver crawled into the back seat until the announcer called time out. During th womans heat, one of the ladies almost drove over the barrier and I have never seen the people in the crowd move so fast. This year, Aaron was teasing me because this is the most rednck thing we do. We always have a lot of fun and we are always there, cheering and yelling our lungs out with the rest of the bunch.

So, heres to the rednecks!

Staying busy

2010-10-02T16:00:00.000-07:00

We finally got our lap top fixed but for some reason, I have had a really hard time getting pictures to load. Anyway, here are just a few pictures of what we have been up to.

Canning. I love canning. One of the best things about the fall is the harvest and the preserving. This year, I have done less than I have ever done in my married life. I think that it's a mix of the poor garden production (the late and early frost has been really hard on everything this year) and my pregnancy that has worn me out (21 more days until the due date). Anyway, we have done peaches and pears, a little bit of apple sauce and a few tomatoes. Weird not to have salsa this year or any apple pie filling. I also didn't make any juice or jam from my peaches, which is pretty uncommon and the strawberries are STILL in the freezer waiting for me to make freezer jam from them. Maybe next year.

Last night was the Fairview Elem. School Carnival. It is where my Grandma taught and where my aunt teaches. I have gone to the carnival every year for as long as I can remember. Last night, I took my kids and they loved it. Here they are enjoying their dinner. Hot dogs are always a hit with my kids.
This is the swing my grandpa made. I really didn't get any great pictures of it or my kids on it, but we spent a lot of time riding it. My grandpa made it out of old tractor parts and I have many memories riding it as a kid. My uncle runs it every year at the carnival now. This was the first time Todd and Brooklyn got to ride it and after a little coaxing to get them on the first time, we couldn't get them to do anything else.
Grandpa said that Grandma gave him a lot of advice while making it. He said that when he hooked up the motor for the first time, it went way too fast and he had to figure out how to slow it down. It took a pully and a piece of ply wood, but he said he felt silly that grandma was the one who figured it out.
We have tried to keep busy. Aaron has been super busy with work and his internship and we have been trying hard to enjoy the warm days before the cold weather hits- plus, when the baby comes, I think we will be a little more house bound for a while.

Laundry Money

2010-09-13T12:32:00.000-07:00

Because I still live in an apartment, I have to pay for my laundry. We have a laundry facility in our building- I look very forward to the day when I have my own washer and dryer (and dishwasher for that matter!!) Last week, I went to Target to do some shopping- I love that store! I made my way to the check out line to purchase all the many clothes I enjoyed buying for my little family and asked for ten dollars cash back. After I was done, I made my way to the customer service desk to trade my ten dollars cash in for my laundry quarters. The girl at the desk was young, but very kind. She opened each of the two registers and began counting out the ten dollars in quarters. I smiled. Usually, they just give me a roll of quarters and thats that. She continued, making little stacks. Then, when she ran out of loose quarters, she opened a roll of quarters- yup, thats right, the ten dollar roll of quarters- to finish counting out my money. When she was done, I thanked her and loaded up my pockets with the ten dollars worth of quarters and laughed as I walked of the store. I think I will stick to picking up my laundry quarters at the bank.

Vacation time!

2010-08-28T14:19:00.000-07:00

Every year, Aaron gets a couple weeks off work and we do a little playing. Week 1, we spent getting prepared and participating in my little sisters wedding. Congrats, Lisa and Brad! We are so excited for them- and that they are finally married. I remember how long and stressful it all seemed!

Week 2, we have spent at Aaron's parents house. It has been a super busy week. It was the family reunion weekend and we went white water rafting and played a lot! It was so fun to have all the family together, especially Josh and Whitney who came all the way from Oregon. Aaron spent the first two days of the week after the reunion helping his Dad cut and haul hay. He spent a lot of time in the swather. Todd really enjoyed riding in it with his Daddy. He would settle in, lean his head on Aaron's lap and watch it cut the hay. The next project was pouring concrete. Aaron spent the next couple of days preparing the ground and yesterday we poured. It was a super big job but it turned out terrific. Late last night, the boys worked on Aaron' sisters roof, and today the three of them pushed hard and got it roofed in two hours.

So after all that, we decided that we needed a little time to play. We went to the river in Heyburn and spent some time fishing and had lunch together. It was a lot of fun. The days activities are the only pictures I have. I have misplaced my camera and so I took Mom Heward's and took some fun pictures. Aaron and Dad were the only two to catch any fish - they were tiny and we released them back into the water. A few of my nephews caught a twig and some moss and Spencer was REALLY excited when Grandpa told him he caught a worm. I guess he didn't know that Grandpa put it there before it all began.

We have one more week of vacation. We plan on doing some more fun stuff. Plans are still in the making.

Millions and Bizillions

2010-07-27T16:45:00.000-07:00

We have been up to a lot in the last few weeks! I have taken tons of pictures, so here they are in no particular order... camping, and Rigby laking, and the St. Anthony rodeo and their pioneer day parade and we also had fun at Grandma and Grandpa Hewards house where we got to see our two newest nieces get blessed. It has been a fun summer... with many fun summer plans still in the making.

Let the count down begin!

2010-07-12T18:40:00.000-07:00

Well, it is finally here! Ten more days until I am officially done with school forever!! (Hopefully). I am so excited, I can't stand it. Finally, I got the bachelors degree! Aaron graduates in December and so I am waiting to walk with him. But it is really great to be done.

Yup, I forget that many of my friends don't see me in person hardly ever anymore. So, here's the update. Pregnant. Due October 23. We are doing the surprise thing. We call this baby H3 (we took the idea from you, Brooke- really liked your V3 baby. Congrats by the way!!!!) No guesses from us on the gender of the baby. The ultra sound tech did an excellent job of concealing it. We don't have any preferences- except that we can't agree on a girls name. If it's a boy, it will be Cole. So, any ideas on girls names?

So, there it is. Now the news is officially out.

Oh, hope you like the whole new layout. I was having lots of problems, so my sister and I changed it up. I'm still getting used to it.

Thoughts of complete randomness

2010-07-06T21:15:00.000-07:00

Oh, my dear sweet recliner- how did I ever live without you? You are old and ugly but so comfortable, I can't stand it. Thank you Aaron, for bringing the ugly thing home and sqeezing it into the kids room that is already bursting at the seams!

4th of July weekend was super crazy this year. Family came in from Ohio, biggest homework weekend of the semester, Aaron and his time consuming church calling that I am still getting used to, Todd's 4th birthday, and way too much driving for my poor pooped kids. Super fun! Glad it's over. I even spent Monday and Tuesday alone. I had too much homework and couldn't bring my self to play. Aaron took the kids and met up with some of his family in Twin for some fun. It was good to sleep in this morning, but I'll take Brooklyn's 6am wake up time to being alone any day. I am seriously in love with my family!

Maturnity jeans- the biggest love/hate relationship of my life. I had my new pair come in the mail today and though I am totally excited to be able to breath durring class again- or you know, have my pants done up (it's been about 3 weeks since I've used the button), I am sad to not fit into my old jeans. Strange, I am really excited to have them but I am dreading wearing them for the next 3 months. Blaa....

Today, I found out a guy in one of my classes died. A really good guy. He brought his wife and baby girl to class a couple weeks ago. I hurt for them so bad. Can't get it out of my head today.

Aaron, why do you laugh. Just because I finally graduate at the end of the month and I wrote "Last day of shool!" on the calander, doesn't mean anything. I can spell, just not when I wrote that!

Tiffany, come home! I know you love Colorado, but I love you more here!! The playground is so empty without you...so is my heart... just kidding, but we do miss you and Logan!

Lots of Heward Pictures!

2010-06-10T09:37:00.000-07:00

So, my sister stayed here last night and so I have access to a computer that allows me to up load pictures and so here are a lot of them in no particular order. So, this is what we've been up to.
So, I uploaded the wrong picture here. The carousel has opened at the park and yesterday we enjoyed going to the park and meeting some friends. I have a picutre of my kids but instead, here is one of our friends.

Brooklyn loves the horses. She wakes up in the night talking about the horses. It has been a lot of fun to have them open.

The free lunches at Porter Park started for the summer yesterday. It is a good reason to get the kids out to the park and then after lunch we play until Brooklyns nap time.

Aarons birthday was on June 8th. We celebrated it on Saturday with a few friends. It was a blast and we played alot!

We have spent a lot of time out at the ward garden (which is also our good friends house- which is nice. Their little girl and Todd are the same age and they are chummy buddies and play their gutts out when they are together. We have a lot of fun out there!)

And of course, the chickens. Todd and Brooklyn LOVE the chickens!

We got the ward garden planted. We are so grateful for all the people who came out to help us out (though, I have to admit, we didn't do a really great job of getting the word out)

And Memorial Day weekend we went spent time at Aarons parents house with all the family. It was a blast (like always). Sunday night, Aaron put put up his tent and he and Todd had a campout in the yard. The next morning, we had duch oven food for breakfast (Aaron's brother makes killer duch oven) and we played.

My kids are always in the mood for a good book. For some reason, I have a lot of picutes of Aaron and Brooklyn reading stories. I don't know why I don't have any of Todd, but he is usually right there fighting over the good spot of Mom or Dad's lap.

Hope you enjoyed the picture up date. We have really been enjoying the warmer weather (when it is warm) and having Aaron home more often now that his school is out - taking 1 class. We love summer and cant wait for the weather to really warm up so we can get some camping in and a lot more playing outside.

April showers bring May... showers?

2010-06-01T16:49:00.000-07:00

For Memorial Day, Aaron and I went to spend the long weekend with his family. Almost all of his siblings came home and we had a great time- like we always do. Aaron and his dad killed a rooster and we had roast rooster on Sunday. That was a first- the roast rooster, I mean. It was really good.

This weekend also brought back some memories and in light of my 5 year anniversary, I want to share one with you. Get ready for a good laugh....

The first time Aaron took me home to meet his family was about a month after we started dating. It was a big weekend- his dads birthday, and all of his siblings and their families came home for the event. Aaron's mom made roast and potatoes and I remember the red cool-aid that we drank vividly. This is why... I sat at the table between Aaron and Josh. There were so many of us that a few of his siblings were at a card table near by and Aaron's mom sat at the closest spot to the kitchen area so she could serve food and help grandchildren. I took a big bite of roast and started to choke. I couldn't breath so I took a big drink of cool-aid to try and push it down and had no luck. Aaron's mom noticed me and asked if I was okay and when I just stared at her she yelled at Aaron to help me. He turned to look at me just in time to see me throw up all on the kitchen table. Yup, it all came up. I was glad I could breath but mortified that I was now covered in my dinner, including the red cool-aid I just put in my mouth. We got it all cleaned up and we finished dinner with out any more exciting events. Aaron's brothers did call me chuck all night, though- what love!

Anyway, that memory makes me laugh. What a crazy, crazy thing to happen the first time you meet someones family. It has been a good five years- here's to another fifty!

Has it really??

2010-05-20T13:36:00.000-07:00

Today is our 5 year anniversary! Has it really been 5 years?! I think that I would be honest to say, they have been the best 5 years of m life! It really is great to be married to your best friend. He has been my greatest strength the last 5 years and I am so grateful for him.We took this picture in front of the Logan temple one month before we got married.

Lots of family fun...

2010-05-09T17:58:00.000-07:00

We have been enjoying the spring. This past weekend, we headed to Smithfield, UT to meet up with Aaron's family and to participate in the Health Days Festivities. Saturday morning at 7:30 am, we ran our second 5k with the family. Some of us walked most of the way, some of us ran. Aaron came in first of the family with a time of 26 min and 39 seconds. It was a lot of fun and Aaron and I ran into our second mission president- the new mayor of Smithfield, President Simmons. His family participated in the race and it was a lot of fun pointing him out to the kids in the parade.A few of our sisters brought the kids for the end of the race and it was a lot of fun having them not only cheer us on, but also joining in as we cheered all the others in.
Later that day, we went to the Health Days Parade. This was most of the kids awaiting the candy- and there was a lot of candy.
Life at home has been good. Todd and Brooklyn have been having a lot of fun together. It is fun to hear them laugh and they have LOVED having Dad home more often now that the regular school semester has ended for him.
Todd, who is prone to accidents, managed to fall off the slide behind our house and hit the concrete. He skinned his forehead and his nose.
On the days that the weather has been nice, we have been hard at work in the ward garden. I have mentioned that our house is full of plant starts- one of these days, we will be able to plan them. It snowed just the other day, so we are starting to wonder if the weather will ever get nice enough to plant the garden.

We spent a full day picking rocks- there were tons of rocks in the garden spot. We spent a whole ward activity picking rocks. It ended up being a blast- and we joked that the wise man built his house upon a fully ready, pre-planted garden.
As for me, today was the best mothers day I have ever had. We had such a good weekend- it is always a lot of fun to spend time with Aaron's family. Todd and Brooklyn have been so happy to spend time with the cousins and it was fun to play a few games with Aaron and his siblings. He got me some flowers with a little flower stuffed in it that sings- Todd was SO excited to show me this after they picked them out. It was such a fun mothers day and a great weekend.

Questions of deep thought...

2010-04-21T20:13:00.000-07:00

Do I have the only child who wakes up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom who then falls asleep on the bathroom floor?

Todd is our night time wanderer. We have tried many times to get him to stay in his own bed for the entire night. Usually, he wonders in my room and ends up sleeping on the floor next to my bed. Twice now, after wandering into my room, he has gotten up to use the bathroom. He takes his blanket with him and after doing his thing, he lays down on the rug- lights and fan still on- and sleeps for the rest of the night.

Whats the youngest age that a child has mastered getting in the fridge and breaking eggs?

Both of my children get into the fridge any chance they get. Brooklyn usually goes for the cheese- that's right. My cheese usually has little girl teeth marks in it. But, as of late, the new obsession is the eggs. Aaron's parents have chickens who lay eggs and my kids love collecting them. Last week, we had some friends here that left for the week and we took the kids out everyday to feed the chickens and collect the eggs, among other things. Now, their is a great obsession over eggs going on in my house. The kids like to hold them and put them in blankets and separate them by color and I just want them to stay in the fridge and not get broken.

Has anyone else ever lived in a two bedroom apartment with two energetic kids, a crazy fun husband, 75 garden plant starts and 11 eggs in an incubator in the living room?

That's right. We are a full house. And I guess we could even include that cat that wonders from apartment to apartment- he wandered into our house tonight but I quickly took care of that. A full house is what you get when you marry a farmer/dairyman who loves everything that's outdoors, have a couple kids with him that are exactly the same way and stuff them into a small apartment in a city that is freezing cold most of the year. We handle it well though. The kids have only pulled out a few plants- mostly tomato starts, and they LOVE looking in the incubator every day even though we are only in the first week and the eggs will do absolutely nothing for 21 days.

Is anyone elses life as crazy or wonderful as mine?

On another note- I started my last semester of school this week. I am due to graduate in July (hooray!) but after having to arrange and re arrange my schedule, I am left without one class I need to graduate and have been unsuccessful at getting any teachers to add me. So if there is anyone out there who is in a Math 108 class... can I have your spot?

What we've been up to...

2010-04-04T16:38:00.000-07:00

It has been a fun Easter weekend for us. We went to Grandma and Grandpa Heward's house (which is how I have access to uploading a few pictures on this blog). We have had a lot of fun with Aaron's brothers family who came home for the weekend, also.The big egg hunt was Saturday afternoon. Sunday morning, we hunted for the baskets. This was just after the baskets were found.

This was the way the kids decided to watch their movie. (Todd was being a seat hog).

It is always fun to get pictures of the kids helping out on the farm. This is the kids favorite- helping to collect the eggs.

Todd and Brooklyn are such a big help feeding the cows.

Aaron and his Dad are kicking the hay into the manger before they feed the new hay. Todd wanted to help but couldn't figure out how to get around the water.

Hope your Easter weekend was as fun as ours!

Babies everywhere!

2010-03-30T19:52:00.000-07:00

In the left column of my blog, there is a section titled, Sites I love. Under that section, there is a link to a company called Babycoverz. They are having a big sale this week and everyone should check it out. It is one of my friends sisters business in another state and her stuff is beautiful and high quality. Check out her sale!!

Loven' childhood

2010-03-25T10:37:00.000-07:00

This week has been a hilarious week for my crazy children. They are so adventurous and their minds have big imaginations.

Right now, at this very moment, they are catching imaginary horses and cows in our house. See, Todd got "hurt" -hit his leg with the "gate" (the rocking chair and the stroller laid sideways in the living room) and in the process of coming to us to get some hugs, the "cows and horses" got out. So, Brooklyn and Todd are running through the house catching them. The funny thing is that they are catching them like you would catch a grasshopper. They must be pretty tiny cows and horses.

Brooklyn has been pretty interested in the potty- to the point that she will take off her own diaper and go and sit on it. On Monday, she was telling me she was going potty and the next thing I knew, she began to whine and shriek. I ran in to see what was wrong and she had fallen in. Her feet, arms and head were the only thing sticking out of the potty. I have been glad that that has not discouraged this new interest in the potty. We have a potty seat for her, but this was the first time she ever attempted with out using it.

Tuesday Morning, Todd woke up early. Aaron gets up about 6:30 every morning so he has time to eat breakfast and get a little scripture study in before he heads to school. The kids usually sleep until about 8:00. This particular morning, Todd woke up early and spent the morning with Daddy. When Aaron left for school, he let me know that he put on a movie for Todd and got him a cup of milk so that I could stay in bed a while longer. When I woke up, Todd was sitting at the kitchen table playing with his beloved play dough. I walked into the living room to turn off the TV and there was a full gallon of ice cream sitting on the middle of the floor with a big spoon sticking out of the middle of it. Todd has gotten into the fridge before, but never into the freezer. Well, at least he enjoyed himself. :)

Wednesday evening, I was exhausted. It seems like 6pm is the time of day where I start to drag and lately, I have been really sleepy and have had a hard time doing anything during that time. This particular evening, I laid down on the couch and was out before I knew it. The kids had a movie on and everything was okay. After a while, I started to hear Brooklyn whine. I opened my eyes to see Todd sitting at the table playing with his play dough and I asked him if he could see Brooklyn. He said that she was in her crib. I continued to lay there a few minutes longer and then she got quiet. When I got up, she was asleep. Logan, the little neighbor boy loves to play with my kids. He and Brooklyn have figured out how to climb in the crib but she cannot climb out (thank goodness). This night, she had crawled in but couldn't climb out. She whined for a little while and fell asleep. It was pretty cute. She has never done that before.

I'm back!

2010-03-01T19:41:00.001-08:00

So, it has been a while! I stepped on the lap top screed and so it is down and will be down until we can come up with the $350.00 to fix it (ouch!). And so in the mean time... no pictures. The desk top does not have the parts for pictures.

Yesterday, my boys cut their hair. Aaron and Todd usually do this once a month. Aaron pulls out the clippers, Todd sits on the sink in the bathroom, they strip down to their underware and have a hair cutting party. Aaron cuts Todds first and then he gets in the bath while Aaron cuts his. It's routine. We have it down to an art- only yesterday, we had a cute little red headed girl that wanted to join in. Brooklyn stripped down to her diaper but would not have it until I helped her put on a pair of Todds underware over her diaper. We did not cut her hair (we've been trying to get it to grow!) but she did hang out with Todd on the counter and then she joined him in the tub when he was done. It was quite a sight.

Lipstick Face

2010-01-26T09:07:00.000-08:00

Today, Brooklyn got into my lip stick. I thought that she couldn't get it open, so I let her play with it. When I went back into the bedroom, I discovered that I was seriously wrong. Oops. (Sorry everything is underlined. We have a touch screen lap top and the kids touched something and I don't know how to change it.)

Once a

A little more Christmas

2010-01-11T12:02:00.000-08:00

Every Christmas, my Grandpa plays the harmonica for our family Christmas eve program. Brooklyn really enjoyed it this year.

Christmas Overload...

2009-12-30T22:18:00.000-08:00

So, the last couple of weeks have been very eventfull, as you will notice as the line of pictures in this entry never ends. Brooklyn enjoyed her bowl of crasins while admiring our really pathetic tree. Our tree this year had very few branches. It only had lights on the bottom half (we loaned our lights out but when we got them back, only one and a half stands worked- but we used them anyway) the ornaments were mostly on the top to keep them away from little hands and then our star. It was pretty sad but we got a good laugh out of it and will always remember our really pathetic tree.
Brooklyn admiring our yummy celebration sausage. This was the first day after classes ended and we celebrated with a great breakfast.
Todd giving me an onrey face. It is his favorite thing lately. He frowns for the camera then wants to look at it. What a silly!!
Me and the two cutest kids in the whole world.
The Christmas activities begin. This was our Meyer "Christmas eve party" We got together with all my family, had a big dinner and opened a few presents.
All kids love Grandpas train. It gets put out and the kids cant keep their hands off of it. Even Lisa, my baby sister. She looks like she is enjoying it as much as my kids. :)
Some of the gang at the party.
Brooklyn admiring my Grandpa's nativity. She kept trying to run off with the cow.
Second party time. This was our sisters Christmas get together. We got together and had dinner and opened presents to each other. This is Sarah and Todd chilling a Mickey Mouse Video.

This picture takes us to Christmas morning. We were at Grandma and Grandpa's Hewards house. It was a blast to be with family.
Check out Brooklyn's cowboy boots. They were the hit of the day. She wanted them on so bad but they wouldn't go over the footies on her pajamas. So we stripped her down to her diaper and she wore her boots and diaper to open her presents. I put a sweater on her because it was kind of cold.
This was Christmas eve. The Heward family always does the nativity for Grandma and Grandpa Cranes. This was either my niece or a pretty cute sheep.
Mary, Joseph and the Baby Jesus with a green binky.
Todd man, the wise man on a Grandpa camel. I love his wink.

It has been a wild holiday with lots of traveling but it has been a lot of fun. We hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday!!!

Hooray, hooray!!!

2009-12-16T19:22:00.001-08:00

Well, there it is. School is out for the semester and I am 12 credits down and 16 left until graduation! I almost didn't make it until the end. Bronchitis hit our house really hard the last week or so and I am on the end of it. But we have done it and i look forward to having my husband all to myself (and my kiddies) for the next couple weeks!!

Tender moments....

2009-12-12T17:08:00.000-08:00

So, you have to watch this with the volume on. I layed Brooklyn down for bed one night and went to get her a sippy of water and when I came back Todd was singing her a bed time song. It is too bad he busted me with the camera, but the video is still just as sweet!

Baby, it's cold outside!!!

2009-12-09T12:35:00.000-08:00

Well, winter is definitely here. This morning on my way to class, the radio said the high was 11 degrees and then in class one of the girls looked on her computer and it said the high was 4 degrees. What ever the high is, I am not sure. All I am sure of is that while I was walking from the Hinckley building to the Smith building today, I thought my ears were going to break off. It is that cold here!

I am sure you are wondering what we have been up to since it has been a while since I last posted. Thanksgiving was a blast. I spent the week with Aaron's parents and Aaron joined us on Wednesday when he was done with work for the week. Thanksgiving morning we had a Turkey run. I had planned to run a 5k in Paul on Thanksgiving with the neighbor but we decided that instead of traveling out to Paul and paying our money and then getting done just in time to go home and eat, that we would have our own run. So my family and her family got up and had a 7am jog/walk on Thanksgiving. There was a 3 mi and 1 mi course mapped out and we really enjoyed it (except for the 18 degree weather). We really enjoyed it and hopefully it will be a new Thanksgiving tradition.

School is almost out. We are done on Wednesday Dec. 16th (I think- I just know that it is next Wednesday.) School has kept us SUPER busy and I am excited to go back down to part time next semester. No more babysitter and finally, the opportunity to be a mom and wife again! I take the Idaho State Literacy 2 exam tonight and the Idaho State Literacy 3 Exam on Friday. Wish me luck.
Todd got into the college preschool starting in January. He knows that he starts school soon and asks for it every day. He really loved being in toddler lab last winter. The school programs are so high quality and it is really great that I don't have to worry about my children!
Brooklyn got into the college toddler lab starting in January. I don't know how I got so lucky, but the kids are both in school at the same time. They don't exactly line up- after all, the toddler lab is shorter than preschool, but it will be great to have 40 minutes of shopping time or reading time to myself a couple days a week.
Aaron and I are starting our second to the last semesters of school in January. We both graduate next December- I know, I know, 'bout time!!!! Aaron has been trying to work out his last internship for this upcoming summer. There isn't a whole lot of work and so we haven't received any offers yet.

Anyway, so that is what is happening. The last picture is of Brooklyn and her cousin, Becca. We don't get to see Becca's family very much and it was a ton of fun seeing them on Thanksgiving. I am really looking forward to seeing everyone on Christmas!!!

Wet doors and slippery floors...

2009-11-18T19:23:00.000-08:00

Well, here you have it. Todd baths, gets about two inches of water on the floor, Brooklyn plays in it. What else can I say. If you can't see the water, listen for it. You can hear it every time Brooklyn steps in it. Lucky me!! :)

Sunshine Day!

2009-11-09T19:14:00.001-08:00

Last Thursday was a beautiful November day... especially for Rexburg. It was the perfect day and to top it all off, that morning, I had finally taught my hour lesson for my social studies methods class and I was done. I got out of class and the weather was BEAUTIFUL!! I got home and decided that we just had to spend the day at the park. I got some great pictures of them enjoying themselves. We played until Aaron got out of class and then we went to our favorite ice cream place, G's Dairy Delights, and got ice cream. It was the best!Todd really wanted to ride in the swings, even though I told him he was too big. I let him anyway.

Brooklyn kept running away from me.

We got to the park and there was a little girl there with a big ball. She and Todd kicked the ball around for a long time and afterward Brooklyn played with it.

What a sweet face!

Todd was pretty hilarious!! He kept hiding from me. It was his little game to not get his picture taken and it was really hard for me to get some good pictures, but don't you worry, I got them!!

I waited at the bottom of the slide, carefully hiding and only jumping out when he got to the bottom- man and I sly or what??

It startled him pretty good but obviously, he thought it was hilarious that I finally got him. He played a mean game and it took me a while to finally get a decent shot of his face.

Then I gave up and held him down while a snapped picture after picture. He thought that was pretty funny. What a good day!

Todd man, the big boy!!

2009-11-06T20:02:00.000-08:00

A couple weeks ago, Aaron went through his old ties and cut them off so that they would fit Todd. Now he wears a big boy tie to church. Todd picks them out and then he and Daddy spend time practicing tying them. Man, I love my boys!!

Halloween fun

2009-11-02T16:30:00.000-08:00

Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays. In years past, Aaron and I have themed our costume but that is usually the most fun when we have a ward Halloween party. This year, we did not. We did have a ward trunk or treat, which was really fun and, lets face it, my kids looked so cute! The plan was to have two little cowboys next to us for Halloween. Aaron has always had to work on Halloween but not this year. His creativity really came out about 10 minutes before the trunk or treat. Brooklyn's costume was an infant costume we used last year. We cut the bottom out and made it into a dress.

We went trick or treating in Idaho Falls with my sisters family. Three of my other sisters joined us. It was really fun. It was especially fun to have Aaron with us.
Brooklyn didn't want anyone to hold her or take her bucket. She was a snowman on a mission!!
It's crazy how fast this year has come and gone. I can't believe that it is Thanksgiving time already.

On a different note, we are down to six weeks left of school!!!! Hooray. This semester has been a killer!! Twelve credits, two kids, a husband who is a full time student and works a part time job... lets just say I have a lot on my plate. I won't do twelve credits again. I registered today for next semester and right now I am registered for eight. One of them is a beginners tennis class, which I think will be a blast!! At the end of this semester I will be down to 21 credits and then my student teaching. It is strange to be able to see the end in sight. Aaron is even closer and it is quite exciting.

"Flour" Power!!

2009-10-27T14:35:00.001-07:00

Last night, my neighbor, Sarah and her little boy, Jace came over for a visit. Jace and Brooklyn are only a month apart in age and play together really well. Sarah and I were chatting in the living room and we could hear the babies laughing in the kitchen. When we went to inspect, this was what we found. They had found my five gallon bucket of flour and were having the time of their life playing in it.

2009-10-27T14:35:00.000-07:00

Weekend fun out in the sun...er... uh... freezing cold.

2009-10-25T13:14:00.000-07:00

We spent the weekend in Logan with Aaron's brother and sister. Every year the city puts on what they call a Pumpkin Walk. Sponsors from all over put a scene together using mostly pumpkins. Here are some of my favorites.

Thats right. All from pumpkins- look at the corn in the back. It is small pumpkins glues together to make an ear of corn.
Cabbage, radishes, onions, tomatoes... yup, all pumpkins made to look like a garden.

This one was funny. It was sheep for mattress company. The sheep were made out of pumpkins and sage brush. These were sleeping on a bed.Got too close to this one.
The M&Ms were the pumpkins.
We also made cookies. (And ate a lot of them). This is Todd and my Del Ray decorating theirs.
This was at the Pumpkin Walk. Aaron and I posed and my nephew wandered right in and posed next to us. We had a good laugh about it.
Aaron and Brooklyn. It was REALLY cold and we had to bundle everyone up.
Brooklyn and Del Ray. If the kids had a costume, they could dress up- we forgot ours.

Here are some funny pictures from the pumpkin walk. Oh, and a couple more from decorating cookies. Enjoy!

Let us eat pie

2009-10-21T13:33:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went home to visit Aaron's family. I love the dairy. I love the old fashion goodness that is always going on.

Laundry on the line is one of my favorite things. We were lucky- the weather has been yucky lately but it was the perfect day to hang out my two weeks worth of laundry I took home to wash.

There is always plenty of homemade bread around the house- oh, and don't forget the homemade jam... this was strawberry.

And we spent the weekend making pies. The first was homemade pumpkin pie- actually we used squash but it came out really good. Even better than pumpkin. First we baked the squash until soft. Then we peeled and mashed it.

A little cinnamin, nutmeng, some evaporated milk and a few other things...

Pour it in the crust...

bake...

and there you have it. Pure yumminess.

I made an apple pie on sunday for dinner. There are still alot of apples left from the apple trees and we have been trying to use them up. We invited the neighbors over for Sunday dinner. They brought an apple pie too. Jake always makes killer pies.

There's no place like Burley... there's no place like Burley... there's no place like Burley...

Down with the cold!!

2009-10-05T21:39:00.000-07:00

Winter is here- two straight days of snow. My kids have had a hard time with this SUDDEN change in weather and already act like staying in the house all day is not an option. Today we bundled them up and let them do their thing.My kids love books. Todd could look at books all day and Brooklyn is just starting to really enjoy them.

Devistation hit our home tonight. My beloved blender, let it rest in peace, died tonight. It had decided it had enough of Brooklyn tormenting it and took a leap out of the cupboard. I was REALLY sad. As you can tell, it is an old one. It still works like a gem. I got it from my roommate in 2000 who left mid semester to go home and get married. To Melinda I say, Thanks. We ran the crap out of it- actually, we love it so much that we are keeping the bottom piece and will be looking for a new pitcher thingy part. We love it that much.

Halloween PJs

2009-09-29T21:39:00.000-07:00

Walmart had their Halloween pajamas on sale and I thought it would be fun to buy a pair for my kiddies but they only had them left in Brooklyn's size. Good thing Todd didn't care that he didn't get any :) I LOVE Halloween and am really excited for the holiday!

Labor Day Catch Up

2009-09-18T14:47:00.000-07:00

I know that Labor Day has come and gone but I had some fun pictures.

Labor day was the last day of the Fair and every year we always pay an arm and a leg to go to the demolition derby. We love it. (Darren and Jess, we missed having you guys there with us this year!!!!)
We also did corn. There was a family in Aaron's sisters ward who had extra corn so we picked it and prepared it for freezing. I like this picture because you can see the cows. We filled the pick up and then we park it in front of the cows and when we husk it, we just throw it to the cows for eating. It works really well.

There it is. I think we got 87 bags. I am ready to be done canning- with school going, I feel like I have too much going on. Almost done, though. Hooray!

Bob the Builder Under Pants

2009-09-16T19:52:00.000-07:00

We hit the potty training hard today. I think Todd is slowly but surely getting it down. He hasn't gone in the potty yet, but has made it to my cedar chest and my living room carpet. When he tinkled on the carpet, he looked at me and said "Whats that?!" So that leads me to believe he is figuring it out.

Anyway, we went to K-mart today and he picked out his own underwear. He LOVES Bob the Builder and the set he picked has Bob right on the front. We focused tonight on keeping Bob dry. I would ask if Bob was wet and he and he would tell me yes or no. When he told me no, I asked him if I could ask Bob (that is when I would check to see if he was dry because sometimes he does not tell the truth). This has worked so well. Todd usually want's diapers and gets mad if he has on underwear but tonight he went to bed raving about how Bob goes tinkle in the potty. Way to go Bob!!

Cuties, cuteis and more cuties!

2009-09-09T16:10:00.000-07:00

So, this weekend we tried to get some family pictures. We discovered a while back that we really like the field by Aarons parents house. I love having a digital camera. It makes doing your own pictures so much easier. Some of them aren't that great, but we really love the way the family picture turned out. Enjoy...

Fun in the Sun

2009-08-27T18:47:00.000-07:00

Today was a beautiful day. We went to Rigby lake with some of our friends and had a blast. We had lunch and played in the water and in the end we made sand castles.
The kids enjoyed destroying our sand castles (some of them with a little help).
We had a contest- husbands against wives. This was the guys castle. They called it the man castle where they sacrificed women- I think they were just jealous because our sand castle was better. Just kidding, theirs really was better. (It was pretty funny.)
This is our friend Tiffany and and her little boy Logan. Todd really likes playing with Logan.
Look at how big Brooklyns diaper is. We had on a regular diaper and it filled with water. She had a huge bottom.
We are not ready for summer to end. We have about 2 weeks left until school starts so we are soaking up as much sun as possible.

Soup Head

2009-08-26T22:24:00.000-07:00

Ah, the wonderful taste of Tomato soup. It's so good that some people just want to rub it all over their face. They start off with a spoon and when that soup wont get into their mouths fast enough, they try their hand. But after a few tries they discover that isn't that great either so they just pick up their bowl and drink it.
Here's to Tomato Soup. Yum!

Sweet Relief

2009-08-24T21:15:00.000-07:00

A couple of months ago our computer crashed. We lost everything that was saved on it including all of our pictures. We lost all pictures of Brooklyn's birth and we were pretty bummed about it. Last night we were looking through random CDs and DVDs sitting around and not only did we find the recording of her ultrasound but we also found a disc full of pictures- including some from Brooklyn's birth. We are SO happy to have these and I will be printing the off shortly- don't want to risk losing them again. Here are a few of my favorites:

Aaron's parents were able to get to the hospital before the delivery. I had invited his mom in for it if she wanted to be there and I was really excited she made it. Just after Brooklyn was born, I looked around the room and Aaron's mom and my sister, Lisa were standing at the end of the room crying and hugging. Aaron is such a tender Dad. I love to watch him with our children. He always follows our babies around after they are born.
Our sweet girl.
Look, she had him wrapped around her finger even then.

So glad we still have these pictures.

Canning

2009-08-21T13:52:00.000-07:00

Canning season has started and I am really excited. I know, I am crazy but I really love canning. Here are some more pictures from canning the apricots.

Aaron and Dad picked most of the apricots. Mom and I stood below them and caught the apricots they dropped or dumped the rotten ones.Brooklyn helped out where she could. Mostly she dumped out the full buckets.
Dad got the latter and picked the really high apricots for us.
Oh, beautiful apricots. Getting ready for their cleaning.
I cleaned and pitted the apricots. I was also in charge of seperating the soft ones from the firm ones. Firm apricots went straight into the jars for canning and the soft ones got put aside for jam and fruit leather.

Jam, gloriess jam. Apricot and Rasberry Apricot. Just the beginning of jam time. Tomorrow I am doing strawberry freezer jam and our peaches come in in about two weeks.
And, yet again, the finished product. Canned apricots make great apricot cobbler, smoothies, fruit pops (blend and feeze), baby food and we like to eat them with dinner.

Heward Update!

2009-08-20T14:11:00.000-07:00

We have been home for a week now and being home has kept us busy. I didn't upload the pictures in the right order, but enjoy them anyway!

Last week was the Burley Fair. We went on Friday and we really enjoyed the hypnotist (above picture!) Aaron went up and was successfully hypnotized.

Saturday we went to the Burley rodeo. Aaron's family goes every year and we make it a point to try and get everyone there. It is always one of my favorite things we do.

Thursday we canned apricots. Aaron's parents tree did really great this year so we canned 21 quarts of apricots and we canned some apricot and rasberry apricot jam. It was fun to watch all the people in the trees picking the fruit.

We went white water rafting in Hagerman on Friday. We went to a calm area where we could take some of the younger kids (class 2-3 rapids). It was SO fun. I would like to go aging but maybe to another area where we could try out some bigger rapids.

Kyla and Andrew. Andrew was the youngest we took. He got pretty wet but took it well and I think we all had A LOT of fun!

We took this picture in the field next to Aaron's parents house. It was a wheat field and we thought it would be beautiful to try to take a family picture. I think it turned out pretty cool.

Another rafting picture. Aaron got the crummy job- he really helped out our guide but was stuck helping pump up the raft.

This was right after we got to Burley from California. Aaron and Todd went out to inspect the Dairy. We looked for chicken eggs and checked on the horse and the pigs and cows. It was really good to be home.

When we drove home, we literally put the kids in the car seat and packed the car around them. Poor kids!! They did really good though!

We really miss all the good people we met in Sacramento but we have decided that their is nothing better than being around family. Todd would be perfectly happy being at any of his Grandpa's houses and asks to go there everyday.

Times Up...

2009-08-12T07:50:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a big day. I spent the morning cleaning our apartment and packing our stuff- we are to leave today. I am really grateful for good people. I was offered so much help. I didn't really think I would need it but when our friend Coleen came over and helped me, I was surprised by how much we got done and I am so glad she came. The kids spent the morning at the sitters, playing with their kids.

Aarons work took us to dinner at five (the kids went to another sitter). We went to this restraunt called Ruth's Chris Steak House. The food was excellent but very expensive. My crab cakes alone were 30 dollars. It was a really fun experience to dress up for a dinner party.

Then we made the quick switcheroo- picked up the kids from one sitter and ran them to another sitter so we could go see Harry Potter. We went to the IMAX and the first couple scenes was in 3D which was pretty cool. I am a huge Harry Potter fan and of course the movie was excellent.

Todd wanted to sleep on the couch when we got home. Aaron and I collaborated and decided to let him. I was sure I would get up to swoop my sad child up in the night but he slept well and came into the room at 7:15 to ask for Micky Mouse and a glass of milk. He is growing too fast.

Today I am trying to finish the packing. I am surprised how much stuff we have picked up and am trying to decide what to leave behind. If it doesn't fit in the car, it cant go. When Aaron gets home, we will put the kids in their seats and pile the stuff in around them. Poor kids.

I am somewhat surprised at how sad I am to go. Saying goodbye to friends was REALLY hard. We had an exceptional ward here. The best I've ever had. There were SO MANY good people in our ward. We served as ward missionaries while here and it was such a fun calling. I have been thinking a lot about it and I feel so satisfied. This is the first time I've had a calling and when it is over, I feel completely satisfied. I put my whole heart into it and I am REALLY sad to be released. It has been a marvelous experience.
I realized today that we didn't take hardly any pictures of our friends. This is with our friend Manuel. Aaron and I had some EXCELLENT gospel discussions with him while here. We spent a lot of time with him, teaching the new member lessons. We will be coming back next summer to see him go through the temple.
This is Todd's friend Michael. We watched him a couple times a week while his mom worked. He is Todd's greatest buddy. He is always asking for Michael. It's hard to leave him- he has been one of Todd's best play mates and I have really enjoyed his mom. When she would pick him up, I would jabber her ear off and I found it really nice to have a chummy friend to talk to.

So there is it. We leave in 5 and a half hours. So strange. The feelings are so bitter/sweet. I am really excited to see family and Todd is really eager to see Grandpa Heward. We are only going to Twin Falls tonight. Aaron's brothers family lives there. It splits up the trip- 9 hours from here to Twin or 13 and a half to Rexburg. 9 is better.

Here we go....

Sleepy Britches

2009-08-08T17:10:00.000-07:00

My kids are so different. They both get super tired but they always hold out until they hit their car seat. They sleep until we get home but that is where their similarities end. As soon as the car turns off Brooklyn wakes up. Bright eyed and ready to go. Todd, on the other hand, will stay asleep forever. We can move him to his bed and he will stay asleep. I have even tried waking him up and having him walk only to see him walk a couple steps and then lay down on the concrete to finish his nap. Our apartment here in Sacramento has a speed bump in the parking lot that Todd loves. He has walked over to it and laid down on it to sleep. Most speed bumps mean: SLOW. That day, ours meant: CHILD SLEEPING-TAKE ALTERNATE ROUTE!

Crazy Kids!

My quiet evening

2009-08-05T20:17:00.000-07:00

Well, it is 8:15 and the kids are in bed. Aaron is still at work and I have a little time to blog. The missionaries have come, eaten and gone - Michael, the little boy I babysit is now home and I am alone... ahhh, how nice.

Well, it is 8:15 and the kids are in bed. Aaron is still at work and I have a little time to blog. The missionaries have come, eaten and gone - Michael, the little boy I babysit is now home and I am alone... ahhh, how nice.

Brooklyn is pretty sick today. Really clingy and whiney. This allergic reaction has taken it's toll on me and I am ready to be home with my own pediatrician, pharmacy and family to help me. I am tired of running from doctor to doctor and today I spent another hour and fourty five minutes at a pharmacy (down with Wallgreens!!) So Brooklyn's body looks better but her temper is sour and she cries at everything. We made breakfast for dinner for the missionaries and I spent the evening flipping pancakes, frying eggs and cutting potatoes with Brooklyn on my hip. Poor little thing.

Aaron is on a dead line this week. The house is to be done by Friday and the guys are putting in extra time make sure it is. Yesterday he worked from 7am to 9pm with 2 hours in the middle when he ran with me to one of the doctors office. Today, he came home for dinner and went back. I am so glad he is a good, honest man who works hard. He works really hard for me and the kids.

Sorry there are all these sad pictures of Brooklyn. My family is curious. The first one was yesterday morning. The second on was today. She is looking better and her stomach is almost completely cleared. All in all, were doing pretty good.

Holy cow!!

2009-08-04T15:16:00.000-07:00

Okay,
So I picked these two pictures of my babies in honor of the crazy day. We ran from doctor to doctor, from pharmacy to pharmacy trying to tackle Brooklyns alligeric reaction to the penicillin she took. We ran all day and finally had a chance to rest at 3:10. Brooklyn finally saw a specialist and now she has some good meds in her and hopefully will start getting better instead of worse.

So, I picked these two pictures. I am so in love with my babies. Having Brooklyn be so sick has been a little terrifying. Having a family is the greatest thing in the world to me. I am so glad that Aaron and the kids are healthy and happy and soon Brooklyn will be better and I am really grateful. I am also thankful that I can pray. I have been so afraid for Brooklyn the last couple days. She received a blessing last night. That was really good. I am glad the Holy Ghost comforts. That is what I needed.

HIVES!

2009-08-03T18:45:00.000-07:00

This morning the kids were both up early and we had to wait two and a half hours until the doctors office opend. The doctor thought it might be something contagious and wore a mask and gloves as he checked her out. He asked me lots of questions and then he knew exactly what it is. Brooklyn is allergic to ammoxicilin. She has hives. We were relieved. We a behind on her shots and knew she could have chicken pox or measles. He told me to stop giving it to her and give her tylenol for pain and fever. That was it.

The thing is, she is getting worse. These are pictures I took today of her. She is pretty cranky at times and cant seem to keep from scratching her tummy. I put a onsie on her and that has helped. Hopefully tomorrow she will feel better and I can quit worrying. (Notice her tummy and her ears are swelling. Weird. Her belly button is pulled shut like mine was when I was pregnant.)

Chicken Pocks or Hives??

2009-08-02T19:18:00.000-07:00

Any ideas?

Brooklyn has developed these weird bumps on her body. I noticed them this morning on her upper legs when I was changing her diaper but I thought they were a rash from her diaper. We came home from church and put her down for a nap and when she got up she was covered with them. Mostly on her arms, legs and tummy. We need someone smart. Do these look like chicken pox?

We are going to take her in to the Med 7 (like a community care) tomorrow morning. If they are chicken pox, I have to make some calls because I am sure they don't want her in the day care at the pool where I teach swimming lessons every day. An I am sure the little boy I baby sit probably shouldn't come over.

We were wondering if they might be hives. She is on amoxicilin for an ear infection but she has had it before with no side effects and she has been on it already for about 7 days.

So we are seeking outside help until we can take her in tomorrow. Does this look familiar to anyone?

13 Days and Counting

2009-08-02T16:16:00.000-07:00

We are down to 13 days until we pack our car and drive for the beautiful fields of Idaho. Aaron finds is silly that I am getting so eager to see our families. California has been a fun ride- the weather has been beautiful, the vegetation is amazing and Aarons job and our ward- some of the greatest experiences I have ever had. But their has also been a few downs. I really miss my family. Keeping a two year old in an apartment daily is really, really hard on him and the produce here is so expensive that I feel like I have to hand over my first born just to take home a dozen apples. I won't mention the "cheap" 7 dollar watermelons.

And so I admit, I am getting a little "trunky" (Sorry to all you non-ex missionaries. I don't know that you will understand that term.) I long for all sorts of things at home and the top two are being with my baby sister and watching Todd help Grandpa Heward collect the chicken eggs.

So in honor of the 12 and a half hour drive that is approaching, here is one of my favorite films of my babies playing. Its been good that California has been a great experience. It's been even better that my family has been happy here.

Sacramento Zoo

2009-07-31T12:01:00.000-07:00

We went to the Sacramento Zoo at the beginning of the Summer. It was one of our first weekend adventures after coming here in May. It was alot of fun. Check out the pink flamingos behind Todd.

We thought this was funny. Brooklyn is the mommy and Todd is the Baby. We got to see real kangaroos and it was really neat.
Brooklyn and Daddy looking at the birds.

Todd seemed to enjoy himself. We have tried to go on a mini adventure every Saturday that we have been here. We have been lucky that Aaron gets the weekends off- expecally in the construction business. The zoo was tons of fun.