The Heumann Experience

Neighborhood cooking Group

2011-12-01T09:05:00.000-08:00

I started up a neighborhood cooking group and I'm loving it! I've come across some great recipes. Just recently I became aware of the Food Storage Cooking Club and I think we may just have to start doing some of these things in our cooking group. In reading this I discovered that the writer at everydayfoodstorage.net also does a cooking group in her neighborhood. Great minds think alike I suppose. :) I'm looking forward to what theme she does next because my food storage could use some help and I'm sure I could get some of my cooking group buddies to join in the fun.

We are FOR SURE starting our garden this spring and if I win my bosch ;) or eventually save up enough cash to buy one then I'll be storing wheat for homemade bread. That will not only start adding to my food storage but with the help of www.everydayfoodstorage.net I'll know how to use it. Yay!

Tree Climbing July 2011

2011-11-16T08:37:00.000-08:00

One of Max and Elese's favorite things to do this summer was to climb the Mecham's tree. We just had to promise that we wouldn't sue if the fell out of it.

Every Day Food Storage

2011-11-08T12:33:00.000-08:00

So if you are at all interested in Food Storage then this website is a great resource. I have a hard time just stocking up on "the essentials" because I fear I won't ever use them and then they will expire and it's money down the drain. So I started doing efoods. It's simple just add water food storage. I love the granola! Anyway, I've also started a Que with Shelf Reliance to add to my food storage but I'm reluctant to buy much more than the smallest can. That's where Every Day Food Storage comes in. She comes up with great recipes using your "Every Day Food Storage". Currently she is doing a giveaway for a free Bosch Mixer and this is my official entry. This is Why I Want to Win:

I have had the strong desire to make my own bread recently but all I have is a hand mixer. I want a KitchenAid or ideally a Bosch but they are SO pricey. So I've been testing out recipes and mixing them by hand because my electrical mixer can't cut it. I hope to one day try the Every Day Food Storage recipe. What I've found in my experiments isn't just that I NEED a heavy duty mixer but that the bread doesn't make great toast. That's why I LOVE this post from Every Day Food Storage! I can tell by looking at the bread that it should make great toast. It's soft and moist just like the store bought stuff. We've all loved the bread that I've experimented with but I still end up buying bread from the store because my kids LOVE toast. I hope to win the Bosch Mixer so that I will have the tools I need to try out this and any other recipes best made with a heavy duty mixer. Also, I discovered this website before I knew she is married to a friend way back from Jr. High - that's pretty cool I think.

Monson Family Reunion July 22nd-24th

2011-11-08T12:31:00.000-08:00

Everyone had a shirt that said, "HooRAY life is TWEET". Not only did it epitomize my Grandpa Monson's life long attitude but it also included his name as well as my Grandma's nick-name (Ray and Tweet). Day one started with a visit to Uncle Kirks where he showed us all the secret compartments in a desk that my Great Grandfather Mons Akenson had built. Someone paid him $100 to make the desk. They never paid or collected their desk so it was handed down to my Grandpa and then to my uncle. This desk hold so many memories for me. My grandparents didn't have much in the way of toys but there was always a little pink rubber mouse hidden in one of the drawers that I would play with when I would visit. Plus, trying to find all the drawers kept all of us grand kids busy. While my Uncle showed all of us the desk I was shocked about some of the drawers I had never known existed. I believe we came up with a total of 48 drawers!

Then we were off to Lagoon! It was SO much fun to watch Max and Elese run around with their cousins. It brought back so many memories of me doing the same when I was their age. Max loved ALL the big kid rides and was just as brave as any grown up while Elese finally learned to love Bulgy the Whale (check this out to see what she thought of it the last time) and went on it over and over again with Violet who we learned that day is going to be a big sister. During lunch all the little ones randomly started climbing a tree. Max loved it!

The next day my family was in charge of lunch. We meet at an old ward building in the area that my mom lived in. The day before lagoon we prepared some sloppy joe's (minus the sauce) so that day I just threw it all in crockpots with the sauce and lunch was ready. There was more to it than that, I mean browning 30lbs of meat isn't my idea of a good time. We ate and talked about old memories, made bracelets, and the kids made and shot off some rockets. Before the lunch most everyone else went on a family tour. Because of food prep we weren't able to go until after. After lunch we did the cliff notes version. All of us got Wax lips and mustaches that my mom and her siblings loved as kids. My favorite part was showing the kids the underground tunnel that my mom had to go through to get to school when she was a little girl and that Uncle Kirk flooded as a practical joke when he was a kid.
Some of the others went to the 24th of July parade but we didn't go. It ended up being a really fun weekend, even though I got a little overly stressed about the food.

Jedi Samuel July 20th 2011

2011-11-08T12:29:00.000-08:00

Max got a small light saber in a happy meal one day and Sam loved holding onto it. It was the perfect size for a baby.

Max's First Plane Ride July 15th-17th 2011

2011-11-08T12:23:00.000-08:00

Steven had a really fun shoot lined up and Max got to go with him. They flew in a 4 passenger plane to a camp ground that you can only access by plane or horse back. Max was really looking forward to his first plane ride and talked about it constantly for weeks. Once they were there Steven obviously had to work but Kory Toone and some of the pilots stepped in and kept Max entertained.

Wheeler Farm July 8th 2011

2011-11-08T12:15:00.000-08:00

On July 8th Sam had his first trip to Wheeler Farm. He didn't car much about it but Max and Elese had fun (as always) and I even dug up some change to get them a treat. There was a cute little baby calf that we all enjoyed seeing and petting.

It's always a challenge to get Elese to look at the camera and this is the perfect example. On my 5th attempt she finally looked at me.

Summer Camp July 2011

2011-09-27T13:40:00.000-07:00

I signed Elese up for a ballet camp that had a Tangled theme and they also offered a non-ballet Harry Potter camp that they HAD to go to. They made craft owls, wands, pretzel wands, did the death eater dance, drew on lightening bolt scars and even got sorted by the sorting hat.

Boys will be Boys July 2nd, 2011

2011-09-27T13:37:00.000-07:00

Steven and Max spent the day playing in mud and they made mud sculptures out of their action figures.

A Day at Home June 24th, 2011

2011-09-27T13:32:00.000-07:00

Elese got a bike for Christmas and hasn't taken much time to ride it. She feels like she needs help and with a new baby that always wants to be held I didn't ever really have or take the time to help her...until this day. She got to the point that she could do it without help and Sam sat close by in his bouncy seat where he quickly discovered his thumb. I fear the thumb sucker so I took his thumb out and replaced it with his pacifier which he immediately spit out and replaced with his thumb. Fortunately, he seems to now prefer his pacifier because he gave himself one too many thumb hickeys.

11 years! June 23rd, 2011

2011-09-27T13:26:00.000-07:00

With a nursing baby we couldn't do anything too exciting for our anniversary but we still had a great day. Steven took the day off and we went to the temple and did a session and then went to feed Sam and then we went and got a couples massage....We met The massage therapist (Justin) at the Get Outdoors expo and I had a 5 minute massage from him and my back felt SO much better so I wanted to go back. The only problem is that he is trying to help my back (I see him 1-2 times a month to correct my back pain) so while Steven was having a nice relaxing massage I would cry out in pain...but that hour of pain gives me several days without constant pain so it's worth it. I'm sure we went to dinner or something too but I can't remember. I will ask Steven.

48 Hour Film Project June 19, 2011

2011-09-20T13:07:00.000-07:00

This year for the 48 hour film project they drew Horror and had no ideas so they went for a wild card and got Time Travel movie. We were able to get the Wendover air field as a location. Unfortunately I had a fever and flu like symptoms the entire weekend. Once my fever got a little lower I picked up Steven's niece Heidi (so she could watch Sam, and she's fun to have around) and we headed out to Wendover. I missed most of the major shooting but we did need to film one more thing that Evening at the Well's Fargo Building and they didn't have anyone to play the part so I did. So, after a couple hours of shooting in Wendover we drove downtown and shot until 2am and then headed home. Sam was a trooper and even got to be in the movie and Heidi took great care of him. Steven and crew edited on Sunday. Once again this was Father's Day weekend so the kids and I made a little movie with them saying why they loved their daddy and they brought him a gift from Primary. The next week was the awards night at the Gateway and we won for Best Cinematography and best Sound Design. I have one talented husband!

Check out the film! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXT7KqNF4OA

Bikes and Comics June 8, 2011

2011-09-20T13:00:00.001-07:00

Max needs a new bike and we wanted to motivate him to earn money for it by going to look at bikes. So far (and it's September 20th) he's earned $20 by helping out at home. It's taking him some time but he'll get there and once he gets half we will have a FHE on the parable of the bike and we will pay for the other half.
After getting ready for bed that night I walked out and this is what I saw, Steven, teaching Sam the ways of a Green Lantern and Superman.

Film Contest June 3rd, 2011

2011-09-20T12:54:00.000-07:00

Steven's work had a filming contest and they premiered the films at Jordan Commons. They wanted to make it a big deal so a local tux rental place let him use a tux. He stopped home to change afterward and I wanted a picture of him looking so nice....he wanted Elese and I in the photo...She was still in her PJ's and I had been cleaning the house and hadn't even brushed my hair yet that day.

Bike Ride May 31st, 2011

2011-09-20T12:34:00.000-07:00

Steven had a shoot and invited us along. Elese didn't want to come so she stayed at Grandma Hales and it's a good thing she did!!! I pushed Sam in the stroller while Max rode his bike. Things started out just fine but little did we know, it was a 10 mile bike ride! Obviously, because he was working, Steven had to keep on moving with Chad and Reagan to film so that left us moving at our own pace which wasn't too fast since I was with Max and pushing a stroller. After walking about 3 miles and an hour of having no signs that the AYL crew were anywhere near us I got a call...it was Chad. They were very far and were going to keep going so he wanted me walk back to the cars and drive over to meet them...the only problem was that I didn't have any keys, AND I'd never backed up a trailer. So they sent Reagans keys with a stranger that was jogging in my direction. Then we walked/rode another mile and got the keys. With keys in hand we walked back toward the car...4 more miles...if your counting it's for a total of 8 miles. Also, in case you forgot Sam was only about 7 weeks old and wanting to eat...not to mention I had just gotten the OK to start exercising again the week before and I kicked it off with an 8 mile walk. Fortunatly it sounds worse than it actually was. I only had to stop to feed Sam once and Max was a champ! He just rode and rode and didn't complain at all...especially after we got to some muddy areas, he thought that was so much fun to ride through the puddles. Once we had about a mile left I realized that I didn't have Sam's car seat base...what if Reagan's car didn't have the right kid of seat belts? It also started sprinkling with rain. Luckily I did have his car seat on the stroller. Max started getting a little frustrated at this point but he still did great. We also had a lot of snacks with us but we could have used another bottle of water. Sure enough when we got to the cars the work car was locked so the car seat base and locking clip (needed for different kinds of seat belts for optimal safety) were all locked in the car. I loaded the kids (Reagan had a booster seat in her car Max could use) and had Sam in as best I could without the locking clip. As I began to drive I had Max say a prayer that we would travel safely. Let me mention that Reagan's car is a Yukon, MUCH larger than my Impala and I'm driving it on the windy freeway between Kamas and Coalville AND I forgot the exit I was supposed to take and Chad wasn't answering his phone. As we approached the exit before the one I thought it was I saw them standing by the road filming. HOORAY!!! Reagen kept telling me what a trooper I was to drive a strangers car and do all that walking with a baby and 7 year old and she gave me some chocolate covered cinnamon bears she felt like she needed to save. There was NO way I was going to drive back with Sam's car seat not as safe as I would like, plus he was starving so we stayed by a small river where I fed Sam and watched as Steven and Max jumped around while I worried they would fall in and get washed away. There was a pipe that ran through the ground and Max loved walking through it. It wasn't the most enjoyable shoot we'd ever been on but I loved having some one-on-one time with Max (I know, Sam was there but he doesn't say much :) ) and felt blessed that we traveled safely and that Elese had stayed home with my mom.

Sam's 1st family vacation May 20th-22nd 2011

2011-09-13T09:08:00.000-07:00

Steven had a shoot in Marysvale, UT at Rocky Ridge Resort and it was a trip that we could tag along on. This was Sam's first long car drive and he did great, sleeping most the time. He was 6 weeks old. We stayed in a cabin with a loft and the kids loved sleeping in the loft but they kept hitting their head's on the ceiling. It was kind of funny because as the kids were falling asleep we would hear them say "OW!" every time they sat up in bed.
We knew we were going to be ATVing on this trip but we were unsure if Sam and I could go. I had planned to stay at the cabin with Sam and catch up on some sleep but when we woke up in the morning they had a HUGE 6 seater, seatbelted ATV so we could all ride and best of all, I got to drive. Because Steven had to keep getting out and filming I got to navigate through a narrow trail that had been over run with trees. Every so often we would stop while our guide would chop down a branch so we could get through. Fairly often one of us would get hit in the face or arm with a branch...the kids didn't love that part.

Once we got to our destination we had to stop and go for a hike to see a waterfall. I sat and fed Sam while the kids played and nearly plummeted to their deaths...not really, but I sure thought they were going to.
Once I finished feeding Sam I gave him to the cabin owners wife and went to find Max who had followed Steven down to the waterfall. When I found him he was all alone in a not so safe place and I wasn't happy...then Max told me that Steven had fallen and almost fell of a cliff. I wasn't happy and I was very stressed. Fortunately just then Bailey Toone was coming back up the mountain and she helped Max climb his way back up. It turned out that Steven slipped on the snow and slide several feet and finally stopped just about 1 foot from the ledge.
On the way down the mountain I was nervous about carrying Sam down the mountain while because of the slippery snow so Kory offered to carry him. It was very helpful but I have to admit that I was watching each and every one of Kory's steps to make sure that I could warn him if he was about to slip.

That night we headed in to downtown Marysvale and ate at the one and only restaurant, "The Garage" which was a pizza place. Sam had some crying issues while we were there but it wasn't too bad because we were the only ones their and the owners wife came by later and we found out she was pregnant with their 7th (I think) child, so they understood the crying baby.

Steven had been wanting to take us to "The Wedge" for quite some time so on the morning of the 22nd we took the long way home and stopped at The Wedge. Sam ate while I kept Elese safe and Steven and Max went on a little hike. Steven was very worried because Heidi and George were having a dinner at their house that day and we were running late.

School Choir May 4th 2011

2011-09-06T15:27:00.001-07:00

Max participated in the school choir this year. I was thrilled to learn that his school had a choir because I have so many fond memories of Canyon View chorus. Max even had a solo in their performance. After a few weeks he lost interest but we made him stick it out. He did a great job but isn't going to do it this year which is fine with me because Canyon View's Choir is way cooler anyway. I took some photos but they didn't turn out. This was Sam's first outing, other than church and Steven and I had to take turns taking him out because he kept crying.

Brotherly (and sisterly) Love May 2011

2011-09-06T15:15:00.000-07:00

Having a new baby at home has been so much fun. Max and Elese are excellent big siblings. From reading books, insisting on goodnight hugs & kisses to just having a good snuggle and helping out with bath time - these kids LOVE their baby brother. Things definitely get more exciting when babies start to smile. Sam smiled for the first time on May 18th. When I got out of the shower he was very happy to see me again and just started smiling like crazy.

Samuel's Baby Blessing and Grandma's 70th Birthday *May 1st, 2011

2011-09-06T13:05:00.001-07:00

This was SUCH a busy day and a busy week. I felt like such a mean mom. I was so busy trying to get things done. I had decided that we needed to through my mom a surprise birthday party and since we were blessing Sam on her birthday it was the perfect decoy. I just didn't really think through the fact that I would have a 4 week old baby and be planning a post blessing dinner AND a surprise birthday party. Not to mention hat I also took on the task of creating a photo book of my mom's life history. That never happened though because mid-project my computer crashed and I lost it all so all of my secretive trips to my mom's for photos and journals were for not. Plus Steven was out of town for work in the day's leading up to the blessing/birthday party. The day before my mom called to check on my and offered to come and hold Sam, I told her that I was fine (because I was in the middle of baking her cake) but in truth I was about ready to loose it. Anyway...I told my mom that I felt bad that we weren't doing anything great for her birthday but she did think that it was pretty great to have her Grandson blessed on her birthday and she even bore her testimony. Steven gave a very nice blessing and I even recorded it on my cell phone so I will have to type it out sometime. After the blessing we had everyone over for sloppy joes. It was a great choice because I just stuck it in the crock pot and once people arrived we were ready to go.

My niece and her husband along with my brother and his wife "had to leave early" so they ate and ran to my mom's to set up for the surprise and let the guests inside. Blake gave my mom a ride to the blessing and so he got to be in charge of making sure that she didn't get to her house too early or too late. At one point my mom said, "Well, I guess we should be going." and it was too early for her to leave so Blake chimed in and said, "I haven't even gotten to hold my name sake yet so we aren't going to leave yet!" Once they left Steven and I kicked out all of our other guests and headed over to my moms. It was a GREAT turn out and she was SO surprised. We had invited her cousins that she rarely see's and her Sister-in-Law and Brother-in-Law drove down from Idaho and her sister came up from Nevada. Unfortunately we missed the big reveal because we couldn't leave our own party before my mom. Everyone visited and ate cake and other desserts. We didn't stay too long because it had been a very long day. Steven drew a family cartoon picture for my mom and as always she loved it. It was a very fun and very busy day.

Easter April 24th, 2011

2011-08-30T12:44:00.001-07:00

This year Easter fell on Steven's birthday. The Easter bunny hid eggs at our house for the first time ever. He also (with some difficulty and some help from a little birdy) installed a basketball hoop. Steven and each of the kids got a basket ball in their baskets and I got some DoTerra oils I was in need of. We bought Max and Elese each some nice diggs for the day. Unfortunately it wasn't much of a birthday celebration for Steven because he had to leave town for a shoot early that evening.

Everything Harry Potter Dec 2010-June 2011

2011-08-30T12:34:00.000-07:00

In December Steven began reading the Harry Potter series to Max. They both really enjoyed it. Steven used different voices and accents to make it more interesting for Max. After they finished each book we would all watch the movies together for a family movie night. Once the movies started getting into the PG-13 range Elese would go to bed. We did give in and let Max see the 7th part 2 in the theaters and he loved it. The night they finished the final book they stayed up until 10pm. At 8pm Max came downstairs to see me and he was crying his eyes out. He was so upset because Harry Potter had just died. Steven kept giving me puppy dog eyes and together they convinced me to let Max stay up late to finish the book. Max was very relieved when Harry Potter came back to life. Elese even began having a love for all thing's Harry Potter and would occasionally ask, "Do I look like Hermione?" One Saturday this month Steven made the kids each their own wands and made himself one that looked like the Elder wand. Max and Elese have known for quite sometime what they are going to be for Halloween and I'm sure you can guess.

Fun at home with Sam April 2011

2011-08-30T12:28:00.001-07:00

Elese was turning into a fantastic big sister. One morning while I was showering and Sam sat close by in the bouncy seat I peaked out of the curtain to see Elese reading him a book. This was something that she continued to do throughout the first weeks of Sam's life.

While trying to figure out what to do with his arms Sam would often raise one up in the air. One day while Steven, Max, Sam and I were all laying together in our bed he raised his hand. I said, "Yes Sam, did you have a question." Then Steven responded in a baby voice and said, "Why am I drooling?" Max thought it was hysterical and laughed so hard he cried. His laughter was contagious and before long we were all crying.On April 18th Sam had his first bottle. He has yet to have anything other than breast milk thanks to the investment we made in a good breast pump.

Sam's photo shoot April 9th, 2011

2011-08-30T12:18:00.001-07:00

My friend Amy Smith was in town the weekend after Sam was born and offered to come over and take some photos of him. She did a great job! I love having artistic photo's of my boy!

My favorite picture of him is the one just below with him crying. That is really what he looked like most of the time.

The birth of my little Sam Bam April 5th, 2011

2011-08-28T09:34:00.000-07:00

This morning Sam was having a hard time falling asleep for his morning nap so I laid down with him in my bed. He kept hitting me in the face and talking to his pacifier so I decided that he needed a little play time so I ate his face. Not really, I just nibbled on it a little and he thought it was pretty darn funny. For about 20 minutes we just laid together and giggled together. I love this boy!!! So, I decided since it's Sunday morning and I have some down time it's about time that I blog about his birth. Then the phone rang and it was someone from the young women's in my ward asking me to to come and talk to the girls about how it feels to be raising a Child of God so what better time than now to review a little bit about my precious gift from God while he sleeps soundly in the bed next to me.

Sam was following in his brother's foot steps by taking his time to be born. I really didn't want to be induced but we needed to decide how long I wanted to go past my due date. I didn't want to do the 8 day's late thing again like I did with Max so we took my due date and the day closest to it that my Dr. was on call. So the date was set, April 5th, 2011. Because we would be leaving for the hospital early in the morning we had Max and Elese say their goodbyes/see you laters before they went to bed.

At 6:50am Grandma Hale came to be with Max and Elese and Daddy and I arrived at the hospital at 7:15am. When we arrived a boy I had gone to elementry school with was checking in with his wife just before us so that was kind of cool. I was at a 4 and 70% effaced. My pitocin started around 9:30am to help strengthen my already happening contractions. Uncle Eric came by for a quick visit while he was on a break from work (he works at Saint Marks hospital, where we were delivering). Throughout the morning we watched some TV and they would up and lower my pitocin off and on because my contractions were kind of all over the place but fortunately, not too painful. They had asked us to be part of a medical study so they put an internal monitor on Sam's head to see what kind of calls the doctor would make with or without the more detailed information (we were in the blind study so she couldn't use the data to help her make decisions). Around noon I got my epidural. I thought about not getting it because I really wasn't feeling any pain even though my contractions were getting stronger but I decided not to try and be a hero. While administering my epidural the anesthesiologist kept saying that my back felt weird and it took quite some time to get it done. At one point my left leg involuntarily jerked all over the place. Steven kept me from focusing on the epidural by talking to me about things at the office. Just after the epidural Dr. Kinghorn came in and broke my water. After that the nurse was trying to find Sam's heart beat and she couldn't. Then my blood presure cuff went off and it was WAY low. The nurse looked paniced and nurses and Dr. Kinghorn came running in, put the ekg for the study on Sam's head and started giving me IV's. All the while Steven was watching TV's and glancing over wondering what the heck was going on but because there were so many people in there he couldn't get anywhere near me to find out what was up. Sam's heart rate gradually got back to normal along with my blood pressure but it took about an hour for all that to happen. During all that I also threw up. Once things settled down Steven ran to get himself some lunch. At 3pm my nurse checked me before going home and I was at a 5 and still just 70%. It looked like it was going to be a while so we called around to make arrangements for the kid's and let the Grandmas know that it would still be several more hours. The new nurse was a woman named Hafsa, she was from Somalia and I LOVED her!. She was the one that told us it would be a while so not to worry about calling the Grandmas yet. At 4:15 (not long after Steven had hung up on the phone with his mom telling her not to come for a while) I heard someone running in the hallway. Hafsa came bursting in and said, "I need to check you!" As she was checking me she said, "You're and 8...wait, not, a 9...wait, Oh my! You're complete!!! I'm SO sorry, your mom and mother-in-law won't make it! I'm so sorry! So sorry. I feel SO bad!" Steven called everyone and found Elese and Max a place to play so Grandma Hale could come to the hospital. I started pushing at 4:20 adn Sam was born at 4:37. The cord was around his neck which was likely the reason for his lost heart rate. Sam was a crier! Max and Elese had been very calm and content when they were born but not this little guy. He screamed and screamed and continued to scream and cry for the better part of his first 2 months of his life. I got to just hold him for about 10 minutes which was really nice and then e was weighed and measured and just then Grandma Hale and Grandma Heumann got there. Grandma Heumann has only missed one other Grandchild's birth and that was Jacks and he was also born on April 5th.

Sam kept making these grunting noises and Hafsa was very concerned about it but the pediatric nurse wasn't concerned. Hafsa kept telling me to not let it go and if Sam kept grunting then I needed to make them check him out. I called the kids to tell them Sam was here and when I told Elese he had been born she said, "I know. Sophia is playing with a castle." and then handed the phone to Max. Max was much more excited and let out a big cheer. Sam had a fever of 100.7, my blood pressure went up and I had several blood clots so we stayed in L&D for a couple hours and Steven headed to pick up Max and Elese. The kid's had been playing at the Perry's and Nicole picked them up and took them to dinner at Arctic Circle after she got off of work. I nursed Sam because he clearly wanted me to and it would help with my clotting and then the nursery took Sam in for his bath and some blood tests to figure out why he had a fever. Once Max and Elese arrived they told me all about their bunnies they got at Arctic Circle, Elese named her bunny "Gas Bum". The nursery brought Sam in and Max and Elese acted pretty shy around him. Elese said she was happy/sad about the new baby. Sam continued to grunt and his nurse just kept saying that she thinks he's just a grumpy baby. I couldn't deny that theory considering that he cried so much more than my other kids. Steven and the kid's escorted me up to my room once my clotting got under control around 8:15pm.

At 3am a new nurse brought Sam into me and told me that SHE was concerned about his grunting and he kept spitting up. She pumped his stomach and said there was a lot of gunk in there. SO glad that she paid attention and it made me appreciate Hafsa and her concern for my sweet baby. After that the grunting stopped. My blood pressure continued to be out of wack while I was at the hospital and I was getting stressed and feeling a bit overwhelmed. I had brought my diffuser so I diffused some Lavender oil and it REALLY helped me, and Sam to be calm. Later that day Uncle Eric came by to visit and they brought in the birth certificate to have me approve. Eric looked at it and said he needed to make some changes to it because I thought his name shouldn't be Samuel Blake (my brother's name) Heumann because he thought it should be Samuel Eric Heumann.

Sam had jaundice and had to keep getting tests. Steven was sad that he couldn't just come and sit with Sam because Max and Else were always with him so the last day in the hospital (we stayed until the 7th because of my blood pressure and Sam's Jaundice) Grandma Hale watched the big kids so Steven could just come and hold Sam. After Max got out of school Steven and the kid's came to pick us up but we had to wait for a blood test so we didn't leave until 4:30.

Steven ran to get my medicine for me and when he left the kid's were in the bath and it took a really long time for him to get my med's so I had kid's yelling to get out the bath, the phone was ringing, dinner was in the oven and the timer beeped before Steven got home and Sam was nursing...I'd been home just over an hour and I already wanted to go back to the hospital to get waited on. Once again, I diffused some Lavender and felt better. The next morning we had to take Sam in for another blood test for his Jaundice and then we had to go again on Sunday for another test but then his Jaundice was fine...HOORAY! I got tired of going back and forth the the hospital. So, that is the story of Samuel Blake (yep, Eric didn't get his hands on the Birth Certificate) Heumann.

Preparing for the new addition March 2011

2011-06-21T12:36:00.000-07:00

Man was I HUGE!

We made matching shirts to wear at the hospital for when the baby was born.

Sam wanted to follow in his brothers foot steps. When I only had about a month left I was dialated to nothing and about 20% effaced and my doctor said, "Looks like this baby isn't coming until his due date." Less than a week later I was at a 2 and 50% and another week later I was at a 3 and 70% so she started to doubt her original thought. I even told Steven he had to miss out on an opportunity to go to a comic book convention in Chicago just incase the baby came...he didn't come. For the last 2 weeks nothing changed. Finally, the last week of March my doctor said, "I know you don't want to be induced but since it's getting closer and nothing is happening we need to discuss it. When is the earliest you are willing to be induced?" My response, "My due date!" Max was 8 days late and I wasn't going to do that again. So, the date had been set for April 5th, the day after by due date because my doctor was on call.

My Silly Girl February & March 2011

2011-06-21T12:28:00.000-07:00

Elese is ALL girl! I love spending time with her and really tried to enjoy my last few months with just her during her last year without going go school and before Sam was born.
Here she is "eating soup" out of her barbie toilet.

Elese loves to write but all she can write are E's and circles/O's. On March 31st, I fell asleep on the couch to awake to a very happy Elese who had written a book!...well she wrote a bunch of E's and O's in her coloring book. She asked me to read her the book but because I didn't know what it said she would tell me and then I would have to repeat it to her. This is what she "wrote": "And behold, I tell you these things, I believe Strawberry found a cookie."

Near the end of last year I really got into essential oils and now my kids know that if they are sick I give them oils or they ask for oils when they don't feel well. We use Lavender a lot for anything from Car sickness to crabby kids. One day I over heard the kids playing and Max said, "And then I chopped off your head" and Elese said, "But I didn't die because I had lavender on." She cracks me up! I'm so bummed about loosing so much on our computer because I had a big list of cute things she's said and that's all I can remember. :(

Max's Birthday Feb. 19 2011

2011-06-09T15:54:00.000-07:00

That morning Steven made Max's favorite breakfast, Waffles and Max opened his gift. Maple Syrup and a new watch. He was so happy about the Maple Syrup! :)

Steven had some free passes to the Solomon Center that we'd been talking about using for a while and Max's birthday was the perfect opportunity. We started off at Fat Cats which was WAY over priced and way too crowded but we gave the kids some coins that they went through very quickly. Then we were off to Ifly. Both the kids were excited but Elese was a little reluctant however she eventually decided that she was up for it. After their little training session they put on their gear and watched the group before us. After their first flights both of them wanted out and were crying! Elese came out but Max just wanted a mask because he didn't like the wind in his face...so he got to go 2 more times because someone needed to do Elese's second jump for her. Elese kept cheering for Max and said, "I was really good at indoor skydiving but I never want to do it again!" The instructor pointed up with his thumb asking Max if he wanted to go up high, Max nodded thinking he meant "are you ok" and initially freaked out as he went up about 30 feet but then he LOVEd it. Steven and I were both so proud of them for doing something that was out of their comfort zone. Max said it was just as scary as it was fun.
After that we went to get some dinner at the pizza factory and finished up at Irock (the rock wall). We had to bribe the kids with treats to climb high and it worked with Max but Elese didn't even care about getting her prize, she just wanted to climb up a little bit and then jump off and say "Weee!!!" This was a really fun day but I'm so sad that my memory isn't better about it. Because I was so far behind on blogging I made notes about all the details and cute things the kids said but our computer crashed in April and I lost them all! Bummer.

The story of Elese's hair Feb-March 2011

2011-06-09T15:27:00.000-07:00

Elese had been asking to get her hair cut at Cookie Cutters so I took her in for a trim on February 10th followed by a treat at Red Mango. The nice lady even put her hair in an up-do. One day, the beginning of March Elese came in to see me after my shower and she had hair all over her PJ's. I asked her if she cut her hair and she said no. Then I reminded her how important it is to be honest and then she told the truth. It wasn't until she guided me to the pile of cut hair she had hidden under her bed that I realized how bad it was. We love her long hair and I hoped we wouldn't have to chop it all off but unfortunately that wasn't the case.

Science Project 2/5/11

2011-06-09T15:10:00.000-07:00

Max wanted to participate in the school science fair and wanted to see what color eggs would become if they mixed them in different color dye. I put Steven in charge of this little adventure and they had a fun time!
Max won a participation trophy and our family went to the fair in the evening to see the other projects and eat cookies.

New Years Eve Dec. 31st, 2010

2011-03-17T18:27:00.000-07:00

I don't have any photos of this but we had the nerd herd over. We had lots of yummy food and played games together. We plan to do it every year. Cliff and Amy were the only ones who couldn't make it. The kids were booted off to the basement while the rest of us stayed upstairs. Everyone stayed until about 2am and we didn't get our kids in bed until then. They were VERY tired. It was a really fun night. It's always fun to get together.

Christmas Day 2010 Dec. 25th, 2010

2011-03-17T18:08:00.002-07:00

The kids woke us up just after 6am and the festivities began. Santa brought Elese a bike and Max night vision goggles. He also surprised Steven with some much desired action figures in his stocking. I was so excited (not surprised though) for my diffuser. I loved and I still love it. When I went shopping this year I bought WAY too much for the kids. I had forgotten that we were going to save a couple of Max's gifts for his birthday so he ended up having like 3 more things to open than Elese. She didn't seem to notice but it was several days before he had taken everything out of it's packaging to play with. They spent the morning playing with their toys and Steven was helping Elese ride her new bike because there wasn't any snow on the drive way.

Then it was on to brunch at the Heumanns.

Next we headed to my mom's for lunch and gifts. Evan and Crystal were in town so it was fun to spend some time with them and the girls. We decided to open gifts before eating because they had to head out to Crystals parents. Unfortunately Steven had already cooked his wontons so they weren't as good as usual. My mom was able to get all of us a signed copy of President Monson's biography. It was funny because Tim, Steven's brother, was talking all about the same book and that he had gotten it that morning and was loving reading it. Steven had some fun rubbing it in that we had a signed copy.

Then we went to see Tron with Steven's family (left the kids with Grandma Heumann) and then swapped out babysitters and all the grown ups when to see True Grit. After that it was time for Christmas dinner at the Heumann's. That's not something we generally do but with David and Stephanie in town we wanted to spend as much time together as we could. Then it was back home for bed. I felt bad that the kids didn't have much time at home with their toys but they did have a great day with their cousins.

Christmas Eve 2010 Dec. 24, 2010

2011-03-17T17:55:00.000-07:00

I'm really wishing I'd blogged about this stuff sooner. I've forgotten so much. We made cookies for Santa, took some pictures of my big belly, and headed over to the Heumann's for our annual Christmas Eve dinner. After dinner we opened gifts. Steven had been spending lots of time working on a documentary for his family. It was about an hour and a half long and everyone loved it. We laughed, we cried...it was put together really well. I have a very talented husband!

After that we headed home for our own family traditions. We each opened a pair of jammies, read the Christmas story from the bible and then read 'Twas the Night before Christmas. After a little convincing, the kids decided it would be fun to sleep in the same room together so we pulled Max's mattress in on the floor in Elese's room. Elese got a new bed for her birthday so we could have the crib/toddler bed for the baby, you can kind of see it in the pictures.

Elese is 4 (well, has been for a while) *Dec. 21st, 2011

2011-03-15T17:33:00.000-07:00

We didn't do a friend party this year because she doesn't have a lot of friends her age in the neighborhood...but mostly...I didn't feel up for it.

The day started out with some art work with Max and then we met daddy, Grandma Hale, Evan, Crystal, and their girls for lunch at Cancun Cafe (the rice and beans place). It wasn't a surprise that Elese didn't eat much because all she could focus on was her gift she wanted to open. Once we finished lunch we went back to Grandma Hale's to play with her cousins. She loved having Brooklyn play dress up with her.

The next day we had a birthday celebration at the Heumanns and once again Elese loved opening her gifts. Uncle David, Aunt Stephanie and Tyler were in town for Christmas so it made her birthday celebration extra special. Because I was asked to make the cake it was a wonderwoman cake, fortunately Mark and Jordan didn't mind having a girly cake.

A few things about Elese at the age of 4
*Loves playing with Max
*Is starting to get a little jealous when Max get's daddy's attention
*she is sex specific when it comes to her play mates-she prefers playing girly games with girls
*She struggles with major mood swings...can't wait for her to be a teenager...EKKK!!!
*She says the cutest things which fill up my facebook status' quite quickly
*She is so excited to be a big sister
*She loves to talk about girl stuff with mommy like princes and princesses and lipstick and make up

Funny things she has said this year.

11/21/2010 after feeding the missionary's dinner and while sitting on the couch visiting Elese came running out of the bathroom yelling, "Mommy, I pooped and it was A LOT of poop!"

11/27/2010 @ Riveras Elese: "Mommy I want to go home." Me: "Why, what's wrong?" Elese: "It's not like I broke anything." Me: "Then what happened?" Elese: "I broke something."

12/8/2010 While driving home from the library and singing along with Christmas songs Elese said, "Mom, you need to sing louder so I can hear your beautiful voice." It made my day. :)

12/16/2010 Max: "I want to be a paleontologist when I grow up because I'm smart and Paleontologists are smart." Elese (near tears): "I'm smart too but I don't want to be a a paleontologist!"

12/20/2010 After Max told about a boy in his class who always has to change his card at school for picking his nose Elese said, "Mommy, I'm not going to pick my nose anymore. Picking my nose makes me happy."

12/22/2010 Elese got an Ariel baby from Grandma Heumann for her birthday. Steven: "Elese do you think Sam is going to look like your new Ariel baby?" Max: "No, Sam is a boy!" Elese: No! Sam isn't a sea creature"

Christmas Shoot in a Yurt Dec. 17-18 2010

2011-03-09T13:37:00.000-08:00

This year for the Christmas shoot we spent the night up at East Canyon in a Yurt. They kids got to celebrate a mock Christmas for the camera. In the evening we had dinner in the Booth's Yurt and even baked cookies to leave out for Santa. Elese Loved following around the Booth girls and visiting with Maggie. When we got back to our Yurt Steven told the kids the story of a Christmas Carol. There were three Yurts by us full of a bunch of boy scouts and BOY were they LOUD! It was tough to sleep. Plus we would hear coyotes howling at the moon...that was pretty cool though.

Elese woke up pretty early to use the bathroom and we had to go trudging through the snow. After that she wouldn't go back to sleep. At one point she said, "Mom, Max's shadow looks like a dinosaur!" Me: "Maybe he turned into a dinosaur while we were sleeping!" Elese: "No, I think he just said 'please let me shadow look like a dinosaur." Just moments later I heard Elese whisper "Please oh, please let my shadow look like a princess!" then she sat up really fast to look at her shadow and see if her wish had come true. After everyone was awake we returned to the Booth Yurt where the kids found their mock Santa gifts (they knew Santa hadn't really come and that it was pretend for the camera). Max got a Mega Block set that Andrew (steven's co-worker) had gotten as a white elephant gift and wanted to give it to Max. Elese got a new Sleeping beauty doll because the one she already had lost her head.

Santa comes for a visit Dec. 13, 2010

2011-03-09T13:32:00.001-08:00

Santa found us at our new home this year. Max was convinced that he came because Max had sent him a letter again. Once again, Santa brought Max's letter that he had mailed him. This year we invited our neighbors to join in the fun. Max asked for a Batman Beyond toy with a jet pack, Elese asked for a movie because that's what she saw in Santa's bag and I asked for the dishes to be done. Santa passed my request onto Steven to do.

New Years Eve Shoot Dec. 10-12, 2010

2011-02-21T12:41:00.000-08:00

This year we visited the Triangle C Ranch for AYL's New Years Episode. We headed up Friday night and the roads were SUPER icy. Steven got us there safely much later than we had anticipated because of the road conditions. First we were going to stay upstairs in a one bedroom with a bath and a sink in it but no toilet...because of my need to get up several times in the night we worked it out so we could move downstairs. Steven and I had our own room and the kids slept on sofa bed in the living room and we had our own bathroom. The Woods, Booths, Andrew and Darin stayed up most of the night drinking and visiting...every now and then we would hear a big laugh from upstairs. Max woke us up in the morning complaining that Elese had wet the bed. As it turned out it was really him that had wet the bed. We hadn't quite figured out the furnace so it was pretty cold and I'm pretty sure his body was just trying to keep itself warm. They provided a yummy breakfast at the lodge and we hung out their while Steven filmed. Later that day we ate a YUMMY lunch and then did some sledding for the shoot. Steven and Elese biffed it once but she got right back on. With the help of Kory and Darin the kids got to tube and sled while Steven filmed and I watched. That night we had a yummy dinner and had a better nights sleep than the night before.

The next morning there was breakfast again and the kids got acquainted with some sled dogs and met the animals that they keep at the ranch while Steven finished up filming. The kids loved feeding the horse named Spiderman and had fun watching the lamb follow around a cow and try to moo. Kory took the kids for a quick snow mobile ride and they made some snow angels in the very deep snow. On the way home we (our family and Andrew) stopped at the Little America for linner and then made it the rest of the way home.

Our Very first REAL Christmas Tree Nov. 29, 2010

2011-02-21T12:35:00.000-08:00

I've never had a real Christmas Tree so we decided that our first Christmas in our first house would be a great time to start the tradition. There is a Christmas tree lot very close to us and they even have Reindeer there for the kids. It was VERY cold that night so once we picked our tree the kids and I sat in the car while Steven paid and helped the sales men get it tied to the roof of the car.

Our Homes first snowman Nov. 26, 2010

2011-02-21T12:33:00.000-08:00

Now that we don't live on the benches the snow isn't quite as fit for snowman building but with Daddy's help this is what they came up with.

Thanksgiving Nov. 25th 2010

2011-02-21T12:28:00.000-08:00

We usually head out to Logandale when we have Thanksgiving with the Hale side but this year we invited Logandale to us. Blake offered up his house and we divided out the food assignments. I didn't take any pictures though. All the Hardy's except Bryce and Becky made the drive. After dinner everyone but the Barlow's went to see Tangled at Jordan Commons and then they came by to get a tour of our house. Elese LOVED the movie and has devloped a little crush on Flynn Rider which is fine with me because I have a crush on the guy that did his voice. :)

AYL Thanksgiving shoot Nov. 13, 2010

2011-02-21T12:18:00.000-08:00

This years shoot was at the Little Sahara. We did some visiting and the kids did a little bit of ATVing, climbing and made some snow angels. Fortunately there were a few RV's there that we could escape to to keep warm. Also, the food was yummy! Corby just made stove top stuffing but she added roasted pine nuts, chicken broth, cranberries, and sausage to the mix and it was the BEST stuffing I have ever had. Unfortunately Elese ruined her brand new coat by leaning up against a fire pit.

It's a ..... Nov. 10, 2010

2011-02-21T12:05:00.000-08:00

...BOY. I know...considering I'm due in 6 weeks most people already know this. We took the kids with us to the ultra sound and they were a bit wiggly while waiting to find out if they were getting a new brother or sister. It didn't help that Sam (Samuel Blake) wouldn't cooperate when it came to trying to find out his sex. I really wanted to know because we needed to figure out which of the kids bedrooms "it" would reside in. The ultrasound tech seemed even more determined to find out and she kept having me roll over from side to side and she would even poke at my belly and shake it to try and get him to move. Finally we got the money shot. I wish I remembered exactly what Elese had said during the Ultrasound but it had something to do with the color of the babies clothing would tell us if it was a boy or a girl.

When we left the hospital Max called Grandma Heumann to tell her the news and Elese called Grandma Hale. Afterward Steven had a shoot at Jump 'N Bounce so we ended the day playing on bounce houses and then stopping for dinner at the Olive Garden on the way home.

Max's 1st grade Halloween party Oct 28th, 2010

2011-02-21T11:56:00.000-08:00

This was my first opportunity to volunteer at Max's new school. First my mom, Elese and I went to the Parade which is held outside and they walked up and down main street. It was a little bit chili. Then the plan, which had been explained to my mom SEVERAL times and even just seconds before she left, was for her to take Elese back to MY house while I helped with the party. When I returned home no one was there and she had gone to her house. My mom has always been forgetful but it seems to have gotten much worse over the last year or two. After driving to her house and barely making it back in time to pick Max up from school I made some calls to my brothers telling them about my concerns and to my niece that now lives with her to keep a close eye on her. She's seems to be doing better but that week she had been extra forgetful.

During the party I was in charge of the BINGO game that we called GHOST. It was fun to see Max interacting with the other kids in his class. I was happy to see that he is the same crazy, super hero obsessed kid at school that he is at school.

Heumann Family Halloween Party Oct. 23, 2010

2011-01-05T12:41:00.000-08:00

This year the doughnut game came down to Max and Elese. Max eventually won and won a date night with Grandma Heumann. He was so excited and they went to "the rice and beans place" (Cancun Cafe) a couple weeks later. Both of them were able to get an apple when bobbing for apples. Steven did a spook ally again and the kids were both very excited to go. Before going we told all the kids that if they are scared to just turn around and run back up stairs. I went with both the kids and was holding Elese's hand and the second we hit the bottom step Elese said, "Mommy, I'm scared" let go of my hand and ran as fast as she could. She went right to Grandma for love and comfort while I continued on with Max. Later on after the spook ally had been all cleaned up Elese said, "The spook bally is done so I'm not scared anymore but if it comes back (points to herself) SCARED!" While sitting around chatting before we left Elese was running around singing princess songs. She started to sing the Snow White song but didn't know the words so she stopped and said, "I sing better than Snow White" and started singing a different song.
For years Max has wanted to be Batman Beyond but costumes have been in short supply so with help from Grandma Hale we made him his awesome costume.
Every year we carve pumpkins but we've never had our very own porch to put them on. It was pretty fun to display them on our very own porch at our very own home.

Student of the Month Oct. 22nd 2010

2010-12-23T13:36:00.001-08:00

Max was selected as Student of the month for being responsible. This is him with the school mascot.

Soccer Oct-Nov 2010

2010-12-23T13:31:00.000-08:00

Max has been asking forever to play soccer so this year we signed him up for indoor soccer and he loved it. In his first game he got hit in the head with the ball so after that he was a little bit frightens of the ball. Mostly he would run around and swing his arms all over the place and avoid the ball. There was one boy on the team that was really good and scored almost all the points and Max would get so excited whenever the team scored a point.

Wendover air show Sept 25th 2010

2010-12-23T13:18:00.000-08:00

Steven went out and spent the night in Wendover Friday night but I had to work so we didn't go. Fortunately I decided to pack the kids up in the morning and head out there and we are glad we did. Not only did we see some really cool airplanes but we got to see the batmobile. The guy who owned the batmobile kept pushing a button that would blow fire out of it and Max thought that was AWESOME! Then just before we headed home Steven got to go up in a plane and the pilot even let him fly it for about 10 minutes. They did a few tricks so Steven was very ready to get out once they landed. After that the pilot let the kids sit in the plane.

The pictures aren't great because they were taken on my cell phone.

California Coast Sept 4th-7th 2010

2010-12-23T12:33:00.000-08:00

Day 1 Saturday Sept 4th:
After a late night at Disneyland we woke up at 4am to head out to Long Beach to go deep sea fishing for a shoot. We met Chad and Darrin there. Chad and Darrin were the only ones to participate in the fishing but we still have fun tagging along. We saw several Dolphins, Seals, & even Gray Whales. It was a very fun ride and fortunately none of us got sea sick enough to throw up. Chad also let Max help out with his fishing and Darrin won the pool for catching the biggest fish. On the way back to land Elese fit in a much needed cat nap while Max enjoyed watching the seagulls follow the boat in.
Day 2 Sunday September 5th:
AYL was given a Victory Motorcycle to give away and Chad and Darrin wanted to take it for a drive up the coast before giving it away. This was a beautiful drive! Unfortunately they had planned to stop in Monteray which was supposed to have beautiful scenery but it turned out that we drove right by all the pretty stuff and Steven was SO upset that he didn't stop and film. It started a bit of a family argument but it all got worked out. Other than stopping to eat the day was really spent mostly in the car and the kids were really well behaved even though they hadn't had much sleep...although during the drama of missing some really great shots Elese started to get really tired of being in the car. At one point we got to stop and play on the beach while Steven did some filming. Elese enjoyed finding sea shells while Max liked playing in the sand and neither of them liked playing in the water.

Just as we were wrapping up filming Darrin offered to take Max for a ride on the bike and he jumped at the opportunity. We met them several miles up the road and Max still didn't want to get off the bike. It was getting dark and cold so we let him ride with Darrin to dinner and then put him back in the warm car.
Day 3 Monday September 6th, Memorial Day/Sacramento:
This was our relaxing day. We stayed in a hotel because David and Stephanie are living with her parents and the kids needed some downtime/nap time. Elese and I spent some time at the hotel resting while the boys played. Then Stephanie, Elese and I went to get pedicures and Elese LOVED it!!! Later that evening we went swimming at their place and the kids had a blast having the freedom to jump off the diving board with the security of having daddy there to catch them. The next morning we met for breakfast and headed home. We had a blast on the trip and are so glad we had a chance to take the kids to Disneyland, they were the perfect ages to really enjoy it!

DISNEYLAND!Sept. 1st-Sept 3rd

2010-12-16T11:33:00.000-08:00

Steven had been trying to arrange a shoot in California so that he could go out to California to film for the family documentary he is making for his family (Tons of work but it will be awesome! Probably about a $25,000.00 project if he was getting paid!). I kept telling him that we needed to go with him so we could go to Disneyland. He was very reluctant because he just wanted to get it done but I finally figured out a way to do it without Max missing too much school, without Steven being out of the office more than he would have been and without us spending too much money. We shared tickets with my friend Emily and stayed with my friend Amy...it saved us money and also made it so Steven's company had one less night to pay for at a hotel. Here's what we did.

Day 1 Wed. Sept 1st:
Left after school and drove straight to Riverside California to my friend Amy Gunnerson Smiths (and hubby Tommy) house. We arrived around 1am their time and Amy and Tommy were awake because Tommy is going to Law School and had just gotten home from studying. They have a guest room where Steven and I slept and put a blow up mattress in Ava's (their adorable little girl) room. Max and Elese had a hard time falling asleep so I had to lay with them for a while and then I threw up (yep, pregnant at Disneyland just like that last time we went) on my way back to my bed. What a great way to start out the trip.
Day 2 Thursday Sept 2nd:
Woke up, ate breakfast, stopped for gas and we were on our way around 9am. It took us longer than we expected to get there because of traffic but we arrived around 10:30. Our first stop was Daddy's favorite ride, Pirates of the Caribbean. This soon became Max's favorite ride but Elese was not a fan and wanted to get off immediately. Then we were on our way to the Haunted Mansion (I thought we should wait considering Elese's fear of Pirates of the Caribbean) when someone told us it was closed. I love that ride but was glad it was closed so Elese wouldn't be anti-Disneyland within the first hour of being there. We had just about enough time for one more ride before Elese and I needed to head over to California adventure for our lunch date with Ariel so we went on the rocket ride after we discovered that Star Tours was closed. Elese loved this ride and it is one of her favorites.

Ariels Grotto was our next stop, well at least for us girls. Steven and Max walked with us to California adventure where they went on the big rides while Elese and I enjoyed our lunch. Max LOVED California Screamin' and they also went on Moholland Drive and a couple more big kid rides. When we walked into Ariels Grotto Elese was immediately greeted with a "Welcome Princess" which instantly put a big smile on her face. Just before we were seated she got to have some one-on-one time with Ariel and then got to have her picture taken with her. Ariel really liked Elese's shirt. Once we were seated we ordered our meal which was SO much food for just the 2 of us! There was even a sea shell made out of white chocolate...that and the carrots was just about all I could get Elese to eat. It's not to princess like to spit out your food at Ariels Grotto.

Just as we were starting on our appetizers a man dressed as royalty came out singing and then introduced the princesses who all came to our table to visit with Princess Elese. Elese was very shy when they would talk to her and kept looking at me trying to get cues on how to respond. As Sleeping Beauty was leaving the table she said, "Goodbye Princess". Elese got a big grin on her face and said, "Mommy, did you hear what she called me??!!!" The smiles on her face made this little adventure SO worth the money, even though Elese needed to go to the bathroom 3 times during our one hour meal. Elese was the main reason I really wanted to go to Disneyland because she loves princesses and I wanted to get her there before she grew out of it.

After we finished eating we met back up with the boys and enjoyed some time in the Animation building. We thought Elese would love the Beauty and the Beast room but she was actually pretty scared and wanted to get out of there as fast as possible. Then we moved on to Soarin' over California...this is my favorite ride. Unfortunately we had to wait a while because once we got seated it stopped working but once we were in the other room we loved the ride and the kids thought it was pretty cool to feel like they were flying. After that we posed with Lightening McQueen and Mater. Someone in Max's Kindergarten class had told him to NEVER go on the Tower of Terror but he wanted to prove how brave he was so he and Steven headed over there while Elese and I played in the bugs life land. When the boys returned Max was as white as a ghost and grabbed my hand and would not let go. He told me that the ride was so scary and that now he knows why his friend told him not to go on it. He was sure that when he is 10 that he won't be scared of it. Then we headed back to Disneyland for some time in Fantasyland where we enjoyed the rides and Max tried to pull the sword out of the stone. Then Elese and I stayed there while Steven and Max went over to Thunder Mountain Railroad and Indiana Jones. By the time it started getting dark we were getting hungry and crabby! Nothing sounded good to me but we ended up at a pizza place. After dinner we went on the submarine ride which was really cool and then got a few treats and waited for the firework show to start. Like always it was amazing. Disneyland always goes the extra mile to make sure that everyone has a good time. We got back to Amy's around Midnight and went straight to bed.

Day 3 Friday Sept. 3rd
This was the day for Steven to go out filming so Amy and Ava headed with me and the kids to Disneyland. Max was Ava's helper while Amy was moving their stroller on and off the tram. We spent some time in fantasyland and Toon Town where we saw Mickey Mouse. Once Steven arrived to meet us there he and Max went off on their own while us girls went on It's a Small World where the music was making Elese's "bum dance". Elese and Ava both loved the Dumbo ride and the carousel. Then we let our kids pick a souvenir and headed over to the Rain Forest Cafe where we met Tommy for dinner. While walking back to the car after dinner there was a live band playing in Downtown Disney and Max was dancing like a maniac! We got back to Amy's around 9:30pm and were exhausted so we went right to bed, besides, we had to wake up at 4am the next day.

First day of First Grade Aug. 24th, 2010

2010-12-16T11:24:00.001-08:00

Here's a picture of my big first grader. He took "home lunch" the first day of school and now we read the lunch menu together and he chooses if he wants home lunch or school lunch. Kid's used to tease him about his lunch box because it looks like a little back pack but it turns out that our neighbor loved it so much that he just had to have one just like it. Max's teacher is Mrs. Yen. One of the first days of school (it may have been the first day) Max looked around and realized that everyone in his class was gone. He went wondering around the school until he found Mrs. Yen who told him that the other children had gone out for recess. Max is a great student and brings home a Shark Pride note (for good behavior) nearly everyday. He loves being recognized for good behavior and tells me that he walks very quietly through the halls just so he can get a Shark Pride. Max is reading like a mad man. His class has 3 different spelling tests ranked by difficulty. Recently Max moved up to the hard one. For the first couple days he would complain about how hard it was but I told him to keep trying and he did. So far there has only been one test he didn't get 100% on and he only missed one word on it. It is apparent to me that he takes after his daddy when it comes to spelling.

Because I'm working nights Steven takes Max to school in the morning on his way to work and I pick him up. I'm so glad that I have a husband who is willing to wake up and get Max ready and off to school. He even makes Max's lunch for him.

Fish Lake 2010 Aug. 14th

2010-11-27T18:02:00.000-08:00

We didn't stay long this year. Because I had to work we didn't leave until Saturday morning and we headed home Sunday. I think this was the first time we have ever gone up with just our family. Usually we have my family (or at least my mom) or Steven's family with us. It was fun to just be us and have the time to focus on each other. There wasn't any fishing to be done because Max's fishing pole was found broken just before we left but we still had a good time. Saturday night we headed down to the lodge where they were have a folk band play and there was dancing. We were by far the youngest people there and the band was full of some older people whose singing voices have long since left them but we did enjoy the dancing...well by we I mean Elese. After one song Steven and Max went outside and jumped off of rocks and walls to stay entertained while I stayed inside with Elese who dragged me and spun me all across the dance floor. While dancing a cute old man danced by us and said to Elese "Will you dance with me for another song?" She was very excited about it and when I told her I had to have a rest the cute guy came and asked her to dance. Although she almost knocked him over he still had a big smile on his face and gave me a much needed break.

Before heading home on Sunday we took a stroll to penny rock and then stopped at Johnson's reservoir to go exploring but all that really did was get the kids muddy and crying.

Then we decided to take an alternate route home and it ended up being a very beautiful drive home.

Oh, and I also took pictures of my favorite McCall's magazine that we keep at the cabin. "Crisco, It's digestible!"

Nicoles Wedding 8/6/2010

2010-10-24T11:19:00.000-07:00

On August 6th 2010 my oldest niece was married to Jordan, a great guy that we all adore.
President Monson (my mom's cousin) was supposed to do the sealing but something came up so we were all surprised to see another sealer walk in the room but he did a great job. During the sealing I couldn't help but think about how Justen (Nicole's younger brother who was killed in a car accident 4 years ago) wasn't there. The more I thought about it I realized that he would have been on his mission during this special day and it was nice to think that he was able to be there in spirit.

That evening the reception was held at Nicole's cousin's BEAUTIFUL home in Henefer. It was such a pretty evening until the dark cloud ascended and it started pouring rain. Everyone started putting gifts and things underneath the deck as quickly as possible. After about a half hour things cleared up and we threw table clothes in Andrea's dryer and things settled down a bit. On the bright side Nicole and Jordan were able to get some gorgeous photos taken in front of an amazing rainbow.

Elese tried to catch the bouquet and for about 15 minutes she and her cousin Violet stood with their arms out awaiting the magical moment. Unfortunately she didn't catch it and it was obvious by the look on her face that she was VERY disappointed. Jordan's mother noticed this and so she gave Elese her corsage. She was SO thrilled.

Sharing the good news

2010-10-24T11:01:00.000-07:00

July 28th, 2010
Knowing I wouldn't get a chance to stop by my mom's for several days I just called to tell her. The only thing was that my nieces were staying with her and we didn't want to completely spread the work until Steven's parents got back in town. Before I told her I said I had something to tell her and that she needed to control her reaction around the girls because we wanted to tell everyone else in a few days. Once I spilled the beans she yelled, "How exciting!!!" then she said, "Oooops" and whispered "How exciting."

July 31st, 2010
My niece Nicole and her Fiance were taking out their endowments and afterward we all went out to dinner. While we were waiting to be seated Elese went and told Nicole that she was going to be a big sister. She was SO excited to break the news to everyone.

August 1st, 2010
Steven's parents were out of town when we found out we were pregnant so we took Steven's cardboard cut out over to their house with a sign around it's neck welcoming them home and telling them the good news. At first his mom who had just returned from a visit with 4 of her granddaughters in Seattle feared it was a cardboard cut out of Jacob from the Twilight series just like the one in her granddaughters bedroom. Once she put on her glasses and realized what she was looking at she screamed with excitement. Laurie was living with Steven's parents at the time so she found out when we put up the cardboard cut out and then Steven made a call or two to other siblings and work eventually got out to everyone.

Our little Poppy Seed July 28th 2010

2010-10-06T16:49:00.000-07:00

For those that haven't heard we're pregnant! I had suspected it was so for several day's because my mood's were all over the place. Fortunately my friend loaned me some essential oils that helped improve my mood. It was really about a day or two too early for us to find out but I KNEW I was pregnant so I gave in and took the test on July 27th and it was positive. We decided to tell the kids the next day. They were both THRILLED and couldn't decide if they wanted a brother or sister so they decided that they wanted both. Silly kids. They asked how big the baby was and so I showed them a poppy seed. Elese took such good care of that little poppy seed and talked to it like it was a little baby. Before long she dropped it into the couch and was VERY concerned that she had lost the baby. I told her it was OK but didn't realize how concerned she really was until she asked me later where the baby was. I told her it was in my belly and she said, "How did it get back in your belly?" I informed her that it hadn't left my belly and she said, "But you let us hold it?"

I've been given 3 different due dates, one from the receptionist, one from my pregnancy book and one from my nurse so I like to just say that I'm due the 1st week of April. I was pretty sick for up until the last couple of weeks but fortunately I have a great new neighbor who has been kind enough to let the kids play at her house nearly every day. Just this week my work scheduled changed from 10pm-2am to 8pm-midnight so that should help.

All of us are very excited to have a new addition to our family but it is always strange to imagine what it will be like to have another little person in our family.

Playing in the Dirt 7/23/10

2010-10-06T16:42:00.001-07:00

We've really missed having Reed around to play with Max. Lucky for us Reed came to visit all the way from Mexico. One day Reed's mom took the boy's to lunch at McDonalds. A day or two later they boys played over here and the first thing they did was head out to the yard to play in the dirt. That was their favorite thing to do. During their visit Reed's mom was diagnosed with a type of bone cancer. She stayed in Utah for treatment along with her daughter for some moral support and the boy's headed back to Mexico with their dad. It's sad to see what their family is going through but we are so happy to know them and admire their strength and faith.

Silly Kids

2010-08-10T15:36:00.000-07:00

There have been so many silly things that my kids have said over the last several months and here's a few.

May 2010
Max had just gotten a hair cut and I told him that I didn't think anyone would recognize him. This was his response. "They will because they will recognize my clothes."

May 2010 Max/Elese conversation about their newly painted bedrooms.
E: "My room is beaudiful! Max, your room is handsome."
M: "No! It's Awesome!"

July 2010
While Max and Elese were playing with action figures.
E: (As Wonderwoman) "You can't kiss me cause your not in love with me. Only Batman can kiss me because he's in love with me. Batman, Will you marry me?"
M: (in his deep batman voice) "No. I'm Batman. I don't get married."

July 2010
Elese asking Grandma Heumann if she could watch the Nuttcracker movie.
E: "Grandma. I want to watch the Buttcracker."

July 24th, 2010
Elese woke me up in the morning.
"Mommy! Something terrible has happened! There's no more cartoons on!"

July 2010
My mom was babysitting and Max insisted on taking her to meet our neighbors the Mechams. As Max introduced my mom to Sister Mecham he said, "They are good people. They go to church." For the record we teach our kids that people that don't go to church are good people too.

August 1st, 2010
We saw an ice cream man driving by.
M: "Why is the ice cream man out on Sunday?"
Me: "Some people buy ice cream on Sunday."
M: "Oh yeah, like people that don't go to church."
E: "Yeah, we can't buy ice cream because we go to church."

August 2, 2010
Elese is constantly saying , "Mommy, you're the best." While I appreciate her kind words it does get a little out of control. She will interrupt me over and over again just to say, "You're the best." The other day she said, "You're the best. That means I want to kiss you all the time and I want to marry you."

August 9th, 2010
I had told Elese that my friend Amy is pregnant with a baby girl.
E: "How do you know it's a girl?"
Me: "They did an Ultrasound and saw that it was a girl."
E: "Oh, it had a bow?"

August 10th, 2010
While Elese was playing make believe.
E: "Mommy, pretend that you are Sister Taylor. Yeah, your mommy and daddy decided to name you Sister Taylor so you have to lead the music." Oh, and she pronounces Sister Taylor as "Mister Taylor."

August 18th, 2010Max: "Mom Jaden built a bomb in their basement that can blow up all of Sandy! Elese is going to put on her Cinderella dress and we will go over there and stop the bomb. When we get there he will just look at Elese because she is so beautiful and get distracted while I take care of the bomb." I love that he incorporated her into his secret mission.

Anniversary 06/23/2010

2010-08-08T13:57:00.000-07:00

Steven and I had a really enjoyable anniversary. It was a little disapointing that we couldn't get the hummas at the Spicy Lady because it was no longer on the menu but I got over it. When we were at the Solomon Center I couldn't believe how hard the rock wall was for me! I've done it before and loved it but I didn't want to rent the shoes and my shoes weren't working very well. The nice thing was that I got to spot Steven so at least I had something to do once the climbing got too frustrating.

Flowrider was lot's of fun even for the girl that doesn't think much of water. The downside to that was that the water pressure was so strong that things kept popping out of my swim suit so that was a little awkward for me and the 10 year old boys that were there. So if you ever go I recomend a one piece that goes all the way up to your neck.

By far my favorite part was Ifly! I thought I would be totally freaked out but I love it AND I was a pro. When we went in the second time the instructor was taking people up REALLY high...probably about 30 feet and that made me nervous but once I was in there I LOVED it. The trick is to not think much about breathing because if you stress about it then you eventually realize that because there is SO much air blowing in your face that it is difficult to breath. After that we headed home to change for dinner at Cafe Madrid and we were exhausted! We both colapsed on the bed and were seriously debating if sleep sounded better than dinner but then I remembered Beef Tenderloin with a blue cheese sauce and straightened out my priorities and we headed out to dinner. In the morning Steven headed over to Jordan Commons and picked us up some YUMMY fruit crepes for dinner.

After picking up the kids we surprised them with an outing to Jordan Commons to see Toy Story 3 followed by some YUMMY gourmet homemade ice cream in the lobby. This may not sound as exciting as a cruise or a trip to an exotic beach but it was a perfect day for us!

Happily Ever After

2010-06-23T00:01:00.000-07:00

Oh my how 10 years has flown by! There is no doubt in my mind that I married an amazing man! Steven is more than a husband he is my best friend and I wouldn't trade him for the world! It's funny to think back on the big day 10 years ago and know that I was in love but that it doesn't even compare to how much I love him now.

We had decided that having a house was more important they going on a big tropical vacation so today we drop the kids off at my mom's for a sleepover and head out for a fun (and practically free, other than food) day. First we will stop in Heber at the Spicy Lady for some hummas and lady chips...YUMMY! We'll call this lunch. Then up to Ogden with some free passes that Steven got from work. There we will do the IFly, Flowrider (EKKKK!!!! Scared of water much?), and climb the rock wall. Then home to change and dinner at Cafe Madrid. Let me tell you that their beef tenderloin in blue cheese sauce is worth the money and the calories! Then yada yada yada we'll sleep in and pick up the kids that afternoon for a family picnic in the canyons and end the day watching our wedding videos with the kids. It's going to be a super fun two days. Plus last night we had the premier for the 48 hour film project, Friday we are going to a play and Saturday we're heading up to the widow maker. It's going to be a great week of celebrating.

Scrambled

2010-06-22T12:51:00.000-07:00

Here's our film.

Father's Day at the office

2010-06-20T12:36:00.000-07:00

This weekend was the 48 hour film project. Here's some bullet points.

Friday

Foreign Film? Really????

Saturday

Dropping the kids off at Heumanns for a sleepover.
At the Venture Outdoors Festival from 11am-7:30. It was hot but fun.
Carrying around eggs.
Big snakes being held by Joe who is deathly afraid.
Cupcakes.
Lost Ethan.
Ryan adores Heidi.
Drew ridding a pony.
Brett saying random things while chasing Drew ie giving him the missionary discussion, "But network marketing has really changed over the last 10 years"
Smiths Market Place run for snacks and a toy snake.
Good conversation with Little Heidi (So glad she came, it was fun!)
Getting pulled over by airport police.
Finally finding our second location.
Observing Brett helping "big" Heidi with her British accent...she did great!
10:30pm "That's a wrap".
Dinner/breakfast at Denny's.

Sunday Happy Father's Day Steven

Steven woke up to handmade cards and Twix.
Steven heads to the office for a day of editing.
Doing my best to track down Heidi D for some missed voice over but she was at church...worked it out eventually.
Taking the guys Pizza for lunch.
Picking up the kids from Grandma & Papa's house. It was so good to see the kids, they were so happy!
Oh man, the dubbing in Tagoloan isn't going to work!
Waking Elese up from her 15 minute nap to run in and do a voice over to solve the Tagoloan issue.
Off to Lehi without my children s Father for a Father's day Party.
Yummy food and good conversation.
VERY tired kids.
Stuck in traffic.
Finally made it to the office to see the final movie.
None of us are super excited about the film because it's not our genre..not something we love. It's too artsy for us. We'll see what the judges think.

I'm in Kindergarten going on 1st Grade

2010-06-03T12:58:00.000-07:00

Well it's official, Max is all done with Kindergarten, and Canyon View for that matter. :( They had a game day yesterday for his last day of school and he was SO excited to take battleship to school. We were running late to school and I looked in my rear view mirror and there was Mrs. Armstrong right behind us. I KNEW it was her but didn't quite believe it because she was supposed to be at school. It turned out that her daughter had just graduated from High School and she had gone to the ceremony on her lunch break and was rushing back for afternoon Kindergarten.

Things have been super busy but I just wanted to post this picture of Max and Mrs. Armstrong and tell you (and remind me) what some upcoming blog posts will be about.

-The house, pictures and all! W/ the kids reactions to their cute rooms
-5 mile pass clean up
-Guys and Dolls Again?

Subdued Excitement

2010-05-05T12:19:00.001-07:00

This is OUR new Home! We are very excited. We closed on Friday morning, went to Home Depot and Spent TOO much money and then went out to lunch to celebrate. Not long after that Steven got on a plane and flew away to go on an Alaskan Cruise. Believe it or not but he really wished he cove stayed home. Things have been really exciting but like the title of this post, a little bit subdued. Over the last few days I've been at the house cleaning and putting up painters tape and it's been very exciting and doesn't seem like work at all because it is OUR house but something seems to be missing. It is 1/4 away from feeling like our home because we haven't all been there together sense we closed.

I love having the kids there with me. They are so excited about having there own rooms and every now and then when they get into an argument Elese will storm into her room and slam the door. I'm so glad she has her own room to go to! Max and Elese have discovered the RV parking to the left of our home and it is covered in rocks. Every few minutes they come in to the house with a new rock for their collection. I think I have them convinced that the RV parking area is one big rock collection and the perfect place to keep all the rocks.

This Saturday I'm going to do some painting at the house and I can't wait to make it our own! I'll post some before and after pictures when we are done.

Happy Birthday Superman!

2010-04-24T12:01:00.000-07:00

Today is Steven's 32nd birthday. Just wanted to write a quick post letting MY superman know how much I love him!
He is the prefect man for me and I am SO blessed to have him in my life!!! Love you Steven!

Long time no blog

2010-04-17T11:25:00.000-07:00

It's been a while. Today I was looking for a picture to post on my website and as I looked over them I thought, "these are alot of photos of my cute kids that I never posted on my blog" so here they are. If you want to keep a daily tab on us you may want to check out www.mediocremom.com where I do daily posts. Making Can Phones.

Making Forts.

Framing artwork.

Ice Skating.

Those are just a few of the fun things we have done. I've really enjoyed making a greater effort to spend quality & quantity time with my kids.

On a side note, last night we took my mom to dinner to show our appreciation for all that she does for us (my car has been having trouble and several trips to the machanic w/ her watching the kids and $400 later it's now in working condition). Elese took a bite of my steak and said, "Mommy, steak is a good snack." I've never heard someone refer to steak as a snack. Then I stole one of Max's french fries and he pointed to his tummy and said, "Mommy, remember, thin." That was his way of telling me that if I eat too many fries I will get fat. I love them so much and their silly ways of thinking.

A bat-tastic weekend!

2010-03-04T18:44:00.001-08:00

I just had a very lovely post and then it got deleted!!!! UGH! Stupid laptop! Without furth ado, her is a much less wordy re-do.

Saturday we went to the Safe Kids fair. Batman was there. Max was thrilled, Elese was scared. Max told Batman that he was his biggest fan and Batman told Max how to use some Batman toy that he took with him. Safe Kids Fair ROCKS! We will go again next year and take some cash so the kids can buy something fun to take home.

I realize that Max's smile really doesn't seem that happy but he is getting to the age where it isn't cool to get super excited about things....but he was BEAMING inside!

As Steven was leaving to get the car (he had to park on the other end of the expo center) he discovered something wonderful. Steven ran back to us, whispered in my ear and took Elese running...Snow White was there! So now, not only was Max on a high for seeing and meeting Batman but Elese couldn't stop smiling. Elese kept skipping around and running into people because she was so happy.Yes, that is ketchup all over her face.

The also got to tour a fire truck.

Speaking of the expo center...The weekend before Stevens work had a booth at the RV show and he had to go on Sunday so we tagged along. Elese and I spent the majority of the time hanging out in a random RV playing house. There were dishes on the table so I would be the baby and she would be the mommy, I would sleep and then she would wake me up for breakfast. Sometimes we even danced around...you should have seen the looks we got from some people. Anyway, at one point she wanted to "sleep" in the bed but first she had to say her prayers. So there she was kneeling down at the bed in an RV, on a Sunday mind you (break the Sabbath much?), saying her bedtime prayers while people were touring the RV.

Ok...back to Saturday. After the safe kids fair we found a house that we loved...very unique...very cottagy!! Loved it! The sellers agent had told our agent that there were no offers on it so we waited until Monday to offer...we wanted our agent to see it (his BIL takes us out looking while John gives us the advice and does the paper work) besides, banks are generally closed on for that type of business on Saturdays anyway. Went again Monday, had Johns rave reviews and went to sign the papers. When John called the other agent she now said, "Oh, that house is bank owned (she hadn't told us that before) and it has had 2 other offers on it for quite some time now and I think one may have already been accepted." GRRRR!!! Sure enough...someone else got the house. Not too happy but life goes on.

The end.

Oh and I saw a Dave Ramsey card board cut out at the safe kids fair so I HAD to take a picture with the man (well, the cardboard man) that has helped us crawl out of debt!...we are ALMOST debt free...so let's buy a house and get in even more debt, right?I wish I had my own card board cut out I could carry around with me so that I would always look well put together in my pictures. I would just take a really hot photo and then make it a cut out and then stick it in family photos...it would be great because I could even take a picture of my entire family without actually being in the picture.

Max's new favorite color is...

2010-03-02T13:14:00.000-08:00

Yellow!

My first thoughts about paying $40 for a belt review were not very positive. I wasn't sure it was even possible for a 6 year old to get his yellow belt plus $40 is a lot for a belt that he may or may not get. I've never spent more than $10 on a belt before. But...Max was so excited and the more I thought about it I realized that a belt review for him is like a vocal recital for me and how could I deny him that?

In the days leading up to it Max was very nervous. On Thursday night (the review was Friday night) Max actually had a dream that he got his yellow belt and that is all he could talk about all day. I was very nervous for him once we got there because the other two white belts were much older than him so I honestly didn't think he had a chance.

At the end of the review they had all of them kneel down and close their eyes and then they set a belt in front of them. I was SO excited to see them set one in front of Max! Then the boys had to (with their eyes closed) reach forward and get their new belt and put it on. That was the hardest part for Max. He couldn't get his white belt off so he finally just loosened it and stepped out of it like you would a skirt. His teacher just looked at us and laughed. Then he had to try and tie the new belt on which is hard enough for him with his eyes opened. It was really kind of fun to watch him. He was trying so hard and he kept peaking so he KNEW he had gotten his yellow belt. Watching him try to put his belt on with his eyes closed and being FULL of excitement was really funny!

We were so proud of him that we took him out for dinner (we still would have taken him if he didn't get it.). He tells everyone he sees that he is now a yellow belt.

Oh and when we got home he wanted to show my mom his new belt so he went barging in and yelled, "Yellow belt comin' through!"

Catching Up

2010-02-24T18:11:00.000-08:00

Warning this is going to be a long post but hopefully you will stick around to read it. :)

BACKWARDS/CRAZY HAIR DAY

Max was SO excited for his backwards/crazy hair day at school. I however, was nervous because there wasn't ever a note from school saying anything about it but he insisted so I called another mom who was also unsure if she should trust her 5 year old. We decided that they couldn't both just be making it up.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

Steven had been putting in quite a bit of extra time at work so his boss offered to send our family on a little vacation and it all happened just in time for my 30th birthday. We went up on Saturday and spent the day snowmobiling. We went swimming on Sunday and all climbed into one bed and watched Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. After swimming Steven and the kids put their swimsuits outside to freeze and sure enough they did. Then Monday morning I got a spa treatment and we headed home. Monday was my actual birthday. After my spa treatment we rushed home for Steven to get to a shoot while I spent the day grocery shopping and training for my new job.

GETTING BACK INTO THE JOB FORCE

I am now employed with Emdeon, a medical billing company. It is at home data entry. I'm working from 10pm-2am. We did some number crunching and realized since I was no longer watching Amber that we may not be able to survive with a mortgage payment. Neither of us wanted me to sacrifice time from the family and that is why I chose the hours I did. It took me 4 tries to pass the test to actually be able to keep the job and that was very stressful. Now that I'm actually working I think it's going well. The only problem is that last week they ran out of wo, rk several days but I'm hopeful that won't be a consistent problem.

MY 6 YEAR OLD!

I can't believe that my baby boy is 6! It's crazy. He is such a good boy. Max is always trying to make good choices. Lately he and Elese have been arguing a lot...I think that is a sign that he is growing up. On Super Bowl Sunday we had a little party for the family February birthday's where Max got some gifts and his hulk costume was defiantly his favorite followed closely by his Marvel T-shirts. On his birthday he woke up to a iron man sweatshirt that he has worn every day since, a batplane that he loves, and a Superman and Krypto the superdog action figure. He took double chocolate doughnuts to school and he got to wear a crown. After school I surprised him by taking him ice skating.

Saturday was a busy day. First I worked until 2am, then all of us went out looking at homes, then Steven and I went to see Fiddler on the Roof at Hale theater, then we rushed home and got ready for Max's birthday party. It was a baseball party. First we played indoor baseball with a dice telling them what base to go to. Then a pinata for batting practice and a little bit of catch. They all enjoyed some hot dogs as well as some cake and Ice Cream and Max loved having all the attention and of course, the presents.

Max also got his first love note from a girl at school it said, "From Sicily, To Max Max. I luv you!" It was super cute. I love the look on his face when I give him the attention that he SO deserves. He loves having mommy and daddy listen to his silly stories about the Joker being outside with a bomb and that Max is really Batman and Ryan is Robin so we don't need to worry because they will get the Joker. He will also tell us about how he saved the world when he was at school. He has quite the imagination which is so much fun but it also slows down the homework process a little bit because we go from he reading the word dog to, "Mommy, what if a dog was really called a cat and a cat was called a fish?" I love my bug. Walking him home from school is such a special time for me to just listen to him talk about his day.

HOUSE HUNTING

While I have been enjoying house hunting it is also very frustrating. Most of what we can within our price range is a short sale. The first house we put an offer on ended up getting pushed into foreclosure. The home we currently have an offer on looks good but it could take a good long while before we know if we got it...then there's the inspection and all of that so who knows. We are pretty hopeful about this house but you still never know. To tell you the truth I kind of don't mind the waiting but just because the longer it takes the more money we can save so that I can get new couches and maybe even a bedroom set when we move...just wish that we knew if we got the house and then I wouldn't mind the waiting so much. The other frustrating thing is that if we just had a little more buying power our options would be so much better. I feel like we are compromising on things that are important to us just to get a house, but at this point, we just need a house. But, we are super excited to have our own place. I can't wait for the kids to no longer be sharing a room...I'm hopeful that it will make bed time a lot more pleasant and prevent any boy/girl room sharing issues before they start. Also, space. I can't wait to have the kids in their own room with their own toys. Rather than having all of their toys, cloths, beds, and them smooched together in one space. It seems like we get things organized and looking nice and then it suddenly turns into an unmanageable space because there is so much stuff in so little space.

BALLET

Elese has been taking ballet. The school distict sends out a packet with community classes that are a really great deal and they only last for 8 weeks so you can test something out and see if the kids like it before you start forking out all your cash for a larger commitment. Whenever she comes with us to look at houses she always finds one room that she loves and then she says, "Mommy, and this will be my ballet and my teacher can come and we'll sing Rock a by baby!" The other day after her class she was making up songs that can most accurately be described as a "mash up" of all of her ballet songs. Oh and yesterday she told me, "Mom, listen to this song I made up. Wonder woman smells and the tire thing it um, fell off and um...the joker was there." She makes me laugh...and pull my hair out all at the same time. I LOVE HER!.

AYL

Things have been stressful for Steven at work lately but he did come home with good news. I'm reluctant to share it today because I just want to wait for things to actually be happening before I announce it to the world...but just know that things are looking good and we are hopeful that within the next month my job wil not be a necessity but an avenue to build up a really nice emergency fund.

And that is all...or at least all I can think of for the moment. Thanks for reading. :)

One of my favorite things...

2010-01-25T08:54:00.001-08:00

...is to watch Elese eat her oatmeal. She eats it just like her daddy but a lot messier. First she very thoughtfully scoops the oatmeal onto her toast and then eats the toast. It is SO cute especially when she gets to her very last teeny tiny bite of toast.

The Reason

2010-01-20T07:59:00.000-08:00

These are the reasons that I make sacrifices to stay home with my kids.

Playing Sleeping Beauty with Elese. She puts on my lip gloss and then goes in my room and sings, "I know you..." and then yells, "OK prince, come in!" Then I come in and sing and dance with her and she tells me to leave again. While I'm gone she lays in my bed and tells me I can come back in. I give her a kiss and ta da she wakes up.
Max. I love watching Max talk to his best friend Reed on the phone. Reed moved to Mexico this past summer.

You can really only sacrifice for so long. I hate to say it but I recently got a job to help us get into a house. BUT I am not willing to sacrifice my time with my kids and husband so I will be working from 10pm-2am doing data entry at home. I'm sure the lack of sleep with not be pleasant but my kids are worth it. Yesterday Max said something that reminded me that they are the reason I'm going to missing out on sleep and the fact that I'm doing it for them is going to make it a lot easier!

Max: "Mom where are you going to work for your new job?"
Me: "I'm going to work at home while you are asleep."
Max: "YEAH! I wanted you to stay home." This comment was accompanied by a HUGE hug.

Another lost tooth

2010-01-10T14:54:00.000-08:00

Yesterday morning around 6 am Max woke up because he felt something in his mouth. It was a lost tooth so he simply set it on his dresser and went back to sleep. Good boy.

With Max starting to loose his teeth Elese has become very curious and is also feeling a bit left out. Yesterday while she was coloring the tip of a crayon broke and fell off. Thinking that this was an opportunity for Elese to get some tooth loosing attention (not to mention a little cold hard cash) she started pretending that the crayon tip was her lost tooth. In the middle of the night Elese woke up because her "toes were poking out" of the blanket. This has become a very common excuse for getting out of bed in the MIDDLE of the night and we are working on solving the problem. Anyway...as I put her back in bed and hugged her I noticed something under her pillow. What I found was her "tooth" in a Ziploc bag. Apparently she was hoping she could fool the tooth fairy with her crayon but she didn't. However Max did find himself a nice crisp $1.00 bill under his pillow this morning.

Christmas 2009

2009-12-30T12:52:00.001-08:00

Christmas Eve is full of Heumann family traditions. We got to Grandma and Papa's in the afternoon for yummy food, great conversation, the nativity scene, and of course the presents. This year as Aunt Lithia was getting the kids ready for the nativity she asked Elese who she wanted to be and she said, "I want to be the babies Mama!" So here she is as Mary. Max loved playing a sheep and crawling around the floor while everyone else didn't much enjoy tripping over him. Laurie's (Steven's sister) boyfriend Jake had been warned about the cryfest that happens once presents start getting opened but to our surprise the kids were great so I'm not sure if Jake can really be considered officially part of the family yet.

When we got home we opened our PJ's from under the tree, bathed the kids, read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, and left out cookies for Santa. Those are our own little families traditions. Plus we made the cookies together earlier in the morning.

Elese woke up around 3:30am because she was scared. When I took her back to bed Max was WIDE awake and he told me that he heard Santa in the house when the clock said 2 and that he was so excited that he couldn't fall back asleep...fortunately he did. Around 6:20 the kids came running into our room ready for Christmas to start.

Elese ran right out and said, "It's a doll house!!!" Max was also excited about his Robot Dog that he REALLY wanted however once he turned it on he was a little bit afraid of it. Tekno (the dog) is really very active so I think his enthusiasm kind of freaked Max out. Max also got a green Lantern ring in his stocking. Steven and I were surprised to see that Santa had brought us a gift this year! That has never happened before. We were given an HD TV. Santa must have known that Blake and his cable would be moving out soon and that I HATE our converter box.

Steven got some Tupperware because I threw our old stuff away years ago and bought some others that he hated. I have never lived it down. I'm sure that was his favorite gift. :) He also got a tie, pants, garments, the green lantern rings (from Santa), and a few DVD's & Blu-rays. I got several things as well but the thing I got that I didn't know I wanted was a day planner. What a great idea! I'm always making notes on any scrape of paper I can find. I'm very excited to get using it but first I want to get a pen that has several different colors so I can color code all of our activities. I know, I'm a geek. I'm also excited about the book Heat Wave from the TV show Castle.

Then we had Breakfast at the Heumanns and came home for a nap. I was awaken from my nap by what sounded like a cat dieing but it was just my mom screaming with excitement when she answered the door to find my brother Evan and his family here all the way from Arizona. We ate and opened gifts and Steven and I got a Blu-Ray player and were surprised to also get $100 cash! Steven immediately planned to go buy Star Trek on Blu-ray because it was the only thing he wanted that he didn't get. I planned to trade one of my two blenders in for a nice stainless steal 4 bread toaster. Wow this is long...anyone still reading?

More important than the gifts was spending time with my family. It was so great to have Evan, Crystal and the girls here...it seems that when they are here the family seems more complete and more fun is to be had. We all just hung out and went and walked through Blakes new house that is currently being build.

Then we had the traditional Christmas dinner with Stevens family that night.

OK...here is a summary of the following days.

Dec. 26th

Elese woke up at 1:20 throwing up
I wasn't feeling too hot either
Max was coughing and sneazing with a light fever
Steven was perfectly fine and went to see Avatar with his brother
Steven and I went to see Sherlock Holmes and went to dinner at the Olive Garden with his friend Mike. By the end I was exhausted and in dire need of a good nights sleep.

Dec. 27th

Elese woke up just after midnight throwing up
She slept in our room again
Steven and I didn't sleep much
My cold progressed and I felt pretty crappy
Max had a fever
The kids and I stayed home from Church and Steven went to teach Sunday School
Max, Elese & I napped

December 28th

Elese woke up at 1:20am again throwing up
my sinuses were completely clogged
Max's eye was all red and puffy
Steven went to work
I sat around thinking that I really wanted to clean my house
I cleaned a little.
Ate 5 guys for dinner
Played Wii with Trevor, Blake, mom, and my family for family night
felt exhausted after playin Wii

December 29th

Elese didn't throw up! but she did wake up several times
Me still sick
Max's eye WAY worse than yesturday and he had hives on his trunk
Watched hairspray with Elese
Pawned Max off on my mom
Laid on the couch and watched as Steven cleaned up Christmas

December 30th

Elese only woke up once and NOT to throw up
I woke up to done dishes and Christmas toys all put in their place and kids bedroom spick and span! BEST HUSBAND EVER!
Still not feeling great until I took a shower.
Curently feeling at about 75% health...way better than 20%...and so I blog.

New Years...
Steven and I are going to celebrate at home...nothing too exciting but the most exciting thing about it is that he proposed (Depending on who you ask) just after midnight on New Years 10 years ago. If I was feeling more healthy we would maybe go out or something but we are both content with some delivered Pizza, a mock New Years Eve with the kids and a little Checkers and Ron Burgundy.

Birthday Girl

2009-12-21T13:18:00.001-08:00

Although we have been celebrating off and on for almost a week...today is Elese's official birthday! Last night we had cake and ice cream at Heumanns and this morning we opened her gifts upstairs with my mom so she could open her gift from my mom at the same time. We spent most of the morning exchanging gifts that didn't fit or were duplicates of things she already had. Most of all Elese Loves her Dora sweats from Grandma Heumann and her Aeriel barbie doll from Grandma Hale. She has been wearing her sweats and playing with Aeriel all day. Tonight we are going to go out to dinner at Wingers to celebrate her birth.

At the age of three Elese...

Loves Singing
Is learning to be more polite and less demanding
Plays very well by herself and not so well with her brother (depending on the moment)

hmmm....honestly I did this not that long ago so to see more about what she's been up to in her 3rd year click here.

I love this girl SO much! She is constantly making me smile. Elese has brought so much joy into our home. Life without her would be very boring and Max would be very spoiled. I love you Ellie Bell! Happy Birthday!

The Sunday before Christmas

2009-12-20T14:41:00.000-08:00

Elese got to wear her Christmas dress to church this morning and Steven took some cute pictures of the kids before church.

I put her hair in curlers last night and it didn't turn out too bad. Just before sacrament meeting ended Elese fell asleep on Steven and then...while asleep...she peed all over him. It was a memorable Christmas Sunday.

Dora Party

2009-12-20T14:08:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Elese's first birthday party with her friends.

The party started with Steven reading the kids "Dora Birthday Dance Party: Daisy's Fiesta de Quinceaera". Just after he finished reading the story Swipper AKA Max stole the books and took them to Elese's party! Fortunately Elese's trusty backpack & map were close by. Map told us how to find the party. First we climbed the blue mountain and passed the red barn. Once we got to the rainforst we needed something to help keep us dry. Lucky for us backpack had an umbrella. After making it through the rain forest we made it to Elese's party where we danced the Mambo.

After our dance party Elese opened her presents. The first present she opened was from her friend Grace Egbert. Grace gave it to her and said, "I think it is a fish puzzle!" After Elese opened it and discovered that it was in fact a fish puzzle Sarah Peters said, "You were right Grace! How did you know?!" Following the gifts we had cake and ice cream. While we waited for the parents to come we played Dora, Dora, Swipper...better known as Duck, Duck, Goose.

For the sake of remembering, because I forgot to take a picture of all the kids together, here is a list of who came to Elese's first birthday party:

Grace Egbert
Sarah Peters
Logan, Noah & Violet Hale (and Uncle Spencer & Aunt DeAnn)
Ethan Perry & his cousin Breanna
Mommy, Daddy & Max
Grandma Hale
Grandma & Papa Heumann

Oh and PS...I bought balloons for the party and realized after the party that one of them said, "Happy Birthday, Birthday Boy!"...silly me.

An eventful day

2009-12-17T19:26:00.000-08:00

The day started off with Max crying at breakfast because it hurt to eat with his loose tooth. Then we watched cartoons and felt something "crunchy" in his mouth and spit it out thinking it was a piece of his toast. When he went to tell Steven goodbye before he left for work Steven said, "Max, you lost your tooth!" Max ran right in and found it. (I'm not sure how I feel about Max spitting random things onto the front room floor...) He was SO excited and a little bit freaked out by the whole thing but I think he was thrilled to realize that it didn't even hurt when it fell out.

Max has been asking to make a Gingerbread house for several weeks now and I saw a kit at Costco the other day. It was only $10, not bad. So today we put it together. I did all the frosting and let me tell you that it was the worst frosting to decorate with because it was SO stiff...it was the consistency of glue and trying to get that out of a pastry bad in a beautiful fashion was not easy. The kids watched near by and would eat any little drip of frosting. Then they helped put the candy on it...mostly they just ate the candy.

The kids were surprised tonight by a visit from Santa Clause! We were sitting in the front room and Daddy was about to read them a story when we heard foot steps and bells! Max ran to the door and was VERY unsure about what was going on. Eventually Max got very excited and Elese got very nervous and clingy until Santa pulled out a sucker for Max. Max recently wrote a letter to Santa and Santa brought it with him so Max would know that he got it. Thanks to the letter Santa already knew that Max wants a Robot Dog for Christmas. Then it was Elese's turn and she was more than happy to sit on Santa's lap now that she knew he had suckers. When he asked her what she wanted for Christmas she said, "A sucker!" Grandma and Blake heard the commotion and came downstairs.

Max asked for a Robot Dog. Elese asked for a Sucker...and then a Barbie. I asked for a house. Daddy asked for an action figure. Grandma asked for a hug from Santa. Blake asked for a wife...or even just a girlfriend.

Max got an action figure with a boat. Elese got a little dress up princess. I got a box of chocolates. Steven got some beef jerky and Grandma and Blake got suckers. I'm hoping the Robot Dog, Barbie, HOUSE, action figure and wife/girlfriend show up on Christmas morning.

The kids were SO happy that they went right to sleep because I convinced them that Santa would be so proud if they didn't get out of bed.

Elese and Max on Marriage

2009-12-17T19:20:00.000-08:00

The other day Elese was spouting off all the people that she loves-Grandma, mommy, daddy, Max, Violet, Logan...Then Ethan...Ethan was the only non-family member and really her only friend. So we all laughed and said, "You love Ethan?" Then Max said "Are you going to marry him?" And that brings us to today....

This was Max and Elese's conversation that came out of no where.

Elese: "Maybe Ethan will kiss me!" giggle, giggle, giggle. "Maybe Ethan will Marry me! Maybe Ethan with cuddle me!" giggle, giggle, giggle. Max who are you going to marry Grace L?" (Actually Max's crush is on Grace G.)

Max: "I'll figure that out when I'm a grown up."

Where in the world is Junction Utah?

2009-12-16T13:30:00.000-08:00

I still don't know even though I've been there. :) Really it's just in the middle of no where, kind of near Richfield. Steven had a shoot there last weekend and we tagged along. I was forced to relax which was hard for the first little while and then I would just get annoyed because the kids would want to play and I was already in relaxation mode. We stayed at the old court house which was REALLY cool...literally. The first night we slept in a room with a bunch of bunk beds and we were FREEZING! Steven and I hardly slept, but the kids did OK. The next day we followed James' example and slept in the great room. It was MUCH warmer in there. Steven would come and go from shoot to shoot and the kids and I would just hang out and watch movies or play air hockey. Before we left Sunday they went and shot another set of wraps and Max got to go a long on the ATV and help host the show. He only said one thing but I'm still very excited to see it when it airs sometime in January.

The court house was BEAUTIFUL! It even had the old judges stand. There were vaults everywhere and one of them was even full of bunk beds. By far the funnest part was filming the open to the new years special where we all got the throw snowballs at each other.

Bell Canyon

2009-12-16T13:24:00.000-08:00

On the Saturday before Thanksgiving I was going to go to the gym and Steven was going to watch the kids. Steven decided to take the kids hiking and I decided that would be more fun than going to the gym. Elese made me carry her most of the way, but hey, that gave me a better work out. Once we got to the end of the hike we stopped and had a picnic of fish crackers and fruit snacks. There was a partially frozen lake at the top and Max loved walking on the ice and trying to break the ice with rocks. Once we headed back I let Steven carry Elese. It was a very enjoyable day as a family and I can't wait for the spring so we can do it again.

We wish you...

2009-12-09T10:39:00.000-08:00

...a stress-LESS Christmas.

Is it just me or does Christmas just seem stressful? I feel like I have so many things to do. I finished my shopping early so I could just relax and enjoy the holidays but then I decided to make bread for our neighbors and that also means making it for my mom to give to her friends. I know I don't have to do it but I enjoy doing it...until it feels like it consumes my life. Then there were the good deals on photo books that I try to do yearly for my kids but I haven't done them in 2 years...so another project. I haven't even factored in all the parties and treats to make for the parties, plus Elese's birthday. Don't get me wrong...I sort of love when things are crazy but suddenly my responsibilities like doing laundry, church callings and getting the kids dressed before the very last possible moment seem to all fall to the way side. So even though I'm feeling a bit over whelemed I've decided to do my best to focus on the things that bring me joy...my family.

Steven gave me a nice massge this morning to help me calm the heck down.

Then Elese walked around with her photo book from two years ago saying..."This book has songs in it." (It doesn't), then she was singing "When I was a baby...I love you when you a baby!" Then she asked, "Mommym can I sing this on the piano?" So that brought enough joy to me that right now, as she is crying and screaming, I only want to scream just a little, rather than alot.

Then there is Max and his love of creating blue prints to our future home on his etch-sketch. Although it does get me a little down when I realize that we could never afford a bat cave for our home it is still very fun to see him taking an interest in grown up things. And that is what got me through the last hour of helping him with a school worksheet.

Fortunately Steven has a shoot coming up that should be very enjoyable for everyone but him...because he will be working...but at least we'll have some time together without the stresses of home.

So it is my wish to all of you that you can find joy in the small things during this stressful time of year.

Christmas Tree Hunt

2009-12-06T19:06:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we had the opportunity to go hunt a Christmas tree on a shoot for Steven's work. Before heading out we had our annual ward brunch which is always a blast and then we were on our way.

As we were driving to the office to meet the rest of the crew & talent I realized that I hadn't changed my shoes since the ward brunch, and they were not tree hunting shoes, I didn't even have socks on. I suggested we turn around but we would have been late and Steven said there wouldn't be any snow. The drive started out fine until we hit I-80 (heading toward Tooele). First off Steven, James (a friend from Guys and Dolls who now works with Steven), me and the kids where in the company Jimmy while Chad (Steven's boss), Corby (Chads wife), and their two teenage girls were in the company suburban. Anyway, it started snowing but very lightly...we barely needed the windshield wipers. Suddenly we started sliding, Steven gained control and we maneuvered around the cars in front of us to find a truck tipped on its side in the middle of the fast lane with a guy crawling out the passenger side window. After that I suggested we say a prayer. I prayed that we would not get in an accident and that the man in the accident we just saw would be OK. Not long after that the guy in front of Chad started fish tailing. Steven drove around him on the right and Chad tried to pass him on the left. The other car kept sliding around, first toward us then toward chad and so on...it ended up that Chad hit him. The Suburban had no damage but the other guys car was pretty damaged. The guy got out and told Chad it was OK and that he wanted to just keep going. (Yeah, I think he was transporting drugs too). A few miles later he got pulled over because that was the 2nd accident he had caused in the last few miles! About every 1/4 of a mile we would see a bad accident. At one point on the other side of the road there was a 10 car pile up with cars all over the road and a man getting put into an ambulance. We also saw the after math of someone rear ending a cement truck. Max and Elese were very worried so I did my best to keep them calm but it really just made Max ask questions about when Justen died and our accident 3 years ago.

We finally got to Tooele and the roads were fine! No snow anywhere but what we did see and hear was sirens headed toward the freeway about every minute or two. Eventually we got to our destination...private property to cut down an Christmas tree for Chad and Corby. It was great escaping the stress of the drive. We did some jeeping in the Jimmy to get to the trees. Once we got out we started searching for the perfect tree...Max loved hiding behind and in the trees.
After a while the freezing temperatures started getting to me and my sock-less feet but we were still having a good time. Finally we heard Chad yell that they had found their tree. Max thought it was pretty great trying to drag the tree to the car and he even stood on top of the Suburban with Steven.
By the time we had gotten to the tree we were just as close to Lehi as we were to Tooele and we could see a dark cloud hanging over I-80 so we went home from the south and had no problems. Max, the boy who was SO worried about all the "damaged" cars said to me, "Mommy, where are the damaged cars? I want to see more damaged cars." We need to get that kid to a demolition derby!

We made it home just in time to get the kids in their PJ's for Grandma and head out to Orem to go out with some friends. It was a really fun night with Derek and Jennie...it always is, just wish we could get together more often.

If you want to see more about our adventure check out At Your Leisure Sunday the 20th at 9am on ABC 4 and 10 pm on CW30 or you can watch it in HD online starting Thursday night at 10pm.

My Black Friday Miracle

2009-11-27T14:25:00.000-08:00

*Product names may have been changed to protect the innocence of my children and their Christmas experience.

In the dark of the morning around 3:30am I awoke to a slim fast and the Late Late show with Jimmy Fallon. I skipped my hygienic rituals and ran off to the store. Toys that R Us was my first stop with a line 10 miles long. It had opened at midnight and my friend who had been their since 10:45 was standing in line with at least and hour wait. Waiting in line was not an option so I had to skedaddle to get the Best Buy for my laptop computer. I arrived a half hour before the madness began. My laptop was specifically not a door buster so I waited with patience in my warm car. When the line started moving I ran to the end to find that despite the words in the add they had given out golden tickets for my most needed desire. I sort of complained to the guy at the door and then he told me that if the blessed shoppers who had the ticket to computer bliss did not pick it up by 9am then it just might be mine! I left feeling hopeful but also disappointed, could I get back at nine? Would someone decide not to buy this great find?

At 5:15 I headed to wait for Target to open but when I arrived the shoppers had gone wild and my next hot item that belongs in the house of Weston had all been put in the carts of the shoppers that knew the store opened at 5. Disappointed again I went off to Wallmart to meet my in-laws who got me hooked on this mess. I got what I needed and was holding out hope that sometime before Christmas I'd find another good deal. Deep down inside I thought, oh well, I will spend $700 less dollars on this fateful Friday. We went back to Target and got the less exciting things that I needed and stood in the check out line. While waiting I noticed a shopper that held my desire! I asked where he got it, if he'd been there since 5 and he said, "Why no, a nice lady didn't want it anymore and gave it to me." While waiting in line I eyed this man and wondered why I wasn't there when they wanted to give this away. I hoped he would decide that this items wasn't for him and he'd hand it right over before the lines end. When what to my wondering shoulder should appear than a tap for the NICEST teenager dear! "The QZ you wanted..."she started to say..."someone just set it down over there to give it away!" I ran and grabbed this 32" QZ with a huge smile from ear to ear! My SIL and MIL clapped their hands with joy, my day was looking up, a miracle had appeared! I told this young girl she was now my BEST FRIEND and that when I next go to yoga I would focus on her so happiness would come her way. She blushed and said your welcome...OH what a NICE girl!!!

Off to the Navy that surely isn't young we went for a sweater for my SIL's dear son. I found a few things and was still feeling euphoric when my cute little friend from Target walked by. I thanked her again and then we were on our way to Roberts for some more fabulous holiday shopping!

After Roberts we headed to Best Buy with a prayer in our hearts that I could replace my computer that had recently died. I waited in a line for the non-claimed door busters listening to the crazy people behind me say, "What is this line for? I don't want anything particular but ooo ooo ooo, this line looks like fun." I hoped some random person wouldn't get my laptop. The adrenaline was kicking in as I wondered "Do they have anymore?" After thirty minutes I was told that if no more that 3 people in front of me wanted this same laptop that it would be mine! After another 15 minutes and the people in front of me having 3 cards declined I waited for a manager to void their order and I walk out of the store with joy in my heart and a laptop in hand!

I ended the day with a yummy breakfast at MiMi's with great company followed by a trip back to Walmart, Target, Toys R Us, Bed Bath and Beyond, and Payless for a few more things. I thought this day would be a bust but it ended up GREAT! Ah the suspense of black Friday is better than any amusement park (other than the drastic price difference...laptops and QZ's cost much more than a ticket for a ride!).

I unloaded the car and took a short nap...

...and now I sit here with my brand new laptop. I'm still hygienically challenged but what good is a shower when your beaming with excitement!

Us

2009-11-11T13:38:00.000-08:00

So I've updated you on the kids and here is what's going on with us:

Steven:

Work

Work

Work and more work

Things are BUSY at his office. They have been changing to High Definition which adds several new steps to the week along with posting the show to the website one day earlier then they usually would get it done. Plus, they are now doing a radio show. To add to the insanity they are currently pitching an idea for a new show that we all have high hopes of getting the green light. This show will equal at least 2 more employees to lighten Stevens load (we hope) as well as a raise (we hope).

Reading comic books
Doing graphics for a friends website (as well as mine)
Teaching Gospel Doctrine (and he is GREAT at it!)
Playing with the kids
Taking me on dates

Becky:

Cleaning
Washing
Folding
Vacuuming
Playing with kids
Walking Max to school
Watching Zac
Lost my job watching Amber because of government budget cuts
Being less mediocre
Thinking of trying out for Fiddler on the Roof
Maintaining some sort of social life via facebook
Planning enrichment activities
Helping out with the ward Choir as Choir assistant (yep, I think it's a made up calling too)
Working out but not lately because I've been sick
Swimming with Elese at Parent & Tot swimming lessons
Feeding my mom and brother only to have them complain that the food is either too spicy (mom) or has too many veggies (Blake)
Reading my scriptures daily
writing Max's talk for church on Sunday
Loosing weight

Us:

Working on having a happier home by having daily family scripture study, family night and family home evening.
Hoping to someday get a house but me loosing my job has slowed that plan down some. (Cross your fingers for Stevens raise!)
Going on dates every Friday night
Teaching the kids to help mommy clean up after dinner
Getting out of debt
Praying together
Working on going to the temple more

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-24T18:32:00.000-07:00

Elese

2009-10-11T15:08:00.000-07:00

Now it's Elese's turn. Here are somethings about her. If you didn't read about Max click here.

Former favorite word: Awesome (if anyone else would say it she would say, "Don't say that!"
Doesn't fear spiders-after the flood the kids slept on the front room floor. One night at around midnight Elese calmly walked into our room and said, "Mommy, there is a spider in my bed." We thought she was just being a stinker so Steven told her it was OK but to go back to bed. Elese said, "NO! There is a spider in my bed." Sure enough, there was a spider in her bed.
She is Dora Explorer
She is Rachel (our babysitter)
She is Diego and/or Alisia and/or a Jaguar
She is a princess
Lucifer the cat in Cinderella is currently her greatest fear because "He went like this" (imagine her cheeks all puffed up) "With that mouse and tried to eat it." She refuses to watch the movie alone now.
When the little rascals dress up like Amish men she thinks they are monsters.
She wants to be just like her brother
Crawdads are very cool and not scary
Jumping off things is an adventure for her.
Has gotten better about throwing fits in the library...
...although she has gotten worse about throwing fits in fabric stores
Daddy is a prince and she makes him dance with her
Lip gloss is the coolest thing since a sippy cup.
Being 5 is the biggest accomplishment ever!
Dropping Max off at school provides her a great opportunity to run around and report back to mommy which girls have princess backpacks and which ones have Dora backpacks.
She likes to sing songs (ie. "lalala, I'm a princess..dododo...I'm dancing like a princess...ladeda")
Nursery is the best place ever!
BABIES! Oh MY BABIES! Real babies, toy babies, big babies(2 years +) and even little babies. "It's a baby! Mommy I want to see the baby! What's the babies name? Look mommy it's a pink baby! Look mommy it's a blue baby! Hold me like a baby! Look mommy I'm a pink baby! Goo goo ga ga. WAAAAHHH"
Loves her Grandmas
Screams at Uncle Blake if he looks at her (Ah, just like her mommy used to)
Got her first hair cut
Thinks the bank is a sucker store and the Lake is for throwing things in.
Enjoys helping daddy cook breakfast and mommy cook everything else.
Refers to Lagoon as "The Goon"

Funny Things she has said or done

12/20/2008 Elese had been bitten by a dog (don't worry, not a bad bite) she said, "Doggy eat you."

7/24/2009 Max had just said, "I love you Daddy!" and then Elese said, "And I love Mama!" In the previous days she didn't want anything to do with daddy, mommy was her favorite.

8/3/2009 We were coming home from a neighborhood party and Elese wanted to stay so she started crying and throwing a HUGE fit. Suddenly she just stopped, looked at me and said, "Mommy, I'm fake crying."

September '09 A new little girl in our ward kept looking at us in sacrament meeting so Elese asked about her...I told her that her name is Grace and that she is in Kindergarten like Max. Elese looked at me with total amazement and said, "She's 5?!!!" as if being 5 was the most spectacular thing to be.

10/11/2009 while visiting another sacrament meeting and everyone laughed at something that had been said, "This Sacrament is funny!"

10/11/2009 We have Sacrament meeting last and the ward we visited today has it first so when we went in Elese got very worried and said, "Mommy! I forgot to go to Nursery!"

During the flood in our basement we had to cut out a piece of drywall in the kids closet, this created a hole that opened up into my moms portion of the basement. We have a door with a deadbolt that separates our space from hers. One day Elese was REFUSING to take her nap. She was having trouble because during the flood clean up she had to sleep on her mattress in the front room. I got fed up with it and dead bolted our front door (so she couldn't escape and wander the neighborhood) and then went through the door that links to my moms and locked her in our apartment while I sat on the steps and calmly said, "Get back in bed and I'll come back in." She SCREAMED and cried for about 30 seconds and then got quiet. I was so relived and thought she had gotten in bed to go to sleep so I was about to go back in when I heard a noise coming from my mom's side of the basement. She had gone into her demolished bedroom and crawled through the door. I was so mad yet so amazed that she was smart enough to think to do that.

Max

2009-10-11T12:26:00.000-07:00

So here is a quick (hopefully) update of what has been going on with Max this summer up to now.

Best Friend Reed, moved to Mexico
Started Kindergarten
Going to be starting Karate (hopefully)
Wants to be an Astronaut when he grows up...
...or a race car driver
Hopes to build a Speed Racer car in his spare time
Wants to paint daddy's car like the speed racer
ALWAYS tells mommy where he is going
Likes to eat fish
Favorite color (yep color, no "s") Red, white, blue and black
Does his homework everyday after school
Trying hard to learn to read
Thinks Crawdads are YUMMY
Loves taking random pictures of his toys
Thinks the world is coming to an end if he doesn't have friends to play with
Likes girls but blushes if they show him attention
Favorite yearly event: Father and Sons camp out
Enjoys fishing with daddy at Fish Lake
Makes silly faces when you take his picture
Loved eating at African Ice (shaved ice) as often as possible
Does not like being skinny and the mention of it will cause him to cry for a half hour screaming "I don't want to be skinny! I don't want to be fat but I don't want to be skinny!"

Funny Things he has said/done recently

One day while I was at work he asked my mom to help him write a note. This is what it said:

REED, Don't hur Ryan. He is our best friend. Forgive Ryan. Forget about that.

My personal favorite: (4/6/2009) "Mommy, you're my favorite person in the family because your pretty."

(8/30/2009) "Mommy, my elbow is almost resurrected!"

He said this sometime this summer (2009) to Elese, "I'm bigger than you because I work out more."

Sister Taylor (aka Max's "other Grandma") saw us walking to school on Max's first day of kindergarten and she told him to be the best kid in school. While passing her house on the way home form school Max proclaimed, "I was the best kid in school!"

Ready Set Go!!!

2009-09-23T15:34:00.001-07:00

So I'm all set for my giveaway tomorrow on my new website! Well, sort of. For some reason when I add a link to the post it adds a big space. For example... "learn more about this site by clicking here". Isn't that weird? I REALLY don't want to have to change my theme so I hope we can figure it out. I don't want to postpone the giveaway so I'm just going to post it anyway, even with the glitches, I hope it doesn't reflect badly on me. By helping me pass along the word about www.mediocremom.com you TOO can be entered into the giveaway! :)Information will be posted here (see how that's SUPOSED to work?) tomorrow morning.

Sneak Peak

2009-09-16T19:48:00.000-07:00

So, you want a sneak peak at my new website? I just need to come up with some fabulous give away. Steven is hoping he can score a free trip from his work that I can give away. If you have any suggestions or would like to donate to my cause :) let me know.

So it's not completely finished. Our computer is still out of commission which means that Steven hasn't had a chance to fix the font and size of the title and little tweaks in the logo. I'm hoping to have it all up and good to go with a giveaway and all by next Monday and then I will start posting October 1st.

Check it out if you please and let me know what you think.

www.mediocremom.com

Are you Mediocre?

2009-09-05T16:47:00.000-07:00

I think that every mom (and every human being for that matter) feels mediocre 50% of the time and less than mediocre 40% or the time with higher than average amounts of confidence the remaining 10% of the time. I for one don't want to continue feeling mediocre so I'm going to try and lessen my mediocrity as a mom by setting simple goals for myself. Because I believe that most women feel the same way I'm starting a website just for moms. The launch date is set (I hope I make it) for October 1st. The idea is to give mom's something to do every day to help them feel like better moms. I'm getting ideas and having lots of ideas just randomly jump into my head. If I wasn't setting this up as a website I wouldn't be quite so motivated to actually do the things I'm suggesting to my readers. I do not expect my readers to do everyday's task..life happens...I'm sure I won't (Heck I'd be happy with once a week) but I'm still very excited for the small changes and acts of playfulness that will help my relationship with my children and husband.

My computer is still having issues and that is why I haven't been blogging. I would have posted the logo (thanks babe for being SO talented!) but it is on my computer that may or may not freeze up at any moment. Sorry, that was a little off track. Anyway, this is something that I can blog about that doesn't involve posting pictures (other than the logo of course).

So, I'll give you all the domain address once things are a little more presentable (Most likely Oct. 1st 2009) but for now you will have to be satisfied with the title of my blog, The Mediocre Mom's Guide to Greatness (Activities for you and your kids).

I will blog again...

2009-07-30T13:24:00.000-07:00

So I still want to blog about some of the cute things Max and Elese have been doing lately...(ie Elese getting potty trained...she pooped in the potty two days in a row but in her underwear today..stinker...she also intentionally peed on her bed last night just before bedtime) the only problem is that my computer keeps freezing and my outlook is acting strange. I don't have access to all my notes about what I wanted to blog about...not to mention pictures.

So this is just a random update that I will soon update my blog. I'm sitting here at work waiting on a text message to tell me what I'm supposed to fedex and then I'm going to go home so I thought this would be a good time to update my blog about updateing my blog.

Also, I think my blog is booring looking. There are so many cute blogs out there but if I understand it right, in some cases people pay someone to design them...I'm not willing to do that. Any tips on how I can get my blog looking more cutesie for Free?

Double Jerk

2009-07-21T10:35:00.000-07:00

So my collage with Kyle, & Aaron and the Hot Box Dancers was also supposed to have this picture on it.
I was seriously so distracted while I was doing this. Grr...This is Wendy. Wendy was my source of entertainment throughout the show. She was the one that I could always strike up a conversation with. One of Wendy's talents is that she can look good in any hat...except Richards but I think he's the only one that can pull that hat off.

There are lots of other people I didn't write things about that I adore too but I didn't have pictures or time to write about all of them.

I'm a jerk

2009-07-21T09:51:00.001-07:00

This is Bruce. I put a picture of him in my last post and didn't even tell you about him! In my defense Elese woke up from her nap and was throwing a fit mid-post so I was a little distracted. Bruce and I were in Fiddler on the roof together when I was 14 years old. Despite my friend Tonii and I being beyond Obnoxious he was still very kind to us. :) He even gave us a ride home a couple times. I thought he was such a nice guy that I wanted to date his son Andy who was my age. It was so much fun to work with him again!

You can bet that he's doin' it for some Doll.

2009-07-20T13:36:00.000-07:00

Guys and Dolls was a blast. Honestly the best part of being in a show is getting to know people that you wouldn't necessarily get to know in another setting. I played Several different Characters. First off I was a tourist, touring New York City with my two young boys. For the record I would have been 14 when Matthew was born.Caleb: Cutest 12 year old ever. He has this little boyish smile that would make any 12 year old girl instantly fall in puppy love with him. Too bad he didn't use it for the picture. Also, his mom was the music director and his dad makes the BEST Popcorn ever! They have ruined me to microwave popcorn.

Matthew: turned 15 this month, I think. That is all I really need to say. He is a teenage boy. Full of energy and NEVER sitting still. (Son of Nicely Nicely and nephew of Rusty Charlie)

I also dated a lot of Random "Guys".

David: The Jerk took me on a date to the Hot Box and gawked at the Hot Box Dancers the entire time. In real life he is a very sweet guy that many girls had a crush on. Ladies he's single!

Brandon: Brandon was a pretty good date but he wouldn't let me dance. I called him a bore and he thought I called him a whore. After that every night on stage I would randomly call him a whore. He's my cute friend Amber's boy friend...

Richard: Likes to ZUMBA!!! I was thrilled to find a fellow Zumbaite in the cast. He also was dating one of the Hot Box dancers. Together we would try not to get hit with flying pearls. We liked to discuss the pros and cons of the X-Men Films.

Corbin: Was the first person to introduce himself to me at call backs. He's very kind and spiritual. He, like his nephew Matthew, doesn't sit still much. If you just think about getting a bottle of water he's up getting it for you before the words, "I'm thirsty" completely leave your mouth.
You can always expect a few pre-Madonas in a cast but not in this one.

Britany: Was fun to talk about her dating adventures with and was the queen of "That's what she said."

Keith: Was Mr. Nice Guy. Almost every night he would show up with food from Costco and water for everyone. I'm sure he spent a lot of $ on all of it! Plus his mom and sister past away during the run of the show and he worked double shifts coming to rehearsal during his only waking hours. He never complained about it. What a Nice Guy!

I know, I know. My blog posts have been very long and possibly boring lately so just a few more random things.

Hot Box Dancers & Joey Biltmore: The hot box Dancers were all very nice but I won't take the time to tell you about all of them and their wardrobe malfunctions. Joey Biltmore/Jon is a very cute boy and quite the dancer.

Kyle the Flasher! Kyle made my night. He played a waiter and would randomly walk up to a group of girls and lift up his apron. It was all very PG but hilarious.

Aaron the Booby Pinner. Heather/the Bag Lady (So sad I don't have a picture of her!) would always knock before coming into the dressing room so she finally made up a password. It was swordfish. During the Havanah Scene some of the girls needed to pin their bras to their dresses so they wouldn't fall down so Alyssa became the designated "Booby Pinner." Aaron eventually found out the password and would stand at the girls door and say in his deep voice "Swordfish". This caused us to changed the password to "Booby Pinner." Aaron also really likes Scrubs and would sing Guy Love to me.

I may have said this before...most of the cast got the swine flu during the run of the show so we only had about 2 performances with the entire cast. The last two nights Steve (Nicely Nicely) and Ira (Arivide) were both out with Pneumonia. Vic Groves the producer of the show and husband of our director, Michelle, stepped in for Ira and even sang his solo. Then they tracked down Brady (a guy who had played Nicely Nicely 7 years ago) to fill in for Steve. It was an adventure and I'm glad we had such great people willing to fill in.

Stupid Rain!

2009-07-05T14:12:00.000-07:00

While the rain has helped my garden grow and minimized my allergies it has also caused me much grief. The Sugar Factory Playhouse is literally an old Sugar Factory. Back stage is outside, so when it rains not only can the audience hear it pounding on the factory but the actors have to hide out in the hot dressing rooms to avoid getting soaked. So I wasn't loving the rain but it got worse...

Because of the play I had switched my work schedule a little. While at work on June 11th I got a call from my sister-in-law Crystal. She started out asking me if it had rained at my work. It had, in fact it had gotten so bad that my boss asked me to turn off the computer for fear that it would crash. Then she proceeded to tell me that Max went downstairs for a toy and found a sopping wet carpet. Now for those of you keeping tabs on us, you may remember that last summer Max and Logan (my nephew) thought it would be fun to put the hose in our furnace vent. $1500.00 later we had new carpet and fortunately not a new furnace. Steven and I have been trying to get out of debt for a while now and we now see the light at the end of the tunnel so as you can imagine we were not thrilled about the prospect of having to buy new carpet again in the same month we had planned to pay off last years new carpet.

So...I came home and sure enough the carpet was soaked. Steven came home and together we moved furniture, used a neighbors wet/dry vac and tore up some of the carpet. Everyone kept telling me that it came in through the window but I was skeptical because the paint hadn't gotten wet but we proceeded to clean up as if that was the case. Steven returned to work and I continued to run the wet/dry vac. Once the vacuum had shocked me twice I decided to stop and blog about my frustrations. I took pictures of everything and thought it would be good therapy until I discovered that I couldn't get my photos off my camera. Grrr... But now it is working so here is a peak at what my house looked like.
I put the kids mattresses in the front room for them to sleep in and then went to rehearsal while my mom watched the kids and Steven worked late. The next morning I was pleased to find that the floor was completley dry! Hooray. After my shower I went back in to rearange some things and the floor was wet again! We called someone in to look at it and found out that it WAS coming in through the window but it wasn't running down the wall. The dirt level in the window well was too high so when it rained the water would soak in through the window. There is a crack on the window sill so the water was going through that, running down the concreate and seeping up through the carpet.

So here is how we fix it.

dig out 2 feet of dirt in the window well and replace that dirt with gravel but don't fill it all the way to the top. (DONE as of yesturday)
Tear up the carpet & Padding and put it out in the sun to dry. Well thanks to the rain it just sat in the garage to dry. (DONE)
Cut out the damaged Dry wall (DONE) Max LOVED this part!

Repair the Dry wall (1st coat DONE)
Have the neighbor who installs carpet tell us if we can save our carpet (Not done, he is out of town)
Have our neighbor reinstall our carpet and pad or buy new and have it done. (Not done)
Put our house back together again. (Not done)

So now you know where we currently stand in our flood situation. Hopefully we can get the rest of it taken care of the first part of this week.

Fun with the Hales

2009-07-05T14:05:00.000-07:00

My sister-in-law and her girls have been in town for this entire month and will be here for the rest of the summer. They've stayed a few days here with my mom but most of their time with their other Grandma and aunts. My little niece Brooklyn (Boo) is 6 and Max thinks she is SO cool! They have had a lot of fun together playing, reading (Brook knows how to read and Max is VERY impressed), slipping and sliding, and of course the had a fun sleepover at Grandmas.

Jessica and Ashley have had fun playing with the kids in the neighborhood and making up yummy treats like homemade oreo cookie and strawberry smoothies.

Steven and I enjoyed some Red Mango and Five Guys Burgers and Fries with Evan and Crystal. Even drove up the girls and then went back home for work. He flew up this week to surprise Crystal for their anniversary. It's been a lot of fun having them here for family dinners and just to hang out with.

June

2009-07-05T13:42:00.000-07:00

Ok so things have been insane around here! I thought I would just do a quick (well as quick as it can be) post with a summary of what has gone on and then I will do a few more with more details.

So June was a disaster and here are just a few of the crazy things that have happened. Oh, and most of these things are just little dumb things but when they are piled up on top of each other it makes for very chaotic living arrangements.

Guys and Dolls rehearsals started every night.
Steven was working late for an extra project at work (Thanks mom for all your help)
Mike upgraded out computer (Thanks Mike). Now while this is a good thing it is also a little frustrating. I wanted to blog about the flood (more on that later) but because of the upgrade my dumb photo program wouldn't work the way it used to. I didn't have time to mess with it so I just had wait until now to figure out how to get it working.
Our toilet seat broke. Just the top part but it's still very annoying. The kids couldn't stand on it to brush their teeth so we had to bring in both of our step stools that I now trip over every time I go into the bathroom. Also, one night while getting ready for the show my make up brushes fell off the counter and into the toilet because it had no lid (it still doesn't, we need to go to Home Depot).
Comcast cut our antenna. So for the last 4 years we have just been using a cable wire to aquire our TV. Blake moved in and got cable and arranged for us to get it down stairs as well. When comcast came to install it they cut the cable and lost it in the wall. Then they just said, "Maybe your brother can fix it." And left. It took 2 1/2 weeks to get someone here to fix it. Oh, and they left a big hole in our wall where they tried to thread the cable through.
Then our DVD player finally gave out. So when the kids woke up in the morning wanting to watch cartoons they were SOL...and so were we. Cooking dinner, showering, doing dishes and laundry are all so much harder when you can't designate that time for that days movie/TV time.
The kids bedroom flooded. I will do an entirely different entry on that disaster.
I got the swine flu. Yep, curly tail and all. :) Fortunatly I wasn't quarintined or anything.
My mom spent a week in Ireland. I was very happy for her, jealous in fact, but OH how I could have used her help during all the craziness.
Steven and I had our 9 year anniversary. Because of the play this consisted of a lunch at the Olive Garden that was very yummy. Although I wasn't feeling so hot. This was the day before I started getting a fever.

Dispite all this we survived. I just kept telling myself (and Steven) this is just a trial. We need to just be stong and positive and show the Lord that we can handle it. Things have settled down now that they play is over and we are slowly getting the house put back together.

Audience Favorite!

2009-05-23T21:13:00.001-07:00

We won audience favorite for our 48 hour film! At the awards ceremony the host said, "Who do you think won best picture?" and someone yelled out, "Holiday Inn!" We didn't win best picture but we didn't expect to. Comedy's don't win awards. However we are VERY pleased that we had a fan and that the majority of a sold out screening of 12 films voted ours the best. Pretty cool! So without further adieu...other than a warning: Sometimes when in the right mood I would be offended by something like this so view at your own risk if you have problems with Bleeps and Beeps that cover up potentially bad language. For the record fork doesn't really need to be bleeped out....

That's a wrap!

2009-05-15T21:33:00.000-07:00

We finished filming for the 48 hour film project last night around 6:30pm. We were surprised that it didn't go as late as it has in years past. After filming we had dinner and went back to get a head start on editing. So far it is looking really good. I can't wait to see the finished film! This is going to be one GREAT mocumentary.

Newsies

2009-05-11T17:26:00.001-07:00

"And I was a star for one whole minute!" Apparently I made the paper. Here is a link of some video about the protest we went to for Steven's shoot. http://166.70.44.68/multimedia/2009/ATV%20PROTEST/index.html

Near the end you can see a couple shots of us. I'm in the peach shirt in the ATV without a driver (Steven is standing next to it).

Mothers Day Adventure

2009-05-10T14:13:00.000-07:00

Early last week Steven called to tell me he would have to be filming over Mothers Day weekend and that he wanted us to come along. We left Friday evening around 5:30pm and headed to our hotel in Kanab. On the way we stopped and Steven's boss bought the kids helmets. Max couldn't stop talking about staying at a hotel and Elese couldn't stop talking about wearing her helmet.

There is a beautiful trail in Kanab that is being closed down by the BLM. Honestly, I don't know a lot of the details, but this I do know; It is a beautiful area and I would NEVER want to hike it. With this closure that is really the only option left to enjoy this area! It is a 25 mile road that leads in and out of a river. These are some of the sights that will be missed by those not willing or able to hike into this area.
When we first started the ride it was very dusty! I was happy Steven was driving so I could just close my eyes and avoid the dust. All of us looked like we had just gotten very bad spray on tans. Once we got to the water it was much more enjoyable...except of course when Steven would try is hardest to splash as much as possible so that I would have to attempt to dry off my glasses on a soaking wet shirt. It didn't take too long until I started imediatly putting my hand over my glasses when I saw that water was near.

There was a warning on the ATV that we rode in that said you shouldn't use your arm or leg to keep the ATV from rolling over. I thought that it was a dumb warning. Other than Superman who would actually even think they had the strength to stop an ATV from rolling with their hand? Then I realized that everytime we started to tip a little I would instinctivly put my arm out to brace myself. So...I'm sure that warning has saved many arms and legs from perminate damage. After several hours of stop and go while Steven got shots and interviews we stopped for lunch. Elese really needed this break badly! For a little girl that begged to wear her helmet the entire drive to Kanab she sure didn't like actually having it on! Max on the other hand loved that he looked like a storm trooper and wasn't as anxious to take his helmet off. Chad (Steven's boss), had drivin the Suburban up to the end of the trail. He wanted the kids and I to enjoy the entire trail so that we wouldn't have to turn around half way to make it back to the car before dark. He started at the other end and we were following another group of men who were mostly named Steve. One of the Steves was our potographer for our family picture and also my model so I could show you an ATV riding through the river. All of the men were very nice and willing to stop whenever Steven needed to shoot something. I told Steve (my model, not my husband), that he was going to be all over my blog. At that point he took my camara from me and started taking pictures of us so that we could also be in my blog. This is Steve riding through the river (he enjoyed driving the the water and splashing his friends).

Once we caught up with Chad our group of guides went off on their own while Steven took the kids to play in the mud. I was a party pooper and just took pictures.
After getting all muddy I took over driving the ATV. I love it! It's so much fun! It's kind of like a roller coaster ride but scarier. On a roller coaster you know that the car isn't going to fall off the track. On an ATV you are never quite sure if you have chosen a path that may or may not cause you to tip over and break your arm trying to save yourself. I really enjoyed driving and I love making the ride as bumpy as possible. Elese, however, does not like a bumpy ride, espesally when she missed her nap. So...Steven climbed in back with her and held her nice and still so that she was able to fall asleep for about a half hour. Max sat up front with me and held on for dear life. He looked very nervous but happy at the same time.

In 1952 3 people were driving near the Canyon (Grand Staircase) in their brand new Chevy when their car stalled. They had just crossed the narrow bridge when this happened and were on their way up a hill. The car began to roll backwards and off the bridge into the canyon. It got stuck. One of the passengers jumped out in time and surrvived but the other two were killed. They were unable to remove the vehicle so they repaird and built a wider bridge on top of the car. Chad drove us past this on the way home. I wish that I had taken a picture that would show how far of a drop it was but I was getting a little panicked standing next to the edge just to get this picture.

After that we headed home. We stopped in Panguitch and ate at The Cowboys Smokehouse. It was YUMMY! Max slept just fine in the car. Elese woke up about every 10 minutes screaming. I slept off and on in 10 minute incriments in between the screams, while Chad drove and he and Steven visited. We got home at 1:00 this morningm, showered (we were DUSTY!) and went to bed.

This made for a very adventurous Mothers Day weekend. I had so much fun watching my kids smile and just having fun with them. Too often I am worried about dishes, laundry, and everything else to take the time to just have fun. It reminded me that I need to be a mother, not just a chef, laundrous, personal shopper, accountant, dr....and so forth. It also reminded me how greatful I am for Steven's job that he loves and his boss who is willing to let me and the kids tag along.

Justice League

2009-05-06T14:45:00.001-07:00

Yesterday Max said I HAD to come outside and see something. This is what I found...

Now you may be wondering why I titled this Justice League. After they showed me the potato bugs Max told me that they are named after all of the Justice League. The only problem was that they had an extra bug so it was named Spiderman. While listening to them play I heard Max say, "Spiderman is my favorite one." Then Reed said"Max, look! Wonder Woman is attacking Superman!!!" followed by, "Wait, Stop it Flash!"

Style?

2009-05-05T11:59:00.001-07:00

This is Max's spring time "style". Shorts and a sweater for the 2nd day in a row. His winter style was jeans and short sleeve shirts...he told me so.

The Heumann Experience

Neighborhood cooking Group

Tree Climbing *July 2011*

Every Day Food Storage

Monson Family Reunion *July 22nd-24th*

Jedi Samuel *July 20th 2011*

Max's First Plane Ride *July 15th-17th 2011*

Wheeler Farm *July 8th 2011*

Summer Camp *July 2011*

Boys will be Boys *July 2nd, 2011*

A Day at Home *June 24th, 2011*

11 years! *June 23rd, 2011*

48 Hour Film Project *June 19, 2011*

Bikes and Comics *June 8, 2011*

Film Contest *June 3rd, 2011*

Bike Ride *May 31st, 2011*

Sam's 1st family vacation *May 20th-22nd 2011*

School Choir *May 4th 2011*

Brotherly (and sisterly) Love *May 2011*

Samuel's Baby Blessing and Grandma's 70th Birthday *May 1st, 2011

Easter *April 24th, 2011*

Everything Harry Potter *Dec 2010-June 2011*

Fun at home with Sam *April 2011*

Sam's photo shoot *April 9th, 2011*

The birth of my little Sam Bam *April 5th, 2011*

Preparing for the new addition *March 2011*

My Silly Girl *February & March 2011*

Max's Birthday *Feb. 19 2011*

The story of Elese's hair *Feb-March 2011*

Science Project *2/5/11*

New Years Eve *Dec. 31st, 2010*

Christmas Day 2010 *Dec. 25th, 2010*

Christmas Eve 2010 *Dec. 24, 2010*