November 2014

November 1st

Max is getting all grown up. Not only did he go trick or treating with friends last night but he's started sleeping in, staying up until 9 or later, and getting stinky because of football.

 

Today was Max's playoff game against Brighton. Last time they played them Brighton won by 1 point after lots of bad calls from the refs. This was their chance for redemption and both teams came to play. It was an intense game. In the end Jordan lost, once again by 1 point. 

 

It was a very windy day and it was a sandy field. I can still feel a film of dirt on my face. Elese chased a very happy Olivia around the dirt filed.  Grandma Heumann came to the game to watch Max play.

 Max wants to remember that he "caught really good at practice today".

 

November 5th

After several postponements I finally got my new van. It needed new tires and they had to order them. Then the hubcaps were locked so they couldn't put on the new tires. Then it didn't pass safety because the sensor was broken so they had to fix that. I was slightly frustrated because I was so excited to start driving it but on the other hand I was VERY thankful that it was going to be in tip top shape when I got it. 

 

The kids love the new van and like to tell everyone about it. They are also comparing how many times they have each ridden in it and that it's not fair if someone else has spent more time in it than them. 

 

Sam said something about the van, I can't remember what, but it reminded me of one of the cute phrases he says, "I think so not." I think I've said this before but he also says, "on the next day". This can mean yesterday, tomorrow, a week ago, in a year...really anything and if you don't guess exactly what day he means he gets frustrated. He's super cute.

 

Sam: "Elese, I count to 3 then you need to play with me. 1, 2, 3. Ok, now you need to play with me." Elese: "No." Sam: "Yes, me count to three. Now you need to play with me." He is devastated that it didn't work so Olivia gave him a big hug. I hope he doesn't realize that he can now say no after I count to three.

 

Sam loves coloring pictures at the chiropractor's office.  Well...kind of. He wants to do it perfectly but he can't yet so he wants me to do it for him.  As a compromise we take turns.  Then he displays all his pictures on his bedroom wall.  Some of them are a bit risque. 

He also likes to take pictures with my phone.  This is me cleaning Blake's house.

 

 

November 6th

Lately Sam is always saying, "When I get a little bit bigger." So thinks like, "I like red. When I get a little bit bigger I like blue." ...I go poo poo in the potty...I like bananas when I get a little bit bigger...

Sam made this cute turkey at school.  Also, he is always scratching himself.

 Watching Dora ... For a minute. I'm always going and going but I took a few minutes to sit with the littles while dinner simmered.

Once dinner was complete we all sat at the table.  Things are a bit crowded with Grandma living with us and Olivia no longer sitting in a high chair.

 

November 10th

Max gave all his money 26$ to pennies for patients. More on that in a few days.

 

November 12th

We went on a walk today and winter is for sure on its way. Liv looked super cute all bundled up and Sam wanted to wear his superman costume. When I asked if he was cold he said, "No, me just superman and superman no get cold." His red ears tell a different story. 

 Liv didn't like the cold much but was happy to see barking dogs and started making happy noises when we got inside. It was 28 degrees. 

 

Liv has been down lately. She isn't feeling 100% and points into her mouth when I ask if she's ok. I think she may be teething. She fell over on the conch and just laid there. 

 We also had our old couches picked up for sandy clean up today. We've had them for over 14 years plus they were used to begin with.  It was nice to say goodbye to them. When my mom moved in we got some of her old couches.  Sam and Olivia enjoyed watching them get taken away.

Steven and I did an interview with Carol Tuttle about the marriage relationship. This is Steven and a quote from it from her website.

November 13th

About 50% of my conversations with sam start with this, "Mommy, me wanna tell you somfin'". Then if I can't hear him or am not giving him my full attention he shouts, "Mommy! Me talk in' to you!" If I ever ask him to repeat himself he won't just say what he wanted to tell me he will start all over with "Mommy, me wanna tell you somfin'"  

 

Everyday after school I get an update on pennies for patients. Today Max's class has $143 and Max guessed $153, "I was only $10 off". Then Elese immediately said, "but my class is in second place." Some days they fight about it. It's a little healthy competition.

 

Most of my evenings and during nap times were spent locked up in the office making my Christmas gifts for the kids.  We decided to make homemade gifts for the kids.  I went the very involved and expensive, making quilts route. This is a picture of some of the pieces of Elese's blanket as I was decided how to lay it out.  Because of Elese's random nature, it was a very random pattern.

November 14th

Sam fought his nap today and made a blanket hat.  

 

We opted for a movie rest instead and Olivia wanted to lay down just like her big brother.

 

This was our annual DI run, making space for new toys from Christmas. My kids have so much stuff.

November 15th

Today was the first snow fall. 

 Sam has been asking when it would snow since July. He likes snow. This morning he ran in our room and said something like this, "Daddy, it's snowing. After we eat breakfast, me and you and you and Max and Elese go outside and you build me a snowman. Then me and you and you make a snowball and I throw it at you and it get on my coat. Then you build me a superman snowball and I throw it at you." Now he's running around finding the clothes he wants to wear. He's is bouncing around so excited. I love him."when the snow gets deeper and deeper and deeper you can't see the grass." Not sure that all his dreams can come true unless it snows more.

 

Once he decided to come in he took advantage of all the kitchen chairs in the front room, because I was mopping the floor, by making a train with Grandma.

November 17th

Today mom woke up early (for her) and was even upstairs for breakfast. She's been off a little bit lately. Always in her room with the door closed and rarely upstairs. She says she's fine but for the first two months she was here she was always upstairs with is. She also doesn't even look for or ask for her newspaper. Well at least not daily like she used to.

Anyway today she got a call from her visiting teacher who said she was going to be here at 2:30 to visit. I overheard so I went and got the info. She was writing it on her calendar and then said, "well I better get dressed. So she did. About an hour or two later I reminded her that her visiting teacher was coming soon she said, "oh? That's not today. She's coming another day. Look, I wrote it on the calendar." I pointed out that it was on today's date and she said, "Oh, I guess it's today."

 

Max had his football banquet. He got a towel and a framed picture with all their game scores on it. 

 Coach talked about how Max had courage to play even though he thought he would get hurt. He also said he felt like Max was another son because he is "best friends" with Micah.

It was at Airborne Tramparena. He had a fun time but was upset that he was 1 inch too short to to the obstacle course.

 

 November 19th

Today mom stood by the toaster and waited for her toast to pop. Then realized she'd never put in any bread.

 

November 21st

Olivia Loves eggs! She will eat and eat. So today far she has had 4 bowls.

Elese is preparing for her baptism by reading her scriptures each day.

 

 

November 22nd

Steven's mom had an extra ticket to see Erinn and Kaitie in their school play. She loved it. She was so excited when she got home. I asked if she had fun and said, "Aunt Lithia threw me two packs of smarties!" She also said that Lithia let her give the girls their flowers. She felt so special!

 November 24th

29 car pile up on the I-Sam 

 

November 25th

Olivia now tells me when she is poopy. She pats her diaper and says, "beepbe" aka "poopy".

 Here she is sitting on the changing table with food all over her face.  

 

November 26th

Went to free zoo day today with Tyler whole David was at a job interview. It was packed but we had a good time. The animals were active because the weather was perfect. About 60 degrees. The tiger came right up to the fence and drank some water it was really cool. Olivia liked pointing at the animals.

 

 November 28th

 

Thanksgiving began with the great cranberry catastrophe when Rebecca and grandma forgot to take the cranberry sauce out of the fridge for dinner. Robbinsons and David and Tyler were in town for Thanksgiving.

Then we went shopping until 1 am. We went to JC Penny, Target, Kohls and Walmart. After shopping we went to eat at Belgain waffle. 

 

I got to bed about 2:30am. and then we did family pictures today. Tyler meet us at Murray Park to take some Family pictures.  Steven photoshoped a bit so that all the military and missionary grand kids could make it into the photo.  These are pre-photoshop. The weather was perfect 75 degrees and overcast.

Sam was so excited to see Grandma when we got to the park.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

October 2014

October 2nd

Olivia loved to read scriptures with daddy and the kids. She will stand at Steven's feet and whine until he picks her up. 

Later that day Sam had a field trip at the Fire Station. It was a fun puppet show but he wasn't a huge fan of the little fire engine, it was too loud for him.  He also opted out of going to see the real fire engine because he was afraid it would be too loud.

October 3rd

Olivia's favorite book is Brown Bear Brown Bear what do you see. Sam is sick and said, "Me bless you'd alot!" aka "I sneezed alot" I love his little language and the way he processes things.

October 5th

Olivia wanted to get into the bath so she dove in head first. Steven was getting Sam out when she jumped in.

Sam gets upset if you don't say, "I'm batman" the way he wants you to. He uses different inflections for different batmans (different books) and will say, "no. That batman don't talk like that. He talk like this. 'I'm byat-man!" 

October 7th

Steven had a shoot at asylum 49. It was lots of fun but pretty creepy at first. I was happy I didn't get a bag put over my head. They pulled me in and put me on a hospital bed, covered me with a sheet, and said, "will your friends recognize your scream? If they don't then you have to stay here with us and then go in all by yourself." Then they cut me with a chain saw (for pretend of course). It was fun to feel part of it. I'm not a scardy cat so it was more like acting than being scared. Don't get me wrong, I had my fair share of anxiety, my knees were wobbly and breathing was a bit challenging. Steven and I got separated a few times. Trisha saw a spirit in one of the rooms so that was pretty cool. It is the #1 location in Utah for paranormal activity. After we went through Steven did some interviews. I was just chatting with some of the others in our group (Micha, Trisha, Alishia, Shelise) when a clown came up and started trying to hug me. I thought that was pretty strange and then I heard his voice. It was Steven. Silly handsome husband. It's really cool because the cast are all families and kids and the owner wants to help the kids and is turning the other side of the hospital into a school focusing on the arts. So cool. I was very impressed by the haunted house and the people that run it.

October 10th

Olivia walkingish...
Just after getting out of the shower I heard Max say, "Olivia is getting into mischief. She's Walking!" When Steven and i got down there she was taking a few steps. The big thing was that she would stand right back up and try again. Before today she would just give up and crawl. She doesn't seem to want to crawl unless she is busy playing and wants to take the fastest route. So...we will say that she started walking today OCTOBER 10th. Sam loves having her walk to him. Elese and Max loved it too. She would walk to them and they would give her big hugs. She was very proud of herself and loved the extra hugs and kisses she was getting.

Since she was deciding to walk she also decided that it would be a good time to learn to ride a big wheel. She would walk while sitting on it and zoom all around the driveway.

 

October 13th

Our Pass of All Passes added Hollywood Connection so we went there as a family to have some fun.  It was a lot of fun and while everyone else was on the bumper cars Olivia practiced her walking.  

October 15th

Mountain America was giving away pumpkins today. Sam Picked up all The big ones and then decided he wanted a little one. Liv saw him and tried to pick hers up. It was a fun unexpected adventure.

October 17th

Looking back on pictures makes it look like this was a fairly eventful day.  Unfortunately, I didn't write much down about it so I'll let the pictures (and what I remember) tell the story.  

Elese is an amazing big sister.  She painted with Sam.

It seems we went on a walk that was worth documenting.  It is possible that this was the day that the Millers gave us their old Wagon and it instantly became loved by all.

Olivia emptied the drawers she could reach, stood in Tupperware, and played with magnets.  She didn't like that she kept slipping and falling but she would get right back up and put her feet in the Tupperware.

I think I mentioned before that I had auditioned for the Marvelous Wonderettes. The show was not playing so Elese and I have a girls night and went to see it.  It was a fun show and I hope to some day be able to be in it.  She was pretty excited and very goofy.  We held hands and she finally sat still once the show started. 

October 18th
Olivia crawling up the stairs.

My friend and neighbor had twins and I was happy to hold her cute babies so she could have some quiet time to herself, most often it was to run errands or fold laundry.  They would come for an hour or two every Monday.  This went on for a few months.  Olivia loved them, a little too much.

 October 20th

Steven's friend Tyler from work willingly took some family pictures for us.  The kids made it entertaining (?) for him, I'm sure.  Elese was very goofy and thought that getting her picture taken was a little bit uncomfortable. Sam had to go potty and the door was locked. Steven took him off to the woods. When they came back Sam said, "me go pee standing up. Me a big boy." Then I told him to go poop in the potty and he'd be really big. He said, "Me go poop right now, over there!" Pointing where he had just peed. We suggested that he master going in the potty first. Max and Sam found sticks and had fun playing with them. Olivia did not like Tyler but eventually warmed up and would smile with some help from grandma. Grandma was in the picture with us so we could send Christmas cards to her friends too.

 This is our goofy photo. Which incidentally, Olivia had the same face in most the photos.

My handsome boys.

The Girls

Elese trying to be serious.

Olivia trying to be happy.

Us.

The kids

Happy family

Happy family + Grandma

More craziness

October 21st

 Me: "You can just go sit there and be in awe about how Blake can see now." (he had just had lasik surgery)
Mom: "What did you say?!!?"
Me: "You can just go sit there and be in awe about how Blake can see now."

Mom: "Oh, I thought you said, 'you can just go sit there and be senile'"

I was telling sam that he has to go to bed early. He said, "I gets scared in bed tonight so I get up and stay up." Max said, "No Sam, it's ok. Grandma will stay up stairs so you won't be scared." Sam, "No Max!!! Me get scared to-night and stay up!" He was already preparing his excuse so he could get up and see Grandma Heumann when she came to babysit.  

October 22nd

On September first my neighbor told me she was looking for someone to watch her kids at night while she works. She said she was going to meet someone on Craigslist and to send her girls home (they were here playing). Hailey is Elese's age but one year older in school and Brooke is 5 and comes to play too. They are in my primary. I love them. I did not want them to go to sleep at some strangers house. I called Steven in to talk to me. I told him what was going on and that I felt we should have them stay at our house. It is about 1-3 times a week and she pays me $24 a night. I'm saving up for a day at the spa. It's been a great opportunity to serve them and really grow to love the girls and especially their baby sister Amilia. She's about 3 months younger than Olivia. Sam loves her too. He will wake up and come look at her and say, "That a cute baby." One night Amilia was teething so that was a rough night. Another night Brooke threw up...a lot. I finally asked Ashley to come get her. I didn't take her money. I felt bad that she had to leave work and miss out on some money. They got home and all of them ended up being sick. Last week Brooke threw up again. She said she had too much chocolate milk. Other than that and a few cries in the night by Amilia it's been pretty uneventful. I ask them to say prayers. Hailey always does. Brooke does sometimes and when she doesn't she says, "I don't have one tonight." She's super sweet. I love having the opportunity to help out and the girls are easy to love...it helps that they are always sleeping. That's when kids are the easiest to love. :) Yesterday we prayed as a family for opportunities to serve. Ashley called and said she had only slept two hours the day before and one hour so far yesterday and asked if I could watch Amilia. We took her with us to the chiropractor. It caused some napping issues with Sam and Olivia but Olivia and Sam loved having her here to play with. The. While picking the kids up for school I got a fb message from my new neighbor Janna and she needed a jump at the school so we helped her. I pointed out to the kids that our prayers had been answered. I love serving others.

October 23rd

Olivia is officially walking all the time. Starting today walking is her preferred method of travel with climbing in a close second.

 Sam is obsessed with Wonder Woman. He takes some type of Wonder Woman toy for show and tell almost every day at preschool (Tuesday's and Thursday's). This was the last page of his Halloween Book he made at preschool. He told his teacher Ms. Natalee what to write.

 October 24th

October 25th
Heumann Halloween party.

Max had a football party.

October 26th

Not sure why I took this picture except that my kids are cute.

October 28th

Mom is in bed looking very sad. She said, "I don't want to ever play sudoku again. I used to be really good at it but now I just can't do it. It makes me think I'm loosing my mind." :( I told her that she still has her jewels and they we all love her even if she can't do Suduku. Heck, I don't think I can do Suduku".

 Here is another mom email update:

I wanted to send out an email to let you all know about how mom is doing and what help I would like to have.  Almost daily I notice subtle changes in moms behavior that make it apparent to me that she is continuing to decline. We do know that she declined 6 points in 6 months which allows us to assume that she is declining 1 point each month. This is on a scale of 0-30 where she is currently at 18. I have been given a referral to an Alzheimer’s clinic at the U but I was told that mom may not fit the criteria to be accepted as a patient. I’m hoping to find another option if that doesn’t pan out.

When she first moved in she was almost always upstairs spending time with the family and she was regularly attending church and her family home evening group. Over the last month or so this has changed. She spends more time in her room and goes to church and FHE about 50% of the time. She has also started wondering when we are in public places and is forgetting words. There are 7 stages of Alzheimer’s and after reviewing them Blake and I think she is at stage 4. http://www.alz.org/alzheimers_disease_stages_of_alzheimers.asp This stage can last for any duration but after doing a little research (http://www.alzinfo.org/clinical-stages-of-alzheimers) I learned that they generally say this stage lasts about 2 years.

The point I’m trying to make is that right now mom may not be in need of constant care and things are not becoming overwhelming for me but we don’t have lots of time to still enjoy her being her. Now that mom as settled a bit I think it is time to discuss visits and phone calls to her. At this point it would be for the purpose of showing her that she is loved and appreciated and being able to enjoy time with her. In the near future I will need more help and time from all of you but for now – I don’t want you missing out on valuable time with mom.

What I would like to ask is for Eric to  visit at least once a month and maybe take her to dinner or something and maybe a call a couple times a month as well. Maybe even Nicole or Trevor could stop by on occasion. I know that Trev is sometimes working close to my house. He’s more than welcome to have his lunch break here so he can spend some time with mom and I’m sure she’d even treat him to lunch. Evan, phone calls once a week would be appreciated by mom, she loves hearing from you and knowing how your family is doing. Blake, continue your over nights with mom, she looks forward to it and I like having an evening that I feel like I can just feed my kids dino nuggets.  Spence, your Thursday visits are great. I know that it’s hard for you to spend a lot of time out here with your job but I’d love it if you could maybe stay an extra hour or two at least once a month and maybe help her organize somethings she has brought with her. She currently has photos all over her room. Also with Christmas coming up maybe you could run errands with her and help her get some shopping done. She would also love to see your kids.

I know it’s not the same having her here at my house but I want everyone to feel free to stop by whenever you want to. If it is strictly a grandma visit let me know and I can keep my kids busy so that Mom can have everyone’s attention. It’s best to let me know when you are on your way just in case I take her with me somewhere but everyone is welcome (and wanted) anytime.

Last night Blake and I worked on her Power of Attorney which I will take her to get notarized sometime in the next week. We also updated her will and printed out a advanced directive that Blake will help her fill out. If you have any other ideas of legal (or non-legal) things that you feel we should be taking care of please let me know.

This is a very hard thing to watch our mother slowly disappear but I’m thankful for the opportunity I have to serve her and feel of your love and support while I do so. I love you all!

October 29th
Fun at the park.

Oct. 30th

"Man of Steal no have that on. Regular superman does!" said Sam in reference to his s-curl. "Mom! My costume work outside. I just warm enough."

He opted out of the curl because he is the Man of Steel. Fortunately I got a picture first.

 

Then off to his preschool party he went.

Olivia helped herself to some cheetos.
 
October 31st

Happy Halloween. Steven had to be on Good Things Utah as Superman so I decided to get dressed up too. When we watched it Sam laughed and laughed and said, "Those girls call Daddy Superman." We drove him to work because his car has been having trouble and we had decided to trade it in with the van for a new van because it wasn't worth fixing. After that my mom, the littles and I went to the school Halloween parade. Max was a Zombie.

 Elese was Anna.

Then we came home and I ran Steven's car to the dealership to see what we could get for it. First I took off my costume. When I got there and saw our salesman (our neighbor Ryan Orr) was the joker so decided they I should have kept my Batgirl costume on. 

He offered to bring the van by to our house for me to see which unappreciated since I had left my mom with Sam on the kindle and Liv sleeping. After about an hour he got here. Sam got all weird and ran away. After a while I realized it was the joker costume. Liv got scared too. I put them downstairs to watch cartoons and told Sam that he was Superman so he could totally beat up the joker. He loved that idea and said that Batgirl (me) could beat him up too. Then he felt better. I loved the van. Super nice. Leather, DVD player, back up camera , cooler. I took it for a quick spin around the block and we discussed getting a new battery and tires. We ate lunch and I got Sam and Liv down for their naps and started cleaning out the cars. It was fun and sad to see notes from our dating days on Steven's glove box. We've had that car for our entire relationship and now it's going to the scrap yard.

Then Ryan came by and I filled out what paperwork I could. Sam woke up and we put Liv in her costume and along with grandma we headed out to pick up the big kids. Then we were off to Sister Taylor's for a hug. Then to the chiropractor. I waited until today because the kids wanted to see Liz and I'm glad we did. Sam loves seeing her as Wonderwoman. 

 He would shout at me during the parade anytime he saw someone dressed as Wonderwoman. He has a semi-unhealthy relationship with her. 

 Then we picked up Steven from work and got dinner at Sweet Tomatoes. Everyone but grandma was dressed up. People would smile and say they liked our costumes. Everyone was enamored by Sam and Olivia. Then we dropped Max off to trick or treat with Coach, Micah, Isaac, and Chuck. We left my mom to hand out candy and the rest of us went to sign for the van. I thought it was funny to have superman and Batgirl buying a van from the Joker. We couldn't bring it home because the new tires needed to be put on. Then we came home and went trick or treating. The plan was for me to take Liv to one house and come home but she was having so much fun. She was mimicking everything we said like "trick or treat, bye, thank you, hi Ella...everything. So I walked home and took off my uncomfortable Batgirl boots and then met back up with them. By then Olivia started insisting on walking. It was very cute but slowing us down. We made it around the block and called it a night. It was fun to go out with the kids and the weather was perfect.