Stuff

Hello. Its been a while since I last blogged so I figured it was time. Lots has happened. Birthdays, races, Heidi learning to push herself all over in the walker, awesome book signings at the store, flooding neighborhoods (we got missed)... oh, and I was made 1st Counselor in the Primary!  We also learned a little about prayer today.

Not to get into specifics, we misplaced a rather large chunk of money. I KNEW where I set it and it wasn't there later.  We looked through the whole house, cleaned out the toy room (big mess which needed done anyway) and then prayed about finding it.  I went down to tuck my 4 year old into bed and I found a $10 bill and a $5 bill in his bed.  Here's the conversation that followed:

Me: Uh, where did this come from? I need to know where the rest is!
Son: .......... ok.

He pulled back his pillow and it was all there - except the bag it came in. That, of course, was under his blanket.

Son: Look Mom! The money bag!

He was so proud of himself for 'finding it.'   Silly boy.  Anyway, here are some fun pictures that have been taken recently.  There are birthday pictures amongst them for all 7 of us (Heidi hasn't had a birthday yet so you got her newborn pictures earlier!) since I missed blogging about them all! The photos are in no particular order.

This picture is after trying to juggle forks, napkins, treat bags, my breakfast and a glass of juice while pushing an umbrella stroller on the grass. I hit a bump with the stroller,  my pancake fell on Heidi's head, and I laughed hysterically. My family couldn't figure out why when I got over and sat by them until they saw Heidi - and pictures were taken... What did Heidi do? Nothing. She just took it. What a "sweetie-pie".

Heidi's first time with cereal! She did great and loved it.  She ate most of it!

 

                                    

Don't ask because I don't want to know...

This is "Betty Girl", our newest family member that Andy got from his aunt, cousins, Grandpa and Grandma. She is much loved!

Ashley is my little princess! She got this photo taken during Pony Express Days at the park.

Heidi got 3rd in the baby contest! She was in the 3-6 month category - having turned 3 months old that day! She laughed and talked and cooed. It was so much fun!

       

Heidi's first time swimming! We went to St George in June and had a great time there. Heidi loved the water and I LOVED her new swimming suit!

We combined a few birthdays for this cake - which was YUMMY! Happy Birthday to everyone!

And now its time for bed. Good night!

Our Family Pictures

This is the last post of our pictures. Then maybe I'll get to our birthday posts!!!  These were done inside our store (except the first one that was done outside obviously).  Each child got to pick where they wanted to get their individual pictures done.  Ethan just plain didn't want to but apparently sitting on his daddy's shoulders worked because he was happy for those!!  These are some of my favorites because it shows what our life has been about for the last year!!

My Mother's Day Gift

This year for Mother's Day we got to do our family pictures.  We started up in the mountains behind our house and then ended up at our bookstore. The store photos will be posted later.  We did pictures of each child and then some of Steve and I. For some reason the ones of Steve and I being serious didn't turn out - can't imagine why... But the goofy ones of us did. Maybe the camera knows us a little too well!!  Have I mentioned that Cherylann does an AMAZING job?!   So here they are:

 

Heidi's Adventures

We're behind on our blog. I admit it. I had way too much fun with all my pictures. So I'll fill in details.

April passed in a blur of bookstore, sports and more bookstore.  We did have life in between though.  On the 22nd Steve and I were going to be celebrating our 10 anniversary.  Luckily we had already planned for us to go out of town the next Friday because life didn't happen like we'd planned!!  Monday Heidi started coughing a little. Monday night in the middle of the night I woke up to feed Heidi and felt like I'd been hit by a truck. My neck was stiff, my throat hurt and I felt AWFUL.  I fought that for 2 days among tylenol and motrin.   Wednesday night (21st) we took Heidi to the doctor because her cough was getting worse. Then we went to the instacare for me and found out I had strep. WONDERFUL.

So Thursday I woke up and told Steve Happy Anniversary and we got on with life - amid cold sores, strep, and a very sad Heidi.   We had a book signing that evening with David Farland. It was great! He's a great, very nice guy and gave Steve some great tips for writing and publishing. I just kinda floated through the whole thing. My sister was keeping an eye on Heidi and was a little worried about her.  When we got everything cleaned up from the signing we went home and I found out she had a fever! So I rushed her to the hospital with a hug for Steve as I ran out the door.

We had to rush to the doctor in Provo to get there in time. They decided to send her to the hospital to get her suctioned out. While we were there we decided to keep her there on oxygen.  So the next morning Steve came and gave her  a blessing and picked up the car(Char brought him as we have only one car...). The blessing made all the difference in the world.  She was a whole different little girl. Her coloring came back and she no longer needed oxygen. She smiled at all the nurses (except during the suctioning but who wants a tube shoved up their nose and down their throat?).  We ended up staying till Sunday just to make sure. By Wednesday she was doing awesome and by her 2 month appointment on May 3rd she was completely better!  Even her TWO ear infections were gone.  Here are a few pictures from the hospital:

And what was Steve doing through all this?  Lets see, running a store(with help from Charlotte), getting kids to and from school and practice - and that was Friday.  Saturday he had to get Jakob to a soccer game,  and himself to the store.  I have AMAZING neighbors that were very sweet and took my kids while he was at the store.   Jakob went with a friend to soccer and was well taken care of.  I had other neighbors that took over the store and the street fair which Steve ran between. Then there was another signing that night.    Then the next day he took the kids to Stake Conference and let me know what the changes were for the stake (we split).  By that time he was able to come and get us and take us home.  While I laid back and rested and made sure Heidi was taken care of, he took care of everything else!!

I'm so thankful for an amazing sister, husband and neighbors that were able to help out. And everyone else that was praying for her. She was only 7 weeks old and it was so scary but she was well watched over and recovered in an amazing amount of time. I even had a sister that called before she got on her cruise so she could see how things were!!  I felt that we were well loved and well taken care of.

And how did we end up celebrating our 10th anniversary? We went to Burley ID and stayed at a Marriott that my mom and dad got us for our  anni-birthday(we have birthdays and our anniversary all close together).  Then we got our beef and zoomed home to get it in the freezer.  It was wonderful - and my kids had a great time with their cousin while we were gone!