Happy Birthday, my love!

Happy birthday to the most amazing, loving husband and father ever! We are so lucky to have him as the head of our family! I hope you have a great day, honey.

We're going to see "Pirates" at 2, and then to Chef's Table for a birthday dinner! It should be a fun day.

Shea's favorite things

movies: "Lord of the Rings: Return of the King", and "Joe Versus the Volcano"

vacation: Tahiti, or anywhere on the beach with clear water

foods: cheese, a good hot dog or burger, EL fudge cookies, dark chocolate, artichokes

hobby: mountain biking

tv show: lost

book: The Partner, by John Grisham

Update

We were caught by the stomach flu bug since the boys' birthday. It's been pretty ugly. I've washed every set of sheets, all blankets and towels and comforters in the past few days. Big job. The boys got new bedroom furniture and bedding, so some of their old stuff I just threw away. I didn't want to wash it 34 times to get them smelling good again. So I had new sheets to wash on top of all that. Lots of superfluous laundry it seemed like. Now I have to start on the real stuff--whites, colors, kid clothes...

Happy birthday yesterday to Shea's dad, Papa! We had a little pie and ice cream last evening to celebrate. He is such a wonderful father-in-law and grandpa to my kiddos. He loves anything car-related, motorized, or super fast. He loves bread, plain Cheerios, and his family! We hope you had a happy day!

After the pie and ice cream, Cam and Coop got to go home with Uncle Todd and Aunt Jane and their kids to play. They were so excited! They talk about playing with their cousins every day! They had a great time for about two hours. I showed up to pick them up and they asked for a sleepover. I agreed and suddenly Cooper had a meltdown. He was crying and trying to catch his breath, so I took him home and promised to bring him back if he calmed down. Well, he did--right into a good night's sleep. He was asleep within 5 minutes of getting home. In the meantime, Cam didn't want to be there without his brother, so Todd brought him home in tears. He was asleep in no time as well.

THANK YOU, Todd, Jane and kids, for a fun few hours with the boys! They woke up talking about having a sleepover. You are the greatest, most fun party planner/off-the-cuff entertainers ever! There's always great food and fun times at Todd and Jane's!

Thursday Cam and Coop had their first t-ball game, except the team we were supposed to play didn't show up. The coordinator people switched the schedule for this week's games around, so I'm sure we showed up at the scheduled 5:00 game, and they showed up at the old game time of 6:30. Anyway, Coach Taylor had a good practice and the kids had fun anyway. Hitting is great; fielding and running bases are works in progress. ;-)

Just a side note...we were driving home from the game and the boys were talking about it. They have a kid that is Hispanic or Pacific Islander on their team who is a great hitter. They were impressed that I knew all the kids' names. Coop said, "Mom, what's the kid's name who has the really nice tan?" Shea and I were dying with laughter. He had asked earlier about the "brown kid" and I just gave him the old "Heavenly Father makes everyone's skin a different color, but everyone's the same..." talk, and told him that this kid just looked like he was really tan. Kids are so funny!

Happy Birthday, Coop and Cam!

Camden and Cooper's Favorite Things

Spiderman

the BLUE Lightning McQueen

LEGO Star Wars

jumprope

riding their two wheelers

riding their wiggles (which are missing since we went to Disneyland)

running

jumping

flipping

their baby sister, Lucy

sleepovers

McDonalds

Jason's Deli

mac and cheese

playing outside

doing "service" for each other (this is pretty much making beds for each other and me! What sweet boys)

being together

doing/eating/saying anything their Dad does

hugging their Mom

I love my boys so much! Sometimes I wonder what the Preexistence must have been like for them, and what must have happened that they got to come here together as the best of friends. They are so lucky to have each other, and I am so blessed to have them. They truly bring me the greatest happiness!

Happy 5th birthday, handsome boys! I love you!

Lucy's Birthday Party

Happy Birthday to my baby girl!

Lucy is 1 today! We had ice cream cake for her, Spider man cupcakes for the boys, and brownies and ice cream for Shea. All the family came to celebrate. We have the most amazing, loving, wonderful family! She got lots of darling, girly presents that she will love to play with.

Lucy's favorite things are

strawberries

artichokes

smoothies with Mom

grilled chicken and fish

bananas

her cousins Sophie and Audrey

babies!!! and dolls

playing with her brothers who love and spoil her with attention and affection

Hummer rides

her binkie

books

string cheese

peek-a-boo and pat-a-cake

Happy Birthday, sweet baby girl!

Check out my Slide Show!

Rides for the Day

We started at 8 a.m. at Peter Pan and loved it! The line was already long but went quickly. Then we walked on the carousel, waited a few minutes for Alice in Wonderland and the Storybook boats, and walked on to the teacups.
We were off to Tomorrowland. We rode Buzz Lightyear 4 times today, and loved it every time. Shea, Cam, Coop and I rode Space Mountain! Cam and I were in the front, and it was a little scary for Cam. He was a good sport though, and he and I rode Star Tours. Lucy and Nana ate a whole container of strawberries while we were gone. Lucy ate all but about 3 herself. She has been an angel baby and has LOVED the characters. I thought she'd be scared since she's so dramatic, but I was dead wrong. She just hugs and kisses and hugs and squeals and kisses and hugs forever if I'd let her!
After Tomorrowland we headed to Adventureland. We rode Pirates twice, the boys all wanted to go to the Haunted House again, so Nana, Lucy and I hung out. Jack Sparrow showed up right where we were resting. He was my favorite attraction! The kid who was him had his mannerisms and movements down perfectly! You know, the swaying, hand motions, facial expressions?! It was very entertaining. Anyway, back to the log...
Shea and Coop rode Splash Mountain, and Coop actually liked it! Cam and the rest of us rode Winnie the Pooh about 80 times since we could get on as fast as we could walk through the que. It was actually only 3 times today.
After lunch (which was at the River Belle Terrace and very tasty!) Shea and I walked right on to Indiana Jones. Then we shopped, and had to go to 5 stores for the sword and shield I had bribed Cam and Coop with all day! Boy was it worth it! We had to go all the way to a store in California Adventure for them.
We tried to do Pirates again, but it closed down for "technical problems" while we were in line. We then went on Thunder Mountain--minus Nana this time. She about died when we made her ride it on Tuesday! Shea was laughing so hard that he wanted to recreate the moment, but we couldn't persuade her. She squealed and did the gargle-y yell the whole time when she rode. It was so funny!
Anyway...I'm sure I missed stuff. We have had a great day, and I am sad our time has ended. I am ready for a long nap though. Nana told me at lunch, "Shannon has nothing on you, Heather." That means we did 11 hours of Disneyland full-speed. I love this place!

Mothers' Day Program

The boys had a short program at their school yesterday. They sang me a song about putting me in a "little red box" and taking me out to give me kisses. It was very cute. My boys love to sing, but they were a little embarassed to do the actions. Cooper was also "girl trapped," which means he had girls sitting on both sides of him. He loved it! They are getting so funny--and I can't believe they care about that stuff already.

Before the program, I cleaned the main floor. After the program Shea and I went to Draper and had lunch at Rumbi--yum! After we picked the boys up, I went to the cannery to do chicken chunks. I don't care how good everyone says they are, it was so gross! I had to weigh the cans of raw chicken and add or subtract the slimy stuff as needed. It was nasty, and I'll buy the Costco stuff every time instead of doing it at the cannery. Yuck! I came home, and made dinner, then I was off to Enrichment. After that, I mopped--by hand--the kitchen floor and entry. Phew! Now I'm ready to do laundry and the Race for the Cure on Saturday. Mother's day festivities are Sunday, including a call (the last one!) to Elder Burr in Kobe, Japan. We leave for CA on Monday.

We're busy, but ready for some fun!

motorcycle boys

THANK YOU!!!

A big, huge "thank you" to Shannon for cutting my boys' hair today. They look so handsome! I can't believe what I have to do to get Shea to cut his hair four times a year. The boys loved playing with Boston while Shea was in the chair. They loved jumprope and trying out Boston's PW 50 by themselves for the first time! I was a nervous first-time, motorcycle mom. I don't know what I'll do when they have their own and Shea takes them to the track. They looked very cute all geared up with their dad and Uncle Cory hanging on to the back keeping them balanced! Thanks, Cory! I hope your back and knees aren't too sore in the morning.
After the grooming, we went to grab some dinner at Riverside with Cory and Shannon and the six kids. The kids were good, and the food was yummy! Thanks, you two! We love hanging out with our amazing family!
We were a little late helping Ben and Wia move out of their condo, but Shea still got to carry the dryer down two flights of stairs, and move a desk and bookcase. Ben and Olivia are moving into a sweet, new condo at Haymaker in AF. They are excited for a two car garage, and lots more square footage to live in!
We've had a good two days. I made three batches of strawberry freezer jam yesterday. The berries are cheap and yummy right now. I love homemade jam! Too bad it has so much sugar in it. Maybe after I'm skinny. We'll see.
I cleaned the upstairs, took the kids to the park to feed the ducks, did laundry, donated blood, went on a walk with the new stroller, went shopping with my mom, you know...all the things that fill up two days.
We're getting excited for the Race for the Cure on Saturday, and Disneyland on Monday.

Summer's coming...

We've had a good weekend, and a good Monday.
Happy 41st Anniversary to Shea's parents, Jerry and Candy, yesterday. They are wonderful in laws, and loving grandparents to our kiddos. We love them and hope they had fun celebrating with dinner tonight.
We had stake conference this weekend. It was SO nice to sit with Shea during the two hour session on Sunday. The boys were so happy and didn't leave his side for the whole meeting. I just got to chase Lucy, who has decided walking around is much more exciting than sitting through church. She carried a baby doll around with her for the whole meeting. It was very sweet. She suddenly thinks she is very grown up. She loves her dollies and any baby she thinks is smaller than her. She definitely has a mothering instinct.
We spent the day getting ready for a neighborhood barbeque at our house. I had been talking to a neighbor who suggested we have one, and that it should be in our backyard. I was happy to host, and we had a great turn out. I didn't know where to stop inviting people, so we passed out about 60 flyers. We had more than 50 people show up! It was so fun, and so good to get to know some of the newer people on our street.
Tomorrow is busy, for Shea at least. He has the temple in the morning. The boys have school. Shea has a lunch appt. He and I donate blood at the stake center tomorrow afternoon, and he has church meetings tomorrow night. The kids and I might go somewhere and feed ducks. (We have lots of people who left hot dog buns at our house tonight.)
Only 7 more sleeps until Disneyland!

Happy Birthday, Ben!

Yesterday Ben turned 27! I can't believe I have a younger brother that is in his late twenties. Yikes! I hope you had a great day, Benny!

Remember, this is my FIRST attempt.

Digital scrapbooking

I've been trying to figure this out for a few days now. I sat down tonight with enough patience and will power to actually read the "how to get started" instructions. I created one page, and I think I've found a new hobby I love! I tried to upload it so all could see, but I'm not patient enough to figure that out too!
Hopefully I can get caught up and print a scrapbook for the kids to look at and admire. It may take me a while, but at least I can do it without loading all three kids up and braving Roberts or the scrapbook store!

We had a fun barbeque tonight with my high school friend, Ashley and her family. She and her hubby, Ed, have two kids, Evelyn and William. They are darling kids, and we all enjoyed the company!

Shea has been super busy with a big order from a new customer, Media Rain. I think he finished that set up today, and now he's in the basement building 10 more computers for another new-ish customer, Valley Mental Health. He is so amazing and is such a hard worker. We have been so blessed.

I have been spending my days outside with the kids. I took them to the Lehi indoor pool--which they have dubbed "Nephi's pool"--on Friday. We had a blast! No one was there, and the kids stayed close. Lucy clung to me the whole time, but started to relax a little at the end of the outing. It's too late for me to remember Saturday's events. Sunday was church and a birthday dinner for Ben.

I am loving this weather! And I'm going to be loving my sleep in about 15 minutes...

Happy 1st Birthday SOPHIE !!!

What a cutie! This year flew by so quickly--and Sophie Love got long n' lean! We love you, baby girl!

Happy Birthday, Zak!

The picture I wanted of Shea and Zak is in the wrong format. Lame! We hope you had a happy day, Zak!

Also, I booked our Disneyland vacation tonight! Yea! We're going from the 14th to the 18th of May. We swore we'd never do a weekend day at Disneyland ever, so we're going to the parks on a Tues., Wed., and Thurs., and staying in the Disneyland Hotel. The Grand Californian didn't have any rooms left since we waited a week to book our trip. We'll have fun, and we'll do that next time. How much time do you spend in the room anyway? Right Shashi? We're also going to do breakfast with Goofy and friends one morning. We've never done that, but always heard how fun it is.

Did I mention how much I LOVE DISNEYLAND?

My baby's growing up...

As of yesterday, one day after she turned 11 months old, Lucy is walking! She has consistently taken 10-15 steps for two days. She even prefers to stand and walk instead of crawling. She still looks so little to be toddling around. It is very cute! The boys started walking at 10 1/2 months and I don't remember them seeming so small when they started. They were so husky and tough. I thought she would take longer to get up the courage to take so many steps, but she just keeps surprising me!

Happy, Happy Birthday Kelly Dear!

Happy Birthday to the most amazing #&*ty year old I know!

Handsome boys

This is our sweet Baby Eli who has been home from the hospital for almost 36 hours now! He is so sweet and very handsome.
This is Elder Cam (on the left.) Jenn inspired me to blog a picture of his mission. He only has about 3 1/2 months left in Japan! He started in the Nagoya mission, but was moved to the Kobe mission that reopened a few months ago. We love our Uncle Cam!

YEA!

It's been a good day so far.
Yesterday I spent most of the day on the phone. I woke up to a message that Cooper's name had been drawn to attend the Renaissance charter school in Lehi. Then, two hours later I got a call that two spots had opened up and both my boys could go to the Kindergarten Enhancement class at Learning Dynamics next year. That means that they'll go Tuesday and Thursday from 9 to 11 to Learning Dynamics where they'll be in an accelerated class. They'll keep reading and end the year reading at a second grade level. They'll also keep doing math, learning to tell time, learning skip counting, learning sentence structure, parts and punctuation, and doing great art projects! I am so excited for them to get to go!
Obviously, I made up my mind to send them to the public school afternoon kindergarten, since they're excited to ride the bus and it's close, and then Learning Dynamics on Tues./Thurs. mornings. If they didn't love learning so much, it would have been a harder decision. Yea!
Then, I had to go weigh in for my diet. I usually wouldn't post for all to read, but I was proud of myself, and all the positive encouragement helps. I have lost 14.2 pounds and 6 1/2 inches in four weeks! I was very excited after a kind of discouraging week last week with the whole diet thing.
Other exciting news...Baby Eli got to come home from the hospital yesterday! We are going to go see him and finally get to hold him this evening sometime. He is such a handsome guy, and reminds me a lot of my babies (only skinnier :)
Also, (I promise I'm almost done) we're going to Disneyland from May 14th through the 18th! I haven't been for two years, and I love that place! The boys went last Spring with my mom. It will be a blast since the boys are now tall enough to ride everything! FUN!!!