Adam and Heather Hayes

Andi stayed an extra day over Christmas to be there for Erith's birthday.  I'm so glad she did because I sure needed all the help I could get with that house full of girls!

Erith got get ready for baptism stuff from Mom and Dad.

The girls made marble magnets.

They played lots and lots of games.  (Each one took a shockingly small amount of time)  They played musical chairs, pictionary, Jenga, pin the candle on the cake, duck duck goose, and probably a couple more!

Cupcakes for the party and the cake for the family, Erith got her first taste of trick candles!  Erith got some fun gifts from her friends and I think everyone had a fun time.  Happy birthday Erith!

My sister Jaleesa is the haircutting and now Mary Kay beauty queen of the world.  She is helping me get over my beauty aversion.  She convinced me to cut and frost my hair before I had Clara, which I have absolutely loved.  Then she practiced her new Mary Kay party pitch on me and my mother-in-law and sister-in-law, and actually convinced me to care about how my skin ages and... wear foundation! I am actually wearing foundation on days that I go out in public.  I never thought I'd see the day.

Well she came over again this week and showed Erith, Tric and I how to put on... eyeshaddow, eyeliner, blush, and lipstick! Am I turning into a mom of girls or what?  Next thing you know, she'll be teaching me to frenchbraid and other girly hairdo's. 

If I had a million dollars, I'd pay J twice what the JCPenney salon is paying her and have her come over every morning and beautify all 5 of us girls every morning. But alas, I don't, so I guess I'll have to grit my teeth and do some kind of simple hairdo on all 5 heads all 7 days a week, all my life long... Who knows, maybe one of these days I'll actually like hair!

Erith idolizes  J, Santa got her a Barbie head to practice hair on for Christmas.  (When we weren't watching Vi took some sissors and cut two chunks of hair off that night) She is so proud of the... unique hairdo's she comes up with.  I might just get lucky, and have Erith take over the beautifying when she's old enough!  

I've got to admit, I have got some cute, cute little girls.

Erith's birthday count down came to an end. She is SIX! Looking at her in these pictures really makes me feel old. She's not a toddler anymore! She's definitely going to be tall like her mom.

We had both grandparents and the aunts and uncles over for a simple birthday party. It was a cold snowy slick night so we were glad it came together. Erith was cute as could be!

Hello everyone, I can't believe a month has passed since Clara was born. Erith and Tricity have had their end of the school year parties and programs, and T-Ball practice starts this week. Summer is here! Now if we could just have more than one day of sunshine at a time...

I have been inside with the baby watching the rain and actually longing to do some gardening and yard work! Clara is growing up so fast. She likes to use her neck even though she probably shouldn't. She is awake more. She's very alert and loves being entertained by her sisters.

Viola is very interested and protective of her. When she cries she gets Adam or I and says "Mon! Mon! Baby!" as she pulls on our hand.

Erith has become my second set of hands, bless her heart. I am usually taking care of Clara when Vi needs assistance, so Erith helps, like a second Mom. I sometimes have to remind her that I am still THE Mom though!

Erith may be the baby/toddler tender but Tricity is my cleaner. It's amazing how messy a house gets with four kids, and Tric is my quick to obey house cleaner, yeah for her!

I really love my girls, and wouldn't trade a one of them. They have a sweetness and a goodness that they were born with that has nothing to do with me. Even when I'm tired and grouchy they still love me and forgive me and want to be by my side. I have noticed Erith hanging out with me A LOT lately. She is constantly watching and mimicking me. I definitely need to watch my words and attitude. It's embarrassing to see some of my episodes repeated!

Well, we are glad to have water again (read Adam's explanation on that) and wish you all a Happy Memorial Day!

(There are a bunch of new pictures of the baby and the other kids in the Image Gallery under Kids 2008 , check them out!)

For Family Night we frosted and decorated Halloween cookies and took them around to people in the ward.  This was Vi's first time doing it herself, and she did quite well!

We almost forgot to carve our pumpkins this year.  They made such lovely decorations as just...pumpkins.

Erith and Tricity drew their own designs on the pumpkins the day before Halloween, and we carved them as they were, no modifications. 

Erith's ^   and   Tricity's v

But, since Vi didn't really get the whole draw a carvable face on the pumpkin idea, Adam carved his own design.  Have you all read or seen The Sorcerer's Apprentice?  A childhood favorite of mine!

Tricity decided to be Belle for Halloween, like Erith was a couple years ago.  Erith was a witch with green hair.  (We have an orange hair option as well.)  Vi was going to be a bunny but Halloween night she got all grouchy with me and insisted on being a frog.  So she was.  Clara wore her Halloween candy clothes and a witch headband for the picture.

We went to the community Trunk or Treat and to a few close neighbors and primary teachers.  Then we went home and got what Erith and Tricity used to call "stummyaches."

Erith is growing up so fast, her teeth are even getting bigger! She lost her first tooth Halloween morning.

Then about a week and a half later she lost the one right next to it. So she has quite a hard time eating apples with the big wind tunnel running through the front of her mouth!

Hi friends and family! Welcome to our blog! We realized how convenient it is to put pictures, videos, and pertinent information on the web so we can show and explain things (Our road trip this summer inspired it) without bringing laptops, cds, dvds, scrapbooks and etc. along with us everywhere.

For those of you who don't see us often, I will quickly bring you up to speed on who and where we are.

Adam is running his own business from our home, AH Digital FX Studios . He does web design and hosting. The wonderful thing about that is he can work from anywhere, even Ririe Idaho. He was in charge of his 10 year high school reunion last Saturday, it was a blast. (That also gives you a clue on how old he is!) He is the BYU Idaho 7th Stake Clerk, that takes up a lot of Sunday morning time but he loves it and he can make it back for 1:00 church with me so I really don't mind it either! He is enjoying swinging a bat this summer whether it's softball, baseball, wiffleball he's in the middle of it. Our business is doing well. In fact we are about to close in our 1 car garage and make it the office so there is an outdoor access and more room. In order to do that we needed a shed/shop to store all the stuff in the garage now, so we are looking at the foundation in the backyard and hoping it will be mostly done next week.

I (Heather) am in the middle of yard and garden work. Picking and canning green beans, finding new ways to convince my family to eat zucchini, watering my 1 acre yard by hose and sprinkler, keeping Baby Vi out of every cupboard, and primary presidency stuff. It's an exciting, but busy time of year. I LOVE harvest season. All the hard work in the garden is paying off. Getting Erith and Tricity ready for kindergarten and preschool is fun. The summer has been so busy, I'm excited to get a break once school starts!

Erith is 5 years old, she will turn 6 in December . She played T-Ball this summer and had a playdate with her best friend once a week. She LOVES to learn just like her Dad. She is excited to start kindergarten Aug 20th where Adam's aunt will be her teacher. She has been learning to read words one at a time when we have family scripture study. She's up to 30 and can sound out as many or more.

Tricity is 4 and very smiley. She went to a private preschool last school year twice a week and will get to go 3 times a week this year! She loves to play with her big sister Erith. They are inseparable and imaginative. Yesterday they were making people out of clay and using story books for their tents. (Propping them on their covers /\ I liked it!) She can read about 10 words.

Viola is 1 and walking (ahhh!) She is still a bit stiff legged but it's cute. She has a lot to say but we can't understand most of it. Her favorite word is Dad, yeah she's a Daddy's girl. She has a lot of personality coming through now that she's walking. She's quite the trouble maker. We can't leave anything on the floor or 3 foot from it.

I plan on updating this blog about once a week I will detail our trip we just took next probably. We will continue to add pictures to the photo gallery and I will e-mail when the updates are posted or extra good!

Have you ever needed a break from partying?  That's how December was for me.  Don't get me wrong, I loved getting together with family and friends, eating delicious food and playing games, catching up.  But boy is it nice to sleep in and let the kids make messes again!  Speaking of messes, as you can see, Clara had a spectactular Christmas morning.

Our List of Parties:

Adam's birthday

Ward Christmas party

Elder's dinner party

Christmas eve

Christmas day

Erith's birthday, this was her first non family birthday party.  I can't believe I have an eight year old!  I'm so old!

New Year's eve

New Year's day

Erith's baptism

Dolls, dolls, dolls.  We entered the world of Target made "American dolls" this Christmas.  Tricity paid half to get one earlier this year.  She got a canopy bed for Sophie.  Erith got MaryLynn, and Vi got Jenna, whom is 18" tall but not from Target. Clara got a baby doll that can drink and wet (and 2 potty books).

The girls got up at 6:30 am even after Adam they could get up as early as they want.  (grrrr)  Vi and Clara don't cope with being woken up early very well.

I bought these little baby crib and high chair for Clara, they aren't very sturdy, I won't go the cheap route next time.

I somehow got the most spoiled this Christmas.  I don't think Santa or Adam stuck to the budget.

Adam got lots of painting stuff and a remote control helicopter.

I gave the girls my old tea set so they could use it with their dolls.  One tea cup was immediately broken, I can see why everything is made of plastic these days.

I have to say, seeing the excitement in little kids' eyes sure makes Christmas morning magical!

I think we are going to have to kiss our Spring Break bye bye! It was absolutely horrible today and then at about 3:30 pm it just stopped. We had Tricity's carpool mom stuck in a 3-4 foot drift at the top of our driveway yesterday and it took Adam with a shovel and a neighbor with a tractor/plow 45 minutes to get her out! Today her husband came over right in the middle of the worst part of the storm, with a HUGE tractor and cleared us the widest path we've had in over a month, bless his heart. The piles of snow he was pushing were so big, the girls couldn't wait to get their sled on them!

This winter takes me back to my childhood when almost EVERY winter was like this. You'd drive down the road not able to see over the wall of snow on either side. Jenny, Nicole, Lindy, Kendall, Bethany and I would make the most awesome snow caves and tunnels you ever saw! I remember thinking I was paralyzed after going off an icy jump and losing my snowtube at the Ucon Pit. Good times! It's fun to see my girls starting to use their imaginations out in the snow. They go out to play once or twice a day wind permitting!

This is what Erith has to say about today:

"I found the red sled, it was burried under a mountain. We went sledding. I tried to make a snowman but the carrot kept falling out so I just ate three carrots. Tric ate one. We went in the house and drank hot chocolate."

This is what Tricity had to say about today:

"We went outside, then we went on a hill, but Erith ate all the carrots but one. We rolled down the hill one hundred times. Then we went on a new hill and went down it 6 times. Erith got tired so she had a nap on a different hill. Then we went in the warm house and had hot chocolate."

Sorry for the delay in entries, but there really hasn't been much to say! I pretty much stay inside out of the below zero temperatures and get bored, day after day! Erith's school has been canceled twice due to cold temperatures. We have had some get togethers with friends that have broken up the monotony nicely. I have a cross stitch for the baby I should be finishing, a quilt that needs tied, and piles of scrapbooking I should be doing. But alas, January has sucked the motivation out of me. February please warm up my ambition! We are all doing fine and shouldn't complain so please don't give this blog too much credit!

Vi is trying to talk more. Adam is getting quite good at his piano playing. Erith is loving school and doing great. Tricity is doing Erith's homework again after she brings it home and learning a lot. I am reading Finding Peace, Happiness, and Joy by Richard G. Scott. I like it a lot, it's very good for my state of mind right now.

We hope you are all healthy and happy, have a great day!

Erith and Tricity started school.  Erith is in first grade and Tricity is in kindergarten. 

Erith is so excited to go all day and eat lunch at school. 

Tricity is excited to go everyday and ride the bus. 

Viola is kind of lonely when they are gone. It has definately been quiet, sometimes too quiet... Two year olds definately know how to get into trouble.  She loves Clara so much, she appreciates her more when the older girls are gone.  Vi is talking a lot more now.  It's so good to be able to communicate with her.  I have never been a good guesser about what she wants when she's bawling.

She has also developed an obsession with books and wearing other people's shoes.  We read LOTS of books while the girls are at school.  She would have me read all day.  I have to eventually draw the line and say, "All done, mom has to get some other things done."

Clara can roll both ways now.  When she's really ambitious she rolls clear across the room.  She's four months old now and has started having an opinion on who holds her and how.  She is so sweet and beautiful, she smiles so much, it melts your heart. 

Adam's business is doing well despite the majorly slowed down economy around here and across the country.  He and his brother love working in the new office, complete with new furniture.  They both have plenty to keep them busy. 

Adam is done being a stake clerk at BYUI and just got called to be Assistant scoutmaster and deacon's quorem advisor.  (That's what he was when we moved from our old ward) So yea for Adam getting to know our ward finally, but it is definitely going to take more time on more days of the month than the last calling did. (Lessons on Sundays, mutual on Tuesdays, Flags every patriotic holiday, campouts almost every month, roundtable and other training)  It's okay though, I won't complain, it'll be nice to have him sit by me in sacrament meeting.

I'm just trying to lose weight, and do everything I used to do with four fast-growing kids!  I am amazed how many directions my four kids want to to go at the same time, while I'm trying to can green beans and do laundry and dishes.  So yes, my house is messier than it has ever been, yes, my garden is more like a weed patch, yes, bedtime is my favorite time of day, and yes I love every one of my four very different girls and I wouldn't trade a one of them for the world!

Erith and Tricity have started school again.  They are really enjoying it so far.  They have lots of friends on their bus route, and it's the shortest amount of time they've ever had to ride.  

Vi, Clara, and MOM really misses them while they're gone.  Erith and Tricity help so much with the little ones.  When I hear Clara screaming to get down from her highchair, my natural inclination is to say "Erith can you get Clara down from her chair?" But alas, I have to do it.  And when it gets way to quiet I want to say "Tric can you see what Vi and Clara are doing?"  But now, I find them, or just Clara covered in permanent marker plus my front entryway covered in permanent marker, just a few minutes too late.  I should have taken a picture but I was too mad.

So, I am relearning to shut the bathroom doors all day long so I'm not cleaning up toilet water, and not leaving things on the kitchen table that a 16 month old can easily pull a chair up to and make a mess in.  I am determined to buy some child proofing devices.  My old rubber band-it-shut trick doesn't work on this trouble maker!

Vi has grown up enough that she's okay passing on the trouble maker mantle to Clara.  Vi has bonded with a kitten this summer and they spend a lot of time together.  The kitten just lets her pack her around, arms around the tummy, squishing her quite hard at times.  I keep asking Vi what the kitten's name is and she always says "Baby Kitten."

Oh, and no, I don't let my kids outside in their pajamas...

Viola's big sisters taught her how to "dress up"

Can't be picture perfect every time!

You can't make me look at the camera!

Clara loves to look at white/light stuff like closed blinds glowing from the sun behind them. This particular morning a little light peeked through the blinds into the bassinet. She followed it with her eyes and hand for almost an hour! It was so cute, I had to take a picture!

I can't believe I'm posting myself not matching, in pajama pants here, but hey, when your kid wants to try their first time taking a picture, you do what you can! Erith and Tric both had a go.

Erith framed this one betterish.

i hope my expense gave you a smile!

I was really perking up during the warm, snow-melting days we've had lately. Then Adam started us off on a LONG week! He was up at BYUI from 7-3. When he finally made it to Jacob Quinn's mission-come-home party he had a high fever and was hungry but couldn't eat much. He slept the rest of Sunday, most of Monday, all of Tuesday, by Wednesday he could at least get out of bed and work. All this time he ran a 103-104 fever. He'd be fevered, then it would break, then a couple hours later he was fevered again. It seemed to come out of nowhere. He had a sore throat and a cough, but who knew such a fever would come with that? By Wednesday Viola had it too. Thursday Erith had it. We took everyone into the doctor and they said we all had the flu.

So we all started TAMIFLU and it really helps! The fevers went away super fast. We're still working on the sore throats and coughs. Viola broke out in a huge swelling rash Thursday night, the day she started taking Tamiflu. So I called the doctor and said she must be allergic to it but he said that was not a side affect of that medicine and it must be an allergy to something else. Well, I did switch laundry detergent that week. So lucky me, I got to go buy the old detergent and rewash everything. Two doses of children's Benadryl and rewashing took care of the rash thank goodness.

Then Friday Vi woke up with goopy eyes. By Saturday they were swollen and pink and would hardly open! I was really starting to wonder if she was supposed to make it . We got her on Vigamox eye drops and by Sunday they looked normal again.

Here it is Monday and I'm praying the sunshine will bring health and happiness back to this house! I never got the fever but the sore throat/cough part has not been a laugh. Tric never got the fever either and bless her heart, she's been such a good little nurse. She checked Erith's temperature and gave her cool rags for her forehead all day Thursday while I was taking care of Vi.

And I guess I should say Vi and Adam who got it the worst really pulled through! The sleepless nights were worth it!? I can't tell you how humbling it is to see the thermometer say 103.9 at one o'clock in the morning and knowing if you just let your body give in to sleep your child or husband may have a fried brain in the morning.

I LOVE GOOD HEALTH! I love to see my kids with energy to run and play! You don't know what you got till it's gone!

It's been a busy few weeks for us! Erith started kindergarten after getting a cute new haircut by Aunt Jaleesa!

She feels very grown up and smart now that she rides the bus and has homework.

Tric had to wait till last week to start her second year of preschool at a lady in our ward's house. She loves it. She was very bored while Erith was gone to kindergarten so now she feels grown up for a couple hours three days a week. I send them to this preschool purely for social reasons. I've taught them everything they learn at this preschool before they start pretty much (colors, ABC's, numbers, a simple curriculum). But they love it and the teacher makes them a nice scrapbook each year packed with pictures so it's worth it to me for just that!

Poor Viola doesn't know what to do in such a quiet house while they're gone. She usually falls asleep! It make me feel kind of boring!

My girls have been very patient with a busy set of parents. We finished the shed and filled it with all our stuff with help from the whole family. Grandpa Stuart Purser has been coming over a lot to help us with our projects.We framed in the garage door hole when we put it on the shed and now we are wiring and soon to be insulating our old garage/new office. It is such a dirty job, but somebody's gotta do it. Our poor kids waited in a shopping cart for 2 1/2 hours while we picked out lights for the new office. Then there wasn't enough room in the trunk for them so they held them on their laps! It made me remember hating to go to home improvement stores with my parents because I knew the ride home would be an uncomfortable one. (My dad didn't get a truck till after I was married so I usually had 2X4's pressed up against my cheek in the mini van! Good times!)

Anyway, besides getting the office done Adam has to have 3 websites done for a land developer before the Parade of Homes which is... Thursday. Plus all the millions of others that wish they could be done that soon! It's been a juggle we aren't used to doing but we can do it! I just hope we find some good interns once the big office is done because, I am a lousy website assistant! I get tired and cramped quite fast! Yes Adam, I do appreciate you!

Well, Adam just told me in a frenzied voice that there is a skunk in the old garage/office, so I'm off to try to get it out! Wish me luck!

I really thought we didn't have anything exciting to write about, but today I realized that I'm doing this blog so I can have a history of our family.  So if every entry isn't that exciting to you, I'm sorry, but it's information I want to remember.

I need to remember my first time calling Poison Control, which happened last night.  My sweet little two year old Viola has learned to use chairs and stools to climb onto tables, counter tops, pianos, and anywhere else we thought was a "safe place."  She climbed onto the bathroom counter and grabbed an Air Wick scented oil with fan refill and sucked on the wick like it was a straw.

She started bawling and ran to me.  She smelled very strongly like Harvest Orchard oil and said she needed a drink.  We gave her lots of water to drink and Poison Control said we probably gave her too much to drink which might make her throw up, which might get in her lungs, which might give her pneumonia, which might start an infection, but most likely she would be fine.   Which she is, just fine today, didn't even wet the bed after all that water before bed.

She is definitely in the terrible twos though.  She has to do everything her way. Don't even think about helping her out of the car.  She fell flat on her face at my mom's house a couple weeks ago getting out of the SUV by herself and skinned her forehead and nose. I had to cancel her picture appointment that week.  Since Erith and Tric are at school five days a week, Vi has 2 less sets of eyes to watch her.  She  is quite the adorable trouble-maker!  She is communicating so much better though.  She says simple sentences and knows how to count to 13 in English and 6 in Spanish.  She can say the ABC's pretty clearly and knows the color red.  She can play several games on the Ubuntu computer that Adam set up for the girls to play on. She knows who's turn it is for family prayer which we do by order of birthday! Crazy huh!

Erith lost her fourth tooth last week.  She has lost 3 on bottom and 1 on top with two more quite loose.  She can read quite a few books and verses of scripture without any help now.  She knows how to change Clara's diaper and draws and prints picutures on the kid computer nearly every day. (We had to give her a paper limit per day recently.)  She is taking piano lessons and doing quite well, when she practices!

Tricity is quite the social butterfly.  I hear story after story about all the kids in her kindergarten class when she gets home.  She loves to help me cook.  She likes to draw and play on the computer as well.   She is quite good at remembering to practice the piano.  She is doing great at school and has helped me find homes for 10 of our 19 kittens.  (You heard me right, 19!)

Clara is jabbering a lot and she seems like a permanant hip ornament on me.  She is definately a momma's girl.  She laughs when Vi or I entertain her.  She rolls like crazy but is not wanting to crawl or sit up on her own much. She is eating lots of new foods and seems to never get full.  She's very cute and sweet and I love her a lot.

Adam's business is picking up again, it usually does right before year end.  His brother is working for us in the evenings so Adam's challenge is to NOT stay in the office from morning till 11 at night.  He got to meet Dallin H. Oaks when his stake presidency got replaced, that was cool.  He likes the boys in his scout group really well, they are going swimming tonight.

I have been crocheting baby booties for humanitarian newborn kits.  I am still quite slow and have a lot of mistakes, but they keep Clara's feet warm, so I'm sure they are good enough.  I have lots of Primary stuff to do before the end of the year and I help a lady I visit teach quite often, and the PTSO have something they want at least once a month.  I just keep busy without a whole lot to show for it.  It's kind of frustrating, but I hope I'm making a difference.  Adam and I are going on a date this week if it kills us!  It's been about a month.  Between his schedula and mine, there's never a free night.  I really want to do a session at the Rexburg Temple, I haven't done one there yet.  We're still in the Idaho Falls temple district.   Have a great day!

Well, here comes another quick update for posterity sake on what I've been up to. 

Work has been going well and I'm scrambling to keep up. It feels like I just run and run. I just signed up with the new family search and I'm loving it. It is my escape now to search for people. We did a quick trial run and got 3 families ready for the temple and then Heather and I did a whirlwind day of everything for one family from baptisms all the way through to sealings. It was really fun to go through for people that I had gotten from family search and turned in. These next ones will be even cooler because I'll have done the research and finding myself.

I also helped out a buddy of mine that needed another player for his city league softball team. I went to 7 games and we won 5 of the 7. It was a lot of fun. We did a couple of games a week, so it seemed like a lot in a short amount of time. I got to play 1st base the whole time which brought back great memories from childhood.

I fixed the deck, (see the other post for in the middle picture). It seems to be holding up well and we'll see what happens after a year has gone by how they hold up.The stain seems to be working so that is great compared to our first attempt at protecting the deck (the paint wore off within weeks in some spots last time)

I also did a number of days over at another friend's house helping them move some trees (little trees from 1 1/2 feet to 7 feet tall. I'm guessing I helped out with 1500ish trees of the 7500+ they moved. It was fun even though I got sore fingers and a couple of blisters out of it. 

Erith and Tricity helped me the other day go get potatoes and deliver them to a bunch of people. One of the farmer's daughters in our stake did a young women's project and gave away a bunch of potatoes. All you had to do was show up, pick them up, and haul them off. Erith and Tric had fun picking potatoes with a little bit of dirt clod throwing (mostly at me).

All in all it has been a crazy summer and I think we've accomplished a bunch.

The relay for life was a very worthwhile experience.  It let us see lots of other survivors in the community and the family and friends who really care and support those with cancer.

This was our "camp", go Purser Potatoes!  Abi took a lot of time and effort making the campsite cool.  She put all the people on our team's names on Potato People.  Erith, Tricity, and Timber are showcasing them here.

Adam does not enjoy walking and running very much.  He'd rather get exercise from other means, so he complained the whole way there.  But once he got there, he got way into it.  He pushed Vi in the stroller and ran half of his shift.

I was not that ambitious, I had the sweat pouring just from walking.  Adam and Sleight came out and cheered/forced me through one lap of running.  They had us pick up a paperclip each lap we did, it was a good way to keep track of how many laps we'd done. Clara was a great cheerleader.  She was smiley and happy as you can see her here with Ranae.

Ranae, Grandma and Grandpa Quinn, and quite a few others came to support us.  It made it feel more like a party than exercise.  My sister Bethany had a friend who even ran 19 laps with her at 2:00 in the morning... STRAIGHT!  (They were hurting the next day!)

They had food, live bands, and games for those not on the track all night long.  You'll have to talk to my parents and brothers and sisters to find out the details on all that.  Adam and I had early shifts and we were the only team members who didn't spend the night.  (Which got quite cold I hear.)

Well, we did it!  I'm quite proud of us too!  Erith, Tricity, and Timber did at least 4 laps of their own throughout the evening.  We had such a good time, we will probably do it again next year.  Let us know if you want to join our team!

Where have I been the last month?  Well, I have been canning like crazy, and I've read all NINE Work and the Glory books.  It's amazing how into them I got.  I pretty much forgot that I had a blog, e-mail, a life...  Volleyball season is in full swing and so Adam goes to as many of those games as he can. 

Erith and Tricity have started piano lessons and they seem to be doing quite well. 

Adam has been building a new swingset/playtoy thing that we are pretty excited about.  I was just going to buy a kit and have him put it together, but he convinced me to let him design it himself.  It's about 2/3rds done now.  We've had the money to do it set aside since Spring but  he hasn't had time to do it till now.  If any of you haven't noticed, (haha) the economy is amazingly slow right now, so he has some time.

Erith and Tric had a nice stick fight a couple weeks ago and Tric got hit one inch from her eye with a big stick.  It was very ugly and Tric got tired of answering all the questions about it.  My mom gave us some magic bruise cream and it worked wonders on her black eye, thank goodness!

Vi is talking really well the last month.  She starts each day saying "Dora, Boots, Peese Mom" and ending each day the exact same way.  We have one Dora movie and I really think I could quote it from memory.

Clara is eating some baby cereal and other baby foods now, it seems to be helping her unquenchable hunger, yay!  She has turned into quite the Mommy's girl lately.  I'm flattered that she loves me so much, but wow, is it ever hard to get things done around here one handed.

We are doing quite well and we hope you all are doing well despite our economy.

This was our first vacation in our new SUV.  It was nice, and very different.  Our Saturn Outlook is an 8 passenger vehicle, it's like a short suburban; thus one person had to sit way in the back.  The other 2 back seats we folded down so we would have more room for our stuff.  This is a sampler of our vacation pictures.  To see TONS more go to the IMAGE GALLERY up above and then click on 2008 vacation.

Monday we left home early in the morning and drove to Ogden and went to the Eccles Dinosaur Museum.  It was mostly out of doors, which we weren't expecting, but they had made some very cool dinosaur recreations/interpretations.  There are a bunch of different dinosaur museums in Utah.  This was not the one I went to in elementary school.

They had lots of photo face hole places to take pictures and the kids insisted on sticking their heads into EVERY hole!

They had places where you could dig up or brush off dinosaur bones and eggs.

There were real fossils and fossil replicas inside. Oh, and one robotic dino display.

After we were done at the dinosaur museum we drove to Midway.  My cousin Camille lives there and we stayed there that night.  We had an excellent barbecue lit by torches AND glow-in-the-dark earrings!

Tuesday we started the day with cute hair for once! (Thanks to Camille)

Then we went fishing!  We didn't catch anything, but we'd rather catch nothing than catch a duck, right Camille? :)

Camille invited a family of cute little boys to come along and teach my cute little girls how to fish.  Fun fun!

Then we headed to our hotel in Salt Lake City.  We dropped off our stuff and then went to the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum by riding the TRAX.

The Kid's Museum had a ball blower machine, a house, farm, grocery store, water works, TV station, helicopter, magnet wall, and tons more.  Its was pretty fun, but again, I was disappointed it wasn't as cool as I remember MY children's museum experience being. :)

Then we went to Temple Square.  The kids were pretty tired by then so we didn't stay too long.

We went back to the hotel to swim in the pool and sleep.  Erith and Tricity learned to float that night in the pool, that is a big accomplishment for them!

Wednesday was Lagoon Day!  Adam's whole family and Uncle, Aunt, and Cousins met us there for a day of fun!

This is Vi with her Uncle Gabe.

LagoonABeach was NOT a good idea for 2 adults with 4 little kids. Let's just say we got to play for less than an hour before Vi had a BAD accident in her swimsuit (Which was the only accident she had all vacation I might add) and I couldn't find Adam with our locker key. :(  And to top it off I am now 3 little girl swimsuits less than when I got there. One I THREW AWAY, the other 2 were accidentally left there. So this is the only picture I have of these cute suits, sniff.

Adam's family took the kids so Adam and I could go on some thrill rides like Wicked and the Colossus.  I was too chicken to do the Spider. I don't do a lot of spinning.  Then we did some all family rides, like the train as you see above.

Erith and Tric even did the WHITE ROLLERCOASTER! That was quite a step up from the kiddieland rides they did all day.  Vi rode the merry-go-round about 8 times that day!

Thursday was our last day and sadly we didn't charge the camera so there aren't a lot of pictures of this day.  We went to Hogle Zoo then This is the Place Monument then to Ogden to have dinner with Adam's sister Andrea. Here's what we have:

This is the Place is much cooler when you can go into Pioneer Village but we showed up 5 minutes before they closed. Darn.

Well, it was fun to play more, drive less this vacation.  We recomend all the places we went if you are planning a vacation for little kids! (Lagoon is for everyone of course!)