Adam and Heather Hayes

Thanks to everyone who came to help with baptisms for the dead. 

We had 94 names we baptized and confirmed that day plus I sent my cousin Sterling and his wife 20, plus we gave some 3rd cousins of mine in our ward 30 male names a month ago.  It has been a lot of fun, more fun than updating the blog I'm afraid...

As you can see from the picture, we will have a lot of sealings to do once all the individual ordinances are done.

We try to go on a road trip every summer and this year we decided to go to to the West Coast.

MONDAY July 23, 2007

We left our house at about 9:30 in the morning and drove straight up and over to Moses Lake Washington. It seemed to go really fast. I read Harry Potter 7 aloud and it kept our minds off the clock. We arrived at my Aunt and Uncle Allen and Christine Quinn's house at 6:00 pm our time but, oops, 5:00 pm their time. They were very gracious hosts to us even if we were an hour early. We were fed well, updated on what all my cousins were up to, and got to see some pretty hilarious pictures and YouTube videos. Lisa let us sleep in her newly painted room and entertained our girls to their heart's content, bless her!

TUESDAY July 24, 2007

We left the Quinn's after a delicious blueberry pancake breakfast and headed for Canada. This is where our perfect trip started to mock us. We had never gone through the border before but wow, don't get in the left lane! The right lane is 5-6-10 times faster! So after looking at the peace arch in Blaine Washington for a couple hours we finally got through the border.

Canada doesn't look that much different from Washington! There were lots of people picking berries out in the berry fields and the people are very proud of their country and they know french. That's the impression Canada left on me. We went straight to Vancouver which is huge and has a lot of Asians. We tried to find some Korean shops for Adam's Korean pleasure but we burned out of walking downtown before we found any. We learned there are no left turns from 8-6 on several major roads in Vancouver and when you see a big sign that says Parking you'd better take it fast! We went on top of the Vancouver LookOut which is like the Seattle Space Needle but not as tall and you have to stay inside the glass. It was cool. I love seeing the lines of boats and seagulls and all the sights you never see in Idaho. We then went to Burnaby with the intention of going to a "see what it was like in the old days" Burnaby Village, but alas it was closed and wouldn't be open until 11:00 the next day which we didn't have time or patience for.

So we went to the "Second best campground in North America" which is in Burnaby to camp for the night. We checked in and asked if there was anywhere close to eat and they said there was a Subway a ten minute walk from there. We didn't think the kids could last so we drove with a scribbled map on a paper and the ten minute walk turned into a 2 hour lost in Canada adventure that eventually brought me to tears. They rename the roads every mile or two in Burnaby and we kept accidentally getting on the freeway and leaving Burnaby and trying to turn around and get back in and find the campsite. It was a joke. So the swimming pool and playground had lost their zing when we finally made it back. We got the tent pitched and all the kids settled down the best that was humanly possible and then the air tram/train something LOUD sounded like it was going over our heads FOUR times that night. Viola would finally be asleep and then ROAR and WAAA! It was NOT a good night's sleep. Needless to say as soon as it was light we got out of there and didn't look back till we saw the American border.

WEDNESDAY July 25, 2007

You'd think we would have learned our lesson about the left lane but alas, we obviously didn't because we were in it again and the right lane just WIZZED through. We sat there for an hour which is better that 2 hours I'll admit but still, I guess I have patients issues.

We got through and drove straight to Seattle and parked the car by the Underground Tour in Pioneer Square. Walked in and found out they do it on the hour and we'd missed the last one by 5 minutes so did we want to wait for 55 minutes? We probably should have but no we walked to Pikes Market. It was a refreshing walk with the ocean breeze blowing in at you. We didn't see them throwing fish I'm afraid and the high class luch we bought was too high class for the kids. They refused to eat it after waiting an hour to get it. But they liked the fresh raspberries we bought and free samples of other fruits. That market is huge takes up both sides of a road and like 8 levels! Adam really wanted an oriental painting but we thought it would get ruined (or get too heavy) while we walked.

Then we walked to the Space Needle. Tricity was NOT coping well with the walking by this point. It was fun. You could go outside and feel the breath catch in your throat as you looked down.

When we were done and heading to the children's museum the kids couldn't stop staring at the rides around the base of the space needle. I told them we only had time for rides or museum, and what do you know, they chose rides! There was a monorail right there by the rides and we took it to get closer to Pioneer Square. When we got off we found out that they offer FREE buses to all the tourist spots in downtown Seattle! Now you tell us! There were no buses to be seen and we really needed to make the next underground tour so we walked the rest of the way anyway. We saw a lot of Seattle that we probably wouldn't have noticed by bus at least. There was a shop that had a gorgeous full size fox I really wanted but again, how could I carry it? Or find room in our packed car where it wouldn't get ruined?

The underground tour was very funny and interesting. We were the only ones with little kids. Vi finally fell asleep, but our poor arms were so tired from carrying her all day, it was a task walking up and down the stairs to the old underground Seattle buildings. As soon as it was done we rushed to our car and rushed to Adam's high school buddy Clifton's house. Clif had just barely moved there from Arizona so he didn't know the area that well yet and his directions were a little sketchy, but luckily we made it there just fine.

It was so nice to see Clif and Bree! After a LONG day of walking it was heaven to sit back, relax, eat the amazing barbecue they had prepared for us, see their new twin girls, and chat to our heart's content! When it was the kid's bedtime we said goodbye and headed for our hotel which after about an hour of trying to find it we realized it had a 3 foot concrete median in front of it and you could only get to it from one way! Mapquest can be a blessing but it can also be a cursing because it doesn't know the little details, or, how to tell you there is a median down the middle of the road for 10 miles!

The hotel gave us a room someone was already in. AWKWARD! But It's much funnier now than it was then! Oh well! The important thing was we did eventually have a room to stay in.

Thursday July 26, 2007

We did have a pretty good night's sleep to get us going Thursday morning. We left Seattle and drove to highway 101 right as Washington meets Oregon. We were under the impression that highway 101 gave you a view of the coast from Washington to California. It does follow the coast as best it can but it's not a constant ocean view. In fact it's a s-l-o-w, winding, occasional ocean view kind of road. It's absolutely beautiful! But very slow. (Especially if you're used to taking the freeway!)

Most of the 400 pictures we took on this trip are of the Oregon coast. We have a less than 20% sample of all the pictures we took in the image gallery if you would like to see more than you see here. (Which is worth the time, I promise!)

We wanted to see all the lighthouses we could between Seaside Oregon and Florence Oregon. Sadly again we planned more than we had time for. The Lighthouses that were open to visitors were only open from 11-4 and we never made it to a touring one during those hours. So we made the best of it. We went to Seaside to see the Lewis and Clark Monument that probably said something like "That's ocean, so I guess this is as far as this land goes, let's turn back and tell the President" but we never found it!

We did find a beautiful beach though, so we let the kids get a taste of the ocean and the beach and Vi, the sand. They loved building sandcastles, collecting shells, and running from the rip tides. The next day they got a little braver.

We saw four lighthouses, one really close up (Yaquina Bay), the other three, not very close up. One was on it's own little island (Tillamook Rock) and another was on a rocky ledge we couldn't find a road to (Yaquina Head). The Cleft of the Rock Lighthouse is actually an old lighthouse keeper's house he built like a lighthouse but you can't get too close. The Yaquina Bay lighthouse would have been fun to tour if only we could have made it between 11-4!

In Newport Oregon I REALLY wanted to go to the Newport Aquarium but it closed at 6 and we got there at 6:45. I must say if nothing else I learned some valuable lessons about planning opening and closing times into family vacations! We had reservations in Florence so we couldn't just camp there and go to the museum in the morning. (Another valuable lesson learned, reservations aren't always the best way) We got to our campsite at Honeyman State Park quite late because 35 mile an hour curves only let you go so fast down the coast

FRIDAY July 27, 2007

We got up early and went to the Sea Lion Caves just North of Florence, there were tons in and outside the cave. Then we went to the Hecta Head Lighthouse which is right next to the Sea Lions but we didn't think the kids could handle waiting 2 hours then hiking up the trail to the lighthouse, so we didn't tour it. We took lots of pictures on the beach there of the kids and the lighthouse. Erith and Tricity loved getting their legs and feet wet this time. It was so beautiful. There were about 15 painters out there that morning painting the beautiful scene.

Then we drove across Oregon, all day long.

We started Harry Potter over again because we were in such need of an escape. It was quite beautiful, but not very fast, till we got to the desert and drove like the wind.

We got to New Plymouth Idaho at about 8 pm. Our old neighbors from in town Ririe moved back there after they were done schooling at BYUI. It was so fun to be out of the car! Our girls played with their girls and the parents could talk and relax and have ice cream. We spent the night there and chatted and ate great food and went to a classic car show next door.

SATURDAY

It was a great end to a less than great road trip! The drive from New Plymouth to Ririe took about 5 hours. Which wasn't too much compared to what we had been doing each day! We arrived back home at about 6:00 pm and were amazed at how hot it was. The coast had a nice 70s feel to it, Ririe Idaho was over 100!

Anyway, though I planned it poorly, we have family memories that we'll never forget! The kids handled a lot of time in the car amazingly well. It was poor Vi's first road trip and she got a little anxious when we put her in her car seat shortly after that, bless her heart. But we survived it! Our kids tell anyone who asks how the trip was something like "It was GREAT! The best trip ever!" So how can you have any regrets! :)

I talked to my mom last night (Saturday) for quite a while about how things are going. We are going to see them after church and it makes me sad beacause it may be the last time for quite a while.

Landon's white blood cell count is going to be checked twice a week by a home health nurse. If his count gets too low he won't be able to see any outside person especially ones who are sick at all. We seem to have a cold that passes amongst the 5 of us lately.

My mom has hand sanitizer at the door and masks for anyone remotely sick and we have a couple days till the white blood cell count is going to take a huge drop, so we're going to make the best of this visit tonight!

I just thought this information ought to be mentioned so you family understand why they can't have visitors or go out in big crowds too often for the next year and believe me it will be hardest on me and my girls! I'm sitting here wondering if I should take Tric and Vi with their runny noses tonight but I guess it's better today than in 2 days.

Erith and Tric are making get well soon cards for Landon as I write, bless their loving hearts.

Adam just walked in from his BYU Idaho 7th stake clerk stuff and he says he's speaking in stake conference in 2 weeks and this is their last stake conference to speak before they get released. (I think I'm just about ready to be honest. It's kind of an unappreciated calling because your home ward just thinks your inactive!)

Our new office is coming along. All the Sheetrock is up and most of the screw holes are mudded so we just have to per fa tape, sand and paint. Oh, and figure out how to stop the bottom of the door from leaking when it rains. Our house and now new office faces South and it takes a huge weather beating.

Anyway, we are doing just fine. Vi is an amazing trouble/mess maker and I am learning to be patient when I find toothbrushes in the toilet and the entire contents of a garbage can on my living room floor. I'll miss these days when she's a teenager supposedly so bring it on Vi!

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!)

Right before I got sick I had a Mormon Wonder Woman day, my friend had a whole wonder woman week recently and so it inspired me to document my one Wonder Woman Day.

I cut by hand 20 pints worth of beef roast chunks, and canned them.

I made rolls, cookies, and soup for a friend's family who was sick.

I babysat a four year old.

I set up and started tieing a quilt for a family whose house burned down.

I had a clean kitchen the whole day. (who cares what the rest of the house looked like, right?)

I "burried" a dead pet cat. (Vi came into the house cuddling a cat, and said "Mom, I have a cat, I think it's dead."  I told her to put it back where she found it and go wash her hands.  Where she found it was right where all the kids were playing outside, so I had to get rid of it pronto.)

Adam is pretty happy I'm finally using the quilt stands and frames he made for me two years ago for the first time.   I really got on his case to make them for me so I could tie this exact quilt, but alas, all the parts and pieces have sat in the basement family room for 2 years untouched till now.  Well, Wonder Woman Days don't happen every day!

We had a lovely week of family fun last month.  I forgot to take pictures, so I'll try to tell our story the best I can with words.  Well, we do have a few pictures.

Adam's family stayed with us at a cozy A-frame cabin in Island Park from Monday evening to Thursday morning.  We started with a big crowd Monday night and slowly shrank in number by Thursday.

We went on a rafting trip from Big Springs to Mack's Inn.  I failed to take the camera, which is a shame.  It is a slowww float and we saw a moose and got sunburned!  There was another rafting group who kept "racing" us, it was fun even though we lost.  (They only had 1 adult and 3 youth, we had 5 adults 3 youth, HEAVY RAFT!)

Mostly we ATE a lot and played Super Nintendo and board games. The cabin had cable, indoor plumbing, and 2 bedrooms and a loft which you can see above. So now you know how much we were "roughing it!"

We toasted marshmallows in the fire pit one night, but alas I have no pictures of that.

After we left the cabin Thursday, we went to Mesa Falls.  My dad told us about this place on the way were you can feed the fish.  Once they know you're there they just jump like crazy for the bread or chex or the fish food you can buy in a vending machine.

While we were feeding the fish we shared some chex with a retired marine from California and he told the girls he would give them a special coin if they promised to be very good little girls forever.  So they promised and they got these unique coins with his name, rank, awards, and a little map of where he served in Vietnam. You can see one of the coins in Tricity's hand below.  He followed a few minutes behind us to the lower falls and then up to the upper falls.

Of course I didn't get a picture of him with our camera but we took one of him and his friend with his camera at the lower.  It is a beautiful place.  I can't believe it took me 27 years of living in Idaho before I went to see these beautiful landmarks in my own backyard.

We did remember to take pictures here. There are lots of BIG pictures of us at Mesa Falls in the Image Gallery under 2009 Vacation.

We ate cold cereal at Mesa Falls for lunch and then headed to Aspen Acres for my Quinn family reunion.  Camp was all set up when we got there and everyone was playing games and doing puzzles while the rest of us showed up.

We had to set up our new tent for the first time (in the scorching sun) and then we joined in the fun too.

We were literally right on the golf course.  The one time I went golfing a ball rolled under my aunt and uncles tent! It was a fun course, as long as I could hit the ball, right Adam and Ranae!?

We made the cutest cards one day and threw goldfish crackers on people's shaving creamed heads for a prize, and made eclairs over the fire and if you want to see any pictures of any of this fun stuff you'll have to go to my cousin Camillle's blog, because unlike me, she takes pictures of everything going on!

Saturday, the last day, my wonderful aunt and grandparents watched my kids so Adam and I could go to the Playmill with my parents and siblings in West Yellowstone.  We saw Guys and Dolls, and it was so funny!  I highly recommend it.  Here we are with some of the actors afterward.

You can see why I don't take pictures, Blurry!  We took Bethany's boyfriend with us and afterward we took him to Mesa Falls!  So here Adam is looking like a hottie.

and that was our vacation!

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.

Adam and I went to the Miss Idaho Paegent last week and did some buisiness advertising and had a fun get away from life. 

We went to an Art Museum, which had exhibits of Idaho Artists.  It was okay, nothing that inspired us too much.

We then went to Camel's Back Park to hike up the camel's back.  It was steep up onto the hump and then had a bunch of winding trails around the top and down the sides. 

I thought we were lost after 45 minutes and finding a stream instead of the park. 

But we were just one hill curve away from the park.

We spent 5 hours in the Boise Temple Saturday, it was a great oppurtunity to get ahead on our family names.  Thank you to all the Quinn family helping with our family names, we should have enough to do a huge 8-12 couple sealing session by the end of the summer, thanks for all your help!

We were happy to see our kids again when we got back.  They have been having tons of fun feeding and collecting eggs from our 4 hens everyday. 

(I highly recommend a few hens for teaching kids responsibility!)

We used a trail of cracker crumbs to lead our neighbors free ranging chickens into the coop.  (they gave us permission to take them) We got to play Momma kitty to a batch of kittens as well, that story does not have a happy ending I'm afraid.  We tried!

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!

Well I think the nesting instinct has kicked in. I want things ready for the baby. My c-section is scheduled for April 23rd, so I can at least say I'm having the baby next month! I just started ripping the not-so-cute wallpaper off in the old office one day and then, I caught the bug and wouldn't leave it alone until it was done.

I have learned that the old owners of this house always have an ugly secret under any wallpaper I've ripped off. The basement family room had one wall that the wallpaper was glued directly onto the Sheetrock. Luckily it wasn't that severe a case in this room. But still, the walls were VERY ugly underneath. Holes galore, rips to the Sheetrock, mold, and more. They tried to get off an ugly floral wallpaper and beat up the wallls doing it, then gave up and left a little on, then covered it all with the brown wallpaper. I don't have a picture of the before sadly.

But lucky you get to see how glamorous I look when I work! The picture part of the wallpaper comes off in no time. But the glued on under part takes a lot of wallpaper stripper and scraping.

I painted the room light green, I know I'm pregnant, but painting the family room red when I was pregnant with Vi doesn't seem to have ruined her.

The carpet is yet to come but I'm glad to have the walls looking healthy again. I re-textured them a little because of all the holes and rips. I'm quite pleased with the outcome. It was fun working with my girls. They really liked ripping wallpaper and painting.

We had a pretty successful Christmas photo shoot last week.  Aren't we a cute family?  I can't believe it's Christmas already.  Where has December gone?  We have had a ward party, elder's party, 3 school programs, lots of temple work and christmas candy making.  I guess that's where December went. 

From our family to yours, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

For family night the other day we went to feed the ducks in Idaho Falls.  I had quite a collection of old stale things that no one would eat so it was a fun way to get rid of it!  We fed the ducks and shared with a Chinese tourist family the cereal we'd dumped all over the ground.

We went to the temple grounds afterward and talked about how important it is to go to the temple and be sealed together.  It was really hard for Vi to resist picking the pretty flowers.  

• A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.
• B. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
• C. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

1. 10 Years ago (1997/1998)
1. I had just finished working at the auto parts warehouse
2. I went into the MTC on Jan 31st, 1997 (my amazing new years party consisted of going to bed at either 9:30 or 10:30 (can't remember)
3. I was back in my on and off again relationship with McKenzie Adamson.
4. I took my first airplane ride. After 15 hours on the plane the novelty wore off.
5. Spent most of 1998 living on two islands off the coast of Korea.
2. 5 things on my to-do list today:
1. Clean up after our New Year's Eve Party with Daniel and Darcy Lundquist
2. Finish the box that the heater in my office sits on andand carpet it so it blends with the office.
3. Clean the new office
4. Finish some odds and ends on websites that I'm working on
5. Relax and try to catch some football
3. 5 snacks I enjoy:
1. My wife's chocolate chip cookie dough (and the cookies too)
2. Reeces Peanut Butter Cups
   
3. White Chocolate anything
4. Cinnamon Bears
5. Ice Cream
4. 5 things I would do if I were a billionaire:
1. Build my parents a new house
2. Build a new High School for Ririe with two really nice gyms
3. Visit Korea with my family
4. Spend a lot more time reading and studying things I'm interested in learning about (art, painting, wood working, volleyball, etc)
5. Spend lots of time having fun with my family
5. 3 of my bad habits:
1. Taking on too many projects
2. Messy (just look at my desk compared to the rest of the house)
3. I get bored with the same old same old so finishing big projects becomes tedious
6. 5 places I have lived:
1. Ririe, ID
2. Kojedo, South Korea
3. Youngdo, South Korea
4. Milyang, South Korea
5. Idaho Falls, Idaho
7. 5 jobs I have had:
1. Lawn Mower
2. Truck Driver (small auto parts truck, not big rigs)
3. Professor's Assistant
4. Webmaster
5. Business Owner
8. 5 things people don't know about me:
1. (Excluding my parents) I attribute a lot of what I've become today to my high school coach, Coach Gardner
2. I graduated Summa Cum Laude from BYU-Idaho with a 4.0 GPA
3. I coach one of the club volleyball teams for Ririe
4. I took piano lessons for 5+ years when I was young and can still play a little (I have 7-10 songs that I can play quite well, but I can't sit down and sight read a song)
5. I still get together with my high school buddies once a month
9. People I tag:
1. I'll list them when I get a list together... (I have to run...)
   

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!

The girls have been really looking forward to this day, and the family night before Easter is finally here! The day we paint Easter Eggs (or dye them I should say!)

Vi had a fun first time dying eggs. There was a colorful puddle in front of her, and she cracked one. She tried to eat it with most of the shell still on, yummy.

As you can see I am eight months pregnant and looking forward to April 23rd. That is the day of my scheduled c-section. I also have a new haircut, compliments of my sister Jaleesa! Yes, I chopped it, and highlighted it, and I love it!

If you would like to see more Easter Egg pictures check out our image gallery! (Button at the top of the site.)

I am sorry I haven't been up to writing lately, but Baby Clara is worth every minute!

She is absolutely beautiful! I have to say that even though I've had 4 girls now, each one is unique and I fall in love with each one each time.  Clara is great baby, very easy to fall in love with.  She's a good eater, a good sleeper, doesn't puke much, and has a happy disposition.

Her big sisters are great helpers.  They entertain her a lot, and she loves every minute of it, even if Vi is a little rough!  Speaking of Vi, she has had the hardest time.  She does all kinds of aggravating things to get some attention. Most of them happen in the bathroom and involve toilet paper.  She seems to be getting better as the days go by though.

I wouldn't trade Clara for a hundred boys, she is an angel and I love her!  Our family feels more complete and we all love each other all the more.  I couldn't be any happier! 

We had Adam's family over to our house for Thanksgiving this year and it was a delicious success. After the turkey settled in our stomaches guess who was the most tired?

Don't be fooled by this picture! We had a picture of practically everyone dead asleep EXCEPT me. But I must admit I didn't want angry girls calling me and demanding I take their zonked out picture off the web!

Wow, what a week. We have been working hard insulating and sheetrocking our new office, running kids to preschool and kindergarten and trying to help some close friends who are having problems. Then we find out that my little brother Landon who is 11 years old has bone cancer. WHAT A SHOCKER. Adam came out of his office after talking on the phone with my parents and asked "Are we ready to be strong?"

That didn't bode well. I was kind of thinking I was already being strong for people. Landon has been limping for a couple months but we were shocked when a knee specialist said he thought it was bone cancer. My parents have been at Primary Children's from Tuesday to late Thursday and we found out for sure yesterday (Thursday) that the knee tumor is in fact cancerous. It's officially called:

osteosarcoma

The Doctors and staff made my parents feel very at peace with it. They say it is very treatable and it doesn't seem to have spread to the surrounding bone or effected his lungs or other common occurances. He will have to do Chemotherapy every 3 weeks at Primary Children's for a year and thus he'll have those side effects and can't be around sick people or stressful situations. He starts chemo on Tue, Sept. 25.

The hardest part of this for my parents is reliving it every time someone calls or asks so in order to lessen that discomfort Adam set up a blog just like this one for them on my Dad's stock photography domain. The address is:

landon.stustock.com

This way everyone can know how it's going without putting my mom on an emotional roller coaster everyday.

On behalf of my family THANK YOU so much for the prayers and fasting and various other help it has really made this ordeal seem bearable. We know we're not alone in this and that is a great feeling in a less than great situation.

You're awesome!

Heather

Our girls were so excited when I bought a Slip'nSlide that they invited a bunch of family over for a water party.

Viola surprised us by potty training herself this week, so this is her first time swimming without a swimming diaper. She'll be two next week.

What would a water party be without hotdogs and Adam in his grilling apron?

We had otterpops and splashed it up to stay cool in the hot sun.

The slip'nslide said for kids only, but what fun is that? Yes, that person is me, Heather.

I just had a baby remember, I've got some baby fat to lose!

Here are some skinnier splash kings and queens.

Kami and Josh

Tricity and Sarah

Some just came to chat and laugh at the rest of us.  Jaleesa was there, how did she escape the camera...

Erith was being a prim little princess and didn't want to hit the water with her face very badly.

Clara had a trick up her sleeve that day too. She rolled over from tummy to back about 6 times!  Loa got a video of it, I will try to get it from her and post it soon.  She will be two months next week.  She is very active and alert and determined to grow up on me.

Hope you all are keeping it cool!