Adam and Heather Hayes

Clara is growing up so fast lately.  She has 2 bottom teeth, she crawls, she says Dadda a lot, she can open the doors on our entertainment center and pull all the stuff out, she is using a spoon a little bit on her own, she jabbers, gets into whatever is left on the floor or couch and last but not least puts her hand into the 5 gallon bucket of catfood and eats a few each day. 

Poor Tric, she has a kind of morning routine of doing a puzzle or two first thing in the morning.  She started out with 24 piece puzzles, now she does 50 and 100 piece puzzles. But she has to be quick, as soon as Clara gets out of her crib, not even an open package of chips on the floor will keep her from those puzzles.

Vi is now a big sister who doesn't like her little sister getting into her "stuff". She won't call Clara by her name, she calls her "Baby".  She constantly runs up to me and says "Oh no Mom, Baby touching it". Vi likes to draw and color and tends to leave her coloring pages and crayons (or writing utensils) on the kitchen floor, so naturally Clara usually has a pencil or pen in her mouth.

The other day I left Vi with a coloring book and some crayons while I went to pick up Erith and Tricity from piano lessons.  (Adam works from home, so I don't leave them alone) When I walked in Vi was looking nervous and said "Baby did it" it took me a minute to see that our TV was covered in crayon scribbling and Clara was on the floor holding a crayon.  Clara can't put herself to standing quite yet and even if she could, her arm couldn't reach the top of the TV where there was plentiful scribbling.  It was so funny to me.  She really thought she'd framed Clara beyond a doubt. (You can see why I'm hesitant to put in an LCD TV in there)

Yesterday Vi was being quiet, almost all day long... She is really into this art thing lately.  She got into Clara's dry formula and was making sand drawings all over the kitchen countertops one of the times. The other time she was making lotion fingerpaintings all over a green plastic storage tub in her bedroom. Gotta love age 2. We always call Viola Vi, so today I told her that her whole name was Viola Pearl Hayes.  She said "No mom, I'n not Viowa Pol, I'n Vi" She talks so well now, it's cute.

For those of you who don't know, Viola is my Grandma Quinn's Mom's name and Clara is my Grandpa Quinn's Mom's name.  They really have a connection with each other.  They get each other laughing all the time.  Vi does something silly like hits herself on the head with a flyswatter and gets Clara laughing then that make Vi laugh. Some toys that Vi refuses to share with the older kids she happily shares with Clara.  They even share my lap pretty well now.  They used to try to push the other off.  I'm hoping they'll be best friends forever.

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!

Viola turned two recently.  Happy Birthday to her!  We were glad she had a cake to stick a candle in.  Our oven is going out and the first cake was a hideous disaster.  Adam wouldn't let me put the picture of the first cake out because he was in it.

Viola is big into babies, books, and cell phones right now.  So that's what I got her!  She got some cute dresses from the Grandmas too.

She's determined to grow up.  She potty trained herself a couple weeks before she turned two AND she's sitting at the table with us instead of in the highchair!  She's a big girl!

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!)

We were surprised to wake up to a snow covered yard yesterday. It was finally showing more grass than snow! We were also surprised to hear they closed school one day before spring break! (Some roads were closed.) So snow day #7 meant a longer spring break for us!

The girls were pretty excited about it. They made a snowman on the front deck of all places. You'd think it would be easier to leave it on the ground. They've been very into art projects as well.

Erith wanted to make a castle to show at show and tell. She took out the Popsicle sticks and glue and went to town. The longer we had it, the more embellished it became, paint, pom poms, stickers. Of course we couldn't leave Viola out of the fun!

Well, I finally got the ultrasound that everyone has been asking me about. January 2nd at 9:00 A.M. we found out that we are having a...

Baby's Profile

GIRL! So I guess Viola will have a playmate close to her age like the older girls are to each other. We ARE excited and it really makes things convenient for me, because I definitely have girl stuff! Adam says we are just specializing.

Baby's Face, mouth is open, cute little chin to the right

I'm still tempted to paint the old office a light green... I could stick up pink and purple decor to make it a girl room if I have to, right?

Otherwise the ultrasound said I was right on, the baby isn't big which happens a lot with diabetic mothers. I must say these 4 girl pregnancies I've had have been quite easy so I shouldn't complain at all. These first 24 weeks have been great and we'll hope for a healthy baby at 39 weeks!

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, Viola decided that she wanted to be a photographer this week. She found the camera while it was charging and apparently took some pictures. We later found these images when we were downloading them to our computer. She must be pretty good at it because she took 20 pictures, changed the picture settings, and turned off the back display without so much as looking at a page of the manual. Next time you need your VCR/DVD Player reconfigured, she's your... (wo)man.

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! :)

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!

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!

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! 

Well, I saw Viola with some scissors walking to the bathroom garbage can this morning.  I didn't see what she dropped in the can.  (A clump of hair)  I took the scissors away and told her not to play with scissors.  Then I saw the clump of hair on the floor.  I picked it up and said "Vi why did you cut your hair?"  She said " I want my hair pretty." 

I tried so hard not to smile, but it was so cute!  Adam freaked out worse than I did.  He likes girls to have long hair, and according to him it was finally getting long and cute.  I was going to have my sister cut Vi and Erith's hair in the next couple weeks anyway so I just thought it was funny! So, it's decided, ear-length it is!

The day before Adam's sister Sarah got married, I was in my bedroom reading a book when I saw out of the corner of my eye, Viola in the bathroom.  I distinctly heard the sound of scissors cutting something.

I said "Vi did you just cut your hair?" She bends over and starts picking up pieces of hair in a hurry and putting them in the garbage can.  "I didn't cut anything."  It took me a few minutes to find the lucky spot on her head.  If I part her hair to the side, there's enough on top to hide the short hair nubs underneath. 

Just in time for lots of family pictures at Sarah and Logan's wedding.  Oh well, at least the bride and groom looked gorgeous!

Viola is now 4 years old!  I wanted to get her something different and enthralling to a 4 year old.  I decided on a Crowntail Beta fish.  She loves it.  I think it's name is Seedy, but she changes it a lot.

I wrapped this open bottomed box thinking I was so clever and creative to hide the fish.  Well, she loved it. 

I put it in a fish bowl and put the box back on to suprise the family  that night when everyone came over for swimming, cake and icecream.  I somehow tipped the bowl over when I was jostling presents and soaked all the other presents and was left with a flopping fish on the table.  My father in law kept his cool while I was screaming my head off and swiped the fish off the table back into the bowl.  The fish is still alive and well a week later, no thanks to me!

Day 6: California Adventure

We didn't get to bed till super late Tuesday night, so we had a late start Wednesday morning.  (Plus I felt like we should take it slow so Adam could have his daily health issue.  But, he didn't have any more problems that trip!)

Wednesday was the coldest day of the trip.  We had shorts and short sleeves thinking, it's hot in California.  But alas it was windy, overcast and sprinkled on us a couple times!  We should have brought some warmer things!

We started out in It's a Bug's Life and rode Flik's Flyer.

We let Andrew take the camera for a while, it's nice to see us all together.  It was kind of cool to see what it's like to be tiny like a bug.  I'm used to the opposite, too tall to see the underside of things.

We did the spinning ladybugs next, and like I said, Andrew had the camera.

Adam, Clara, and I chose to be together so we wouldn't have to spin more than necessary.  Ugh.

Our girls were terribly impatient to drive the bug bumper cars.  They all feel it empowering to be the driver.

Wonderful Drew stayed out with Clara who was too short and took pictures.

The rides seemed a bit short and non thrilling after the wild night we'd just had, but this vacation was for the kids. 

I didn't go to Disneyland till I was 18 for my senior trip and I wanted my kids to have some fun kid memories. 

The Heimlich ride was more a ride for your senses than anything.  We traveled through a watermelon rind that smelled and felt wet and juicey, and an animal cracker box that smelled like some of my favorite childhood snacks.  Like I said, not thrilling but creative.

This bug land place had SO many fun places to take pictures.  We didn't put a dent in the possibilites. 

They had a fun 3D bug show with a stinky stink bug, black widdows coming down from the ceiling, and wiggley maggots.  I love 3D shows like that.

Wade joined us and brought us lunch.  Clara had a tradition of falling asleep through every meal.  It was so cute to see Vi share the stroller and hug her till they both fell asleep.

Oops, I forgot to flip that pic.  After lunch we went to the forest rangery part. 

They had a cave to tell you what your inner animal was.(Adam was a skunk!) rope bridges, tire swings and Clara's favorite: rock slides!

Poor Vi barely made the height measurement at the bottom of the swings, walked all the way up the rope bridges to the swing ride just to be told she was too short to ride.  She cried and cried and said, "That lady thinks I'm little and I'm not, I'm a big girl, waaaaaaa!"  Gotta love it!

Adam took Vi back down and while he was comforting her, she decided she wanted to get a picture with Brother Bear.  Good idea Vi!

The lines at California Adventure averaged about 30 minutes except the next two: Mickey's Fun Wheel and Toy Story Mania, those were looooong. (probably an hour)

The fun wheel was way too high for Adam's taste, I was afraid he might toss his cookies for the third time on that one!  It's a huge feris wheel with most cars on rollers.  Vi and Clara put on their brave faces.  Andrew, Wade, Jerica, Erith, and Tric were making theirs rock and roll like crazy!

Toy Story was a shootem up video game ride, I was terrible, Andrew and Wade smoked us.  Then we went to the tortilla factory for free tortillas and the sourdough bread bakery for free sour dough.  Then we ran into these green army guy musicians.  That was pretty cool.

We went to a super cool Aladdin live production.  Who knew you could get a 45 minute Broadway show at California Adventure at no extra cost!? We then had dinner in the brr cold and split into groups again.  The big kid group did Soarin' Over California (which is VERY cool, if you're on the front row you don't have feet dangling above you and it really feels like your're flying into the green screen!) and California Screamin'.

Screamin' is pretty intense!  It was Erith and Tricy's first upside down rollercoaster!  Erith said she was too scared to scream, Tric asked, "Did we go upside down yet?" Yep! (Get Fast Passes to both, like we did!)

Yeah right Wade, even a ride pro like you couldn't fall asleep on screamin'!  Then the boys took off to play stake volleyball.  I'm not sure where Ryal and Cory took the little ones while we were gone.  I believe they did King Triton's carousel more than once.  We girls met up with them and watched the electrical parade, then the second it was over Ryal, Erith, Tric, me, and yes Vi, did Hollywood Tower of Terror! Sleeping Clara stayed with Aunt Cory.

Remember Where's Waldo?  Where's Viola?  It was a pretty scary story line (Twilight Zone) and it is probably too much for an almost 4 year old, but I didn't think she would behave for Cory while we went, so I took her, and she did it!  I told her it was all pretend and she was extremely proud of this picture. "HER picture".

Vi threw a huge fit on the way to the car.  She wanted me to carry her, not Ryal, not the stroller, give me a break kid, you're heavy and I'm tired!  Another late night, got kids to bed and did 2 loads of laundry.

Day 7: Drive to San Diego to see Trevor at Camp Pendleton

My brother has been at Camp Pendleton since last summer when he went to do marine boot camp to join the marine reserves.  He tore the cartilage off his hip while doing the usual drills and whatever and was declared physically unfit enough to finish. (2 weeks before his graduation no less) He has been sitting in the the hospital wing for 5 months waiting for his discharge papers to come home.  It's very depressing and he longs for company, so we came to visit.

He can't leave the base, he got leave to have this visit with us, and they have an awesome rec center to play and eat in, so we played and ate.

We bowled 2 games at the bowling alley and then had lunch, hamburgers and pizza. (There were about 4 choices on the menu)  Vi wailed on her big sisters at bowling! (Bumper buddies and a ramp helped!)

Then we hit the free arcade.  Trevor's favorite game is this shoot deer and elk game, I think he liked having a gamer like Adam for competition.

I couldn't pry the sunglasses off Erith's face this trip!  That was a dark room!

Tric loved the basketball hoops game, Clara loved the one thing she could climb on by herself and reach the controls!  Vi had too short an attention span to do much of anything.

I had to give them my driver's license to get the air hockey puck and paddles, so muscle men, don't hit the puck hard enough to jump the table and lose it!

Speaking of losing things, Clara lost one of her shoes and it took forever to find.  Guess where it was? Behind the propped open door, that tiny triangle of space was the last place I thought to look!

We got Trev back a tad late for his 4:00 cut off, oops, bad shoe.  We're glad we could see him.  We zipped back to LA without too much traffic trouble and then climbed in the passenger van for an Angels game!

Praise to Andrew again for the tickets and chicken burgers hot and ready in the van when we got there just in time to leave.

This is our family's first major league baseball game. 

We didn't have as much red as the average fan.  But I did buy a t-shirt before we left.  I know, I am a junkie for vacation suveniers!

The angels did not win I'm afraid.  They lost to the San Diego Padres 5-2.  The whole experience was awesome though, being able to buy hotdogs and peanuts from your seat, the great american pasttime.  I have to say though, Adam playing here at Tauphaus Park moved tons faster! (no raking the dirt!)

Surprise Tricity!  When we got back from the game this was waiting for us!  Andrew is magic, I'm telling you!  Tricity's surprise princess birthday party!

Day 8: We drive 11 hours to Andi's in Ogden Utah, goodbye California, Wheelers, Trevor, we love you!

Only a cool sister like Andi would let 6 people crash her one bedroom apartment at 12:30 AM!  Thank goodness she did because we were having a hard time getting that far, all the way home would have been misserable!

Day 9: Conference, birthday presents, meeting the infamous Mike, and Fat Cats.

We finally got to meet Andi's best friend she's been hanging out with for 3 years.  We met up for a between sessions lunch.  I liked him a lot, we need tall men in this world like him!

This Fat Cats place had a ton of fun things to do, but we just didn't have enough time to do all we wanted before conference started, so we settled for Jazzi style bumper cars and ice ball. (skee ball)

It was a fun ending to a fun vacation, I'm very glad we went.  I'll write about Tric's birthday later, and that's all she wrote!

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!

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!

Adam has a small assortment of songs he plays on the piano really well.  Our girls alway request "The Charlie Brown Song" and they dance and dance to it. 

Adam set the camera on the piano bench and then started playing it so we could capture this cute pastime.  The dance is different every time, and usually all 4 girls are upstairs, to join in.

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!