Adam and Heather Hayes

 

We had some nice weather last week, too bad it didn't last. We got more snow, bummer.

 

Anyway the girls made a club house/playhouse thing on the swing set. 

 

They got it made, then they needed a picnic basket full of food to eat inside.

 

Then they insisted I get in and play with them.

As you can see below, we used blankets and plastic sleds for the walls.

Clara loved having a new place to play.  I think she gets bored being in the house all day.

 

On a sadder note, Adam's aunt passed away last week and we had the funeral Monday.  She was Tricity's kindergarten teacher as well.  Cancer is everywhere isn't it?  I hope everyone is looking out for their health (and finances).  

 

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.

 

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!

While we were painting our props, we set Vi at the counter with poster paints.

 

One day was not enough, so she painted the next day too.

 

She went through that whole set of poster paints in 2 days! It's good for kids to get messy and be creative, and poster paint wipes right off the counter!

Tric actually used some of the poster paints making a big mural too.  As you'll see in the next post, they get the solid painting from me and the intricate fancy painting from their dad.

 

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!)

Well we had our third volleyball tournament which puts us half way through the season. The girls did amazing this week. We won our pool and then played against Hillcrest again. We are the only ones that have even beaten them during any games. Although we won the first game against them, they rallied back and won the next two. However, it was extremely close and one call one way or the other could have changed the outcome of the game.

In our second game against Tabu, we came back from being down 7 points to gain the lead at 17-16. However, we decided that defense wasn't that important and gave them the next 9 points (I was all out of time outs and they just started picking on one of my back row people.)

• Blackfoot - Tabu
•       25-18 (win)
  
•       17-25
• BVC (win)
  
•       25-16 (win)
  
•       25-12 (win)
  
• IF - Tracy (win)
  
•       25-13 (win)
  
•       25-22 (win)
  
• Hillcrest
•       25-23 (win)
  
•       19-25
•       10-15

All in all it was a great tournament. As long as we don't talk about where one of the coaches son's got upset about some calls and tried starting something with the 95 lb, 5' nothing girl ref. He got in her face after the match, and I couldn't just sit there waiting for him to hit her, so I got between them. He kept saying not to touch him, and I kept telling him to calm down. I wasn't sure if he was going to through a punch or not. Anyway, in the end he didn't swing (at me... though he did hit some lockers on his way out of the school) and I'm not sure he'll be allowed into any more tournaments.

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

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!

We've been telling our friend John that we should have his family over for dinner for about 4 years.  We finally set a date and did it!

John and Adam are competative stake sports guys and Heidi and I are the much more relaxed, happy to be there wives.  Our kids are about the same age so they had a blast dressing up together.

Our newest game is called settlers.  We love to play it and always seem to convince our company to play with us.

If we invite you over for dinner, watch out, we're getting pretty good at it! (Or at least Adam is!)

 

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!

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!

 

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!

 

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!

Where have I been the past few months?  Well, this is Idaho, and it is winter, so believe it or not, I've been cooped up in the house.  Reading books, watching old movies, and for the past couple weeks exercising! 

I have a goal to lose at least 30 pounds this year. I've joined a group of ladies in my ward who walk 3 miles every morning (5 days a week, M-F) and lift weights immediately after on Tuesday and Thursday (our whole stake is invited to that).  I hope going from nothing to this will be a big improvement.  It has already helped my mood a ton.  January always makes me so stir-crazy.  I'm usually broke after Christmas, thus I don't leave the house much.  I feel like everyday is the same, and there is nothing to look forward to, and I just get down and sad/grouchy.  So I am LOVING the happier mind-set exercise gives me, and I'm sure my family is too. 

We are going to do a complete overhaul on our upstairs bathroom when we get our tax return back.  (Since we incorporated in 2008 we had to pay 90% of Adam and Heather Hayes' AHFX 2007 earned income AND AH Digital FX Studios Inc., so this years return should be a good one) 

Our bathroom is straight out of the 70's from baby blue sink, toilet, and tub to the blue plaid carpet. Yeah, gross, I know. So all new everything, even cabinetry.  Yes, the carpet is going, it will be replaced with: most likely tile.  Post on the comment section the likes and dislikes of all your flooring and counter tops.  We are leaning towards tile floors and granite counter tops.  (Is tile to hard and cold on your feet and does granite show too many splatters and fingerprints?)  We will do before and after pictures of it.

We'll be adding more toys to our swingset, and hopefully... laying some cement for a basketball/volleyball court. It should be a fun, busy year! 

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.