To the land of the FO's

 Matt had a whole week off for Easter so we went home to be with everyone.  The first half of the week we spent with my family.  We had so much fun with them.  We had lunch with Grandma at her school on Monday and went to lunch with Papa, Kayla & Pete & Jimmy on Wednesday.  Nile Sterling & Dallin taught Heath & Houston how to play race car games on the playstation and Nile taught Heath how to yoyo.   It was a too short, super fun few days.










Heath's signing "Play"

 These two have Aunt Kayla wrapped around their little fingers.  It was so fun to spend some time with her.  She's moving too far away next month : (

 I sure love my Sister!




























Thanks for always being so awesome and keeping things real.

 Nile made Heath his very own little yoyo.  He was so patient and taught Heath how to throw it down and make it come back up.  Heath then got a little crazy doing some "awesome tricks!"

 Sterling & Dallin - our boys remind me so much of them sometimes.

 The night before we left we all went over to Nile's house and took family pictures.  It may be the last time we're all together for a while.  Kayla and Nile & Brittany are all moving far away soon. : (   

 I love Heath's face in this picture.  Apparently playing with Grandma can get pretty intense at times.

Thanks Mary Kay

Aunt Rebecca had an overnight Mary Kay conference up here and since Ben was in Georgia her kids got to come play with us for a couple days. It was so much fun to have them all here! Their kids are so great!

It was amazing to me how much easier it is with older kids around.  Benji Ana & Gwen were so helpful.  I'd venture to say all 8 were easier than just our two. I did only have them for about 24ish hours, but the older kids were so wonderful.  Making dinner, no problem Benji and Ana and Gwenny are entertaining the little ones.  Time for bed, no problem the cool older kids are doing it so the little ones follow suit.   Going out, the big kids buddy up and help to tend the little ones.   It definitely gave me a glimpse of what wonderful things are in store.

We'll just need to be sure we teach our kids to be as awesome as Ben & Rebecca have taught their kids to be.



Houston just loved little Isla.  He was constantly following her around and wanted to hold her any time we sat down.  She was such a good sport and patiently let him bother her most of the time.  He was really happy to hold her when she fell asleep with Matt.   

Houston and Isla are about 3 months apart.  Isla talks really well, almost better than Houston, and has more teeth than he does.

Heath & Julia played as if we'd never moved.  They just love playing all kinds of imaginary animal games together. 

Saturday morning the park near our house had an Easter egg hunt so we bundled everyone up and went to hunt us some eggs.

I was super awesome and forgot the camera, (I did remember lunch though, and we had a great picnic after hunting) so this is the only picture we have, Houston's on the right. This was stolen from a friend's blog who was also there.  They divided the kids into 3 different groups by age.  Benji was too old to hunt so he was super awesome and helped me with the 4 little ones, and Matt went with the 4 older kids.  They got TONS of eggs and lots of special goodies.  It was such a fun afternoon.

Happy Birthday Sucker Pops!

Matt's Birthday fell on General Conference Sunday this year.  Sadly I had been running a fever for several days and felt horrible, but It was a wonderful Birthday.  We just chilled on the couches and listened to the wonderful messages while the boys played and snuggled with us.

Matt had said that he wanted apple crisp and Butamon for his birthday the week prior.  The Butamon didn't happen until the next week, but I did get an apple crisp made for him. 

It was a laid back fun day to celebrate our wonderful Daddy's birthday.  I'm grateful every day for the wonderful Husband and Father he is to us.  He is constantly surprising us with his awesomeness and humbly serves us so unselfishly. We sure love you! 

WSHMYLU!

Purina Farm

 Our ward had a playgroup at Purina Farm so we finally made it there.  It was freezing cold (when we were leaving it started to snow) but we bundled up well and stayed warm.  It was so much fun for the boys. They have so many animals you can get up close with, even milk a cow you can milk (which Heath wouldn't do... the cow was on a platform that made it about 6-7ft tall, so I don't really blame him)

 Houston could have stood and watched that horse all day. He kept saying Hooorssse over and over again.  

They put on a show with some of their dogs where they do all kinds of tricks.  I don't have any pictures of that part, but you'll just have to take my word for it... it was pretty amazing.  The boys just LOVED it! I'm sure we'll be visiting again when the weather's warmer to see it again.









Heath really liked this big bunny. He followed it back and forth for about15 minutes trying to get it to eat straw.

 This may have been Houston's favorite part.  He didn't want to leave that big wheel.






















In the spring they have a baby petting area.  Little ladies sit outside the animals pins holding one of them you can pet.  They were so cute.  The boys loved that part too!

 As we were leaving Heath spotted this guy. We haven't really talked at all about the Easter Bunny, and he hasn't really had experience with sitting on characters laps but when he saw the bunny he said, "Mom I want to go sit on him!" We waited in line for a minute then Heath jumped right up there.  Houston was screaming in fear so I stepped back with him.  The bunny asked Heath a few questions that Heath answered and then Heath just sat there... and sat there.... rubbing the bunny's hands with his... and sat there.  After a while the bunny asked if he was finished, Heath shook his head no.  Then I made him get off.  (i know what a mean mom, but it was getting slightly awkward) On our way home Heath kept telling me how nice that bunny was.

 You try to take a cute Easter picture of your kids....

















I guess they still are REALLY cute!

Papaloo

 Matt did intramural basketball at the school this semester.  His team did pretty well, and he had a lot of fun getting back into playing.  Most of his games were pretty late in the evening, but we stayed up one night to go watch him play.








Heath was in little boy heaven. He kept yelling, "GO DADDY!"  "RUN DADDY RUN!"  when Matt would come close or had the ball. He pretty much didn't take his eyes off the game the whole time.  We were pretty much the only spectators there so everyone enjoyed Heath's cheering.  It sure made Matt happy.

 Seeing as how it was past Houston's bed time, and he being a child that loves to go to sleep when it's time, he just chilled in the stroller and occasionally sucked on his bottle.  I'm not going to lie, it was pretty nice to not have to worry about him running all over the place.
















Can you spot Matt? Im pretty sure he and all his brothers walk and hold themselves in that same way.

Little bit Crazy

 Heath has been doing so well with being potty trained.  We've only had about 1 accident a week, and they're usually times when I have forgotten to have him go before we leave the house, then we can't get to a toilet quickly. Sorry Buddy.

A funny story he'll probably not enjoy when he's older:  We went over to a friend's house for Easter dinner. Heath needed to go to the bathroom so I helped him in. Lately he wants me to let him in, then shut the door while he does his business, (who blames him?) then calls for me to come in when he's finished.  After a minute he yelled, "Mom what's this?" I opened the door and he was sitting on the toilet with one of these on his head:

 "Is this a hat Mommy?"  I couldn't help but laugh.  He just looked so funny there with a cute, innocent, quizzical look on his face wanting to know if that was indeed a hat.  He started to laugh too, while I explained that it was a seat for the toilet for little kids.  He said, "oh, yeah, Ellie's really little, she needs little seats."  When I told Matt about it later I was in tears laughing so hard I could hardly get the story out. It's really not that funny, but that picture of him sitting there with that look on his face is something I hope I never forget.

 Heath has started referring to Matt as "Sucker Pop's."  We're not really sure where this came from but it makes us both chuckle a bit on the inside every time he uses it.

"Heath come here."
"OK Sucker Pops!"

"Heath I love you"
"I love you too Sucker Pops!"

"Heath lay down"
"OK Sucker Pops!"

Matt has started replying with:

"I'm not a Sucker Pops!"

To which Heath just melts into laughter at his own silliness.

 Sorry, more potty talk, but hey, I probably won't remember this in a month if I don't write it down and to us it's pretty funny.

Heath has started classifying his stools.
When he's finished he'll say,
 "Thats a baby poo....
that's a Houston poo.... that's a Heaffers poo.... that's a Mommy poo...
That's a Daddy poo... or
THAT's a PAPA POO!"

The look on his face when he says it's a Papa poo always makes us laugh.

 So Houston's pediatrician called and said that he was looking at the blood work they'd done on him a week or so ago and his IgA levels were really low. Normal range for that test run about 24-137 in kids his age and Houston's was 4.  He asked if we'd be willing to get another draw done so they could test a few specific things associated with IgA and see if it had improved from the week prior since Houston had been sick at the time of the draw and that can affect your antibody levels.  So we did another test and it was a still pretty low at a 7.  They don't think it's something too serious, but want to check it again in about 6 months to see if it's improving. The fact that he's had trouble breathing could be linked to it, so we'll see what we find out.

 In the mean time Houston sure was cute kissing his arm every now and then.

Houston has started talking quite a bit in the last week.  He sure was a later talker than Heath, but seems to have waited till he was better at it to start. He frequently puts words together and can repeat just about anything.
"oosh (shoes) on please" "Dink of milk?"  "go ouside?" 

My personal favorite is, "I love woo!"  He points to his eyes then points so enthusiastically at you when he says it. Melts your heart.  Matt taught him that one. 

I think Houston says Heath's name better than Heath does.  Heath says it, "Heaf"  Houston can pronounce the th so it sounds just right when he says it.

Houston is really loving airplanes lately. And seeing as how we live close to a major airport right now he has lots of opportunities to find them in the sky.   He will usually notice the noise of one passing before I do and finds them in the sky pretty quickly too.

We went to the park with our ward's play group last week and I think Houston discovered something about himself.  He climbed up to the top of the super high big kid equipment and was determined to go down the slide. (I was behind him the whole way) He did it then wanted to do it again and again. Heath climbed up there with us on one occasion but was too scared to go down.  Houston just wanted to do it again and again, but wouldn't take any help.  He was like a wild man going head first on his belly on several occasions.  Since that day he is pretty near determined to do EVERYTHING on his own.  It is so frustrating sometimes.  Heath never really went through a faze like this so I guess Im not quite sure how to handle it.  I usually am pretty patient, but there has been a time or two where you just have to put the shoes on the screaming child because they've been trying for 5 minutes and are hysterical because it's not working like they want it to. We'll get the hang of things soon... hopefully.

Please don't turn around

This song is perfect: Hourglass by Mindy Gledhill 
(click to listen)

 Little boy, when you speak
I can’t help but kiss your cheeks
I love the way you grab my hands
And tell me all about your plans

 Rocket high, comets fly
You and I could take a ride
And fly away to Neverland
And give our best to Peter Pan

 When you reach for the stars
Don’t forget who you are
And please don’t turn around and grow up way too fast

 See the sand in my grasp
From the first to the last
Every grain becomes a memory of the past

  Oh, life’s an hourglass
Life’s an hourglass

Story’s read, prayer is said
Close your eyes sleepyhead
While angels linger in your dreams
And hold you in their feathered wings

Just like you, I was small
Not that long ago at all
I wish you all the happiness
That God gives freely if you ask

When you reach for the stars
Don’t forget who you are
And please don’t turn around and grow up way too fast
See the sand in my grasp
From the first to the last
Every grain becomes a memory of the past
Oh, life’s an hourglass
Life’s an hourglass