Goodbye Spring Break

It has been a wonderful week, weather wise, not so wonderful but other than that we had a great time together as a family:)

We spent Saturday catching up on all the cleaning inside and out...YES, we can finally fit BOTH cars into the garage again!

Thomas was determined to get the trampoline up and almost did the whole thing himself. Matt came at the end to help, and discovered it was upside down! The great part was that I didn't have to do a thing!

As we were cleaning, I realized how great it is to have 3 kids that are old enough to really help out. Cleaning the house, mowing the lawn, weeding etc. goes by so much faster with 5 people working instead of just mom and dad doing all of the work!

It has been hard for me knowing that we aren't having any more kids...one of those times when we learn that our plans are not always the Lords plan. Matt has always reminded me that we have so many things to do in our future, like serving missions and serving in any other way that we can. We can do them a little earlier than planned. Even though I agree, my heart has always had a little ache wishing we had more. (I guess it's just a mom thing.)

Anyway, I do have to admit our kids are at such fun ages. We can do so many things that wouldn't be possible to do as a whole family if we had little ones. I have learned to stop mourning what kids we don't have, and enjoy every minute (well, MOST of the minutes!) of the 3 beautiful kids we do have. We have been so blessed and I am so grateful to be their mom. I have also learned that I need to trust in the Lords plan because, when all is said and done, His will be much better than mine could ever be!

I couldn't resist taking a few last pictures of our Spring Break on this beautiful Sunday afternoon. There really is a sun!

Tomorrow is supposed to be even better...maybe it will help ease the pain of going back to our old routine :)

Where's Thomas?

All week long whenever we needed Thomas we knew where to look...in the front room READING on the couch!

Thomas read 5 books in 4 days that equals 1342 pages! HOLY COW!

His reading obsession started to wear off on Emily too. She has always loved to read but hasn't loved chapter books. Well, during the last few days I have found her reading by Thomas with a chapter book. It's amazing what influence a brother can make! Good thing Thomas is such a great example...I don't mind. Well, maybe the singing REALLY LOUD part could be toned down a bit :) Our house would be way too quiet though!

BOWLING!

Friday we went to BYU and had quite the experience bowling! Don't mess with the Heaps family when it comes to bowling....We were on FIRE! (ha ha)

Emily loved every minute of it and kept asking when we can go again. Jacqueline gave Matt a run for his money; and Thomas and I had some good....and not so good turns:)

It was really fun to be together and enjoy the sunshine even if it was still quite chilly!

More Spring Break fun...

I think Mother Nature must know it's our spring break and LOVES to put a kink in everyone's plans!!

I woke up to go running this morning and noticed the power was out, AND it was snowing like crazy. So, I did something very out of the ordinary...I crawled back into bed and slept for 3 more hours! Of course regret came when I woke up thinking of all the things I could have done until Matt reminded me that sleep should be on my "to do" list. I decided he was right 1 :)

We didn't let a little bit of snow ruin our plans! We went to Monster vs Aliens and had a great time! It was perfect because we had the theater basically to ourselves. Emily did have fun, even though she looks quite stressed in the picture!

Dad got to come along which always makes our days even better! He was sure glad he didn't have to miss such a "quality" show!

Time with our cousins

Today we spent our afternoon with the Parish's! As you can see, We all had a great time playing games, making tortillas and talking, talking and more talking!

Thanks Parish's for a great day!

Clark Planetarium

We decided to go to the Clark Planetarium for one of our Spring Break adventures. I have to admit, I did have to be brave to let Emily go :). We did have hand cleaner!

We went to the IMAX 3-D Under the Sea movie which all of us loved! The workers were very nice and put us in a perfect spot away from most of the people in the theater. no one around us was sick so I let Emily take off her mask during the show...It's all good, right?

I have to admit I started questioning my judgement when she didn't feel good last night. She snapped out of it though. No fevers, just laying around not feeling like herself. Maybe she's just tired since she hasn't been going to bed until 11:00 or 12:00! She then wakes up and makes her way to our room around 3:00 or so! What's this all about??? I have no idea, but I warned her last night that she isn't allowed to wake me up when she comes to sleep on our floor.

She fought me, saying, "Mom, what if I need to go potty?"

"Don't worry, you can go by yourself"

"What if I am asleep? You HAVE to take me potty!"

I laughed and said, "If you are coming to sleep in my room, you will be awake!"

She didn't know what to say to that so she stomped off.

She was very good and took care of herself last night...Ya Hoo! You would think I would be sleeping through the night by now since my youngest is 7...Good thing she's cute!

Grandma Pink

My Grandma Whiting is truly one of the most amazing people you will ever meet. She has been through so much in her life yet, she stays so strong! She misses Grandpa so much. It has been almost 33 years and she wants to go home too! It has been very difficult during the last few years to watch her endure so much pain.

She gave us her life history for Christmas and it is so precious. I appreciate how real and honest she is...she didn't sugar coat any of it! Yet, it is the sweetest story I have ever read! She is an amazing example to EVERYONE who knows her. She has served 6 missions and would be willing to do more if her body would allow it! Grandma has made sure that all of her children, grandchildren and great children KNOW that she has a testimony of Jesus Christ. She not only shares it in words but she has always shown us through her ACTIONS! I am so glad when we can visit with her and enjoy her sweet spirit. I am not sure how much longer we have with her, for her sake, hopefully not too long. For all of us though, she will be sorely missed! We all love her so much, and we know she loves us! She has a great talent with letting us all feel like we are very special and very loved!

As we sat at her feet this afternoon listening to stories of her childhood I couldn't help but feel so much love and gratitude for having such a wonderful grandma!

Thank you Grandma for being YOU!

Clinic with the Fam...

Jac and Thomas got to go to clinic with Emily today because it's SPRING BREAK!!

Everything is going great. Emily's weight was up from 19.2 to 19.6 which makes them us very happy. She has definitely slowed down with her eating but she really is trying to eat something even when she doesn't want to...I am so proud of her.

They didn't have the official counts back but they were just a bit lower than last time, which I have found doesn't mean much. She still has a few hours every day when she doesn't feel very good but nothing that a heat pad and a comfy couch can't take care of...MUCH BETTER than being sick in the hospital!

As you can see, today was a happy day for everyone :)

Happy Easter!

The Easter Bunny always comes to our house on Saturday. We love it this way because there is no rushing to get to church and having the kids wishing they were home eating there treats etc.

The kids had a great time finding their Easter baskets and then there eggs (which I miscounted so we kept finding more eggs all weekend! I was a little distracted when I was counting them :) Oh well, more fun right?)

Mrs. Moore surprised us with very yummy cookies from Dipidee...so much for my "NO SUGAR" goal! I made up for it by eating lots of chocolate to go with it...hmm...something wrong with this picture?

We made "Easter cookies" Saturday night to help set the tone for the REAL meaning of Easter. We read scriptures with each ingredient and then placed the cookies in the oven which represented Christs tomb. Then, we went to bed...In the morning we opened the oven and everyone tried a cookie. When I do the recipe right, they are hollow inside representing the empty tomb. It is actually a great visual. I messed up though so we had to use our imagination :) It was still a wonderful Easter Sunday with Lot's of sunshine, and an amazing family night put on by the Parish's walking us through the last week of Christ's life. Most importantly, we celebrated the fact that CHRIST LIVES! Isn't this such a blessing to know? I am so grateful to know this with everything that is in me. I know with all my heart that Christ died for us and he was resurrected, HE DOES LIVE! Life is a wonderful thing to celebrate!

Happy Easter everyone!

Some little sunshine

Emily is so excited for Easter. She can't wait to wear her new Easter dress that she picked out all by herself; she made me take pictures of her outside with one of the new spring flowers coming up.

We had to take in all the sunshine possible yesterday since today is cold and rainy AGAIN!!! I guess it reminds us all to enjoy life to it's fullest...It's much easier when the sun is shining don't you think?

A great day for a race!

Our neighbor took these two AWESOME pictures...cameras really do make a difference!

The kids are very dedicated to cheering their sisters on for the 3 hour meets...(As long as they have friends to help keep them entertained.) The wonderful thing about today was that it was WARM and SUNNY! Sit out in the sun for 3 hours? NO PROBLEM!

Lehi was ON FIRE today! They seriously dominated the other team! Jac and Kenzie were the only Lehi runners in the 800 and they had a HUGE lead on the other girls. They were so close we thought they would start holding hands as they crossed the finish line! Kenzie won by .14th of a second. The end result was that they both came in at 2:54, beating their time from last week by almost 10 seconds!

Jac came in 1st place in the 1600 for the 7th grade, improving her time by 2 seconds! She led the pack for the first 3 laps; until an 8th grader was finally able to pass her on the last stretch coming in 1st overall just by 3 seconds.

It is so fun to watch her run...I guess she got it from her dad because I am no speedster! She got her LOVE for running from me though:)

Stay tuned for Thursdays meet...Emily and Thomas are SOO excited!

Track Meet

Thursday was Jac's first Track meet. She ran the mile, and 1/2 mile. she was going to do a relay but the meet had to end early due to the rainy weather!

Jac came in 1st out of the 7th graders and 2nd overall in the mile. I was concerned about how SLOW she was going (ha ha)...her time was 6:08!!!! It was SO fun to watch her. Her friend Kenzi came in just a few seconds behind which made for a really fun race.

Jac ran the 1/2 mile in 3:08 coming in 3rd overall with Kenzi coming in just a few seconds before her! They are a great team!

It was a great day of being out in the FREEZING cold cheering on our favorite 13 year old. Even Leo came along for the fun! Let's hope next week is SUNNY!!!!

Uncle Bob and Aunt Susan come to visit!

Uncle Bob and Aunt Susan come every April for General Conference weekend. We were spoiled to spend some time with them on Friday afternoon.

It is always so much fun to talk with them and hear about Bob's experiences with his calling as a Stake Patriarch. You can just see how much he loves his calling and loves being part of such a special part of the youth's life.

The kids LOVE to see how tall they are in comparison with Susan. She is 4 ft. 11in tall. Jac and Thomas were pretty pleased with themselves and Emily kept saying how close she is!

Susan kept us laughing the whole time...it is so fun to see how similar she is to my mom. When the 4 sisters get together it is a blast! They are so full of love and excitement for life! I am sure they had a great time growing up together....poor Uncle Billy! :) Actually he was pretty lucky to have such great sisters!

WARNING!

Matt and I spent last conference weekend putting a gel stain on our light yellow, actually graying cupboards. It turned out pretty good if I do say so myself!

It has been six months and we have had to do a few touch ups here and there ESPECIALLY with all the remodeling going on. I decided to put a lacquer finish on so we won't have to deal with all the little touch ups anymore.

After putting the first coat on last night without having open windows for the first 2 hours. I nearly knocked myself out! We kept the windows open for the rest of the evening but I still woke up with a horrible headache! I kept thinking of my sister Amber and her family...PLEASE don't come for a few months. I don't want you all to get sick from our house!

ANYWAY, I read the can AFTER applying the first coat and this is what I read:

NOTICE: Reports have associated repeated and prolonged occupational exposure to solvents with permanent brain and nervous system damage. WARNING: This product contains a chemical known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm.

WOW! I am so glad I have been exposing my family to this for the last 2 days :)

Hey, now we have an excuse for our brain malfunctions and why not give us higher risk for cancer? All that really matters is that my cupboards look great, right?!!