What we do

Mia rolls over from back to front and front to back. She is giggling often and a very social baby. She is sleeping in her crib in her own room. She also graduated to baths in the big tub with Justin. This is a very stimulating event. I have borrowed sleep books from friends, but I think I need to accept the fact that it's more me that they don't sleep through the night. I'm okay with an 0 for 4 stat. I'm consistent, at least.

Katelyn is so grown up. She is writing well and loves to write letters to cousin Elizabeth. She is in constant need of a playdate. Can we call Claire, Lizzie, Elizabeth, or Mia mom? She loves her friends. She is getting to be a good swimmer and can do 10 bobs. Swimming lessons end today. She can string necklaces for hours and the other day made the longest waterfall out of paper you've ever seen. It was at least 8 feet long. She can out eat the rest of us with her 2 eggs, 2 peices of bacon, and 4-6 pancakes for breakfast.

Mia loves her exersaucer.

Justin loves to stack the cans in my pantry. Then he takes them down and puts them all away. I have yet to have a fallen tower somehow. Lest you think he's too neat - today he found the unfrozen otter pops and bit them open so I got to green machine that out of my carpet:) He constantly amazes us with his language skills. Now he hates it when Katelyn hits his chair from behind in the car. So he screams, stops, and very politely says, "stop hitting a chair kakin." Just like when he saw his bottle of water in the car and starting screaming for it, so I gave it to him and he stopped and said pleasantly, "thank you, mama." He gets bugged easily. (wonder where he gets that from?) So he follows me around saying, "it's buggin me." over and over. About things like his jacket zipper touching him wrong, or his socks being turned the wrong way, or the way his pants feel on his body. It reminds me of my annoying keds in elementary school that bugged me. That's another story. I told it to Hans. He just looked at my like I was nuts. Maybe so.

Origami

Hans has turned into quite the origami master (is there such a thing?) He spends a lot of evenings and some mornings making more origami creatures. He says it's "for the kids." I suspect he enjoys it more then he thinks since the other night I put all the kids to bed while he was still intently making something. He didn't even realize the kids weren't watching him anymore. Here's Ashley with the pond she made for her origami masterpieces. She is still my craft girl. She cried the other night about school not being fun anymore since they don't get to do crafts. She needs a good craft fix everyday the way I need a chocolate chip cookie. She is very creative and amazes us with what she comes up with. She is quite the swimmer as well and can swim on her own in the deep end. She can do 3 flips in a row without coming up for air and does an impressive front crawl. She loves the water. She is doing well in school and has aced all of her spelling words for this year. She is full on reading. Go Ashley!

Sledding

Katelyn, Anna, Ashley, and Elizabeth

Pretty in Pink

Last Saturday we went sledding with the Conleys up in Woodland park. The kids had a great time and it was warm enough to have Mia out for a little while. There's this fantastic wood playground and they played and played for hours. It's nice to be able to be outside.

Watch out Marta

With these shoes Marta better watch out this year. She won Moab last year.

TROUBLE

How could a face so handsome cause so much TROUBLE?! Right now he is running around naked. Just an hour ago he was stabbing Mia in the head with a ballpoint pen. He drew with markers on my carpet. Emptied out the bottom of the aquarium, and covered himself in my mascara. Again. Perhaps it is me that should be learning. Perhaps it has to do with the blue eyes and winning smile. We are definately getting close to two. He likes to push my buttons. I say, "no justin" to which he gives me that smile and says, "okay" (which sounds like ahkay) and does it again. Then I say, "do you need to go in your crib?" and then he says "uh huh" and stops. Then we repeat. Again and again. And again. He is getting smart. He can count to ten. And knows some of his colors. He is consistent with green. It blows me away how much kids learn and absorb at this age. Very fun. Still our favorite is how he worships Hans and thinks it is SO cool that he goes to work everyday. He looks at cars and bikes and other things with engines with a solemn reverence. His life is good.

Cousins!

Ashley, Katelyn, Sienna, and Elizabeth get to do gymnastics together. Elizabeth and Ashley are in the same class. But it is Katelyn and Elizabeth who are best of friends. I had to explain to Ashley that Elizabeth is Katelyn's Kaylee. She seemed to get that. I'm so grateful they love each other.

Garden of the Gods

Garden of the Gods is only 15 minutes from our house and it is SO beautiful. We went last Sunday and again yesterday. The kids love to climb on the rocks and go for hikes. The girls are really great climbers and have no fear, which makes me fearful. It is our own mini-Moab. We met the Conleys there yesterday and enjoyed the beautiful day with them. We didn't even need jackets. I am really relieved that this winter has been so much more mild then last year. We even met Rachel at the park this week. I love sunny, warm days. It makes me anxious for spring!

Blurry

This is an example of a picture I took this week. Note how blurry. See next post and let me know what I should do!

Mia, however, is beautiful regardless of the quality of this picture. She went to the doctor this week. She weighs in at 12 pounds and is something like 23 1/2 inches tall. I think. She was 25% for both. She was 80% for her head size. She is definately my child. She wasn't able to have any of her shots since she had a fever. Poor baby. She gets to wait until she's 6 months, which is fine with me since I like delaying the immunization schedule. This just helped so the doctor wouldn't scold me and talk down to me like the doctor with Justin did. He's only missing a few shots now, by the way:)

No good pictures

I took exactly 42 pictures this week. It was, after all, my birthday, Katelyn's birthday, valentine's day and Mia turned 4 months old. If ever there was a picture worthy week, this was it. However, NONE OF THEM ARE GOOD!!! Ugh. This is a brand new camera, but it stinks. I'm ready to drop upwards of my life-savings (good thing I'm not worth much right now) on a new camera. Any suggestions? Jen? Rachael? Kim? All my friends with good cameras? HELP!

Katelyn is 4!!

Katelyn at a week old

Katelyn is 1!

Katelyn is 2 1/2!

Katelyn is 3 1/2!

It's hard to believe that Katelyn is 4, but at the same time, hard to believe that she hasn't been 4 for a few years now. It's fun to look back at pictures of her. Hans and I sure love her. She was born just packed with personality and she continues to amaze and amuse us with her sense of humor and joy for life. She loves to be alive and knows how to have a good time. She has always been our joke-teller and the one to try and be funny. She increases the intensity and liveliness of our home and I'm grateful to her for that. I love her!

We had a fun week celebrating. For her birthday she woke up to princess balloons tied to her chair and her usual breakfast of 2 eggs, 2 strips of bacon, and 4-5 pancakes on the red special plate. She then took her cupcakes to school to share and came home to go indoor mini-glow golfing with Hans. Just the two of them. She received phone calls from Grandpa and Grandma Heath, Aunt Melanie, and Aunt Melissa. After Melanie's call she said, "Why does everyone keep calling me, mom?" Then we had our good friends the Johnsons over for cake and ice cream and to open her presents from Kaylee and Nicole since they couldn't make her Friday party. From us she got a pretty gymnastics leotard and some markers. Ashley gave her a sticker book. She was spoiled! On Friday we had her party with a handful of friends and she had a great time. We played games, colored pictures, busted open a pinata, and ate cookies and ice cream. With valentine's day we are packed with sugar and candy. I'm looking forward to the candy let-down this week! Thanks for all your thoughts on her birthday!!

At 4 years old Katelyn weighed in at 34 pounds and I can't remember her height. She was 50 % for both. She had perfect hearing (once she decided to obey the command) and 20/30 vision. She is the vision of health. Hooray for that.

My splurge

I bought a piano. It's very pretty sitting there in the empty room. This is the view from my loft. Maybe when I'm 30 I can buy furniture. Merry Christmas to me from mom and dad. Thanks!!

Mia is 4 months old

Beautiful Mia is 4 months old!!!


She has such a great smile.

This was taken the day she turned 4 months old.

She learned how to grab toys and suck on them.

I can't believe my baby has turned 4 months old. It has gone by so incredibly fast. She has brought so much joy to our house! The kids affectionately call her mimi and mia maria. They love to carry her around and make her laugh. She's a lucky gal to grow up with adoring siblings. She still is up every two hours to eat, but it shows. She's growing like crazy. I'll know exactly what she weighs on Friday when she gets to go have some shots with Katelyn. She is an amiable baby. She falls asleep on her own in her bassinet, but gets to spend most of the night sleeping between Hans and I in bed. Hooray for a king size bed:) She is content to go with the flow, as I'm sure most 4th children have to be. She is cute!

It's my Birthday!

This is a picture of me with my rockstar sunglasses on. Thanks mom!

Which baby is me?

I am now 29 years old. Wow. It feels not so much older then last year. I look like a baby when we first got married. I feel older, but Hans tells me I look "way better now" with too much emphasis, so I wonder what he really thought about me then. Maybe because I'm finally hitting my stride. Most people hit their prime early. I peaked socially in the third grade when I was the girl to know, but physically, maybe I am still waiting for my prime? One can only hope, although I think I just look old and tired.

Some of my accomplishments that I can think of right now:

1. Winning the stereo at the 6th grade dance raffle. That was awesome. I still use it.
2. Winning the stake jump rope contest and getting one of those popple dolls.
3. Finally learning how to do my hair. This didn't happen until I was 26.
4. Successfully doing side crow and being able to touch my toes. Go yoga!
5. Overcoming my D in 9th grade french and still getting into college.
6. Reciting the Trafalgar cheer (Riff, raff, rolly, oh how beastly jolly, trafalgar, trafalgar, ra (this said while daintily pulling the hand down at the wrist)) Go all girls' school!!
7. Missing the last shot at the basketball game that would have advanced our 9th grade team into the championships. I feel proud they trusted me with that shot, even if they shouldn't have.
8. Learning that I could meet a whole lot of boys by learning how to play racquetball. Wish I'd realized that earlier.
9. Realizing that I can feed kids, talk on the phone, clean up the chocolate off the floor, and switch the laundry, pretty much all at the same time.
10. I can't think of anything else, but I'm sure I'll think of a hundred later. I'm not good when I'm put on the spot!
11. Oh yeah, and of course marrying my husband and having my 4 kids:)

They treated me well for my birthday. Ashley just kept following me around, watching me. Waiting to see what would happan on my special day. I got to sleep in, go running - 3 weeks until Moab - I can now run 3 sub 7 minute miles, but I need to do 5 - hmmm - go to lunch with Melanie and shop a little bit, and go for a walk with the family. The weather is great!

President Hinckley

I don't really even know what to say about our wonderful Prophet, President Hinckley. He is the Prophet I remember for most of my life and I feel like I knew him better and loved him immensely. He's such a perfect example of optimism, love, laughter, and service. I hope I can learn to be more like him. And make him proud with how I choose to live my life. I miss him. During his funeral services, I kept thinking how clear it all is. The Gospel being true. It's that same clarity I feel everytime I deliver a baby. That there really is a plan to all this craziness here on Earth. And that it's not very long. It's temporary. And there doesn't need to be much sadness because we know where he is. And that we can be there too. I hope that this concrete knowledge of the Gospel can spur me to action. And that I can get to work!

Unemployed and having parties

Here is what Hans is doing now that he is unemployed. His last day of paid employment was Tuesday.

Notice how beautiful Justin looks. We were celebrating Ashley's doll's birthday. She was very specific in what we all needed to wear. I was lucky enough to wear my pink polka dot maternity dress. We all looked great!

Mia Rolled Over!!

Mia Rolled Over!!

She is my youngest and smallest baby to do this. She does it on command. She is 3 months old. Crazy! And a whopping 10 pounds. She is filling out quite a bit and maybe even getting chubby. She also laughed this week for the first time. She loves to track her sisters and Justin around the room and they are great to her. Justin has even stopped trying to kill her. She turns 4 months on Friday. We are finally settling into life with her. She is a great, sweet baby!

Justin

Justin poured a lot of liquid soup onto his head. It kept him occupied for a good 30 minutes, so I pretended not to notice. Hans walked in the door and got to clean it all up. Justin was pretty upset about it. Everything he finds goes straight to his hair and he says, "pretty, me." He's a pest. Instead of having him scream at me while I cook dinner, I've allowed him to do this kind of thing. It's a good lesson for me in letting go. He's a rather cute child. During a prayer today he was carefully monitoring the girls to make sure they had their arms folded. Throughout, we could hear him say "fold a arms, kakin." It's very cute. He loves his big sisters. He loves to dress up in their clothes and

especially their shoes. He loves these hello kitty jewel ones. He gives Hans a great big "HI Daddy!" everytime he comes home and then immediately says, "wut work" and then "vroom, vroom!" He thinks Hans goes to play all day and drives the red car all around, just having fun, without him. At gymnastics this week he was screaming at me to go, repeatedly and the nice mom next to me, in an attempt to distract him asked him where he wanted to go. He paused, looked thoughtful, and then said "target." Not like we go there very often, but it is a fun place to drag on the cart. He keeps us amused.