Highlights

Things have been pretty busy around here...in the ward we have had three funerals in less than two weeks, we had a flood at the elementary school (Becca's classroom is being totally redone), we had a very green St. Patrick's day complete with shamrock waffles & green syrup for breakfast green mac and cheese (not appealing...be grateful there was not a picture) and split pea soup for dinner.
We have watched Matthew for a couple days while Haylee is in the Philippines (my mom has watched him most of the time), today we had a Primary activity, we have started working in the yard on the days that it isn't covered in snow, and life keeps moving forward.

My favorite thing that has happened this week involved Sarah. I have been cleaning her room for her a lot more than I would like, so after she turned five I cleaned out her whole room...under the bed, in the playhouse, went through all her clothes, and cleaned out all her toys, and it looked great. I told her that now that she is five she is big enough to clean her own room. I told her that if she would just clean up her toys as soon as she was finished with them and put her dirty clothes in the hamper each night that her room would stay nice and clean.
Every morning I reminded her to make sure her room was clean & for the most part she was pretty good about getting it cleaned up...or so I thought.
After about a week I went to do her laundry and she didn't have very many items in her hamper, so I waited a few more days. Pretty soon Sarah's room started to smell pretty bad, and there were quite a few toys and dress-up clothes on her floor so I told Sarah to go clean it up. I came up a few minutes later and saw that she had shoved some of the things that were out under her bed. I was surprised that she would try to convince me her room was clean without at least putting them ALL the way under so I couldn't see the mess. I bent down to pull out the things that were sticking out from under the dust ruffle and had to catch my breath.
Under Sarah's queen sized bed there wasn't room for a Polly Pocket shoe. That child had shoved the last week's worth of mess under there. It probably took almost thirty minutes just to remove everything she put under there (I made her crawl under the bed to get it all out).
As she pulled the assorted treasures out from the bed I started to pick them up, and it wasn't until she finally finished that I wished I had waited to start cleaning so I could have had visual proof about how much stuff she was able to fit in there.
I did, however, figure out the stinky smell...Sarah had shoved 3 wet diapers under her bed. (I had asked her to take them out to the garbage).
So far she hasn't tried shoving anything else back under the bed which is good because if she does, she may very well be sleeping in a sleeping bag until she's 18. :)

I like to ride my bicycle

Greg and I got new bikes and we have been spending every sunny minute over at the church with the girls totally enjoying ourselves. Somehow we only got pictures of half the family & it is mostly the half that is behind the camera (yes, Rachel is often behind the camera & I get to hit delete on fifty to one hundred pictures regularly).Can you tell that Rachel thinks she is SO BIG?!
Rare Heather footage
Greg lookin' great!

Sarah's Birthday

Sarah turned five yesterday & we had a day of celebrating. She started the morning by putting on her fanciest dress-up and crown for a breakfast of crepes and juice.
Then, she changed into her favorite dance clothes for her creative dance class, where Miss Sarah (her teacher) gave her a birthday balloon and let her go first for all the activities since it was her birthday.
After dance we went to McDonald's where she climbed and played for almost two hours taking about two bites of hamburger during that time (thanks for keeping me company Haylee & Leslie).
When we got home from the golden arches, there was a gift from Sarah's Primary teacher waiting at the door with the nicest card...it made Sarah's day.
After three hours of exercise Sarah was pretty tired, so she sat on the couch with the gummy bears Haylee gave her and watched Tinkerbell with Rachel.
Just as Tinkerbell ended, Bryan came over and we all made chocolate chip cookies (because we just don't have enough treats on a birthday....OK because I know that making a treat will always make Bryan want to stay here instead of telling us that he's going to 'head home').
Then Bryan snuggled all of us on the couch while we watched Enchanted.
While Bryan was here the weather turned from a beautiful spring day (we went to dance & McDonalds in short sleeves & no coats) to a full-blown blizzard ( It is still snowing this morning & we went from no snow to about 8 inches overnight...not as much as some winter storms, but it's a pretty heavy dump for March).
Look out the window and you can see the beginning of the storm...
Despite the change in weather, we had a great time with a pizza and fruit snack dinner (Sarah's request) visits to and from grandparents, birthday cake, and then we topped of the evening by going to the rec center for a family swimming party.

For the last month or so Sarah has been upset that no friends would be invited for her birthday this year, but when I asked her if she had a good time she told me that it was the best day of her life, so I think we can call the day a success.

Gung Hay Fat Choi

Or, Happy (Chinese) New Year!
I told Haylee that Ellie was having a little Chinese New Year parade today, and she called me at 9:30 asking if everything was OK. I told her I was great, to which she asked, "Then why didn't you come to Ellie's parade?"
OOPS! With the recital last night I completely forgot. Happily, Ellie was able to get support from her aunt & didn't even ask where the rest of her family was.
And Haylee was kind enough to take video and pictures of the (very short) event, so I didn't end up missing it after all!
THANKS HAYLEE!

Becca's First Recital

Last night we went to Becca's first piano recital. She did a great job performing "Climb Every Mountain," "I Am a Child of God" and "Bingo." She asked me to accompany her duets (which is beyond my comprehension since I am such a lousy pianist), but decided to go solo for "Climb Every Mountain"...which really had the prettiest accompaniment. Oh well!
She did just GREAT on everything, though, and received flowers and frozen yogurt for her efforts.
What a sweetheart she is!

Happy Holidays!

We have had a very fun week full of celebration. Valentine's Day seemed to last an entire weekend. We made Valentine's boxes...Ellie wanted a purse and Becca requested a giant "love bug" (which I think we may repeat for future years). I didn't take a picture of Becca's, but it turned out cute. I just wrapped a shoe box with a black garbage bag, put a giant heart on top like wings, put little black hearts on the wings for spots, added googly-eyes, antennae and a smile and presto! a love bug.
For Ellie's purse, I just covered a cereal-sized box with different valentine's paper, took an extra piece of cardboard to make a flap, took two little magnets to 'button' it & put her name in big letters on the front.
I went to the school to help with Ellie's party, and it was very fun. They played "kiss the frog" (pin the tail on the donkey) with lip shaped stickers and a giant frog mylar balloon, made little 'love bugs' had goodies, and read stories.
That night we decorated sugar cookies, and had a little Valentine 'camp-out' in the front room, where we read stories & snuggled in sleeping bags.
Sunday we had heart-shaped waffles, and went to Grandma's house after church for more cookie & cousin fun.
Monday, the girls had school off for President's day, so we decided to have an All-American dinner complete with flag-shaped jello (blueberries, strawberries & cool-whip). For FHE we talked about agency, and choosing the right & included the story of George Washington and the cherry tree. Then we let the girls build their own banana split complete with G.W.'s cherries on top.
It was certainly a fun holiday weekend!

The Gospel's True & I love you!

For anyone who wants to read a little bit about where I came from, here is a link to a little post my cousin wrote about my Great Grandma & Grandpa. Grandpa died when I was only 2 1/2, but I still remember swinging with him on the back porch & playing with wind-up toys with him in the pond behind his house. Grandma Bert & Grandpa G-G-Pa were truly amazing people! Here is the link to her post:
http://areasonofhope.blogspot.com/2010/02/gospels-true-and-i-love-you-legacy.html

It's a Major Award!

Nope, no leg lamps at our house, but we were pretty proud to discover that Becca won the "Crowned Jewel Award" at Valley View (also known as the Student of the Week)...which entitled her to a free burger from Burger King, and a special certificate from the principal. She has been working so hard this year and is such a sweetheart! At her parent teacher conference, her teacher paid her great compliments & said she is a joy to have in class...and we sure love her!

Ellie's Berry Special Day

Ellie turned seven on Friday, and wanted to have a "Strawberry" party. Not a Strawberry Shortcake Party, just a Strawberry party...so we did & it was very fun.
We started the party by making "baskets" to hold all of their strawberries (we just decorated brown lunch sacks with stickers & crayons). Then, we played some "berry" fun games. We played fruit Twister (each color was a different fruit...strawberry, lemon slice, green apple, and blueberry), Fruit Pictionary, pin the leaves on the strawberry, and a Strawberry toss (my mom made strawberry shaped bean bags, and they had to toss them into a basket). As prizes, the girls received one of the bean bags, strawberry suckers (I frosted heart shaped suckers to look like strawberries) and strawberry play-doh (those turned out REALLY cute...I made pink play-doh with glitter & added strawberry kool-ade so they smelled like strawberries, shaped them like a strawberry, put them in a disposable pastry bag (and the corner of some sandwich bags when I ran out), and tied the top with green ribbon to make them look like strawberries).

We painted flower pots, planted strawberry plants & had strawberry manicures & pedicures..here is a picture of one of the manicures after painting the flower pot :)
ate cake & ice cream, and opened presents

...and Ellie thought it was the best day EVER.

Another Day Another Adventure

I know I haven't posted for a while, but this adventure should hopefully make up for my negligence over the past week or two.

This week I put up bead-board wallpaper in my kitchen. I LOVE it. Before we moved in, there was wallpaper in the kitchen & then someone removed it & painted the walls without taking care of the glue first & it just looked bad. I didn't want to deal with sanding and puttying, so I have been looking for another option & when I saw this wallpaper online it seemed too good to be true, but it really looks just like bead-board. You can even putty, caulk, and paint it.
I put the paper up on Monday and haven't had a chance to do the finishing touches so there were a couple of little corners that were peeling up a little bit.
That gives the background for today's adventure...so please be patient as it all comes together.
Tonight for dinner we had Chinese food. I set the table with a black tablecloth, red placemats, white dishes with Chinese calligraphy stuck to the bottom of some clear glass bowls, and put some Chinese art in the middle of the table as a centerpiece. It looked pretty cute (I thought) and provided the atmosphere of learning for my girls.
We talked a little bit about Chinese New Year coming up in a couple weeks and Sarah started asking me questions like:
Sarah: "Mom, How do people in China eat?"
Me: They use chopsticks
Sarah: How do they drink?
Me: Just like we do.
Sarah: How do they walk?
Me: Just like we do.
Sarah: How do they get dressed?
Me: Just like we do. Sarah, people in China are just like us. They don't have blonde hair and blue eyes like you do; they look more like Mulan, and SilverMist (Tinkerbell's fairy friend)
Sarah: Is Tinkerbell Chinese, too?
Me: Nope. I don't know where she's from.
Sarah: Oh, But how do people in China..........
It went on like that for a while.

After dinner I was doing the dishes when water started coming down through the ceiling. Rachel has been potty training this week (CAN I JUST SAY WOO HOO!) and she tried flushing an entire roll of toilet paper down...obviously without success.
As I was running up the stairs to take control of the situation, I slipped on a piece of "extra" wallpaper that I somehow had forgotten to throw away over the last four days bringing us back to the beginning of the post. Because what I slipped on was not actually "extra" wallpaper, it was a small piece of the series of paper Rachel had peeled where the edges weren't stuck down all the way.
For anyone who sees Rachel, she does have a nasty conk on her forehead, but I promise it was unintentional, and self inflicted...She slid on the Tang powder that she had dumped in the kitchen and hit the corner of the wall. The poor kid. Really it was probably a blessing in disguise because it is a lot harder to get mad at a child staring up at you with a giant goose egg.
So that is it for my day today.

Like Father Like Daughter

I didn't get to hear any "Zap Zap" sound effects last night, but Rachel did wake me up with a blood curdling scream in the middle of the night. I thought she had split her head open & ran into her room where she was standing on her bed, and when I asked her what was wrong she whispered "Spiders!" The poor girl was shaking like a leaf & I spent the next hour snuggling her in her bed, then when I thought I was carefully sneaking into my bed turned around to see Rachel climbing up after me where we snuggled for another hour.
By that time she was feeling much better & she woke up this morning happy as a clam. She made me "clean her bed" last night, and seems to be doing much better now!

My Poor House

I'm afraid that my house may not survive my calling. Every time I go to clean something...OK, maybe not EVERY time, but frequently when I start cleaning things I get interrupted with Primary things. This usually involves me sending an email, making a phone call, looking up information etc. and my house gets neglected time and time again.
Not to mention the fact that my post-interruption motivation for getting started cleaning is usually next to nil.
I will try to clean again as soon as I finish sending a couple of emails, but I have a feeling something else might just crop up before I can get to those dishes...or that laundry...or the straightening...or vacuuming (you get the idea)

Happy Birthday Dad!

I just have to wish my dad a HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I am so grateful to have such a wonderful dad! He is so much fun to talk to, and he is a GREAT grandpa to my girls...seriously, how many people allow themselves to be turned into a toilet paper mummy for the entertainment of five little girls? We all love him & wish him a Wonderful Day!
LOVE YOU DAD!

Winners!

I got a call from the girls' school today to tell me that Ellie was a finalist for Reflections, but I didn't hear anything about Becca. Happily, when I got to the school assembly, I discovered that both of them actually won in their different categories. I was so proud of them! I will take pictures of them with their entries as soon as they get them back...they didn't hand them back today. Becca entered in photography. She found the letters in the word "BEAUTY" in different objects in our backyard, and Ellie entered in literature and wrote a free-verse poem that was REALLY good (in my completely unbiased opinion).
Hooray for happy days!

Super Greg

I was just cleaning out under my bed and came across a note I had written in the middle of the night about a month ago (yes, it has been that long since I cleaned out under my bed). It took me a minute to remember why I had written it, then I started laughing out loud.
Greg regularly saves the world at night, and sometimes talks in his sleep , so I get to be a part of it. One night, at about two in the morning, he yelled "GET UP!" I asked him "Why! What's wrong?" To which he replied "We're Grounding Out! ZAP! ZAP! ZAP!"
Well, I was up for another hour thanks to the adrenaline rush, but at least I was laughing thanks to the "ZAP! ZAP!" sound effects.

A New Decade

Last night we took down the crib. Other than the day it was taken down for our move from the condo to our current home, that crib has been set up for the past 9 years. We bought the crib shortly after telling everyone that we were expecting Becca (I didn't want to have any pregnancy complications that would prohibit me from getting the nursery ready before she came, so it was TOTALLY finished by the time I was six months along), and it has been in use ever since Becca was born.
It felt very surreal taking it down to put up a big-girl-bed for Rachel. We put up the same day bed that we got for Becca just before Ellie came along. That was almost more strange to me. Watching her excitement at being able to get out of bed by herself was very cute.
This morning she got up and ran into the hall as I was going into her room to check on her. She bounced up and down exclaiming "I got out of bed! I got out of bed!" It was very cute.
She stayed in the crib longer than any of my other girls by almost a year, and I have to say that it made the transition a little bit easier....she didn't even fall out of bed once! Hooray!

Busy time of Year

I just asked Rachel to help me clean her room, and she looked up at me, shook her head and said, "I can't Mom. Sorry. I'm way too busy."

A Christmas Poem

'Twas a few days before Christmas and all through the house
Someone was stirring-- as soft as a mouse.
I thought that the girls were all up in their rooms
Dusting their cobwebs and sweeping with brooms,
When what to my wondering eyes should appear
But a series of murals (to my eyes came a tear).
The crayon was stretched over dresser and wall;
It covered the toy chest; it decked the whole hall.
The upstairs was covered from chair rail to floor--
I even spied crayon on more than one door.

But who was this artist who colored in red?
I'll admit I was stumped until I saw the bed:

Merry Christmas 2009!

Well, it is time for the annual "Christmas Card" and accompanying "Christmas Letter." So once again, here is the Cliff's Notes version of our year.

Greg: Is working hard for Northrop Grumman and doing a great job (he just got a stellar review from his boss, which is no surprise. I think he's amazing!) He's still teaching Elder's Quorum and is excited to break in his new guitar hero equipment (we are on set #2 after the girls destroyed the first one).

Heather: Is keeping busy with Primary and the girls, cleaning, laundry, shopping and every once in a while she sneaks in a good book.

Becca (8): Is working on multiplication, piano, and her front teeth. She is a sweetheart who loves playing with her sisters and friends.

Ellie (6): Is our Cinderella girl. You might have noticed she only had one shoe for this picture. She always seems to be losing a shoe or two. She is tender-hearted and so smart! She is feisty and fun.

Sarah (4): Is our little dancer. She counts down the days from one dance class to the next, and can't wait for Christmas to arrive. She knows her letters and is starting to sound out simple words.

Rachel (2): Is our little monkey. She is enchanted with all things monkey (especially Curious George) and gives the best hugs ever.

And there you have the summary of each of us in two sentences or less!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!

New Naughtiness

There are days when I can find the humor and cuteness in my children's antics, but other days their naughtiness just makes me tired. Over the last few days, Sarah has been suffering from serious emotional melt-downs, and the other day she decided to practice writing "X's" all over the quilt my grandma made me with crayons. We have also had a bit of trauma as Rachel recently dumped two more bottles of shampoo on the carpet, colored on the wall, emptied a brand new container of baby wipes, dumped Parmesan cheese and maraschino cherry juice on the floor and unwrapped all the presents I had just finished wrapping.
All these fantastic "gifts" happened while I was trying to clean other areas of the house, and I have to admit I didn't find any of them very entertaining.
Today I have another busy day of cleaning, but for some reason I can't seem to motivate myself to leave the girls unattended, even briefly, to attempt the work that piles up as I am cleaning up after them.
Perhaps if an "elf " was watching they would behave a little bit better...Well, I guess I have procrastinated as long as I can, so wish me luck as I try to clean without catastrophe striking!