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Wednesday, August 26, 2009

President Monson's Birthday

On Friday, Aug. 21 the special man turned 82. Happy Birthday President Monson! While reading through the friend over the past few weeks there was an article about our Prophet, President Monson. When asked what he wanted for his upcoming birthday he replied that he would like for us to perform an act of service. So what to do.... Our daddy had a softball game that evening and after many conversations with the kids we decided we would perform our service at the softball game.

The children made cookies all by themselves. I stood on the side lines telling them how many scoops of each ingredient they needed.

They all did a great job.
Brayden sat in his bouncer on the counter watching his older siblings. He wasn't sure he liked the sound the mixer made when it was turned on!

That afternoon the kids made a poster board. It said Happy Birthday President Monson. We serve you by serving others. That night during daddy's softball game the kids passed out their cookies and water to the team players and their families. They had a great time despite the 40 mile hour winds, dust storms and rain, which is why I do not have pictures of the actuall event. Despite the crazy weather that night our kids learned a great lesson about service. They are already talking about the different services we can do next year. For instance drop cookies off at his front door and run, weed his garden, vaccumn his bedroom floor when he is at the temple. We keep telling them what wonderful ideas they have and that we will make a final decision next year when it gets a little close. As my birthday approaches I think I'll be asking for an act of service from them!

Monday, August 10, 2009

1st Day Of School

Today was the 1st day of school. Maddie started kindergarten. She was so so so excited this morning. She kept her eye on the clock and was on the count down. Emily and I took her to school. She ran to the playground, stood in line when the whistle blew and waved at me as she followed her classmates through the front doors. On the way home she told me that she was really good today and didn't talk too much (something we had warned her about). The teacher moved her because another little boy in the class wouldn't stop talking so he switched places with her. He got his name on the *sad face* but she didn't. She hopes to NEVER get her name on the *sad face* just like Hunter didn't last year. She was just BEAMING as she told me that she GETS to do homework tonight. She was given a poem to memorize this week and is just thrilled to do it. She loved her first day and can hardly wait till tommorrow. She must have had a really good time today and wore herself out. She was asking when she could go to bed at 7 pm tonight. She was tired. I hope her excitement continues throughout the school year. Hunter is a 1st grader this year. He SAYS he wasn't excited for school to start, but you tell me! He came into my bedroom this morning at 5:45 (that's right Camille, 5:45 am aren't you jealous) fully dressed with his back pack on and packed lunch consisting of a Capri Sun, small tupperware of cantelope that we put together the night before and a candy cane (yes isn't that crazy, we still have candy canes around). He came in EARLY this morning asking when I could take him to school. He was a little dissapointed to hear he had a little bit before I could take him. To help the time go by I had him help me fix breakfast and together we came up with some other items he could take for lunch. He loves to vacuum so I had him take everything out from under the kitchen sink and vacuum up all the mouse poo (Yes, we've got mice AGAIN!). I think I might be ready for our 1st pet. Definetly a Cat or two! He was thrilled to hear daddy volunteer to take him to school on his way to work. Daddy didn't park the truck he just dropped him off and went on his way. Hunter said he knew where to go and wanted to do it by himself, so daddy let him. I'm not liking this new independence stage.

Hunter was a little dissapointed that all of his LDS friends from last year were not in his class. He says his teacher is nice and he really really really liked eating lunch at school. His favorite part was he got to play outside 4 times. He too was quick to tell me a little boy in his class got his name on the *sad face* but not him. He was pretty proud of himself. Tonight he asked how many more hours till I can go to school. I think he's looking forward to another day at school. I'm hoping he'll sleep in just a little tommorrow!

Family Home Evenings

For Family Home Evening Kory and I decided we wanted to teach the kids "What We Believe". For our last 2 Family Home Evenings now we have had a short lesson on the Article Faith of the week. We help the kids understand it as best they could, do a project with it and start to memorize it. Each night at dinner we practice saying it several times. By the following Monday we hope everyone has it memorized. We have accomplished Article Faith #1. Tonight we did #2. Do you what the 2nd Article of Faith is?



"We believe that men will be punished for their own sins and not for Adam's transgression."

After our short lesson on who Adam and Eve is I pulled out the paints and let the kids go. Everyone was able to paint there own picture. This painted picture is of course Adam and Eve, the tree of good and evil and the serpent who beguiled Eve. Before bed tonight both Hunter and Maddie could recite the Article Of Faith by themselves along with the 1st one. Next monday we will continue in order and do #3. As we get to some of the longer ones we may have to split them in half. Our goal is that after the next several weeks our 5 and 6 year old, mom and dad too will have memorized all 12 Articles of Faith. Repeating #1 so many times even Emily can say most of it. If you have any ideas for future Articles of Faith I'd love to hear them.

The Mountain

Saturday afternoon we took the kids and met some friends up the mountain. They brought there 4 Wheeler's to share. The girls loved it and were constantly asking for rides from anyone. Daddy said Hunter loves speed. He kept yelling Go Faster, Go Faster.

Brayden was in heaven being held almost the entire afternoon.


"Moose" is a great dog. Not being around little ones like mine he did fantastic. My kids loved putting his leash on and taking Moose where they wanted him to go.

Hunter and Sean were best buds! They gathered and collected all sorts of treasure from there many nature walks.
I was like usual the one behind the camera. I keep telling Kory he needs to take a turn every now and then or years from now we are going to wonder where I was. It was great to get out of town for a few hours and enjoy ourselves. It made for a great start to our weekend.

Photo's by April

Saturday my cuties had an appt. with a dear friend to get their pictures taken. Saturday morning I realized of all days to get their pictures taken this was probably the worst. There was something noticably wrong with each of my children except Brayden. Hunter's lips were dried and cracking. He doesn't just lick his lips but his entire mouth. So not only is his lips red'er then usual but he also had a red scabby circle around his mouth. Luckily April was able to photo shop the circle out. Maddie played outside most of Friday with some friends. When Kory got home from work he asked what had happened to Maddie to cause her black eye. Not knowing what he was talking about I went to find Maddie. She suffers from allergies and being outside really caused some havic to her little eye. She did indeed look like she had a black, swollen, watery eye. Saturday morning the darkness was gone but it was still pretty red, swollen and watery. My one who loves to pose and have her pict taken suffered the most. The lights made her eyes water even more and when she smiled she said her eye hurt worse. We went ahead and tried but didn't get a single good one. She'd doing much better now and when her eye is completely healed we will have April do her picts again. Emily has several bites from mosquitos. She will not leave them alone and is constantly scratching them till they bleed. To stop this we covered the bites with band aids. She has 4 of the down her arm and refused to take them off for the picts. These pictures definetly tell our life story at the moment. I love Emily's grin in the above pict. This is so typical of her. We see this "new" smile of hers quite often.

These sisters are best friends.


I can't believe he's "6". He's not my little boy anymore.



Love the smile and the band-aids!

Look at his blue eyes. Aren't they gorgeous! He is such a cutie. He's 3months now. He likes to snuggle, sit up and he smiles and coo's when spoken too. He's growing fast.

Hunter adores his little brother.

I love, love, love Brayden't smile. Thanks again April you did an amazing job! I love them.
To see more of our cuties go to my side bar to the Schultz Family. From there go to her Photography website. We are the Heaton Kids.







Wednesday, August 05, 2009

New outfits

Last summer about this time I made several custom outfits that I sold of Ebay. Etsy is a lot cheaper to list but I didn't have much luck with it. So over the past 2 weeks my sewing maching and I have been the best of friends. I have made several more oufits to try to sell. They have been listed on Etsy for almost a week now. I'll give them one more week and then I'll probably switch over to Ebay again. It's time consuming to make things but don't cost a lot. I've been able to pick the shirts up for under $3.00 on Kohl's clearance rack. The pants/skirts I either by at Good Will or use my girls pants. Fabric can be quite expensive but I only need 4-8 inches of a full yard. So even though the fabric may be $7.99 a yard at JoAnn's it usually costs me less then $1.00 per fabric. Madelyn loves the watermelon outfit. She is just now starting to wear 5T. The skirt is a size 6 and is still too big for her. If I don't sale it she'll be able to wear it next year.

I was able to bribe Emily with being able to feed the ducks if she'd cooperate for a few pictures. She did better then I expected.

This watermelon set is a 4T. Maddie could wear it but not for long.

This was Emily's favorite. It's one of mine too. She keeps telling me this is her school clothes. She *THINKS* she's going to school just like the other two kids.

I really like this one too. It's too warm to wear but it will be too cute this fall. The shirt says Miss Glamorous on the front with pictures of nail polish, earings, rings, etc. I was thrilled to discover fabric I already had in the same colors and same types of pictures on it. This is by far my favorite. I won't cry if it doesn't sale. I made a matching bow with the outfit but you can't see them very well in these picts.
As you can see Maddie got her hair cut. She loves it. She wanted her hair above her shoulders and thats what I gave her. I don't care for it as much. I miss her long beautiful hair. I miss the braids, pony tails and creative up do's we could do. On the flip side it is much easier for her to take care of by herself and a lot less tangles. Her hair grows fast like mine. Last summer we cut her hair to her shoulders. Before I cut it just 3/4 weeks ago it was just below the middle of her back. It won't be too long before I can get creative again with her hair. I still have Emily's to play with. She doesn't sit as still and for as long as Maddie did but she will with time.

Tribute to Jeff

This past wed. evening Kory and I received one of those telephone calls you never want to get. Kory's nephew Jeff Ashby Wood had passed away earlier that evening. Jeff was born May 12, 1994. He recently celebrated his 15th birthday, he received his Eagle Award just last month. That wed. afternoon he and his Dad, Jim Wood (principal of Valley Highschool) headed to Orderville. Dad had some meetings to attend and Jeff had his 2nd day of Baseball practice. Before practice began Jeff started complaining that his side ached. During practice he spent some time in the dug out due to this ache. Nearing the end of practice he decided to go out with the team for what little time was left. A ball was thrown to Jeff, he missed and it hit his side. He immediately fell to the ground. The ball was thrown by one of Jeff's coach's who is also a Respitory Therapist. This coach was at Jeff's side within 30 seconds. CPR was started immediately. Jim (besides being the principal is also an EMT) was notified and was able to ride in the ambulence with Jeff to the Kanab hospital. According to the coach, with his medical background he thinks Jeff may have already been gone before the ball hit him and that is why he missed the ball. An autopsy has been done. We do know that the ball did not take Jeff's life. Apparently the results can not be given over the phone but will be mailed to the family. As of now we are still waiting on the report. It's been incredible to see how fast Jeff's story has spread. This story has been heard on the news and in newspapers all over Utah. A client of ours called Kory yesterday and said he heard about Jeff on the news while in Yuma, Arizona. An hour after Jeff's death it was being spread through facebook. Jim was thankful he was able to tell rest of the children before they heard it via facebook of someone else. The above picture was taken almost 2 years ago. This is one of Heather's (Jeff's mom) favorites. She never really noticed that Jeff was a part from his siblings, how Jeff is looking back at his siblings who are all looking at the camera. She say's it's as if Jeff is looking over the other kids. Kory and I left Saturday afternoon. Jeff's viewing was sunday after church and his funeral took place on Monday at noon. Saturday evening and Sunday morning I was collecting different pictures of Jeff from different people and created a DVD in Jeff's memory. I wanted to post it but I used a program on someone else's computer that my computer doesn't have so I won't be able to post it.

I learned a lot about Jeff this past weekend. I wish we could have lived closer, that I could have known Jeff like others did. Jeff was a cowboy at heart. Jeff had a love, love, love for big trucks and heavy equipment (backhoes, etc.), most anything with a motor in it. He loved to farm, he loved the animals, the plowing and of course the heavy equipment he was able to use. He loved to serve. We were told that Jeff helped the ward/town in many of the service projects that were performed. He helped plan a lot of them, he was always the 1st one there and the last to leave. Kids were attracted to Jeff. I had many pictures of Jeff being in the center, surrounded by his younger cousins and other children around town. Jeff was at our house just a few weeks ago. Hunter followed him around like a little puppy dog. They played in the sandbox together, they swung on our swingset together. They played catch in our backyard. Jeff even sat by Hunter in his bedroom and played cars with him. Hunter had a blast with his cousin. Jeff of course also loved baseball. Jeff was loved by all.
I was absolutely amazed with how the town of Alton and surrounding small towns came together during this time of need for our family. Since Jeff's death, meals were been brought in. Not just to Jim and Heather but to others in the family. On Sunday the ward provided dinner at the church for all of us. Sunday evening during the viewing a nursery was held for the children. A nursery was also held Monday during the 2nd viewing and all through the funeral. It was so nice that my children had a place to go during these times. Another luncheon was provided for all of us after the cemetary services. So much service was provided for our family during this time of need. It was very much appreciated.
This past week has been quite emotional for both Kory and I. It's been a week now and there are still moments that this seems so sureal. It's hard to believe that Jeff is no longer with us. I am thankful that my parents raised me in the church. I am thankful for the testimony that I have of the atonement and eternal families. I know that we will see Jeff again. Jeff's parents were married in the temple. They are an eternal family. Jeff may not be with us right now but not for forever. Jim and Heather will be together with there son again. I know Jim and Heather are suffering as any parent would. I also know that they will get through this trying period in their lives. We love you Jim and Heather.