January

 Bryant thought this was such a funny sight, he had to grab the camera and get a picture of it.  We live in such an electronic world!

 Can I just say this month has been killing me?!?!?  The weather has been so so so awful.  Mike's parents and lived here their whole lives and they can't remember a worse winter.  It's not just one thing, it's everything combined:  the deep snowfalls, the freezing temps, the ice, and the inversion/pollution which makes it so yucky and gray!  All of these things were relentless in January.  The kids had fun sledding here, it was New Years day, but the high was 22 degrees.  Our faces were freezing off!  I didn't bring the babies.

 They had lots of fun sledding with their cousins.

 Here I am with Jodi, Mike's sister.  She is pregnant with baby number 4!  She is having another girl.  We are so happy for them!  Jodi is the cutest, funnest person.  I love hanging out with her.  She is easy to talk to and always makes me laugh!

 I love this picture of Tommy trying to pull off this hat Erica put on his head.  Check out the next pic.

 What a cute baby!  I don't mean this in a bad way, but when he was an infant, Mike and I agree that we never imagined him looking this cute when he got bigger!  We can't quit kissing him!  He loves to laugh and laugh really hard and long.  It's so cute!  He also loves to run across the room going "uhuhuhuhuh".  I hope you can imagine that, it's adorable!

 He's turning into a little Michael!  I told Mike that this is how I picture him acting and looking as a baby.

 Here he is attempting to eat one of his first bowls of yogurt all on his own.  I'm so glad there is a bib there!

 Oh, now here's our Emmy Doll!  She said "Erica" yesterday two times as she handed Erica her mittens and shoes for school.  It was the cutest.  Erica melted and Bryant said, "Hey, she hasn't said my name yet!"  She found this pink hat and put it on and ran around the house.

 Oh, Little Love!  Look at all those teeth!  She has a smile that lights up the room and the world for us.  She is always smiling.  If she hears music anywhere she immediately starts dancing.  She has done this since she was just a few months old. 

 I call him Tommy Bear these days.  I just want to bear hug him all the time and he likes to snuggle, so Tommy Bear fits.

 Here they are with Vivi, one of their favorite people.  They love Vivi and immediately run to her and hug her when she comes over.  It's the best!  Vivi went to Brazil for a month during the holidays and she was worried they wouldn't recognize her when they got back, boy was she wrong!  Emmy ran right up to her!  Tommy hung back for a little bit and then warmed up very quickly.  I told her they did the same thing with me when I got home from Vegas and it was only 4 days!

 Happy Happy Birthday Vivi!!!  Ruthie got in touch with me and said she wanted to do a birthday lunch for Vivi.  We had it here and at lots of great food...baked ziti, spinach salad, good bread, and an awesome chocolate brownie cake.  It was Vivi, Maria, Ruthie, Jennie and me!  We all love Vivi.  She is such a fun, caring, genuine, good person!  We all adore her.

Emmy loves to pull her bib off.  The only ones that really stay on are the ones you tie around her neck.  She has taught Tommy how to do this trick!  I've even used a powerful clamp and they can pull it off with that too.  They can also open all the doors in the house now.  Yikes!!  I found them playing in the garage in the dark!  I found them coming out of the attic.  They can now get in the bathroom and when they do...Tommy stirs the toilet and Emmy unravels the toilet paper.  They are quite a pair!  They really like staying together.  They play together all day.  This last week Emmy woke up from her nap before Tommy.  I was holding Emmy and we opened Tommy's door to check on him but he was still sleeping, so I closed the door.  Emmy had such a fit, she was so unhappy about leaving her friend there.  She screamed until I distracted her!  It was really cute.  I'm glad they love each other so much.

Las Vegas!

 Four days of awesome, that's what it was!  We left the morning after Christmas, with no children, for four days!  We don't gamble, but we wanted see some fun shows and eat lots of good food and sleep a lot!  That's just what we did.  We also swam in the heated pools, exercised in a super fancy gym and enjoyed the mall.
We stayed at the Wynn, super fancy!!  There is a hotel worker standing at the bottom of the elevators going up to the rooms.  We passed him many times and he just smiled at us...until we walked by him with Albertson's bags!!!  Then he stopped us and asked to see our room key.  HAHAHAH!  It costs $5 for a piece of toast, no way were we going to pay for that!  So, we ran to the grocery store for Breakfast supplies.  We had a good laugh about getting carded with our grocery sacks!

 We went to 3 fun shows.  We saw La Rev from Cirq de Solei which was amazing, taking place in a giant swimming pool with the most amazing tricks and special effects ever.  We saw the Blue Man Group, they were soooooo funny!!!  We also so Ka from Cirq de Solei, another great one with an exciting story.  I can't even describe the shows they are so incredible.  They are such amazing productions, you have to see it yourself...there is no way to explain!!!  It was fun entertainment.

 Mike's got a halo in this picture!  He deserves it!

 I LOVED M&M world.  I love M&M's!  We got the kids t-shirts and our wonderful babysitter Hailey some M&M earbuds.  Hailey stayed at our house and did such a great job taking over.  I didn't worry at all.

Christmas 2012

I love December because I love Christmas.  I love all the parties, the family time, the neighbor gifts, the Christmas cards, the good food, the decorations, the music, and especially all the focus on the real reason for the season.  So, here are some pics!

 This is Christmas Eve at Grammy & Grampy's house.  Mike stood in front of the fireplace a lot to keep the twins away.  It was such a fun night.  All the grandkids acted out the nativity while Grampy read from Luke 2 and we paused along the way and sang Christmas songs while Grammy played the guitar.  Then we had dinner, then exchanged presents.  It was a really fun night for everyone.

 This is Marian, Jodi and Matthew's baby.  She is four months older than Emmy and Tommy and they are starting to become little friends.  I love her shirt!

 Here is cute Lily as Mary.  She is such a fun cousin for my kids.  She is Bryant's age but because she is a girl, Erica loves playing with her too.

 Isn't this the best family picture you have ever seen?  I just love it!  This is all the grandkids except one, Clara who is 2 is missing.  That's probably why she is missing.  Here we have all the necessary  nativity characters with a bit of family chaos, it's the best!  We really wanted the twins in the pic but as you can see, they had other plans in mind.

 Christmas morning!!!  Look what Santa brought Tommy and Emmy's is on the right.  This is a blurry picture but I had to post that cute face of Tommy's.  That's a kid on Christmas morning!

 Here's Emmy with her princess scooter.  Tommy loves to push her all around the house on it.  He is a strong kid!  Bryant is teaching Emmy all the bells and whistles, she doesn't look too interested.

 Yea, Santa came!!!  Erica got a blow dryer with a retractable cord, and an ipod touch!  That's what she really wanted!!!

Here's Bryant with his Santa gifts.  He asked for a toolbox with tools and an ipod touch.  Santa brought one ipod touch for both Erica and Bryant to share.  They just wanted one device for games and music.  Around here we have a girls day and a boys day.  All odd days are girls days and all even days are boys days.  If it's your day you get to say the prayer at meal time or during family prayer.  You also get to help Mommy set the table or unload the dishwasher.  You also get tucked in first at night and now...the ipod touch is yours on your day!!!  This way they get it every other day, something I felt better about.  They have been perfect about sharing it.  When there are two odd days in a row, or girls days, then we split one of the days in half.  They have been great about it, whew! 
Our Christmas was wonderful!!!  What did Mike and I get?!?!?!  A grand piano, I LOVE IT!!!!!!!  It's beautiful and sounds amazing.  We all play the piano a lot more around here.

A highlight for me was giving a lesson to the Young Women's group at church about JOY.  The "J" stood for Jesus Christ.  The "O" stood for others, I focused on forgiveness of others.  The "Y" stood for yourself, or finding out who we want to be in this life.  It was so nice to sit at my computer and read Christmas stories and study for this lesson.  It made me stop and focus on Jesus Christ, the real reason for my favorite season!  I am over the ward choir so that was another highlight.  They did such an amazing job on the Christmas performance.  We sang "While Shepherds Watch Their Flocks By Night", "The First Noel/Pacabel's Cannon", and "O Holy Night" with a youth and children's choir added.  It was so amazing.  They worked so hard and it all paid off!

Thanksgiving 2012

We went to Arizona for Thanksgiving.  It was a really fun time!  We decided to try flying down.  It was crazy!!!!!  Some of my family lives in remote areas of Arizona.  My parents are 4 hours from the airport.  This time though, we stayed with my sister Jeanette, she is only a mere 3 hours from the airport.  Haha.  By the time we left our house here and got to my sisters house, it was about a 7 hour trip. Whew!!  Emmy and Tommy both lost it at some point along the way, understandably.  I wanted to lose it too!  So, my whole family, all 42 of us, stayed at my sister's house.  She was such a great hostess.  Good thing she has a very big home.  It's in the woods and she lives on a couple of acres with lots of woods around that!  The kids were in heaven playing in the forest all day.  They also have a trampoline, 2 four wheelers, a basketball court, fun rope swings and lots of great hiking destinations around them.  It really is a little piece of heaven there!!  We had a ton of fun.  We ate a ton of food, played lots of games, watched movies and enjoyed the great outdoors.  The weather was in the 60's and beautiful!  It was good family time because we were all right together in close quarters.  We had a great time and then we were really ready to part ways when the time came.(:  I didn't take enough pictures, I was having too much fun! Here are some pics from November:

 The twins love to come in my bedroom and pull out the trampoline and play on it.  Their faces here don't look anything like them!  Tommy looks especially funny here!  I think Emmy is not loving her hand caught under the edge.  When they first started playing on this Tommy would just walk straight off the edge and wipe out.  Now they are very good at going down backwards.

 Oh that's a happy baby!

 We pulled out the double sled for Erica and Bryant and Emmy and Tommy jumped right on it.  Mike had fun pulling them all around the house on it.  Emmy decided to kick back and enjoy the ride with some milk refreshment.

 OK, so this is the first time Emmy and Tommy really got under my bathroom sink and completely had a hay day!  It was a very good thing because I threw half of that stuff out!  I need to let them get into all of my cupboards and drawers!

 Can you see Tommy holding two q-tips that he sucked on?!?!

 Good night baby!  His hair looks like he just woke up!  He must have been playing peek-a-boo under a blanket with the kids, his favorite game.  Notice the princess wand and crown on his sleeper?  I have way more girl sleepers than boy ones so poor Tommy sometimes goes to bed with a girly sleeper on.  Bryant just hates it.  The instant Tommy wakes up in the morning, Bryant peels his girly sleeper off.(:

 One December Saturday afternoon Erica asked me if I would help her make Christmas cookies and cards to take to lonely people.  It was all her doing and idea, so sweet!  We made cookies together and she wrote all the cute cards and she delivered them to 2 widows and 2 widowers in our neighborhood.  One of the widows came up to me at church on Sunday and said she re-reads Erica's card all the time.  Isn't Tommy cute with his messy face in the middle of it all?  Notice he is holding a candy cane cookie in his left hand.  He loved "helping" out.

 Look at these two cuties.  I had to get a picture of this. 

This was the best, look at Bryant laughing at his book!  It makes me laugh!!!  I am so grateful that my kids know how to read and that they are good at it and love it!  It is such a huge, exciting milestone in their lives.

Wow, It's February?

OK, seriously, I thought I blogged in December.  I guess not!  The holidays have gotten away from me!  So, here I go, doing my good ole' bulk blogging again.  I hope I don't miss anything.  The weeks, days and months have been good to us.  Here goes:

BURGLARIZED:

    Well, Novemeber was a pretty good month.  BUT, the day after the election, our house was burglarized!!!  It was AWFUL!  It was Wednesday and I ran to the grocery store with the babies for one hour.  I, of course, didn't set the alarm, but to my knowledge all the doors and windows were locked.  It was the middle of the day, 12:40 and not a routine time for me to leave the house.  Someone had to be watching.  CREEPY!!! 
    So, I went to the store, got my list, came home, put the babies right down for naps and sat down at the table to read something.  I had only quickly put away frozen and fridge items.  I had been home for a while when I went over to the sink and saw that one of my crystal goblets was in the sink and it looked like someone had taken a drink and put it in there.  I looked over at my cabinet where I keep them and the door was wide open.  No one around here ever grabs a drink out of one of my goblets, unless I set them out for a special meal!  This sent a terrible feeling over me.  When I realized I was possibly not alone in my house and I had two sleeping babies with me, I felt sick with fear.  I felt so vulnerable!!!  I quickly grabbed a very long knife and called my sister-in-law, Jennie, to ask her if she had been over here while I was gone.  Mike later questioned me on the choice of a huge knife!  He said, "Did you really want to stab someone?  There's pepper spray right there!"  He was right, I am sure I didn't want to stab someone, but believe me, I would have.  Mama Bear is powerful when it comes to protecting her children!  Yea, the pepper spray would have been better, but I just didn't think of it!  No one in the movies ever grabs pepper spray, they get a huge knife!
     I first ran upstairs to check on my sweet little sleeping babies.  They were both out cold and no one was in their rooms.  I checked everything upstairs, no one.  While I was frantically running around with a knife in my hand I had Jennie on the phone.  She hadn't been here.  She was great to stay on the phone with me while I was panicking!!  Next I started on the main floor.  I was checking every corner and closet, then I went into my master bedroom closet and there it was.  My jewelry box was empty and thrown on the floor with the drawers to it empty and thrown around.  Other things in the closet had been rustled around.  I gasped.  Jennie was the perfect voice of reason in my frantic head.  She said Heather, "Get out of the house and call 911!" 
     I don't think I have ever moved so fast in my entire life.  I sprinted!  I ripped poor Emmy and Tommy right out of a deep slumber and carrying both of them I ran down stairs, grabbed my keys, and ran to the van and just threw them in their car seats without buckling them up and flew out of the driveway.  It was horrible!!!!  To feel that afraid to be in your own home was the worst feeling.  I just drove to the edge of my cul-de-sac with 911 on the phone.  They said not to go too far away because police were on the way and needed in the house.  Jennie came right over and waited with me.  I was so grateful she did, that really helped me feel better.  The police went inside and "cleared" the house, meaning they made sure no one was still inside.  I still hadn't checked the basement or the rest of the main floor.  The burglar had come through our unlocked back gate, through the back yard, and in our kitchen window that was yes of course, unlocked!  Why is it that the bad guy ALWAYS comes through the kitchen window!!!  Well now there is a paddle lock on the back gate and the kitchen window will never be unlocked again, and even if it is, the alarm will be set if I am away from the house!!!  Gee, I hate things like this!
       So whomever it was, they took my jewelry.  I wear my wedding ring, EVERY day.  Except of course, THIS day!!!!  I still can't get over this.  That morning I was putting on my jewelry, something I do every day.  I had on my watch, my earrings, and last was to be my wedding ring, but the phone rang and I walked away from my jewelry and never made it back.  AHHHH!!!!!  They got my wedding ring, probably the most expensive item in our whole house!  That lucky dog.  I was sick about it, but I'm over it now.  They also took some very nice pearls that were Mike's Grandma's.  They also took some pink pearls I got in China and another single pearl necklace from Mike's other Grandma.  Those are terrible losses.  All of my other jewelry was cheap, whatever, take it!  But these sentimental pieces that can't be replaced are a real loss.
       The police took lots of prints and I gave them pictures that I had of my jewelry.  They posted it at pawn shops but told me not to plan on ever seeing it again.  They said that burglars just melt everything down so it isn't recognizable and then they sell it.  The good news was that my ring was insured under our homeowners police, so we got the full amount for it.  So, in January we started ring shopping.  I wasn't ready to buy any jewelry for a while, I felt sick when I went shopping for it.  Whoever this person was I was able to easily forgive them for taking my things, but the hardest part was that they took the peace and sanity away from my children.  Erica and Bryant were afraid in our house for a very long time, and still are, but they are getting better.  Mama Bear ain't happy when her babies are harmed.  That for sure has been the hardest thing in all of this, making them feel safe again.  I gave them a long talk about how if we let this person take away our peace, then they have taken a lot more than just my jewelry.  That helped a little but it has really just taken time.  As more time passes, they slowly get over these things and recover.
    The drink out of one of my crystal goblets still haunts me.  Really, I try not to think about it.  What burglar decides they need a drink when they are taking your things!!!!  That's twisted.  I've tried to make something out of it, but it doesn't make any sense.  Whatever!
    In the end, I am sooooo grateful that whoever this was, they didn't want to inflict physical harm to any of us.  I am grateful they didn't ransack my house or vandalize it.  I am grateful for alarm systems and believe me, we use it faithfully now!  I am also glad that jewelry can be replaced, for the most part.  I am also glad that I feel safe inside my house.  I was a little freaked out for maybe 2 days, and then I was fine again.  Life goes on!