pictures

When we were in SJ last month my sweet cousin Jaime was nice enough to take pictures of my kids for me.  I had planned just enough to remember to bring their new shirts but not their new pants or shoes. Oops.  Oh well, their old ripped, dirty jeans and shoes have lots more character anyway!

It's not an easy task to get pictures of four moving targets but I think J got some really good ones.  For the sake of my family who live far away from us this post is gonna have lots of pictures.  I didn't know until looking at these pictures how grown up my boys are getting.  Holy Cow Colby and Cameron look so grown up!

Getting newborn pictures is not very easy when the newborn wants to be wide awake and wiggly while you are trying to get sweet sleeping pictures! We didn't get any sleeping pictures but I think her big eyes are great anyway.  How precious is this baby?!

I love this last picture of my Nana Heap and Clara.  Clara was named after Nana's mom Clara Sherwood and Nana kept saying that her mom sure would love baby Clara.  Nana didn't know that Jaime was taking pictures of her and when she looked up and noticed she was so mad at Jaime, it was kinda funny!  It was worth Nana being mad though, the pictures are precious.

Thanks so much to Jaime for the great pictures.  If anyone is interested in having Jaime take pictures for you I can get you her info.  She lives in St. Johns and I'm not sure if she travels to do pictures or not, but we can always ask! 

Easter

We woke up to snow everyday all weekend.  It was really cold too.  So all outside Easter egg hunts were out of the question.  Finding brightly colored eggs in the snow just isn't much of a challenge!
  I ususally get really into Easter but this year I just didn't have the desire to go all out.  My poor kids didn't even get to color eggs!  And if it weren't for Aunt Emily they would not have even had an inside Easter egg hunt. Thanks Aunti Em!
I did enjoy cuddling on the couch with my sweet baby and watching General Conference on Saturday and Sunday.  Some of the talks I can't wait to read when the new Ensign comes out. As my kids get older I find myself needing more and more help as a parent and it seemed like most of the talks were about parenting.  It's a huge blessing in the lives of us parents in today's world that we have the guideance and inspiration from our church leaders to help us be the best parents we can be.

This is the only Easter morning picture that I got.  Colb and Cam were too busy to let me take thier picture lucky for me Hayden still likes to stop and say CHEESE!

I saw this Easter Bunny bread in a magazine years ago and always wanted to make it but was scared of it, it looks like so much work.  This year I finally read the recipe and was amazed at how easy it was and I think mine turned out pretty good for the first time!

I was planning on transferring the bunny to a nicer platter but when I tried to get him off the pan he was sticking, so I decided that I would just leave him on the ugly pan.  Next time I know to grease the pan better so I can get him off.

I filled the bunny's belly with spinach dip and cut up some veggi's to go with it.

The little kids all thought this was so cool!
If any of you are brave enough to make this bunny go ahead and ask for the recipe, you'll be amazed at how easy it is!

I also had been wanting to make a Carrot cake and what a better day to make it!  I also found out that it's my father-in-law's favorite kind of cake so I was happy to make it.  Despite a couple of the layers being in multiple pieces and had to be glued together with frosting, and the cake being quite lopsided, it looked somewhat presentable and it tasted SO GOOD! It's on my make again list now.

2 Months Old

April 3rd this sweet little sister turned 2 months old.  My older boys were actually the ones to point that out to me, they sure love this baby girl.
Clara had her 2 month check-up today
and she already weighs

11 lbs 14 oz

24inches long

She is at 2 months still my smallest baby by one pound, but holy cow is she long!  I guess it will should come as no surprise that Mark and I have tall kids!
I love her big blue eyes and I love the smiles and stories that she tells me.  When she starts sleeping longer than 4 hours at a time I will love that too!
I think she looks just like Cameron in the picture below.  I will have to post the picture of Cameron at this same age and sitting in the same position and let you be the judge.

She sure is a pretty little thing though.

Colby also had a 9 year ole well child check-up today too. 
He is 4'7" tall already.  Yep, TALL kids. Colby had to get a shot and despite being terrified wanted the pack of GoGo's I promised him more than he didn't want the shot.  Try as hard as he did to convince me that he would do the shot in December, he got the shot today and when it was all over asked the nurse if she would just hurry up and give him the shot.  He didn't even know that she already had given it to him and put a band-aid on it!  This boy is one AMAZING KID, I sure do love him.

Somehow I ended up with all 4 of my kids with me at the doctor today.  Cameron was supposed to be there to help me with Hayden but he was more concerned about Clara getting shots and being just plain nosy that he would not leave the room that meant that Hayden wouldn't leave the room either.  It was one NOISY dr. visit that I am SO glad to have over with.   Cameron really is SO great with Hayden, so great in fact that I'm afraid that we expect too much of him when it comes to watching/playing with Hayders.  He sure is great with his baby sister too!

Hayden LOVES Clara so much and tells her so lots of times everyday.  It melts my heart to hear him say "I love you Cara."  If you ask him if his baby's name is Cara though he says, "NO! It's CAAAARA!"  He can't say the L sound and it's so cute!  Hayden had to get two shots today too.  From the moment he knew we were going to the doctor he kept telling me that he wasn't going to lay down on the table.  Poor boy really hates the dr.  He about lost it when I had to hold him down on the table so the murse could give him the shots.  He needed extra band-aids and extra stickers before he would quit giving me the evil eye! He even tattled on me to his dad!

In the last month Clara has been able to meet all but 4 of her first cousins.  The picture below is of Clara and Parker a couple of weeks ago in SJ.  Parker's pj's say "I LOVE MY AUNTIE", I gave them to her so Kacy put her in them just for me!  These two sweet babies were born only 6 days apart.

This past weekend Marks brother and his family came up to Utah for Conference and Easter.  Julie had baby Annie three weeks after Clara was born so it was fun to get some pictures of the two babies. Somehow Julie and I have managed to have 3 of our 4 kids within weeks of each other. Having so many cousins the same age is so great though, I loved it growing up and I'm excited for my kids to have it that way too!  I never did figure out how to have babies with lots of hair though, just look at all of Annie's cute hair, it's so soft too.  

My sweet baby girl in her Easter Bunny jammies! 

I really hate that there is no spell check, so please excuse all of the spelling errors :)

Flowers were blooming, until today.

This is what it looks like here today, only now there is at least another inch of snow.
SERIOUSLY!!! 

My Flowers were blooming.
I have had dreams of Tulips and Daffodils and now if they freeze I don't know what I will do.

At least I have this sweet little bundle of joy to look at.  She brightens up my cold snowy days. 

Sunday Pillow Forts

There is a TV show on Discovery on Sunday evening that our family enjoys watching together, it's called LIFE and it's a 11 part series kind of like the Planet Earth movies.  This last Sunday my boys made a pillow fort on the floor and even included a spot for Clara. 

I will miss our Sunday evenings together when these boys get older and move away.  How many years can I make building pillow forts last???
At least 10 more right?

Getting out of town

A couple of weeks ago cabin fever finally got the best of Mark and we decided on Tuesday afternoon that we were going to go to Arizona the next morning. July was the last time that we had been to St. Johns, the kids were dying to go play with their cousins, Mark was dying to get out in the hills and I was dying for my family to see Clara while she was still a newborn. So after frantically packing up everything we were off. Let me tell you how much work it is to get 6 people ready to go... lots of things to remember and pack.

Twenty minutes into the drive and Cameron was already asking "Are we in Arizona yet? How much longer?" Didn't he know how long 10 hours could be when you ask those questions every 5 minutes?!

Unfortunately the 10 hour drive turned into 12 hours because of a freak Spring snow storm in AZ. We were only an hour from SJ when it started snowing-lots of snow. As we left Sanders there was 8 inches of unplowed snow on the road, there were no other cars and it was dark outside. After driving for about 30 minutes at 15mph we ended up stuck trying to go up a hill. YEP, STUCK in the middle of the road. I had been silently praying that we would make it to SJ and then there we were stuck in the snow in Arizona in March!!! What the heck.

Luckily we had cell service.

I called my mom and she sent my dad and brothers out to rescue us.

After a few minutes our prayers were answered and we got moving again. Slow and steady but we were moving.

We met up with my dad and brothers about 10 miles outside of SJ where the snow seemed to just stop. It was like there had been a line drawn and it couldn't snow past the line.

When we finally got to Gma's house the boys told Gma that they said 20 prayers of "please help us." and 15 prayers of "thank you."!

We could drive down there 1000 more times and that would never happen again.

Needless to say we were all very happy to be at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

JJ & Clara.
JJ & her mom gave Clara this cute outfit.  JJ calls it her 4 o'clock clothes because everyday at 4 o'clock JJ changes into sweat pants with a matching shirt or jacket so she thought Clara would like some too!

Clara finally gets to meet some of her cousins.  Maci really loved her & tried to crawl all over her! And hard as we tried, Kaci & I couldn't get a good picture of the babies.

It was so great to see family that we haven't seen for so long, also to meet Ms. Parker who is just 6 days younger than Clara. Little Miss Maci Jo was only 4 months old the last time we saw her, she will be one in a few days. Man is she cute and her mom inspired me to make bows for Clara.  Jodi had cute bows to match every outfit.   

Parker Heap

Maci Jo Heap

For my kids, being in St. Johns is better than being anywhere else on earth.

Colby, Dawson Winsor & Tuff Zieler
Cameron & JJ Zieler

The weather was pretty volatile the whole time we were there. It even delayed us for a day coming home. These are pictures of the morning that we finally did come home. Lucky for us the sun came out and the snow melted quickly and our trip home was pretty smooth sailing. Clara was a great traveler only waking up when we stopped for gas and food.

Below are pictures of how my boys entertain themselves when we turn off the movies!

We got home on Monday night and just six days later Mark and I were on our way back to AZ for the unexpected funeral of my Uncle George Proctor. Mark's parents were nice enough to keep the three boys so we just had Clara on the trip back down. Traveling with only one little baby is EASY and I quite enjoyed the time spent with my husband. I just wish we were not going down for a funeral. The Proctor family did a great job of honoring and celebrating the life of their dad and I am really glad that I was able to be there.

Among the piles of paper...

Everyday my kids come home with piles and piles of paper.

I HATE IT!

Except when I find papers like this. 

They make me laugh.  Kids really do say the darndest things.

These first two are from Cameron.  The top blue paper was a school assignment and it says.
A calculator is a good creation because it can tell you things you don't know.

 The bottom one he wrote one night in bed when he was having a hard time falling asleep.  

It says.
Right in the morning and in the afternoon I used to ride my bike all the time and them I noked(knocked) onmy frends door and then I asced(asked) him do you want to ride bikes and he sed yes and then he got on his bike and we rode on and on. 

These are from Colby.  He is always in a huge hurry to do everything, especially school work.  I am always telling him to slow down and watch his handwriting. 
When I saw his answers to the questions on these three papers I could only laugh. 
He says that his teacher doesn't really care what he writes just as long as he writes something.

The first one is my favorite, it says;
Write about a person that helped you in some way
My brother helped me get grounded. That made me really mad.
2nd one says;
Imagine your class is volunteering at an animal shelter. Write a paragraph describing what your classmates can do and why
My class is volunteering at an animal shelter. 
3rd one says;
Write about volunteer work that you would enjoy.  Explain why you would enjoy it.
Sleeping, it is fun

I think I should start scanning and saving all of the papers like these so that some day my kids can look back at them and laugh like I did!

Remind me to tell you about our crazy snowy trip to Arizona last week.  (this is to remind myself to write about our AZ trip)!!

mommy monster bloggers

A couple of days ago I read a great blog post and I thought I would share it.  The link to the post is here, but after you read it go here to read her most recent posts.  If you have the time I would scroll down and read through her Blog Workshop posts, I found them really insightful. 

I have included part of the post just to get you interested...


i've created one giant super mommy monster blogger that looms over me. let me describe her to you.


she is currently traveling the states for her booktour. it just debuted on the new york times bestseller list, naturally. this is only the tip of the iceburg, people. she is on the cutting edge of fashion and music. she has an eye for design. she not only lunches with the rich and famous, but she is a darling mother and wife and cooks dinners from scratch every evening. she is down to earth and drop dead gorgeous. and talented too. she letterpressed her own wedding invitations. her dress was flown in from milan and she had her groom's name embroidered on the hem in tiffany blue to be her something blue. that night everyone went home with a smile and a handwrapped box of her famous mint truffles, which had their monograms on them. in coordinating calligraphy to match the menus.

her house is always clean and smells of pine-sol. she hunts consignment shops and flea markets for original vintage wares to fill her home. she found an antique birdcage and sprayed it gold just last week. oh and her baby wears all handsewn dresses. that were made of bamboo eco-friendly material that will never hurt the earth. and her baby has this name that is so graceful and classic, the sweetest name that no one has ever thought of before. and she uses cloth diapers too. she and her little one spend time learning about the world in their backyard butterfly aviary. her 18 month old can repeat the origins of each butterfly species, sing the alphabet, and control her cup so it never spills apple juice down her lacy peter pan collar. the family eats out of her vegetable garden and she bakes bread from organic bananas. she delivers it to neighbors, wrapped with organza silk ribbons, on birthdays.

she has tons of friends, hosts a girl's night every month and seems to be speaking at blogging conventions every season. she has never had an embarrassing moment, a bad hair day or a tacky prom dress. she is funny and sweet and thoughtful. she sends timely thank yous and answers every email in her inbox with flair. her ability to arrange flowers has been featured in magazines across the globe. annie leibovitz will be shooting her in the hamptons next summer. she has already bought (and blogged about) the strappy sandals she'll be wearing for it. she owns all the latest gadgets and has created her own app. she still has time to sing her babies to sleep and cuddle with her husband and keep the laundry folded round the clock. she never has any sort of breakdown about frivolous things like cranberry sauce or pitted black olives. she blogs freely without wasting time, whining about life, cricizing or copying others.

oh and she has a booming photography business on the side. did i mention that? she snaps shots of coordinating-clothed families on the train tracks and pregnant woman with their tanned bare bellies and newborns lying on overstuffed floral anthropologie chairs. speaking of anthropologie, she does the window displays for their santa barbara location. they fly her in on the weekends. afterwards she flies kites at the beach with disabled children and then sells the colorful kites on etsy.

a few weeks ago, she made cupcake pops for her husband's super bowl party. they looked like teeny tiny drew brees helmets. she is always thinking up the best ideas and would never serve something so menial as meatballs from a crockpot.


I think she totally hit the nail on the head with this.  I could never have put these thoughts into words as perfectly as she did. 

A Few Things

MY TOE HURTS!!!

 Ok, so I had a pedicure a few days before Clara was born, so please ignore the fact that I need one again and just notice how disgusting my toe is.  It keeps getting more black & blue and is so swollen and aches and throbs all day long.  Where is the family podiatrist when you need one?!

 Cameron is SO SIX!  He is going through a major bad attitude phase.  Some of his fits are pretty funny and I have to try really hard not to laugh at him.  For the most part though he is really a good kid and is really fun to be around.  He loves to please his dad and I and is always doing things w/o being asked, he is also pretty sweet to Hayden. 
When I look at pictures of him I notice a few things; 1. that he really needs a haircut.  2.  How come he is growing up so fast, he looks so old. 3. He looks a whole lot like me with the freckles and all!

Cameron still loves to hold his sister and has been quite a help to me when I need to get something done.  He can even get her to sleep with his magic touch. 
In the post I did about Clara being 4 weeks old I said that I thought she was just over 8 lbs.  Well, I actually weighed her and she is 10.5lbs!  How do I stop her from growing up?

 Hayden, I think he is getting sick because he has been so moody the last couple of days.  He is usually really easy to please and very predictable, but not this weekend!  AHH...life is rough when the 2 year old is grouchy!  He did get a new haircut though and looks so darn grown up.  I hope he wakes up in the morning feeling much more like himself, I really like my HAPPY Hayden. 

 COLBY!! 
He is a one of a kind, smart, smart boy.
Colby has also been very helpful to me since having the baby. 
Yesterday Colby got to go the the Jazz game with his dad.  Boy was he excited to have 5th row seats and be able to go an hour early and get some autographs.  We even saw he & Mark on tv which he thought was SO COOL. 
I know you are all thinking "you let your son go to the Jazz game looking like a girl, look how long his hair is!"

But never fear dear readers, he got a fabulous haircut before the game.  I really need to post a picture because you won't believe how old and handsome he looks with his haircut.  He is quite annoyed with me for telling him that he is going to have to fight the girls off at school on Monday.  But seriously, he is one HANDSOME KID. 

If my husband would let me post pictures of him I would, but since he won't...  I will brag about him anyway.

After my Groundhog Day post on Friday, I called Mark at work and asked him if he would take us to Provo for dinner.  He quickly said yes, and even after realizing that "US" meant all the kids to, he was still excited to have a night out with his family.  Dinner was GREAT, just getting out of the house and actually feeling like a real person again was so needed.  The kids were so good and Mark made sure that it was an enjoyable time for us all. 
Clara decided that she needed to initiate mom back into the "having a baby club" by having a major blowout and needing all of her clothes changed.  This was her first night out on the town and she had to check if mom was prepared with lots of wipes and a change of clothes! 
I even had a man come up to me and say "looks like you finally got your girl."  It was so fun to say yes and show her off.  He said that they had five boys before they got a girl! 

So those were the things I had on my mind tonight and didn't want to write them in my journal because blogging distracts me from my hurting toe.  Does anyone have any suggestions on what you can do for a broken toe?

Who put my life on REPEAT?

Everyday I feel like Bill Murray in the movie Groundhog Day. 

It seems like the repeat button on my life got pushed. 

-wake up get the kids to school

-turn on tv for Hayden

-get the house picked up

-feed the baby

-put the baby in her swing

-exercise

-play with Hayden

-feed the baby

-find something for lunch while holding the baby

-put Hayden down for nap

-try to get the baby to nap too, but she doesn't want to

-finally get her to sleep and it's time for big kids to get home from school

-Hayden wakes up so excited his brothers are home from school

-hear from big kids about how awful school is and how bad they HATE homework

-start on dinner while trying to persuade big kids to get homework done

-baby awake, wants to be fed

-Dad gets home from work, but only for an hour until he has to leave again on church assignments

-Finish dinner

-start trying to clean up the messes that were made in just the 2 hours since the kids have been home

-start the bedtime battles

-feed the baby

-kids finally all in bed

-finish cleaning up kitchen

-baby want to be awake and held for a couple of hours

-11:00pm baby finally asleep for the night

-start the wake up every three hour process all night long

-just to do the same things all over again the next morning

COWBOY TAKE ME AWAY!  my theme song.

This is what my days are like.  Throw in quite a few diaper changes and loads of laundry and sweeping the floor and it would be complete.  I'm sure that my day is not unlike other stay at home mom's and I'm really not complaining, just documenting!!  I do count my blessings everyday that I am able to stay home with my kids.  Some days though, when it's too cold to take kids out to run errands or go anywhere the days start to feel like one big run-on day. 

And I broke my toe a couple of days ago, so I have to deal with an achy, throbbing, toe too!! Where is the mercy?!
The fact that I have not gone farther than Salt Lake since last July has really got me anxious to go on a trip.  And Spring Fever has really set in too. 

Our Spring Break is in April, after Easter and we are planning a trip to California to see my brother and his family.  I can't wait!!  I was talking to Kent last night and he was listing off all of the things we can do out there.  The list went on and on.  He lives in Northern California, not far from San Fran, I have never been there!!  I am so ready to get out of town and have some fun that I about ready to throw cost out the window and just make sure we totally enjoy ourselves!!  Who knows how long it will be until we get out of town again.  Spring Break can't come soon enough. 
I would say that tomorrow is a new day, but it's really not!!  haha

HAVE A GREAT GROUNDHOG DAY YA'LL!!!!

ONE MONTH

WARNING:  If you are sick of posts about my sweet baby girl you can just skip this one.  But if you want to see how much she has grown and be jealous because she is SO much CUTER than your baby girl, then keep reading!   (I hope everyone gets the humor in my last sentence! I think your babies are cute to.)

I am not quite sure how much she weighs, but I'm thinking a little over 8 lbs.  She is getting chubby cheeks that we kiss 100x a day.  She is also smiling at us.  It totally makes my day and I forget how tired I am because she didn't sleep well the night before.  Dressing her up in cute outfits is fun too!  I just wish I could take her places to show her off, but we pretty much just stay home, so if anyone wants to come see how cute my baby is, come on over!! 
Oh the joys of having a newborn!

My goal this week is to find her an Easter dress and accessories to match.  How fun is it that I get to buy and Easter dress?!  My friend and I are going to the Lace store in Salt Lake to find things to make headbands to go with the Easter dress.  Yeah for having a girl!! 

Crazy thing is that in the last month since Clara was born two other sweet baby girls have been born in our family.  A BIG welcome to Parker Heap and Annie Davis, we can't wait to meet them. Clara now has 4 first cousins that are less than a year older than her .  Someday soon I hope we can get them all together and take a picture. 

HAPPY ONE MONTH SWEET CLARA, WE LOVE YOU!
 
UPDATE: when i posted this i thought she weighed just over 8lbs, but when i weighed her the next day she was 10.5 lbs.  Holy cow she is growing fast!