Happy New Year!

The day after Christmas we added a few more people to our humble group of 12. By the 29th we had a total of 36 people in my house. It's a good thing we have seven bedrooms and four bathrooms! Our house isn't huge by any means (I know, I know, it sounds big, but I would say it's a medium-sized house), but each family had their own room in which to sleep. Hopefully for all of my guests that benefit outweighed the strong noise level during the day. Someday we will purchase all of those noise absorbing goods, like draperies, rugs and a Wii.

Sam kicked off the New Year celebration by treating us to McDonald's on the 26th. When Sam asked Clark about being at McDonald's, Clark said it was better than Christmas. We'll remember that next year. I wouldn't mind going there and buying my kids whatever they wanted in lieu of presents. Sounds simple and inexpensive!




The Ereksons drove all night and showed up Monday morning. Either Mike is really tired, or is in deep concentration about his next P90X workout. And no, that isn't our dog. Our van is still our only pet. Princess Sally is the lucky Erekson dog. All the kids LOVED her! We gated both doorways to our laundry room, so it worked out nicely to have her here.


Last Monday the nightly festivities started. After Grandpa Bartholomew gave a lesson on fishing-being fishers of men-missionary work, Lee lit a fire outback and we roasted marshmallows and stuck them between chocolate-chip cookies. Thanks Lee for baking 3 batches of cookie dough!






Marshmallows DC style. I am sure Lois learned this technique at a fancy French-Creole restaurant.






Darrell was smart and enjoyed the fire from inside the house


I am sure Andy was wishing that he would have done the same


On Tuesday most of my family headed into St. Louis that day to attend the temple and visit the zoo. The rest of us got a few things done here and I also went visiting teaching.

Tuesday night brought Darrell's Birthday Party!


On Wednesday it was round three of fun for my golden Birthday! Yep, I'm 30. How weird! Ever since I left home at the ripe-old age of 18 to head to Ricks College, I managed to jam pack the next 12 years of my life. I met Lee just a few weeks later, received an Associates from Ricks College; went on an 18-month mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to Los Angeles, CA and to the Los Angeles Temple Visitors' Center; then started my married life with my best friend (7 years and counting); finished my Bachelor's at Brigham Young University; gave birth to Clark three weeks after graduation; moved to Memphis with Lee and Clark; later added Cal, Shanna and our 20-week-ultrasound-surprise Haley to our family while Lee attended Southern College of Optometry; eventually moved to Missouri after Lee got his doctorate in optometry to start working for the Army; added baby Elden to our family (which added extra excitement and drama) and ended with completing my personal goals of paying off all of our debt--student loans--in 1 year and 2 days and BEFORE my 30th birthday. I would have never guessed this would all happen my freshman year of college. It has been a full life and a blessed life thus far. I wonder what the next 30 years will bring. Hopefully no more broken transmissions or hijackings, ha ha.

One thing that has been fun this past year, is someone seeing me with Elden and asking me if he is my first kid. Or they see me with three kids and think it is a lot. Just the other day that happened and it was fun telling those people that I had two more at home. I get a kick out of that. It happens to Lee at work too. People think that maybe he has no children or one, and when he says he has five, well, it's quite amusing to him. So it gives me hope that I still look young! Ha ha.

So back to the festivities, we went bowling.

Pictures with my AMAZING SISTERS!!! The oldest of 10--Deborah...she has the power!


Then the fabulous 5th, Lena (I am the 6th). People often ask if we are twins.


Lois, the 8th (much, much, much cooler than Henry the VIII). People ask us if we are twins too.


And what would life be without Stephanie, the 9th?


We got to met Sam's girlfriend, Shawna, which was a lot of fun.


And if you ever wondered what a perfect husband looks like, well there you go. Perfect-Lee.




30 Pink Candles!


Lee got me the most wonderful birthday present! While in Los Angeles on my mission, Del Parson-the artist that painted the below picture of Jesus Christ, came to the Los Angeles Temple Visitors' Center and signed copies of his picture for all of the sister missionaries. I LOVE this picture, and I've had it up on the wall in the different places we lived, using tape or sticky putty to hold it up. Luckily none of my kids ever ripped the picture, but it has had its fair share of wear! As you can tell, Lee had it repaired and framed for me! And by the way Darrell, thanks for the yummy chocolates. They will soon be gone!


And to end my birthday, Girl's Night Out! I am not a big girl's night out fan. Ask some of the people I met in Johnson City! If some ladies are going out to, say, a movie or go bowling, I rather just stay home and hang out with Lee. But with ALL of my sisters in town, we couldn't miss this opportunity. Last time we did something like this was the night before Stephanie's wedding in 2007. Anyway, it was so fun! I wish Amy and Brittany could have been with us too.


They sang a birthday song to me! And we ended the night with going to Walmart. I bought some hair dye there and colored my hair that night.


Day number 4 of festivities--New Year's Eve! Lee, Sam, Shawna and I went on a date. I thought the USO would be open, but it didn't open until the evening of the 31st. So we hung out at the PX. Lee bought me an ice cream cone and we walked, doing some window shopping--like looking at expensive rings, cookware and axes.

We have a big party every New Year's Eve in my family. To kick things off, the kids all made some party hats. After dinner with lots of party food, Mike did a magic show. Then Katie, Makenzie and Rebecca did a cute dance/cheer. We played the yearly Monopoly game and Joseph beat all of us badly! Dad of course stayed in till the very end. He somehow has good luck every year with Monopoly. We played by the rules this year, instead of the "Bartholomew Rules" and the game ended a lot faster.

Party hat time!




Cal drew a monster truck--he sure has the right idea!


I wonder what life would really be like in 20010!
















The Heits ringing in 2010!


Lee, Cal and I at 12:00am, January 1, 2010. Happy New Year!


My dad celebrating New Year's Day by watching some good 'ol football.


On New Year's Day my family started leaving. I am sad they are gone, but I am glad they didn't leave all at once! Sometimes it's better to rip the bandaid off slowly. Three more families left yesterday and my parents left this morning. Yesterday my mom, Shanna, Haley, Elden and I went to Springfield to do some shopping (Lee helped our friends move to a new house, with Clark and Cal tagging along). I had never been to Springfield to shop and it was great! I have realized that I was better with the budget when I had debt! Since we are out of debt, we have some big saving goals for a future house, retirement and kids' college. So financially this will be a good goal for me this year: stay on target. (I'll just think of that guy on Star Wars)

And speaking of staying on target, I want to highlight my fake friend, the pocket calendar. My real friend Tami gave this too me, among other fun items, while I was on bedrest in Columbia. One thing that helped us get of out debt was controlling the grocery money. Every month (well, once I started cooking again after a three-month hiatus) I would plan meals a month at a time in my little planner. Then it would accompany me while I shopped at the store. Weird as it may seem, it was exciting going to the store and figuring out the best way to spend $40 for one week to feed 6 people. Don't get me wrong, I will easily and gladly spend more than $40 a week on groceries--but at the time it was fun. It was satisfying and liberating knowing that I could control my money, even on what little I decided to spend on groceries. Sure I messed up, ask Lois. Anyway, I'll stop reminiscing about my pocket calendar. Here it is!





Happy New Year Everyone! There were some goals that I didn't meet that I hope to finish this year, along with others that I want to make and work towards. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a great start to the new year. Good luck with real life tomorrow! I don't know if I am ready...