Spring Break

Spring break this year followed Easter.  We got home Sunday night from Lois' and Monday morning at 10:27ish I was on the road with the kids headed to Raleigh.  My kids were very helpful that morning, which was awesome.  My kids have had lots of days off here at home the past little while, and I didn't want to be at home all week for spring break.  Thankfully my brother Daniel is just four hours from me (and that included a 5 minute pullover on the side of the road for a quick bathroom break).   We arrived at 2:30 and unloaded the van.  Everyday we were there we went around a mile and a half loop in their neighborhood, which we did Monday too.  I love that there are so many sidewalks.  I managed to get Clark, Cal, and Shanna's bikes in the back of the van along with three scooters. 

Monday night after pizza, we joined them for Family Home Evening.




Tuesday morning I went with Daniel and Amy to a nearby gym and went running.  We hung out that day, went on another loop with the bikes and scooters, enjoyed Ila's amazing chocolate chip cookies, painted toe nails, visited and explored a little in the woods. Later that afternoon we went shopping.  I had Lizzy and Anthon with me, along with my kids.  We stopped at Ross and bought Cal a new bike helmet.  We then wandered World Market for a little bit, then headed over to McDonald's for a treat.  I bought 4 hot fudge sundaes and split them between all of us, plus some french fries.  I love french fries!  I was disappointed because there was a TV in the playroom at McDonald's.  We rarely go to McDonald's anyway, and I surely didn't bring my kids there to watch something.  Oh well. 

Wednesday Lizzy and I went around the loop twice in the morning.  I was going to go a third time, but Shanna was not feeling good and was crying when I got back (and was crying when I left).  Later almost all of us went to a park, did the loop again with the kids, explored more in the woods and I took a nap.  All three days my kids enjoyed lots of time with the Wii and other game systems.  We don't own any and right now aren't planning on buying any in the future.  They had ample playtime on the gaming systems, which was a treat for them.  I tried to get them outside a little bit, and they complied.








I thought this was so sweet.  I was in my van reading because Elden had fallen asleep in his car seat on our way back from the park.  Across the yard Rachel and Anthon where hanging out under a tree, just chatting and enjoying the day.  I zoomed in for a few shots. 


Part of the loop!  This might have to become a tradition every time we visit!


It was great being with Daniel and Amy and family.  I love visiting them. We're hoping to go down when their pool is open!  Thanks for hosting us!

Easter Weekend

Friday before Easter Elden and I went to Haley's school to help with their egg hunt.  It was fun participating in her activity. Each child had to find seven eggs, each numbered individually, in numerical order.  Great idea!








Not a picture that I like of myself...oh well.  The night before Lee and I cut my hair.  Yep, just us!


Later that day we went to our friends' house to dye eggs.  Thanks for inviting us Chasity!  There were LOTS of eggs to dye and some of my kids did up to 12!  We enjoy doing things with them.










Friday night we headed up to Lois'.  Darrell and family were there too.  Saturday we swapped going to the temple.  Lois and Jeff had a party for Reed too.  It was so fun being with some of my siblings, and celebrating Reed's birthday with those present.  Our friend Mary and her family were there too, which was so fun.








Lisa--the one holding her thumb up--is wearing a dress we gave her that I made for the girls.  It makes me happy that she likes wearing it!


I just had to Chris.....


The birthday boy! At a party store here in town there were TONS of original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle party favors....discounted deeply too.  Reed had a ninja turtle party for his birthday and Lois was able to use some of those great retro finds.




There were a few ninja poses that weekend!




After the party I did a surprise Easter egg hunt.  I love Easter egg hunts.  We don't do the Easter Bunny and Easter baskets, but we do go to egg hunts.  Growing up, after Easter, my mom would buy discounted jelly beans, wrapping each one in aluminum foil.  We thought it was the greatest thing ever!  Obviously the beans were small and were able to be hidden in tricky places. Sometimes we would find wrapped jelly beans up to a year later! I really need to do this with my kids some year.  I remember putting the jelly beans in my jewelry box and thinking it was so great I had a handful of candy all to myself.  Though I totally should have done aluminum wrapped beans, instead I filled plastic eggs with jelly beans for the hunt, and we scattered some wrapped candy on the ground too. I thought I had a ton of plastic eggs, but ended up buying a few dozen more.  Come to find out, I completely missed a big bag of plastic eggs (in plain sight of course....it's not just you Lee!).  Now I have even more for next year, right?!








Sadly Darrell's family took off that evening.  We stayed through Sunday night.  After a great Sunday at church (no pipes broke this time) there was a yummy lunch.  Mary and co came again...how lucky are we?  Two visits in one weekend!  They brought some YUMMY black cherry wishniak by Canada Dry. We enjoyed a great visit following a great dinner (and some delicious desserts, thank you Lois and Mary).

Yep, Elden caught on.










After church some photos were taken....I made these skirts for the girls that Friday.  I am planning on making them one skirt each with some cute floral fabric Lena gave me.  Those will have an overlay, so will take a little more time.  These skirts were pretty easy to do.  I cut out the fabric a few days before hand and was able to sew them in an afternoon. I added the white ribbon at the last minute to give the skirt a more finished look. 






Annual Easter Heit Photo Shoot




It was a nice weekend, made even better by being with family and friends! I feel blessed to have the gospel and the knowledge that Christ has risen!  Because of Him we can be with our families forever, and all will receive the gift of resurrection.  

Date with Dad

Recently Clark and Cal went on a date with Lee to a piano concert.  A local professor and a visiting pianist performed together.  I thought the concert would be a mix of music, but they ended up playing only two songs the whole time.  I heard they were fantastic, but that it was a little long.  Lee and I were glad that Clark was amazed that a song would take SO long to play, ha ha.  I think one of the songs was by Tchaikovsky.  Clark is taking piano and Cal will be starting soon.  It's always fun and motivating to see and hear a professional in an area that you are working on or like. Not sure how much Clark likes piano, but he and soon his siblings, will be taking lessons for awhile.  Beforehand they stopped for frozen yogurt.




At the concert.

The day before was a snow day, again.  Haley and Cal were playing together and Cal was biting down on a blanket with his teeth.  Of course Haley pulled on it.  Out came one of Cal's teeth.  At first I thought it was an adult tooth, thankfully it wasn't!  Well, he couldn't find his tooth so I told him to draw a picture instead.




I guess this is the meaning of the picture...Cal with one lost tooth: correct.  Cal with no lost teeth: incorrect.  Pretty clever.

Paint

This post is a little out of order....I have a few items to catch up on.  I wanted to throw it in right now anyway.  Today my local ACE store had a sale so among other things, Shanna and I bought paint and a bunch of goodies to assist in the painting.  This is a landmark day for me as I have never bought a gallon of paint for my house before!  Lee bought some for his waiting room when we first moved here, which I painted.  But now that I am 33 years-old and never really tried my hand with decorating or buying paint, here's hoping it all goes well!  Funny enough, I was nervous about buying paint!  (What if I have color remorse or choose the wrong sheen?)  I bought paint for the kitchen cabinets and for most of the walls in our house.  I do think I'll like the colors.  Now we just have to close on the house so I can actually start painting! Sadly, no news on closing.  Yeah, for all of you out there who can buy a house with cash, do it!  It's most likely my mortgage company, but the process has been slow and frustrating.

Anyway....most of my goodies....

Shopping

This picture was taken a few weeks ago and I remembered I never posted it like I had intended.  One night the girls and I stopped at Kroger to buy a few things.  They have mini shopping carts there, which my kids love pushing around--even Clark! Amazingly I had my camera on hand to snap a picture.  Normally I don't go to the grocery store with my camera.  It's fun doing things with my girls.  I must say, Shanna is quite the shopper.  Haley likes shopping with me, but Shanna seems to love it!  She'll talk about things she wants to buy, and other items she thinks so and so would like, and will want to look at different sections in a store.  So cute.


Tomorrow is the house appraisal...finally...and I need to call and talk to the loan lady about a closing date.  Sadly the closing date in the contract of March 30th has obviously come and gone.  It needs to be soon.  I am getting anxious about moving.  We have to be out of the rental in about two weeks.....