Maecee Video

I have to write about our funny little Maecee. I say little because she is so much slimmer than Ethan or McKenna ever were (and believe me, she can put the food down! Brett offered her some ELK JERKY that no one else would eat--but her and Brett :) and she ate it right up! She came home with some seriously disgusting breath too. BLAHHH! Thanks Grandpa Horsey, and uncle Jas and Cory).

I found this picture of Maecee eating the jerky! EWWWWW!

She is a character! She doesn't lack in the spunk area that her big sister had either! You'll see a little bit of that in this video (COULDN'T GET VIDEO TO LOAD----I TRIED FOREVER AND IT WOULDN'T WORK---SORRY if anyone knows a secret tip, please tell me). I really tried to catch video of her doing her "routine" like McKenna. We may have two gymnasts on our hands, that's ok by me....I think! She does the funniest somersault, leg twist thing, but of course she wouldn't do it while I had the camera on her. She did it for my mom the other day and just kept going and going! It was hilarious!

Also her other nickname it Messy Maecee......wow is all I can say! Leave her in a room with anything that could remotely make a mess and watch out! Yesterday for example, her and I were playing in my room and somehow she spied some lotion under my bed and crawled under the bed to get it. Of course, I took off the lid and gave her some (pushover!). I turned away for a second and saw out of the corner of my eye a stream of something.......Pink lotion coming out like water from a faucet. She had the most amazed, sneaky look on her face. So, for the sake of getting a good picture.....I let her keep doing it (No, Brett was not home to witness this, he would have kicked my bootie!)



Later that day Brett and I went and watched her at school. I was almost embarrased at the run she gives those teachers. She was sent to the sink several times to wash off. I just had to laugh, it's good for those young teachers! All Brett could do was shake his head and say, why do they let them play with stuff like that? What do they expect? (there was gelatin jello stuff which she smeared all over her hair then threw on the ground, playdough floam which she took big fistfuls and chucked like balls as fast as possible, etc.) On orientation day there was red sand in the "water" table. Maecee had it all over the floor, again Brett just said, why would you put out something like that? Come on honey----it's fun---and it's not on our floor??!!! Last night I was trying to prepare my RS lesson for sunday and I had left a blue marker by my book (I thought it was hidden). I ran upstairs to answer the phone and came down to see her covered in blue highlighter. The crazy thing is, everything goes straight for the hair---like everything is hair gel or something? So lotion on the carpet, school disasters and blue marker all in a days work for little miss Maecee!

I'll post more about her adventures later.....for now I'm tired of trying to load stuff and need to pay attention to other things-----kids, hubby, house, dinner, lessons, etc.

President Gordon B. Hinckley

Our beloved prophet President Hinckley passed away Sunday January 27th. I along with the rest of our family saw it on t.v. and we were shocked! He has really been in my thoughts all week! I keep thinking of the great reunion he must be having with his wife. He was such an amazing man. I loved to listen to him each and every conference. I would devour every word he said! One conference when he was sick and had been in the hospital it was almost if he was telling us that he wasn't going to make it to the next conference and I felt sick! So each time I heard him spoke I would listen closely and take everything in. I can't imagine things without him but know his job is done and he has moved on to bigger and better things!

I did have the opportunity to watch the Young Women in our Stake in Logan (Blackhawk ward) sing at a Young Women's Broadcast. I remember we were all just sitting there talking and all of the sudden there was silence, and you could feel the spirit really strong. We realized that the Prophet had entered the room with his wife and you could have heard a pin drop. It's hard to explain the moment but I remember feeling a rush of love, and high regard for this amazing man that was our Prophet!

We will miss you President Hinckley and hope your reunion is a sweet one! Let us all remember what he taught us and be better people!

Let it snow, Let it snow, OK STOP ALREADY!!!!!!

Ethan, McKenna, Maecee

I can't believe all this snow! This is how it used to be when I was a little kid. Except they would cancel school. I remember us kids would huddle under a blanket around the heater vent and listen to the radio to see if school was going to be canceled. Wow what a great day for us kids when it was......... Now as a parent-----probably not the best day for my mom :)

My kids are loving this snow though! Maecee has gone out quite a few times so she can be like the big kids. She will go over to where her coat is hanging up and try to jump to get it down. She'll also bring you her boots. It's cute how she wants to be with the big kids. This particular day she wanted to go out and help her daddy shovel snow. He then pulled her in the sled and she didn't think that was to fun. A couple of days later the kids wanted to go out and sled down the small hill in our backyard. Well the snow was actually too deep, which was really frustrating for them!

On saturday they got to go to grandpa horseys and ride on the snowmobile (which Eth could do all day long if we would let him). Cory has been working on a little course for the kids to ride on. Eth also dug a tunnel with the neighbors on saturday and came in soaking WET! The sun was shining and he must have been rolling in the water. I couldn't believe how wet he was!
McKenna was at gym practice which is where she wants to be every day all day.

To sum things up------I cannot wait to be in Disneyland in 37 days, but who's counting???

Wear them out........

I'm thinking I need to invest in one of these things. Over the break we went to the Celebration Centre with some of the McEvoy cousins (Christina and Austin were staying with us, and Bridgette was also here. We called Tiffany and she brought Lainey, Trey and Porter with her.) We wanted a place that was spacious and would wear the kids out. Job well done. This slide was such a hit! With the little kids and bigger kids. They also had soft play, a bounce house, carousel, and frog jumper ride. Don't try and go there though, because the next day they were closing for the season. Most of their rides and probably big money makers are outside. They have the original bungee tower (that was in logan years ago), the space shot, a swing ride that scares the dickens out of you, the big swing thing that is at Lagoon, go-carts, mini golf, etc. We went this summer and had a blast!
After getting the kids energy out we came back to our house and cooked spaghetti, salad and corn. We threw out a big blanket on the floor and let them have a picnic. Salli, Vi and their kids came by, Alan and some of his friends and Kimmie! It was a full house. I cooked two huge pots of spaghetti. Fun but pretty crazy!

Halloween Pictures (only a few months late)

Ethan, Cole, Jayden, Kaidin, McKenna, Rhett, Maecee, Tawnee

It's a little late, but my camera broke right before Halloween. This is a picture from Cory's camera. Fun memories.

Cute Parents

Heidi and mom at wedding

Okay, seriously don't I have some darn good lookin' parents! No wonder all our family is so dang cute! :) By the way, my mom is single, if you know anyone that is worthy of her.......

Heidi and Dad at wedding. Cake smeared on their faces

I don't want to get all sappy but I do want to say how much I LOVE MY MOM AND DAD!!!! They are so amazing. Both of them would cut off their leg (or kidney) and give it us if we needed it! They have taught me soooo much. Life hasn't always been perfect, hunky dory, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. Those experiences only make me stronger! I don't know what I would do without either one of them. I LOVE YOU MOM AND DAD!!!! THANKS FOR EVERYTHING!

Christmas Eve w/Jamma and Fam

Jamma and McKenna
This year we were going to try something "different". The last few years we've tried other stuff including ice skating, gingerbread house decorating competitions, etc. But this year my mom had a perfect idea of going on a treasure hunt. My mom made a map and everything on a sheet with cute picture clues----so cute! One of the cool things about the hunt was that we were accomplishing things as went you could say (delivering a couple of presents for my moms friends, seeing my grandma/grandpa and aunt Leanna). Then the darn weather suggested other plans. It was a BLIZZARD here. Our first stop was going to be a drive thru light park just off the freeway in Willard. Then when we heard of bad weather, hence bad roads (Sardine Canyon), we were going to plan B which was sledding on Old Main Hill. We probably could have pulled that one off but we weren't dying to be on the roads or get pelted in the face with snow. Plan C- we decided to just go to my Grandma Shirleens and sing (scary) for her and just visit. She wasn't planning on going anywhere and her house used to be Christmas Eve Central. We were a little worried about the roads since she lives up 2 steep hills, but Providence City was a step ahead and the roads were perfect. My grandma's driveway.......a different story!
Grandma Shirleen, Cole and Leanna

*****Side note-this is my aunt Leanna that has been doing dialysis for months now and is awaiting a kidney transplant. More to come about that----because the donor is my DAD!!!!!! He is waiting until after he takes the family to Disneyland (our Christmas present) before the transplant will happen. I am sooooo nervous!

We had a great visit with them and got lots of pictures. My mom also had a clever idea to take up my Polaroid camera so we could leave them pictures also. My grandma told me we wouldn't have any idea how much that meant to them. It was so fun to see them and be with them. Even if they had to deal with all our crazy kids.
Heidi holding Kaidin, Cory holding Tawnee, Jayden, Hillary holding Cole, McKenna, Grandpa Cordell, Rhett being held by Jason, Ethan, Maecee being held by me. Joey, my mom and Brett taking the pictures :).

Our Family with Grandma and Grandpa! It's hard to believe when we lived with them it was just Brett, McKenna and I. We have such great memories there!

We then sang them a couple of Christmas carols and were on our way, HAH, so we thought. Turns out that the little treasure hunt happened, just in a different way. My brother Jas was trying to be funny and kept trying to make it up my grandma's steep driveway that was a flipping ice rink under all that snow (I think 5 of us fell before even making into her house, which was pretty funny i might add, cuz i didn't fall amazingly enough). Well he slipped back and almost hit a brick pillar she has, and got stuck. When we were ready to leave all the men went to push him out. They did it but Joey who is newly married to Heidi flipped his hand to get the snow off and off flew his new wedding ring!!! We all searched for awhile then decided to take the freezing kids home and let them open some presents. The guys went back to find the ring which amazingly (after ice melt, some torch thing, and then a metal detector) was found. That was our treasure hunt...... Pretty exciting I might add.

Jamma with all the grandkids but Maecee (asleep) and Caileb (with his mom). L to R Ethan, Tawnee, Cole, Kaidin, Mckenna, Rhett, Jayden.

This was an awesome present to the kids from their Jamma. A homemade afghan that came with books to snuggle up and read with. Each one was different. (i.e. Ethans had a strip of black and white to signify his mom liking the smell of skunk :)) It was a HUGE hit with the kids. All three of my kids sleep with theirs everynight. Nothing store bought could have beat this! BIG , HUGE thanks to Jamma!