Reese's Preschool Christmas Program

 

I don't know why our new computer won't upload our video files, but the fact is I only have still pictures to share.  Reese tried her hardest to not face me most of the time, but I got a few pics of her face. 

 

She sang the songs and chatted with the girl next to her and repeated her speaking part.  It was all very cute, as expected.

 

 

Notice that, though all the other kids are facing forward, she is strategically facing away from me.

 

The most frustrating was when Santa came in.  Each kid had about 20 seconds with him.  I was on the side of the room the whole time, but when Reese's turn came and she was facing away from me, I ran to the other side of the room in front of all the other parents to get a better shot.  As soon as I got there, she turned the other way.  So this year we get a picture of Santa with the back of Reese's head.  That's just the way it goes.

 

 For the record, she told him that she wanted a "coloring doll" for Christmas and he had to ask again because I don't think he knew what she was talking about.  At least 50-70% of the other girls asked for Barbie Dolls. The coloring doll is a wooden doll similar to a paper doll.  It comes with markers to color it.  She spotted it while we were on a trip to Michael's craft store once and hasn't forgotten about it.



 

 

I was going to do a printout with our year end summary to send with our Christmas cards, But I'm horribly sick right now and since the cards are going out pretty late this year, I decided that a trip to the copymax just isn't in the cards.  Those of you that read the blog will already know these things, but in case you care, this was going to be sent to you, but is not.

If you have never gotten a card from us and would like to be included in our yearly mailing, please send me your address!  ms.annaheath@gmail.com or wjamheath@gmail.com


If you can't read the pic, here is the text:

In 2012 we discovered that:

 

There’s always more wrong with the house then the pre-closing inspection reveals
Reese can go through reams of paper and rolls of tape and boxes of crayons if you let her. But some of the projects are masterpieces
Expect a Liam-sized tantrum if you don’t let him stay at preschool when you drop Reese off.  Which we don’t. PS: Liam-sized tantrum = small nuclear explosion
Trying to keep a house clean with small children (and sometimes a husband) is like trying to brush your teeth while eating Oreos. (Liam loves toys. All over.)
Working at Goldman Sachs means late evenings and early mornings, but Will is quickly learning many things, including what he does and doesn’t want to for the rest of his career
Practicing really can improve singing abilities. Anna sang a solo again at the South Jordan Christmas concert, but also discovered that volunteering in the production of the show was fun work
Having a goal and staying involved with community makes it easier to be productive. And productive is much better than reclusive.  True story. Try it out. We love our new church and neighborhood. Also, neighborhood is a funny-looking word. Almost didn’t use it because it looks wrong

 

Here’s to the old year and the new, may the memories and prospects inspire you, too!
Will, Anna, Reese, Liam * 4669 Hemlock Dr. Taylorsville, UT 84123 *
 gaggleofheaths.blogspot.com * wjamheath@gmail.com

Snack Chart

I came up with this idea because I feel like I never know when hunger will strike one of my kids.  I think every mother in the world knows and dislikes the phrase "MOOOoooOOOoom!  I'm Hungry!"  You spend so much time meal planning and they can't make it to the meal. 

And you never know what you will be doing when this happens.  Gardening? Toilet cleaning? Laundry folding? Kneading bread?  No matter what it is, I lose my momentum if I have to stop and bang around the pantry, the fridge and all the cupboards to find something that will suit the three-foot food fussbudgets. And I don't know about you, but for anything to get done in my house I NEED THAT MOMENTUM.  Ahem.

Long story short (too late, I know)  I made this chart and I love it, so I thought I would share it.  All the items have health value (even the cookie is a low fat low sugar chocolate oatmeal cookie that they love. I adapted this recipe to suit our needs). And when they say they are hungry I say "pick something off the chart".  And they do.  And it's easy!

It's on the fridge and if I'm out of something I just stick a star magnet over the picture so they know it's not available.

Anyone else out there have any snack time solutions?

Great Grandpa Heath

Will's grandpa, Paul Heath, had recently moved to an assisted living facility.  He has always been fiercely independent.  He kept driving himself around when he probably should have let someone else do it, he stayed at home even as his body began to fail.  He still has a sharp mind.  Because my understanding of him leads me to believe that, even though he puts on a smiling face, I think he would rather be somewhere else, I hope that his stay in the place where he is now is a short one.  I hope that he'll soon get to see his sweetheart again in heaven.

He worked as a sealer in the Salt Lake temple until he just couldn't make the trips anymore.  The got permission to come down to the Timpanogos temple to be the sealer at our wedding.  I remember he got halfway from Salt Lake to American Fork where the temple is and realized he had forgotten his temple clothing.  The temple workers had me and Will wait in the Celestial Room and didn't tell us what was going on.  They didn't want to worry us on our big day.  And then when Paul called me "Sarah" instead of "Anna" right before the ceremony, in front of everyone, I knew it was a story that would be told to our own grandkids.

Whenever anyone talks about him scouting always comes up.  I'm from a family of mostly girls so I don't know a lot about scouting, but is would appear that the Silver Beaver was the highest scouting honor you used to be able to receive.  I think they've retired that award now.  But Paul got it.  He paid attention to how the scouts taught boys to behave.  As I was never around during his scouting days, all I know is that he treated me kindly always, and has a sweet sense of humor.  (calling me by the wrong name as he was about to marry me to his grandson didn't phase him a bit, and he's called me by the right name ever since.)

So this is my tribute to him, though I know it's only a tiny one. We forgot the camera, but we had the ipad so the pics are grainy.  But I'm posting them anyway because I think they're important.

\

The Darndest Things...

Liam: Playing and babbling
Reese: No, Liam, you don't want a baby.  Babies are yucky!  Yucky babies!
Me: What?  Babies are yucky?!
Reese: Yeah
Me:  Who told you babies are yucky?
Reese: No one
Me: Then why do you think they are yucky?
Reese: They just are!
Will: What about babies are yucky?
Reese: Well, you just don't eat them.
Me: Oh, you mean babies are yucky to eat?
Reese: Yeah.
Me: Oh.
Will: You're right, Reese.  We shouldn't eat babies
Reese: Yeeeeeeaaah! (Tone indicating a smug "of course, you idiots!")


Well thanks.  Glad we had this conversation.

Christmas Tree

My angel

 

Family Pics

Over Thanksgiving break I had my sister take some pics of our family.  Liam has never been good at smiling or holding still on cue. And Reese, my natural model, found a stick. When we told her to put it aside until after pictures, spent the entire time checking on it to make sure that some kids playing nearby wouldn't come and steal it. I think Will and I looked at the camera and even smiled once or twice.  Awesome job, family!

"Liam, can you show me your teeth?"

Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving at the Faber's this year.  My mom put me in charge and then had me deligate everything out.  She even claimed the job of turkey.  I got to do rolls and some pie.  Since I didn't have a lot of jobs I decided that I would also be in charge of the tablescape, and that I should make a bread assortment instead of the traditional Rhodes rolls and I should also bake more pies then we would need or even want.

And I forgot, again, to take pics.  Good thing my sister has a camera.

But since everyone helped it wasn't super overwhelming for anyone, and we all had a great time.  I sure love my family.

PS, the recipe for the pumpkin rolls is here.

Pinning...

It makes me happy when I'm on pinterest and I find an unexpected picture of Tom Hiddleston. Not sure why.

Trick or Treat!

Or, rather, trunk or treat.  We trick-or-treated at the trunks of cars in our church parking lot.  Also, the Trick-or-treating for the kids at Will's work was cancelled due to Hurricane Sandy.  It appears that a bad storm in New York will ruin the systems for the company's branch in Salt Lake.  We were super bummed out about it.  On the up side, our costumes turned out pretty cute!  Will didn't dress up, but he carried around a bug net so it would look like he made an effort.  I thought it was pretty clever, actually.

A spider, ladybug and butterfly.  I love the masks.  Okay, so I don't have a mask, but I channelled my inner Kate Middleton to produce the antenae hat, which I think is just as fun.

Happy Halloween!

Autumn Photo Dump!

 

Last warm days, va-va-voom style.

Pumpkin carving Reese

 

 Pumpkin carving Liam

 

Princess and scary face

 

Reading while taking a break from Saturday cleaning

Reading after breakfast in bed on Mama's birthday.

 

 Cleaning the yard

Caramel Nougat

Caramel nougat chocolates

sneak peak of Halloween!