Christmas

New church outfits.  

Liam loves to look dapper in his suits.

Reese picked out a dress for Christmas, and after a few days I asked her if she would ever wear it again after Christmas, since she really doesn't like dresses anymore.  She said no.  So we took it back. 

I began looking for a gold shirt to go with her plaid Christmas skirt.  No one sells sparkly gold shirts for small girls, so I ended up making one.  I sewed a sparkly necklace on to it, which Shareese thought looked very grown-up, and then she added a necklace of her own creation on top of that.

Shareese got to be a wise man for the annual Heath Christmas story reenactment. She was excited because the had brought her own stuffed camel that she got to hold.

Shareese got pink eye the week prior to Christmas break, and shared it with Liam right at the time of the reenactment, So Shareese and Will went while Liam and I stayed home.

Christmas morning presents

Christmas day gingerbread houses. 

This may end up being a new tradition for us.

 Stockings had a lot of glowy things this year.

After time at home, we at dinner at Gramma and Granpa Heath's, and then traveled to Granna and Granpa Faber's to talk to Lauren on Skype and spend the night.

Then Will and I pawned the kids off on Aunt Becky for a night so we could celebrate 10 years of marriage.  And then Peach ate the leftovers from the delicious lunch he took me to when we left her in the car to pick up the kids.  Happy 10 year anniversary!

Christmas Card 2014

I haven't mailed Christmas cards yet.  Here's to hoping you get one.  In the event that you don't, here's what it would have looked like:

click to enlarge

Photos (from left to right)
Liam acting like an older gentleman, inspired by his sophisticated robe.
Family Photo
Will making balloon shapes at Reese's birthday party
Liam, Anna, and Reese as Loki, Frigga and Thor at Salt Lake Comic Con 2014
Reese finger painting

Merry Christmas!


Update: I had a request for a larger picture of this:

Artwork Dump

I'm cleaning our desk area and so finally got around to scanning some things in that have been sitting around for months.

Shareese:

Shareese's 2014 Reflections Entry titled "Looking through the store window".  

Theme: "The world would be a better place if..."

Reese's caption: "The world would be a better place if all the candy in the store was free!"

Samples of Shareese's writing at the beginning of 1st grade, 2014

A card (front above, inside below) Reese made for me.  It's been on my night stand forever, so I want to say she gave it to me for thanksgiving 2013, but frankly I can't remember exactly when she gave it to me.

Summer 2014. One of the world lessons we did was on Chichen Itza

Summer 2014.  One of the world lessons we did for table time was the Eiffel Tower.

Reese's picture of the family.  It's hard to see, but it's drawn on a heart. Early 2014

Reese's hand, kindergarten, 2013

One of the many cards she makes for me.  This one was in November 2014, hence the pumpkin pie.

Also, strawberries, cake, and us together

This was this past Oct or Nov.  Reese was practicing drawing from her drawing techniques book.  I'm impressed with the depth perspective.  Not usually in 1st grader drawings.

Liam:

Liam hand print in preschool last year, 2013.

November 2014, Liam draws flags

Liam's family portrait, sometime in the past few months.

This is from yesterday. We were talking about peacocks.  Liam drew peacock food: berries, small animals, bugs, along with some other things.

Beginning of school year for Liam, Pre-K 2014 coloring

Beginning of school year for Liam, Pre-K 2014 numbers

Beginning of school year for Liam, Pre-K 2014 writing

Liam's 2014 turkey hand

Liam's Chichen Itza, which he drew just now because he saw me posting Shareese's and got jealous.

Another Tantrum

Shareese is currently throwing a tantrum.  She wanted some scissors for a project she was doing.  I looked at the spot where we keep them, and they weren't there.  I told her she already had them out somewhere and needed to go look for them.  She did not like the sound of that.  She complained.  Her complaining has a lot to do with "what if's".  Like this:

Me: Go look for the scissors

Shareese: (fussy voice) But what if I don't find them?

Me: Then I will help you

Shareese: But what if I don't know where to look for them?

Me: You could try the craft cabinet or the crayon box or the kid's table...

Shareese: How many places do I have to look before you help me?

Me: Four

Shareese: But what if there are only four places to look!

Me: then you'll find them.

Shareese: But what if I try all the places, what if-

Me: (admittedly snappy) Reese!  No more what ifs!  Look for them and then you can ask more questions.

Shareese: *Collapses on the floor in distress*

Shareese: (screaming) I only want to look in two places!!!!

Me: Shareese, please go to your bed until you calm down.

Shareese: *stomps up the stairs*  I hate Mama!

Recording because I thought it was an interesting lead up to an "I hate Mama" moment. Oh, and a moment after Reese made it to her bedroom, Liam found the scissors in one of the places I suggested.

Ok, I did not mean to turn this into a spiritually-related topic at all, but I suddenly wondered how often I do this.

God:  Do a thing

Me: But what if something happens when I do the thing?

God: Then I will help you

Me: But what if you don't help me?

God: I just said I would

Me: But what if it makes me sad?

God: I don't ask you to do any thing that will make you sad in the end.

Me: But what if it makes me sad for a little bit?

And then I imagine God probably doesn't get snappy like I did with Shareese, but he might be a little exasperated.

A While

First off, I don't have any Halloween photos.  Liam was Robbin Hood and Shareese was a bat.  I may make them put the costumes back on for a picture sometime, but I haven't done it yet.

School.  I used to be good about getting stuff up here on the blog, but I just finished my first semester back to college in 7 years.  And I've never been a mom student before.  So I've been a little busy.  I finished my last final today, and I am amazed at how exhausted I am.  I was planning to get some housework done since I don't have to be studying, but I think the house will have to wait.  I'm fairly certain I have straight A's.  I have an A in the class that I took the test for today, and that class drops my lowest test score, so I didn't really have to take the test at all, but I think I have OCD and I would have not felt very well if I skipped it.  In fact I didn't just take it, I spent a long time studying for it.

I think I might have some pictures.
Oh yes.  Have I posted these yet?

We bought green fabric for Liam's Disney-inspired Robin Hood costume.

When we got home he played "fabric store"  and pretended to cut me the right length of fabric.

Liam loves camp fires and both of the kids had been begging to have one.  We had to keep saying no because we never had time or big marshmallows to roast.  It just wasn't at the top of the list.

After days of begging, I finally decided to compromise with Liam. We made a "camp fire" in the house.  It was made of both fake candles and real candles.  We roasted mini marshmallows, and squished them between chocolate teddy grahams to make mini s'mores.  It was actually a lot of fun.

And, on a whim, I decided to take before and after photos of getting ready for church.  This is what I looked like when I woke up.  I sleep with a sock bun on the top of my head.

And this is after.  I didn't curl my hair, I took it out of the bun and finger-brushed through it.

That's all I got for today folks.  Thanks for stopping by.

School Pictures

When we got Liam's school pictures, he was so excited about how cute he is in them.  "Look at how cute I am!  My cute shirt and my cute sweater and my cute pants (not pictured here)!  I have to show Daddy, he'll be so suprised!"  When we got home from school he wanted to put on the same outfit at in his picture so he could look that cute again.

Reese, on the other hand, was not super pleased that I put a bow in her hair and made her wear a boring plain shirt.

Happy Birthday!

Reese turns 6 years old today.

Here are some things about her:

this girly girl loves pink, purple, jewelry and things that make her feel pretty . She loves to color and make art . loves to play video games with Daddy . Shy in new situations . Has ear tubes and is very careful to not get water in her ears . likes to dress up . gave up soccer last spring but asking to play again . has a hard time sleeping alone in a room so she sleeps in Liam's room . would rather go places than stay home . can read short words on her own . developing her own sense of style . plays well with her brother . loves excessive silliness . sneaky . gives great hugs and kisses . made instant friends with another blonde girl named Reese in her school class . often goes by her full name "Shareese" in class . enthusiastic . curious . pizza is her favorite food . Big smile .


Happy Birthday, Reese!

Birthday Party

Reese had a birthday party the weekend before school started.  I will add pictures to illustrate the following narration, so feel free to wait until then to read up.


It was a Jake and the Neverland Pirate party.

We started by getting the kids all pirated up.  In the cartoon, Jake has the pirate sword, so we made sure everyone got a sword. They also got tatoos and hats.

Uncle Matt and Aunt Shelly were there to help out

In the show, Cubby has the treasure map.  We found a treasure map and Each kid got to have a turn being "cubby" and following the map to the next "X".

 Which led us to another map.

Which led us to another.

And another and another until we found the team treasure chest!  Which also happened to be a pinata.

 In the pinata were some goody bags.

Of course, all the girls' favorite Neverland Pirate is Izzy, who has a pouch of pixie dust on a necklace. So we made necklaces with pouches.

Then cake!  With bubbles!  The pirate's boat has a name and a personality.  His name is Bucky.

And presents.

Yay pirates!