Let's go fly a kite

Courtney found a Dora kite at the St. George DI. She kept wanting to fly it. Then finally, I let her. I remember as a kid having to run and run and run to try to get a kite up in the air. Not so in Cedar City. All you have to do is let go of it and up, up and away it goes. The girls took turns flying. For all those non believers, DI has great stuff.

You know you're in trouble when....

you return from taking Kaylee to school and you find your 4 year old standing hands on hips, waiting for you to come home.

You see, I snuck out of the house to take Kaylee to school. Courtney was still asleep (Tyler was down stairs). As you can see, she woke up while I was gone. I couldn't stop laughing in the van seeing this little one scolding me.

Courtney can make me smile faster than any of my kids. She just has the cutest facial expresssions. I love her.

One SEXY outfit

My life has revolved around the new house. Last week I spent all day Friday, Saturday, and part of Monday dressed like this.

As you can see, I was painting. I primmed the whole house and garage. Then I had to go back and paint the ceilings white. I also painted the girls room, laundry room, and downstairs bathrooms white. Dayna helped me on Monday by rolling after I sprayed it. This helps keep it all looking even.

What was Tyler doing all this time you ask. I found myself asking that quite often. He was installing the shelving in the closets. This was VERY time consuming. I kept thinking, "Are you kidding me." Let me reassure you that painting is tough work. My arms, back, and especially my neck (from doing all the ceilings twice) hurt like a mother. My eyes were the only part not covered by my outfit so they turned white. Even my boogers were white. How can that be when I wore a mask the whole time? When our builder convinced me to have the trim work done first and then come back and paint the walls their color, he had no trouble convincing me. I was pain ol' tired. I needed a break.

Then I was off to St. George to pick out more tile. This tile was for the downstairs bathrooms and the master bathroom. I don't know why tile overwhelms me, but it does. I found one store with a worker who pretty much helped me put all the pieces together. So I stopped looking and am going to order from him.

Yesterday, a carpet guy stopped by. It was great to not have to load up and go somewhere. I will probably use him just for the pure convenience factor. We have just one problem. We are over budget on our flooring. So the carpet guy might have to come back out and we will choose another one. You see, we picked a pretty expensive one for upstairs. Tyler loved it, I thought it was a little too dark. So hopefully the carpet man can come back out and help us find a compromise.

Next week, it is onto tile. Tyler will do this since I have already done by fair share of manual labor. I will be retaping the ceilings so that I can paint the walls. The most exciting part is that our cabinets and countertops are going in this week!! I better never move again because I HATE making all the decisions. I don't care what shape my baseboard is. I don't care what color my hinges are. I don't care how many baskets are on my stair railing. I don't care how many shelves are in my closet. I JUST DON'T CARE ANYMORE. I just want to move there. The sooner the better.

Pray for me in picking out outside house colors......this is my next big stressful decision. Can't someone else just choose for me????

Kody's Jamboree

After returning from Arizona I was quickly back to work. I had volunteered to help run a rummage sale for a boy struggling with cancer. I didn't really realize what I had gotten myself into. On Thursday night, Tyler and I emptied 1 1/2 storage units of donated items into our truck and a snow mobile trailer. We were now ready for Friday, so we could start sorting and arranging.

This task was completely overwhelming. The donated items just kept coming and coming. We couldn't sort fast enough. I had made signs indicating where groupings of items would go. There were at least 50 volunteers there. Some were our muscle who just unloaded all the storage units. Others sorted through all the bags. At some points, I just wanted to give up, but a little boy was counting on us.

I will never forget the name of Stella. This lady, who I found out later, was in Kody's ward. She was a clothes sorting fool. She never gave up and continued all night. We sorted from 3:00-10:30.

The community really pulled through for Kody. The whole entire high school gym was full. Both sides of the bleachers were pulled out to use as our display areas. Outside was the furniture section. I have NEVER seen a sale like this and I have been to many rummage/garage sales.

By 3:30 on Saturday, I was exhausted. I felt guilty for leaving but I couldn't keep my eyes open. I went home and straight to bed for 2 hours. After all was said and done, the rummage sale raised $6800. Way to go Cedar City.

My family, Tyler, Justin, Kaylee, and Courtney are the best. Here I volunteer myself to help and it turned into a family affair. The kids were so cute as they carried clothes out of the storage unit and into the trailer. They really helped. The stuck through hours of sorting with us. Then the next day they were all back again. I love my little family!!

I had a great time talking with my children about what we were doing. Letting them know that a little boy was sick and needed our help. Dear little Courtney was so cute. She asked me after the rummage sale, is "that boy" feeling better now. I told her hopefully soon he would be.

It was a blessing to me to be able to serve. I've been watching Oprah's Big Give. I don't have $ to give, but I can give of myself. One of the contestants said, "The best thing you can give is to give of yourself." I truly belive this and hope to have more opportunities in the future.

Soon I hope to have a picture to post. So keep your eye out.

Bruce to the rescue

Imagine there you are.....sitting on the toilet doing what one does there when you realize, OH CRAP there is no toilet paper. You look under the sink. Nothing there. You look behind you and see 2 packages of kid toilet training wipes. You have a brief moment of relief.....and you find out they are empty. So now what???? Everyone is outside on the patio. You crack open the door and yell, "HEIDI". No response. You have no choice but to sit and wait.

You hear the sound of hope---Bruce is in the kitchen. So I do what any other desperate person would do--yell for help. "Bruce, Bruce!!" To your delight there is a reply. "Ya". I then ask, "Can you get me some toilet paper?" A little chuckle is made by Bruce. But being the good guy he is....he's off to get a roll.

Then it dawns on you...how is he going to hand me the toilet paper. I sit waiting anxiously. He returns and informs me he is standing to the side of the door with his eyes closed. I open the door just a crack and grab the roll. I can now finish my business.

The best part is then telling the rest of the family what transpired. We all got a good laugh. Thanks Bruce for saving me!!

Smith Family Easter Egg Hunt

Bruce was the offical door monitor, and he did a super job. He had all the kids lined up according to age. Then it was just like opening the flood gates. Kids were spilling out everywhere.

Don't you just love Mason's first hunt. His mommy had to help, just a little. I'm still not sure if he got his 14 allotted eggs.

Finally, we have the traditional Smith Easter Egg Hunt picture. Don't they look cute???? We'll see how much longer they let us take their photo like this.

This was the end to a fun night with my family. They were having their monthly b-day party. It worked out nicely that it coincided with our Hsquared family trip. So I was showered with family love from both sides of our family. Justin, Kaylee, and Courtney sure do miss their cousins in AZ. They sometimes ask when we are moving back. The answer is most likely never. So it is great when we get to visit with everyone.

Arizona Easter Trip-7th Stop Easter Egg Hunt

On your marks, get set, GO!!!

The annual Hsquared Easter Egg Hunt was under way. The kids could hardly wait to start. We had them line up for a photo and someone kept running off to the field of eggs. There were more eggs and other goodies than any child needed. We still have a tupperware container of candy. But if it was left down, Munch would have it all gone. I really have to watch her with candy.

We had a great time on the family vacation!! It was our best trip yet.

A MILLION thanks to Brent and Dayna for giving us lasting, fun memories!

Arizona Easter Trip-6 and a half stop- REVENGE

For some strange reason, unknown to me, Tyler's younger family memebers think pranks are fun. I usually enjoy pranks. But this one I didn't. Let me give you some background. I do NOT sleep well at hotels ever. I have to take Tylenol PM everynight, just to fall asleep. I can't share a bed with anyone unless it is a king. So I slept on the roll away. Which amounts to sleeping on springs. This trip was just like all the others. I took my Tylenol and waited to fall asleep, which I finally did. Then about 1:00 ish the phone rings. Yep you guessed it, the younger group was making prank calls. All I have to say is you are LUCKY no kids woke up. But now I was in a dilema.....falling back to sleep. It finally happened.

The next morning I was a tad grumpy about it with Rachel.....because if it was really funny she would have called her room and woken up her husband. Did they......NO. So Kyle was in the hot tub and was throwing any breathing family memeber under the bus. Durrant was his first victim. You see, Durrant is new to the family and no one would suspect him. Durrant almost was thrown fully clothed into the pool. His new bride, Jill, kept him safe. Kyle's next victim was Clay, who just came down for breakfast. So Tyler and Lonn headed into the breakfast room to grab him and throw him into the pool. I followed behind with camera in hand. Clay clung to the door as a room full of strangers watched. Seeing that Tyler and Lonn needed help, I called for Korey. And the rest is history. Look at each picture for a step by step of what happened.

Now Tyler and I were NICE. We were going to call all the youngster at 5:30 am after we returned from our trip to let them know we made it home safe. We didn't. I guess that is called maturity.

Arizona Easter Trip-6th stop FINALLY RELAXING

Finally after running around for days, everyone gets a chance to relax. The kids loved the swimming pool. They were able to play for a few hours. As you can see, Papa was the play toy. Kaylee has learned to wear goggles. She had tried a few time before, but couldn't ge the fit right. Now she wears them without the water getting into her eyes. She LOVES to swim with goggles.