Heavens Evans

Family

2012-01-08T15:03:00.000-07:00

I still need to get all caught up for last December. I haven't posted about Pickle's bday or Christmas or any of that but I wanted to share this 8x10 quote I really liked so you can print it and put it in a frame if you want. I'm going to print it and put it on my wall with my family pictures.

Just click here to go to my other blog and then you can download it from there.

You can read the article by Elder Bednar here.

It's the end of the year ... pretty close.

2011-12-08T08:00:00.001-07:00

So since my last post, we finished harvest. Gus was such a great helper during harvest. He got to come with Gary and I quite a bit. J-ster thought it was pretty fun to pick clods on the harvester. (for a little while anyway) We finished harvest on Halloween. Turtle and Gus are in the trunk because it was so cold at the Trunk or Treat. They all had a really fun time tho. We visited both of their Great-Grandma's and their Grandma Evans that night as well. Gary was able to come meet us for our last stop.

Pickle got her first cast off and the pins out of her elbow. She had another cast on for a few weeks and then when that one was off she started physical therapy. She will do that for four weeks. She has one week left. She still can't bend her elbow and straighten her arm all the way, but hopefully these next two appointments she will get it that way. It is hurting really bad. She doesn't try hard enough at home or I think she would be able to get it straight by now.

She likes the "fluidotherapy" machine she puts her arm in at the beginning of each session. It heats her arm up and gets it really limber and ready for ~~torture~~ stretching.

Snake and Turtle started Jazz Ball again. They are really loving it. I wish I would have had my camera at some of the games when Megan was showing us all her big grins. She usually is having such a wonderful time at all the games, but I've missed some of them. She made a basket one time and was so happy and grinning and giving us all thumbs up, she forgot to run down the floor and keep playing.

Gus enjoys coming to the games too. But he's a handful so sometimes he gets to stay home.

Here are some more pictures from my camera. The other pictures were added from my phone.

We also got rear-ended and the car in the halloween pictures that we had only had for two weeks was totalled. I also have pictures from Turtle and Pickle's TaVaci concert, all three of their school program, and their violin recital coming up in the next post.

Kids... And the things they think about...

2011-10-21T20:47:00.001-06:00

I haven't posted in a while but wanted to remember this thought by my 3 year old:

Gus: Ladies can't drive track tractors. They can only drive tire tractors.

Me: Well I've drove a track tractor.

Gus: Well your old.

Here are some pics from harvest from my phone! Enjoy your October!

Blogging Slacker

2011-10-07T14:58:00.000-06:00

I can't believe how much of a slacker I have been on blogging. I guess I have been "living" my life and not "living" my computer. Or it could be my phone. I just check updates on facebook and follow my blogs on my phone and don't hardly get on the computer any more.

Plus we have started harvest and have been quite busy. The weather these last couple days have stopped us dead in our tracks however, and so I am spending some time on the computer. (And our furnace won't light so I'm snuggled up in blankets and not wanting to move ... thus playing on the computer)

SO, what have we been doing? I honestly can't remember. I will try to update as well as I can since school has started.

1- Gus turned 3 years old. He is getting so big. I also got these fun birthday questionnaire's off of Lee Lou's blog. How much fun!! Check them out and download for yourself.

2- Turtle started taking violin lessons with the other kids. She is also in TaVaci and really enjoys it. She has always loved to perform and this is right up her ally. It will be fun to watch their performances. She loves school. She plays football at recess, or basketball, or any sport that is going on out there. She is reading super well and loves math as well. She just loves school!

3- Snake has continued with violin because he wants to learn how to play the guitar. I told him he has to show me he can discipline himself with the violin first and then he can learn guitar. Some days he remembers that motivation and other days he forgets. He loves school but he doesn't like homework. Who does, tho, right? We are needing to work harder with him and I know he'll get it eventually. He's a good reader, just not a very fast one and he has trouble with spelling. This time of year is so hard for homework without anyone here to help him, but it's what we have to deal with I guess.

4- Pickle played the violin with the Primary in their Primary Program to the song, "I Will Follow God's Plan". She did really well and worked hard to get her part learned that her teacher wrote. She was nervous but did very well. I think it helped her realize, she is good at it and she is starting to enjoy it more. She got a new song for festival that seems pretty difficult to me but she is excited. However, she had a bad last day of September when someone at school stepped on the back of her heel and she tripped and fell. She hit her head and broke her elbow. We had to go to Pocatello that evening and she had surgery the next day to put 2 pins in it. She was very upset at first and quite often told me that day and the next that "this JUST isn't FAIR!". I had to keep telling her that "Life isn't Fair" but everything would work out and this trial for her would be something she would learn from. She has been really tough and has had a very positive attitude since that day. She feels really bad that she has to miss school on some days to go get more xrays and the real cast on next week. This was her year to finally win a bike. I feel bad for her. It's hard to have dreams and goals not work out the way you want them to, but I know that something good can come from our trials too. I hope she can learn this also. She is also in TaVaci this year and is having a lot of fun with her friends who are in it.

5- We also had the Eastern Idaho State Fair at the beginning of September. That was fun. We had a lot of fun on the rides and at the parade. Turtle and Pickle rode on the TaVaci float as well. They had fun but they said they didn't like missing the other parts of the parade and it was hot.

6- We started harvest. That has been fun ... as always! Gus rides with me (Grandma or Gary) everyday. He doesn't like having to ride in his car seat with me. He's been a trooper though and doesn't get too cranky.

Smile ...

2011-09-02T14:13:00.000-06:00

I know I shared another video from The Piano Guys just a little while ago, but I've now decided that this is my favorite video. I loved the last song so much, but this video just makes me happy!

Also, I just had my fair entry post on my design blog. Go check it out if you want to see the pictures I entered.

Back to School

2011-08-24T11:58:00.001-06:00

Well, "summer" is officially over. At least the time off from school is. I am still looking forward to warm days however, since the season started later than I would have liked. So here is to a comfortable fall!

To catch up on of the last events we did this summer:

Gary had his birthday and my niece got married the same day. We went down to her wedding and then stopped at Crater's of the Moon on the way back. Since it was spur of the moment we weren't very prepared (with flip flops & no water) but we still had fun. Maybe another time we can go and be better prepared. My niece was a beautiful bride and her husband is a pretty neat guy.

J-ster was able to go on a trek/Wagon Train with his Grandpa Humpherys for a week before school started. They traveled from Montpelier, ID to Afton, WY. They slept in the Covered Wagon my dad built. {See picture here} They didn't take any pictures on the trek but he said he had a TON of fun. He rode in his Grandpa's covered wagon as well as rode "Little Joe" part of the days. The last day he rode the whole way which was 12 to 14 miles. He thought that was pretty cool. He was the youngest one on the trip with a few older girls there with their parents. He made lots of friends, young and old. He did help drive the four wheeler pulling the port-a-potty as well some of the trip. Since he gets to drive four-wheeler all the time here his Grandpa made sure he did mostly horse related stuff most of the time though. {haha}

Pickle performed in her end of summer recital {which J-ster conveniently missed}. They did perform I Am a Child of God the Sunday before he left and did such a good job. They had been working on and practicing that song for several months and finally got it. I never did get a video of them practicing it. I wish I could have. They had many compliments.

Peace

2011-08-16T15:37:00.000-06:00

I registered my kids for school today. I can't believe the three oldest will be in the same school this year and that school is starting already. I haven't posted enough on this blog to have summer over already! But time marches on, such is life. This song helped bring peace to my day. Enjoy!

More for July!

2011-08-02T17:35:00.001-06:00

I forgot to post about our pioneer day parade. They told the kids they were going to have a parade around the church and to decorate their bikes. Since we had just been riding around in a covered wagon it was fresh on our minds so Gary took 30 minutes and made the kids a covered wagon of their own for the parade.

Snake had fun with the dunk tank and Pickle tried the two man saw. Gary and I also did the saw. It was quite the work out!

July

2011-08-01T13:35:00.000-06:00

We had a great July. It went way too fast for my liking, however. From the last post you remember we started out July with my family reunion and then the Fourth of July. I celebrated my birthday the next week and had a terrific day. Gary and I went to the Idaho Falls Temple, ate lunch at Fire House Grill, and then had dessert at the Orange Leaf. Oh my heavens, just writing about it makes me want to go back right now! Yummm.... Yummm.... Yummm!

The day after my birthday and after violin lessons Gary brought us over to Afton, WY to visit my Dad. He made a covered wagon and drives it around town there for the locals and tourists. Pickle & Snake played for those that rode on Saturday and each made $4.00 in tips. Dad also let them bring the Shetland Pony up and those who wanted a picture with the pony paid $1.00 and my kids got the money from that. The four of them split that and they each made $3.00. We went to a sulfur springs one night in Auburn. Dad was invited by some people he knew and they had a nice Dutch oven BBQ and entertainment. Snake liked swimming in the pond. The sulfur water made his skin really soft. It was really stinky or I might have gotten in. (maybe) Oh, also, a family from Holland's RV broke down and so they were stranded in Afton and so Dad invited them to the BBQ. Snake had a lot of fun with their son his age even though they didn't speak the same language. Also, Clark Kelly Price was there and I was able to meet him. I have a painting of his and he painted a picture of my Grandpa on a horse that is "famous" in our household. Gary came up Saturday afternoon. We all went to the Tractor/Truck pulls that night and then came home the next day. They really had a great time up there. Snake wanted to stay all summer but then he'd miss out on the other family activities we are doing.

We went for a drive Sunday, and when we got out to walk around and take some pictures, this bull thought we were in his territory and got pretty loud. We decided to leave. Gus didn't like that bull one bit.

This last weekend we had Gary's Mom's Family's reunion at Downata Hot Springs. I didn't take one single picture. Not even with my phone. I ended up leaving my phone in the camper some of the time because of going swimming and didn't bring my camera to the pool so I have no pictures. I hope that others got some that I can use for a scrapbook page! I really like Downata. The pool is WARM which I love. I really don't like swimming because the water is usually cold. The slides were really fun also! I wish the area for Turtle & Gus were better and easier for them to walk because they wanted to be held most of the time. Once we put life jackets on them they did better though. Snake & Pickle went down the Black Slide and Dragon slide over and over. They could have stayed there all day I think!

I really enjoy having our camper to make camping more comfortable. I really enjoyed being with Gary's family and just relaxing and having a good time. Saturday night we all made dutch oven. Gary & I made fried chicken and apple crisp. They both turned out pretty good. (Even though I was too full to have any dessert, that's what I heard)

Well, that's all I can think of so far. I'm sure there is more, but I don't have the pictures to prove it. This coming month of August means cutting grain, getting ready and starting school, a niece getting married and a nephew getting baptized, and hopefully lots more fun than we can handle!

Hop on over to my Design blog and get the August Desktop Wallpaper. Have a good one!

Independance Day

2011-07-05T22:23:00.002-06:00

... and other summer activities so far.

We have had a fun summer so far. We've been through 2 session of swim lessons - no pictures - with the 2nd one I did the Mom & Tot class with Landon. He had fun until the last 2 days and he didn't want to do anything anymore. I didn't really either. haha

One Sunday in June we went for a road trip to the Blackfoot Reservoir. I didn't realize it was so far away so I didn't bring snacks and Gary thought I knew how far it was. Poor Turtle got car sick (and she never gets car sick) so I think it had something to do with low blood sugar as well and the bumpy roads. Thank goodness my Mom's house was only 15 minutes away at that point and we stopped and she washed Turtle's clothes and my jacket (where most of the vomit covered). Landon slept most of the way and we saw a Moose on the way their as well.

I went to Girls Camp the next week. It was really nice. It didn't rain and it only got windy and a little chilly the last night we were there. The pictures for girls camp are on my other camera and I haven't gotten them off yet. I'll update this post later with the pictures.

Last weekend my family had our reunion here at my house. We were all here except for my oldest brothers family. We were really sad they couldn't come. We had a fun time, great food, and fun being together and visiting. We also were looking for more shade so Gary brought home a new truck tarp but we ended up using it for a slip and slide.

My sister wanted to cool off and jumped on with her clothes on. It was awesome! Her husband Brian joined her later.

The 4th of July was fun also. We went to the park with our kids after Gary got done moving pipe. JT tried as hard as he could to not let me take his picture. It was pretty funny.

I got some great pictures of the fireworks. Check them out at my Design blog

.I hope you are all having a great summer so far as well! I love summer! Sure wish it would last longer....

Random post from my phone.

2011-06-13T08:06:00.004-06:00

I haven't posted in a while so I thought I would post some pics of what we've been up to, in no particular order, from my phone.

Tomorrow I am headed up to girls camp. I am the Assistant Camp Director this year. It has been cold and rainy for months but I think we'll have sunshine most of the time up there. I made the flag for our ward. That's one of the pictures.

Gus loves to go to work with his Dad. He looked so grown up is why I took his picture.

We like to ride bikes, or four wheelers, or the motorcycle to Grandma and Grandpa's house.

I don't think I posted anything about Pickle and J's violin recital. I was busy trying to get them to get everything for in their case that I forgot my cameras. I videoed them with my phone but didn't realize I had to save or accept the video so that was lost. I got this picture though. They've had more opportunities to perform at their school. They played together for each of their class talent shows and once for the whole school and parents talent show. They are doing really well having started just before Christmas last year.

The kids are taking swimming lessons again. They took them in May and the last two weeks of June Gus and I will do a Mommy and Me class. He used to hate the water but since March he has begged me to go swimming.

My sister plays for the Teton Chamber Orchestra in Idaho Falls. She recently moved to Cedar City, Utah but was able to come back up in May and do a concert with Mindy Gledhal. she got me and my girls tickets and her daughter and we enjoyed an awesome concert. Thank you DD!

The last two pictures are of planting spuds. I was playing with the camera on my phone.

So the pictures are probably rotated and small. I might have time to edit this post later. On the mean time, enjoy! (and hopefully I won't get too wet at girls camp)

It's SUMMER!! Yippee!!

2011-06-01T19:25:00.001-06:00

Yay!! I'm so excited it's summer! Today the weather finally seemed to catch up. I hope it continues this way. I (and J) got a lot of yard work done but I (and J) still have SO much to do. I really don't like my flower beds but I don't know how to make them better. We got the garden planted too.

May was pretty busy and so I haven't blogged very much. We had a lot of fun school activities going on. Here are some pictures of what's been happening.
In April:

The boys went to the Monster Trucks at Holt Arena with Gary's brother's and their boys.

April's pack meeting they did an activity about Faith.

We dyed Easter eggs!

Rainbow of eggs ... but this isn't the picture I got when I organized them into rainbow order. haha

Finding Easter Eggs outside ... cold ... have to wear coats. :)

Pickle finding some eggs up high....

After their hunt ...

In May:

Took some pictures of our boys with a friend ...

Gary went fishing with Pickle's 4th grade class

Pickle with some of her friends

Fishing ..........

Gary took the boys and went on a Father/Son outing with his brother and his son.

Pickle's 4th Grade Idaho State History Program. I have a video of this but it's a pain to upload.

Pickle doing the Virginia Real

Had a tie rod break when they got home from Father & Son's and having it towed to the Dealer to get fixed.

We had a lot more activities in May that I will have to post about later when I have them uploaded to my computer.

Check out the June's Desktop Freebie here.

Mothering...

2011-05-10T21:03:00.002-06:00

I Had to speak on Sunday ... On Mother's day. I was so stinkin' nervous clear until I got sat down up front. I just decided to "fake it till I make it" sort of. I think it turned out all right. Turtle thought she needed to be up there with me and promised she would sit still but anytime I got a little emotional she would come up by me and look at me weird. Then she would sit back down by the bishopric. I chose not to let it bother me.....

My talk was partly on this talk and this video.

The next day, Monday evening, these two rats were fighting and not saying nice things to each other. I made them sit down in front of each other and hold hands and say 10 nice things to each other. GE and I were laughing (under our breaths) so hard. They eventually did it tho and I was impressed at how the atmosphere changed. This was one of my rare moments where I felt some success in parenting. Turtle and Gus wanted a turn after the other two were done even. Haha

(This was originally posted from my phone. The links have now been updated.)

Here we go again ...

2011-05-01T19:55:00.001-06:00

I figured I needed to catch up on some things I didn't blog. I've been really great at keeping up on my Scrapbooking and have all of 2011 done but the last couple weeks of April. I haven't been that great at blogging however. So I thought I'd just add the pages I've done for the events I haven't blogged about. This is a picture we took because GD received Top Farmer of the Year in our Sugar Beets Association. They asked for a picture to be put in the magazine. His brothers receive part of the credit but how it's set up under names that is how the company did it and so we got to send our picture in. We set the camera up in the canal, set the self time, sat on the bridge and I ran and tried to jump on before the camera went off. This was the first picture. It worked great. The rest didn't. haha

J-ster turned 8. Can you believe he made it to his eight birthday!?! He was pretty excited and I think he enjoyed his birthday.

Because of him turning 8 he was eligible to be baptized and become a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He was very excited and we were very proud of him. I think he looked so sharp!

Pickle had her 4th grade science fair. She figured out which fruits had more Vitamin C by using an iodine solution.

By turning 8 J-ster was able to become a cub scout. He had his Blue and Gold banquet in February which I only took video of his skit. In March they decided to do the Raingutter Regatta instead of the traditional Pinewood Derby. He still had fun and it was pretty interesting.

Spring Break was the last week of March. I wanted to go somewhere warm but didn't really want to drive so we went to Twin Falls and stayed in a hotel. The kids enjoyed swimming in the pool and we got an adjoining room ... the only way to go from now on! We had a lot of fun with my sister and her family. The last couple of days they had two of their other cousins over and they had fun sleeping in the camper and playing outside.

I hope you all enjoy the updates! I love this blog even if I forget to write much. Comment if you would like ... sometimes it's nice to know if anyone else is out there.

Sensational SIX

2011-04-05T12:56:00.001-06:00

Turtle was so excited to turn 6. Her birthday was the beginning of Spring break for us and so they celebrated Friday the week before and she got this fun hat. It made her hair more "poofy" with her perm, but she is still the cutest little thing to me!

We got her a bike and a Hannah Montana Guitar that hooks to the TV and is like Guitar Hero. She thinks it's pretty fun and she's pretty good at it. We got her a bike because all of the bikes we had the training wheels were not working and buying new ones weren't fitting or working so it was cheaper to buy her a new bike. haha Hopefully she'll figure out the bike riding thing this year because she thinks she should get to ride the 4 wheeler like her brother and sister and we keep telling her she needs to learn how to ride a bike first. :)

Permanent

2011-03-18T21:25:00.000-06:00

Turtle got a perm a week or so before her birthday. She wanted to know why it was called a perm and I explained that it was when we get her hair curly and it stays that way "permanently". She was super excited and sat so well and never whined or complained that it hurt. That's pretty awesome considering I usually cry when they wash the solution out with the rods in .... (at least I want to)
I love how much easier it is to do her hair now! Thank you so much Melissa! You are the best!

(pictures taken with my phone and posted from my phone)

Silly Kids

2011-03-08T09:39:00.004-07:00

Turtle decided she wanted to dress up like a lady on Cupcake Wars and then she and Gus decided to be rock stars as well. I just thought it was so goofy and funny that I wanted to remember it. I am trying to be more grateful and enjoy the little things everyday.

March Desktop

2011-02-28T21:32:00.000-07:00

Here is the March Desktop for you. Check it out and download on my Design blog.

New Blog

2011-02-22T14:19:00.001-07:00

I made a new blog for my Digital scrapbook templates, Quick Pages, Freebies, & Class information. Please go to the new blog and become a follower. There is an offer for a free Quick Page and discount on printing your pages. I will also have my free desktop backgrounds at this blog. Check it out!!

www.heavensevansdesigns.blogspot.com

It's GREAT to be EIGHT!

2011-02-21T11:09:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to my boy!! He is 8 years old. I can't believe it. I'm so thankful he's mine!

11 Years

2011-02-18T19:08:00.001-07:00

For our 11th Wedding Anniversary we went to the Jazz game on February 2, 2011 with Gary's Cousin's Lisa and Laurie. We went out to eat with Lisa that night to a restaurant I seriously can't remember the whole name of. It was something like Teja's or had that in the name. It was SO good. I had a Steak Burrito and they made their own tortilla's and ... oooo ... boy it was delicious!! I seriously want another one RIGHT now! ........... any ..... how ... back to the post ....... The game was fun, but they lost by a point. I didn't think they would win. I'm pretty much given up on the Jazz for a while. I think they choke way too often. Sorry, I'm so negative about it ... but that's just how I feel.

Gary and I stayed at The Little America hotel. It was a nice big room and had some really nice ammenities. We enjoyed the breakfast they served us in our room and laying around most of the next morning. It was nice to not have to worry about waking up and taking care of kids.

We went down to the Gateway and took some pictures of the Union Pacific Railroad "place" and shopped a little. It was WAY too cold to shop for very long and walk around outside. We had a really fun time. I really appreciate my mom for coming to our house and watching our kids and getting them on the bus and to school for us. It meant a lot that she took off work from her busy job to help us out!

Free 2 page Digital Scrapbook Template

2011-02-14T10:04:00.004-07:00

I created a Digital Scrapbook page today. It is one of the few I have created. I usually just use other designers templates because it is easier that way and I don't have to think very much. {smile} I had a lot of fun. I decided to give it away for free if you are interested. PLEASE, PLEASE, comment if you download it. Thank you so much!

The image is linked or you can download here from 4-shared or here from Box.net.

I patterned this template after Krystal's pages that she designed for her Stampin' Up! Simply Scrapbook Class. Check out her blog here and if you want to order from her, go here.

Just a day in February

2011-02-11T10:04:00.001-07:00

I'm trying to play "catch up" and so I'm posting some more things but not necessarily in order. Don't worry, I'll fix it in my blog so they look like they are in order. {grin}

I was just taking some random pictures of the kids one day. Jake is putting rosin on his violin bow and the girls are hoola hooping. Gary is playing Church Ball and Landon is watching ... and then running ... thinking he gets to play too.

Free February Desktop Background

2011-02-03T20:10:00.000-07:00

I made a desktop background for my computer. If you would like to use it just click on the image then right click and save to your computer. It is for a wide screen monitor (1280x800 version). If you would like it for the regular size (1024x768 version) comment to let me know and I will update this post.

Flowers

2011-01-24T11:39:00.000-07:00

I actually had the guts to "enter" one of Pioneer Woman's photo contests. I guess it's a contest. Maybe it's just more like submissions to a topic that she presents. Someone does win a prize, so I guess it's a contest. {smile}

Here is the picture I submitted.

I also am doing 52 pictures a year .... One a week on my other blog. Check it out if you are interested.

www.heavensevans.wordpress.com