Our walk to remember

new blog

2008-05-16T16:40:06-07:00

Important:

I started a new blog, this one will be gone by June 1st so make the change and save it where you need. The new blog address is www.ourwalktoremember.wordpress.com

Sorry to make this change, I hope that everyone finds it and comes to our new site. The new one is still a work in progress, so you may see it change in time, hopefully, I'm trying to learn how to make it what I want it to be.

the latest.... besides our vacation

2008-05-07T11:19:11-07:00

We started potty training Carlee yesterday (talk about really diving into reality after a long vacation without kids). Yesterday was really not very good she never REALLY went potty in toilet. Today she's gone twice, once first thing after she woke up and the second time I went to her in the room to check on her and she said mommy and was holding herself, I ran her to the potty & after about a half an hour she went. She really freaks out when she goes pee pee in the potty, she's really scared about what's happening, she was shivering the first time & didn't understand. But the second time was a little better than the first time, she wasn't as freaked out. So I'm confident that the more she does it, obviously, the more comfortable she'll be since she'll begin to understand what's happening. She doesn't have any short on because she went through 3 pairs yesterday before 9:00 so I figured panties will be fine till she gets better at it. Sam and I really felt like she was ready to start potty training, yesterday I really began to doubt but today I'm feeling much better since she's actually gone twice in the potty. It may take a little time, she is after all only just barely turned two!

Preston's ear infection came back, it's not as bad as it was but it's a little worse than it was before we left for vacation, poor guy, his ears are always hurting. But he's on a stronger antibiotic so hopefully that will get rid of all the fluid in his ear.

Sam got an interesting call while we were in France. First let me tell you that no ones cell phone worked while we were in France except Sam's brother Kent. She that is the number we gave my mother so she could call with any problems with the kids. Friday morning, early maybe 7:00 a.m., I was getting out of bed, Sam was already up. I hear in the room next door (on the boat) Kent's cell phone ringing. Shortly after Kent came out of his room and asked if I recognize the number. There was the international 001 numbers before but it looked like it was a phone call with Sam and my area code. So, there was a message, Sam listened to it, it said "Kent this is (our stake president from church) I'm trying to get a hold of Sam and Heidi, if you could have them give me a call that would be great" (that's not word for word but close). So we think about it and realize that it's almost midnight the day before where he is at and were concerned to call so late. After a little debate and thinking that he had just called so he probably is still awake, Sam calls! He speaks to him for a bit, I begin to realize there is a call being extended. When Sam finishes he wants to speak with me and proceeds to tell me that he has called to extend a call to Sam to be the 2nd counselor in the bishopric in our new ward & and asked if I would support him in this. Well, I do support him & Sam had accepted so all was set. They wanted to get a hold of Sam so they could do the sustaining on Sunday, 2 days away even though we wouldn't be home yet.

I'm happy for him, all will be well. We thought it was so funny that they were able to somehow able to get a hold of us. No one where we live had a number to get a hold of my mother in order to get Kent's number as to get a hold of Sam. But the Lord always provides a way in order to fulfill his will.

This is a map of France. Our plane took us from Paris to Toulouse (in the pink) we drove to Castelnaudry (bottom center in the pink) and that's where we started, barged down the Midi Canal to Carcassone (not on this map but southeast of Castelnaudry, which is also where the castle was) & then continued up almost to Montpellier. We were nearing the end of our barging when we got the call. We had been waiting to get through a lock (you'll learn more about that later). So basically what I'm trying to show is that we were in the middle of no where but the Lord knew a way, which is amazing. He always knows away we just have to go to him & sometimes, have patience.

france was perfect

2008-05-06T20:05:38-07:00

We are back, we got back home last night. We had the most wonderful time! We have over 2400 pictures to go through so if you can imagine, I need a few days (.....probably more, we'll see how things go) to make a post all about it. Sam and I are at the very bottom of the picture, we are standing inside the castle walls, it was beautiful.

the bolivia hat

2008-04-27T08:00:00-07:00

I decided to make it a tradition to take pictures of all the children I have in this hat & booties that Sam got from his mission. To see the story click here. These pictures are actually from about three months ago but I wanted to put them up.

a great day

2008-04-21T13:29:22-07:00

Our ward boundaries have changed, so we are in a new ward. Yesterday was our first day & it went perfectly fine, Preston is no longer use to going to church, since it's been a few weeks between stake and general conference, so that was a bit of a fight. But Carlee was great on her birthday. She went into nursery great and happy, no problems. When I picked her up the nursery leader said she was like a billy goat, meaning she was a climber, Carlee loves & is good at climbing, so our poor nursery leader. But she said she really wasn't a problem.

Carlee got many gifts but on her actual Birthday her Grammer and Papa waited to give one of their gifts to her on Sunday. And she loved it, thanks!

Our friends, Shirley, from our old ward that are now in our new ward with us invited us over for dinner. They use to live in our new ward and so they know a lot of people, so they also invited a family from the new ward (are you confused). It was fun to meet and get to know new people.

Anyway, Kaylee's birthday is today so she and Carlee both got sang to at Shirley's. Here's a little video clip. Carlee's not blowing out the candle because she's scared of the flame.

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party time

2008-04-19T23:42:54-07:00

Say hello to the newest 2 year old in our family!

The invitations were sent.

All the preparations had been made. My mother-in-law had basically done everything. She put together the most perfect party for Carlee. I loved how everything turned out. It was a "lunch date party", so the kids got lunch bags while the adults had pasta salad and rolls. As party favors Teresa put together these adorable bags for the girls and the boys got little buckets with a hot wheel car.

Instead of a cake I wanted to do cup cakes, and then Teresa made these way cute flags to go in them. The cup cakes on the very top actually spell out her name.

The theme was "chicks" although, I didn't really do a great job at portraying that, there were a few things.

Outside was absolutely adorable and perfect.

With the extra fabric from the little girls bags we were able to put together a matching table cloth.

We made the topiary (made easy by my christmas gift)

My friend Martha let us barrow their jump 'n slide bouncer, which the kids loved.

I love this picture of the three girls!

All the meanwhile Teresa took care of everything, including Preston.

I didn't get one picture of her with Carlee, how lame am I.

But all of Carlee's friends were so super cute, they were so fun.

We sang happy birthday, notice as she's trying to blow out the candle she's leaning away, she knew she didn't want to be near that hot flaming candle, it was cute!

She opened gifts, all these two year old kids were so cute, flocking towards the opening of the gifts.

And here we were enjoying ourselves as Teresa took care of everything, Thanks!

I know there are a ton of pictures I just couldn't help myself, I loved them all & I had almost 100 of Sam's great pictures to choose from. Thanks Sammy for taking pictures.

I'm holding my friend Nichole's little girl.

Thanks to everyone for coming!

Carlee, most importantly had a great time, and then took a THREE hour nap that afternoon, she was tuckered out.

did someone say France

2008-04-10T09:17:07-07:00

I received this lovely little package in the mail on Tuesday. It's from my lovely mother-in-law. What's inside you ask? Excitement my friend.... excitement!

I open the box and it's wrapped so nicely with tissue paper.

and some fun little filler.

(drum roll please)

This, super cute yellow polka dot bowl and post cards of places in France. What's the significance? Why does it represent excitement?

Well, my mother-in-law sent this little gift to get us excited about going to FRANCE! That's right, we're going to France, in just a few short weeks!

Am I excited? Oh yes, little girl giddy excitement, I just want to shout out in giddiness. I can hardly contain it. Before I know it I'll be barging along the southern canals of France :::sigh:::

And, NO KIDS! (thanks mommy)

Speaking of kids. Preston's not been feeling so hot lately so Monday night I grew suspicious of an ear infection. It was confirmed at the doctor yesterday but not only that, it was infected and now is a blown ear drum. We started him on his meds. yesterday and I can already tell a big difference in how he's feeling. He's much more happy this morning than he has been. Poor little guy! I wish I had taken him in on Monday but I was thinking, he always throws me for a loop, I think something is wrong, but he's fine. So, I waited and now...... oh, I feel bad for him. The doctor said it should heal and that everything will be just fine. Hopefully!

Well, you'll receive all the details after our trip to France!

leafy greens

2008-04-08T16:13:04-07:00

Our first harvest of our home grown lettuce. Yee haa doesn't it look yummy! I was like a little rabbit eating away at it.

I never had the chance to post about it but about a month ago we planted a little garden in the backyard. It's coming a long very nicely, we're very excited.

~lettuce

~carrots

~garlic

~tomato plants

~Brussels sprouts

~peas

~green peppers

doggie time

2008-04-06T19:27:18-07:00

Check out this video, just a cute one of my kiddos!

yoga oomms

2008-04-03T11:22:00-07:00

I do the P90X workout everyday & Thursday is Yoga X, my favorite. At the very end we do oomms, you know where you are in the meditation pose and you are literally humming oomms. They say that the vibration of your voice gives your central nervous system a massage, & really I can feel it after the hour and half yoga workout & stretching we just did. Anyway so at the end Carlee starts to join in with everything we are doing. When it comes time to do the oomms, I have my eyes closed and start humming oomms. Suddenly I hear Carlee humming oomms too, I look over to see her in the perfect meditation pose, legs folded, hands resting on her knees facing upward. It was so cute. I wish I could have gotten a picture of the two of us sitting there doing yoga oomms, how funny would that have been but, I'll always be able to picture her in my head doing that, it was so cute!

through the years..............

2008-04-01T23:17:36-07:00

I've had many different hair styles and looks in the past. Now I have a dilemma! But first I'll show you the many looks of me.

During the early years, I have a wonderful mother to thank for these hair styles, some of them looked "cute".

The last picture is of the first and only perm that I had. My sister Kay, the cosmetologist, used the small rollers and this is what my hair came out like. Barely any curl, that's just how my hair is, doesn't take curl well.

This next hair style is the shortest I've ever cut it, back in 6th grade, and let me tell you it didn't work for me. This picture is after it grew out a lot. I don't have a picture of how short it was but you can see the drawing on the upper left corner, that's how my hair looked.

And when I say the cut didn't work I mean it. My friends told me, after it grew out, that it really didn't look good. But hey, give me credit for trying new, bold, & different things with my hair.

Next we have high school, where my Freshman year I high lighted my hair for the first time. During those four year it looked pretty much the same, with a few inches off here and there. The last picture, my senior picture, I added that for fun since many of you that didn't know me back then probably have not seen my hair like that. It was fun, I just hardly ever do it anymore!

These next two are just the way it looked most of the time, these are from my senior portraits.

Here we have during my college years where I went more and more blond.

Next is the way my hair looked when Sam and I started dating. Long and high lighted.

Then I had some fun and went brunet like I've always wanted to do. I just love brunets, I think they have a gorgeous color and their hair almost always looks fantastic.

But......... Sam hates this. He says he thinks I look like a completely different person. He didn't know what to think when he saw me with this new due.

So when he asked me to marry him, I figured it best I change my hair so that Sam liked looking at me on our wedding day. So I went with stripes!

That was pretty tough to get that dark out!

On our wedding day! I LOVE the way my hair looks from this view, so fun and different. Sam said he really liked this hair "colors".

Then after a little bit I went with all blond.

Then blond on top dark on bottom.

After a while of that I decided to try and get back to my natural color!

Sam loves the way I styled my hair in this picture, just a side note for later in the post.

The natural color lasted about a year or so before I got bored and did another extreme to what I have now.

Well so here's my dilemma. I really like this blond, I'm not bored of it yet but can not continue doing it because my hair is breaking. I think it has stopped but my hair is apparently tender hearted and isn't able to handle this extreme process, believe when I say extreme, it is, and it burns!

So now I'm faced with the question, what to do? I love the way my bangs look here.

Do I go back short, or continue to grow it out longer?

I saw this picture blog hopping, Ginger if you recognize this person you should, I found her link off of your site, hope she doesn't mind.

But I love the look, I can't tell if her hair is thin like mine which would be necessary if I want to get this look. I'm curious if I could still flip it out, like the picture of me in the pink polka dot shirt, above.

A friend suggested I try going red, which scares me a lot but here's an old photo where my hair looks a bit red. Try really hard to look past the really horrible photo.

Mostly I'm thinking I should give my hair color a break so it can gain some strength back. I could give my hair some low lights to try it make it more of my natural color but would love something fun. I just love doing fun spunky looks with my hair, it's just who I am I guess!

If you're still reading congrats, I know you must be sick of this post by now. So, what do you think?

easter shoot

2008-03-29T21:19:34-07:00

We went to the park today with the kids to do a little photo shoot of them in their Easter clothes. Sam was the photographer today. The shoot was, well, it was.......... interesting!

We got a few of Carlee and Preston together. This 1st photo was the very 1st picture Sam took. I asked Sam to do this 1st because the kids are the most cooperative in the first picture (always, without fail) and I very specifically wanted to have Carlee holding Preston's hands like this to get the picture of them together in this position. It lasted for a brief second & this was the only time they would do it. So, I'm very excited to have gotten this picture!

A few pictures of Carlee, loved her pigtails with ribbons.

Preston was certainly not himself through the shoot, he wasn't himself all day, the last temperature I took was before he went to bed and it was 100.9. So, he's been a little sad, we didn't realize that he was getting a temperature until after the photo shoot. But my allergies kicked in full gear at the shoot, so Preston and I sat on the side lines for the most part at the park, we decided not to stay and play, poor Carlee!

He really is doing well standing on his own, he even does a few controlled steps. I've only seen him do it once, but he loves to do it for Sam...... when I'm not there.

big sister

2008-03-25T12:09:39-07:00

Many times after Preston finishes feeding himself, I find his bottle and burp rag somewhere placed so nicely in the house. I don't do it, Sam's not home to do it. So who's doing it? I've never seen her do it but I suspect his big sister is being so sweet as to place the burp rag down and then the bottle on top of it to get it off the floor. Most of the times it's on the piano bench, I've found it in many places but this morning I found it here, in my bathroom, so nicely placed! She's such a sweet little girl (& I'm say this after yesterday being one of the hardest days from her).

easter day

2008-03-24T16:25:17-07:00

We had a wonderful Easter Sunday! Sam played his Cello in Sacrament meeting with the ward choir. He did an excellent job. It was his first time performing in front of an audience with the Cello (he did play as background music once though). Anyway, I'm so proud of him, he inspires me to want to play my flute more!

Our good friends, Shirley & Andy invited us over to their house for Easter dinner and to have an egg hunt. Shirley's brother and his wife and their children were there too, we're all in the same ward. Anyway, we had such a great time.

These pictures are of all the children after the egg hunt. The little boy at the top of the stairs, him and Carlee have a "thing" going on. They really are funny. He'll say something to Carlee like give me a hug or kiss on the cheek. And once she has he'll go around telling everyone, she kissed him.

Carlee and Preston find eggs.

After the egg hunt we did another one were we each could only find one egg. Then once everyone had one we would open the eggs in numerical order and find that Shirley had put together the story, using the scriptures, of the true meaning of Easter, thanks for that Shirley!

We had such a great time and we were so grateful to be able to spend time with friends on this holiday.

You got a little sneak peek of Carlee and Preston in their Easter outfits but there are more pictures to come I'm hoping to do a photo shoot today or tomorrow.

a few things that make me smile

2008-03-21T19:58:53-07:00

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universal studios

2008-03-19T09:05:00-07:00

Last week Sam's sister, Shannon, came in to town. She was supose to fly here but ended up with a broken down plane and had to wait all day for a new flight to fly her in to LA. We were disapointed that she didn't get to come see our home and that Sam wouldn't be able to take her pictures like planed. But it turned out to be fun anyway, Sam's parents and Mason were coming down to see her and spend some time in LA with her. They invited us & took our family along to Univerals Studios on Friday. We had a really fun time and we were glad that we got to see her after all.

Shannon & I on the "Red Carpet"

Carlee had too much fun playing in the water.

Me and Carlee with the statue guy.

Poor Preston isn't pictured with us but the rest of our little family with this mouse (can't remember where he's from).

Carlee and Mason with Curious George.

Preston sleeping!

All except me!

Hard Rock guitar!

Carlee with Papa and Mason walking.

And last one of preston by the Sparkey's shop (a candy story).

homemade favorites

2008-03-19T09:00:00-07:00

My husband amazes me every day, & I'll tell you why! I'm a big fan of bean burritos. I grew up eating them for lunch or some meal. Then in college my roomie Jordan, re-introduced them to me! So now, tortillas and refried beans are not something that we buy much, we've chosen that to be one of the less important foods to buy. Anyway so one night about a month or so ago Sam started making something, which turned out to be refried beans. Then shortly after that he started making something else, tortillas! He said, even though he makes fun of me for it, that he knows I love bean burritos so much he wanted to make these things so that I could have my burritos. Isn't he so sweet? Today I started to try and make the tortillas & my goodness that is not an easy task, it's so hard to roll out the dough but I wanted to put these recipes up just in case you'd like to try, I know my sister Danette wanted the recipe for the refried beans.

Refried Beans:

1lbs or about 2c pinto beans sorted and rinsed

5c water

1-2 med. Sized onions, diced

½-1c hot bacon drippings, butter or lard

Salt, to taste

Chili powder, to taste (we use a LOT of this)

Combine beans and onions in a pan in preheated water. Bring to a boil for 2 minutes. Cover and remove from heat for 1 hour (or soak beans in cold water overnight). Return to heat, bring to a boil; simmer slowly until beans are very tender, about 3 hours.

Mash beans with a potato masher, and add bacon drippings, butter or lard. Mix well; continue cooking, stirring frequently until beans are thickened and fat is absorbed. Salt and add chili powder to taste (we use lots) Serve or reheat. Makes 6-8 side dish servings, or 5-6 cups.

These freeze well and taste really good, but they don’t taste like canned refried beans so don’t expect it to.

Flour Tortillas:

3c unbleached flour

2tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

4-6 Tbsp. vegetable shortening or lard

About 1 ¼c warm water

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl.

Add vegetable shortening or lard. Or use a combination of half lard, half shortening. Use a fork or a pastry cutter to cut in the shortening or just do it the old fashioned way and use your hands.

Next add warm water a little at a time until your dough is soft and not sticky. You do not need very hot water.

Knead the dough for a few minutes.

Now you will pull off pieces of dough to form about 12 small dough balls. Let them rest for at least 10 minutes.

This is a good time to heat up the comal. You will want to set it at medium to high heat. If it is too hot the tortillas will cook too fast.

Now you can roll out the dough with your tortilla rolling pin or palote. It is a good idea to dust each ball with a little flour just before you roll them out. Lay the palote in the center of the dough ball and roll up, center and roll down. It is good to lift the dough and turn it. Again, rolling pin in the center and roll. Roll them out fairly thin.

Lay your tortilla on the hot comal. It takes just a few seconds to cook. Flip to the other side. When they are done it should have lots of nice brown speckles. Place them in a towel. If you would like you can use a tortilla warmer to keep them warm longer. They are ready to be served.

easter tree

2008-03-18T09:08:39-07:00

I made this Easter tree! It's my version of Martha Stewart's tree. I used everything that I already had, found this vase but didn't have grass to put in there like she did, so I took some leaves from a plant I have in my backyard. They worked perfect since they are thick and tall to be able to completely block what the inside awkwardness of the vase looks like from the branches. I don't have pussy willow branches like she used so I went to my back yard again and cut off branches from our gigantic bush. I considered painting the branches white but Sam said he likes it like this. For the eggs I used these that were given to me from Sam's mom the first year Sam and I were married (I used different eggs, the kind used for Easter egg hunts, to put inside of the silver bucket that these were meant for). Then I just put some water at the bottom, to hopefully keep the leaves from turning brown, seems to be working so far my tree has been up for over a week. I've just been trying to do one craft per holiday to add up a little collection of decorations over the years, even though I can't keep these for next year, I at least have the idea of something I can do.

mormal

2008-03-10T22:27:05-07:00

About a week and a half ago Sam & I (well Sam, I edited) took the pictures for the tri-stake mormon prom that they do down here. Way fun idea, I'd never heard of an activity like this for the youth in our church. Anyway, they all turned out really nice. Sam and I wanted to show our favorites.

I could quite literally go on & on forever. Some of them were so fun and some had the most beautiful dresses, my favorite dress was probably the girls silver dress, pictured here in black and white with the frame still in color, this picture doesn't do it justice! It took so long to edit and it was hard to make the time to do it but I think it paid off, the pictures all turned out really cute, there was a total of about 50 couples. But most of all, I really enjoyed spending that entire night with Sam while the kids were at home with a babysitter.

5 minutes & 40 seconds of reminiscing

2008-03-06T22:51:51-08:00

I've been going through and trying to organize our video's for some time now and came across this video a while ago and have been wanting to put it up here because it makes me laugh. This took place while Sam and I were engaged. Two things come to mind about Kent in this video, first, I think this was the only time I remember him leaving the apartment other than for church (very out of character for Kent, for those of you who don't know him) & second, this reminds me a lot of this last Thanksgiving when the guys weighed themselves before and after Thanksgiving dinner to see who gained the most weight from that meal.

Enjoy! Even though it's long I did edit out as much as I could, so, sorry, it is long!

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