Heidi's prayer quotes from this week:

"Thank you that we don't even see bats, and that we don't even see dinosaurs"

"Thank you that I don't fight very much and if I do I'm just kidding"

"Thank you that we can bless our daddy's birthday"

"Please help Gwen to not pull hair"

General expression of hers (whenever I ask her to "come here" or "help out" or "pray", etc.):

Mom that just makes me too busy. (even though she is lying on the floor doing NOTHING)

a little bit of our christmas

christmas morning... lil' santa and her helper

new sleeping bags from gram and papa
the best big plastic child ride on toy EVER. it's so much easier than a stroller and WAY more fun.
o holy night?

got a great picture of mom and dad, hard to get mom on this side of the camera!

gotta love parks, cousins, and pigeons

picture tickets on the freeway...

they totally work, but hey, now that we are all going to be going the speed limit, can't we make it a little higher?

okay, well it was nice to leave up that last post forever.... but now I'm just desperate to get something else up. I'm at Dandi's house so, I went to her pictures and this was the first I found of my fam.
NICE, really, NICE picture.
I'm not sure which HAIR I'm more afraid. The purple fireball on top of my head, or Todd's nice little peak up his sleeve.

enjoy ladies.

This photo is from the amazing glen lakes ward youth temple trip. I didn' go, but my life was touched through my brother, father, and many many friends experiences. It's so strange now to consider what it must be like to be living here on this earth and not to have a knowledge and testimony about what it is all about.
I am grateful for FOREVER, and knowing that that is how long I have to be with my husband, and children.
I am grateful for Temples. The peace I feel when I am there. I don't know if there is any other time in my life that I can feel so CLEAR MINDED, CONTENT, and SURE.
I am grateful for my little bro. who is serving the Lord in FREEZING Idaho. What a sweet thing to see my little brother being so COURAGEOUS and setting such a WONDERFUL example of building, seeking for, and sharing your TESTIMONY of the Savior.
I am grateful for my husband who's BOTTOM LINE in life, the deepest truest desire of his heart is to be a RIGHTEOUS, good husband and father. I know that whatever bumps we hit along the way, it will all be okay. because? bottom line- he is striving to find out and do whatever the Lord requires of him.

I got "tagged" a million years ago about 6th folder, 6th picture.... etc. So here it is...
This is Heidi when she was a little little baby. Todd had gotten her the elephant booties, so I must have been taking a picture to show them off. She had more hair than Lilli or Gwen. In fact, Gwen is now almost 2 and barely has that much hair. Heidi has two callicks (sp?) on the back of her head... so it always created a cute little mohawk.
Heidi has always been our little monster. She is so much more emotional than Lilli was, but always one to growl and attack!

how do you keep your house clean???? what are your top three tips???

rusticness

i haven't been non-ward camp out camping since i started my family. what a mistake. i loved it sooo much. i always knew i loved camping, but ward camp outs always felt stressful with the girls. i realized it's because it is FAKE camping. it was so nice to not have to worry about my kids bothering anyone else, or getting lost in the madness of everyone wandering around. ward camp outs were social events, not camping. it felt so good to man my own fire (well, not JUST mine), cook my own food, take my kids on a little hike, let them get DIRTY and not feel like an unsanitary parent if my kids ate with,

heaven forbid, dirty fingers. plus you always get a good spot around the fire. and when gwen was screaming all night, i didn't have to feel bad for anyone else, except of course my hero husband who was up with her all night!

Thanks ben to the awesome potatoes in the dutch oven, and nan, great breakfast, and jessi, good job bringing the leftover hamburger buns and hot dog buns and ketchup and lettuce and onions and mustard from your ward halloween party!

gwen is about to sneeze...... wait for it......

















AHHHHHHHHHHHH MUCH BETTER!

as mentioned, gwen had a little bit of a rough night

they were playing in a bunch of sawdust. it was really messy, but they were having sooooo much fun.

sweet little gwen was getting so tired but wasn't too sure about the whole tent + sleeping bag thing.

ben made this delicious potato dish in his dutch oven. sooooo yummy definitely a highlight. the

big jacket? you ask???? my mom's down feather jacket. let me just tell you that i could cold easily, seriously... i wear my fuzzy wintery bath robe over my clothes when i'm at home year round.

i was very scared about being cold so my mom handed my the coat and said not to worry. i will never camp again with out it.

remember, I warned you about the dirty kids? well, i wasn't kidding, here they come. it was so wonderful to just "surrender" to nature, as in the nature of little children to find or make a mess and nature, also as in... dirt. oh, i have a funny story. we were playing bocce ball, and ben was really good at it and tried to be cool by throwing the ball somewhere that we couldn't see. so he threw it over this big fallen log. oh yeah, the point of the game is to throw your ball closest to the white ball (the white ball is the one that ben was going to throw)..... okay, so ben throws ball behind log. todd jessi nan and ben try to aim for unseen target. they excitedly go to see if anyone was close to the mark and SURPRISE there is the rotting carcass of a coyote on the other side of the log.... nice, really nice.

i'm ready to start camping every weekend. i'm already craving to go back. i'm even thinking of how cool would it be to go camping on christmas eve, decorate a nearby tree, sing christmas songs around the camp fire, read the nativity story, then wake up and open presents around the fire.

cool? or crazy? i know it would be cold, but i'd have my mom's jacket, so we'd just have to work something out for the kids and the hubby....????

ben's super cool hammock! thanks for the rope knot class! let's go camping this weekend to see if i remember anything!!

halloweenishness

okay, so to finish up with the sexy eighties party...

jammin' out at the tanner's!!! soo much fun. thx jen

todd was really feeling some sort of zoolander vibe (notice his sexy face in our close up).

here are our two little angels, heidi and gwen. it's funny by the time halloween comes around and all try-ons/ trunk-or-treats are over, the kids are sick of the costumes and the mom is worn out with the red hair spray and careful attachment of wings, etc.