raising heller

so my friend carrie is an awesome photographer. she called me up a couple of weeks ago and said meet me at the park, i want to take some pictures of your kids. well my children were anything but cooperative as you can tell in the picture of me and the kids. fortunately as you can see from the pictures carrie got some amazing shots in spite of the situation. thank you carrie, you are wonderful!!!!!!!

jack – mom, why do i have a man peeper?

me – because you are a boy.

jack – why doesn’t it talk to me?

me – peepers can’t talk.

jack – does my peeper have a mouth?

me – pointing to his big toe, “does your toe have a mouth?”

jack – i know my peeper doesn’t have a mouth

me – how come?

jack – my peeper doesn’t have a mouth because my peeper is just a peeper!

i know that we aren’t using correct terminology in our home but when i tried, it never seemed to stick.Â

well much to kim’s amazement, i have started mowing our lawn. steven has to work so much and it seems like it always rains on saturday so it is hard for him to do. well i finally had enough of looking like the white trash neighboor and got the mower out and mowed. to my surprise, it wasn’t very hard to figure out. my mom was over watching the kids so i had time by myself and it was almost peaceful. for those of you out there thinking you couldn’t do this, you can.

we received a nephi state for a wedding present 7 years ago. this was obviously a random gift but we thought it was funny and have kept him this whole time. we have moved 10 times in the last 7 years and he has been in the front window of every home we have lived in. i think it is crazy that he hasn’t ever been lost. he always shows up on the top of a box somewhere.

well the other day i went into the downstairs bathroom and this is what i saw in the window. i wasn’t surprised to see it there because it is always there but i have never seen it backlit from the sun this way. i just think it is funny, i feel protected from this little guy.

here he is how our visitors see him. thank you nephi!

ok, last story. well steven came home from work early (at 4, not very early for most) sick yesterday. in all of the time that we have been married i don’t think he has ever missed a day because he was sick. well he had a fever of 103 and i just took the kids downstairs and let him sleep. well after i gave the kids a bath and put them to bed, he decided to get up and get some food. well i told him that i was going to sleep on the couch because i didn’t want to get sick. at like 2 in the morning after tossing and turning i decided to go to my bed anyway. when i got to me bed, he was in my spot. when i came into the room he woke up and moved over for me. i layed down and started to smell the worst smell. i looked over at the side table to find left over salsa and a bag of empty barbeque chips. if you can imagine, it didn’t smell so good. well i got up and moved the offending smells and then layed down. in the morning when i got up i found that i had been laying on smashed brownie as well. the moral of the story, don’t let your husband eat in your bed and if you do, make sure he stays on his side.

i am so frustrated with costco. i went there yesterday and my costco has stopped carrying most of the things i go there for. all i wanted was some eggs,pace salsa, dyno nuggets and chips. unfortunately the only thing i walked away with was eggs. they even stopped carrying their kirkland brand monster bag of tortilla chips. i even asked about them and they said they had been taken out of their system. needless to say, i was highly annoyed that i dragged three children to costco to buy eggs.

the saving grace of the trip was that they were having some special event and were giving cake to everyone. i got jack and lily (and of course myself and ashy) each a piece and put them in the back of the cart to eat it. immediately jackson spills it into the basket. i quickly picked it up and put it back on the plate but before i could clean the cart, lily sits in it. normally this would add to my frustration but jackson thought it was so funny that i couldn’t help but laugh. i love it when children really get why something is funny. sometimes i think kids laugh at things but they don’t really understand why. it is so amazing when they actually get it you can almost see it click and the laugh is so much more genuine. well we got a good, long laugh and it made the trip much better.

well, the other day i was at target with my children and we were just wondering around eating popcorn and drinking lemonade. we weren’t there to buy anything, it is just something we do sometimes to get out of the house. well we walked down one of the food isles and there was a little asian lady in the isle with us. all of the sudden i hear lily ask “mom why is she so short?” i just ignored her and thought she would let it go but unfortunately jackson heard her and he started in. pretty soon both of them are asking me and there was no hiding what they were saying. then an amazing thing happened, the lady turned to me and said “it’s ok honey, i understand.” then she turned to my children and said “i am so short because i didn’t eat my vegetables when i was a kid.” i wish i could say that lily ran home and started eating her vegetables but it did make her think.

i think it is so amazing how uninhibited children are. they see something that is different and ask about it without any thought of being politically correct. they are just purely curious about everything. i love it and am grateful for their innocence.

i had such an amazing time while kimmie came to visit. it was just like old times only now there were three little children to attack kim while she was here. lily, jack and ash loved her. they thought she was the greatest person ever. lily cried when she realized that kim was leaving on saturday. it has been over three years since we have seen each other but it seemed like no time at all when she was here. my mom watched my kids one day and we made our way into the city. these are some of the pictures i took. kim has some really good ones in her camera of her and my children so i will have to get them and then add to this post. well we miss you already kimmie and thanks again for coming. i would also like to thank seth for letting kim leave him and the kids for a couple of days to visit us. love you kim!

kimmie on the monorail from the westlake mall to the spaceneedle.

me in kimmie’s glasses, also on the monorail.

kimmie and the spaceneedle.

me and the spaceneedle.

(the quote starts with “five of the sisters” and continues till the end.)

well here is an interesting story. steven and i were at our stake center the other day and while steven was talking to one of the stake presidency, i decided to look through the book about temples that was sitting on the table. the book goes through all of the different temples and shows a bunch of pictures and tells stories about them. i decided to of course read about LA first but then i moved on to the seattle temple. i was reading the comments and then at the very end and the quote was from steven’s grandma cook. from all the stories i have heard, she was an amazing and inspiring woman. it totally caught me off guard and made me cry. it also reaffirmed my testimony of the temple. his grandma was a temple worker in both the LA and Seattle Temples and had to travel long distances to do to work at each one. i am so grateful to have always lived so close to the temple. i am going to make a conscious effort to take advantage of that and go more often. thank you grandma cook for your example!

well i know that this has already been mentioned on raisingheller.com but i wanted to have it in my journal as well. this week asher has started taking 8 or 9 steps. it is so amazing to see the progress he makes each day. it is funny because you would think that it wouldn’t be as exciting with each child but it really is. i love seeing the pure joy in their face when they finally realize that they can actually do it. well congratulations my little baby, i love you and i can’t wait for the many walks we will take as you get older.