Dear Friends and Family,

Kids are pacing at the bit waiting for cousins to arrive for dinner tonight. Jeremy is laid out upstairs with a bad cold. And I am writing my blog because I made the mistake of making Kathryn's salsa on our Fast Sunday and am trying to resist till dinner time! You could tell it was labor day weekend today. Not only did I get to play the organ for sacrament meeting (first time ever) but I also subsituted Taylor's primary class.

Biggest news of the week is that Jeremy found and bought a motorcycle. He has been looking for awhile for a used bike to commute to and from work on and to just enjoy since he sold the convertible. I will let him blog the details about it. Only scary moment I had was that after Spencer and Allison (with helmets) took a slow ride around the block the day he got it, Robyn thought it was her turn. Jeremy went super slow holding her with his legs as they did a circle in the street. As soon as they stopped she turned to say "do more!". Needless to say that didn't happen and my heart could go back to beating.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to take Spencer and Allison to the Timpangous Storytelling Festival up in Provo Canyon for the day. Like most activities with kids - it was a lot of fun and a lot of work to keep everyone happy. The storytellers were amazing and the kids can still repeat many of the stories they heard. There was one guy who does a lot of PBS shows, school assemblies etc that they loved called Bill Harley. He was hilarious. We bought one of his CDs and have been enjoying his stories some more. He had one poem he wrote about Dirty Joe Pirate who stole sailor's dirty socks. He turned it into a child's picture book we will have to look for. Allison really liked a woman who did fractured fairy tales. The best part for them though (besides the ice cream) was they had a bunch of potters there helping kids make things. Spencer made a pitcher and Allison made a wedding vase.

Jeremy has been sucking it up all week with a really hurt knee and a bad cold. (The kids seem to have caught the runny nose part of it but seem to be missing the down and out sick part). Jeremy was feeling older than his years. So the motorcyle was good timing. He has been enjoying riding it around and relearning how to drive it, getting insurance and registration all taken care of.

Tuesday I helped put on a brunch for the Stake enrichment board. Robyn thought it was great to run around causing havoc and eating food. It was a lot of fun. Still feels a little strange to be the youngest of this group of women I work with now by at least 20+ years. Robyn spent the afternoon with me taking Lauri to the doctor to have her big toe nail cut off. She had stubbed it quite badly in Idaho on our trip and it was pretty nasty. Lauri was able to come home with us for a while to recoup. Robyn grabbing her bloody toe and waving it to ask if it hurt probably didn't help in that process! Robyn was so upset that she had done something wrong - I think she cried more than anyone else. Lauri has agreed to start looking at assisted living homes for which we are all grateful. So this Thursday we are going to take some tours. The financial part of it is pretty scary as she knows she could only pay to live there for so long and then you have to wonder what to do after that. The process of giving up most of her things and moving away from independance is really tough for her.

Allison started her new gymnastics class and just loves it. Her first class the gym was literally a madhouse with way too many teams practicing at once but they were all staying in their spot to work out. I heard that they are going to work on smoothing out the schedule. This week Allison starts piano lessons. She has to get out of school 5 minutes early for them - I am not sure which part has her more excited. She has had more problems sleeping this week than usual. We have had to take away comic books and reading time at night as she will just hide out in there reading till all hours. Lights just seem to pop back on through out the night with her. Or she has a tickle in her throat that won't let her sleep. At 10 pm I am not a very sympathetic mom as I just tell her to go suffer in silence as there is nothing I can do. So she goes and closes the bathroom door so she can cry without waking everyone up. I obviously can't fall asleep to that so after 30 min patient Jeremy talks to her and she moves down to the couch to cry/cough in isolation from us. Next morning she is just fine!

Taylor had an appointment to program his VNS this week. I am hoping that the seizures decrease or at leat he stops having grand mals during the night. Friday I stepped on something sharp in his room and looked down to find one of his baby molars there. Glad he didn't swallow it this time.

Spencer started martial arts this week. He loves it and comes home very sweaty and pumped up. A kid at school convinced a few others to "jump" on top of Spencer after class one day. Spencer said he just gave a little kick to push them off. He said what he wanted to do all these different kicks that would just flatten them. We laughed later as his wants are high but his skills are low when it comes to martial arts. He thought my idea of saying "that's not cool, I don't want to fight" sounded very babyish. The idea that the cool kids are too cool to get involved in fighting does not fit his current perception of the world - will have to work on it. Spencer told me that he was going to bear his testimony today and he just went up and did it. Did a great job. Said he was trying to say everything they say in the faith of god book. The commando stealthy walk up to wait in a chair for his turn was probably not the most appropriate. But the idea that he could stand up and speak in front of everyone off of the cuff and do well was impressive to me. Right now he is reading Spy High. They let him check it out of the young adult section - he thought he was so cool.

Robyn also had her first gymnastics class this week. Its a parent tot class but Robyn did not want me anywhere near her. She wanted to follow the teacher and be just like Robyn. She had her leotard on and ready hours before it was time to go. She wore Allison's old leotard and had Allison's old teacher so it was a little trip down memory lane. Robyn has become a big Dora Explorer, Bear in the big blue house and elmo fan. Not that she gets that much TV but every day while I run she watches cartoons. She is very excited every day for her time. With kids getting out of school at 2:30, he naptime is getting a little shakey. So sometimes for nap time she is just stuck in her crib singing ring around the rosie to herself for 2 hours. Just glad she is willing to stay in her crib.

I got one coat of paint done in the downstairs bathroom this week and got the light fixtures in. So slowly we are making progress. Our sprinklers are having problems so we are shopping around for repair work. I spent one afternoon this week at the kid's school figuring out the art program there. My job is mostly to organize all the paperwork but I have let it slide so far. It seems like the days pass really fast before most of the stuff I want to get done gets done. The kids love being home for the afternoon. They are home before 3 and after jobs and homework they usually have 2-3 hours of playtime. So I am getting used to doing things at 8 and 9 am. On the plus sides grocery stores are really empty by then. This weekend when I could sleep till 7 felt like I was relaxing. So maybe someday I will get used to the early schedule. Love to everyone and an especial Happy Birthday to Kathryn (your salsa was wonderful, we ate a humongous bowl of it). Love, Heather



First day of school



On Wednesday night cousins Kayla and Bryn came over for the night. Our girls had a great time. Jeremy pointed out that there were entirely too many naked girl bodies running about our house at bath time.



Robyn's first (and only) time getting into my make-up. I was impressed the mascara made it on her eyes. She thought she was very pretty. She raids Allison's make-up all the time now. I think she decided raiding mine was not worth the penalty.



Allison with the potters at the festival



Allison next to her finished wedding vase


Spencer excited to make something



Spencer making his pitcher