Dear Family and Friends,

Our church time has moved to 11. So Jeremy doesn't have to leave till 8 and I get to enjoy lying in my bed knowing that despite Spencer's "subtle" attempts to get me up I don't have to. Yesterday morning was the same way. Staying in bed past when the sun comes up feels so self-indulgent now. Our girls have perfected the art of weekend snoozing and Jeremy can often head Spencer off at the pass as he bounces awake, ready to go at 7.

We had a great day yesterday. After a slow start to the morning on my part I took Rocky running up around the temple and besides having to stop and poop 4 times he was able to keep up. Either I am getting slower or he is getting in better shape. I have been running most days on the treadmill and the programs all do an incline so running outside on flat surfaces feels surprisingly easy to keep going. I have really been enjoying working out in the mornings and it means I can stay in bed till 6:15 as I don't need to shower and get ready before doing kids, just throw on some work-out clothes. You would think by now I would be really getting buff but the more I exercise the more I think I can eat - strange how that works.

Back to yesterday, after cleaning the office we went to our city's heritage festival. Its a small home town style festival in the city park. They had a bunch of little games for kids to do. Robyn loved the story time the library was doing. Spencer and Allison's favorite part was where they did a 2 man saw with Dad and then guys branded their circle of wood for them. It was very cool. Spent the afternoon painting and then Jeremy and I had a date that night. After 2 weeks in a row of religious plus errand type dates we decided not to do one practical thing. We went to an Indian restaurant in Provo - neither of us has ever been to on before - it was quite good. The restaurant had moved locations though since we last saw it. I had suggested parking 1/2 mile away to enjoy the walk through downtown. As Jeremy turns the corner and decides to look up the address and realizes its an additional 1/2 mile more, he just shakes his head and talks about Heather navigation. Then we headed up to BYU and got huge ice cream cones and wondered around the campus amazed at how plush it is now and realizing our kids will probably never get in now! Then we went to Jeremy's office and set ourselves up in the conference room and watched What happens in Vegas - very funny. We have all these movies at home but seldom watch them as by the time kids are asleep we don't want to stay up late enough to finish a movie. So it was a great relaxing day.

Jeremy still has the cough that never stops. At least he has stopped hacking stuff up! I just hope it ends soon and no one else will get it. He burned CDs this week of all the Pismo pictures so I mailed copies off to everyone and pictures from Idaho. He has been working on his photo challenge this week of taking couple pictures. One result of which is that we got back Monday from martial arts and gymnastics to find Jason's family here. So the agreed to stay for dinner - all our kids were ecstatic - and we enjoyed a family family night.

I have been trying to paint the basement whenever I can fit it in. The main part of the desk is almost done, just finishing up the varnish. Same with the stairs. There are just little pieces of trim everywhere and the desk doors to finish up. This week we finally found a sprinkler repair guy whose prices we could handle, and who could actually come (a harder combination to find than I would have thought) fix our sprinklers. So we have some muddy pits everywhere - it was raining the whole day they were here fixing - but the dead spots everywhere should start growing again. I have also been organizing binders for the art program at Lincoln school. I have found that I can only do mindless tasks from 3 pm on - my mind stops functioning when kids are contantly asking questions, requests for help etc. I am trying to teach Robyn a soft voice as Spencer and Allison will try to out shout her - leads to a very chaotic household.

Taylor has had a tough week. Last night I noticed he is getting an adult tooth - the blood smearing all over his bed and face was the clue. So I am hoping that was what was wrong. He hasn't wanted to eat or drink much so we have him back on whole milk to up his calories. He just wants to cuddle someplace warm.

Spencer is really liking his martial arts classes. An hour three times a week where he gets all sweaty and has fun. He has figured out if he works hard in math class he has less math homework. So the time spent on homework has gone down which we all appreciate. He plays most days outside on his wave with Conner. It has been in the 80s most days so it just feels good to be outside.

Allison continues to devour all the comic books. I have wondered if I should worry she doesn't read any normal books! She is liking her piano lessons and I am enjoying her having a list of stuff to work on instead of me trying to come up with a list for her each day.

Robyn LOVES her gymnastics class. Each morning she grabs her leotard and asks if its her day for class. She is missing having her brother and sister around. We got to babysit her friend one morning this week and she was in heaven.

I am off to get ready for church but I will post some pictures later.

Love, Heather