BOO and Trick or Treat

The troop is ready to go to the Trunk-or-Treat. Then they came home and went around to some of the neighbors also. The dentist is going to get a new Mercedes after the next check up with all the candy the kids scored.
Ayden had to be a "fighter-fighter" for halloween, which is ironic since he has a phobia and worries nightly that the house is going to catch on fire. He commented that it was great there wasn't a fire while out trick-or-treating.
Meysa IS a horse so this isn't really dressing up for her. She would live in this costume 24-7 if she could. She really enjoyed halloween this year.
This again isn't dressing up because Lauryn acts like a Gorilla all the time. She got tired of a "head on her head" after a while. She liked getting candy, but enjoyed eating her sucker much better. The gorilla came to life if you tried to take the sucker away!!!

Get a LIFE!!

Ayden wanted me to help him make this box into a robot. I just had to take a picture, he looks so trapped in it. Ayden is always finding new ways to transform boxes. He has such an imagination, I wish sometimes I could think of the things he does. I guess that is one reason why it is fun to be a mom, you learn to think like a kid again. It is really fun-

Lots of leaves and riding horses!

Well Saturday our family decided that we would check out a park that we are thinking about doing our family pictures at. I wanted lots of trees and leaves to get lots of good fall pics. The kids had fun playing on the playground and they did humor us for some snapshots. Lauryn was the hardest to get to sit still or to even look at the camera. Ayden had a run in with the water fountain and he got to toss the ball around with dad a little bit which he loved. Meysa had a great time "riding" the horse. Check out the video, pretty cute. She was half way to Texas by the time we left the park. I bet her "horse" needed a real long break!!She did take a break to play in the leaf pile that Ayden had gathered. All in all it was a nice afternoon and I think we have definately found our photo location.

Can you see it?!!

Is anyone having a hard time seeing my header?A good friend said that she couldn't see the header so I was checking to see if anyone else was having the same problem. Let me know either way!!

Pumpkins, Finally!!

So our family is finally getting on board with the pumpkins! Kinda- This last Wednesday we (my friends and I)took Meysa and her friends to a pumpkin patch. It was a nice little drive and of course we chose a day that was overcast and rainy. Not the day before when it was 68 and sunny. Go figure. Anyway we get there and had to drive through the mud bogs to park. We hop out and snap a few pics of all the girls together (soo cute aren't they) and we are on our way. We go check out some ducks and the girls find a horse to pose on, so we stop there. My camera dies thankfully after pictures are taken and so does the only other camera we have. Bummer, so we head into the concession place to taste their apple fritters, which we are informed, they only make on weekends. Double bummer. So we enjoy an apple slushy, which on a day like we were having was not smart. We were cold!! We headed on over in the direction of the pumpkin patch and realized that we had missed the hay ride and that we would have to wade through the mud to get there. It started to drizzle and we thought, bag this. So we ended up at Walmart and the girls got to pick out their pumpkins from a cement patch. It was probably cheaper anyways!!
Our family enjoyed painting and carving pumpkins last night. Even Lauryn wanted to get into the action. She let me paint her hand and she then decorated one, but she did not want to touch the inside of it. Ayden loved carving and he was the "scooper of the seeds". When the carving was all done Ayden told Ryan that he was a very clever guy and that he did a good job on the pumpkin. Meysa informed me this morning that Halloween is almost here. Yippee!!

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Ok, well the muffins turned out great and are already half gone. Some of you asked for the recipe so here it is. It is just my basic banana bread recipe that I add chocolate chips to. Enjoy!!

Banana Bread (chocolate chips added)

1/2 c. shortening
1 1/2 c sugar
1 c. mashed bananas (4 big ones)
4 T. milk
1 tsp. soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 c flour
2 eggs
1/2 a bag of chocolate chips (or the whole bag depending on how you are feeling!!!)
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Cream shortening and sugar together. Add eggs beaten, bananas and milk. Mix well. Sift flour, soda, and salt together. Add to other mixture and mix well. Add chocolate chips. Put in prepared muffin tins. Bake for 15-20 minutes depending on your oven. this make about 12-15 large muffins. Enjoy!!

OOPS!!!!

Well I wish I could blame this on one of the kids but unfortunately I can't. I am the culprit!! I was needing some more flour to bake up some banana chocolate chip muffins. So I headed out to the garage where I keep a 5 gallon bucket in my food storage. I filled my kitchen bucket to the brim and loosley put on the lid to head back into the kitchen. You can see how close the van is parked to the storage totes, well I was trying to squeeze through and hit my arm on my side mirror, and there you have it a big mess. Smooth I know!! I am actually quite impressed with the distance the flour flew, it made it all the way back past the rear tire. Notice the fanning of it on the side of the van as well (it stuck to the road grime that I obviously need to wash off). That could be considered art right? Anyways, just thought I would share what a great day I am having. The amount of flour lost could have easily made two wonderfuly fattening batches of chocolate chip cookies so the banana chocolate chip muffins better be really yummy!! I guess the garage floor needed swept anyways!

Christmas is in the bag!

Well Friday night Ryan and I got to go on a impromptu date. The kids ended up having a primary activity from 6:30 to 8:30 PM. I don't know if the primary realized that they gave many parents free babysitting for date night, but we were grateful. We did have Lauryn with us, but she is still manageable. Anyways we decided that since we didn't have the older kids we would go to ToysRus and look for Christmas. The store had hardly anyone in it, which was nice and we had two hours to shop. We found everything we needed for Santa, so now we have extended family to buy for and we are done!!! We are also starting a new tradition in our family this year. We are drawing names and MAKING whoevers name we got a gift. I did this as a kid and I really learned about thinking about someone and what they would really like and then making something for them and enjoying their happiness. So we are going to try that this year. We will see if the kids liked it as much as I did. Thanks for all the ideas, I hope you all have success at shopping for Christmas too.

What to get for Christmas!!

So am I the only one that is already thinking of what to get my kids for Christmas? Ryan and I are already writing down our wish lists to give to family and such, mainly because they are already asking for them. Yes, I know that it isn't even Halloween yet and that we still have to celebrate Thanksgiving a month before we get to Christmas, but I can't help it. Maybe it is because I found the Polar Express book at the Library and checked it out and my kids started watching the movie at home(they have watched it at least 2 or 3 times in the last week and a half). Maybe it is because Meysa's birthday is a month before Christmas and so we have to come up with two really cool things to give her, one for her birthday and the other for Christmas. I like to have my shopping done before the crazy frenzy of December rolls around. Anyways, what cool ideas do you guys out there in the blogging world have for Christmas this year?

Rain is falling all around.....

Well today is a rainy day, I know suprise, suprise!! It was windy earlier and really a bit nippy and then all of the sudden the flood gates flew open. We even had hail!!! It was one of those rains that you want to go out an play in. Meysa has been asking if she can play in the rain lately. I remember as a kid, after a good rain going and finding the biggest mud puddles and practically swimming in them. I loved it. Needless to say my mother was not as happy about it!!! I just thought I would try and snap some pictures of a good hard rain, and shoot some video so you could hear how loud it was, but for some reason the video didn't work!! Bummer-

Soo Sad!!

Well for all of you that have loved MatieKay templates, they are longer available. Something with the scrapping website, their papers are for personal use only, not mass production. Bummer, I know!! Well anyways there is another website that I found with thousands of free templates if you need one or just want to check out. It is www.pyzam.com they have crazy ones and fun ones too. I just want to say thanks to MatieKay for giving us some fun templates while she was able to!!!

Just in time for Halloween!!!

Well, Lauryn is ready for all the Trick-or-Treaters this Halloween. We had a practice run at dinner tonight. Isn't she really scary?!! She has played peek-a-boo for a long time but the cute thing now is she is saying the BOOO part. She is so much fun. Enjoy!!

Oh, What do you do when Daddy is on Call?!!!

Since our Dad was on call today we decided to pass the time by going to the park. Ayden has been wanting to go and "practice" football for the last couple of days. We get there and after a few practice kicks of the old football, Ayden is ready to hit the slides. So much for practicing!!! Meysa was learning how to throw a frisbee, and got tired of it as well after a few tries. Lauryn kept heading for the road until she found a stick to occupy her time. I was hoping that the kids would run their little legs off so it would be an early to bed night but no such luck. Off to the slides we go and of course it rained today so Ayden got soaked the first run down. Lauryn kept dropping her crackers in the mulch and Meysa was whining. Sooo, home we came and made hot chocolate and ate leftovers. All in all it was a "good" day!! So until Dad is on call next time, we'll be seeing ya-

General Conference and Answered Prayers!

One of my favorite apostles is President Henry B. Eyring. He just has a way of speaking that makes me feel like I can do what is right no matter what. I really enjoyed his talk Sunday morning, about remembering what the Lord has done for you in your life. I thought his idea of spending a few minutes everyday thinking about what blessings you have had that day was what I needed to hear.





Elder Quintin L. Cook is the newly called and sustained apostle in the quorum of the Twelve Apostles. I don't know much about him, but I know that we will come to love him as we have all of our other leaders. You can feel of his love for the gospel and of the Lord when he speaks and bears his testimony.






I have been spiritually uplifted the past two days and have really benefited from the council given in General Conference. What a blessing the gospel is in my life and in the lives of my children. I had an experience last night with Ayden that reaffirmed that the Lord does answer our prayers and is mindful of even the little things in our lives.

Ayden has been terrified of fires the last few weeks. He had a fire drill at school and then the next day I set off the smoke detectors while I was cooking. It was at night and Ayden was either not asleep yet or was woken up from sleep by the shrill beeping of the smoke detector. Needless to say he was scared to go to sleep that night and every night since, because he thought a fire in our house was emanate. Nothing Ryan or I said to try to convince him otherwise worked. Each night it was a struggle to get him to want to fall asleep and a lot of tears have been shed. I was at my wits end as to what I could do to help him, I had been praying for help and the help came a few nights ago. A thought came to me, search the scriptures. The scripture that I found was found in John 14:27. "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." Ayden and I talked about how the spirit can bring us peace and how if we pray we can ask Heavenly Father to bless us with it. Well this morning Ayden told me " Mom, you know that scripture we read last night. It made my heart happy and I fell right to sleep." Simple faith, and prayers are answered. I am grateful that Heavenly Father is mindful of even the smallest things, such as a little boy who was scared to go to sleep.

The name's Heitmann, Ayden Heitmann

What do Sean Connery, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig have that Ayden doesn't? NOTHING!! Ok, actually a few feet in height, some real muscles, a bit more money in their piggy banks, and the Bond girls (thank heavens)! But you wouldn't know it from looking at this picture. Ayden is a stud! We finally got to see the professional pictures from Ryan's brother's wedding and this is one of our favorites. Ayden looks like he is on a mission!! He took the job of ring bearer sooo seriously, he had this look on his face the whole time. He is the second blonde Bond. We love our handsome Ayden!!

Door to Door Salesman

Don't you just love 'em?!! You know the kind, the ones that come while you are eating dinner or in the middle of changing a diaper and want your undivided attention to sell you some amazing new invention. Well I had a doosy the other night. Ryan was on call and I was getting the kids to bed. It was 8 o'clock at night, 8 o'clock, and he knocks on the door. His name is George and he is selling the ultimate cleaning solution (aren't they always) that would basically clean my whole house for me!! He showed me how it would work on my windows, carpet and even the metal on the threshold of my door. He even tasted the stuff to show how non-toxic it really was!! Well I wasn't going to buy the product that night but I was interested, so I asked him if I could go to the website that was on the pamphlet he gave me and he said I could only go there to re-order and that he worked on commission. I said I would have to talk to my husband (Ryan and I are trying very hard to stay on a budget and this was not a discussed purchase). Now comes the good part, he FREAKS. He says "Do you have to ask your husband to buy Tilex?!! Why would you have to ask about this?" I said that it isn't in our budget, but that I am impressed with the product. He says, "NO you are not, no you're not. (as he is whipping out his sales booklet with all the sales he had made) "these people are impressed, these people actually bought the stuff, you are not impressed so don't tell me you are!" My jaw hits the floor because I am so flabbergasted at this guy's nerve. So I try to recover and tell him that I appreciate his time, and he tells me " don't give me that, if you appreciated my time, you would have bought something. I don't want to hear you appreciate my time." As he is saying this he is packing up his bag of stuff and rips the pamphlet out of my hand, he isn't even going to let me have the info on the product. So I fire back, "just because you come to my home and show me something, you assume that I am automatically going to buy the stuff, don't be mad at me just because I don't buy anything. " He tells me that he isn't mad at me and that instead I am judging him. I had nothing to say in return, what could I say? I was so floored by this guy. So I said the only thing left to say which was "Have a GREAT evening!" and slammed the door. It is pouring down rain and unfortunately I didn't feel bad about this guy having to walk back to his car in it. Now I am tempted to put a "No Soliciting" sign on my door. So long story short, just beware of door to door salesmen, they aren't always as they appear, they just might be psycho!!!