Brothers

Saturday was a good day to be outside. As it turns out it was the last nice, warm day of the summer. Today we have wind, rain and it is cold. So long summer, Hello Fall. We took advantage of the nice day and washed our cars and Ryan cleaned out the garage. Wyatt so badly wanted to be outside with us but he isn't to be trusted really. He likes to play chicken with the cars. Ayden became his babysitter and he decided to put him in the wagon and take him for a ride. Wyatt enjoyed himself especially when Ayden was going FAST!!

Even though there is 7 years between Ayden and Wyatt I can already tell they are going to be good buds. The only other words besides Mama and Dada that Wyatt can say is Ayden. He has been saying it for months. Ayden can get Wyatt to laugh like nobody's business, and Wyatt likes to go to bed with Ayden in his room with him.


"Brothers don't shake hands, brothers gotta hug!!" Yeah, not so much for Wyatt. Even though Ayden ran him up and down the block like a 100 times, he wants nothing to do with the PDA.
"Love you too bud, but keep it at arms length would ya!!"

"A man has to have his personal space ya know!!"

The Spider Tree

We woke up to a foggy morning today. I think fall is finally here. Even though the sun is shining now it is still a little on the brisk side of the thermostat. On the way home from school this morning my friend and I passed by this tree and we saw a large spider web. Due to the moisture in the air the web was very easy to see since there were water droplets all over it. I thought to myself that would be a cool picture. We kept walking and as I looked back at the tree I saw another web, and then another, and yet another. The tree was covered by spider webs. I went home got my camera and came back to take some pictures (the tree is only a block from my house). I took pictures of the webs that I could see but there were many more than what I captured. The tree looks so unsuspecting. But on a closer look you find these really cool webs.

Play-Doh

Have you ever put a toy away for a few months and then brought it back out? What did your kids do? Probably acted like they won the lottery and thought you were the best mom to get them a "new" toy, huh. Well it has been a while since I put up all the play-doh in our house. I hid it from the kids because I was tired of them sneaking it into the playroom and finding blobs of it squished into my carpet. Yesterday I thought it was time for them to play with it again. Meysa and Lauryn were wanting something to do for quiet time while Wyatt napped. You would have thought my girls had never played with play-doh. They played literally for hours with it. From about 12:30-4:00, and they were bummed when I told them they had to clean it up. You have to have lots of tools to really play with play-doh right?
Meysa was having a really great time. She made these gingerbread men. She kept having to accessorize more and more.

Then she thought they needed to do a little exercise to work off a little of that chub!!
Little Lauryn had a ball just mixing colors, making balls and then destroying them, and then starting all over again.
This was Lauryn's final masterpiece.

I think I'll have to put up toys more often. I like the reaction I get when the kids think they are getting something new!!

Tired

This story really starts on Sunday afternoon. The kids were doing their best to have a quiet and restful Sunday afternoon by having a spinning derby with our leather reclining chairs. Ayden was spinning Wyatt and he got a little over zealous and whacked his thumb on the wall. He howled like he was being killed. I checked him out and it looked like it would have hurt. His poor little thumb was already swollen and it felt funny!! I told him we would have Dad check it when he got home (yes he was on again on Sunday). Ryan got home after the kids were in bed and he did go and check on it but didn't really want to move it a whole lot and wake Ayden up!! Ayden could bend his thumb but if you put any pressure on the area between his thumb joint-close to the hand and his joint near the end of his finger he would shriek. Well Ryan got a better look at it last night and said he thought it was broken!! I thought of taking him in this morning but then thought of wrestling three kids at the Dr.'s and Ayden missing school and decided I would just take him to the ER and have Ryan stay with the other kiddos who were on their way to bed!

The rest of the story is well kinda frustrating. Ayden and I left our home at about 8:10 after we had family home evening with the missionaries at the church and the girls and Wyatt were in bed. We got to the base at about 8:35-8:40. We were through triage and x-ray by 9:18. Now here comes the amazingly, aggravating part. We were not seen by a doctor until 3:30 AM(that was the time on Ayden's discharge note stating when he was seen by the doctor). Yes you read that right, I said 6 HOURS. Now granted they were busy with 4 different incoming traumas during that time. I get that. But seriously 6 hours. What did we do for all that free time you ask? We watched the movie Cars 2 1/2 times, and then had to endure crappy CW tv (can I tell you how thankful I am that I don't get any cable!!). Thankfully Ayden didn't see much of it he finally fell asleep once we got him a blanket. It was freezing in there. Finally we were called back at about 3:00am and then another trauma came in, and I actually think 3:30am was the time when the Dr. actually looked at Ayden's films, not the actual time at which he saw Ayden. I think that was more like 4:00am. Well I know you are on the edge of your seat as to Ayden's diagnosis....a mere contusion to his Right thumb is all we have to show. His films were negative for a fracture the doctor said but he wanted to repeat films in a week and he wanted to splint it just to be safe. A grand total of about 5 minutes was all that was needed to tell me that. So we waited again for a nurse to come and do a thumb spika splint (twice) and we were finally walking out of the ER doors at 4:40am. We got back in time for Ryan to leave for work. Ryan himself didn't sleep all that well, he was restless worrying about us.

I am sure most of you have also had experiences like this where you wait for an insane amount of time for treatment in an ER. What bust my bubble I guess is this. Why could someone have not looked at his films say around 10:30 heck even 11:00 (it doesn't take that long for the films to come back-remember they were taken at 9:15pm) and determine that it was not broken, would not need an Ortho consult and casting and could be splinted and followed up with Peds and sent us the HECK home? Another bubble busting thing is there were people with the common cold that were taken back before him (and all these people were there after Ayden mind you-and yes I understand about triage). Why not take back the five minute splint job, get them taken care of and then take back the cold pt. that will take more time and resources. Heck we didn't even get a room, we got the hallway gurney!! It blows my mind!! I guess to make a LONG story SHORT Ayden and I are running on fumes and Ryan is on low too. I got about an hour and fifteen minutes of sleep this morning before Lauryn was at my bedside asking for breakfast and then I got about a two hour nap this afternoon when Wyatt was down for his nap. I don't think I will do the ER ever again. I'll take wrestling three kids in the Peds clinic before I spend another 8 hours waiting to be seen in the ER!!

The long waited for splint. I kept saying it better be broken for the amount of time we are waiting to see a doctor, but I am obviously glad it is just bruised. Ayden was so tired he slept the entire time the nurse was splinting his arm. I guess we will see if it is broken or just bruised really bad in a week with our new films.
Next time thumb, stay away from the wall would you!!

Late Bloomers

Even though it is almost officially autumn our roses are blooming like crazy!! Last April when we were redoing our yard we almost went without putting roses into our backyard bed. I am so glad we went ahead and add them. They put out beautiful and fragrant flowers. The kids love cutting and putting them in our own vases (mason canning jars) and looking at them on the table. Ryan loves it too because he doesn't have to buy flowers as often!! I am glad we have one last reminder of summer before there are no more late bloomers!!

Post-Call Saturday

I was feeling a bit of cabin fever this morning as I was trying to keep the kiddos quiet so that Ryan could catch some sleep after being on call last night. It was raining this morning but had stopped and the sun was out with some blue skies peeking out behind the clouds. I wanted to get out of my house if for only a little while. So I got the kids dressed and the babies strapped into the stroller and we were off on walk. There was a breeze with a little bit of bite to it and it so made me feel like autumn was right around the corner. I had my camera over my shoulder ready to snap a few pics (see above). The older kids loved riding their bikes in the empty lots around our house. Lauryn wanted to pick every flower (read weed) that she saw and Wyatt fell asleep. I had read a few articles on some photography websites about photo scavenger hunts. For instance, A-Z (either something that starts with a, b, c, ect. or objects that look like the letters), hunting for things that are all the same color, or have to do with the same thing. I think it would be fun to do the A-Z (looks like the letter) hunt!! It felt wonderful to get outside and breathe in the fresh air and see the start of a new season. Now what to do with the kids for the next 2-3 hrs. until Ryan gets up?!!

Ayden earns his Bobcat

Ayden has been participating in the scouting program since he turned 8 in June. Our troop takes the summer off and starts again with den meetings and pack meetings once school starts again. We had our first pack meeting on Tuesday and Ayden was given his Bobcat. He worked really hard over the summer to earn it. He also earned a patch for attending scout camp in August at Ft. Lewis. He has been enjoying scouts so far and is really trucking along on earning his wolf.

I wasn't able to get any pictures at the pack meeting because Ryan stayed home with the two littlest ones and Meysa, who came with me, doesn't know how to use my new camera (a fact I want to remain that way). So we will have to settle for this crazy picture of Ayden!! He is such a goof ball.

Fashion vs. Function

Meysa has been loving kindergarten. She wishes she could go all day like Ayden and honestly so do I. Not because I don't want her home but because she really is wanting and could do more than just 2.5 hrs. everyday. Today after picking her up I asked her how her day was. She said fine, told me what they did for the color yellow and what story they read. Then she told me they learned more about Function vs. fashion belts. I kinda chuckled to myself and asked her what she meant. She said they learned that a function belt held up your pants and a fashion belt made you look good. I about busted a gut!! I then asked her why she was learning about belts in school and she said she didn't know. It just reminds me of her first day of preschool last year. When I asked her what she learned that day she told me they learned about savages (like the Native American type). I know there has to be some purpose to the function/fashion theme, but to be honest I am really wondering what it could be!! Oh this girl keeps life interesting!!

Aflac IronGirl 2009

 My friend Heather asked me about 6 weeks ago if I would want to run a 5K with her.  Even though I have never been a runner I really wanted to do it.  So we started "training" for it by running at night when our kids were in bed and our husbands were home.  I actually felt good running longer than a 100m sprint, which up to this point was about all I could do.  Then about three weeks in I hurt my knee.  I had old shoes and they did me in.  I honestly had a hard time walking and going up stairs was darn near impossible.  So I stopped running for about two weeks and hoped I would at least be able to walk the 5K.  My knee started feeling better about a week or so ago and so I thought I would at least try and run what I could and then if I had to finish the race walking, well then at least I finished!  The race was up in Seattle and it started at 8am.  So that meant we had to leave home at about 5am to leave time for driving and picking up our race packets once we got there.  I went up with a couple of really fun girls, Rachel, Heather and Tierre!!  The course was around Green Lake, which is really close to the U of Washington campus.  The 5k run was once around the lake and the 10k was twice around.  It was really pretty,

   

This is us after we picked up our complementary Alfac tees and our race bibs.  This is also before the race so we don't look like road kill so much!!  Three of us were running the 5k and one was running the 10k. 

Getting all pumped up and getting our playlists ready on our iPods.  The race said you couldn't run with any iPods but everyone had them so we took the chance and brought ours.  I am so glad I did, it was a lifesaver. 

Ready to hit the trail.   

Post race.  We look a little hot and sweaty and we don't smell so good either but we feel great.  We all finished our respective races.  The miraculous thing that happened for me was I actually ran the WHOLE 5k.  I was hoping to at least run 2 miles.  I kept looking for the 2 mile marker and I told myself I would stop.  Heck that was better than I thought I would ever do but I never saw the 2 mile marker and before I knew it I was turning the last corner before the home stretch.  So I thought what the heck, I'll just finish it.  It was a wonderful feeling knowing I did something I didn't think I could actually do.  I finished with a time of 35.41 which paced me at about an 11.30 mile.  Again I say miraculous.  I have never been any kind of distance runner.  So this was huge for me.  It was a really fun race and fun to do with friends.  I think we are going to train for the 10k next year.  Thanks girls for a really fun day!!

9-11

I want to thank all those who serve our country, abroad or right here in our own neighborhoods protecting our families and our freedoms. I especially want to thank those that have paid the ultimate price. God bless America!!

Back 2 School

Yup the Heitmann kids are finally headed back to school. I feel like everyone else has been in school for a month or so. Ayden and Meysa were rip roaring ready to go this morning. We are starting the school day earlier this year so that means getting up while it is still kinda dark.
Our big third grader.
Meysa was more excited about going to school than this picture is letting on. Our BIG kindergartner!!
The big deal this year is Ayden gets to ride his bike to school and back. He is officially a big kid I guess. I am ready for fall weather and all the festivities that come during this time of year. It is even starting to get dark earlier and light later. My favorite season is Fall. Yeah for changing seasons and kids back 2 school!!

Nothing is safe!!

While helping the girls this morning get dressed and make their beds, Wyatt decides to scale the ladder on the bunk beds. He was able to do it in about 4 seconds and was quite proud of himself. I didn't realize what he was doing until he was at the top. Little monkey!! He has also learned to climb up on the bar stools, the chair to the computer, into the tub, and the list goes on and on. Thankfully he is still too short to reach the door knobs or I am sure he would have that figured out too.




"Is there a problem Mom?" Yes, Wyatt there is. You are too stinking smart and growing up too fast!!

{OREO}

Who can resist an OREO cookie? Not Wyatt!!! He loved every minute of it.

Date Night

I can't say that Ryan and I go on dates consistently. Our life schedule just doesn't allow for it. But when we do man, we have a lot of fun. When we went over to Idaho this last weekend for Ayden's baptism we got to go to my family's Elder's Quorum activity. Which was a BBQ and shotgun shooting. I know a great combo!! I have shot a .22 before but I had never shot a shotgun. It was FUN!! We waited until the majority of the people had already shot and were eating before we took our turn. I didn't want a ton of people watching me as I missed clay after clay. Plus you just feel like you are on stage or something with all those people watching you. Anywho, Ryan, Abby (my niece) and I took our turn. A nice guy from the ward named Bob helped us get set up with the right gun and gave Abby and I some pointers then we were ready to start!!

I missed my first shot and my Dad was behind me giving me grief about it. He then walks away and I hit my next two clays. I turn around and he is no where to be seen. When he does show up he says since he didn't see it, they don't count. Hence the pose in this picture. I was giving him the what for!!! I ended up shooting 3 out of 4 and thought I would quit while I was ahead. It was so much fun, especially when you actually hit the clay. Imagine that!!!
Up next was Abby!! She is so much fun. She was a little trigger happy with the gun at first and then once she settled down she hit a few clays herself!! It was beginners luck for the both of us!!

Ryan on the other hand was a pro, even though he had never shot a shotgun before. He has shot plenty of other rifles and such before and especially since he joined the Army. He was a a dead ringer!! I think he went 10 for 10.

It wasn't your usual date night but it was a lot of fun!! Thanks babe for a fun night!!