The Return of Adventures!! SWEET!!!

Since we moved to Ogden, Heidi Anne has been very hesitant towards the idea of adventures. If given a choice between exploring our new area or staying home, she has been picking home. That is not my normal Heidi Anne. To say the least things have been a little blah for the first time since I was pregnant with her.
Little did I know salvation was on its way, in the form of my friend Valerie. She came back to the area for the Christmas season to visit her family. She has 4 children 3 and under. She is a pro at traveling, adventures, and adventures with kids. She invited us to come along on a trip to the train museum and the Christmas Village.
Oh my gosh! When Heidi Anne heard that we would be going somewhere with Valerie's family she couldn't wait to go. She started to do a count down. That Saturday she just kept asking, "Can we go now?" "Is it time?" Heidi Anne was jumping at the bit so we headed out a little earlier than planned. Just to have her eager to go somewhere was so refreshing! 

Heidi Anne had a ton of fun at the Train Museum, which also had a car museum, gun museum, a mini cowboy museum, and an art gallery. The lobby alone was lovely to look at, so lovely many families were getting family photos done there and someone even had a reception going on too. Heidi Anne LOVED getting Pressed Pennies. Great little keepsakes for adventures and they only cost 51 cents. Take that overpriced gift shop!

After the Train Museum we had sandwiches. Again, Valerie's professional traveler shined though. They already had all the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches put together, some pre cut carrots, water, oranges and apples.  Then we went to the Christmas Village. Which reminded Heidi Anne of the Logan Pumpkin Walk, only it's in Ogden and they are supercute playhouses. You can look inside them and they are all decorated like window shop displays used to be back in the day.  

We got to go on a hayride pulled by two big horses! Heidi Anne went to sit down and promptly jumped back up crying. She just kept whimpering "Pokey!". It took me a few seconds but then it came together, the hay was poking her when she tried to sit. Once she finally picked to sit on my lap she was much happier. Then the horses started to make their way down the street as we all sang Christmas Carols.

One scene will stay with me from that lovely ride. We're all singing songs and having fun when I noticed a young waiter hunched over and slowly walking down the sidewalk. As we got closer I noticed a dark figure hanging onto the corner of his arm. This young waiter was helping an elderly homeless man down the sidewalk as we were singing "Away in a Manger", and I thought "Now that young man is a shinning example of Christmas spirit, he lives it."

Heidi Anne noticed that there were people in some of the buildings and had fun waving to them as we passed by. She said she felt like she was in a parade with people looking down from their HUGE buildings at us. Yes, anything with three or more stories is "HUGE", you can't tell she grew up in a small town, can ya? 

OH How I have MISSED This!! 

Heidi Anne - The Littlest Angel

On Saturday afternoon Heidi Anne had her Christmas pageant practice. This year she was an angel, all the girls aged 5-7 were angels. It was the same part my sister and I frequently got when we were younger. My granny made a lovely white gown, with golden rick-rack edges. I've kept mine my whole life. 

She's wearing that very same gown now. I love how things my Granny made for me as a child are now used by my own little angel.

I didn't have a halo or anything of that nature. So I improvised. I had fun putting her hair in a crown braid with two yellow bows on each side of her head. It looked better than any halo. Then we put a little makeup on her. She wanted her cheeks to have "Those dots like the dolly has in the Nutcracker." We haven't seen the Nutcracker in a YEAR!! But I knew what she meant. 

 She turned out to be the smallest angel. I forget how short and tiny she is. Then she is place with other 5-7 year olds. I also learned my camera does "black and white" when there is poor lighting. I think it was cute. Your typical Christmas pageant with lots of shy, fidgety, little kids. But she had fun.

Afterwards, we had a Christmas dinner at church. I snapped a picture of Char and Heidi Anne waiting for food.  

Decorating With NO Funding - Filter Angels and Snow Flakes

Heidi Anne Reading to Ana Rose

I don't talk about money often. Let's just say we aren't even doing a Christmas tree this year and it's not because I want to save a tree.  However, Heidi Anne is still excited for Christmas. She's been reading "The Littlest Angel" (one of my FAVORITE kid books) and "Madeline's Christmas" to anyone and everything.

A MUST Read!! 

Did I mention she now loves Ski Hats? 

Heidi Anne wanted to decorate for Christmas. I surprised her after school yesterday by having a table set up for making crafts. Coffee Filters (you can make so many crafts from them!), colored paper, normal printer paper, fun scissors, pipe cleaners, glitter, glue, and a hot glue gun. 
She put on her sweetest face when she saw the craft surprise. I had to get a picture, just look at those bright blue eyes, golden wheat blonde hair in pigtails, and sweet smile. 

 We made a lot of snow flakes. They were perfect for hanging round the apartment (as long as the cat leaves them alone. 
After we made a lot of snow flakes we made angels! Cotton balls, coffee filters, and pipe cleaners never looked so good! She says the ribbons around their neck are really "little angel arms". We made one for each person in the family. 

Then she made some little angels for her teacher, for her friend, and the last is to show the other kids at recess what "My Momma makes with me!" She went on to tell me, "The other kids say that Moms don't do fun, messy things with kids. I tell them, "Well, my Momma makes messy crafts with me!" 

Heidi Anne Angel

It's nice to know that we can still have fun and keep the spirit of Christmas when we're flat broke. Sometimes those can be the most rewarding times. (At least that's what I like to tell myself). 

Momma Angel

Daddy Angel

Heidi Anne Says....

I will admit I was rather hesitant about Heidi Anne going to full day Kindergarten. I was worried it was going to be to much for her. Back in Logan her class time was roughly 2 hours and 30 minutes, with a class of 35 children. (The total amount of kindergarteners was roughly 200 kids!) She was already in a after-school resource program as well. Apparently she was behind, she loved learning her classmates native language then learning her own. She was learning more Arabic, Russian, and Spanish than English.

At her new school there are only 18 other children in her class. I am amazed at the progress she's been making. She can read words, do some basic math, and her grammar is improving. Yet, I am still surprised at the things she says.

Like yesterday when I picked her up from school. The first thing she said was "Momma! Guess what we learned about today?" So I just started saying silly things like "That you have a nose! That it's almost Christmas?" Heidi Anne proudly says "Nope! We learned about periods! It's so exciting!" 
(Yes, my eyes bulged out like a cartoon character, Will E. Coyote would have been very impressed with me). 
I told myself deep breaths. 
I cleared my throat, "So what did you learn about periods?" 
"They are those dots at the end of a sentence! And we learned about question marks and explanation marks, but those are for when you're really happy or yelling."--Crisis adverted!

Later that day I was talking with Char and asked if he had any "iders" for dinner. From the hallway we hear "Momma, you're not pronouncing it right. It's Idea, III-DEE-A, not I-Dear." 

I know her reading has greatly improved, we read a lot of Dr. Seuss books. When we read I will read I like to test her reading by saying the wrong word. She'll correct me. Last night we read Green Eggs and Ham. I would say things "Would he, could he out of box?" She'll laugh and read "Noo, it says Would YOU, could YOU IN A box. You silly Mommy! You need my help." 

Kezia's Heidi Anne Adventure!

My friend Lela has two adorable little girls! Kezia is three years old and Amelia is roughly 18 months old.  Kezia is three-years-old and has been a fan of this blog since she was born. Kezia this post is dedicated to you!

The Far Right Building was ours

I've been friends with Lela for seven years. When I first got married and moved to Cache Valley, Lela was a classmate of Char's (in many of his classes) and became one of my first friends in Logan. A few months after we moved in she moved in the apartment below us.  (I still feel bad about our apartment flooding her's that one time).

The layout of Aggie Village

Kezia has been wanting a Heidi Anne adventure of her own for such a long time but we lived in Cache Valley and they lived in the Salt Lake Valley. Lela's husband is in the military so he is frequently overseas. Lela is very involved with support our troops organizations and travels frequently with her two girls. Saturday was their lucky day! We got to bring the girls to our house for a play date! According to Heidi Anne "Kezia is here to play with me but we are babysitting Amelia because she is a baby."

We drove down to pick them up and Heidi Anne sang songs with Kezia and played Peek-A-Boo with Amelia the whole drive back home. The back seat was filled with little girls' giggles and made up songs. The first thing the girls did when we got home was to dump out all the baby toys. Everyone had fun playing with the toys, watching and singing Tangled, making each other laugh in the process.
We had some waffles for lunch, I forgot how much a little baby can eat! Kezia wouldn't take off her cute pink jacket, she wasn't cold, she just liked it snuggling her. After we ate lunch I thought Kezia and Heidi Anne would like to play without Amelia. Amelia stayed with me in the living room while the girls played in Heidi Anne's room. 

Thus began a new game for Amelia. We would be happily playing in the living room when she would get this grin. Quick as a wink she would get up, run to the hall, (wait for me to follow), then start booking it for Heidi Anne's room, laughing the whole time. I would pick her up and she would smile and do a pretend "Eeek!". Then it would start over.  

I love this picture below, I went to check on the girls, came back and Amelia had this surprised face of "Wait. How did you get here first!?!" 

I didn't get many pictures of Heidi Anne and Kezia playing together. They would hide when I tried to get a picture. They had fun playing camping, kitchen, house, doll house, collecting leaves, and getting into the "snow" when I tried to put Amelia down for a nap. I was worried Kezia wasn't having much fun since she wouldn't talk to me much, apparently she had a wonderful time. I know Heidi Anne was in high heaven and now wants some sisters, which would be fun. I'm Not announcing anything!

Char's Cousin's Only Halloween Party

A little delayed in posting but I'm making a recovery! Back in October Char's family had a "Cousins Only Party". I think this is what happens when parents keep their children at the "Kids Only Table" past the age of 12 - once they are older they have their very own Holiday Party. Sadly, this year I couldn't make it. Char and Heidi Anne went to the party (plus they had a Cousins Zoo Adventure earlier in the day with one of his sister's family).

This year they decided to have a Cousins Only Halloween Party. There were a lot of people there, but most of the adult age cousins played "Dodge the Camera", here are a few who weren't fast enough!

They had dinner, got together to hang out, and the younger cousins and the kids of the older cousins (i.e. Heidi Anne is the one with the pink flowers on her shirt). Just had fun getting to play with each other.

It's also a great time for the new mommys' in the family to show off their adorable new babies! This little lady is named Elizabeth Jane, I think her outfit is adorable and fits her perfectly!

Baby Elizabeth Jane

Baby Hannah

Besides getting together, having dinner, showing off cute babies, letting the kids just have fun, they carved pumpkins.
 








 

Heidi Anne got so exhausted from playing that she wasn't able to finish her pumpkin. I'm sad I missed it but at least they had a wonderful time!

 

From Trains to Planes

Back in Cache Valley we lived about 2 houses away from train tracks. Whenever possible, Heidi Anne and I would run outside as soon as we heard the train coming. As it was came closer and closer we would sing make up lyrics to the tune of "She'll be coming around the mountain."

 As the train came within view we would jump up and down waving at the engineers, always getting a smile in return and even got to hear the train whistle. When the train moved beyond our sight she would hug me and say "I love my mini train adventures!"

 We live in Washington Terrace (a city that is surrounded by Ogden) and is less then one mile away from Hill AFB. Now we get to hear the thunderous sounds of the 388th Fight Wing practice in their AWESOME F-16s! They normally fly in packs of three we hear:
Fighter Jet 1:  SSSSSWWWWOOOOOAR!!!
Fighter Jet 2:  THHURRRSSSDOOMMMM!!!
Fighter Jet 3:  BBBBBOOOOOOMMMMM!!!

Often by the time you hear them they are long gone. The trick is to hear a small "Hissss" or have an open, elevated spot with a great view of the sky. We can see them almost every day at Heidi Anne's school when I go to pick her up in the afternoon. She loves to play "Fighter Jet Pilot." Running up and down with her coat spread like wings singing "Into the Wild Blue "Wonder", flying high into the sky!" (I know it's yonder, but it's soo cute!"

Heidi Anne's Halloween Adventures! Pumpkin Walk, Pumpkin Picking, Halloween Trick or Treat!

Heidi Anne Picked a Pumpkin!

First is the Pumpkin Picking! Every year since Heidi Anne was born we've gone to a Pumpkin Patch to pick a pumpkin and to the Pumpkin Walk. Well Heidi Anne got to pick her own pumpkin. We thought about going through a corn maze with her because she had fun playing between some corn rows. But we'll take her next year.

Heidi Anne at her 6th Pumpkin Walk!

I was so sad that our little family's tradition of going to the Pumpkin Walk in Cache Valley may end since we moved.  Char had a surprise for us. He traded shifts so we were able to go the Saturday before Halloween. (Which is very lucky because a winter storm smashed many of the displays the next day.) The theme this year was 80's. Apparently, it was in honor of the 30th Anniversary of the Pumpkin Walk. These were some of our favorite displays.

Carebears! 

Back to the Future! -- You Have 2 Years Science!!

Little House on the Prairie - Heidi Anne loved the Kittens

Super Mario! 

M*A*S*H

Princess Bride! 

Hello, My name is Inigo Montoya. You Killed My Father!

Heidi Anne wants to be "Heidi" Next Year

Minon! 

For Halloween Heidi Anne dressed up as Cindy Lou Who!  I got some pictures of her before she went to school. Sadly, I forgot the camera when we went trick or treating. My sister's in laws had a Dr. Seuse theme going. It was Heidi Anne's FIRST time really trick or treating. She LOVED it! She's always gone to our office going desk to desk. She and her cousin Kayla would run house to house. Since I forgot my camera I will use some pictures from the Pumpkin Walk to show what the rest of the family were dressed as. (She did ask me if she could borrow Kayla's Grandpa until her's came back). It was so much fun! 

Heidi Anne AS:

Cindy Lou Who

Kayla was the Lorax!

Kayla's Grandpa was the Red Fox (from Green Eggs and Ham)

One of her Uncles was Horton

Her other Uncle was the Orange Fish

 Another Aunt was The Cat in the Hat

Her twin girls were Thing 1 and Thing 2

Her other Aunt and her baby girl were Birds from Sussicial the Musical

My sister was "This one has a Green Star"

I was "Oh, The Places You'll Go!" (I got lots of Heidi Anne's things from around the world)

 Rykken had the cutest vest and a Fedora Hat. I kept thinking "1920's Mafia"