The fruit of my yards labors

I would like to say I had anything to do with all of this amazing fruit, but the truth is no. All of the trees and grape vines were already here and mature when we bought our home and I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE it. Every home we have from here on out, if it doesn't have fruit trees I am planting some. I can't even begin to tell you how much I love to go out side and pick fresh fruit.

Nectarines, grapes, avocado, grape fruit, and lemons. All that is missing is apricots. I think that tree produces every other year. I am still getting the hang of it all.

Cooper had to have his pic taken with the fruit and then he gave me this cheesy grin. Love ya Coop.

Sophie's B-day Party

One of Cooper's friends from preschool had a party last saturday. Here are some of the pics
Cooper with his friend Jacob.

The Birthday girl is in the middle above. Isn't she a doll!!

Jacob, Carter and Coop.

Sophie, Cooper and Carter.
For the activity Stephanie, Sophie's Mom, had the kids plant flowers in a cute little pot and they got to take them home. I thought that was the cutest idea ever. Their flowers are currently on my kitchen table. So cute!!

SEVEN YEARS!!!!!

**Pics to come....I couldn't figure out my scanner

I can hardly believe that I have been married for seven years. What a dream come true. Last week a friend asked me, "Do you love Cade more now then when you got married?" And the answer is YES! I responded, "Yes, I don't think I knew what a catch Cade was when I married him." Truly!! I thought I was just getting a hot piece of A**!


Seven years, seven reason why I love my Man!!

1.My best friend.
Any thing I do is not as fun or enjoyable if Cade isn't there with me. I would rather not do it if he can't share it with me. We are a couple that LOVES to spend as much time together as possible. When we were starving students we had a TON of time together. Many people would make comments like, oh my gosh how can you stand to spend that much time together. We would just look at each other and say well we actually LOVE to spend that much time together.

2.My handy Man.
Cade can seriously fix ANYTHING!! I mean it ANYTHING!! Even if he doesn't know how to fix or do something he will research it until he knows how to do it. I love that about him. Cade I want to re-rock my fire place.....ok honey......figures it out......wa la....I have a new re-rocked fire place. Cade I don't want our garage to look like junk....ok honey....after two months a few volts of electricity running through his body and a thrown out back we have a beautiful MAN CAVE.

3.HUGE!!!!!
I love how tall and huge my husband is. Many people say that he is just a different size human being and I LOVE it!! I could go into details, but I will spare you all. Just suffice it to say that I can wear 5 inch stiletto heals and be fat and prego and he is still bigger than I am. What comfort that gives a girl!!!!!!!

4.He takes care of me.
In every way shape and form he takes care of me. Every day of my life I don't have to worry about anything and if I ever did all I would have to do is express that worry to Cade and he would take care of it. No matter what. He is always thinking about the future and how to prepare our family for the future so that everything will be taken care of. Sometimes that involves me totally trusting him even when I don't think it is a very good idea. But to tell you the truth, he has never steered us wrong and I know he never will.

5.The world's best father.
We got Cade a gym pass for his birthday one year. He ended up canceling it because the only time he had to work out was when Cooper had baseball. Missing his son's baseball was totally out of the question. He is the kind of Father that doesn't shoo his kids away right when he walks through the door. He welcomes them with open arms, happily deals with all of our craziness.....bath, scriptures, prayer, bed, and then he takes time to relax himself.

6.I am a better person because of him
In our seven years of marriage Cade has never yelled at me. I can't say the same for myself. He has taught me how to communicate with love and understanding. Is strong in the gospel and much more. I am truly blessed to have him as such a wonderful example to me.

7.He is so much fun
I love all of the activities we enjoy together. Here is just a few of the things we love to do together. Wake board, swim, go boating, snowmobile, watch movies, go out to dinner, go on fun group dates with our friends, play with our kids, camp, tube, snuggle, four wheeling, shooting......I could seriously go on. I love that he is always up to do something fun together. On vacations we vacation so hard that when we get home we have to recover from our vacation. One of his ultimate goals is to have lots of toys so we can do something every weekend (ie four wheeling or snowmobiling), as a family. I know my life is going to be filled with lots of excitement and I LOVE it!!

I am so glad that he is mine for eternity. I love you 15!!!!

Random pics from Kathryn's Camera

So what do you do with cousins who live in the same city that are only 5 months apart? You match them every chance you get. That's what you do!!

At Lake Powell on pirate day.

At Benihana for I don't remember who's birthday.

Shopping at fashion island.....specifically restoration hardware because...that really matters.....um....yeah.....

Attack Reagan at her best

I just want to love you and squish you and then love you some more!!

At Benihana for Grandma's Birthday. Reagan looks like she is soooooooooo excited!!



Fun at the beach



My babies and I

Cousin Brynna and Reagan laying out.....look up Bryn

For some reason when we go to the beach Carter ALWAYS chases the stupid seagulls. Why is this so aggravating you ask? Because it freaks me out. I am scared that he is going to run far away and some nasty guy is going to take him away from me. Paranoid? Why yes I am.

Coop in the waves.

Benihana for my Daddy's Birthday.

Cooper's Magic Trick

My tricky little Cooper. When Cole was here for Axton's blessing he was doing magic tricks for the boys and they LOVED it! So here is one of his own.

LAKE POWELL

So I am finally getting around to posting LAKE POWELL. Do I always have to write LAKE POWELL in caps...why yes. And why is that? Because it is the best vacation in the world!! I have just been really really busy....sorry. So with out adiu...here is LAKE POWELL!!

We always stay in the Green River Hotel the night before we arrive at Lake Powell. We arrived at about 4:30 in the morning. We got a bit of a late start and I was beyond tired. Cade slept with Coop and I slept with Reagan and Carter. I thought Carter and Reagan looked so cute. I love that their heads are touching. I had about 12 inches to the left of Reagan to sleep. YAY for Mommy.

One of our most favorite illegal activities is cliff jumping. I used to jump off 80 ft. cliffs. Ever since I got married and had kids, well....I am just a big fat wuss butt and opt not to go. Everyone else had fun though. Cooper jumped of the biggest cliff ever. We told him to jump off a smaller one, but he marched right over to the big boys and went for it. He kept saying you go first to everyone and then once everyone had gone he plunged right in with Grandpa. Brave little sucker!!


I had to single out the pic of Christy and I floating out in the water. Does anyone notice anything wrong with us? Answer: No children attached. HEAVEN!!


It was so much fun to dress Reagan in all of her swim suits. Why are girls so much dang fun?

Do you see the tube that John is holding up? Do you think that Cade and John could DIVE through that tube? If you said no then you are sadly mistaken. The first time they both got stuck and then it happened....they dove through the tube. If you look close you can see the tube around John's waist in the pic on the top left and around Cade's feet on the bottom left. Miracles do happen and hairy armpits ROCK!!!!

Arranged marriage anyone? The older my kids get the more and more I see the wisdom in this. Hey a Mom can dream can't she?

Oh my goodness!! Here is the worlds most unflattering pic, but I LOVE IT and I will tell you why. First of all, it perfectly shows off our lion manes styled by the lake itself. Secondly, one of the highlights of the trip is going to the marina for some ice cream. And third, by the end of the week you have eaten so much dang food, why not shove another ice cream in our pie hole. Please don't over look John making everyone RANDY.


This may not seem like a picture of much, but it was one of the most frustrating days of my life! I HATE CROWS! I HATE CROWS! I HATE CROWS! Can I make that any more clear? Here is what happened. Flash back to before LAKE POWELL. Picture Heather making two pans of delicious crock pot steak and two pans of yummy potatoes...hard work. Now fast forward to LAKE POWELL and picture Heather putting her meal out to defrost on the top deck, leaving for a day of touring, then coming back to the house boat to find THIS!!! All of my beautiful food EATEN BY THE FREAKIN' CROWS!!! Can you believe it? I was truly in shock. I mean what in the freaking world. There was not a morsel of steak left. All there was was bird poop and crumbs. I seriously wanted to cry. I hope the crows blew up from all of the food they ate. DIE!!!!!

Every day on the house boat has a theme. Pirate Day, Fathers Day, Mexican Day, Hawaiian Day, Sports Day, and All American Day. I Love the themed days. They are so much fun. Martha plans it all and brings fun things that that have to do with the days theme. For pirate day there was a treasure chest with pirate booty inside. Cade and John hid the pirate chest and left clues for the boys to follow. They clues were pirates names. I loved it!!!

For Mexican day we had a pinata and Mexican food of course.

Rainbow bridge used to be one of the seven wonders of the world. It is so beautiful. You just have to hike to get there. Let me tell you how fun it is with 3 kids. At least you burn a million calories while carrying a kid on the hike. Maybe it helped me not gain 7 pounds. I only gained 6!! Yup 6 pounds in one week. Sweet huh?

Cole actually carried Coop 1/2 of the way back. What a studly Uncle. We love you Cole you are the best!!



Of course we always do a lot of swimming. I love the picture of the boys sleeping on the floor of the boat. When you are gone all day long on a tour, well....that is the only place to take a nap.

Cooper kept turning to the camera as he was jumping off the slide. Who's Mom takes a billion pictures? Cooper's Mom! YAY!!!!

This is a little video I like to call flying John. Watch to find out why.

Why is it I ALWAYS get hurt tubing? This year Cade was doing the circle of death and our tube hit a wave and well, I went flying. I tried to hold on and that was the biggest mistake ever. I ended up bending and hitting my Dad's head/chest with my back then flopping, like a rag doll, into the water. Let me tell you how good that felt. My sweet husband massaged my back like 3 times that day. Just so everyone knows, it is not a good idea to hit someones head with your back. It hurts. Bad.

Pics of the kiddies. Notice Carter fell asleep with the lollie in his hand.

The annual hike to the Indian ruins. So fun.

Brynna sure loved the hike!!

We met up with some of our friends who were out of the lake the same week we were. It was SOOOOO much fun to see everyone. It was even more fun to get 4 Dad's, 8 boys, and a little baby girl, on a couch to take a pic. Let's just say the noise level wasn't at it's lowest. It was so fun to see you guys!! We love you!!

And the last pic of the trip. Thank you Martha and Crea for another amazing year. And Thank you John and Christy for flying across with your cute boys to see us!! LAKE POWELL always goes by way to quickly. At the beginning of the week you think oh goodie we have 7 days. Then you blink and it is over. Till next year!!!!

ENOUGH SAID!!!