Good Friend, Rest, Relaxing & Sunshine make the heart glad!

Jami and I have been friends for 18 years!  Its hard to believe and yet its the truth.  My relationship with Jami has always been an encouraging one.  From the beginning of our friendship the Lord has always been the center of our conversations.  We've talked about a lot of things over the last 18 years but talking is what we do best!  We have not always lived near each other, although at one point we were roommates, but despite the distance between our homes our friendship has always remained strong.  I thought for a while that the Lord was going to allow us to live in the same town when she moved to Boise with her family in about 5 years ago, but that didn't last as long as I had hoped.  A year and a half ago they moved to Portland.  As sad as this was I had great confidence in our ability to have a long distance friendship!  Our family visited Jami & her family in January but in order for us girls to get all of our words out we needed a whole weekend to our selves!  So to the sunshine we went!  Phoenix to be exact! 

This was our cute little hacienda!

We had 8 wonderful meals together!

The food was fabulous!!! And what a cute presentation!

Poolside

Massages!

This is Camelback Mountain in the background.  We had really good intentions on climbing this but we would have had to be up at 5:00 am to get a good start before it got to hot!  Plus...there are snakes & lizards and creepy things all over the desert...so we changed our minds and went for a 4 mile Power walk up through some of the most amazing neighborhoods!

Our last night together!  We ate at the hotel restaurant and listened to live music for hours. We took advantage of happy hour for drinks and appetizers... Made fun of the guy singing (you would have too), ate WAY too much food, and of course.....talked!

Jami- I adore you and I am so thankful for your friendship!  Until next time!

Hudson Killdeer!

Hudson has been waiting for this day for a long time! Kindergarten Exordium day! For weeks they have been memorizing information about a bird that they were assigned and the mommies spent time driving around the city looking for bird feather! Here is my little KILLDEER!

                                                

Waiting for the exordium to begin!  He LOVES school and I love that he loves it because he is smiling constantly!

The Afternoon Kindergarten Class!

Hudson reciting his Killdeer saying:

"Welcome, I'm Hudson Killdeer and I have two, yes, two black rings around my neck. I build my nest on the ground so if anyone gets too close to my eggs I use the old broken wing trick.  I cry "Killdeer, Killdeer" flap my wings and pretend to be hurt.  When I have led the intruder away from my nest I will suddenly fly off.  "See you later Mr. Fox!""

Mrs. Merkle and her Birds!

After the show he was still beaming!  He loved being on stage and he loved wearing his mask around school!

So proud of my little Killdeer!

While he was practicing this week, he would say it really fast and so I asked him if Mrs. Merkle told him to slow down so that people could understand him and this is what he tells me....

"No, she tells other people that, but I do it right so not me."

Sure enough...he gets up on stage and he says it slow and loud so everyone can hear him!  I think he was just saving the true performance for the stage!

Thanks daddy for letting me go to The Ambrose School!

Mother's Day

Mother's Day is often strange to me.  I absolutely LOVE being a mom and think that it is the greatest privilege in the world and yet having a whole day to be celebrated makes me slightly uncomfortable.  I would do this "job" with no praise for sure, but I don't want my kids to feel forced to tell me something just because its "Mother's Day".  Don't get me wrong, I greatly appreciate the love that comes my way and as my kids get older it means more because the cards are written by them and not by daddy and they actually put thought into what they want to give me which is sweet and adorable.  But, I would take a spontaneous "I love you Mom" on any given day over being celebrated on Mother's Day in a heart beat.  So I like to think of Mother's Day as yet another day that I get to wrap my arms around the sweet and precious little people that God has given me to love and bring up in his knowledge.  That is what makes me feel honored...the privilege  being their mommy.

We did have a wonderful day together.  It was family time much needed!  I got up early to sing at church so I didn't even see anyone until they came to church...where I was showered with kisses and hugs!  My fav!  We then had lunch at Banbury Golf Club which was super fun cause the kids all got to pick from the buffet whatever they wanted to eat.  Then we went home and let the kids swim for as long as they could handle it (a good 35 minutes...impressive).  I got to take a little nap and then off to the Green Belt we went with our bikes in tow!  As I was sittin up right on my new cruiser bike watching them all peddle away in front of me I thought to myself "its official...we are parents of kids...no more babies...kids." and I smiled cause I'm really likin' this kid thing.  We ended the day with dinner at Baja Fresh and then lounged around all together in the living room and watched some basketball.  It was a great day!

My sweet sweet Kenna!  She made me the best bracelet ever and about 7 different cards.  All of them with different pictures of special things she had drawn for me.  She cant just give me one card...she has too many ideas and she must use them all and guess what....I LOVED them all!  She is so incredibly sweet and growing up so fast.

My little Ty Ty!  Hugs and Kisses ALL DAY LONG and I am not even kidding.  Just about every time he passed by me he would hug me, kiss me and tell me Happy Mother's Day...it was adorable.  He made me a card with help from his sister (no surprise...she's the card specialists) that had his feet print on it colored in with lots of rainbow colors.  The funniest thing he said all day was "I like this Mother's Day, its really fun."  He also blew lots of kisses to me while we were on our bike ride which is why I stayed in the back...to catch every single one of them!

Hudson melts my heart when he gives up these kinds of smiles and I saw this all day long!  I got homemade book marks from Huddy with special messages on the back.  One said "I will always love you" but my favorite was the one that said "You win. I promise you are the prityist. Love Hudson"....How adorable and funny is that!!!!  I will have that book mark forever!

I look at this picture and I think "How did he get so big so fast?"  But an amazing young man he is becoming.  He didn't tell me Happy Mother's Day, he told me Happy Mom's Day...apparently that's more correct since he never calls me mother....I can understand that.  I love watching him because he is so mature for his age and yet every once in a while he acts like a kid and I cherish those little moments more and more each year.

This really was a fun bike ride.  We are quite the circus but circuses are fun, right! I loved riding my new bike...I totally felt like a little kid!  Its pretty, comfy and it has a basket for heavens sake!  What more could a girl want!  Plus it is seriously effortless to ride...I kept telling Jay "I feel like I'm doin' nothin'!"  Which he would then say "You look like your doin' nothin'"  and then he would laugh at me! It was fantastic!

Abortion Website

Two friends from church who are passionate about loving Jesus have designed a website about the facts of abortion. It is very well done and informative. Please visit this site and support the cause. If you know anyone who is in the situation of trying to decide to keep their baby or not, PLEASE inform them of this website. Right now at our church alone, I know of 4-6 families who would adopt an unwanted child today if given the chance. So please help get the word out so that these children have a chance and so that these families will have the chance to love these children as their own. Thank you.

http://www.exposingabortion.blogspot.com/

POOLSIDE FELLOWSHIP!

Its hard to believe it is that time of year again! Poolside Fellowship is just around the corner! So tell your friends and get the dates on your calendar! Its a great time of swimming and fun but the fellowship is always so sweet! Looking forward to seeing you around the pool this summer!

Love,

Heather

38 years....38 reasons.

Happy Birthday to the love of my life!

Here are 38 reasons why I love you!

1. You love Jesus.

2. You live your life according to your biblical convictions.

3. I know you will love me no matter what.

4. You are the daddy of our 4 little people

5. You adore your children

6. You live purposefully

7. You are caring

8. You are kind

9. From the day we met you wanted to take care of me and you do it better today than ever!

10. I love the crows feet you are starting to get by your eyes

11. You work hard

12. You buy me flowers just because.

13. You still date me!

14. Your a good boy, but deep down you'd become a mobster if given the chance!

15. You liked getting 850 gumballs for your birthday and you don't seem to care about our dental bill. =)

16. You are the man of my dreams...actually you far exceeded my dreams and I'm a big dreamer!

17. You ride a Harley

18. I love that you coach our kids at sports and at life.

19. You are a man of great integrity

20. You take me on vacations!

21. You take our family on vacations!

22. You let me decorate the house the way I like it and you actually like it too!

23. You like basketball, football & golf

24. Because we can play tennis together

25. You like mowing the lawn

26. You give me a back rub almost every night!

27. Your eyes are my favorite shade of hazel

28. Your smile is still my favorite thing about you.

29. You have no problem telling me you love me.

30. You are a great communicator

31. You bought break dancing pants for our dance parties

32. You let me have dance parties (disco ball and all!)

33. You say yes more than you say no.

34. You are my spiritual leader

35. You are my rock

36. You still think I'm the prettiest girl alive, grey hairs and all.

37. You still hold my hand

38. Because you know me better than I know myself!

I can't imagine my life with out you babe. Next to salvation you are the greatest gift I have ever been given. Thank you for blessing my life beyond my craziest expectations. May God give you many more years! Love you.

H

Easter 2010

We had a very nontraditional Easter this year, which was great! Since Jay and I had taken a red-eye flight home and didn't arrive until yesterday afternoon, I didn't really have time to plan a whole lot. Plus we were exhausted and the kids were just happy to be in their own home and have us all to them selves. There were no Easter out fits bought, no candy purchased or eggs filled ahead of time, no fun baskets awaiting the kids when they woke up...just sweet time together. We made it to church and heard an amazing message. I just LOVE hearing about the Resurrection!!! So much hope, so much joy! Instead of coming home in a rush to prepare a big dinner we drove down town and took the kids to PF Chang's for lunch. They all cheered! Its their fav and we had a great time talking about the Risen Lord around our Chinese food! We then stopped by the store to get a few things of candy, came home, had the kids fill the eggs themselves, hid the eggs, searched for eggs and then ate some candy! Then to top off the already different yet wonderful day Jay let the kids go hot tubbin' while I jumped into the MOUNDS of laundry that will probably take me 4 days to get done! Its funny how I usually end up loving the non-traditional, non-stressful holidays that providentially come my way, more than the planned events...I sure did have more time today to really think about and appreciate all that the Lord Jesus did for me. For I know my Redeemer LIVES!!!!!!!!!!!! Happy Easter my friends and family!

Everybody loves a good tickle!

Kauai

Jay and I just got back from Kauai and we had a WONDERFUL time. Our friends Matt & Megan came with us and we met both of my brothers and their fabulous wives there too! To say the least, with 8 people together, there were LOTS and LOTS of laughs! Jay did tons of boogie boarding (which I didn't get a picture of), I laid in the sun every chance I got & we ate lots of yummy food. Jay and the guys played golf one afternoon and I was able to get away and have a massage at one point. Then there were the "adventures". One was planned, the other...not so planned! You can read about those by the pictures below! Its always so nice to get away with just Jay...we were able to spend lots of time together and had lots of good talks...which are my favorite! =)

This picture was taken the moment our feet hit the sand for the first time!!

This is the Napali Coast line...one of the most spectacular things I have ever seen!

This is the Waiohai (where we stayed) and Poipu Beach (where Megan swam with the turtles! it was on her check list.....CHECK!)


This my friends was the unexpected "adventure". We rode in this boat out in the OCEAN for a good 5 hours! I was pretty sure I was going to die! Yes, I'm afraid of the ocean and so why I got in this boat to begin with is a mystery....I guess I just didn't want to "miss out". It started out pretty fun....the boat is speeding along, bouncing along but about 40 minutes into the ride as we are being slammed into the boat over and over and over and over, I start to wonder (along with EVERY OTHER PERSON ON BOARD) what the @*%# we got ourselves into! People were getting sea sick, there were times when we couldn't see anything but GIANT waves in front of us, our hiney's were taking a beating along with our backs! Our hands (which were holding on to ropes for 5 hours) were cramped and as red as you can imagine! And NO ONE was wearing a life jacket! "It makes me look bad" Captain Joe said! He said no one had ever fallen out of his boat....I think he's a liar. The whole point of the boat ride was to ride out there to see the Napli Coast line which you cant see from anywhere but a boat or a helicopter, but because we were so afraid we kept our eyes peeled on the rolling ocean most of the time. Did I mention that the wind was blowing like a mad man and when we left it was raining??? Bitterness was starting to set in as we headed back....going through sea caves, seeing turtles, dolphins and whales was promised and up to this point we had seen ONE turtle. LAME! But, the trip was redeemed! Going with the waves proved to be much easier than going against them (although we were all so exhausted and beat up it was still hard). But the most exciting was that we came across a pod of dolphins! The Captains 1st and only mate, whose name by the way was Chance, told us that there were probably 300 hundred! It was awesome and totally made the trip for me! Once we finally got back to land (praise God we made it!) I looked at Megan and said "WHAT was THAT???" Everyone was....well I don't even have the words to describe it....we were just happy to be alive! The rest of the week was filled with jokes and life and death tales from our trip and we all decided that THIS would be the adventure that we would never forget!

Lovin my man at one of the Wiamea Canyon look outs.

Jay and I at the Luau...no I'm not leaning on Jay....My brother Chad who thinks he's "Artsy Fartsy" took the picture with the camera at an angle...He said it would look cooler...what do you think?? =)

This was our planned "adventure" which none of us were really looking forward too...we had all had our fair share after the Zodiac trip, but it was paid for and we couldn't get our money back so we went. 7 hours, that's right people, 7 hours is how long this one lasted, but it was much more mellow, in fact we were bored. We took a 2 mile kayak trip down a river, hiked a very short distance to a tractor that pulled us around the ranch that some of Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones had been filmed at. It took us to the zip lines (3 to be exact) where we stood in line for who knows how long to wait for everyone to go. The zip lines were....fun? They were OK...nothing special. I think because it took 7 hours to do, well, not really anything was a bummer. Plus we had a tour guide who SERIOUSLY didn't stop talking THE entire time! But here is me and Jay in our Kayak. Jay said it was good for us to do this together in case we ever got our selves in trouble and needed to know how to work a kayak.....huh?

Dinner at Tidepools with the whole gang! DE-LISH

The Phillips sibs and their mates!

Here are those dolphins I was telling you about! Pretty awesome!

Wolfpack ends and an 11 year old emerges

It was an eventful and intense year of Wolfpack basketball that has now come to an end. It was so much fun to watch the boys grow together as a team and see individuals get better and better. To see friendships made between both the players, coaches and the parents. We love our Wolfpack family!

What's next? Well, he will be playing more basketball with a different team for a few months but will be back with the Wolfpack when they start up again in the Fall. But the NEXT big thing is that Jaxon will be 11 soon on April 2nd to be exact! I wanted to write about both because basketball has become a huge part of Jaxon's life (our lives) and it is a tool that is helping shape him as a person. I picked the picture above because it so represents who Jaxon is...no, not just a basketball player but a leader and a good one at that. He is quiet, yet he stands tall and strong for what he believes in. He has a quiet confidence and is not easily shaken. Other kids look to him for guidance on and off the court and they aren't sure why, they just know they want to be his friend. I can tell you why. It is because he works hard at everything he does, he is teachable, agreeable, trustworthy, and content. He is content to loose and content to win. He just enjoys the activity of the sport, or the challenge of learning and what the outcome is doesn't really matter to him, he just enjoys the process. At his last parent/teacher conference the teacher said she "admires Jaxon as a person and see's him as a critical leader for his class today and for the years to come" and that he is a blessing to her and has helped her learn more about herself. Really? You would think that pride would swell within me and I'm sure that there was some of that, but it quickly turned to an overwhelming thankfulness and tears of joy that our son is growing and turning into the young man God wants him to be. I often marvel at who God has made Jaxon. I can take no credit because he is who he is despite Jay & I's weaknesses so it must be God's grace.

I have to say that each year with Jaxon gets better and better.....and harder and harder. Better because each year I am graciously reminded that Jaxon is a gift from the Lord. He is solid and responsible and a vital part to our family. I love being his mom and I take seriously my responsibility to raise him up to be a godly man. The Lord has already saved him (the greatest gift a mother can receive), but my job is to train him, direct him, love him, encourage him and then let him go....wow....that is really painful....that is the hard part. I love seeing him grow, mature, accomplish, succeed but the more he does this on his own the more steps he takes away from needing his Mama to hold his hand. I'm afraid the next 7 years are going to go by faster than I can handle...I love this boy who is quickly turning into an amazing young man. If this is what he is like at 11 I look forward to knowing him as a 15 year old, and 18 year old and so on...

I love you Jax. You are a true blessing and it is my pleasure to watch as God grows you into the man he wants you to be. The Lord has always amazed me with what he has for you and I'm sure there will be many more amazing moments. I know God will use you to do great things, things that will further his kingdom! As you grow I pray that you would guard your heart and mind, that you would trust in the Lord alone and that in everything you do, you would do it for the Glory of God! Happy 11th Birthday, my son. I cherish you.

Love,

Mama

My baby is 4...

For a lot of mom's I know, when their baby turns 5 they have a hard time with it, but for me age 4 has proven to be the toughest one...at least when it comes to my baby. You see, we have played a little game with each of our kids where we have teased them, telling them that they cant grow up past the age of 4. 4 years old has been Jay & I's favorite stage with each kid. They aren't quite 5, which seems long gone from the toddler years, and they aren't still in the toddler years! =) They still say and do funny things, funny things that we can laugh at before they start to become concerned that you are laughing at them. You can still cuddle them, kiss their boo boo's, help them get their shoe's on and they will still look at you like you are the one and only "special mommy" in the world. Ive cried the last few days as I feel like a stage in life, that I have loved, is slipping away. I look forward to the life of having older kids, cause they are just such great people, but leaving behind the little people stage is taring at my heart. I knew this day would come and to be honest I looked forward to it in some ways but now that I am here I find myself longing to hold a little baby of my own who only I can know in such a tender way. Jay's pretty sure getting "things" taken care of was a good idea or I may have found myself pregnant again! Ha! He tried to tell me that I had grand babies to look forward to....SILLY MAN! No, actually he has been great through the tears and irrational ideas...like getting a reversal. =)

As many tears as I cried Ty still turned 4....I tried to tell him today that maybe I shouldn't feed him anymore and then he wouldn't grow bigger, but he didn't think that was a good idea cause he loves donuts and is tummy might die if I didn't feed him! SEE! Its why I love 4 year olds but especially why I love Ty Ty!

Born 4 years ago today was my baby...Ty, Ty Ty, Tyger, T-Y or to be official....Tyson Brady Hughes! Happy Birthday little man! You are my sweet brown eyed boy who gives affectionately lots of kisses and hugs and I love you's. Your smile melts my heart, your brown eyes are beautiful, but when you crawl into bed with me in the morning to cuddle me, I know its going to be a good day! I love how you think you play basketball like a big kid, how you like to wear underwear that looks like Jaxon's underwear, how you manage to get Kenna to give you what ever you want and how you and Huddy laugh together when you play. But I especially love that you look just like your daddy!

Tyson,
Since I cant keep you at the age of 4 but for only 1 year, I pray for your future. I pray that you would know Jesus as your Lord and Savior and that you would live your life with a passion for the gospel. I pray that your heart would love others because Jesus first loved you and that you would be used to further God's kingdom. I pray that you will marry a woman who loves Jesus with her whole heart, a woman who wants to stay home and raise your children, a woman who wants to be in the divine role God has given her. That she would be your help-mate and encourage you to be a godly man. I also will pray for the things of today...for you to learn self-control, to speak kindly to others, to put others first. I pray that you would learn to obey mommy & daddy because you want to obey Jesus first. I pray that you will learn from your brothers and your sister that people are different and yet all valuable....and so many other things! I look forward to seeing you grow from a little boy into a "big guy" as you would put it. But no matter how big you get you will always be my baby!

Love,
Mama

It's official! Ty is 4!

Here he is checking out the amazing cake that Heather Crosby made for him. I think he's trying to decide if he should touch it or not....

Isn't this amazing??? Love it!

Playing a little "Super Hero" Musical chairs.

His Super Hero friends that came to celebrate with him!

The next 5 pictures are from the last 4 years, starting with Ty at age 4. He's always kissin' his Mama or his Mama is always kissin' him...

Ty at age 3...Sea World

Age 2

Age 1

5 months old and one of my all time FAVORITE pictures of Ty as a baby.