Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Swim Lessons

There is nothing cuter that the littles feeling confident in the pool and I love their little swimsuits!  That is why I have a love/hate relationship with swim lessons.  While my older 2 kids love the water, my younger 2 do not.


McCoy's progress was slow and his teacher spent a lot of time with him.  They were so great.  When swim lessons were over however, McCoy informed me he was not getting baptized.  oh man!

Love these 2 cute bums!

Friday, June 20, 2014

Camping on Blue Mtn

We had been promising the kids we could go camping for a long time.  Finally a free weekend came up and we took it.  We are so lucky we live so close to this beautiful place. Livvy was excited to practice shooting.  Jeremy is so good at teaching procedure to Livvy and she learns how to hold and handle her BB gun.  Cohen was all about his sling shot too.  But man, that kid is going to take his eye out!!




There was a whole lot of chip eating!  I mean A LOT!  Jeremy made us some hobo dinners to put on the fire and we tried out a new way of making smores.  We put marshmallows in a sugar cone with bits of chocolate.  Well... let's just say those didn't turn out.  But the dinner was soo good




Sunday, June 15, 2014

Arizona - the not so fun part

One morning as I was getting up really early to get ready before all the little people started waking I received terrifying news.

Scout, my 5 year old niece, fell from the second story window onto the cement driveway.  She was rushed to the hospital.  I can't even imagine what it must have been like for Noelle to walk out and find her daughter like that. (I took these pictures from Noelle's blog.)


As I laid there, in that early morning, I felt like I couldn't breathe.  I was completely panicked just waiting on every piece of information I could.  I wanted to be there.  I wanted everything to be OK. I prayed.  I prayed for Noelle, for Scout and for her family.  All I wanted to do that morning was hold my kids and my phone real tight.  Trials affect the person involved. but it's like they make a large ring out.  It affects many people in different ways.  I truly was impacted by the love and support my friends gave me to show their support for Noelle and her family.  This experience gave many a way to show God's love.  As the days went by, and many prayers were said, Scout started to recover.  Faster than anyone could even hope.  The left side of her body was completely fractured.  From her eye orbit, spleen, fractured wrist and hip -everything was going to be OK.


Scout, after a long while, started to remember the events and she told me one day.  She was very brave.  She remembers falling and holding on the the "black thing" and when she couldn't hold on anymore she said she hit the ground.  We are so blessed to have her safe and sound.  This was nothing short of another one of God's miracles.  He is so evident in my life and I can't explain it any other way. Scout was soon on her way home to heal with her family.




As if this week hadn't been emotional enough, I finally got to talk to Huntsman's Cancer institute.  The news wasn't what I hoped for.  30% of Jeremy's cancer cells were non-snoma cells that transferred up through his blood and possibly have spread into his lymph-nodes.  A few of his nodes were larger than normal, possibly due to cancer.  Dang it.  The weight of everything was so heavy on my shoulders I could actually feel the weight.  The only way I could get through all this was to turn it over to Heavenly Father.  It's hard.  Jeremy was doing awesome.  It just didn't seem like this could happen.  I spent many nights talking to Jeremy.  He was so much stronger than me. You see, the worst part about cancer isn't the cancer itself.  It's the waiting between tests, the surgeries, and just telling people.  It is a step by step process that you just have to go through,  By this point I had planned Jeremy's funeral 5 times.  I was a mess.  I wouldn't sleep at night and found myself waking up in tears.  Till one day, my dear friend said, "Heather, you can live in fear or have faith."  She was right.  My prayers then changed and Heavenly Father and I carried the weight together.  This was all going to be OK.

Father's Day..

 There really is no end to this guy's accomplishments.  I love the way he puts our family first in all the many things he does.  I love that when I think of a cooking idea or just an organizing plan he helps me carry everything out.  He's a doer this one.  We headed home from Arizona on Father's Day and I sent him messages of each kid throughout the day.  We love him so much!! Happy Father's Day!!
 There is no doubt that these creatures LOVE their Dad!


Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Arizona Vacay

We planned this trip forever, and we couldn't wait for school to get out and hit the road.  Jolynne was making her way to Pheonix from Texas and we picked up a day early and drove down.  These cousins had so much fun together!

I think Luke got a shock because he's never had that many kids and chaos in his life!  Cohen loved on Luke.  He is super good with babies and loves to make them laugh.
Days of fun meant making lots of yummy treats to eat.  Mason helped out by licking the spoons.

Simon Says and many other games were played!









We headed up to Nana's house to play with Bailey who Mason loves to death!  And of course, we hit the pool.  Livvy even got Mason off the steps and into the pool.  --We are still working on Coy.


Nana, Great Nana, and Great Grandpa Bissett
Great Nana sang to the kiddos.




It was hot!! So Popsicles and pools were a must!  Benita's pool had been out of order for most of the week but it was finally ready for kids!  We were all relieved.











We hit up the movie theater twice.  We LOVE movie time and mostly just the popcorn!  We saw How to Train a Dragon 2 and Rio 2.


We may have bribed the kids if they were good all week that we would go to the Disney and Lego store and let them pick something out.  Cohen and Coy had been saving their money.  Mason just couldn't decide what he wanted!  He settled on Sulley.  Oh my goodness, Mason was so cute.  He was soo excited to see this store.  He has never really been to a mall.  I had to strap that boy in to keep him from going too wild.  Cohen couldn't even believe there were movie theaters that played more than one movie in them!  (Oh man!)  We are becoming more hick than I ever could imagine.


One day, we decided o go to Chuck E Cheese's! We had sooo much fun.  McCoy, after seeing a commercial about Chuck E Cheese's was skeptical the place existed.  He asked me if it was real.  So of course, I had to take him here.  We were so glad we did!  The kids had soooo much fun.  It wasn't so busy and the kids roamed with happy smiles on their faces!








Miss Lola is the cutest!  She has a smile that can light up any room but you have to earn it.  She doesn't just give it away!  I loved playing with her sooo much!
I miss my sisters very much.  I love them and their kids and wish we could all live by each other again.  Someday, and I don't mean HEAVEN, it will happen.