Kathryn sleeps anywhere

Kathryn hasn't liked taking naps lately but she gets really tired around 4 or 5 in the afternoon and this is how I found her one day.

Her feet aren't even touching the ground.Another day she stated out in her bed for a nap and woke up crying and I said she could come down stairs but she ended up in the extra bedroom asleep instead.


Does this tell me I don't let her have enough sleep?

My Baby Can MOVE!

Most kiddo's with Spina Bifida have some sort of leg paralysis but as you can see from my little mover, Charlotte has no problems moving her legs around. It makes me so happy to see her wiggle around. Now if we could only get her neck stronger so she could hold up her head I'm sure she could sit up on her own.



We had a little scare with her shunt this weekend. It was looking kinda puffy and since we were about to get on an airplane to come back home from the Weir reunion in AZ,(post coming soon) I wanted to get her checked out. And lucky us we were just being over paranoid. She's fine and all the neuro had to say was how amazed he was at her leg movement! I guess any word of praise is a good one even if it's going to cost us $100 for an ER visit!

Charlotte Adara

Here is my precious baby girl. Charlotte Adara. I had a friend from High School take these of her. It was supposed to be new born pictures but because of timing and surgery and bandages on her head I had to post pone it. I just got them from her this weekend while in Snowflake. These are the edited ones. I hope you enjoy. They girls are so precious to me. I love them to pieces. Oh and you can't miss the love that Kathryn shows her little sister.

Ever wonder what a day in the life of Heather is like?

A second attmpt at the same video. This one more 8mm like.

Fun with the Girls

Today after naps I decided I really wanted to PLAY with kathryn. She got her blankets and pillows and we had a picnic with her play food and Kitchen. We ended up playing HOT Potato when she put the potato in the oven and cooked it. She was laughing so hard at my saying it was hot and throwing it in the air and burning my hands, feet, ankles, anything it touched. It was so cute to see her laugh so hard. And Charlotte was playing to on the floor next to us with some tummy time and then just wiggling around 'trying' not to get the Hot Potato on her.

Kathryn was trying to run away from me. I love the Kids and Animals setting on my camera. I can get some good action shots. As well as a wiggly baby Charlotte.

Isn't she getting so big! I can't believe how grown up she is getting.

My Mom taught Kathryn 'I'm a little Teapot' while she was here. I tried to get video of her doing it. Kathryn has become a good picture taker but when I am trying to get a short video she gets all shy. So I hope you enjoy some of these short clips of Kathryn running around.

The first video is of Kathryn pretending to be a Kangaroo. The second is her trying to do I'm a little teapot.

Inside the house

Micah wanted pictures of the inside of the house. Here it is!

This is our front entry. The white doors on the left is our laundry closet. Right across from that is the down stairs half bath. It's blue. I like having a bathroom down stairs.

This is the Master Bathroom. I think the owner of the house is a girl. All the rooms are quite colorful! There is a nice linen closet in the bathroom and a big window. I need some half curtains so that I can have the blinds open and still see the tree's swaying in the breeze while I sit on the potty. he he

Master Bedroom. I haven't gotten our pictures up in our room yet. It's not really exciting right now. This room is gray but the ceiling fan in there is a multicolored pastel.

Here is Kathryn's room and her new day bed. Sorry it's dark, it's nap time. The girls room is blue.

Here is Kathryn's Bathroom it's a light green. Here's to some good potty training days ahead. I've planned that I will start to really potty train after the Weir family reunion.

Here is our very nice PINK guest/storage room. The closet in here is huge and it holds all my decorations plus some clothes of mine as we only have one normal sized bedroom closet. We have room for any visitors!

Our kitchen dining room. I like the bookshelves in there. Matthew has other ideas. but I'm not a nick knack collector to put on these shelves so they are book shelves to me. Someday I'll get them organized to look like they have an order. That window looks out the front of the house but there is a big tree in the way to look out much. We did have a nice big praying-Mantis out on that window. We have lots of outdoor insect/animal friends.

Our office is in the front room. Takes up the whole wall. I wanted this in the extra room but now I'm glad it's down here because I can get some work down on the computer while Kathryn plays or watches a movie behind me and I can keep and eye on her. We'll set up Matthew's old computer here too so Kathryn has a computer to play on.

The family room!

The family room, We just got that new TV. I love that it is up high. Kathryn can't get close and touch it at all! And no worries that is a fake fireplace. We wouldn't put it on a real one.

So it's coming along. Not quite where I want it to be but soon enough. I am getting used to the stairs and going up and down holding Charlotte. They are quite steep so it is kinda scary to carry her down them.

Happy Independence Day

We went to our first ward party Saturday the 3rd. It was a nice party. It started at a decent hour for breakfast, 9am. It was a potluck type breakfast I brought a fun fruit dish that was shaped in a star. One of the fun ladies in the ward made a garlic grits dish. it was so yummy! I'll get the recipe soon. I'll have to share it.

On Sunday we almost decided not to do anything as my parents were leaving the next morning and had to get up by 4am to leave to the airport but at the last minute we drove to Manassas and tried to find the Fireworks there. We walked for probably an hour and because the tree's are so dense here we only saw some flickers of light through the cracks in the tree's.

We came home and had some Watermelon and did sparklers in the back yard. Kathryn really liked the sparklers. She wasn't that big of a fan of the big boom after the big fireworks.

It was a nice night though. Not to hot and not to sticky, humid.

It would have been fun to spend time at the capital for the 4th but I read it would take like 2 hours to get home and that if you wanted a good seat or spot you had to camp out the night before . Maybe next year when the girls are older...













I'm so thankful for the land we live in for the freedoms that we enjoy everyday! I just hope they stay that way! We are the land of the free because of the Brave. Lets stand up for what we believe in.

It was interesting in our ward on Sunday for Fast Sunday we had a lot of people get up and say how proud they felt to be american and some mentioned going through the immigration process to become legal citizens. Others were good at pointing out their views on the country in a very distinct way without bringing politics into a big discussion. Our ward is quite diverse. A lot of ex-military and quite ethnic too. It's going to be fun to get to know all these awesome people to get to know some different cultures.

Saying Good Bye

I'm really going to miss my family. We've all lived within 20 miles of each other forever! Melissa has come and gone a few times but we've been together for the last few years. My oldest sister broke that when they up and moved to Bothel, WA last year October. They love it up there! Now we're off on our own adventure here in Northern Virgina. So far it is Beautiful and I love the new ward. So many nice people. I love my new home and my little fenced in back yard. It's my Second day without my parents and I already miss them. I'm going to need some friends fast so I can not get so lonely at home.

Here are some of the good bye pictures I got.

This one is of Matthew's sister Maryann. She had just got off her mission that day. We'll see her in a few weeks at the Weir reunion but it was fun to see her and say Hi and Good Bye!

These next few are of some of Kathryn's Favorite friends. I didn't get pictures of her other favorite friends the Tryons. I wish I did I think Kathryn might have a crush on Dallin!
This is Eliana

And Bubba/Tavian

All three were quite the threesome. Becky was so great to watch Kathryn a lot for me when we first got back from San Francisco. I don't know what I would have done without her. I'm going to miss calling and stopping by all the time. Becky, is one of my favorite people in the whole world. Thanks for being such a great friend! UPDATE YOUR BLOG!!

Here I wanted to get together with all the 'relatives' that lived all within walking distance, well across the street from each other. Barbara, Amber, Micah and Me. Barb is Matthew's cousin, Amber is Matthew's cousin in law and Micah is my sister in law! We went to Mi Mi's cafe for dinner and some good girl talk. I'm going to miss those girls. Amber was another good friend who helped me out a whole lot. I wish I could be there to return the favor. I'm missing a picture of my good friend Vanessa who also helped out more then I can say. She also has some cute boys that were Kathryn's friends too.

Kash and Kathryn, If you have followed my blog from the beginning you know I had a lot of pictures of the two of them. They are only 2 months apart. They are so cute together. I'm going to miss having them play together on Sundays.

Saying good bye to the Nickersons. Jessica and Josh have Foster boys so I can't post pictures of the 'whole' family. But Jessica and Kash will have to do! I'm going to miss them too. Jessica is my MaryKay and Scentsy Candle lady. I guess I'll have to just wait for orders now...

This bike made Kathryn really jealous and she now wants a bike really bad.

Our last family dinner together with the Brimhalls and the Hanchetts. Rachel was leaving the next Wednesday for a month to visit Shelley and I flew out that Friday.

I'm really going to miss Rachel. She was my answer person for all cooking, baby, sewing needs. She'll still be only a phone call away but still she knows how to do everything. I'm sure she got a lot of that from my sister Shelley but come on Rachel you are the Martha Stewart of everything!

Kathryn is going to miss Rachel's girls, Rory and Paige. She talks about them all the time and knows that R stands for Rory and P stands for Paige. We've been working on her letters. That will be another post.

And the Brimhalls. I'm so sad to be leaving them. They just moved into town from Maricopa to Gilbert and I move away and just in time for Joanna to announce they are having a baby. I'm so sad to miss this in Joanna's life! And Jared is for sure the best Uncle in Kathryn's life. They have so much fun together.

Joanna is going to be such a great mom. I'm so excited for her and hope all goes well. She said she's been sick this first trimester so I hope it goes away and she can enjoy the joys of pregnancy! I love being pregnant, well besides the heartburn...

I didn't get a picture with Melissa because she was in the hospital with Valley Fever. We're going to miss her family too. Kathryn just loves playing with Damien. They were the best of buds. He taught her what at fort was and she now wants to build forts over everything. Even Charlotte which makes me nervous cause she's not to good at leaving a space between Charlotte and the pillow/top of the fort.

Anyway here's to a new adventure and a new family to find out here in VA. There are a lot of fun women in the ward that will be great go to women for all my go to needs.

Air and Space

My parents flew with me back to VA to help out with the girls on the plane and help us get settled. We did a lot of work and I can't tell you how much I appreciated the help my mom and dad gave in getting my house in order or well more order then just me putting things away. It actually looks decent enough for me to not be going crazy with boxes everywhere. Now I'm just a little crazy with Matthew's computer stuff not put away.

Anyway we did a few fun things while they were here. We visited the Air and Space Museum that is like 10 minutes from where we live at the Dulles Airport. It was awesome. It has the plane that dropped the bomb in Japan. I didn't even notice it I was just enjoying all the cool kinds of planes when my mom and dad said you need to take a look at this one. It was cool and then I overheard another conversation about it that the flight crew and soldiers on the plane didn't even know what they were doing and didn't know that that was the bomb they were carrying. I"m sure that was a good idea as I would have been way to nervous to drop such a devastating thing on any country.

This post is mostly for my Sister in Law who is a pilot and LOVES planes! I hope you enjoy these.

We also went to DC to see the Smithsonian's Air and Space to see Orville and Wilbur Wrights first Airplane that was really cool too. We also saw the Enterprise and the Space Capsule. I love space travel stuff. The Space shuttle was enormous!!!

In DC we walked right by the Washington Monument and drove by the White house and the Capital building. We were in 3 hour parking so we didn't get to see and do a lot of stuff but it was fun just to see those things up close even if we didn't get to go in or walk the steps of the Capital like we wanted to. Kathryn got to go on a Merry Go Round. And my Dad got to see the National Gallery East Wing which was all done by one architect and he got to do what ever he wanted. I thought it was silly as we tried to get to the bathroom which we had to descend on floor on an elevator and then take a little Lift up 8 steps to the floor with the bathrooms. Silly if you ask me. The building was really impressive though. I should have paid more attention to it but I was feeding Charlotte and my feet were on fire. ( My feet have been the bane of my existence for the last 2 years.)

Charlotte did great and slept the whole time and Kathryn did great until the end and got to cranky and fell asleep before we even got to the car! By the way anyone that reads this if they have any say on parking in DC they really need to build some parking structures. No parking anywhere!!!

We didn't do as much as I wanted fun wise with my parents but I think they enjoyed them selves and got to spend the fourth close to the capital. We didn't venture out that way but maybe next year.

The Back Yard

So not everyone can wake up to the beauty that we do everyday! This is in our little but beautiful back yard.

This is just outside the back fence. There is a little playground area not 20 feet from my fence. It is awesome. The other night we went out and sat at watched fireflies. It was amazing. Can't do that in AZ. Also those trees are so tall that on my second story bedroom window when I'm laying down in bed and look out the window all I see is big tall green trees swaying in the breeze.

So this is the yard it self. There is a 15x20 patio too with a little shed and a dog house on it. I just love to be able to go out side and enjoy the outdoors and not die of heat, well now I'm dieing of another problem. Humidity and Mosquitoes.

We've had a few animal friends come into our yard so far. I've only gotten pictures of this awesome butterfly but I'll catch the Red and Orange birds that sit on out trees soon.

I love the lily pads! and it helps keep Kathryn out of the water. I thought I might need to get a fence but She's done really good to not get in.

And our koi pond has 3-4 fish in it. I've only seen 3 but we were told there are 4 fish in there. It's fun to go out and watch them swim. Kathryn got our fishing poles out the other day and tried to go fishing. Good thing she didn't catch anything. I"m not ready to start gutting fish...

We have squirrels everywhere! We've seen a few gardens around here and all are covered in chicken wire and I'm sure it's to keep out the squirrels. It truly feels like I am living in a very nice trailer in the middle of the woods. With the wild life and the tree's everywhere and the wood bark parks it is exactly like a over sized KOA.

We've been to the ward once and now to our first ward party. It's going to be a great ward. Lots of fun people and they've all been so nice and willing to help.

More pictures of the house as soon as I can get it put together a little more. and More pictures of some fun things we've done with my parents!