Happy Easter

We had a very Happy Easter morning.  Entegra woke up early, too excited to sleep any longer.  Then she woke up Benjamin and myself to show us the carrots she had left out had been reduced to just an end.  After Benjamin and I got out of bed Entegra ran to wake up Inara.

The girls got their baskets and then proceeded with the easter egg hunt.  Entegra had a blast.  Inara would've preferred to just play with her basket of goodies.  Bracken also got an easter basket and enjoyed his toy.

As usual I made my kidly-dinks their Easter outfits and they are probably the best I've done yet, just don't look at the zippers (I HATE sewing zippers, the buttons weren't too great either).  I decided to go all out this year.  I did the dresses and Brackens vest outfit.  Then I made the girls some matching hair bows.  Entegra's dress was a bit too strapy for me so I crocheted her a shrug to wear on top.  They loved their outfits and so did I!

Entegra was asked to give a talk in Primary this Easter Sunday.  Her topic was "Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ all mankind may be saved."  She did a wonderful job and actually remembered way more than I expected her to.  She was so excited!

After we came home from church we ate lunch and the girls were allowed to choose one piece of candy from their baskets.  Of course they chose the biggest item; Entegra chose her chocolate bunny and after she bit off the ears she made her bunny say, "WHAT?"  Inara chose her marshmallow lollipop.  We went for a walk afterwards to help with the sugar but Entegra biffed-it and at that point naps were definitely needed all around.

All in all we had a good day and are excited about moving into our soon-to-be our-house on in two days. 

-Taryn :) 

Precious Little One

My Baby Bracken is so precious to me.  All my children are, of course, but Bracken is my little baby for the next 10 seconds so I make as much of it as I can.

Baby Bracken was needing desperately to take a nap before his bed time.  He usually needs a nap sometime after 7pm or else when he goes to sleep for the night, he'll end up waking up every 2-3 hours which drives me insane.

So, we were trying the cry it out method.  (Feeding him to sleep wasn't working.)  Lay him down, cry for 5 minutes, check on him, and add 5 minutes each time.  Well, after 30 minutes (with my heart breaking and tears starting to swell) Ben and I agreed on 5 more minutes.  After that 5 minutes he was still crying and so I went in to comfort my tiny, yet chubby, baby.  Talk about heart breaking...

I picked him up and his little baby arms wrap around my neck and give me a big baby hug (he's only 5 months old but he knows what hugs are).  After several hugs, kisses, the rocking-bounce-back-pat, and me telling him how much I love him, Bracken gave me baby kisses.  The most precious little guy still loves me.  They are definitely baby kisses and not him trying to eat my face, I know the difference :)

I held him until he fell asleep which was 2 minutes later (not exaggerating) and his grip on my neck barely loosened.  After 15 or so minutes I decided to try to lay him down because he does still need to know how to sleep in his own bed  He stayed asleep and is still asleep an hour and a half later, although that doesn't make me confident for the night ahead.  At least I'm able to feel that special warmth and love knowing that my baby needs and loves me.

I love you my sweet precious Bracken.
-Mommy

Cherry Blossom Festival 2011

Alright, so the title is a bit misleading.
We tried to go to the Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington D.C. a couple of times but it just kept raining.  Every time it was sunny, I'd tell the kids we'd go the next day but then it would turn from a beautiful warm day into a cold, windy, rainy day.

But yesterday, we made it.  I, Taryn, ventured forth with my kids in tow.  No Benjamin to help this time as he has been working really hard to make sure our family is able to buy the house and groceries all in the same month :).

Sadly, all the cherry blossoms around the tidal basin had lost their beautiful flowers.  We were able to find a few trees that must have been late bloomers.

We walked a little around the FDR memorial then went on to the American History Museum.

Entegra and the Ruby Slippers

 Entegra was super excited to see the ruby slippers from the Wizard of OZ and talked about them all the way home.

Entegra learning about kaleidescope images.

Bracken in front of some of the dino eggs from Jurassic Park

Inara in front of Michelangelo, the ninja turtle.

My children in front of a Disney ride from the 1960's

The awesome giant doll house, it had a room for everything!

We had a great day and it ended up only costing us $2.  Until we got home and I decided to go to McDonalds for dinner, then it cost $10.40 but really that's a great deal for going to DC and having a wonderful family time.
The monuments were the best part.  That always seems to be the case.  It wasn't that difficult taking the kids by my self.  The hardest part was in the museum.  Let me just say, sardines.  I can't let the girls walk in there, they have to stay in the stroller or else they'd get lost in half a minute.  They really enjoyed walking around the tidal basin.
Next time, I think we'll just have a nice picnic under the Washington Monument, then maybe play kick ball near the White House's back yard, and end with ice cream on the steps of the Lincoln memorial.  That will be a good day.

Our First Born is half a decade OLD!!

Dear, sweet, opinionated Entegra is five years old!  She is such a grown up girl.  It's amazing that she's so old already.  Just five years ago they plopped her on my tummy all gooey and funny looking :)  I didn't know what to do with her but then they cleaned her and wrapped her in a blanket and gave her back... Ben still didn't know what to do with her :)

We, of course, eventually figured it out.  Entegra became so precious to us.  A few months later she was blessed and family from all around came to see the newest little one.

Kenneth Meyers, Kurt Heiner, Erik Prusse, Benjamin Heiner holding Entegra Heiner (2mo)., Cody, Terry Decottignies

She grew into a super cute one year old.

Then she grew into our super smart two year old.

Our rambunctious three year old certainly made life interesting!

Then she became our super hyper, talkative four year old.

And now we are blessed to have in our home, our smart, talkative, beautiful, confident, rambunctious five year old ENTEGRA!!

For her birthday we went to the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space museum (her favorite).  Then on to Chuck E. Cheese and home for some cake, ice cream, and presents!

She happily repeated through out the day that it was the best

birthday ever!