Life in December

Life in December was VERY busy-- lots of ward Christmas parties, school things, gifts, shopping, but there were two highlights this year. One was that were able to take the boys to Disneyland and the other was that Ashley's youngest brother Dane got engaged to his fiance Brenna. They are getting married on June 3rd in Boston.

Ashley's mom and dad are the activities chairs in their ward in Provo, so they invited Ashley and the kids to their ward Christmas breakfast and it gave the kids their first opportunity to see Santa this year. Pictured above is Daniel trying to decide if he's been good or bad when asked by Santa. He looked to Ashley to an answer and she said "It's been a toss-up this year".

Lizzy was terrified of Santa the first time she saw him. She pleaded for Papa (ashley's dad) to take her into his arms and save her!

Ashley & the kids at the breakfast (Rachel was home w/ Dave)

Papa Heilner

Ashley was so busy and stressed this Christmas season, she just could not get the Christmas tree decorated. After the kids repeated begging, she finally let them decorate the tree mostly themselves. It was actually very interesting to see which ornaments they felt were the most important to put on the front of the tree-- preschool decor, named ornaments, etc. Ashley originally intended to rearrange the tree, but it was so special seeing what they chose, she just left it just they way they did it.

Nathan was SO excited about Christmas this year. At almost 4 yrs. it is really starting to make more sense to him!

Lizzy pictured with McKenna our favorite babysitter.

A week later we attended our ward Christmas party. It was kind of a let down this year, but it did have some highlights like the Bishop dressing up as a reindeer dancing while the Primary children sang....

A quick pose with Santa before all the chairs were put away!

Nathan absolutely in love with Santa. He just wanted to sit and talk to him all day!

Mimi (Ashley's mom) came along..

Ashley w/ the kids....

Months ago Daniel drew a picture of his dream birthday cake. Dave was so impressed he told him that he would make it. He hid the picture and baked it for Daniel's birthday. Daniel was THRILLED to see him dream come true.

Now that Daniel is in kinder garden he had an official holiday concert. He was dressed up as a reindeer and got to sing lots of fun Santa songs.

For months, Ashley had the dream to take the boys to Disneyland for Christmas. So, earned extra money to take them (selling stuff of KSL & ebay) and got some airline miles from her dad... It seems like every friend the boys have go to Disneyland regularly, so they desperately wants to go. Dave and Ashley kept it a total surprise until the 2 days before they left. When the boys unwrapped the gift that told them they were going, they were so excited. They couldn't believe it. Nathan asked at least 100 times in 48 hours if he was really going to Disneyland!

They were SO excited to ride on an airplane!

We had so much fun at Disneyland. They boys were fearless and Nathan was tall enough that he cleared all the rides. So, we went on lots and lots.

Nathan was so excited to see his "Disney friends" and gave Mickey a big kiss when we left!

Dave wanted to take the boys on the jungle river cruise.

Nathan was pretty ticked off he couldn't ride in Lightning McQueen. He thought posing for a picture was a low blow!

Christmas morning. Santa brought Lizzy a new doll....

It was actually a wonderful Christmas morning for a change. We actually started opening presents at 7:30 AM !!! And slowly took our time. It was just great.

Our Baby Rachel's first Christmas at 7 months.

Life in November

The big news in November was that Lizzy started walking (finally!) at 18 months. She also has become very into dolls and is shown here holding her baby. She loves to kiss her baby and pull her pacifer in and out. Lizzy is all girl and fun to watch after having 2 boys...

Ashley worked with the Young Women to donate a tree to the Festival of Trees this year. The Festival benefits Primary Childrens Hospital. 800 trees are donated and sold and all the money goes to the hospital.

Ashley's neighbor Barb, donated these cute little Thomas Kinkade house ornaments to the tree. So, several of the Young Women went shopping and decorated the tree themselves. Barb was also able get the Thomas Kinkade gallery to donate a painting to go along with the tree.

Lizzy and Nathan love to play with Tinker Toys. Nathan loves to build things and create "Bam Machines".

It seems like many of our Tinker Toys have been disappearing lately. Ashley asked Dave about it and he said that he's been throwing them away! He can't stand to have them all over our floors. It's been tough love, but Nathan is learning (very reluctantly) how to pick up his toys.

For Thanksgiving, we spent the day at Dave's sister Linda's house with her family. We had a small celebration this year with just our two families. Our kids had so much fun playing with their cousins.

Linda's oldest son Blake (9) holding Rachel.

An attempt at a Christmas card picture.

On Thanksgiving morning we built gingerbread houses out of graham crackers. (Notice the splint-- Daniel fractured his wrist at Dane's Birthday party).

Nathan ate more than we put on his house!

Uncle Dane came to visit for his birthday. We had so much fun spending time with him! This was his birthday cake from Baskin Robbins!

The boys were getting a bit rowdy at Mimi's so we sent them outside to play. Daniel was playing on the neighbor's swingset and fell of the monkeybars onto his wrist. Ashley had the leave the party early with him to get xrays and we found out he had a minor buckle fracture. He has to wear the splint for a month. (He was pretty excited until he realized it got in the way of his art projects!)

Aunt Carina holding Rachel

This is a pretty common face right now on Daniel (When we ask him to do something he doesn't want to do). It's even gotten him a taste of tabasco sauce!

Papa with Lizzy and Rachel

Rachel 6 months. She is SO tiny and petite. She's is by far our smallest baby-- she's only 30th percentile for height and 15 th for weight. The Dr. Says she's not gaining enough weight so we are working on getting her to eat more.

Dave had a big dinner with some of his students over. The finishing touch was his cheesecakes.

Ashley is really enjoying having her friend Emily back in Utah. Here she is making baby Rachel laugh.

Rachel just full of life. Our happiest and saddest baby.

Life in October

Life in October was very busy. Young Womens had some big activities, Halloween came with late nights and school parties, Dave has had a VERY busy semester at school, with 3 difficult classes and lots of grading and as always, having 4 kids has been very demanding.... Here is a picture of the Young Women serving at the Utah Food Bank.

Ashley loves this picture of Rachel and Nathan because it really show how Rachel is. She is VERY social and demands constant interaction and attention. She can be a lot of fun when she gets what she wants. The boys love her because she is always laughing at them and making cute baby noises. She is going to be the life of our family as she gets older.

Another picture from the Utah Food Bank service project. We sorted through hundreds of canned goods that were donated and got them ready to ship out to local food banks. Ashley is pictured with Anna, one of the laurel advisers in our ward. (and a good friend).

This year for Halloween Daniel was a doctor. Daniel has really gotten into running and swimming. He does swim lessons every Saturday and now is able to jump into the deep end and swim to the other side of the pool by himself. He also runs everywhere he can (really fast) and plays with his best friend Jonny every day after school.

Here is our whole family trick-o-treating in our neighborhood

Nathan wanted to be a fireman this year and wouldn't even consider something else! It was actually hard to find a fireman costume, so Ashley had to order it online! A lot of little boys HAVE to be fireman at Halloween. (Nathan shared the same obsession!).

Right before Trick-o-treating. We had great weather this year.

Lizzy was a cute little flower fairy. She has started walking finally at 18 months. She still has to choose to do so-- often she just prefers to crawl-- but she is capable of walking!

Rachel our little flower

Daniels Kindergarden teacher, Mrs.Mackay was Cat in the Hat. This was taken during a Halloween parade at school.

This is Rachel's favorite thing to chew on-- her index finger! It must have been that way in the womb.

Lots of smiles.

Daniel being silly. He turns 6 in December.

Fall has been so much fun. The boys love raking leaves and jumping into piles.

The boys are protective of their piles.

A trip to the Provo Temple to do Baptisms for the Dead with the Young Women.

Grandma Jensen's birthday party.