Trip to Houston

Derek, Mitch and I took a trip to Houston at the end of March. Derek did really well up until the last hour. Then Mitch had the brilliant idea to share gummi worms with Derek. I was a little apprehensive, but it ended up giving rise to all the following awesome moments. He was so cute!!


"Touch"

Lovin' those gummi worms!

Hey!

Smile and eat at the same time... not pretty.

Derek's second ever gummi worm. I wanted to make sure I had both hands ready if he choked on the first one. lol

Derek, can you say "Dada?"

Derek, can you say "Mama?"

Playing at the Park

Took a trip to the park with some friends. Derek's first trip to a park with friends. :) He had a blast and didn't get sunburned. Yay!

Derek Newton and Derek Heath :)

I think he liked it

Going for a ride

Her mom's comment? "I'll be sure to keep an eye on him when they get older." Love it!

Definitely not having fun

Not having fun

Why is that camera in my face, Mom?

Kind of his new thing

He wants so badly to ride it

Picnic Down South

Mom Heath and Dad Heath have a piece of property south of Dallas. 5 acres, no house yet. Not sure if they plan to retire down there or not, but it's a beautiful little spot. We drove down so Mitch and I could see it and we had a picnic down there.

Learning about flowers

I think I like these...

Yep! These are cool!

Learning about hats

Nah, I think I'll pass, Dad.

Playing with his Toys

If at first you don't succeed...

...Try going backwards.

Too cute!!

His best friend

He likes to help Mommy around the house

Playing with the rocking horse at Grandma and Grandpa Heath's

Ride 'em Cowboy!!

JOB!!!

K, so it's not our end-pont, but our starting point. Mitch accepted a job as an overnight stocker working for the brand new walmart in Frisco. For those of you unfamiliar with Texas, Frisco is near us. Hehe. His employers are SUPER impressed with him and anticipate him moving through the ranks fairly quickly. He starts mid-April and the store opens in May. All I care about is that he starts getting paid in April. WOOT! This means my days will now be spent caring for Derek, keeping the house clean and looking for apartments - in that order. I feel pretty jittery but I'm so thankful that we have a job now. It pays just enough for us to scrape by if we're thrifty. Score! For those of you to whom this is a shock - join the club. :)

Deep Thinking

Julene, if you're reading this, thanks for posting this on your blog!

We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the life that is waiting for us. - Joseph Campbell

Story of my life right now. I've been so caught up in what we've lost, (and still losing, more on that later) that I haven't been able to enjoy hardly anything about where we are in life right now. Except Mom Heath's delicious meals. Oh. My. Gosh! All of us are trying to lose weight, but I think I'm eating better than I ever have in my life (no offense to my Mom or Dad).

I've been worrying and stressing about so many things I went and made myself sick. Great. Let's just add to this pile. At least I've lost 5 lbs in 24 hours and, judging by the way the fever is making me sweat, I might lose another 5 before the weekend is out. WOOT!

One of the biggest stressors has been Lacey. What happened to my perfect pet?! She had less exercise when we were in Del Rio (Kal was mostly inside and she was mostly outside) and she only dug one hole there. Here, she gets walked at least every 2 or 3 days in addition to playing with Kal in the side yard all day every day and she's dug at least 5 mini craters. Needless to say, Dad Heath is not pleased but he's been so patient with us... well, with me I suppose. Mitch seems all too happy to be rehoming her and is now absolutely firm on never having another dog in the house. Kal is all weather, so he will be staying outside or in the garage during cold nights or super hot days. I think we'll have to shave him for summer. :S Man, he's going to look pitiful. lol Anyway, Mitch and I have come to the conclusion to put Lacey up for adoption. It's been absolutely horrible for me to even think about losing them, especially Lacey. She was such a doll, so good with Derek, ridiculously softer than any other dog I've ever met, and so loving. No other dog will sleep for 8 hours in a car in the backseat with a baby! No other dog has been such a good sport about doing dog training with me. Kal is a booger sometimes. He's just starting to heel consistently but if he sees another dog, even in the distance, he freaks out. Too bad it seems like everyone in Stonebridge has a dog.

**UPDATE** Lacey is so close to being in the best home ever! Just a few more days and we'll find out if she gets to stay with the neighbors across the street. How cool is that?!

Picturepalooza

Here are a bunch of pics of Derek and Mitch. Just some background for some of the pictures coming up: We decided to jokingly call Mom Heath "Mammy Tammy" and Dad Heath "Popsicle" until the kids get old enough to talk and give them their own name. Personally, I think they're super cute and absolutely original names and, considering that Derek has 5 sets of grandparents, Grandma and Grandpa can only go so far before becoming unbearably repetitive.

They love Popsicle's motorcycle!

Absolutely love his face! Priceless!

The Lipless Wonder

Apparently, babies taste like buttercream

Huh?

Mitch really did get stuck. I had to laugh. ;)

Waiting for Daddy to come back. Love the perspective and contrast

Videopalooza Part Two

I guess it's gottaupdatetheblog night. In lieu of date night, we are doing late-night. lol. Mitch is finally getting to spend some time with his xbox (and so is Derek, lol) while I soak up some TV. I figured I'd do something constructive during the ridiculously long commercials on the Criminal Investigation Channel. Seriously? Do you have to advertise your other shows with the same 3-4 minute clips?!

Derek walking outside

Being cute with clothes

K, so I hear Mitch downstairs calling for me and I come down to help. Here's what I find. Of course, the cruel wife in me can't help but run for the camera. ;)

Derek being cute with his monkey. WAY better than a pillow pet.

Derek vs The Hoodie

Tickle Fest!

Temper Tantrum-ish

Derek has learned to put his face in the water! He's got a head start on swimming lessons. :)

Baby's perspective and banging on the walls

Justin Bieber..... Hmmm...

As a continuation of my comments on facebook, I think Justin Bieber is a "talented little terd" but I don't think I'd ever want my kids to see his music videos. People say Stephanie Meyer portrayed unrealistic love in the Twilight books, but I think the music videos of teens today are fueling that fire just as much, if not more. In Justin's "Baby ft. Ludacris," He chases unrelentingly after another pre-teen at a bowling alley, even putting his hand out to touch her chest. Don't believe me? Check out THIS youtube link and watch at 1:02. Hilary Duff, Lindsay Lohan and Miley Cyrus are all prime examples of what happens when kids get into the music/acting business too young and are expected to make grown-up decisions overnight. No matter how often the parents may act as the "agent" they still claim that their child should be allowed to make the decisions. Heaven forbid parents give guidance and direction, let alone enforce boundaries, rules and guidelines!! It makes me want to scream to see the waste of such wonderful kids. They're pushed and pulled until they eventually snap. I, for one, don't blame them entirely: I blame their parents. Granted kids should know that drugs are bad, but being raised for the world's entertainment they're likely to be heavily influenced by the world's standards, or lack thereof. I realize that we really are being tested far more extensively in these days than in any other previous dispensation. Wealth, "free-time" and social demands are just as much a trial as poverty, child-rearing and back-breaking hard work.

Ok, I'm off my soapbox now. Next week's soapbox will be about depression, ADD/ADHD and bipolar disorders.

Come What May, And Love It

Wow, it seems like we've been here in McKinney FOREVER! It's really only been three weeks. Not a huge ton of stuff to share, but a fair amount.

Derek is cute, as always. He walks and walks and walks now. He also likes to climb the stairs which I do NOT like; especially since he doesn't understand that he can't walk down like the rest of us and refuses when we tell him to "go down on your belly."

It has snowed. Again. Come on, really?! It's freaking TEXAS!! It doesn't snow here!! Bah. At least Kal and Lacey are loving it. They'll bury their snouts in the powder and fling their heads back, chase each other around the yard and sniff the yellow snow. Derek thinks it's too cold and runs away from the door back into the house.

Our car got backed into. Totally the other guy's fault (he smelled like alcohol), but just one more thing to deal with.

We have callings! YAY! It was hard to want to go to church in our last ward because we didn't have callings and we kind of got lost in the ebb and flow of military/border patrol transfers. Anyway, Mitch was called as a primary worker and I was called to serve in the Cub Scouts. Did that smack you between the eyes like it did me? Yeah, totally way off in left field with regards to my expectations, but the Lord knows what he's doing. Mitch is taking over Mom Heath's primary class, which is kind of cool. He walked into Primary on Sunday and the Primary president asked the kids if they knew who Mitch was. One of the kids called out, "He's a Heath!" Too funny! I'm kind of the substitute teacher for scouts, I guess. This ward likes to have leadership "Two Deep," meaning they have the den leader with an assistant den leader to fall back on in case the first can't make it - basically, a fall back. I'm what they consider "Three Deep" or a floater. I go where I'm needed and fill in where I can. I'm cool with that, especially since scouts is completely foreign to me. I have a mandatory, one-hour meeting every Thursday evening and that's it (unless I'm asked to do something else). And I can bring Derek. Cool.

Hmmm... what else.... I've unleashed the inner Emeril, I suppose. I've been cooking dinner and baking bread more often just trying to contribute to the running of the house and taking the load off Mom Heath since she works at The Cake Stand. It's been fun to play with my food and learn how to cook.

All in all, I'm trying to say "come what may, and love it" like Elder Wirthlin says. I've also tried to come up with some positive things about our situation instead of dwelling on only the bad. So far, the list is small but it's still growing.

Oh, and Mitch and I were asked to speak in church in two weeks. Can I just say I'm kind of amused at what stuck out at me? We were asked to use Elder Duncan's talk from last Conference, "Our Very Survival" - it talks about obedience to the prophet. It's been an interesting set of impressions, but I'm confident we won't crash and burn. At least nobody has called me Sister Murray. :)