Heiner Hullabaloo

This was our first Easter in our new home and we decided it would be fun to hunt eggs in the front yard instead of inside.  The kids really liked looking out the window and seeing some of the easier eggs laying around on the ground.  They had so much fun hunting.

The girls threw a Christmas party yesterday.  They had a great time!  The kids played the XBOX kinect Adventure game, decorated graham cracker houses or rather...decorated as they filled their mouths with the candy pieces.  They ran around the house and played.  After 2 hours of that we sat them down to eat pizza and watch The Polar Express.




 

Sadly, it has been a very long time since I last updated our family blog.  So many new things have happened and I haven't documented any of them.  One very unlucky thing that has happened is...all our photo's we had on our hard drive are lost.  We think our hard drive was formatted but really we have no idea.  I try not to think about it too much.  We only have some hard copies and then the pictures we have here on our blog.  Seven years worth of photo's.  Now see, I'm dwelling too much, time to move on and be thankful for what I still have.

Let's see...
Summer 2012
I took the kids swimming a lot.  We went to the local water park and they all had loads of fun.  They would've stayed longer everyday if I hadn't been so tired.  

September 2012
Entegra started 1st Grade and Inara started Preschool.
We gave birth to baby #4 - Braddock Benjamin Heiner

October 2012
We had a fun Halloween.  Trunk or Treating at the church, and Trick or Treating around our neighborhood.  Entegra was a bat, Inara went as tinkerbell, Bracken was a ninja, and Braddock was a lobster.

November 2012
Braddock was blessed the weekend before Thanksgiving.  My Mom was there as well as all of Benjamin's Brothers and Sister with all of their kids.  That was awesome!
We went to Ben's sister's for Thanksgiving this year.  The kids had so much fun being able to play together.  I don't think I saw Entegra for most of the 2 days we were there.  She and her cousin kept running around, playing outside, creating creations from whatever they could find outside.

December 2012
Well, we've just started but we took out the tree and the kids helped set it up.  After setting up the tree, we ate homemade pizza, drank hot chocolate, and watched Christmas shows.

I hope to find some pictures to expand on these fun times.

Entegra went to Preschool, so this wasn't exactly her first year in school, however, kindergarten is a full day here, 9-3:30 with a half hour for lunch and 20 minutes total for recess ALL DAY!!  This was a big shock for me let alone for her.




She took the bus to school and I did the silly thing and met her when she got off the bus at school so that I could walk with her to class.  I like to think she appreciated that :)  (Only on the first day of school, though.)

The school had informed us parents to be sensitive to our kids when they came home.  Don't ask them tons of questions, give them time to relax a little when they come home.  Well, Entegra wouldn't stop talking from the minute she got off the bus.  She told me all about her day and her experiences and on and on and on.  She had a great time.  Relaxing was not something she seemed to need.




I think she enjoyed her first year at school.  She made new friends, participated in Girl Scouts and some of the other school activities throughout the year.


 After her last day of school, we enjoyed popsicles out on the deck.

We did one of those seminar things where they try to convince you to buy their product for over an hour and in the end we had a short lived time share in a nice suite (?) at Bear Lake in Utah.  We quite enjoyed it.  We invited Ben's brother and sister-in-law to join us for a couple of days.

We made it to the lake only once, the other days, if I remember correctly, were rainy.  Entegra was the only child we had at the time, well except for the growing Inara in my tummy, and she had a great time.



Benjamin is not the biggest fan of going into the water, so he thought I was some kind of nuts for walking out farther than my ankles.  Little did he know that his children would be water babies.

Our Memorial weekend begun with a day at the park...well, we went for a short hike and played for maybe 30 minutes.  It was really hot and humid, and it hasn't even hit 90 yet.  There were all these stops on the hiking trail that were little exercising stops.  It was very nice out there.  We also went to the animal shelter just to look.  Bracken is terrified of dogs, especially when they bark.

On Memorial Day we started with some cleaning and Benjamin mowed the backyard.  Later, we filled water balloons and played in the sprinklers.  The kids had a blast!




After playing in the water for a while, it was nap time for the little ones.  After they woke up it was time for our BBQ.



We had a great day and weekend.  So much fun!  We ended our day with Family Home Evening, and the kids redeemed their tickets for prizes from the prize box (tickets from doing chores).  Hugs, Kisses, and Good night.  The kids fell asleep pretty quickly, I certainly felt drowsy from all that sun.  What a wonderful feeling.

Entegra recently performed in her Ballet and Tap recital.  We packed up everyone and went to watch her wonderful performances.  I think she did a great job.  Yes, she watched her leader but it seemed once she saw the beginning move, she remembered basically what to do next.




After her Tap performance, which was Friday night, it was late so we came home and put the kids to bed.  Entegra and Inara couldn't stop chatting.  (Some of her ballet video got cut off.)




After her Ballet performance on Saturday, she received a bouquet of flowers, which she loved.  Then we went out to eat at the local buffet.

 




We all had a great time.  Great Job ENTEGRA!

Benjamin and Entegra went to a Daddy-Daughter dance that was held for the Girl Scouts.  

That's right, folks!  We're having baby number 4 sometime in September of 2012.

We just found out today that we are lucky enough to have another baby BOY on the way!  Isn't that exciting!  We'll be even with 2 girls and 2 boys.  Wonderful!

This baby was a complete surprise for us.  We had told everyone that we were happy and done with 3 children, but apparently Heavenly Father wasn't listening :)  In fact, Benjamin was in a car accident in December which totaled our 5 seat crossover which, of course, meant we needed a new vehicle (since we only use one).  Well, after searching for a couple of weeks, we found the perfect crossover.  Almost everything we wanted.  It had to fit the 3 carseats easily and be below a certain mileage.  Well, this car had that AND one extra seat (so, 6 seats).  How foolish were we to think this seat would be for carting along one of the kids friends or an occasional visitor.  Not a month later, we were pregnant.  Coincidence?  I think not.

But again, we are very happy to be able to add one more to our home and family.  In fact, when we were first married, we had said 4 would be a nice amount of children to have.

My kids are so cute, I just felt the need to add some random cuteness pictures.

Benjamin's parents were able to come visit us for about a week.  I probably wasn't the best company, but I'll get to that in a later post.
The kids absolutely loved their visit and took advantage of any minute they could with either of their grandparents.

Kurt (Grandpa) was almost immediately set to work teaching Benjamin how to build our basement.

Mary (Grandma) sang songs and played with the very willing children.

We had a great visit.  Benjamin went with his dad to Lowe's and bought a TON of necessary items for building up the basement.  Later, Ben's siblings and their kids all came over as well, except for the family in Oregon.  His brothers were all very helpful with working in the basement.  At some point Jon and Ann-Marie noticed the playhouse sitting outside, waiting to be played with, and cleaned it up for the kids to play with on the deck.  They are still having a blast with it.
See the four kids there trying to be patient, while waiting for Uncle Jon to clean off the play house?

On Monday, we went to Mt. Vernon which is George Washington's house.