Gingerbread Rock!

Letting the traditions continue... here is another one and yes I know these posts are out of order of when they actually happened but it 's okay. The Sunday before Christmas we went to my parents house for dinner and then to make and decorate gingerbread houses with all the cousins. I didn't make one myself this year but Mike helped Rory decorate hers while Paige just ate the candy! All the kids (and Joanna) had a great time. My mom even made real gingerbread for them to use, I would have just used gram crackers, way to go Mom! Anyway it was fun and I'm glad we get together and do it every year!

Visiting Santa

Our ward Party this year didn't have a Santa for the kids so I had to find another option. Being the cheap skate that I am I didn't want to pay $20 just to get their picture taken at the mall so I kept looking and found out the the Bass Pro Shop had a Santa and did the pictures for free along with a bunch of other crafts and activities so we took a trip out there. It was nice because there were only a couple people in front of us and Santa really took his time and talked to the girls. So it was a success besides the store it self is pretty cool and the girls loved walking around there and looking at all the animals and the giant fish tank, so if you are in the same boat I was in next year keep a hunting and fishing store in mind for a visit to Santa, I bet it wouldn't be hard to get your husband to take the kids so you could have a break, now there's a thought!

Christmas PJ's

I think like many of you, we also have a tradition of opening one present on Christmas Eve and it is always pajamas. I've been doing this since I was a child and it wasn't until a couple years ago that my parents stopped buying them for us which is okay because now that we have families of our own to keep the tradition going. So her are Rory and Paige sporting their new Christmas PJ's... Rory with the princesses and Paige with curious George, she just keep saying monkey and trying to bend down so she could see him, way cute!

Christmas Dresses!

Coming from a family of all girls the tradition of a Christmas Dress runs strong with me. My girls actually got two this year because I got such a great deal on the second one!!! ... but anyway these pictures were taken on the Sunday before Christmas in their new dresses. I wanted to take pictures before church so their hair would still be done and stuff but with 8 o'clock start time we didn't get our photo shoot done till after church but I think they turned out pretty good anyway!

Rory's Preschool Holiday Program

I know I'm a little behind in this post but I'm going to do it anyway! The last day of Rory's Preschool class they did a little program for the parents to come and listen to the songs and poems they had been learning that semester. Rory loves to sing so most of the songs we familiar and Paige even knows some of them! Rory was so excited and it turned out really cute and her placement worked out nice for pictures because she was in the front row! Thanks Mrs. Axtell and Mrs. Chu!

Family Pictures by Liz Farnsworth - Red Bucket Photography

Heaton Family Christmas Party

Every Year my Mom's side of the family gets together for a Christmas party at our house. The traditions include a potato bar where my mom does all the baked potatoes and everyone else brings a topping for them and a desert to share. We share stories and sing songs and the kids act out the Nativity story! Here are Mary and Joseph with baby Jesus

This is the angels appearing to the shepherds telling them of the birth of our Savior

Here the shepherds are coming to worship the new born King

The wise men giving their gifts to Jesus

And here is the cast taking their bow at the end, check out Rory's face, she is obviously pretty proud of her performance!

I think this tradition is my favorite part and even more so this year since Rory was able to participate as one of the angels! I love family traditions and I love coming from such a big family and I love that we have so many cousins living so close to us!

O' Christmas Tree

I used to be one of those people who would bah-humbug people putting up their Christmas stuff super early, I mean let Thanksgiving have it's day in the sun too but this year the Friday after Thanksgiving our tree came out, but I guess it is still okay because we waited till the day after right! Plus we didn't actually decorate the tree till the Monday night for family home evening. I don't really know why but I've been really excited for Christmas this year, don't get me worng I've always loved Christmas but this year seems like it's a little more the usual and am enjoying being in the holiday spirit!

Thanksgiving Pic's

These are a little behind but I'm trying to play catch up now so here you go! These are some of the pictures we took while at my parents house for Thanksgiving!. The kids had fun playing outside in between the rainy patches, Paige would swing all day if you'd let her! We were just setting the table and I look over and Paige had moved a chair over so she could get up to the reach the food. It cracked me up because of all the things on the table for her to eat she went for the stuffing. That is her dad's favorite part of the meal so I guess she takes after his own heart!

Happy Turkey Day!

Another Thanksgiving has come to a close and I'm thankful to say it was a nice one again this year! Wednesday afternoon we were talking about what we were supposed to bring to my parents house for dinner. Mike volunteered us to bring the stuffing and some pies, the stuffing is his Grandma Palmer's recipe and is his favorite part of Thanksgiving so now that I'm married to him if we are not eating with his family I have to provide this staple. It is really good and I'm happy to make it but I do have to say it has to be made from scratch, so not only did I have to make the stuffing I had to make the bread to dry to make the stuffing!

Anyway back to the food conversation, Mike asked if I was going to make the stuffing early so we could put some in the Turkey and I told him my parents were doing ham instead and he said you can't have Thanksgiving without a Turkey so I decided I would to it! This would be the first time doing it but I thought I would give it a try! I went to the store and bought one brought it home and started defrosting it, which is not quick process. I could choose 5 days in the fridge or 8 hours in the sink, this was 4pm on Wed. so I had to go with the sink method but even then it took till Midnight!

In between turning the turkey and refilling the sink I made 4 pies and dinner! We finally got it defrosted and went to bed. I then had to get up at 6am so I could get it prepared to go in the oven by 7 at the latest since we were supposed to be at my parents by 11:30. I made a rub and seasoned it up and got it in the oven. by then the girls were up so we ate breakfast then went up to get in the tub to get ready for the day!

After everybody was all cleaned up I started the process of the stuffing and no even after all this I still didn't put any in the turkey! Mike actually helped a lot with making the stuffing and magically the turkey turned out perfectly and the stuffing was done and we got to my moms by 11:45! Not to bad to all I was trying to do that morning!

Anyway we had a nice time with my family and enjoyed the rain and cool clean weather then went home for a couple hours to take naps then that evening we went to Mike's parents house for dessert and to spend time with his family. Rory went with her Aunt Cindy to watch a movie at her house and we went home put Paige to bed and watched a movie while waiting for Rory to get home, which wasn't till 10pm!! Then we were in bed by 11:30.

It was a long eventful enjoyable day! I have so many things to be thankful for and you all are included in that! Thanks for being such wonderful people and putting up with me! I hope all of you had a great day as well and that you can continue to have blessings poured out upon you!

Thanksgiving Traditions?

What makes your Thanksgiving official in your family? Do you have an activity you do every year? Do you have a signature dish that you are in charge of making? Is there something that has to be on your table or it wouldn't be Thanksgiving dinner without it? You know stuff like that, lets help each other get in the Thanksgiving mood!

blog help part 2

Thank you for your help now I'm not embarrassed to look at my own blog and I'm excited to be able to change it from time to time, something for you to look forward to too! Thanks Amberlynn!

blog help

Ok I'm retarded, I tried ,for the first time, to change my background (which I didn't even set up in the first place)I wanted to have a Fall one but it only changed the sides not the middle so the colors don't match and looks dumb but I don't know how to change the middle too or at least change back the sides to what it was before, any help would be great, thanks!

3Day Slide Show

3 Days - 60 Miles - 1 Cure

Okay my post is going to be LONG and is long past due and I could claim that it took me a week to recover from the Event but I'd be lying so I'll just admit I'm lazy! Anyway I give you the run down, we had to be at Freestone Park by 6:30 am to check in and then Opening Ceremonies started at 7. They talked about Susan G. Komen for the cure and why we were walking and all that motivational kind of stuff then let us out on the road. It was a little anti-climatic because it took so long for us to get out of the park and on route but it was fun anyway and I was glad Mike & his brother Rick brought the kids down to see me off. We walked through Gilbert and then into Chandler and ended up in Tempe where camp was for the night. My dad, my sister Shelley and her family, my sister Heather and her baby, and my friend Liz & Claire and their kids all came out and met us along the way to cheer us on! It was so fun to see people we knew along the route! That night we got into camp and there were a thousand pink pup tents set up for us and the brought in these semi trailers that had showers in them and had a really good spaghetti dinner that night. We went and saw the sports medicine people and got put back into shape and then got ready for bed. Mike and his Dad brought the girls down to camp to see me that night which was nice! Lights out was at 9pm and we were all ready way before that but it was funny because as soon as the lights went out it was silent! I can't think of any other place where you could have that many women together and not have it noisy all night long with talking and giggling, I guess walking 20 miles one day and knowing you have to get up and do it again the next takes it all out of you!
Saturday we walked through Tempe, the beautiful town of Guadalupe (little mexico) around South Mountain and through the Awatukee Foothills. My sister Shelley came and walked with us all day just for fun! My sister Joanna had to cut out a little past 1/2 way because she had like 6 blisters and it hurt too much to walk so she rode the bus back to camp in hopes that she would be able to walk on Sunday. Mike and the girls also came out and met us along the trail to cheer us along and the other walkers thought they were so cute in their pink shirts dancing on the side of the road! There were a lot of hills that day and it was pretty tough on me the last 5 miles especially, by the time I got back to camp I was so sore and had 2 blisters and was ready to call it quits but after a shower, another trip to sports med, and eating I was feeling better and by the next morning felt way better and was ready to take on the last day.
Sunday we had to pack everything back up and take down our tents and then hit the road. We walked through ASU, Papago Park, Phoenix and Scottsdale. When we finally made it to the end we were in a holding area waiting for the last walkers to come in and then they lined us all up and had to walk and another 1/2 mile to the stadium where they were having Closing Ceremonies! They had us grouped as crew, walkers, and survivors so Joanna walked in together but my mom was with the Survivors group! We all marched into the stadium and the survivors came in last and we all held up 1 shoe in their honor! They told us that from the 2200 walkers, 310 of which were men, we raised 5.2 million dollars! It was very emotional to be apart of this whole thing but also knowing we were able to bring in that much money that will go to help others like my mom with better treatments and hopefully a cure so they don't have to suffer at all was an amazing feeling.
It was long and hard but having people cheering us all along they way made it a lot more fun and more bearable. People honked at us all day long as they drove by, there were people out just in their driveways cheering us on through their neighborhoods, Schools had signs out and the kids on the playground cheered for us, we had our families come out in support, we had our regulars that we saw all day everyday along the route with signs or dressed in crazy outfits or just honking and blaring music as they drove up and down. It was amazing all the support we had and they were all thanking me for walking and sometimes I would get choked up and thank them just for coming out to support us. My mom did the best of us all she walked every step of the way without one blister she has always been an inspiration and here is just one more example of her tremendous strength! Over all it was a wonderful experience and I would recommend it to anyone if you don't mind a little hard work but it is worth it in the end. Thank you all for all your love & support. I truly couldn't have done it without you!

Taking the First Step

Well in less then 12 hours I will be starting my 60 mile journey to helping end the fight against Breast Cancer! The Breast Cancer 3Day event starts tomorrow Friday the 14th at 6:30 am! We will start from Freestone Park here in Gilbert and walk to Tempe then camp in Tempe Friday night walk around Tempe on Saturday and camp again that night then Sunday walk to Scottsdale and finish in the stadium there around 4:30 pm. It's going to be a long exhausting experience but an emotional and wonderful one as well, I'm excited to see what the next 3 days have to offer and I will be sure to give you a full report next week. I just wanted to thank you all for all you love and support, without friends like you I wouldn't be here so thanks again! See you in 3 days & 60 miles!

Thankful Monday!?!

I know it is supposed to be Thankful Thursday but it's Monday and I am thankful for modern medicine! Over the past few days I have had two people I know suffer complications in their pregnancy. My sister in law who has a little boy who just turned one and is expecting twins was put on bed rest for the next month in hopes to keep her little girls inside and developing a little longer and then my neighbor was hospitalized because her water broke at 25 weeks and they were going to try and keep her little girl in longer too but baby Abby decided it was her time to come anyway weighing a little under 2 pounds! Now both of these girls would be a lot worse off if we didn't have all the high tech monitoring systems, machines and what have you! I'm so thankful that all of their little girls are being so well taken care of and that it can give their parents the peace of mind to know that they have all these resources available to them. Also I'm even more thankful for prayer because even with all the modern technology in the world we couldn't do anything without the help of our Heavenly Father! Good Luck Holly & Kim we are praying for you!

Spooky!

For Halloween we didn't do too much during the day I guess I just forgot about things going on for the kids like at the library and stuff but it was okay because I ended up watching my sisters two youngest kids so she could go help out in her 1st graders class for their party then both my kids took really good naps! Rory doesn't usually take naps any more but I told her tonight we were going trick or treating and she didn't want to be tired and grumpy so she better take a good nap and it worked! They slept for a good 3 hours! When Rory woke up she was ready to go but Paige wasn't quite as chipper as usual it took her a while to warm up to the idea or having to put a costume on. In fact we tried at least 3 different costumes on and she was flipping out she did not want anything to do with any of it! I almost just let her wear her Halloween shirt and go like that be we tried one more, the "witches brew" pot and we had a winner! Rory ended up being a Hula Dancer but when asked the first few times what she was she kept saying a cheerleader because that was one of her other options, silly girl, but she finally got it right. We tried to go around our neighborhood first just to the people we know but couldn't find anyone at home until we knocked on one door and found all of them there so we abandoned that idea and just headed to Mike's brother's in laws house for their big bash they do every year. This is actually the first year that Rory has gone in willingly she is usually too scared by all their decorations. When we got there we went trick or treating again with her cousin Raiden and were actually successful this time. By the way Paige is a natural she was like 3 houses ahead of everyone else and I had to keep getting her and bringing her back to the group, she knew what to do and was just raring to go, it was way cute. After that we went back to the house to eat and visit with the rest of Mike's family and then headed over to my parents house so the girls could show them their costumes too. Two of my sister came by while we were there and this is a picture of Rory and Paige with Heather's little girl Kathryn. I told Heather she had to be an angel because it would be just too perfect with all her blond curly hair and I think I was right, isn't she cute! Well we didn't get home and to bed before 10:30pm but it was a lot of fun and hey it only come once a year right, I hope yours was just a great!

Annual Heaton Pumpkin Carving!

Every year we have a pumpkin carving FHE with my mom's side of the family. We go to my Uncle Lowell's house and we have a soup pot luck and of course carve pumpkins then they usually ask a neighbor come over and judge for us but it's the kind of judging that everyone gets an award so it's all for fun anyway. Since Mike has been coming he brought in the "cheating" element as some might call it because he gets the books that have the designs in them and uses one of those for his pumpkin and since he started doing that more have follows suit but there are still a few purest out there that rely on their own artistic ability. Rory wasn't too much of a fan or the cleaning out the guts part but sure was exited to get to use the knife!(with help of course) Now keep in mind we did this the Monday before Halloween and I was hoping by keeping the pumpkins inside they would last till the main event but alas Friday morning Mike's pumpkin had liquefied all over my counter and Rory's wouldn't stand up any more so we had to throw them out just hours before their debut, sorry maybe next year, but at least we have pictures to prove it!

October in review

We got out our Halloween decorations the first Monday of October and instead of really helping me decorate Mike, Rory & Paige just had fun going through the costume box, which was fine with me because I just as good of a time doing the same thing when I was a kid. So here are a few pics of their adventures.

Back in the Game

I've been out of commission for a while and not with any great reason other then I was busy with everyday stuff, plus I have been sick for like 2 months and am "sick" of that but I guess you just have to let it run it's course since all the different medications I've been taking don't seem to be doing their job!
So I've missed almost the whole month of October, but as a quick update My Gelato fundraiser went great we earned $240, thanks guys! Then I had another fundraiser at BJ's restaurant and brought in $175, thanks again and now I'm down to two weeks to go and am freaking out a little bit but am ready to have all of this behind me too! I do have pic's of some of the other things we did this month but have to wait for Mike to get home to download them since he has the camera cord.
One other accomplishment this month was out Primary Program is now complete! HALLELUJAH!!!! For those of you who don't know I am the chorister in the primary so this is a big relief to have another successful program over and done with. This year was Rory's first time and she did great! In fact you could hear and understand her part way better then a lot of the older kids! Plus we had just the sunbeams sing "Tell Me the Stories of Jesus" and do the actions we made up for it and it was so cute, if I do say so myself! So now on to songs of thanksgiving and celebrating the birth of our Savior, I love this time of year!
I'll leave you for now but not to worry I promise I'll be back soon!

Eat Gelato & Fight Breast Cancer

Just in case you didn't know My mom had breast cancer a couple years ago and now I'm walking in the BREAST CANCER 3Day this November 14-16th. In order to do this I have to raise at least $2200 and I have 7 weeks to get the final $540 ... So I will be holding a fundraiser at Gelato Premio on Wednesday October 1st from 6-9pm! In addition to enjoying some fabulous Gelato (seriously it is so good) (if you haven't had it yet you are missing out) you will receive a raffle ticket for each cup you buy to be entered into a drawing for an ice cream cake of your choice!( a $25 value) So come out and join us because it's for a good cause but lets be honest with ourselves who really needs an excuse for Gelato!

THANKS & Hope to see you there

~Rachel

When: Wednesday October 1st

Time: 6-9pm

Where: Gelato Premio

3757 S. Gilbert Rd #108

Gilbert, AZ 85296

SE Corner of the 202 & Gilbert

http://www.gelatopremio.com/

P.S. Send this to EVERYONE YOU KNOW!!!!!!