17 Happy Years!

Well, Caleb hit a homerun this year. Yep, it went flyin' right over the fence without any strikes! I was pleasantly surprised one Friday in December when my husband walked through the door at my work.

Oh, Hi what are you doing here?

His hands were down, so when they came up with a beautiful bouquet of flowers, I was even more pleasantly surprised!

Wow, Thanks! What's up?

And then a kiss over the desk! Nice!

Caleb then informs me we have a date tonight and I look nice so just wear what I am wearing and be ready by 5pm. I have the kids activities all planned out so you don't have to worry about them, he tells me.

Where are we going???!!

See you at 5!!

Well, I better be ready at 5. So, my Prince Charming comes to pick me up in a golden chariot (gold minivan) at 5 and I am ready and full of questions. No answers! We go to dinner at Carrabbas. I have never been there before and at 5 pm in Mesa, AZ during the winter, we were accompianed by a LOT of gray hair ("winter visitors" :-)). We had a yummy dinner and a delicious dessert! Still no answer as to where we are going next!

So back in the chariot and we are headed to the main event. We drive for less than ten minutes and we come to a high school.?! I really start to worry as I see the football stadium lights on! What, please not some outdoor sporting event!

No, I wouldn't bring you to a sporting event to celebrate our anniversary. What! Today isn't our anniversary, that's in two weeks! Well, I bumped it up 2 weeks for this special occasion. Ok, so now I am really thingking, "what can this be and really, it's at a ghigh school, it's probably some elementary production of the Nutcracker or something!"

On our way in, we see some friends from our ward and we stop to visit in the lobby. After a few minutes she asks where our seats are. I don't know, I don't know what I am here to see!!

Finally, Caleb pulls out the tickets and I see "Jon Schmidt"!!!! I love Jon Schmidt. He is a pianist and he is wonderful!!! We are here to see a Christmas concert by Jon Schmidt! Oh, I am sooooo happy! (click on the play button to the right of this post to hear Jon Schmidt) Caleb was the one who introduced me to the wonderful world of Jon Schmidt. I bet is was 14 years ago, around the time of our anniversary. A Walk in the Woods was/is such a great CD. I am surprised it is not worn out yet. I have played that CD so much over the last 14 years! Sunday mornings, late nights with crying kids, quiet afternoons with sleeping babies, anytime I needed to de-stress in went Jon Schmidt and all bad energy would dissapate. Listen and see if it happens to you too!

Anyway, Jon S. is a great stage performer! Funny, poignant, caring. He gave a wonderful concert and I LOVED every minute there with my husband of 17 years! I didn't want to leave, I wanted to stay in that concert hall with Jon playing the piano and Caleb holding my hand! Loved it!

Me and my Prince Charming!

Brynn is 10!!

Well, it's official, Brynn is 10 and starting to shave?!?!? Wait a minute, what is going on...

HAPPY BIRTHAY BRYNN!!!! Brynn is the Heap "Sweetheart"! We can always count on Brynn to have a smile and a giggle! She is our go-with-the-flow kinda girl! Brynn loves to cuddle!

As a baby, Brynn loved anyone that held her! She is just one day off of having the same birthday as her Uncle Steve and they seemed to have a bond when she was little! She loved him to hold her and feed her.

Brynn was so funny when she would be fed. She would start this excited laugh and twirl her hands at the wrist when she saw a bottle or other food! It always made the person feeding her laugh!

At one of her many trips to her to her cousins the Meeks, she became insanely addicted to her "blankie". For some reason I sent with Brynn, MY blanket that my mom had saved for me in her cedar chest. She latched onto that blanket and hasn't given it up since! We have "mended" this blanket many, many times and it still has some tiny remnants of the original blanket near the edges! There were many times I would have to sneak the blanket to the washing machine to wash it and by the time it was in the dryer Brynn would be standing there waiting for the dryer to finish!

Getting spun around 10 times ... Looking for her presents! Jackpot! Birthday Party with her peeps! Ice blocking Brynn is a sweetheart and we all LOVE her!

Major Catch-up

My-oh-my, how time flies! When I look back at the last time I updated our blog, I'm amazed that it is now Dec. 28. Here comes 2009. I just need to get all the past months activities off my chest and on to the blog so I won't feel guilty not showcasing all the kids wonderful talent! (Watch out...Mom's bragging!)

I think this picture of Brynn sums up December for us. We try focus time on both aspects of the Christmas season. Through the Christmas traditions we focus of the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. We sing songs that help us remember the birth of Christ. They also bring the Spirit of Jesus into our home. Brynn's Santa hat is the fun part of Christmas. Everyone loves to get gifts and we have tried to show how being the Giver is also special and fun!

The first concert of the Christmas season was Addi's band concert! Somehow these sneak up on us and it seems like we are going to a band concert every month! Don't get me wrong, We LOVE them, but with Addi playing percussion, we feel like we are there for someone else's kid. Hence no picture of Addi in her fine band concert attire. Next time you won't escape the camera Addi!

Next on our calendar, we attended was the Monterey Ward "Country Christmas" party. A great time is had by all at our ward parties. We have a fun ward and so our family looks forward to the parties. Brynn and 4 other girls, who go to the same dance class, participated in the program. By themselves, they came up with a dance routine for 2 songs! They looked very professional in their costumes and with the quality of their dance. Santa and "Buddy the Elf" showed up at the end and made a lot of kids HAPPY! Next in the Holiday merrimaking was the SSE Chorus Concert! Brynn and Leia have to be at school by 7:30 am every Tuesday and Thursday to be in chorus. They have really loved being apart of this group and their concerts are special to attend. This year we went around the world seeing how other cultures celebrate Christmas. My favorite was "Do ya Wanna, Pinata!" What Davis considers part of the Holiday season is the start of church ball. What kind of sport you ask? Anything with a ball is ok with Davis, but the first tournament this year was a day of softball, double elimination bracket. They played 6 games and came out the Champs! It was a long day at the ball park but totally worth it to see them win!

One fine Monday Eve, we went caroling with some neighbors! It happened to be slightly soggy outside with what Davis calls Arizona snow--Rain! Being a little chillier made it seem more of an adventure. We were all sitting on a trailer on haybales while Caleb sat in his preferred seat, the Driver's seat! It was fun trying to sing loud, stay warm, keep children from falling off , debating the words to songs and keeping the different sides of the trailer on the same song! Fun and memorable times!

To cap off the Holiday season activities, we traveled to the Mesa Temple to see the Christmas lights. We were lucky to also see members of our ward participating in the nightly program (that's why we are sitting) It is fun to try to figure out what lights are new that year!

MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY HOLIDAYS from THE HEAP FAMILY

The Duel is Settled...for this year

The joking, the smack-talking, the ribbing, the TPing,...oh what fun it is! Especially when the team you are rooting for actually wins!!! Our family is and always be rooting for the Runnin' UTES, baby! I had one bewildered teenager in pure BYU induced-coma-innocence ask,"I just don't get why you are U fans". Well once you pay tuition and eat, drink, sleep at a university, you start to feel loyal to that said university! With the Heap's, it will be forever more the University of Utah! Caleb graduated with not one, but 2 bachelors from the U of U, the first being Exercise and Sport Science and the 2nd is Public Relations (just in case anyone reading this knows of any great jobs just waiting for a great guy named Caleb Heap!! ;-) )

Anyway, back to the rivalry...Utah vs BYU. My extended family is split about half n half. We have a lot of fun joking thru out the year and especially the week of the big game. This year, not being close to family, we Heap's had to reach out to some of our ward family with our U of U LOVE!!

SHHH, DAViS being sneaky!!

I made our BYU friends a little first aid kit, knowing that heart-ache can bring about others life-threatening symptoms.

Pre-Game Confidence

After Game RELief

Retaliation from our opponents!!

We do have a couple of mutinious,DisCENtERs, it cuts like a knife to have some of our own flesh and blood betray us but ADDI and BRYNN have taken aliking to BYU (I think GRma & grPA have swayed them to the dark side). If you look closely in the above photo, you can see Brynn risking her own life to show her true colors by raising a #1 finger in support of the retailation! Brynn... tsk,tsk.

BCS, BCS ENJOY the Show

God Bless the USA

Happy Veteran's Day! As a kid I remember this not meaning much to me except getting the day off school. Our Junior high and High School band used to go to the Alamosa, CO parade and march, and that was fun but again a day off school.

Today as my girls were in a chorus concert at a neighboring senior community, and as they were singing their hearts out to patriotic songs, it hit me. God has blessed this land and we are BLESSED to live here. My Father was and our neighbor's husband is currently serving in Iraq for 1 year (for the 3rd time!!) in the Army Caleb's grandfather was in the Navy, Jon, my bro-in-law (has served many 4-5 month tours in the middle East)is in the Air Force and we are honored that they haved served our country. As I watched these veterans today, it was humbling. I think of all the liberals who choose not to say the pledge of allegiecne or acknowledge the flag or National Anthem and I dare them to go to an elementary school chorus concert for Veterans and NOT feel the pride and love for America!! It was awesome and I will never feel the same about Veteran's Day.

This man was waving his flag along with the kids! So cute.