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I'm on facebook now. Bill has an account, so broke down and got one too. If you know my last name or maiden name, come find me.....we can be friends! :)

*also, Bill has some great old pics of us on his facebook, so you should add him too....... if you know him.

Eddie's first snow

Snow came!
It was quite a storm we had. I was not prepared, I have not trimmed back ANY plants in the yard, or completed any winter preparations. Thank goodness I will have a few days of sunshine before the next storm hits. :)

We bundled him up, and he was quite excited about the new experience, including the snow-eating tips from big sister.

She tried to show him how much fun it is to fall in the snow.

For some reason, it didn't seem as easy as she made it look..........."heop peas!"

mommy/daughter morning date

Jade had friday off. So after we dropped Eddie off at the babysitter, we took a drive up the canyon to the ski resorts just to look around.

The next three pictures are Jade's handywork. I let her take the camera down to the stream so she could take some pictures. I think she did a great job.

It was so beautiful up there. I don't think these pictures show it, but normal people like me are rarely able to capture natures beauty with our automatic cameras. Ski season is definitely on.

It was a nice little drive. We just kept saying over and over how grateful we are that we live here. This is such a beautiful part of Utah.

Right before the snow came, we hurried to pick up leaves. Then the "kids" has a little fun.

A hopeful future.......

I am proud to be the wife of a Veteran, proud to be an American, proud to be a Christian, and proud to be a woman who voted today for change. I am grateful for a new president who will lead this country forward, while I continue to have the freedom to raise my family with the values I feel are right. This is a historic day and I am grateful to be a part of it!

Halloween night!!!

Here is a better shot of Jade's hat. I love making hats now, and I had a few ladies ask me to make one for next year. Maybe that will be my Halloween business? Jade's hat had specific requests from her. I might post my hat sometime, it was a lot of fun to do.

My little monster and my Ben Ten. The shiny things on his head are his reflective teeth, then he also had 3 eyes, 2 horns, and ears on the hood. Josh had the exact same costume when he was 3 and I specifically looked for this one again on ebay. I will look for the same one in blue for next year, just like Josh had when he was 4.

Right after fighting.....Josh was able to pull off a smile a little better than Jade.

My happy little monster! He LOVED taking his bag up and getting candy. He mostly liked to pick it out himself, so he could grab a handful. But he looked so cute, no one seemed to care that he would take 1 or 2 handfuls of candy. It helped that he "sounded" cute, with his little squeeky shoes.

Mica came to help me out, and she dressed up WAY cute! She took Jade and Josh around for me, while Eddie and I went snail-pace around the block.

As my siblings will confirm, we have an INSANE amount of candy. (like 4 grocery bags full total, so we gave a lot away to siblings and cousins) I guess that's what you get when you have super cute kids and you go "candy-hunting" 3 times! (our ward trunk-or-treat, Bill's office of 400 ppl giving out candy in groups, and Halloween night)
Jade was totally wiped out afterward.....we all were.
They sorted all their candy, the stuff they love that will go into their candy drawer, (I let them take one piece of candy a day in their lunches, but this will save me lots of money for the rest of the year), then the pile of candy they do not want, that I will take and add to my "library candy fund". ( pass out candy in the library at church, just a fun little thing to do to get people to come say hi to me)

We do not have pictures of the rest of the night, but Enos and Lindsay came over and we stayed up till midnight watching old black and white horror films from the 50's. It was really fun. I think we will have to make that a tradition. "Attack of the killer leeches" had us all rolling, even the kids!

Jade's art

Not the best pics again. I have been researching cameras, so I hope I make a better choice today when I get one. So this is what Jade has been doing this week. I don't know....that girl....she is something else. :)
She looked at real Rhino's for this one, and you can tell the difference from the animals in the background. When she has something to look at, it's pretty amazing. If I didn't know her, I would have a hard time believing she just barely turned 11, and has had no formal training, just on-her-own drawing since she could hold a pencil.

Jade, you are amazing, and we love you so much just because you are a unique soul who is not afraid to try new things! You are awesome girl!!!

Prelude to Halloween......

These are not the best pics, but it's the best we could get. Tomorrow, I plan on going out and getting a new camera so we do not have to rely on friends to take pictures for us. These pictures were taken right before we left for Trunk-or-Treat at our church. Josh is "Ben Ten", Eddie is a skeleton temporarily (hopefully his cute monster costume arrives in the mail tomorrow!), and Jade is a witch with a handmade hat of course. I wore my witch hat after adding a bit more to it. :) It was a fun little prelude.

Witchapaloosa.....

My friend Stephanie Toland, (Wee Babai, and others), just sent the pictures from our "witches night out" on saturday. (my camera is still out of order) Mica's sister-in-law, Staci, flew up from St. George to go to Witch Night at Gardner's Village. Her twin, Steph, Lindsay, and I are all friends, so we went together. Mica missed it, but we still had fun. (even though we missed her)

Lindsay came over early and we decorated our hats, I think they turned out way cute. Next year I'm going to take Jade, she was really sad she missed it, but she was the babysitter while Bill was in Boston.

I have no idea who these ladies are, but they are wickedly decked-out witches, I just HAD to get my picture taken with them! :)

This is the group! Staci and Steph's cousin joined them as well. We had a good time, it was really fun to see all the witches on display.

the twinners! They are SO cute together, (and by themselves too!)

they just took pictures of some of the fun characters around the place, like the ogre and sea witch lady.

That was a fun night ladies! Let do it again next year! (but with Mica, Jade, and Laura)

How cute is this!?!

Alyse has this adorable 6 mo old toy poodle named "Roxie". I know I have mentioned Alyse before, since she is my neighbor and good friend, but she is also one of Eddie's most favorite people. I have complained about Eddie being a serious mama's boy, but when it comes to "leesie" (short for Alyse), he is just fine. Now Roxie is on a whole different level with Eddie. I think those two were meant to be neighbors more than anyone else. She is the perfect size and temperament for Eddie. He will walk around the house with her on a leash, ask for her constantly, and cuddle with her while watching TV. I just think it's absolutely adorable!

Now this is not nearly as cute as when he is with Roxie, but it is nice that he will finally sit in the hideout and watch his little shows while I work in the art room. He loves to be here, or on the table drawing. He is quite independent, and will get himself his own pens and paper to draw on. He LOVES the art room!

New address for my art blog

Since blogspot cleaned up the site and deleted all the unused blogs, "Split Level Studio" name became available. Yay! So I have changed the address of my art blog to http://www.splitlevelstudio.blogspot.com/ It was really confusing to have my business name, blog, and email address ALL different. I'm not sure if I'm going to change my email address or not, what do you think? I have not checked lately, but when I first set up my art email, splitlevelstudio was already taken. Now that they have cleaned things up, maybe it's available now? Well, make a note on all your blogs, my art blog has a new address! Bill is going to be gone in Boston this coming week, and my one goal while he is gone, is to set up my classes for this next month. I think I can pull off 1 or 2 short craft classes a week and not feel drained. :) I just hate feeling sick and limited, so I REALLY need to add something to help me feel productive. I'll post more when I have a plan, and also when my camera is working. :)

Go figure......

SO.....this post might get a little philosophical. It's just the mood I'm in, sorry. :)

A few of you already know that I have been dealing with annoying health issues lately. Some unknown, some uncertain, some common, and some potentially bad. But all in all, nothing that strict diet, good supplements, medication, exercise, rest, (and stress management, aka therapy), can't keep under control. I am SO grateful to discover some of these minor issues before they could have become dangerous. When I say minor, I do not mean that they have not been debilitating, but that it's not too big of a deal, lots of women, (and men), deal with this stuff. I just need to get my body back in working order and keep a close eye on managing my "issues". I am 10 yrs younger than my mother was when she had stage 3 breast cancer and a brain tumor, so yeah, it's good to know how my body is (NOT) functioning, so I can do the specific things I need to do to make it strong and hopefully avoid some major problems in the future. :)

With all this stuff going on, blogging has taken a back seat. I miss journaling, following my friend's lives more regularly, taking pictures simply to post them, etc. :) But I am really SO exhausted, ALL the time. I hope that by Thanksgiving time, I will have more answers to the un-identified issues, and the ones I am aware of will be more stable so I can go back to being a regular mom with "regular mom" energy and attention. :)

I love how life works, I really do. Things NEVER slow down, or ease up, but we seem to gain strength, endurance, and tolerance, to manage what we have, so it can "feel" smooth.......sort of. So when life puts a little more on our plate, it hurts a little, can be very uncomfortable, even frightening. But eventually, (and with God's help), we gain the strength we need to be able to handle the extra "stuff" we are given, and we can continue to move along in life and find joy all around us. (until a little more is heaped on our plate again, and we go through the whole cycle all over...... again....... but life is still good!)

I am so grateful for all the support, patience, and love from my family and the few friends who know the specifics. (it's really not that big of a deal, so don't go and worry, I just don't like to broadcast specifics) My mom was really God-sent for coming and helping me for 2 1/2 weeks. I don't know how we would have survived, honestly. My kids are happy and healthy, and have really stepped up, not to mention been VERY understanding with not having the mom they are used to having.

And the BEST thing that has come of all this.......my sweet-heart husband, love of my life, did something I never thought someone would do for me. (I never thought I needed it, but he knows better) That sweet man would rather get his fingernails pulled out than spend a day shopping. (he is NOT a Mall person) He took Jade out for 6 hours on saturday, and got 90% of ALL our Christmas gifts taken care of. Then Jade came home and wrapped 1/3 of them right away. Now you all know how I am....... I have spent every Christmas for nearly 20 years, (as long as I can remember, but I'm not saying my age), giving "handmade" gifts. And so far, in my 12yrs of marriage, I have always taken care of Christmas for both sides of the family. Until now. How cool is that!?! I will still probably make a few handmade gifts, just a few little ones, if I have the energy and time to do it. But Christmas is pretty much done, and Bill has plans for finishing the last bit as well. I feel like the luckiest tired mama in the world! So my family and Bill's family...... I do not get ANY credit for gifts this year, it is 100% Bill and Jade. I am totally off the hook! It has been a HUGE relief for me! I think I am going to take the "low road" this year, and email my Christmas letter.........again. :)
I may still be a blog slacker for a while, plus our camera is broken. But I am still here, and I hope to soon be more "myself" with all the energy and spice that the old healthy Tara had. :) Wish me luck!!!

Wee Babai

I just have to put a plug in for one of my SUPER talented friends, Stephanie Toland. Her art blog is on my sidebar, under Stephanie Toland. She is doing a series of paintings on motherhood, and she is just so talented!!! But this post is more about her adorable little dolls and baby clothes. Wee Babai is her site where she has posted all her fun little creations. She is selling them in the boutique I'm also in, at my girlfriend's home in Orem. Go check out her cute things here!

Eddie

Edmund Cole..... sometimes I just wonder. I thought Joshua would be the death of me when he was a toddler.............. haha, I know better now. At least Josh was interested in real toys and the TV could babysit him for a while.

Eddie shows VERY LITTLE interest in children's toys, other than cars, blocks, and balls. He climbs EVERYTHING, "runs" most of the time, is ALWAYS getting into "toys" that are not meant to be toys. (ie. cabinets, bedrooms, bathrooms, closets, refrigerators, plants, ANYTHING not nailed down or tied shut). He has no fear, (very much like Josh), and if he is not getting into mischief, he is clinging to my leg begging for me to hold him or signing incessantly for something. He is still a mama's boy beyond my comprehension.
He loves fruit, not to eat, but to play with. I left the room and of course came back to him on the table, demolishing a poor, helpless, peach.

We have had two trips to the Insta-Care clinic, he was running, (as usual), and fell into the stone hearth.......2 little stitches. Exactly one week later, he was running in our room and hit his head on our supposedly dull end table...........2 more little stitches on the other side.

And so it begins.......

This is one of his new and exciting skills. If the pantry door is not shut as tight as it can be, he will open it and enjoy the climb. I need to get a baby lock for that door that the other kids can open.

I am trying to find some refrigerator baby locks that actually work, he loves to get into the fridge and freezer. Anyone have any helpful hits? I also need to find some toys that he will play with, he is just not interested in anything he is supposed to be interested in! Unless it's a climbing toy, but who has room for a jungle-gym inside their house?

I remember Josh being like this, but it was later on, more in his twos, not at 18 mo. Life with boys.......... (Cortney, are you ever going to comment? you have 3 of the most "adventurous" boys I know, I need advice!)

Catch up

The first Sunday of every month, my siblings and cousins get together at our house for family dinner. The last sunday was extra special because it was not only conference sunday, but my Aunt and Uncle from Hawaii were here visiting. We missed Angelina and Carlo, they could not make it, but we hope to have them come next month.
In true Heinzen style, my dad's twin, Uncle Don, made some repairs to Mica and Matt's car.
The door handle broke off. He drilled a hole inside each end of the broken handle, stuck a nail with the head cut off inside and through both parts to help hold it together, super-glued it, then used my soldering iron to melt the plastic around the break, as well as melt some plastic spiral book binding, (the hardest scrap plastic I had), to reinforce the whole thing.

Yet another example of resourcefulness at it's best. I love my family, and I love that this part of my heritage rubbed off on me. (although I don't know if Bill appreciates it as much, since it results in me saving garbage, "just in case")
Sunday was also significant, because Josh lost his first tooth! (I use the term "lost" casually, since Bill pulled it and Josh was not too crazy about that)
The kids looking cute before church.

I thought this was so funny. I let the kids play with boxes when we get them, for a few days at least, before we throw them out. This was Jade's project.......

The weather has been beautiful lately. The leaves are just starting to change, and it snowed in the mountains this weekend. I wish I had a better camera, (maybe later), but this is the best I could get from our backyard.