Family Life

Happy Birthday, Dad!

2010-08-11T08:45:00.001-07:00

Today is Dad's birthday. Our kids often talk about him and we love the memories we have together!! Just the other day Charlie (named after him) said "I bet Grandpa is having so much fun in Heaven right now! He's making good choices and being with Jesus." I love it when they talk about him!! He is an amazing example to me and I know Dad is helping us every step of the way!! Happy Birthday, Dad!

2010-08-10T08:03:00.000-07:00

This last year has been a good one...it's been that long since I posted to this blog. So for family and those of you who would like to see our crazy life, I'm going to post more often. We went to the Bronz Zoo on Saturday. Lots of walking and lots of fun. The kids complained for most of the walking, but then of course couldn't stop talking about the fun we had when we got home!! :)

This has been what the twins have been up to for the past 2 months...mess after mess. Gotta love em!! Right? :)

Twins RUN in Our Family

2009-07-12T07:43:00.001-07:00

My sister Cheryl and her family have been here for a few days on their way back from Maccau, China. It was a lot of fun to have them visit!! Our kids had a BLAST together!! Cheryl had twin girls (Kate & Kyrsten) and then my other sister Jean has twin boys in college (Adam & Aaron). Derek took a week off for us to spend time with Cheryl's family and then for us to go to the Palmyra pageant. Well, I had to ruin it all and got a crazy sickness with a rash and all. Sorry, no pictures! :)(The initial test showed it was Lyme disease, but then another test ruled that out.) So we will try to make it to the pageant again next weekend. And I think we're still going to Niagra Falls, too.

Our BEST Family Picture EVER

2009-06-24T14:33:00.000-07:00

Dallin & Julie took our BEST family picture yet! :) It cracks me up because Stewart (on Derek's lap) looks proud to be a part of our craziness and Spencer (on my lap) looks scared to be in our fam! :) Disclaimer: Emma dressed herself and if I had known Stewart didn't have shorts on, I would've put some on.

Dallin & Julie

2009-06-24T14:25:00.000-07:00

Dallin (Derek's brother)& Julie spent a few days with us and had some New York fun. It was so great to have them here. The kids loved it, too.

Father's Day

2009-06-24T14:09:00.001-07:00

Derek is a wonderful father and husband! I don't know how he does it!! He's in the middle of residency, dad to six kids 7 and under, puts up with me, just called to be Elders Quorum Pres in our church. He's a good guy to say the least. His 2nd year in residency ends July 1st--YEAH!!! This means he's done with weekend work and being on call over night!! He's backup if someone else needs help, but we can deal with that!! :)WE LOVE DADDY!! See exhibit A below!! :)

Exhibit A

2009-06-24T13:39:00.000-07:00

Derek took the kids to a Memorial Day celebration. I had to stay home cause the babies were napping. As usual, Derek volunteered to take them by himself. It's difficult, but he always wants them to enjoy life. A week later we went to the park and flew kites--All of us. IT WAS SUCH A BLAST! But of course, I forgot the camera!

Help GRANDMA!!

2009-06-12T10:07:00.000-07:00

I thought I was handling everything okay, but when I wasn't looking, Stewart tried to make a quick call to Grandma Whitmer and Grandma Higgins to get them to come back out here and help again. Good thing he can't use the phone yet!! Joseph is such a good big brother. It's so cute whenever he's having fun with the boys, he calls for me to take a picture. It's good cause otherwise we wouldn't have any pictures!

I Guess They Are Identical

2009-06-12T09:53:00.000-07:00

Where did May go? Susie, right after I talked to you everything got crazy. I promised some new pics on our blog and that was...weeks ago. Here are a couple. I couldn't find the thingy to upload the pictures from our camera. Wow! Things sure are tougher now that my mom went back to her normal life in Arizona. :) School is almost out here in New York. I think this year we will finally make it to upstate New York for the Palmyra Pageant and Niagra Falls. Fun Fun! Charlie and Joshua are going to be having summer school this year and I'm going to try to sign Emma and Joseph up for some fun activities for part of that time. Looks like I'll still be doing a full load of taxi driving this summer!! I hope the twins will put up with it! :) Have a happy day!

Etc Pics

2009-04-25T21:25:00.000-07:00

Here are a few of my favorite pics.

Picture Moments

2009-04-25T21:14:00.000-07:00

Lots of things have happened since I last added anything to this blog, but things are kinda crazy around here. This is a fun picture, but don't you just hate it when there's a perfect Kodak moment and you run and get the camera to find the moment has passed!! A few of mine that I've missed are: Joseph, Charlie & Josh looking over a book together (everyone so invovled); the twin babies knawing on each other (Stewart leaned over to chew on Spencer's arm, so Spencer started sucking on Stewart's head!); and Emma cleaning the bathroom mirror with my make-up brush and water. :)

I Couldn't Have Said it Any Better

2009-03-23T11:11:00.001-07:00

I have wanted to post a few times, but haven't had the time to put it together. Yesterday the twins had a little cold so Derek, (BIG Thank you to Derek) took three out of the six to Sacrament Meeting by himself, even though he was on call. Then I found this Mormon Cartoon Blog. This cartoon can be multiplied by six to define our family. Every time I went in for an ultrasound, the OB said, "I can't believe how active these guys are in the womb." (So at least we had a warning.) All I could reply to that was, "Then they will fit in with the rest of our family! :)" You should check out this cartoon blog--it's pretty hilarious.

Back Tracking--Their Blessing

2009-03-04T06:45:00.000-08:00

This a picture from their blessing day. YES, we are as exhausted as we look! :)
Many people ask me if I ever mix up our twins. The answer is not very often. I don't think that means I'm a good or bad mom if I mix them up, I just think I'm always the one changing them into the clothes they're wearing--so I remember. When they get older Stewart's only distinguishing birthmark (tiny red spot on the top of his head) will be covered with hair, but if they try to trick me too much, I'll just tell them they better behave or I'll shave their heads!! :) Anyway, on their blessing day the fun began: we were rushing into the chapel as the bishop announced that we were going to bless our babies. SO, Derek didn't really take a good look at the baby that I handed him AND you guessed it--he blessed Stewart with Spencer's name at first. No, we didn't switch their names at that point, Derek just reblessed him. I don't know if Derek will ever stop getting teased in our ward, but don't tease him too much 'cause he's such a GREAT father!!

Story Time!

2009-03-02T09:24:00.001-08:00

We are getting to the hard part of having 6 kids so young. Derek's mom went home after helping us for 5 weeks (Thank you!). Then the same week my mom's foot was so painful, she couldn't walk on it. She had to go into the hospital for almost 2 weeks and finally was able to come home--YEAH! We missed her! So now the reality of everything is smacking me in the face--in a good way! I've just been spoiled for so long. :) I had to put this picture up. It's not a pretty picture (don't look at the mess), but it warmed my heart when I saw my two oldest boys reading to my two youngest boys (I didn't even ask them to). Also if you look closely, the twins are actually looking at the books!! How fun! I love life AND I love babies! I am so very blessed to have my 6 babies!! :)

OUR Angels

2009-02-12T08:13:00.001-08:00

Wow, it's been too long since I wrote on this. I just wanted to note how grateful I am for all my blessings. I didn't have any idea how I was going to make it through the first few months with my twins AND the older kids in school, yet Heavenly Father made sure I had more than enough help. My mother-in-law just went back to Arizona after helping us for the past 5 weeks. AND my mother has been here helping since the middle of October. Both of our moms were going through trials of their own, but they just kept helping. Both of them with huge families to watch after, and yet they were here taking care of us. I couldn't have done it without them!!! They are OUR angels!!

Our "Lil Scrubs"

2008-12-28T14:05:00.001-08:00

We made it!! Christmas was a little more simple and quiet since we had the surgeries for the twins the week before Christmas, but it was a good Christmas anyway!! I'm beginning to realize life won't be calming down anytime soon. Our twins seem to be competing with Charlie's record in our family. Charlie has had one surgery a year since his first birthday. AND he already has a surgery that he needs this upcoming year. HOWEVER, now the twins have had 4 surgeries since their birth--only a month and a half ago. At 2 weeks old both had their tongues clipped to help them in the future for speech and breastfeeding. Then this past week we took Spencer into the emergency room for dehydration from what we thought was a bad case of the flu. It turns out he had pyloric stenosis and they did surgery the same day. Of course since they are identical twins, we were soon in the ER again with Stewart which resulted in the same surgery. I'm so thankful they are doing GREAT now!! While we were in the children's hospital I saw so many children and families who had to suffer so much with different things they were going through--it broke my heart. It also helped me to look at my trials and blessings with a new perspective. I am so very blessed! I want to do better at loving and serving those around me. Jesus Christ is such an incredible example at loving and lifting all those He came in contact with. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!!

Halloween Pics--A Month Late

2008-12-07T09:35:00.001-08:00

Okay, we were community helpers for halloween this year. My mom was so sweet to take the kids out trick-o-treating with Derek this year. I have to say Halloween is my least favorite holiday (if it can be called a holiday), but I do enjoy seeing the kids get so excited about the fun!! The second picture I added because each one of the kids has such a different expression on their face--I love it--it's the wallpaper for our computer. We actually have a picture of all of them smiling, but it's not half as entertaining!! :) Since Derek always cringes when I start playing Christmas music a month before Christmas, I thought he would be proud of me for blogging about halloween in December.

One Delivery for 6 Kids!

2008-12-07T09:08:00.000-08:00

Okay, I'm still a little traumatized by the birth of my WONDERFUL twin boys. It has taken me three weeks to write about it. Maybe I'm weak, but 36 hours of labor and almost 4 hours of pushing really wasn't what I was planning. The best news for me was that I didn't have to have a C-section (I was really close to having one). I'm so thankful to my Heavenly Father for my beautiful baby boys!! When Derek and I were talking about everything later, I told him I shouldn't be surprised that it was difficult because I got 2 babies from one delivery. He corrected me and said we got 6 babies in one delivery! :)

Baby Shower

2008-11-02T09:55:00.000-08:00

My dear sweet friends, Amy, Cortney and Lindsey. I'm so very thankful to have so many friends out here in New York. I really amazed at how well we have settled out here. I feel so close to so many people in our ward. Now that I'm not in Young Women's, I miss being able to spend so much time with them, but life must go on! :) They put so much time into my baby shower and it was so kind of them. Lindsey (in purple) is a neo-natal nurse at a hospital here and has given me ALL KINDS of great advice. I think I'll be calling her at 1am in the morning when I need MORE!

2008-11-02T09:31:00.000-08:00

Okay, I lied, here's my belly pic. It was taken 3 weeks ago, so imagine me 3 times as big!! Just kidding. If you notice, my face is not in the picture so I can always deny it was me! :) I'm now in my 36th week. My doctor decided to go on vacation so I can't beg him to induce me any earlier. (He already said he would induce me at 38 weeks.) BUT my dear mom has saved my life!! We go up to the elementary school 3 times a day, and this particular school makes you find parking in the neighborhood and walk with the children up to the door. SO, when I am having difficulty walking, my mom does it. She's also a laundry monster! Every piece of laundry that goes into the laundry room soon disappears and is turned into clean laundry!! It's a miracle! :) We're trying to be patient to meet our little twins, but it's difficult when they are movin' around in my belly almost constantly!! :)

Charlie's Honesty

2008-10-15T06:53:00.000-07:00

This morning I was getting the kids breakfast and Charlie looked at me and his eyes got very wide as he said, "Mom! Your getting BIG!! You're going to break open our house!!" Don't you love their honesty? Well, I've had some requests for "belly pics" but I don't know if I'll put them on the blog. :) Thank you for your encouragement Rachel and Melinda. Because of you I will at least take some pictures to have for later. :)

The Last Debate

2008-10-15T06:35:00.000-07:00

So tonight's debate is happening just a few miles away from us. And if anything too exciting happens, Derek's hospital is going to be the one receiving anyone with injuries. They did a secret service sweep yesterday. BUT if it's like the last debate--that put me to sleep--we won't have any worries.

Derek's Osteopathy Blessings

2008-10-10T09:25:00.000-07:00

I'm realizing how blessed I am that Derek does osteopathy. In my fun months of being pregnant, whenever I have back pain or leg pain or swelling feet I ask Derek for his help and he fixes it! Pretty amazing. I've been told I don't walk like a normal pregnant lady (all bent over and stuff) and I know that's because of Derek's treatments. This picture was from the reunion in Arizona where Derek's brothers were in line for a treatment. Because we flew in to AZ, Derek couldn't bring his table and so here's a make-shift table with couch cushions on a coffee table. Since we've been here, I tell people in the ward that Derek will work on them all of the time (it's the least we can do with all the help they have given us), but a lot of the time they don't want to impose. I just know how happy Derek is when he can help others out.

Family Home Screaming :)

2008-09-09T08:18:00.000-07:00

I'm at 29 weeks this Friday! My brave doctor invited us to bring our four munchkins in for one of the ultrasounds during my pregnancy. SO, last night for family home evening we went to my appointment. The kids were excited, but soon lost interest when they saw that the "pictures" they would see of the twins were not like normal pictures. It was fun, though and I'm glad we did it. I have to figure out how to put it in the blog, but I have a little video Derek took of part of the ultrasound that includes Joseph asking the doctor to put the ultrasound on a bigger T.V. This is because we were given a hand-me-down big screen T.V. recently--we're in trouble now!!! I found out the twins are 3 pounds already!!! (That's 6 pounds of baby.) This puts them in the 80-90% of normal (single) births!!! OUCH! Thanks to the BIG Whitmer baby genes! I was hoping for a little bit smaller, normal sized babies like Derek has in his family.

School Fun

2008-09-09T08:05:00.000-07:00

Well, our school year has begun and I'm getting into the swing of things. We had a little bit of stress getting everything set for Joshua and Charlie to enter Kindergarten, but I feel really good about the way things are now. Here's our day: Josh leaves on a bus at 8am, we take Joseph and Charlie to school at 9am, Charlie's in half-day so we pick him up at noon, then pick Joseph up at 3pm and Josh's bus brings him home at 4pm. Lots of fun! Emma and I are having quality time together. The first two days of school, we went shopping after we dropped the boys off to finish getting all the school supplies everyone needed. Well, that night Emma included in her prayer, "Please bless Mommy, that she can go shopping." I thought that was pretty funny.

Summer's Over!

2008-09-09T07:57:00.000-07:00

Well this was our last hurrah before summer ended this year. As you can tell by the look on Charlie's face, it was a little cold to be swimming and then eating ice cream bars. :)

Grandma's Coming!

2008-08-31T13:11:00.001-07:00

We're very excited that Grandma will be coming in mid-October. Our kids can't stop talking about it!! I just can't believe it's almost here. We're also excited that school starts this week. Charlie and Josh are going into Kindergarten and Joseph into 1st Grade. Joseph is reading so well now. He gave a talk in Primary today on Baptism and read the whole thing very clearly and loudly--He did a great job!! I hope Joshua and Charlie get as good of a teacher as Joseph got for Kindergarten.

2 More Monkeys Jumpin on the Bed

2008-08-31T13:00:00.000-07:00

Can you believe we're going to have 2 more monkeys in this family??? I'm barely starting to wrap my mind around it. (It's okay, cause they're my favorite kind of monkeys!) We're starting to get things in place. We got some car seats and a stroller and this past weekend we got a new mini van. Thank goodness they have created something called the 8 passenger mini van. I don't think I could drive a suburban around yet and I'm seeing full size vans in our future!! AGGH! :) Joseph saw a really long stretched limo/hummer driving down the street and he said, "Mom, I think we need a car like that." Maybe I should start taking commercial driving lessons in preparation.

Part 3, The End

2008-08-03T20:05:00.000-07:00

Okay, last post for the day! Today I was released as Young Women's President in our ward. I really feel like I was SO blessed to be able to work with these girls even if only for a year. I will miss them for sure!! They are in GREAT hands, though, my friend Cortney is now President and do a much better job!! :) One more thing--we've been going back and forth on middle names, but I think we have the first names figured out!! Can you see in the picture which names are new????

Part 2

2008-08-03T20:00:00.001-07:00

The next part of our trip we spent in Utah with my family. It was also very enjoyable and our kids were able to see more cousins. Here is a picture of me and my sis, Ann. I'm actually 4 months pregnant! See the bump? One of our kids favorite parts of the reunions in both AZ and UT was that they got to dress up like Alvin and the Chipmunks and preform 3 of their songs. They hardly know any of the words to the songs, so they were barely recognizable to others, but they had a blast.

Wonderful Sunday!

2008-08-03T18:03:00.000-07:00

Since Derek's schedule has taken an unexpected turn for the worse, we have seen little of him this week. We miss him and we were SO thankful he had Sunday off! This past Monday I was in a fender bender where a young girl turned left into our van AND AMAZINGLY none of us were hurt. The van also had minimal damage. I know Heavenly Father protected us!! So I promised some trip details (a little late? yeah): We had a lot of fun down in Arizona with Derek's family. All together in 2 houses in Peoria. WOW! It was so good for all of us and we know we can't stay away from family for very much longer than we have to. We spent one afternoon in the Children's Museum in Mesa. (It's amazing what you find when you don't live in an area anymore.) The kids are still talking about a kitchen area where they could pretend to make meals--simple things entertain the most!!

More to come!

2008-07-10T06:48:00.000-07:00

Okay, we just had an amazing vacation for over 2 weeks. We were able to attend Dallin (Derek's youngest brother)& Julie's wedding, go to a Higgins family reunion in Arizona, and go to a Whitmer family reunion in Utah! We are still recovering a little, but I have so much to write about! Unfortunately I cannot find our card reader to take the pictures off the card in our camera and put them into the computer. Derek just started his 2nd year at this hospital--officially his 1st year of Residency, so he's a little too busy to find it. I will find it soon and post some of the fun pictures we took during our time in AZ & UT. For now, have a GREAT day!

Official Announcement!

2008-05-26T07:43:00.000-07:00

Since I haven't really shared this blog with people other than my closest friends and relatives, most of you already know....I'm pregnant for the FIRST time ever! I can't even begin to explain how excited we are. AND it's not just one, but TWO! Despite my certainty that they were fraternal twins (since two of my sisters have fraternal twins), two doctors have now told me that they will be identical twins...another surprise! Derek said he thinks it happened this way so there would be no doubt in our minds that this is definitly a miracle from Heavenly Father! For answers to the common FAQ: No, we weren't taking any fertility meds(which would have made them fraternal twins), Yes, we're a little scared to have 6 kids 6 years and younger, and Yes, we are SO VERY BLESSED!! This is me taking one of my many naps (on the time-out pillow) with all of the kids coming over to join me!! :)

Joseph's Quote

2008-05-26T07:27:00.000-07:00

First of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOSEPH!! He's now 6. Big Boy! As some of you know, a big part of the reason we named Joseph his name was after Joseph Smith, the first prophet of our church. Ever since then Joseph has had this GREAT love for anything that has to do with Joseph Smith. On Sundays because we only watch church stuff, his big request is to watch anything about Joseph Smith, documentaries, movies or whatever. So, yesterday I was watching a new DVD by Rob Gardner (excellent) about Joseph Smith. At first the kids thought the person narrating the music was Joseph Smith and I explained to them that Joseph Smith was in heaven with Grandpa and Jesus. So as we were watching Joseph turned to me and said, "I can't wait to see Joseph Smith and tell him that we have the same name!" :)

Charlie's Quote

2008-05-26T07:19:00.000-07:00

Derek took the kids to the High School to run around on the field a little. When I picked them up they were talking about the two dogs they met while they were there. All of them are a little scared of dogs, except for Josh. Charlie was quiet for a long time and then said, "I want to get a baby dog so he won't have teeth." :)

Emma's Quote

2008-05-26T07:04:00.001-07:00

The other day we were dropping off kids for school and it was quite a windy day. Well, since Emma is the only one not going to school right now, she gets frustrated sometimes with the quick "pick ups" and "drop offs" without actually going somewhere. So despite gas prices, many times when she asks we will go for a longer drive which is something she thoroughly enjoys. We had the radio playing and Emma announced, "Look Mama! The trees are dancing!!" (to the wind) :) She cracks me up! Along with her love for going for drives, she's extatic whenever we go on the freeway. Can you imagine me in the doctor's office trying to bribe my children to be good and saying, "Emma, if you can be calm, we can go on the freeway today." My friend Cortney thinks she will be a good skydiver in the future. One more thing along those lines, when we went to Chuck E. Cheese's for Joseph's birthday, Derek had Emma on his lap playing a car game. Emma insisted she drive the entire time, and instead of trying to avoid the other cars, her goal was to knock all of them OFF the road! I can't wait for her to start practicing for her driver's license!

Kids in a Box

2008-03-31T09:06:00.000-07:00

I thought this picture was pretty funny. So now I'm taking suggestions on where I should send our kids. Obviously to Arizona to visit all the grandparents and cousins, but where to after that? Maybe up to Utah and then to Disneyland. I know!! I can send them to CHINA to visit Cheryl and Erik when they get there!!!!! I am still amazed at the fact that they are going!! Crazy or Adventurous, you vote!! I already told Cheryl which one I'm voting for. :)

Happy Easter!

2008-03-31T08:58:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone, I'm back! It's been crazy busy, but I really want to keep this up and running for family and Grandmas!!:)

We've had a busy 2 months. Easter was a lot of fun!! Here is a picture of our kids after the Easter Egg Hunt we had at Ann & Dave's. It took quite some time to get all the kids in the picture, but I think it was well worth it. Young Women's is keeping me busy--in fact we have New Beginnings next week. I'm really excited because one of my counselors had the idea of introducing the values by having a woman from the scriptures who displayed that value, introduce it!! I love the idea!! For example: Eve tells about the value CHOICE & ACCOUNTABILITY and Abish tells about the value FAITH. Anyway, we're gonna have the girls dress up and do it. YEAH!! Okay, can you tell I'm getting into this a little too much! :)

President Hinckley

2008-01-28T07:29:00.000-08:00

Last night Derek was talking to his brother (Daniel) and as they were talking Daniel got the news that President Hinckley had passed away. Shortly after that Chip called in on the other line to tell us the news. We are going to miss him so much! He's a truly great man. I can't help but be happy for him despite our loss. He is able to be with his sweet wife. We are so thankful for all that he has given us, for his devout service to God. What a great example to strive to follow. I have been greatly influenced by his wife's book, "Letters". It is SUCH a treat if you have extra time. Her outlook on life was so different compared to any other I've known. She is another example I would like to be follow--an incredible mother! Sometimes we feel so far away out here, but it was so nice to hear from everyone so quickly when such important news was happening. We told our kids this morning and will have an Family Home Evening about it tonight. They love him so much and get so excited when he talks in Conference. In fact Emma pronounces our last name "Hinckins" because she mixes it up with President Hinckley's name too. We just recently got cable for the first time and LOVE the fact that BYU TV is one of the channels. Joseph always asks if he can watch "BU" channel because I'll probably say yes. It's so nice to have the option to watch church programs ALL the time. I also love the BYU radio option on the internet!! If you don't know about it, you can go to the BYU TV area and click on BYU Radio. It's wonderful!! There is an instrumental option and a normal option. Our kids sometimes will recognize a song and say "I know that song!!!" It's really helped keep the Spirit in our home. A couple of weeks ago I got called as the Young Women's President. I was this in our El Mirage ward also. I think I'm getting another chance to do it right! The girls in our ward are AMAZING!! I've been the counselor for about 6 months and I think they get tired of me always telling them how great they are!! I am just so amazed at how unified they are, so loving and kind to each other and everyone in our ward. They have great attitudes toward life and it is so renewing and refreshing to be around them. We love you guys!!! Have a great week!

Another Sunday Performance

2008-01-14T08:14:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Derek's birthday and for his birthday he gave ME a gift and let me take a nap after church. (For those of you without children--this is the BEST gift ever!) Just shows how sweet he is!! We actually celebrated his birthday on HIS birth date. Which means he didn't have to share a pink cake with Emma. (He swears he doesn't mind since pink is his favorite color! Just kidding!) This picture is from their joint birthday party from last year. Our kids have actually done pretty well at being reverent in church in this ward. BUT yesterday as we were listening to a high counselor's talk, Emma took off Joshua's shoe and Joshua threw his head back for a record-breaking performance!! He missed the cushion on the back of the pew and hit the wood border making the loudest noise that echoed through the whole building!! It was SO loud that the speaker said, "Good thing his Dad's a doctor!" As I was trying to take Josh out, Charlie thought it would be funny to lay down in my way and laugh at me trying to maneuver around him. I hope this puts a smile on your face, NOW I think it's funny. By the way, Josh is just fine--he has a pretty hard head. :)

Nemo on Ice

2008-01-12T14:54:00.001-08:00

So after our doctor's appointment on Thursday morning, I got a message from Derek telling me that Cathy Psillos, a friend of ours in our church was giving us some Nemo on Ice tickets. Wow!! They were given tickets and went the night before and knew our little ones would LOVE to go. It would have cost us hundreds of dollars to all go together. It was very thoughtful of them! Of course we had a blast!! And this time we actually had a little money for souvenirs. We learned a very valuable lesson, too. When you buy your kids something to eat, you should like it too in case you have to consume it...we got snow cones and the kids just wanted to play with the cool mugs that they came in. Derek had to eat two and a half and I ate one and a half. The kids got a picture with "Bruce the Shark". It's really cute, so I'll try to scan it in the future sometime. Then last night we had another "Girls night out" where some of the women get together from our ward about once a month. Since Cortney is my visiting teaching companion and Kerry is someone I visit teach, I basically do all my visiting teaching that night also, JUST KIDDING!! I know I've said this many times before, but I love our ward, our neighbors and almost everything about New York!! This is really so great for our family to be out here.

Week of Fun

2008-01-12T14:41:00.000-08:00

Well, Emma had her birthday on Wednesday and we celebrated it on the same day--a first for our family. I cannot believe how big she is getting. The next morning we had doctor's appointments for everyone except Joseph. Wow! That was exciting!! The bad thing was that they all had to have shots. Emma was first, she just gave the doctor a mean look after he gave her the shot. Then there was Joshua who whimpered a little after it was administered. And Charlie topped them ALL!!! He was screaming at the top of his lungs through the shot, the rest of the appointment and then all the way out to the van!! I think I still hear him crying. :)

Last One for Today

2008-01-04T08:14:00.001-08:00

I'm so very thankful for my family, our little family, Derek's family and mine, too. I cannot explain the feelings of my heart right now. The holidays really help me to realize how very blessed I am. It's fun to hear from everyone and spend time with those we love. The lesson I taught last Sunday was on a subject that really made me realize how much Derek, our parents and so many close to us have been such GREAT examples to me in serving others. We are so happy here in our little spot on Long Island. It was fun to see how much my mom liked it, too. Thanks to everyone for all of the love and support you have given to our family. WE LOVE YOU!

All the Drama

2008-01-04T07:58:00.000-08:00

Okay, this time the blog site wouldn't let me do what I wanted with the pictures, so I'm doing three different posts to cover our Christmas experience. Friday was a lot of fun, but a little scary, too. Last year when Derek and I visited New York, our favorite part of the trip was being able to visit the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. So when my mom came, we really wanted to take her and our kids to see them. Well, we packed the kids in the van. I ran inside and up to my room to get a coat with my hands full of stuff for the outing. On the way downstairs, I overstepped the first step and fell down the relatively steep flight of stairs. I did a summer salt and a half and landed on my face--my left cheek. (Afterward I realized exactly what hit, because I had a soar left shoulder, right knee, etc.) Derek came in the door to hear the last few bumps and was VERY worried that I was seriously hurt. To make a long story short, after one of Derek's incredible treatments, a blessing and some ice I was off to the Statue of Liberty. I know I was protected from serious harm and am SO VERY thankful I'm okay. If you look at this picture closely you can see my cheek was swollen. Luckily the black eye didn't set in until later.

Holiday Vacation

2008-01-04T07:22:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm back from vacation! Before Joseph's school was let out for winter break, he told us, "Mom, we're going on a vacation." I told him our family was not going anywhere for Christmas this year and he informed me, "My teacher told me I'm going on a vacation with the kids in my class." He eventually realized his teacher was just talking about time off from school, but usually he has to find things out on his own 'cause he doesn't take our word for it. :) We had a WONDERFUL Christmas!! My mom was able to fly out to visit our family here and Ann's family in Connecticut. It really made it Christmas to have Mom here.

Thankful!

2007-12-15T20:24:00.000-08:00

As you can tell, our kids were not excited to get their pictures taken. (They were REALLY tired.) This was at the Christmas party last night for our ward (church). They had the bishop and his counselors dress up as the three wise men instead of having Santa come--which I thought was great! It was really cute. Well, I realized last night how thankful I am for being able to work with the Young Women in our ward. I thought we were going to be released because of some of the rumors that have been circulating. Well, I spoke to the president and she said we were going to add not replace the leaders in YW. I knew I enjoyed being in it, but when I was faced with thinking my time was done, I really was so sad about it! Our girls are great! Really sweet and down to earth from really good families here. And the leaders that I work with are great also!! This little experience has helped me count my blessings. :) Yesterday, I cut all of our kids' hair. You can probably tell from recent pictures that they have needed it for SO long. Charlie's Superman curl was getting longer and longer. In the past I've tried to bribe them to sit still with a sucker, but this time I let them watch a movie and it was AMAZING how long they were patient. Even though Derek has been the one asking for a haircut, he was working until the party so he didn't get one until today. (So it's my fault that he had long hair for our picture.) Everyone ready for Christmas????

Emma's Quote

2007-12-13T18:31:00.000-08:00

Emma came up to me with a book and was pretending to read to me from it. She said very seriously, "And the Prophet says...No more monkeys jumping on the bed!" I laughed SO hard, which caused her to repeat the phrase over and over all day. So much has happened since I wrote last, but now that I sit down to write it...I'm having writer's block. I'm so very excited that my mom will be here on Monday! She will be visiting for two weeks during Christmas. Right now we're in the middle of a snow, sleet and freezing rain storm, but I think it will all calm down by Monday.

Joseph's Tooth

2007-12-07T08:51:00.000-08:00

Emma reprogrammed our laptop while I was helping one of our other kids, so I have to "borrow" our neighbor's internet signal (which isn't always on). This morning I had my first parent-teacher conference, which was a good thing and it went very well. Also, Joseph lost his first tooth last night. I will probably post a picture of it soon. I went in to give him some water at about 1 am 'cause he was coughing and he said in a very calm voice, "Mom, my tooth is over there." It cracked me up that he woke up, pulled his tooth out, and threw it across the room.

So, this picture is on Monday morning right after we took Derek to work. (That's why they still have their footed pj's on.) When we got home, it was snowing just a little and they wouldn't go inside 'cause they were having fun running around in it. Well, it was one year ago that we visited New York with NO intention of moving here. In fact, Derek bought our plane tickets when he was out of state on a different rotation. I told him I would rather have gone with him to a different interview to some other place and he said he bought them because it would be our only chance to visit New York, since we would never move there. Now look at us---------I love it here!!

Snow, Snow, Snow!!

2007-12-02T15:51:00.000-08:00

This morning we woke up to LOTS of snow! I went to all the trouble of taking video of the kids as they came down stairs and discovered the snow, but then Derek reminded me that the boys all saw snow on the fathers and sons outing last year. Oh well, the footage is still cute! Emma was excited to see the snow though. I must say, it's a lot funner for me to drive around in a car in it, than to be cycling through it like on my mission!! I was talking with the kids and we just happened to start talking about future brothers and sisters. Well, Joseph and Charlie decided it would be fun for us to have 2 more baby sisters and 2 more baby brothers at the same time. I told them they would have to come visit me in the mental hospital. Well, Joseph doesn't know what a "mental" hospital is, but he caught what I was saying and said, "Okay, mom. We will only have one baby girl and one baby boy and you don't have to worry because Charlie and me will hold them all of the time!" This morning at church was fun, too because I lost my keys out in the snow on our way in. Well, I didn't realize they were lost until a good friend of ours went up to bear his testimony and showed my keys to the congregation and announced that if the owner wanted their keys back they would have to bear their testimony. He left them up on the pulpit. Yes, humiliating, but pretty funny!! I had wanted to bear my testimony, so it helped motivate me. The day before Thanksgiving we discovered our heater/furnace had stopped working. When the repairman looked at it, he told us he was surprised it didn't burn our house down when it burnt itself up inside. I have been thinking of that a lot over the past week and I feel like more than at any other time of my life, Heavenly Father is leading and guiding me and our family and protecting us. I feel that He loves our children SO much and their future is VERY important to Him. Even though I'm not studying the scriptures and teaching the gospel for hours everyday, like on my mission, Heavenly Father is still using me to help my kids and He gives me guidance to help them. To me it's a similar feeling to helping someone learn about the gospel, but a little different. I'm so grateful for the guidance of the Holy Ghost. I also have more empathy for my parents now that I'm trying to do what they did. I feel I fall so short, but that if I'm trying my hardest and ask for His help, he will help my kids in the ways I wasn't able to. WOW!! Okay, I'm done. If you've read all the way to the end I should give you a prize or something!! :) Have a great day!

We've decided to adopt 7 more!!

2007-11-30T15:26:00.000-08:00

Okay, the title was a ploy to get you to read this! Actually, since we have the habit of bringing lots of kids home and announcing shocking news, we thought when we moved to New York it would be fun to pay a few kids to stand in one of our family pictures and REALLY surprise everyone with our Christmas card pictures! However, we HAVE adopted 7 more...sugar gliders. Yes, you have to GOOGLE sugar gliders if you don't know what they are. I happen to love kangaroos and other fun things that come from Australia, so since I couldn't bring a kangaroo home, I settled for 7 sugar gliders. I think I was going through withdrawal since I don't have 4 kids in diapers anymore. Not only do I get to clean up after them, but I also get to buy them baby food from the baby aisle. (I was starting to miss all the baby stuff!) I actually have wanted to get a sugar glider since a guy in my office at Ohio Casualty told me about them (that was 7 years ago!) I wanted to buy one in Arizona, but they were too expensive and they had to ship them from across the country. Well, out here I was looking on Craigslist and someone wanted to get rid of all or none...so I took all 7! They are fun, but I want to give away at least 5 of them. We'll see. We had a FANTASTIC Thanksgiving!! Ann & Dave, Julia, Katie, Grant, Megan, Marissa, and Annie all came over for Thanksgiving. It was so wonderful to have them over. I'm so grateful they could come. Then the next day Chip & Dy, Dallin and AJ stayed the night. I can't believe how fun it was to see everyone. I really would have been homesick if we weren't surrounded by family. Oh, and it was the first time I cooked the Thanksgiving turkey! I followed this cooks recipe that I saw on BYU TV. When it was finished I told Derek I thought it was undercooked. He said it was really good and that I was just used to dried out turkey. :) I would've thrown it back in to make turkey jerky if it were up to me, but I hope it was okay. I had a nightmare the next night about ruining the whole thing. Derek told me it was now over and I could stop worrying about it. We love all of you so much!! Thank you for all of your WONDERFUL emails!! I really am glad I started this blog now that it's helping us keep in contact with everyone more. I'm SOOOOO grateful for all of you!

Emma Quote

2007-11-20T10:49:00.001-08:00

Derek was working on all of the kids on Saturday and had them each up on his table one at a time. (Derek does Osteopathic Manipulation.) It was Emma's turn and when Derek started pushing on her back to fix one of the many strains from one of her millions of falls that week. She said, "Daddy...you're squishin' on me!!!" We miss having everyone over when you needed a tweak or two. He really felt good to be able to go work on Aaron in New Jersey a couple weeks ago. (Derek's nephew on a mission.)

Joshua Quote

2007-11-20T10:41:00.001-08:00

We were on a walk and Josh was kinda being quiet, so I asked, "You okay, sweetheart?" He replied with a big smile on his face,"I not your HEART!" Our little skinny Josh!! We thought Charlie was skinny before we got Joshua. I told one of my friends from the ward about how I have to tell Joshua he can have more green beans if he will eat the rest of his chicken nuggets. She thought that was SO funny, but it's true!!

Rainy Days!!

2007-11-20T10:20:00.001-08:00

Okay, today's a little too rainy and I can't upload the pictures from our camera that I want, so we're stuck with sunny beach pictures from a couple of months ago! This day was a lot of fun, actually. As we've mentioned to a few of you, we are closer to a beach (about 10 min) than we are to our church building (about 20 min). These pictures were from I was invited to go with a lady from our ward who practically lives at the beach. So, against my better judgment (which is mostly just paranoia) I took all the kids by MYSELF!! We were even playing at the edge of the water for quite a bit of them time. Afterward I was pretty proud of myself (and extremely happy that we got home with ALL of the kids). Everyone had a BLAST! And they were begging to go back for the rest of the week.

Tonight we are going to a muti-church Thanksgiving dinner held at a local Jewish temple. Our bishop is actually speaking there, so it will be interesting to see what it's like. They do this every year and they canceled YW so everyone could go. I'm in Young Women's again in this ward and I'm REALLY amazed at the youth in our ward. They are happy and sweet and really uplifting to be around. Derek is the Sunday School President, which is what he was doing before, also. I guess we have stamps on our heads--'cause we didn't tell anyone.

Derek's schedule just got a LOT better for the next 4 weeks starting today. YEAH!

The Higgins Bus

2007-11-11T12:03:00.000-08:00

Since Joseph started school, the focus and sometimes obsession of our kids has been the buses that they see every day. Each one of them takes turns claiming the bus that they see. "That's Joshua's bus!!" or "There are 1, 2, 3 buses!" And along with that they have invented an insult that is SO terrible that it can even cause tears at times. The insult is, "YOUR BUS IS FAR AWAY!!" (I can't believe I wrote such a terrible thing in my blog, please don't judge me.) So every time they start shouting it back and forth I have to inform them that they are on their bus: The Higgins Bus! I tell them I am their bus driver. And then comes the natural progression to tell them all the fun stories of all my VW buses growing up--Gus Bus, ReBus, ThusBus, and more. This picture is from July, but I thought it was a fun one to share.

Joseph Quote

2007-11-11T11:54:00.000-08:00

When we drove past the hospital where Derek works, Joseph pointed at it and said, "That is where Daddy lives!" This picture is actually Halloween night. The previous picture was of the night of the ward party. (Notice the different make-up.) Joseph is the cowboy and Charlie is the Indian. They are looking more and more alike as they get older.

Mamas Little Piggies!

2007-11-04T17:59:00.000-08:00

These were some props I made for our skit in a road show for our stake. (And of course the kids begged and begged to play with them.)

It's finally getting pretty chilly back here. Last weekend it went from the 70's to the 30's in one weekend. On Friday, we went to the park after we picked up Joseph from school. When we got home the kids were asking to put on their footed pajamas because they were SO cold! Now I'm a little worried because it was only 50 degrees outside. We'll see if we make it through the winter.

Happy Thoughts

2007-11-03T11:46:00.000-07:00

It's been a long week, so I am going to write about an experience that in my mind was a miracle: We were going to Stake Conference and arrived about 15 minutes early (no, that wasn't the miracle). I'm very grateful because even though Derek has to leave before we wake up in the morning and doesn't come home until after our kids go to sleep, he does have 2 out of 4 Sundays off for this rotation. So, we were looking for a seat--Derek was determined to get a soft seat--and found the 2nd row in the congregation was empty on the side. Okay, this had to be my biggest nightmare. Now it was our opportunity to preform for the WHOLE stake! I was terrified!

Inside myself I thought, "Okay, we have been reading the scriptures as a family and having Family Home Evening and saying family prayers. Maybe we will be blessed and our kids will be able to be calm throughout the meeting." But then I remembered Stake Conference is 2 hours and thought, "No way can they sit still for that long!"

Well, it just so happened that we sat behind the row for deaf people who had an interpreter doing sign language for them. My kids are really excited about sign language because of their "Signing Time" videos and a little sign language we do in our family. The choir was amazing and really got everyone's attention--including our kids. Then they played a violin solo that also impressed them very much. To make a long story not so long, they were quiet until the last 5 minutes when I had to take Josh out for throwing a fit in the aisle!! MIRACLE!!!! They were even quiet when a bee buzzed past the bench we were on and landed on the lady's shirt in front of us. Derek got a tissue from someone and grabbed the bee and put it in my scripture case. Still, not a peep from our kids!!

So I guess what I'm saying is that God will help us if we are trying our very hardest! Sometimes we want Him to help us the way WE want Him to help us, but other times we aren't expecting help and He surprises us with a MIRACLE.

Emma Quote

2007-10-19T10:38:00.001-07:00

We got Frosty's today from Wendy's and while we were eating them Emma put her hand on her head and said, "Mommy, my head has a tummy ache."

Charlie Quote

2007-10-19T10:29:00.001-07:00

One of my favorite things about my kids getting a little older is the funny things they say. So, bear with me if these aren't funny 'cause I think they are: Yesterday, Charlie was in the bathroom getting dressed after his bath. He called for me and when I went in he said, "I need your help!" I asked him why and he said, "'cause I can't stop the wiggles!!" He was shivering so badly he couldn't get dressed. :)

I'm Back

2007-10-18T14:21:00.000-07:00

Two computer explosions later...I'm back and alive to tell about it. Without going into boring details, we've been having problems with the electricity in our home. This house is great because of all of the space for our kids, but there are a few things that could be improved. Despite my computer setbacks, I am going to rededicate myself to trying this blogging thing out. I also discovered the Higgins family website is no longer around, so I guess I'll give everyone the opportunity to read this boring stuff. My advice is to ignore the words and go straight to the pictures!! In less than four months since we moved from Arizona, we already missed out on FOUR nephews' births (2 on Derek's side and 2 on mine). What's going on guys?? You could've waited til we got back! :) Life here has been wonderful. Our neighbors are so kind. Our landlord and his wife are so sweet. They leave us fresh veggies every day and mow our yard for us. They also gave us the pumpkins in this picture for the kids. The ward we are in is incredible and very loving--we feel like we are a part of their family. Hey, I even went to a hurricane preparedness fireside and they said our house was at the highest spot on the island. (That helps one of my fears of New York out a little bit.) I'll stop there and keep some stories for future posts! We love you guys!

My first post on a blog--WOW!

2007-08-24T08:53:00.000-07:00

Okay, I figured this blog would be able to take care of many birds with one BIG stone!

-My friends and family would be able to see what's going on in our lives.
-I can tell everyone to look at the new pictures on the blog.
-I can print out entries for my journal so Derek can't be mad at me anymore--he hates that I'm not great at keeping a journal! :)
-I can rant and rave about nothing and not bother anyone (does anyone really read these things anyway!)

Hopefully the advantages outweigh the risks!

RISKS
-No one will ever talk to me again.
-People will know how crazy I really am (if they actually read this thing).

I weigh the risks vs. the advantages thanks to good training by Derek. Whenever I used to have an anxiety attack about something, he would ask, "What's the worst possible thing that could happen?" He did have to change that question slightly because of my vivid imagination. His new question is, "What is the worst thing that would probably happen?" Thank you, Derek! :)

Now off to make lunch!