kimmie comes to visit

i had such an amazing time while kimmie came to visit. it was just like old times only now there were three little children to attack kim while she was here. lily, jack and ash loved here. they thought she was the greatest person ever. lily cried when she realized that kim was leaving on saturday. it has been over three years since we have seen eachother but it seemed like no time at all when she was here. my mom watched my kids one day and we made our way into the city. these are some of the pictures i took. kim has some really good ones in her camera of her and my children so i will have to get them and then add to this post. well we miss you already kimmie and thanks again for coming. i would also like to thank seth for letting kim leave him and the kids for a couple of days to visit us. love you kim!

kimmie on the monorail from the westlake mall to the spaceneedle.

me in kimmie's glasses, also on the monorail.

kimmie and the spaceneedle.

me and the spaceneedle.

steven's grandma cook

(the quote starts with "five of the sisters" and continues till the end.)

well here is an interesting story. steven and i were at our stake center the other day and while steven was talking to one of the stake presidency, i decided to look through the book about temples that was sitting on the table. the book goes through all of the different temples and shows a bunch of pictures and tells stories about them. i decided to of course read about LA first but then i moved on to the seattle temple. i was reading the comments and then at the very end and the quote was from steven's grandma cook. from all the stories i have heard, she was an amazing and inspiring woman. it totally caught me off guard and made me cry. it also reaffirmed my testimony of the temple. his grandma was a temple worker in both the LA and Seattle Temples and had to travel long distances to do to work at each one. i am so grateful to have always lived so close to the temple. i am going to make a conscious effort to take advantage of that and go more often. thank you grandma cook for your example!

ashy walks

well i know that this has already been mentioned on thehellerfamily.org but i wanted to have it in my journal as well. this week asher has started taking 8 or 9 steps. it is so amazing to see the progress he makes each day. it is funny because you would think that it wouldn't be as exciting with each child but it really is. i love seeing the pure joy in their face when they finally realize that they can actually do it. well congratulations my little baby, i love you and i can't wait for the many walks we will take as you get older. 

enchiladas anyone?

asher had his first taste of enchiladas and i guess he likes them, well at least his face, hands, clothes, the table and his chair do.

can i go play in the garage?

so the other morning, jackson got up for the day and while steven was taking a shower asked, "can i go play in the garage?" well, steven finished getting ready for work and before he left he had to get something out of the garage and this was what he saw. it's like he knew steven would eventually have to go out there and he was just waiting for him. this is steven's freebording helmet and jackson has been obsessed with it since i cleared the garage out and have been letting him and lily play out there.

my baby is one

i cannot believe that ashy is one year old. it feels like just yesterday that kim called me from her hospital room and said that she had just had ben. after that i said to myself it is time for this little man to come into this world. the next day, i was having consistant but non painful contrations and said lets just go to the hospital and see what happens. four hours later this happy and sweet little boy came into our lives.there is something about boys that they are automatically mammas boys. they are just so cuddly and squishy. my little ash man fits the part perfectly. from the beginning i couldn't stop kissing on him. of course he's not quite as cuddly any more but i am still forcing my kisses on him. asher is loving, happy, always smiling, funny and also fiercly into EVERYTHING! thank you for joining our family!

weird picture of me but i liked the whole picture anyway.

Ragu alla Bolognese

last night i made the most amazing pasta dish. i thought that i would post the recipe for you all to try. i got the original recipe from marthastewart.com but then combined it with another that i found on some other website. well here it is.......

4 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup carrot grated then chopped in processor
1/2 cup zucchini grated then chopped in processor
1 onion chopped
2 cloves minced garlic
1/2 lb ground beef or turkey
1/2 lb ground italian sausage
1 (28oz) can crushed tomatoes
1/2 cup cooking wine
1/2 cup milk
1 dried bay leaf
1/2 tsp italian seasoning
1/4 tsp nutmeg
sea salt & ground pepper
linguini (i used whole wheat)
parmesan cheese

1. heat butter and oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.
2. stir in carrot, zucchini, onion and garlic.
3. add meat and cook until it is no longer pink (about 5 minutes)
4. turn heat to medium high and add wine, cook until evaporated.
5. add tomatoes.
6. stir in milk, bay leaf, italian seasoning, nutmeg, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/8 tsp pepper.
7. simmer for 1-2 hours.
8. cook pasta, drain and return to pot.
9. add half of the sauce and toss with pasta.
10. mix in parmesan.

if you decided to make this, let me know what you think. enjoy!

lily gets a haircut

yesterday i had a random moment to cut off lily's hair. we decided to grow her bangs out and i saw a picture of a little girl with short hair and i thought to myself, "it would be a lot easier to grow her bangs out if her hair was shorter." well...10 minutes later we were in the kitchen and i was cutting off her ponytail. for those of you hair stylists reading this (ruth) i know it is shorter on one side but i didn't want to try to even it and end up making the other side shorter than the first. i am going to take her to a hair place this weekend and get it cleaned up but...i think it looks pretty cute on her. i kept her ponytail and am mailing it to locks of love. her hair isn't long enough to use for making a wig but they sell the shorter hair to make up for manufacturing costs. i hope they will be able to do that with hers.

early birthday party

we went over to spokane this weekend to celebrate steven's & asher's birthdays with steven's family. because of the long memorial day weekend, we decided to celebrate early. we were able to relax and hang out with family and just have a good time. we miss being so close to his family because it is always a good time being with them. hellers and bowers, we love you! thanks for a good weekend.

auntie lisa and katie made these amazing panda bear cupcakes.

excited-

partaking-

enjoying!

everyone enjoyed the panda bears, especially the kids.

gardening & scoopers

well we went to spokane this weekend and for lily and jackson it was filled with gardening (playing in the dirt) and uncle dave's scooper as jackson likes to call the caterpillar. the whole trip over to spokane jackson talked about driving in the scooper but sitting in it was the best he would do. he loves the scooper but he is scared of the scooper. unfortunately he is not scared of the dirt as you can see in this first picture.

jackson insisted on having a hat and when his grandma asked what he needed a hat for, he got very serious and said "for my head!"

lily was very excited about playing in the dirt with her shovel.

getting older

well now that asher is almost one he is looking so much older. you can't tell but lily was feeding him yogurt in these pictures. he thought it was the greatest thing ever that his big sister was feeding him with a spoon. i love seeing asher interact with his big sister and brother. he loves them so much and i am truly grateful that they get along the way that they do.

ashy gets a haircut & steven goes black

well my baby's hair was getting so fluffy and crazy so we decided to buzz it. he looks so much older to me. i took pictures before and after but...the memory card was not in the camera and thus they were not saved. i was really bummed because there were some really cute before pics.

ashy in lily's princess chair. he thought it was so cool to be sitting in it.

ashy loving his daddy's hair. steven decided he needed a change and came home with black hair dye after work one night.

asher thinks his dad is really cool. the other night he was having a hard time sleeping and i brought him in bed with us. unfortunately for steven, asher insisted on sleeping on steven's pillow and squeezing steven's ear. also, every 5 or 10 minutes he would pick his head up and just stare at him. finally i could tell that steven had enough and took him back to his own bed.

rocking out

jackson and asher enjoy playing the piano together. they will just sit and hit the keys and asher will bounce up and down which is his way of dancing. they are pretty cute together! sometimes it doesn't sound all that bad.

ashy with his rocker hairdo.

to my daughter (hopefully not for another 20 years)

i know that one day you are going to ask me, how do i know if “he’s the one?” this is a question that we have all asked, or will ask at some point in our lives. for some reason, i have been thinking about this lately. maybe because i have read the twilight books recently or i have been pondering my children growing up but, it has been on my mind. this is probably going to take me a long time to write but here it goes.............

when i was in high school and college i was a crazy romantic. i really think i was looking for something that wasn’t there. a mythical figure that would bring me kissing in the rain, surprise letters on my car and of course the star crossed romance that would never work out unless....i could work my magic. but when it came to reality, i don’t have any magic to wield. there have been times in my life that i kissed someone just because at the time, i knew that if i didn’t, i would regret it for the rest of my life. i wanted the feeling that i felt when i watched pride & prejudice or sleepless in seattle but as i get older, no matter how much i want bella to be with edward, i realize that edward is not who i would choose in real life (twilight reference.)

i have had edwards in my life but in the end, it just wasn’t enough! i think the older you get the more you will realize that all of that stuff is important (and fun) but it doesn’t make up for the lack of a testimony of the savior. it is ok to desire those things but more importantly you should be looking for someone who honors his priesthood, someone who has served a mission and most of all, someone who loves the gospel. if he loves the gospel, most likely, everything else will be there.

when i met your father, we were friends for a long time. i had never dated someone that i was friends with first. i just didn’t think that i could do something like that. it didn’t seem romantic enough for me (silly as that might sound.) he was a great guy that i enjoyed spending time with but how can you be romantic with a friend. well it turns out you can and it was something i had never felt before. it was like coming home. i had never been so comfortable with anyone else. there was no pretense behind anything he did. he was my best friend and we could do anything together and i wasn’t to shy to be myself. he saw who i was and i saw who he was. that is not to say that there wasn’t any, as i like to call it, movie romance, but that wasn’t the most exciting part. he loved the savior, served a mission and was a faithful priesthood holder. HE LOVED THE GOSPEL.

you are a beautiful girl who loves her heavenly father and even though you are only four right now i can see that you are going to always feel this way. i hope that this will be helpful to you when you are old enough to have this question. i love you and HOPE that you will choose someone that is worthy of all that you have to give. thank you for being my daughter baby belle.

love mommy

lily turns 4

happy birthday my little lily! i can't believe that she is 4 years old. well by looking at the first picture i am sure you can tell that she loves princess stuff. she had a beautiful day. we went to chuck e cheese for the first time. all of the kids had a blast. it was a little crazy there and jackson wanted to run everywhere by himself. lily was so good and her favorite thing to do was anything that would get her tickets. she ended up with 50 and bought herself two rings, two bracelets and a sucker(which she devoured before we even got home.)

lily in her princess jammies and sitting on her new princess chair.

lily, maddie & sophie

lily about to blow our her candles which she blew out in one shot.

just after she blew them out. they were crayon candles and jackson kept asking me why there were crayons on her cake.

steven cutting the cake.

lily eating her yummy cake.

jackson in one of the many rides he loved.

ashy's favorite part of the party was the pizza. he wanted down so bad but it was too crazy there for him to be crawling around. he was a good boy though and ate pizza and loved riding on the barney ride. it was a good day!

zihuatanejo, mexico

can anyone tell me what movie ends in zihuatanejo? well i am sure that mostly everyone can but this was our first stop on our mexican cruise. we loved this little quaint city. after our horse back riding adventure, we ate lunch in a little place that wasn't so cheap and did a little shopping. here are some pictures of our time here.

we had to take boats or tenders from the ship to the shore so we were able to get some good shots of our boat the Star Princess. here is one of them.

zihuatanejo

one of the only picture of steven and i.

we went horseback riding here and this was me and my horse.

steven's horse was a little crazy and actually jumped his hind legs off the ground and kicked the little old lady's horse that was next to his. i was behind both of them so all i knew was i didn't want to pass him at all.

park day

well the weather is finally getting good enough for me to want to walk to the park. so, the other day we walked on over and since school was just getting out we were the only ones there. this park is really little but lily and jack had a really good time. lily even slid down the pole by herself she is not the biggest dare devil so it was huge for her to want to try. it seemed like she had fun but she didn't want to do it again. obviously the picture of asher isn't at the park but i had to throw it in there. i love his bum.

jack getting ready to head down the slide.

lily making her way down the slide

jackson just hanging around. (could i be any cornier?)

lily posing on the slide.

could there be a cuter body than this. ashy is just so big, i can't believe that he is about to turn 1. he is the funniest little baby.