St. Patty's Day

It use to be, when I was in school, St. Patrick's Day meant you wore a green shirt. Or if you were daring, you may try to hide your green somewhere so if someone pinched you, you could pinch them back.
Well, at least for my boys, March 17th is green day and which ever class can wear the most green gets some sort of prize. Of course that means a CONTEST and therefore, it is taken very seriously at our house. Bryson got into it the most this year. With multiple shirts, underwear, hats, and a tie in green, I think we counted 9 items in green. Needless to say, his class won. This child does not lack confidence. I took the boys to school that morning and I wondered if Bryson would be a little nervous to get out of the car in his stunning outfit. But just the opposite. He was very proud of his new look and strutted out onto the playgrould excited to show his new stuff.

Mommy, "I'm ready to go!"

I have found that as a mother I have eaten my words many times. Before I had children (and even when I had only one or two boys) I would say "I'd never let my child go out in public like that!" But now with 4 boys and one on the way, I have really relaxed on this issue.
The other day. I was busily getting things done around the house while all the boys were at school except for McKay. I told him to hurry and get ready because we were going to go the store in just a minute. He was already dressed, but needed to get his shoes on still.
He went back to his room for a few minutes and then came out wearing something completely different. McKay was so proud of himself and said, "Mommy, I'm ready to go!" He was wearing pajama shorts, which he refers to as his basketball shorts, an undershirt, and his lovely red Santa socks. Oh, and look and those adorable Thomas the train shoes put on the wrong feet. The shoes are yet another item that I have had to eat my words on. I have always been completely against character clothing and shoes.
Well, all I can say is that it must be true about what they say about the younger siblings in the family. They get away with things (and get things) that their older siblings never could. The funny thing is, I think McKay looks rather cute in his outfit.

Le Fiesta in Mexico!

Our friends, Jason and Lindsey Danley invited us to go with them to Rocky Point, Mexico with them about a month ago. It was so fun to get out of the cold weather and enjoy a couple days of sun while staying at a resort that was right on the beach! The boys loved every minute of it (even the grocery shopping and seeing all of the different kinds of candy).

The boys were wore out at the end of each day. Tanner fell asleep while we were at the Blue Dolphin Resturant (famous for their International Cousin) no this is not a typo on my part, this is what their big sign said in front of the store that was all lit up. I wish I had taken a picture of it.

Playing in the pool was the favorite past-time. All of the Mexican workers thought we were crazy swimming in such cold water. They were all in sweatshirts or coats, but compared to below zero degree weather in Heber, we were roasting!

Catching some waves in the ocean. Garrett and Tanner also had fun catching hermit crabs and then warming them up in the hot tub. They couldn't figure out why the hermit crabs kept dying on them. Bryson's favorite past-time, of course, was playing football on the beach. Does this surprise you? This boy eats, drinks, and sleeps football.

My Full Time Job

The last couple of weeks have pushed me over the edge and I have realized I have said "yes" to way to many things. The biggest of them all was the school fundraiser. I counted how many hours I put into this last week I had worked the equivalent of a full time job! The 2 weeks previous I was only working part time. I won't bore you with the details, but will only tell you that the day of giving the grand prize winner a helicopter ride was all worth it!
This little first grader had over 60 sponsers and had raised over $475. He had gone to every house in his small town with his older sister. His mother works full time at our school and this helicopter ride (I was told) was something this little family would never be able to afford. As I called up this little boy and announced him the grand prize winner, I had a hard time holding my composer as I watched such a sweet humble little boy come to claim his prize. The studentbody was estatic. I asked this boy who (besides his parents) did he want to take with him on the helicopter ride and he said, "my sister".
The whole school went outside to see the helicopter land in the back field and come pick up this boy and his family. I watched the teary eyed father board, I myself got a little emotional, and as I looked around many of the teachers were wiping their eyes as well. It was definetely my "payday"! Oh and by the way, we reached our goal plus about $3,000 more! Hurray!

BYU Football - Fui and Curtis

Bryson and Garrett had the chance to visit the locker-room before the UNLV football gamewith the Heywood cousins. I guess with as good as BYU was and as bad as UNLV was - UNLV would likely not refer to their efforts as a football game ... with an ending score of 52-7, but it is sure fun again to be going to the BYU games and watching big offensive outputs. We were able to get this close to the players courtesy of George Curtis - a lifting buddie and mentor to Rob Heywood - who has a long history of weight training with BYU and its athletes.

Preceding the game the kids all went to the store "Fanzz" and purchased Curtis Brown jerseys (#6) and had the chance to have their new hats and jerseys autographed by the big guys. Seen below is a picture with recently returned missionary sophomore running back Fui Vakapuna (#1 - hence the multiple #1's being held in the air). Fui is averaging 6 yards per carry and 9 yards per reception this year. The amazing thing is that with as good as he is, BYU has so many offensive weapons both passing and rushing, that he has only had about 8 carries per game. Because of a high ankle sprain Fui didn't play in the UNLV slaughtering, but I'm sure he'll be playing in the Air Force game this weekend. Pictured below are the kids with senior running back Curtis Brown. Curtis is a stud and, just like Fui and the other players that spent time with the kids, he was great with the kids. Curtis only played for 2 1/2 quarters and racked up just under 150 rushing yards and a touchdown for the day's effort. BYU put up more than 300 rushing yards in the game in addition to more than 270 yards passing - for a combined 570+ offensive yards (and that is with trying not to score in the 4th). Curtis passed up Heimuli in this game and ended up less than 200 yards short of Jamal Willis' all-time BYU rushing record. After the Air Force and Colorado games these next two weeks Curtis should be in sole posession of the all-time BYU rushing record.

The Kauai Bible

Thanks to our tour guide, Kristen, we had so much fun on our trip to Kauai. We were on the go all the time! Kristen commented that she wondered what she had spent more time doing: planning for this trip or actually going on the trip itself. Paul and I were the beneficiaries of her planning. We joked with Kristen about bringing the "Kauai Bible" with us, otherwise known as "The Ultimate Guide to Kuaui" book. But, it really helped us find our way around the island!



We were glad Kristen brought her book when we went on the Jungle Falls hike. We would never have even found the trailhead without it. There are a lot of cool things on the island, but people don't know about them because nothing is marked. Here is Paul getting ready to go on the rope swing. This place was awesome, and we had it all to ourselves for along time.



Cory did a great job blogging about our fun trip! If you want to see some cool pictures, go to Cory and Kristen's blog at http://edwardsfam.blogspot.com.

A picture's worth a 1,000 words (and $300)

Of course this picture is priceless because it is of Cory and Kristen. But, it was also the last picture I was able to take with our camera before it was ruined in its"waterproof" pouch. Kristen somehow convinced us to go kayaking in the open sea for 17 miles down the Napali Coast while we were on "vacation" in Hawaii. You have no idea how terribly nervous I was to do this and while Kristen was saying "What an adventure!" I was praying we wouldn't die (literally). I felt somewhat better knowing we had a tour guide. But he was a too busy trying to reinacted the moment of "Kiss the Girl" from Little Mermaid with his new Hawaiian fling to even know that the rest of us we there.

The only thing that this tour guide said to me was "Angela, stop worrying about the paddling and look around at the beautiful scenery." I had a hard time doing this because I was afraid we were going to huli (that means flip over in the water). Now that its over, I'm glad we did it! I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a real adventure... just don't take your digital camera, remember to take something for motion sickness, wear lots of sunscreen, and be able to relieve yourself at sea (or hold it for 12 hours- I don't think I'll share my personal experience about this one.)