Elder Figueroa in Jamaica

Burning Ties

Elder Figueroa and the Branch President

My cousin Josh Figueroa is in Jamaica serving his mission.  He has so many neat stories and has some amazing pictures.  We are so proud of you and can't wait to hear and see more!

Happy Birthday Lindsay!

Lindsay (my cousin) celebrated her 24th birthday on Feb. 26th.  On the 27th we went out to dinner at BJ's to celebrate.  Everyone came...Heywood's, Huber's, Fairrington's, Figueroa's, Peterson's and Holgate's.  We had a great time.  

I can't believe you are 24!!!  I still remember doing your hair and make up and putting cute clothes on you and taking pictures.  You were my little little sister.  I remember babysitting you on Saturdays and LOVING it!  I love you so much and I am so glad you are in my family.  One of my fondest memories was taking you to my parents cabin and for some reason we slept out in the van.  The whole time you were so worried we were going home.  You were and still are such a great kid!  Thanks for all the great hair cuts and blow drys!!!!

Lauren is 16 mos!

I can't believe my baby is getting so big!  It seems like yesterday I was pregnant with her.  Time is going by way too quickly and I can't seem to be ok with her growing up.  Don't get me wrong- I want her to have the normal progression of life I just don't want it to go by so quickly.  She is such a fun little girl and I love watching her walk around following her big sister and brothers.  She LOVES Hayden soooo much and is so excited when she gets home from school.  She still loves barbies and babies and loves to pick out her clothes.  (She goes in to her closet and pulls out her favorites and brings them to me to put on her.)  She is taking about a 30-45 min nap a day,  same as she has for really as long as I can remember.  

I think when I tell people that my girls are harder than my boys it comes from this....  both Hayden and Lauren were not the best sleepers.  They just never required much sleep.  Which in turn makes for no me time and makes it hard to get anything done.  Also, they are very dramatic, very girly, very emotional!  But, I do have to say that my boys are extremely easy, so maybe if my boys were just a little bit hard then I would say that my girls were the easy ones because really they are good, sweet girls who just have BIG opinions on what they wear and how their hair is done!  lol!  They all have their moments but I feel so lucky to have the great kids that I do!

My friend had this on her blog and I won!!!!!  Wow, I have not won anything since that one gift basket about 5 years ago that I had to buy 10 raffle tickets for.  (Is that really winning?  Kinda sounds more like gambling?)  Anyway, this is something you too can really WIN-- It doesn't cost a thing!

Here is how the Pay-It-Forward game works and don't miss #3:

1.  The first 3 people to leave a comment on this post will receive a gift from me sometime in the next month!

2.  When and what you receive will be a surprise!

3.  Then you have to post this "Pay It Forward" challenge on your blog, then come back and leave a 2nd comment telling me you've done it!

Just a little tidbit of fun for those who love to WIN ANYTHING/BETTER THE WORLD THROUGH KINDNESS!!!  It's fun right??? Good luck! Happy commenting!

Chase Loves Scouts

I am so grateful and proud of Chase.  He is such a good boy and he loves Scouts so much!  I am so grateful for all the great boys in our ward that come from great families.  I love his leaders who do such a great job at their calling.  They plan activities that the boys love and are always there to help them out!  They hiked the San Tan mountain for Scouts and had such a blast!  Chase keeps asking when our family can go and hike it.  I hope that Chase will always have the love of Scouts that he has now.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day to my Wonderful Family!

I Love you Chase!

I Love you Hayden!

I Love you Blake!

I Love you Lauren!

As if 15 temporary tattoos all over your body weren't enough... let's add one more on our foreheads!

We Love Grandma... she always brings us gifts on Valentine's Day!  She is the BEST!

We had a great Valentine's Day!

  My Grandma Heywood (she passed away 10 years ago) LOVED Valentine's Day.  It was her favorite holiday.  She loved telling those she loved just how much they meant to her and did it all year long but always made us a special gift for Valentine's day.  I still have a jar that she filled with candy and she put a post it note on it that said,  I Love You!  Love, Grandma  (It was in her handwriting and I love it!)  When she died, at her funeral we had cut up paper hearts that we all wrote little love notes to her on and put them in her casket before they closed it.  A few months after she died we even took a bunch of paper hearts and put them on sticks and wrote love notes on them and put them at her grave.  I know that I got my love of Valentine's Day from her.  I love my family so much and they mean the world to me!

Brian and I went to dinner and movie.  A night out with just the 2 of us!  Now that's a great Valentine's Day gift!

Happy 5th Birthday Brock

Chase and Brock at Makutu's Island

Brock had all the cousins and lots of friends at his party!

Happy Birthday Brock-- YOU ROCK!

My sister Sheri's little boy Brock celebrated his 5th birthday at Makutu's Island.  Everyone had such a great time.  I can't believe that you are 5!!!  Where has all the time gone?  You will be in Kindergarten soon!!!  Brock is very sweet and is the most photogenic boy I know!  Hope you had a great day Hickory Dickory Brock!

Hayden's BRIGHT ORANGE Cast!

Here's Hayden's BRIGHT ORANGE cast!  After 5 DAYS (to let the swelling go down) she finally got her cast.  She has to wear it for 4 weeks!!!!   I'm just glad it's not summertime.  The doctor told us that if an adult had broken their arm the way Hayden had we would have to have surgery and put pins in it.  Luckily for Hayden - a little plaster and some pressure and it should be good!  We'll see in 4 weeks!

Brian's Birthday

Happy Birthday Honey!

My Parents

Sheri and Michael

Lindsay and Sheri

Julz and Scott

Spencer

Elizabeth and Steven

Josh, Cody, Lindsay and Linda

MMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmm...

I hope you had a great birthday!!!!!

Feb. 5th- For Brian's birthday we went to Benihana's for dinner.  All my family joined us!  We had a great time!  Dinner was great!  We even had goodie bags for everyone.  In the bags were the silly teeth that everyone modeled.  It was so much fun.  Thanks to everyone for coming and making the night so great!

Here's What Hayden Did Today!

This morning shortly after Hayden got to school we get a call from the nurse.  Hayden fell off the monkey bars and YES..... she broke her wrist (in 2 places).  So, on Monday she will be going to the Orthopedic doctor to get a cast.  (They wait a few days (5)??? to cast it because of the swelling.)   She has been so brave and VERY tolerant to pain.  The nurse kept saying she was so brave.  Honestly, I was shocked at her lack of crying and moaning in pain.  She cried a little but, then nothing.  No crying during the x-rays... nothing.  She did have to miss her much anticipated field trip today and I think that she was more crying about missing the field trip than her broken arm!