Keeping Afloat

Life is out of control right now. In my head, that is a huge understatement. Today Paul left for Florida. He will do a Blend Bar training for Salts, then fly straight to Arizona, do another training, then fly straight to California, do yet another training and have some meetings, then fly home next Friday, only to leave again on Sunday for Hawaii (at least I will be joining him on that venture!) Craziness!! There is so much to do at Salts. It is a huge blessing that things are kinda exploding there, just makes for some over-worked, exhausted people. My mind is fried with trying to remember and do all of the things I need to. Paul has put me in charge of training videos at Salts, which I am trying to teach myself from scratch. That in and of itself makes my brain want to explode. But then I am trying to help out with the everyday stuff and am spending the majority of my day at the warehouse or running errands.

My poor children, I feel like I am dragging them all over the place. Half the time, Stew's naps are in his car seat to and from who knows where. Or when he is super sad at work, I go for a drive until he falls asleep, head back to Salts, and he naps in the parking lot while I finish working. Sad to admit, but Lily is over-working the iPad. Noodle soup is becoming a staple item, and I can't even think about the last time I really cleaned the house. (Putting this all in a list is not as therapeutic as I was hoping it would be...it could go on, but I'll stop)

I just feel so stretched and thin right now. Like I have all of these things I am trying to do: be a good wife, mother, nurturer, employee, build an artistic bone... But I am not excelling, or even doing well, at any of them. I am sinking...slowly. When I think about going to Hawaii, or even Christmas, I am not even excited. Which is CRAZY! But I am too stressed out and exhausted, to have room for the excitement either of those deserve. So until life settles down, or I figure out some way to pull it together and handle every thing, I am just trying to keep afloat.

Halloween: part 3

With all the excitement and anticipation for Halloween, the night finally came! Lily has been loving her costume and was ecstatic to put her pretty dress and hair back on. And she was a trooping for wearing her hair all night - that thing was heavy for such a little head to support it! Speaking of her tangled hair, that wig took hours to make, it was full of two giant rolls of yarn which were each hand-cut and sewn into place. But I wanted my little girl to have a good costume this year, so it was worth the time to see how happy she was to have real tangled hair. 

Pascal on the other hand, was quickly and sloppily sewn together as fast as I could do it. It is a miracle that it actually fit him because I barely measured or pinned anything. But he was the most adorable little green chameleon. And every day he wore that costume, he kept his hat on the whole time too! My kids are amazing...

After a stop by the Brown's for some delicious BBQ and the best canned salsa I have ever had, we made our trek around the neighborhood. We figured we would just stop by a handful of houses, but Lily and Stew were loving it so much that by the time we were heading home, the streets were pretty bare! My little ones are already milkin' it out to the end.

Last year we went around with the cousins and we had to keep telling Lily what to do and to keep up with the other kids. But this year, she caught on so quick. She was literally running from door to door not wanting to miss out on a single piece of candy. I'm so proud of my little trick-or-treater.

While we were out, we ran into the Torres family. Little Jack was Flynn Rider...how cute that it ended up being Rapunzel and Flynn walkin' around together. They were adorable!

At home Stew and Lily each got to pick out one treat to enjoy for the night's hard work. Now we all get to enjoy the "treat bag" for weeks to come!

Halloween: part 2

I love this time of year because it is full of PARTIES! It is crazy and hectic and busy, but it is so fun to create these memories with friends and family. Grandma Stewart's Halloween party is always a blast for the kids. She always has creative crafts and fun treats for them to make and take home. And I love that she dresses up right along with them every year. All these little ones have the greatest Grandma in the world!

I love this time to mingle and laugh with my brothers. I think that I have the greatest brothers ever and I always enjoy when I get to hang out with them. They have the quirkiest quirks, and I think that is makes people. And little Stew Stew was looking up at me with those precious eyes most of the night. He was holding as tight as he could. Sometimes it is hard to have a mama's boy, but sometimes it is fun :)

Halloween: part 1

Grandma Heslop's annual Halloween party is my favorite Heslop tradition. It is always a blast and helps kick off the Halloween holiday. This year the theme was the 50's...or the 60's, I'm not sure if that was ever clarified, but, all the same. However, our costumes were to be of our favorite characters. So after much begging on my part to do a whole family costume theme, (I have been trying to get Paul to be one board with that since we were married!) we were the cast of Tangled. Lily was Rapunzel with gorgeous braided hair down past her toes, Stewart was her side-kick, Pascal, Paul was Flynn Rider, or as Lily kept saying all night, "Eugene!?" and I was the flattering floating light. My costume only lasted about 4 minutes, just enough time for pictures. But the other three were so adorable and that is what really mattered. 

Danny was Peter Pan, very fitting since he always seems to look like Peter Pan. Holland was the Nintendo character Kirby, which went well with her adorable 2nd trimester tummy. Grandma and Grandpa were dressed in the 50's. They got into the true spirit of their character's as they danced and boogied all night. Jessica, little Hazel, and Jeff were so creative! They were all from Monster's Inc. - Mike Wisouski, Boo, and Sully.

Grandma decorated so well, as she always does, with a true 50's atmosphere. We had a malt shop set up and groovy music all night as we ate and played games. And no Heslop Halloween party would be complete without the famous monster mash potoates, dinner-in-a-pumpkin, broomstick breadsticks, and a goulish green drink! So yummy! Stewart was devouring the broomsticks, he was in heaven.

After dinner, it was off to play some 50's inspired games. First was the "drag-race" where we raced each other around the kitchen on blankets. It was quite the work-out for the drag-er. (I know because someone had the bright idea that the wives should pull the husbands, thought I was going to have a heart-attack, but our team won that race!)

Then we had a "sock-hop" aka three-legged-race. Paul and I had worked over a great plan on syncrinization and how we were going to dominate, but once that whistle blew, it all went out the window! We did terrible! But had a blast... Lily liked the idea of just running around in a circle with someone, so she was exempt from having her socks tied.

Normally Dracula (best game EVER!) would come next, but we got a late start on everything and had to call it a night without the terrifying, hair-rising game. But there is always next year for that...

We are already looking forward to Heslop Halloween Bash 2013!

Off to St. George...again!

Paul traveled to Florida for the ISPA tradeshow this last week. It was almost a week long trip so the kids and I packed up and headed to St. George to save our sanity. As always, we love visiting Grandma and Grandpa Stewart, playing out in the hot sun, and just lounging around for a few days. 

Stewart got really confident on the wiggle car and went cruising down Grandma and Grandpa's backyard sidewalk. He had a whirlwind of emotion on his face with sheer nervousness and terror on his face at the top of the hill but as he managed to turn the wheels and end up on the patio instead of tipped upside-down in the grass, he was so proud of himself and showing a ginormous smile. I love watching my little guy grow and do new things.

Lily was so sweet to help her little brother when he did get stuck in the grass. She is an amazing sister and Stewart is so lucky to have her. She is always taking care of him and making sure he is safe and having fun. I hope their friendship continues to grow as they get older.

Grandpa has some lively, terrifying Halloween decor including a hooded, skeleton man that rumbles and glows if you walk by him. Stew was trying to be as brave as he could be. Whenever someone was holding him and would walk by, he would growl at the skeleton and show him he wasn't scared. But the minute you would put Stew down by it, he would turn and run as fast as he could and start bawling trying to find someone to save him. It was the cutest thing!

Grandma and Grandpa bought a pumpkin for Lily to carve. She was so excited. As much as I always try to be a good festive mother, I don't always get around to doing all that I should with the kids. I think that this was Lily's first time really carving pumpkins. She thought it was pretty awesome. And of course, being the slightly twisted girl that she is, she wanted a mean, angry pumpkin. (So weird that she is fascinated with the scarier things of life, in every movie or show, her favorite parts or characters are always the dark villians - funny girl, hope I shouldn't worry too much about her).

Stewart loved that he got to sit on the counter and watched Grandpa carve away as he devoured the pumpkin lid of our Jack-o-lantern. 

Once our pumpkin was all carved and scary, we added a flickering light and enjoyed him out on the porch. We all loved our visit to St. George but were glad to get home to Daddy. Plus, Paul had a great show, meaning he will have lots more business trips to come so it won't be long before we pack up and head to St. George yet again!

Elder Heslop Comes Home!

After two long years, the Heslop's all gathered (minus Brian who we missed terribly due to some more schooling) Friday night at SLC Airport to pick up Nic from Thailand! It was so exciting waiting and watching at the terminal to see who could spot him first. There were a few other missionaries coming home as well which made for a whole lot of anticipation in the air. Another family who already saw their missionary, gave us this sign to use for little Annie, Hazel, and Stew who Nic had never met. 

Luckily everyone made it in time because his flight was about 20 minutes earlier than we had expected. But, there he is!

I think he was so overcome with emotions that he grabbed the first person he could, which happened to be Lily, and gave her a giant hug. It was really sweet because, even though Lily is incredibly shy around Nic right now, I know that she missed him. She was only about 18 months when he left but she loved him and he was the greatest uncle to her. During the two years she would pray for him at night and I am so excited for them to get to know each other again. AND Stewart, it will be so fun to see Stew have another uncle around to play with.

We are so glad that Elder Heslop made it home safely and I know that Paul is excited to have another brother around to play basketball with, boss around at the warehouse, and just hang out with.

Another Year Older...

and hopefully getting wiser :) Paul turned 27! We love our husband and daddy and couldn't ask for anyone better.  It's a Sunday so we spent the day at home, going to church, and had a nice dinner at the Heslop's. We one giant celebration for Nic coming home, Annie turning two yesterday, and Paul's birthday today. Paul was the lucky one who got to pick the meal menu, so to no ones surprise, he wanted Mexican: sweet pork tacos topped with garden tomatoes, cabbage, and "grinch ranch", mexican rice, sweet corn cakes, black beans, and no birthday of his would be complete without an ice-cream cake! Sara made a sweet TinkerBell cake for Annie too. It was a great day and I hope that Paul has a great year!!