Addie's Hair

Well, Addie's hair drives me crazy. It never looks good, even when you TRY to make it look good. It never stays that way. So...I permed it. She did very well and sat through the whole thing. Only a few tears because it smelled bad. :) But then we were fine. At least with it curly and wild it looks a little better than straight, curly, wavy, kinky and wild!
It does look really cute too. Her sisters really like it.

Garage

We almost have a roof. This is where we are at in the process.

Halloween

Now that Halloween is over, ahem, Ellem, ahem... I will post pictures of our children in their costumes. We went downtown and trick-or-treated at the businesses and got a lot of candy. Then we came home, had supper and walked around our neighborhood a little. Then the girls wanted to come home and hand out candy and that is what they are doing right now.

Amber was a princess.

Ashley was a Barbie kitty cat.

Addie was another princess.

Alex was a giraffe.

House

Well, since Ellen thinks I don't post enough, I will update again, since my last post was 2 days ago. :)
They have started framing up the walls of the garage. You know, there is just something about watching a structure being built. I don't know what it is, but it is just cool to see things come together.


Now, they actually have the header up, but I didn't get out to take a picture of it today, but I will tomorrow. They also brought scaffolding and set that up this afternoon. I am guessing that is for the roof trusses. That will be interesting to see.

Pumpkin Carving

This year I decided to try something a little more interesting. So I bought one of those kits to carve pumpkins. We used it for Amber, Ashley and Addie. By the time I got to Alex I figured that he could just have a regular-Joe pumpkin.
Amber chose a spider, Ashley chose a bat, and Addie chose a really scary face. I think that my arm is going to fall off tonight after all the sawing.

Weekend Fun

We spent the night in Story City on Saturday after the birthday weekend. We had some friends from Hubbard/Racliffe come down and swim with us. It was a LOT of fun. Our kids had really missed their friends and it was fun to see some real smiles on their faces. We went back to the Houcks house and had pizza after swimming. Then Amber stayed at Noelle's house, Ashley stayed at Lily's house and we kept Addie and Alex at the hotel with us. Then the next morning we all went to church in Radcliffe at our old church. It was great to see people and talk. After church we went to Pizza Hut with the Cook's, just like old times. It was a much needed weekend with some much missed friends.

Addie and Ty


Amber and Noelle


Ashley and Lily

Addie's and Alex's Birthday

We celebrated Alex and Addie's birthday in Gilbert this last weekend with the Heubner side of the family. Addie was very happy to receive a scooter and a "real doll" as she calls it. Alex was also thrilled to receive a set of four motorcycles from his Aunt Sara. He wasn't so thrilled with the clothes he got, but his mom was.

Birthday Pictures

Happy BIrthday Alex!!

Today is Alex's birthday. He is two years old. There are many times that Bill and I reminisce about going to Guatemala to visit and going back to pick him up. It seems like such a long time ago, but was really only a little over a year ago that we did it. It is hard to believe that he is two and it feels good to see the growth, physically and cognitively. Slowly we are seeing vocabulary emerge. He has always had a great sense of humor, always laughed at everything. You know, when Alex came home last year at 11 1/2 months, he wasn't really crawling, just doing the army crawl. He could sit, but he couldn't pull himself up on anything, he couldn't walk, and wasn't even close. He has made so much progress and now is running and climbing and jumping and roughhousing with Dad and his sisters. It is good to see!
Tonight we are going to have a little cake and do a few presents just from our family. He will have birthday with both grandparents later. I will post pictures of his party later.

Weekend

We are really excited for this weekend. We are going to go back and see friends in Hubbard. Bill's side of the family is doing the October/November birthdays this weekend in Gilbert at his brother's new house. After that is done in the evening we are going to drive back up to Story City and stay at the hotel there and have some friends come and swim with us. Amber is going to spend the night at one of their houses, with her friend Noelle. They are both pretty excited about that. Noelle went to a different school this year too, they just stayed in the same town and open-enrolled to another school. On Sunday we are all going to go to church at our old church in Radcliffe and see old friends. Then, the traditional Sunday dinner at Pizza Hut in Iowa Falls with the Cook's. We won't have a ton of time on Sunday after lunch to spend with anyone because Amber has a piano recital back in Independence later that afternoon, so we will have to head back, but it is going to be a lot of fun.

Questioning...

Have you ever had a moment in life when you questioned everything you did, and you wondered if you made the right decision? That is how I feel. I have so many thoughts that go through my head everyday on this subject. Do you make decisions with your head or with your heart, or both? If you pray and feel God's leading in something, and you follow that leading, can you ever feel as if you made the biggest mistake of your life? And how do you fix that, or do you? Too many thoughts... I am an emotional person, more so since I have had my children. Something about childbirth and babies has made me much more of a cryer, someone that I never was pre-baby. In fact I used to think that is was silly to cry about anything. Not now, oh, no. I am a constant fountain, well maybe not constant, but I am more emotional as a mother. This just adds to the questions in my mind. Not only do I question, but I FEEL things and that makes everything more difficult. I think that the only thing that will help me is time. Time to chew things over and hash them out and cry about it and figure out how I truly feel. But I am not sure if how I FEEL is a very good measure of whether something is good or not. So maybe that was the wrong way of wording things. Time will give me the opportunity to step back and look at the bigger picture and not have frustration and emotions of the moment interfere.
Oh well, this is all just ramblings, but I feel a slight bit better.

Ode to Crypto

Oh yes, there is sickness once again in the Heubner house, or at least that is what the daycare thinks. Many of you might have heard about the latest Iowa outbreak, crypto. This is a lovely parasite that cannot be killed by bleach, is found in stools and is a pain in the neck to deal with. Anyhow, earlier this year the daycare thought Alex had this because he had a "funny" diaper. So off we went to the doctor and low and behold he had an ear infection. Thus, the diarrhea. So back to daycare we went. Today, I get a call that he has had a diarrhea diaper and I have to take him in again and this time he must be tested. So I had to collect stool samples, fill vials (oh, you know it sounds fun) and then run those into the office where they will be sent to Cedar Rapids to be tested. Now, if that was all there was to it, I wouldn't have a problem. But this testing can take up to a week, and you guessed it, they can't go back to daycare until the results come back negative. So I have a child who looks healthy, acts healthy but doesn't poop healthy evidently. Actually he has a runny nose, which makes me want to argue with the daycare and ask them, do you think maybe he has a cold???
Now, if it comes back that he has this crypto, then fine, we will be on meds and stay home, but I am really irritated that any "funny" diaper means that I am running to the doctor again. The nurse today told me that if this comes back negative that we should just have the doctor write a standing note for Alex at the daycare and tell them that sometimes Alex will have "funny" stools and that is normal. :)
Fun, fun fun! That's what we have here.

On a side note, Alex has really clearly been saying "I want it". Usually it is in a whiny voice because he can't have something. But today, at the doctor's office when we were dropping off the "sample" he wanted to play with the toys. Now, being the good mother that I am, I told him he couldn't go over there on the odd chance that he actually has crypto. He wasn't too thrilled and looked at me and whined, I want it! I want it! :) Very cool.

So I am really really bad at this!

I know, I know. It has been months since I last posted. I even let Ellen blog for me a couple of times because I just wasn't up to it. So I will try to be better at this. I can't promise much, but maybe I can do one here or there. :)
Life has been very busy for the Heubner family. We have moved to Independence, started school, started football (Bill), started more classes (Katie) and finally started to feel like things will be okay here. It was a very tough decision to move to Independence. We had been in Hubbard for 6 years of our lives and it truly felt like home. Amber and Ashley were little when we moved there(3 and 1) and we really thought that we would grow old there. We loved the community and the friends that we had. We had added on to our house a couple years ago and then decided to adopt Alex, and that was fun, bringing him home and making up a room for a boy. If you haven't figured it out, we really loved Hubbard. Long story, short, things became really crazy for us in Hubbard, with Bill losing football, and job uncertainty. We applied and were offered jobs in Independence and after a lot of prayer, and tears, we decided that this was where God was moving us. Let me say that this was not always easy. There are so many things about Independence that I love: the conveniences, our new church, being closer to the river and my mom...But we miss our friends, we miss feeling that we belong-that we are somehow connected to people and that we have "place" that we fit. We are making new friends and at first it was almost a daily prayer, God please help us feel like we belong. Help us connect and meet the people that we were meant to meet. And if you know me I am not patient. It is my biggest weakness and something that I battle daily. Our kids struggled a little, although I will say like in most things they are resilient and they are doing well now. And life is beginning to be "normal". We have routine and that has helped. One of the biggest blessings was finding Jesup Bible Fellowship, our new church. We have always felt that the church is where you connect with people, and feel as if you really belong, and that is how it is beginning to feel. We have made new acquaintances that will hopefully turn into good friends and we have gotten involved as much as we can in order to get to know people.
So God is answering our prayer. We are starting to feel a little less disconnected, and a little more "normal". It is going to take time, but enough time has passed that we can see what the future could be like, and that is encouraging. We have been back to see some of our friends in Hubbard, and it is refreshing to see them and have that comfortable, old shoe feeling. You know, that feeling of just fitting right, and feeling right? And as Bill reminds me, we aren't that far away, and no, they won't forget all about us. :)
So what have we been up to in Independence? A lot! We have painted a little in our house (if you didn't know, we still own the other house in Hubbard-lovely market right now!). But the big stuff is that we have started a garage addition. The house only had one stall, and the house was smaller than our previous house, so you do the math- we either have too much stuff, or not enough space. So we are adding two stalls in the hopes that we will have extra storage in the garage and be able to bring storage stuff from Hubbard eventually. A by product of the new garage is more driveway and the girls are thrilled with that. It gives them more room for playing, bike riding and basketball, plus now we won't keep hitting the curb when we pull in the driveway.


We decided that we are going to start taking the kids to a "farm" to pick out pumpkins. Now I have nothing against Wal-mart pumpkins, but there is something about taking everyone out in the weather and grabbing a wagon to pick out a pumpkin that isn't the exact same size as everyone elses. There is a place in Independence that has the pumpkins and some other things that go along with that stuff- a big tree swing, places for picture taking, and then a little store that sells decorations and gives away free popcorn. We had a great time doing this and afterwards Bill and I both thought that this was one of those things that makes it feel like home.


Well, I think that this post is probably one of my longer ones, and hopefully makes up for the months of nothing. Hopefully I will remember to do this again. :)

More river Fun

Here is Amber riding on a new tube that the family got. It was fun! Ellen and Kate had a pretty fun ride as well, but Amber had to spot so we didn't have anyone to take pictures!
Here is Alex. He loves the sand and the water. He walks right into the water and loves to eat the sand!
Here is Alex playing Badmitton. I wish you could hear this yelling noise he made with it!

Here is Addie. Isn't she cute????

It was a great river day! Swimming in the morning, tubing in the afternoon, playing outside in the grass in the evening..finished up with the adults and big kids (everyone except Conner and Alex) watched Night at the Museum. It was a wonderful day.

P.s. This is Ellen posting still!

It is ABOUT time!

Since Katie won't post on her blog, I am doing it for her (This is Ellen her sister-in-law). The Heubners are at the river with Jim, Ellen, kids and Grandma B for the weekend. This morning was a great swimming morning. See Above. I will try for some pictures of Alex and Addie later.

We have purchased a new tube and Amber and I are anxious to try it out, but the ski boat is having some electrical issues. Maybe we will have pictures of that later!

All is well with Kate and Bill. They had a lovely time in Disney. Just ask Kate..she will tell you all about it! :) Bill is has been living in the small motorhome in Indpendence. Lots of people have looked at their house in Hubbard, but no offers yet. This next week, they hope to look at some rental properties in Indee. Kate has a half time job for this fall so that will help.

Both Amber and Ashley went to camp in the last couple of weeks and have had a great time!

So there you go folks a new post on behalf of the Heubners!

Big News!

We are moving!! We have been looking for some time for a teaching/coaching job for Bill that would allow him to be a football coach again. He applied at several places, but we hadn't really heard anything until last week, when Elkader, a school that he didn't even apply at, called him for an interview. He lined that interview up and then we contacted Independence to let them know that he was interviewing somewhere else and that we needed to know their timeline. They responded, please come interview with us also. So this past week Bill made two trips east for these interviews. Last night, Thursday, Independence called (while he was on his way home from the second interview) and wanted to "make Bill a proposition". When he called back they offered him head varsity football, and 8th grade english. We took another night to pray and decide if this was where our family needed to be. This morning he called and told them YES!!!! We are going to Indee!! It is considerably larger than Hubbard. We have about 300 total students, they have about 1300 total students. It will be a little different for the girls, but I think they will adjust very well. Amber has been very excited about this whole process and so far, she hasn't really been bothered by the idea of leaving Hubbard. She is very excited about daddy coaching football again. Ashley on the other hand reacted just as I predicted. She cried. But then after a good cry we talked about everything that Independence has and what it will be like and now she is very excited. She actually went to school today and announced to her class that she will be moving and her daddy will be coaching football again. :)
So now, onward to painting and getting the house ready. We are praying and asking God to give us the right buyer willing to pay what is needed for our house. This is probably the biggest hurdle we have to face. The housing market in Hubbard during the last year was pretty bad, some houses sitting for a year. When I talked to the realtor he said that things are starting to pick up and he is seeing more action. Hopefully that means that someone will be looking at our house and buying!

Just some fun photos I've found

Alex needed another haircut so I decided to give it a try. I "introduced" him to the clippers and then started. He did really well. You can see the finished product. Not too bad for the first time cutting little boy hair!

I'm Horrible and I Know it!

I am a blogging failure. Those of you that know me, understand that I can talk forever about many things, so it should be simple for me to just talk to my computer and put it all down in type. But it isn't. Somehow, just sitting down at the computer is a big feat.
Lots has been going on since I last blogged. Alex is walking now. Not totally, all the time, but he is walking a majority of the time. He walks to people and between couches and the other day walked across the living room and kitchen in one attempt.
We had our last home visit with our social worker. No more visits!!! Yeah! It means that everything is really done. We are just waiting on the Social Security Card to come and then we really are finished. It will be nice to not have to think about any of those things.
Amber and Ashley went to the Awana Games in Ankeny. Ashley's team took first place. They play games like "bean bag race" and "train". Some parents are horrified by the "train". Bill loves it. Basically, for those of you that haven't experience this event, you line up about 7 or 8 little kids from tallest to shortest(6-8 years old). Then you have them grab hold of the person in front of them as hard as they can. At the whistle, all four different teams run as fast as they can around the circle, trying to get back to their starting point, at which time the last child will run into the center and tag the pin, scoring points for our team. What never fails to happen (to Bill's amusement) is the tiny little child on the end of the train is struggling to hold on because of the momentum pushing them outward. They hold on for as long as they can around the circle, but it never fails that they JUST CAN'T HOLD ON any longer and they hurtle into innocent bystanders (other 6-8 year olds) that weren't prepared to be landed on. There are tears, injuries, and many times blood. This year one of our boys teams launched their caboose onto an unsuspecting blue team member (we are yellow) and the victim cried and cried. At which point I think Bill said, I love this game! Oh yes, that's what he said.
Now Amber's team took 3rd. We think that they were robbed of 2nd place, but who are we to question the razor sharp eyes of the Awana Games officials???? All year our kids were told that if they dove through the air for a pin that they would be disqualified, so in the tie-breaker event, we ran to the pin and touched it, but not before the other team launched into the air and knocked the pin down. Needless to say it was an opportunity to talk about how LIFE IS NOT FAIR!!
Now, what about Addie. You would think that I would have plenty to say about Addie, but surprisingly I don't. Lately, other than just being a little whiny, she hasn't done anything too horrible. I know that sounds harsh, but really, there are days when I think to myself that it will be a good day if Addie doesn't injure someone, hurt herself or break something in the house! She is a little tornado at times.
Life for the family as a whole has been pretty normal. We didn't get a chance to go to Sanibel this year, and while that was really disappointing, we are looking forward to Disney World in Florida this summer. Although I must say, during the week of Spring Break we would often think about all you that were down there with just a touch of jealousy, especially when we were getting snow here! Now we are looking forward to being in the last quarter of school heading downhill to summer!

Guatemalan Food Night!

Amber and Dad cooked supper tonight. We had an appetizer of dobladas- these are the doubled over tortillas. Think crab rangoon, only Guatemalan. There is farmer cheese and red peppers inside. For the main dish they made Lomo mechado, or poked beef. It is called this because you poke a paste of peppers, onion, bacon, mustard and garlic into it and bake it for several hours. This was delicious! Everyone ate seconds. For dessert Amber and Dad made Trifle, or Coconut Milk Cake. They said that you could put it in a cake pan or in muffin tins, so Amber decided to do muffin tins. We added powdered sugar to the tops and they were excellent. Very moist and sweet.
Amber helped to do all of this, so when the roast came out of the oven, she wanted her picture taken next to it all. :)

Let me introduce myself...

I feel as if it has been forever since I posted. There really isn't that much interesting to discuss, life is just busy. With two kids in school and another two at home, things just pile up and there seems to never be a dull moment. I actually look forward to evenings when the whole family is home together. Just wait till all four are in school! That will make life interesting. We figured it out a while ago and when all the kids are in school...Amber will be a freshman in high school, Ashley will be in 7th grade, Addie will be in 2nd grade and Alex will be in Kindergarten. Bill will be 36 and I will be 35! Now that is something! In five years life will get drastically different.
Well, hope this is fascinating to you all. I will try to do better. :)