March 2011 Family Pictures

Since having our own little family and I guess in a way copying my mother in law, I have decided to do family pictures each year. So the last couple or few years we have gotten them done. This year I decided to do the Heinrichs Clan. We headed to an area behind Lone Peak High School in March. Yes I know not the smartest since it is still cold outside, but my thought process was that would be in the middle between Jack and Abi. Next year we will do a warmer setting. Still a lot of the pictures turned out really well. Take a look for yourself.

P.S. Brooke and Cristy I am holding your picture disks hotage.

It's What Fun Is...

Each year my work does a fun activity for all of the employees. Its especially hard to do this since my company is in other states besides Utah, however they do the best they can and make it fun for all or any employees who end up being able to attend. Last year they did a Lagoon day and I bought tickets to go, in the end we decided not too since the kids were too small and it wouldn't be that much fun. This year they decided to do it again. This year we decided we would take the kids and make a day of it.

So after naps we made it to Lagoon around 3:30.

Jack and Abi ready to go

We found where teh pavilion was at that my company had reserved. They were serving food from 3 - 5 all you could eat. We had some burgers, hot dogs, chips, pasta salad, baked beans and cookies galore we then found the ice cream, which Abi was trying to eat at the wrong end.

Still trying to figure it out

Yeah, we figured it out.

Jack loving it, only because it is full of sugar.

I was able to find a lot of employees that I know from different branches and departments. It was fun seeing them outside of work. After eating my company had a drawing and ofcoarse I didn't win anything. So we then decided to go walk around.

We headed to Pioneer Village where there is a train station

Jack checking out all of the trains. Lately he has been obsessed with trains, its really funny to hear him say Choo, Choo.

After Pioneer Village we headed back to the fun zone where we rode the train that goes around Lagoon. Jack LOVED every minute of it. If he had his way we would have road it again and again and again.

After the train we rode the Merry Go Round and then took Jack on Puff. It was so hot that day and the lines were so long. We then took the kids on the Ferris Wheel.

It was a really fun and exhausting day. Can't wait for next year!

26 Months

Jack,

You are growing into your own person. Right now you LOVE and I cannot express how much you love trains and truck and especially the sounds they make. Your personalit grows each and every day and its funny to see you be silly and then all of a sudden shy. Your vocabulary grows each and every day and you are able to point in the sky when you hear a plane. Your favorite movies change day to day from Madagascar to Toy Story to Monsters, but you know what movie you want to watch.

You love to be outside and play and when we have to get ready for bed you have to take a shower, no more baths for you. You have also taken a love to water. We know you love your sister and even though she instigates most of the fights you give your little share of it as well, but mostly I think you wish your sister would leave you alone. Well you have the rest of your life to keep your sister in place. You are such a good brother and a helper. We love you.

18 Months

Abigail,

You are growing up way too fast. Your personality blossoms each and every day. You have started to talk more, whether its copying your brother your dad or myself you try to say new words. You recognize the sound of planes in the air and you randomly point into the sky. You know you aren't supposed to touch certain things such as the movie tower or the dog bowl, but some how you just feel you have to get touch and play with the things that your dad and I get after you for. We know you love your brother, but you also love torchuring in as well. You tend to always get in his way and always want his sippy cup, never yours. You like taking his car or truck or train, especially when he is wanting to play with them. We are trying to teach you how to share and it is a going process.

You are learning every day and you love to read, finding books on the floor or table you bring them to your dad or myself and we will read. You have finally decided that you love the water, even when going to Grandma Heinrichs and feeding the ducks you would rather swim with the ducks than feed them. You are so fun to have we love every minute of everyday, especially when you laugh. We love you Abigail.

4th of July Weekend

Every day and every holiday is getting to be more fun. The kids are getting older (how sad) but are getting into that fun stage. Jeremy and I decided it was time to separate the kids. So before the weekend we slowly started taking the office apart and moving piece by piece down stairs, but moved the computer into the master bedroom. Once most of everything was moved we dived in and started painting. The previous owners of this house didn't really take care of it and through the last five years of us living in this house we have fixed, improved and really made it our home. So of course we had to continue with the bedrooms and they DO need to be painted. Mom offered to take the kids so that we could get most of the stuff done. So we dropped them off over there, went to Lowe's and got our paint.

We put primer on the wall and then decided we wanted to spend time with the kids with the extra holiday so we got ready and headed back over to mom's where we went swimming. We headed back home, put the kids to bed and continued to actually paint Abi's room. We finished about 2 in the morning. It looks really good - don't worry pictures willl be coming.

On the 4th (Monday) we were invited up to Ogden for what it seems like the Jake and Mindy Annual 4th of July Pool Party. It is always nice to get together with family and hang out and enjoy each other's company. We arrived a little late, but it was worth every minute. We swam, ate, and watched fireworks.

Yes I am...

A slacker. I can't believe how fast time flies. I get up get ready for work, spend a few minutes with the family and then head off to work. After 9 hours at work head home hang out with the family have dinner try to go on a walk and then its 10 and time for bed. Everytime I think I need to put something new on the blog three days have passed. I just never have enough time in a day to get what I need to get done nonetheless enjoy the quiet time while the kids are in bed asleep before I need to be climbing into bed and closing my eyes. I will TRY to be better at updating this thing called a blog.

Happy 4th of July!

Jeremy has been into really diving into what our country is about. How it should be and what the four fathers meant for it to be. He came across this article and I thought I would share...

On July 4, 1776, after months of heated debate, representatives of the Continental Congress voted unanimously that “these United Colonies are and of right ought to be Free and Independent States.”

Thirteen colonies voted to become something new: the United States of America. All they had to do was to win their independence from a government that would consider them traitors.

Fifty-six men bravely affixed their signatures to the Declaration of Independence. What sort of men were they? And what became of them?

Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists, 11 were merchants, nine were farmers or plantation owners. They were well-educated men of means. All of them had a great deal to lose when they voted to defy what was then the most powerful nation on Earth.

One of the signers was Richard Stockton, a distinguished jurist from New Jersey. At the conclusion of the meetings, he proudly affixed his signature to the Declaration, joining 55 other delegates. Each of them willingly risked everything when they pledged to each other “our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.”

Sadly, the revolution was to cost Judge Stockton the first two. But he would never surrender the third.

As he returned from Philadelphia to his home in New Jersey, Judge Stockton was warned that British troops were coming to arrest him. He fled to a neighbor’s house with his wife and children. But a Loyalist, a supporter of the British cause, betrayed the family’s hiding place. Here is what happened next, as described in a wonderful little book Personal Liberty wants to give you this Fourth of July:

The judge was dragged from bed and beaten, then thrown into prison. This distinguished jurist, who had worn the handsome robes of a colonial court, now shivered in a common jail, abused and all but starved.

A shocked Congress arranged for his parole. Invalided by the harsh treatment he had received, he returned to (his home at) Morven to find his furniture and clothing burned, his fine horses stolen, and his library — one of the finest private collections in the country — completely destroyed. The hiding place of exquisite family silver, hastily buried, had been betrayed by a servant.

The Stocktons were so destitute that they had to accept charity. For the judge’s fortune was gone, too. He had pledged it and his life to his country. He lost both. He did not live to see the Revolution won.

That account comes from a wonderful little book called They Signed For Us. It was written half a century ago by Merle Sinclair and Annabel Douglas McArthur, two patriotic ladies who wanted to help others learn more about the remarkable men who signed the Declaration of Independence.

At the end of today’s column, you’ll find a link that will take you to a copy of the book. You may read it online or download it and print your own copy. The file also includes a list of all of the signers and the States they represented, plus the complete text of the Declaration of Independence.

To whet your appetite a bit more, here’s another excerpt from They Signed For Us.

SUDDENLY THE BIG BELL in the State House steeple pealed joyously. The appointed signal! Cheers rose from the waiting crowds.

‘Proclaim liberty throughout the land….’

Cannon boomed, drums rolled. Church bells rang, sounding the death knell of British domination!

News of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence spread like wildfire. Ready messengers leaped into their saddles to ride and spread the word. The Declaration had been ordered printed on a single large sheet, ‘45.5 x 37.5 cm.,’ or approximately eighteen by fifteen inches. These broadsides were distributed with all possible speed, to be read in the provincial assemblies, pulpits, market places, and army camps.

The story continues:

On July 8, the Liberty Bell summoned citizens of Philadelphia to the State House yard for a public reading of the document. Colonel John Nixon mounted a high platform and spoke the noble lines in a strong, clear voice. The crowd, now hushed, listened intently throughout.

‘…for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.’

It was almost a month later that the Declaration was engrossed on parchment and ready for signing by the delegates to the Continental Congress. Members gathered on Aug. 2 for the ceremony.

The only person who had signed the Declaration on July 4, 1776 was John Hancock, a delegate from Boston who had been elected president of the Continental Congress. He wrote his signature in large, bold letters and as he did, in a reference to the near-sightedness of the British king, he declared, “There! John Bull can read my name without spectacles and may now double his reward of £500 for my head. That is my defiance.”

As the delegates gathered around a desk to sign the Declaration, William Emery, one of the representatives from Rhode Island, moved as close as he could. “I was determined to see how they all looked as they signed what might be their death warrants,” he later wrote. “I placed myself beside the secretary, Charles Thomson, and eyed each closely as he affixed his name to the document. Undaunted resolution was displayed on every countenance.”

Contrasting with Hancock’s confident signature was the shaky scratch of Stephen Hopkins from Rhode Island. Hopkins, the second-oldest signer, suffered from palsy. As he handed the quill to the next person, he valiantly proclaimed, “My hand trembles, but my heart does not!”

As one or two delegates hung back, seemingly reluctant to add their signatures to such a momentous declaration, John Hancock encouraged them. “We must be unanimous,” he said. “There must be no pulling different ways. We must all hang together.”

Legend has it that Benjamin Franklin replied, “Yes, we must all hang together. Or most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.”

Happily, none of the signers was hanged by the British. But all of them were considered traitors to the Crown. And many of them suffered terribly for the cause they so ardently supported.

John Morton, a delegate from Pennsylvania, was the first of the signers to die. His last words for his family, before his death in April 1777 (just eight months after he signed the Declaration), were, “…tell them that they will live to see the hour when they shall acknowledge it to have been the most glorious service I ever rendered to my country.”

The following month, Button Gwinnett, the commander in chief of Georgia’s militia, was badly wounded in a duel with a political opponent. He died a few days later — the second signer to die.

But by and large, the signers of the Declaration of Independence were a hardy bunch. Three of them lived until their 90s — a remarkable accomplishment in a time when most men did not see their 50th birthday.

Only two of the signers were bachelors. Sixteen of them married twice. Records indicate that at least two, and perhaps as many as six, were childless. But the other 50 signers were a prolific lot, having a total of 325 children between them. William Ellery of Rhode Island had 17 children; Roger Sherman of Connecticut had 15.

Fifty years after the united colonies declared their independence from Britain, plans were made for jubilant celebrations on July 4, 1826. Only three of the original signers were still alive: Charles Carroll, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. Here is how Sinclair and McArthur describe what occurred that day:

“In a dramatic climax that even their agile minds would not have contemplated, these two principals in the struggle for Independence left the nation awestricken and touched, by dying hours apart on the Fourth of July. Jefferson died at one o’clock in the afternoon, Adams toward evening.”

Ten days earlier, Jefferson had written the mayor of Washington, expressing his regret that ill health prevented him from coming to the nation’s new Capitol to join the festivities.

“I should, indeed, with peculiar delight, have met … with the small band, the remnant of that host of worthies, who joined with us on that day, in the bold and doubtful election we were to make for our country, between the submission or the sword.”

He concluded by writing, “Let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollection of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them.”

http://www.personalliberty.com/conservative-politics/liberty/would-you-be-this-brave/

Have a Happy 4th!