Happy Birthday to You TOO!

Today, my honey, sweetie is 36. Happy Happy Birthday. Since his birthday and Father’s Day are so close together, I thought I’d do one blog to wrap it all together.

I’m the luckiest woman around. I scored in the man department. Brian is da-man. He loves our family so much, and that love is reflected in all that he does. He’s an amazing father and an incredible husband. He is my best friend. I’m so glad he continues to put up with all of my craziness (ask him, he’ll tell you that I drive him crazy…but he LOVES every minute of it!)

He’s kind and loving. He brings fun and brightness into our home. The kids celebrate everyday when he gets home from work. He loves being outside. Doing anything outside- the man is happy. He especially loves the mountains and the beach. He goes body surfing as often as he can when near an ocean. Spending a week in Utah was great therapy for him. We did a lot of hiking. He did a lot more hiking even with out the rest of us. He’s like a kid in a candy store when he’s in the outdoors.

So, here’s my top 10, things I love about my husband:

10. His Freudian slips. Referring to a lady co-workers shoulder pads as maxi pads, commenting on a lady’s “nice melons” at the grocery store, asking me if I’m full grown…You’ve heard the stories. If you haven’t, you need to! They warm my heart :)

9. He’s a baker. I bet you didn’t know that! He bakes cakes, and brownies, and sometimes cookies- AND they turn out delicious. Who knew?

8. His love of severe weather. He LIVES for that stuff. So much fun to watch his face light up- like a kid at Christmas time.

7. He’s a take charge kind of guy. I need a man like that. Someone has to be in charge, and I don’t want to do it ALL THE TIME. He’s very good at just getting things done. I really love and very much appreciate that about him!

6. I love to watch him play with our kids. He is so much fun for them. He does things they love to do. He’s the reason our family has so much fun together. The goof-meister.

5. He is so smart. He can speak English, Spanish, and technical jargon- stuff that might as well be a foreign language!

4. He’s HOT! I married a very handsome, sexy man. What else can I say???

3. He runs. I really love that he runs with me. We don’t actually run together, but we do help encourage each other to get out there and pound the pavement. I love that we love the same thing.

2. He works SO HARD for our little family, and that hard work allows me to stay home and raise our children. That’s my man!

1. He has a strong testimony of our Savior and that testimony is reflected in his actions. He honors his priesthood, and does an amazing job of teaching our son how important the priesthood is in our lives.


I hope you have a really great Birthday today! I love you more than I can ever put into words.XXOOXx Oo (translated: kiss kiss, hug hug, big kiss, little kiss...)

Happy Birthday to You!

We are lucky to have 2 birthdays today in our family tomorrow. I don’t think I’ll do a blog post every time its someone’s birthday in our extended families because, lets face it, that’s almost a hundred people. As much as I love them all, its not going to happen! But, since I am a REALLY bad sister and didn’t even get a birthday card in the mail to my little sister I figured I could do a quick blog about her.

Marilee rocks. If you don’t know her, you should really get to know her! She’s so much fun to be around. All her nieces and nephews love her to pieces. She is a great example to her ENTIRE family. Did I mention that she’s beautiful on top of all that?

She is 22 years old tomorrow and is currently serving a mission for our Church- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints- in the Puerto Rico San Juan Mission. Right now she is on the island of Curucao. She has been out for 9 months, and is officially half way finished with her mission. She is totally and 100% immersed in the work of the Lord, and she’s LOVING IT!
She just got transferred to Curacao a few weeks ago. Transferring to this island, she has to learn Dutch and a Spanish (i think?) dialect- Papiamento.

She is rockin’ it so far. Her first Sunday on Curucao, she had to bear her testimony and she said she just knew the basics, but- HELLO- being able to bear your testimony in a different language that you'd only been barely introduced to within the last few days, and understand what you are saying is awesome! Especially if you don’t blunder out any “I know the cow lives” or something about your father the potato (hey, it happens!). Yeah. She's pretty much amazing.

We have so many great stories of Mar-lie (our nickname for her!). Because of her, I can quote verbatim the entire movie of “The Little Mermaid”. Good times. She is 7 years younger than my younger brother, so she’s our caboose. I can’t imagine our family without her. When she was born she brought so much peace to our house, and continues to do that in her loving, sarcastic way.

I was impressed watching her grow up- she was a really great teenager-the kind you only hope and pray you’ll end up with ( and the best, darn babysitter around!). She’s always had a testimony of the gospel and that has been reflected in her actions all her life. I’ve always been able to count on her as a sister and a friend. Its been wonderful to watch her testimony grow even stronger now that she is on her mission!
Life is a little bland with out the spark of Marilee around. I miss joking around with her. Who else will laugh at my lame jokes (besides my kids) and knows all the inside jokes that we share together? But I know she’s where she’s supposed to be, and I know time will fly and she’ll be back home in no time, joking around with me again.

So for you, Marilee:
I wish I could tell you happy birthday and give you a great big-ol’ hug! Hope you’re lovin’ it with all the lizards out there. Let me know if you have any crazy lizard stories. You know how much I love them! You are an incredible example to me. How did I get to be so lucky to have so many amazing sisters! You’re no longer a “REAR” tard in my book. If you were here, I’d take you to lunch at Beach Hut for your birthday and eat some yummy, gooey, chocolaty for dessert. Then I’d leave you to bake in your car (its that time of year!) for a little bit. I miss you and love you so much. Remember that. On days when you can’t walk anymore, or talk anymore. We are here rooting for you and praying for you!
That’ll do, donkey. That’ll do.

Utah Trip {Day Two}

Sunday was day two. We went with Kelly's family to church.
Something that I learned from church: I need to do a better job at my visiting teaching. I'm recommitting myself to improve in that area. Their Relief Society President spoke in sacrament meeting and said that you should never be able to sleep good at night until your visiting teaching is done for the month. No wonder I'm so tired. I always end up trying to squeeze it in at the end of the month- LOL!

Also, in Relief Society, the lesson was on the gifts of the spirit. A good majority of the time was focused on the gift of healing or to be healed. But to me, I think of the little "healings" and miracles that take place on a daily basis. Not to discount the miraculous ones that take place on a grander level. I just don't think everyone in their life will have a "grand" healing like that take place. But I do know that everyone, everyday, has the chance to reflect on the little blessings, the "tender mercies" of the Lord, that I consider just as faith promoting and effective as the bigger ones. I got the chance to sit there and reflect on the little miracles that occur in my life every day. I'm usually running around in Relief Society, getting ready to conduct, or helping to set up, or making sure the teacher has everything she needs (or getting ready to teach myself :). It was really nice just to sit there and absorb everything.
I'm really grateful to my Heavenly Father who knows my needs and blesses me EVERYDAY with little miracles to help me to remember that He is there, and He is mindful of me, but most important, that He loves ME.

After church, we headed down to Todd's for a Heaps family BBQ for dinner. We got to visit with Todd and his family some more, my brother Chad came with two of his kids (his wife had 2 kids with her in Cali!), and my cousin Scott came with his family.
We had a really great time visiting and eating yummy food (of course!). The kids played out front while the BBQ-ing was happening. We had an event of their 2 dogs getting out of the back yard and running 2 blocks away. That was special.
At about 7:30, Jody and her kids drove in from Cali. So, all in all, we had: 10 adults, 19 kids and 2 dogs.
It was the usual chaotic fun that always takes place at a Heaps family gathering. We don't know how to do it any differently!

Day One {part two}

This post won't be quite as long as the last one (I think!) When I got back to my sister's house and got cleaned up, Josh and Chantell came for a visit!
We LOVE spending time with them. They just feel like part of the family. We were able to catch up on what was happening in their lives. Of course, I did not get any pictures- like always!
We headed up to visit with Brian's brother, Bob and his family for the rest of the day. The weather in Utah was SO crazy! They were having thunderstorms all week and I think Saturday was one of the worst days.
In between dodging the lightning, we managed to go eat at (up)Chuck-a-rama- just a friendly family nickname! We headed into Salt Lake and went to the cemetery where President and Sister Hinckley (and A LOT of other prophets) were buried.

Here's Brian and I in front of the Hinckley's grave site. It was neat for the kids to see where he was buried. They love and remember him! We miss him, but it was great to hear my kids say things like "He is in heaven with Jesus" and "Mom, its okay, I'll see President Hinckley again when I go to heaven". I'm grateful for the knowledge we have of the plan. We can all live together after this life- FOREVER!

This cemetery is HUGE! Seriously, its a city. It has streets. I'm not kidding. You could say, "My grandpa is buried off of 9th S. and 855 E.". Here's all the prophet's graves that we saw (and there are more there!): Gordon B. Hinckley (obviously), David O. McKay, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, Joseph Fielding Smith (he has a monument to his father- Hyrum Smith, by his grave too!), Joseph F. Smith, Spencer W. Kimball and Howard W. Hunter. Man, that place is going to be hoppin' during the resurrection! This picture above is to show you the mode of transportation my kids had in the cemetery city. Thanks to older cousins and daddy!

Life would be so dull without the Jen-ster around. This is a great shot of her.

Sophie was modeling for us on the tree stump. She was having fun!

This is a picture of the sky from the Ensign Peak Park. It does not do justice to how threatening and dark the clouds looked. Mind you, this was the day that the Oquirrh Mountain Temple's Angel Moroni was struck by lightning.

It was crazy. But if you know the Wadman's, you know that the ENTIRE family is crazy about severe weather, and they FEED off of this stuff. Needless to say the rest of the night, we drove around and watched the skies open up. Now my kids are catching the bug. I have to admit- me too! Its fun to see nature work its wonder (from a safe distance, of course!!)

Our Utah Trip-Day One {part 1}

So, we actually drove out on Friday, the 12th. We left at 6am and got to Utah by 6pm.
Yeah. Long drive.
I won't count that as our first day because driving for that long just plain sucks. However, we did learn that Sophie gets carsick. Ew.
Really, ew.
The day ended nicely though. We went out to dinner with Kelly and Mike, leaving the littles at home with older cousins. We also watched the movie, "Forever Strong". Really good movie.
I liked it a lot.
Moving onward to our OFFICIAL Day One- Saturday the 13th.
Let me start off this day with saying that my brother Todd is amazing. I admire him in so many ways. He's always been a great big brother to me- he has always been a sort of protector for me (Literally, on a few occasions). Anyway, on the 13th, he ran in the Utah Valley Marathon.

Yes, I said- MARATHON!
I love to run. I don't know that I've got it in me to do a marathon. He has now completed 2 marathons. This boggles my mind, and inspires me at the same time. I was so excited to be there to cheer him on!
We actually weren't supposed to come into town until Sunday, but when I heard he was running on Saturday, we switched a few things around and were able to leave earlier. I called his wife and got the marathon details. I wanted to surprise him.
So, I woke up early on Saturday morning and headed out to Provo to meet up with Darcy and 4 of their 6 kids.
We were waiting just past the half way point- about 14 miles into the race.
(NOTE: this is already at the point in the race that is FARTHER than I've EVER ran.)
I'm already in awe of these people. I feel like dieing after 13.1 miles. THIS was really amazing to me.
We got to our destination early enough so that we wouldn't have missed him. Sure enough, after waiting about 20 minutes, he came around the corner.
Being the big baby that I am, I immediately begin to cry. All I can do is wave at him (Darcy told me later that she'd been crying all day- anxious about him running, so I wasn't the only one!).
It was funny though, I don't think he noticed me at first. He was in a zone. He ran past and kind of waved. So, I ran up to him and we ran and talked for about 1/4 mile. He was doing really good. He said he was tired, but he wasn't showing it to me!
We left him there and drove out to the 21 mile mark, thinking he might need a bit more cheering on at that point in the race (I know I would!). Really interesting though, there was a lady who came out of the race (before we left the first spot) and asked if we could give her and her friend a ride to their other friend, who was meeting them at mile 21. One of the ladies had been passing out, and couldn't finish the race. It was really sad. She was totally crying. I was really sad for her (no I didn't cry! I know you were wondering...)
I found out she was trying to qualify for the Boston Marathon and she had just ran the Ogden Marathon 2 weeks earlier!
Yeah.
You wanna know what I was thinking? CRAZY LADY! No, actually I was thinking, WOW! (Okay, maybe a little of the crazy lady, but mostly just WOW!).
She was calmed down a lot by the time we got to her car. It really stinks, but sometimes your body just decides its not going to run today, and there's really nothing you can do but listen.
Or pass out.
Yeah, back to Todd.(This is a lot of info, but I really enjoyed the morning!!). We caught up with him about mile 21.

He was SEVERELY dehydrated, I found out after going with him for about a mile. Even though there were aid stations every 2 miles, he did not have enough liquid in him. So, I called up Darcy, and she brought us some water bottles. He was much better after he got some fluids in him!

(Here we are walking for just a bit to re-hydrate. His twin girls were walking with us.) Did I mention he has 6 kids? His girls were asking him what was harder- having a baby or running a marathon. Hmm. Darcy just had their youngest- little Josh Bob, in March. (No, his name isn't really Josh-Bob, that is just his nickname, given by his 3 year old big brother) He knew the RIGHT answer.

Here he is, racing towards the finish line. Well, I was happy. I got to run with him for a few miles towards the end of the race. I hope I was more of a help than a hindrance. I just really enjoyed being there. Anyone who can run 26.2 miles, is my hero. Especially if this someone is a person I already love and admire!

(Todd, Me, his wife Darcy, and two of his daughters)
You did an amazing job, Todd! You inspire me. That takes A LOT of gusto to do what you did- a lot of mind over matter stuff. Amazing amounts of endurance- REALLY tough.

And I just soaked up every minute of it. I'm going to say it here-out loud (sort of) for everyone to read-

Someday, I will run a marathon. I was inspired. There, now its out there.

**(Not a marathon in Utah though! Too high in altitude. I'll take my sea level, or almost sea level runs, thank you very much!)

There was a quote on his shirt that said "26.2 miles of the pain you enjoy".

I think that says it all.

Will you bring me water ? Help cheer me on, when I want to stop? :) I will probably need you to do more than that. Maybe a 10 mile piggy back ride or something!
It was a great day. A great way to start off our vacation. But it wasn't even noon yet! I still have to blog about the rest of the day....LATER!

Did ya know?

Random Trivia-
So, I just went through and updated my background (as you can plainly see :) and re-did the banner title...but I didn't include my bi-line "we're spillin' the beans!". I know, I'm crazy like that (don't worry, it will be back for the summer!).
Anyway, in my random thoughts, I realized I never really let ya'll know WHY Bean Jar is the title of our family blog (is it really the family blog, or my blog ABOUT the family...these are the questions that linger...)
Wow, I'm wandering. Back to the blog. Yes, when I was trying to nail down a title, so to speak- I went on a website that I can't remember now, and put in my name, Brian's name and our last name and it made different words with all the letters. I mean, there was some crazy stuff that I was considering ( I wish I had the list in front of me- you'd get a good laugh!!). But, after going over the list, Bean Jar kind of stood out to me. So, here we are today, with the letters of our names- we created it. Bean Jar.
Who knew??

Home Again, Home Again...

So, I have a TON to blog about. We just got back from spending 9 days in Utah. It was a blast. But, I don't have time to blog about it all right now. I have a funny J story for you, before I forget.

Last Sunday, while in Utah we went to my brother Todd's house for dinner. While we were there, J got so distracted playing with cousins, he forgot to use the bathroom. Yep, he peed his pants. Shocking for an almost 6 year old? Maybe, but James has issues with thinking its more important to play than stop to pee.
Anyways, we were not staying at Todd's and did not have any change of clothes with us, so he had to wear his wet pants for about an hour before we left (I know, I'm the meanest mom ever!).. Needless to say, we got back to my sister Kelly's house, where we were staying and he was a little sore. Had some chaffage problems, I think. We were getting jammies on everyone, and J walks in from the bathroom with a pained look on his face. So, I ask what's wrong. This was his response:
"Mom, it hurts my parts when I pee. I think maybe I'm allergic or...(painful pause) maybe I'm pregnant."
I haven't laughed that hard in a while. That was a doosey.
I had to ask him what it meant to be pregnant. His response, "I don't know". I explained it was when a mommy had a baby growing in her tummy. The look of shock crossed his face and he said, "Oh, yeah, definitely NOT pregnant."
And then it was over.... Always good times with J around. Always.