"the man-blogger"

For whatever reason, I've been blessed with a lot of great, great friends. Candace pointed this out recently and commented how unique it is to know so many good guys. A month ago I was able to meet up with some college roommates and a few weeks ago I got together with my high school buddies.

Not too much has changed since 1998! We're still the same goofy bunch.



All of us married above ourselves as the picture shows:

While talking with my buddies and catching up, one of them said "So you're a Man-blogger huh? I guess that's cool." Haha! Yes, I guess I AM a man blogger! Aside from keeping my parents and friends updated (and blogging as a family record of events), no one else would be taking pictures and recording things if it weren't for "Man-blogger". We wouldn't have gems like this:

happy easter.

Hey there.  Happy Easter!  Long time no talk.  I've been a busy girl these days.  Can you believe I only have 7 weeks left until my due date?  Curtis and I are so excited to have a baby girl.  What have I been up to lately?  Well... I've been working on our house like a mad woman.  I painted the living room (with the help of my sweet mom), recovered the chairs on a dining set we inherited from my great grandma, hung some draperies (again with some help), got a new rug and sofa, bought a wall full of ikea shelves for my living room and filled them with every book we own, sanded and painted a cradle, two nightstands & a dresser, painted baby girl's nursery, took a day-long photography class to finally figure out how to use my DSLR on manual mode, got a fancy new diaper bag for my birthday!, organized all my baby stuff to get ready for baby girl, and constantly chased around our insanely energetic almost-two-year-old Roo Bear.  He's the most fun ever.

Speaking of Roo Bear... here are some updates on our favorite guy.  He will do just about anything for a marshmallow, fruit snack or cookie (note the presence of marshmallows in the photos below - bribery was a must).  He loves dada's quad (and anything else with wheels) and walks around most of the day saying "brumm brrumm".  He's still obsessed with the garbage truck and wants to run outside every time he hears it even blocks away.  He says somewhere around 20 words but mostly talks a constant gibberish like we know exactly what he's saying.  He loves to snuggle and give kisses & loves.  Especially to mama and dada and WE LOVE IT.  I have to threaten him with time-out almost every time I want him to come inside because he throws huge fits lately and puts his little fingers into a death grip onto the handlebars of his trike.  He LOVES being outside, always has.  He's a pretty good listener but will test boundaries every now and again.  Like waiting until I'm looking straight at him and then in slow motion dumping his cereal bowl with milk straight onto the floor while looking at me with complete defiance on his face like "What are you going to do about that mom?!"  We talk about baby sister a lot and he loves to point out every baby or picture of a baby he sees.  He loves to go to nursery at church and the nursery leader told me today that the first thing he does when he gets in there is ask for snack.  That boy would snack all day if I let him (and not eat a thing at mealtime).  He is such a good boy and we love him beyond words.  If his baby sister is half as good we'll be golden!

Here are some photos I took of Reed this morning.  Isn't this little seersucker suit the cutest thing you've ever seen?  Thank you to Papa and Grandma Heyman for the sweet Easter outfit.  Even from Argentina they spoil us!

P.S. Am I the only one who has the hardest time getting my photos to be in the order I want them in blogger without weird spaces?  Maybe I'm just out of practice. ;)

P.S.S.  Don't mind his black eye.  He took a spill in the driveway this week just in time for Easter pics.  Part of documenting this age I guess.

cruising along

Hey folks. We hope everyone is doing well. We're keeping busy and healthy. Some updates:

Taylor came home for a short break and got to spend time with his nephews, who love to sing and dance to his piano playing. We're excited that he will be leaving in June to serve a mission in Concepcion, Chile!






Recently, I met up with a bunch of my college roommates for a "Man-cation" in UT. They skied while I fished (skiing is too risky for my bad knees), we played video games, and gorged ourselves on junk food. Its been 14 years since most of us met as freshman at BYU. I feel blessed to have such great friends who are good examples to me. We had a LOT of fun and plan to make getting together a greater priority in the future.

The weather in UT was terrific and I was in HEAVEN fishing all day for 2 days in a row, not having to worry about deadlines or hurrying home.
RooBear has been sooo much fun. He's still a snugglebug, especially when I let him stuff himself with marshmallows right before bed time.

He's been zooing a lot with friends and cousins. Here he is next to some monkeys with his buddy Smith.

I took an afternoon off to pick up some craigslist furniture for Cbug and take Reed fishing. We met up with my cousin Greg and his boys, Tyce and Koston. We caught a catfish that the boys had fun with. While Tyce and Koston were afraid to touch the fish, Reed couldn't keep his hands off of it!

The due date for Baby Girl is coming quickly. Candace has been in Hyper-MotherBird-Nesting mode. Aside from shopping, she's been sanding, painting and decorating at a pace not healthy for a woman 7 months pregnant. Can someone get her to post pictures of her projects?

you deserve it

My favorite college class "Sales Management" by Prof. Rhoads taught me a lot about managing business relationships and how to handle difficult situations. Prof. Rhoads also taught me to make time to celebrate the "wins" and achievements in life. My sister in law Jenny Heyman will tell you that a healthy dose of self-indulgence is a Heyman Family trait and the Heyman motto is "You Deserve It!" ("it" being a piece of chocolate cake, new shoes, furniture...etc.) . While that may be true, I initially shrugged off my professor's advice about celebrating accomplishments thinking it was for the weak minded. It wasn't until I began working after graduation that I learned Prof Rhoads is right- even the most dedicated and conservative of us should take breaks from the daily grind to celebrate and recognize our hard-earned accomplishments. I'm grateful for Prof. Rhoads' wisdom and that my company Crexendo fully believes in the "You Deserve It" slogan.

Last year my company sent Candace and I to Newport Beach and Disneyland as a result of my efforts in the previous year. This year we were treated to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico! No worries that Candace is carrying a little girl due in May, she was styin' as always.


She found relief from her baby bump by digging a small hole in the sand and finally being able to lay on her stomach!

The weather was perfect, the food was amazing, and we enjoyed activities everyday. We cruised on my CEO's yacht to see Lovers Arch and whale watch.
Another Sales Consultant from Phx and one from SLC also were invited. Here is JR and Heather, from SLC. It was nice to have another couple with us:

We took the wave runner out and I cruised with 2 sea lions for a while.


Perhaps my favorite activity was parasailing. Check out some of the views of the city from 400 feet up:



My boss on the wave runner down below:

After taking a day to golf while the wives spent some time by the pool & beach at our hotel, we were treated to an excellent dinner and presented awards for earning "President's Club" honors. Here's my boss on the left, myself, JR, Steve M the CEO, and Steve C.


With the CEO, who treated us like royalty all week long.

You know how people get crazy when its time to celebrate....well we hit the karaoke bar PRETTY hard. Here's my boss singing his best Jimmy Buffet.

Candace and I sang "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey. Who knew my Guitar Hero skills would come in handy?

I can't say enough good things about the people I work with, especially my boss and CEO.



The CEO said I could help plan where we go for next year's trip. I told them I've heard nice things about Resistencia, Argentina....(ha, where my parents are!). Candace and I had a lot of fun together and special thanks to my sister Jen who watched Reed while we were gone!

c u @ the zoo

Weather in AZ has been great. After a long weekend of work in Dallas, I took off an afternoon and we treated ourselves to the Phoenix Zoo. Reed is finally at that age where he recognizes animals and their sounds. Here you can see the giraffes in the back.



There are lots of cute animals but RooBears are the cutest.

Good family fun!

C U @ the ZOO!

diy mania.

So I guess I've fallen off the blogging bandwagon again. Good thing my amazing husband likes to blog so you have some fresh content every now and again. He's been bugging and bugging me to post about the bed I built for us (not without some help from my sweet Grandpa). When I say I built it I don't mean I upholstered it. I mean I figured out all the measurements, went to home depot, had them cut a boat load of wood for me, screwed and glued my heart out until I couldn't do anymore, my Grandpa drilled his heart out helping me put it together, covered everything in foam, batting, and fabric, staple-gunned my heart out, added some nailhead trim one-at-a-painful-time, got it in my room (no small feat), hung the headboard and placed the bedframe, and voila! Done! How's that for a run on sentence? Anyways, I've been nesting quite a bit around here so eventually I'll post real, non-instagram photos of my room and maybe some of the rest of my house if I can get it clean enough. For now, here's a little sneak peak.

Its My Turn

Candace and I take turns watching Reed in the morning on the weekend so the other can sleep in. Today is Candace's day to sleep in and I sleep in on Sundays. Watching Reed these days is a lot different than what it used to be...


A lot is going on these days to keep us busy, but nothing super eventful. Work has me traveling more (Chicago & Dallas) and working long hours. I was released from the Elders Quorum Presidency and called as the Gospel Doctrine teacher, something I'm really excited about. Oh, one exciting thing is Candace and I are headed to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico to deep sea fish and hang out with my boss and CEO. All expenses paid, how cool is that!?!

Cbug has been bitten by the "home improvement" bug. You wouldn't believe it but just a few weeks ago she went down to Home Depot, had the guy down there cut some 2x4s, and she built an extravagant BED! She did it in a weekend with the help of her grandpa Free. It has a lot of unique design details and I keep telling her she needs to write on the blog about it. She's also been painting walls, creating art for our home, and buying furniture. She and the baby girl are doing well.

RooBear is doing great. He's into watching videos on YouTube, particularly those including Elmo, garbage trucks, tractors, motorcycles, or fish! If he's done paying attention to a video, he'll put his face right in front of mine and shake his head "NO". He loves playing with his tractors, checking the mail, throwing things in the garbage, and ESPECIALLY loves talking to his Grandparents through web chats. While Cbug hosted a baby shower for her friend Chelsea, I took Roo, Tim and my nephews Nolan and Kyle fishing. I thought Reed would love it since we were actually catching fish, but he was more interested in playing at the nearby park. The closest he came to paying attention to the fish was throwing his water bottle into the pond twice and throwing my fishing pliars into the pond twice.

My little brother Taylor is waiting for his mission call. We're going to miss him TONS but at least we can continue watching his videos on YouTube.

Hope you are well! Here's a photo from our Christmas card: