Catching up

The blog has been a little slow here lately. We have
been very busy with some Easter activities for school
and then we hosted almost all of Steve's family here.
All 3 of his brothers and their families, his mom and
his sister were here. We had a great week together.
Lots of fun, but me and the kiddos are all very tired!!
I will spend the next few days catching up when I have
time. The following shots are from Easter Sunday.

My girlies


My attempt at a cute shot of the kids was not very successful


A decent shot except for the teddy bear in Aaron's mouth


Another bad one


All of us Heitlands minus Steve's mom. She was taking the
picture and unfortunately we never did get one of all of us!

Happy Birthday, Steve!

This past Monday was Steve's 34th birthday! We celebrated by going
out for supper with some friends, Ben and Kelly Ross. They are from
the Sovereign Grace church in Reading, so technically are our
"neighbors"! We had a great evening together. We went to a place
called the Mongolian BBQ. You get all of your food from a raw bar
and then pick your sauces/spices and the chefs cook for you. We all
chowed, definitely got our fill.
Happy Birthday, Steve. Love you much!

Steve and Ben waiting for their food to be grilled. Ben is not
that cheezy, he was posin'.


Kelly and I


All of us at an ice cream shop afterwards

Salvaged!

Anyone who has the same tightwad blood as me knows what a thrill
it is to find a good deal. Something interesting about the neighbor-
hood that we are in is that people put really nice things out with
their garbage. A few months back my friend was here and she got
some big "Little Tykes" items that were in great condition from the
neighbor's trash.
So this morning the kids and I were walking to the neighbors and
saw a really nice table and chairs sitting on the curb. Shortly
after, the garbage man was coming and I asked him if he would save it
for me. He was excited and said, "Yeah, people are always putting
nice things out with their garbage! Last month I got a 47" big
screen TV that works just great. I have it in my bedroom!" When we
were done at the neighbors the girls and I began to drag the chairs
home. The table was a bit heavy... as I was awkwardly trying to
get it to our house, a painter that was outside came and offered his
help. He only spoke Spanish so I got to use a little of what Spanish
I knew to communicate with him.
All in all it was quite the thrill. A little spray paint and some
new cushions will make this set a beauty. Though I have no idea what
I am going to actually do with it!!

The girls with our find. I see that one chair is missing
a few rungs...hmmm...

To QJ

One of the biggest fans of my blog is my cousin Shannon's 3
year old son, QJ. The following is to him:

Hi QJ. I found these pictures and thought you would like
to see them. You are little and chubby and so cute!! Do
you think you look funny wearing Morgan's crown? I am so
happy that your mommy is going to have her baby soon. I can't
wait to meet your new brother or sister. We love you!

Rainy Day

Here are some cute shots of Aaron and his little buddy, Ronan
Kurth. They were over last week on a very wet and rainy day
and the boys looked so cute looking out the bay window.

GNO

Fairly recently I started taking my girls out for "Girls Night
Out." They have stuck to calling it GNO, which always makes me
laugh. Anyway, last night we had a GNO with our good friends
Helen and Emma Lowe. They are our neighbors here in MD and we
love them dearly. We hit the big mall down in Bethesda and then
went out for supper. It is fun to see the girls having so much
fun with whatever we do. They just like to be together. We let
them pick out a bunch of outfits to try on at Old Navy. The hard
part was convincing them that we weren't going to actually buy
them any full price outfits!

Here we all are before we left


The girls got matching hats and were posin' in the window next to
the mannequins.


Proudly showing off their new hats


Helen and I at the cafe for supper. Not sure who had more fun,
the girls or us!

Friends from Burma

We just returned from spending the evening with some friends from
the Pastors College. David is from Burma and is wife Summer is
a Wisconsin native. They live in Burma and are just here for the
year. We had such a great evening together. They cooked us a
traditional Burmese meal, curried meat with vegetables and rice.
I couldn't stop eating! By far one of the best meals I have ever
eaten. For dessert we had green mango (unripe) dipped in salt and
chili powder and some sweet tea. I must say I was a little hesitant
about the green mango but it was quite good.

After supper Summer pulled out her traditional Burmese clothing
and jewelry and my girls had a blast trying them on. I wish I
would have had my camera to get pictures of them.

Here is a picture of David and Summer and their beautiful little
girl, Ellis, taken this past fall.

Fun with noodles

This was Aaron at lunch the other day, loving his noodles.

Supper time

Steve and Aaron chopping a tomato for taco salad. What a
cute pair!