braids = beautiful

We did French braids in Lily's hair yesterday, which looked super awesome. Lily has the best hair.

She slept in them last night, and look how gorgeous her looked today! This is going to become a trend in our house I think.

Excuse the mess in the background....I had just gotten home from the grocery store when the kids walked through the door and dumped all their school Halloween party junk on the table. It was clean like ten minutes before...Ugh!

renee's twins

My little sister Renee is pregnant with twins (my twins, by the way...Heavenly Father just forgot to send them to me and is sending them to her instead. I guess it's an honest mistake)! Anyway, she is trying to decide on names. So you should go to her blog to vote; she has a poll on the sidebar. Her blog address is http://ryanricefamily.blogspot.com/. I am super excited for her. Really...

Also, just in case you are interested; I have started yet another blog. It is to chronicle the updates and decorating of my new house. I don't really imagine anyone will care, this is mostly for my own purposes, but if you decide you want to check it out the address to that is http://leolahills.blogspot.com/. I have lots of plans for our little corner of the universe...

That's it...happy Wednesday!

uh oh!

FYI: my camera isn't working....so no new pictures for a while. I (kind of) bought a new one which should be here in a couple weeks.

I only kind of bought it because I didn't actually spend any money on it; I used my credit card points and got it for free. I thought that was pretty rad, really!

So after it comes and I learn how to use it, I am hoping to post some totally awesome pictures of life!

In the meantime, this will have to do...

maybe I should be worried...but I'm not. I think they are both pretty cute!

i'm here!

I finally got around to downloading some pics today. Here is the latest and greatest...

First day of school! The kids are doing amazingly well for being new. And on top of being new we had moved in two days before school started. It was super hectic, but they dealt with it like champs!

(do you love the sheets on the windows...our house had no window coverings)

I love spending the day with these two...we have lots of fun.

The yard was never done (no sprinklers or anything), so we have lots of weeds to kill and lots of landscaping to do (we are on a 1/2 acre). Here are the two little kids walking out to the willow tree. It is a pretty long walk.

At a park here in Kaysville by our house. We went and fed the ducks and geese and then just walked around and enjoyed the beautiful evening. 

Crossing one of the bridges at the park. 

 Grandma and Grandpa Hill came for a quick visit. It was SO FUN to see them. My kids adore them! Here they are with the kids on the front porch before they had to leave. We were sad to see them go, but excited to see them when we go out for a visit at Thanksgiving. 

Here is our house! We LOVE it. The yard is going to be a lot of work, but we are excited about the plans we have for it. Come and visit us!

My wall of bats in this new house winds up the staircase. So fun!

good news...

...we thought we had lost Kitty Kitty in the move. We were devastated; we really liked him! Well, the good news is that after three weeks we found him! Is that not another miracle to add to the list!!! I mean, seriously. He was very hungry and ate a lot that first evening we found him. After a couple days at our new home he seems well adjusted and has found his spot on my bed again.

Welcome home Kitty Kitty...

P.S. At least now we know he can live "off the land" if he needs to...

well hello stranger...

Since last we met...

** We found a wonderful home in Kaysville that we LOVED and made an offer.
** Listed our West Jordan home for sale on August 3rd.
** The next day found out our Kaysville house was probably falling through (decided to still sell).
** One week later got an offer on the WJ house.
** A few days after that we found our that the Kaysville house was actually going to work out and we could close in three days (yipee and wow, that is a lot of packing in a short amount of time).
** Closed on the Kaysville house.
** The next day we got the keys to move in and found out that our inspection on the WJ house went terribly bad....like really really bad....like needing to have the plumming replaced in the whole house and a host of many other repairs bad (we had no clue). What a buzz-kill on what would be an otherwise great day.
** Talk our buyers into NOT backing out...twice.
** Move...for like two weeks and hire lots of people and spend lots of time doing repairs. Not incredibly fun. I think we have both aged over the past couple weeks...a lot!
** August 31st close on the WJ house...it funded today. We are FREEEEEEE!!!!!!

It has been an emotional and very stressful month. We are so grateful to be where we are, so grateful that our home sold so quickly in such a terrible market, and so grateful to find to right professionals to help fix the problems with our house in such a timely and cost-effective matter. We feel like all of this has been nothing short of a miracle and I know that Lord was very present in all of it (teaching me some valuable lessons in the process). I feel like we are in the best place for our family. We are so grateful! But most of all we are so grateful to only own one house...and that it is the house we want!

PS If you want more details, just ask. I can post more about the "Agony of August" when I post pictures (my camera cord is in some unknown box).

buddies...of all sorts

Davie is a friendly guy!

Here he is with cousin Lucy...they are buddies (unless there is only one mom around; then they are fierce competitors for that mom's lap)

Davie loves Kitty; whom he has affectionately named KiKi - he is trying to say Kitty Kitty...it just comes out sounding like KiKi. The other kids call the cat Neptune. Poor cat is totally going to have an identity crisis...after all no one seems to call him the same thing! He is a sweet cat who likes to snuggle and is very patient with Davie. Although, he is not as patient with the other three kids...he kind of ignores them. Maybe he senses that Davie is sweet and would do him no harm, whereas Adam lives to play "tricks" and loves to hold him. No cat likes to be held like that!

great times

We had a great visit with Scott's parents in July. They stopped on their way home to Sacramento from their mission in Slovenia. It was an extra treat to have Darren and Tia and their darling baby Grayson come as well (Darren is Scott's brother). Plus we were even able to talk Eric (another brother) into spending the night a couple times too! It was a fun house full of people.

Here is Adam serving as the entertainment for the night...water noodles down the pants are always a hit!

Oh, I just realized that Dave has his eyes closed in this picture...none the less you can see what a handsome bunch they are. Here are Dave and Dana with three of their six children. Darren, Eric, and Scott (Scott is the oldest and the most handsome...)

Isn't my sister-in-law Tia amazingly beautiful!? And she has an eight month old baby! And on top of it all, she is the NICEST person. I am lucky to have three wonderful sisters-in-law (Callie and Karen are just as beautiful and wonderful as Tia).

It was such a great week with them here. We can't wait to see them all again. Thanks Mom and Dad for making the effort to come and see us!

davie's birthday

Soooooo, on July 5th we celebrated Davie's second birthday. It was a pretty big deal and a great day.

Lily wanted it to be a car theme....she loves birthdays and loves themes!

Scott is taking Davie out for a birthday ride.

So proud of himself for blowing out the candles.

Opening his gifts with flare...

Yipeeeee! A King Zu!

Everyone loves birthdays!

We are so grateful for David. He is just one awesome kid and we love having him around.

P.S. I made the BEST cake for his birthday. It was a banana cake with cream cheese frosting. The recipe can be found here http://www.mybakingaddiction.com/banana-bars/

I just love this girl! Can you blame me!?

I am not dead....just busy. I promise to post something soon!

tahoe to auburn - family reunion 2011

We just got back from a great family reunion in Northern California. We left Sunday after church and headed to Reno; the kids love staying in hotels. Then Monday morning Scott wanted to get some work done and we couldn't check into our campsite at Lake Tahoe until 2, so I took the kids to the park to play and then Costco to get food supplies for camping. We found a fun little park with a pond. They loved the ducks. Plus I was able to call my sister-in-law Callie who had her baby early that morning. Then we all loaded up in the car and drove to the campsite.

We had so much fun in Tahoe. We went on a great little hike up above a waterfall. It was really beautiful and the kids loved playing in the water. It was a really nice campground and other than worrying about the bears at night it was a perfect place. Wednesday morning we packed it all up and headed to my sister Lisa's house in Auburn. There we just swam, ate great food, and played a lot. Everyone went river rafting on Friday while my sister Jennifer and I stayed home and watched all the little kids. Scott had a blast. Plus he was able to go on some great bike rides. We went and saw his brother Brian and their family a couple times...it was so fun to see their new little baby girl.

It was a great week! Here are some of the highlights!!!

In the car; ready to cruise!!!

Camping in Lake Tahoe....BEAUTIFUL.

Walking to the lake from our campsite.

Four of my cute nieces; Elisabeth, Jane, Lulu, and Becca

Gracie on her own private island in the middle of Lake Tahoe....she fell in just seconds after the picture was taken. I was surprised by how not upset she was.

Gracie and cousin Isabel...these two are best buddies!

On our hike to the waterfall

Lily swimming in one of the freezing pools at the top of a waterfall. Along with cousins Zach and Jack (who not only have rhyming names, but the same birthday - they aren't brothers).

The water must have felt good on Davie's little pigs.

Hiking back to the car. Gracie and I brought up the rear...they were all such good little hikers.

We took the kids to Old Town Sacramento one day while most of the rest of the family went to San Francisco. We weren't up for another long drive after driving from Salt Lake to Reno then to Tahoe then to Auburn. We had a great day in Old Town. We went to the candy store, the old school house, the river boat, the trains, and ended with an ice cream cone. Good times!

Outside the candy store....heaven for anyone under 20!

Mardi Gras masks in a window in Old Town Sacramento. The kids thought they were really cool.

Aboard the Delta King River Boat.

I didn't get any pictures at my sister's house in Auburn. We basically lived in her beautiful pool. It was a GREAT week and it went by way too fast. I loved being with my family and my kids had a ball with their 18 cousins.

day 27 — a child I love

I don't just love one child but four! These four children are among my five favorite people the whole world.

follow up

For Uncle Brad's sake (since he seems to be the only one cares) I thought I would put on the follow up story to my UPS story...

After I posted that story I found out that a man in our ward is a manager at UPS and went to my blog to read the funny story. He and Scott work in Young Mens together and one evening he came by for a calling-related matter. The UPS story immediately got brought up. He asks me specifics about the incident and then told me that the experience was completely against company protocol in those situations. The man I spoke to on the phone should have immediately scheduled a pick up, no questions asked. Clearly there really was a language problem. Then he told me that he had copied my blog post and sent it to the powers that be at UPS (I think it was whoever is in charge of customer relations). At this point I was starting to get a little embarrassed; I had not posted the story to make UPS look bad. I posted it because it was just funny. He apologized to me and I kept telling him it was really no big deal...more funny than anything.

Well, it gets even better. About a week later I get a letter in the mail for UPS. In it is an apology for the incident and three pre-paid, first class postage labels to anywhere I want! It was very generous and at that point I was feeling really bad. I had really not intended to make such a stink and I certainly was not expecting them to compensate me in anyway. Well, I never used the postage labels because I felt kind of guilty.

There is the end of story...needless to say, I learned how important it is to watch what I say in the public forum (although my blog isn't public anymore so maybe I can say whatever I want now).

day 26 — A funny (true) story

Wow, this 30 day blog challenge is turning into the 90 day blog challenge for me.

So a funny story....to be honest I can't really think of one. I mean something super funny happened yesterday that I have been laughing nonstop about, but I think it was a "had to be there" funny moment. But there was this one funny story from when I was pregnant with Davie...Here is the link:

http://lafamiliahill.blogspot.com/2009/05/uhhwhat-did-you-say.html

Let me warn you, it is long. But it will make you laugh and astound you at the same time. Plus there is an interesting follow-up to the story. I will post the follow-up in a few days. Happy reading!

goodbye to an era

I have made it no secret that we are done having children (much to my parents dismay). And although I am mostly happy about this there are times when saying goodbye to the baby days are hard. I will miss feeling a little person twirl around inside me. I will miss having the general public be much nicer to me when I am noticeably pregnant -pregnant women can get away with anything (and should in my opinion). I will miss the older generation giving me all sorts of unsolicited advice on everything from birthing to gender-guessing to raising children; I always loved it because it would end in a congratulations. Mothers don't get that kind of patience from older people; instead we just get dirty looks to remind us we are failing at keeping our brood in check while out and about! I will miss having a brand new little person to hold and love and look at. They are so sweet when they are new and I really started to love it by my third (sorry Lily and Adam...it was more of a burden than a pleasure to get up with you in the night. What can I say; age and experience brought new perspective). I will miss the increase of love in our home that a new baby brings - it just seems Utopian for a while and I love it. There are also LOTS and LOTS of things I won't miss...mostly the post-baby weight that also hasn't wanted to come off after the last two (also a product of age, I think). Plus as they get big the house just seems to get noisier; I don't think I take much more noise! So all in all, we are done, and although I have mixed feelings about it, I am mostly at peace with it.

A couple weeks ago we bought a bunk bed for the boys room. And of course Davie saw it and just kind of knew it was for him. He is so smart! So we decided to move him down and so far it has gone pretty well. Now that I had an empty room I decided it would be nice to have a place for people to sleep in privacy when they come to visit: enter the guest room. As I am was moving everything out though I felt a little sad; like I was saying goodbye to some old and dear friends. I know it is silly, it is just stuff, but it is stuff that has been ever so present in my life now for eight years. It is full of memories. Happy memories. So here is my little tribute to the past eight years and happiness I have felt with each new "baby" moment...

Here is my little helper sporting his cool shades! Is there anything more refreshing than a newly emptied closet! I think not! It got filled quickly...which is alright because it is still clean and organized and now the stuff that left those previous places are also clean and organized. It is so nice!

My old red crib. I LOVE THIS CRIB!!!! So much so that I am keeping it for when I have grandbabies! I figure no one is going to want an old, metal, red crib that has gone though nine children (we inherited it from a neighbor who had five children...I had Lily like two weeks later). I took it all apart and it will go up in attic and in like 16 or 17 years when Lily has a baby I will get it out again.
When we moved to Seattle Lily was just six weeks old. Oh she was sooooo cute! We didn't have a lot of money, but I wanted something to hang in her room. So we went to Ikea (that was when Ikea was still cheap...I think there stuff is sort of over-priced and poor quality now) and I found these three little pictures. I love them and I have decided to maybe hang them in the toy room; I just can't bear to part with them. Aren't I pathetic!
The shelf stayed, but the darling vinyl lettering that says "David" had to come down. It killed me to take it off...I loved the way it looked. Plus a couple of the things on the shelf came down like my old sock bunny that a neighbor made for me when I was born! The picture of Davie stayed - cute little fat thing!
This is our $5 changing table. It was ugly, but I made it somewhat cute with all the baskets. Again, when we moved up north we were poor and I found this at a garage sale. She was asking $10 and I had was $5, so she agreed and I was thrilled. It has been a great little piece of furniture. It is now in closet holing a bunch of craft items.
Goodbye baby years...Hello school years (let's hope there isn't too much drama)!