we love lily...

...so much so that we helped her make the most awesome Valentine's Day box!

I am married to a genius....

we have f-u-n!

We love to go sledding!

 Gracie and Davie know how to do it....Scott pulls them up the hills. He is a work horse and we love him!

the best gift ever!

Adam got this marble toy for Christmas. It has been the BEST toy ever. Yes it makes a mess, but we have a little rule that the marbles can only be played with on the carpet and that helps contain them a bit. I will literally sit on the carpet for two hours with the kids playing with this toy; I think I enjoy just as much as the kids...I don't know why, it is just so entertaining!

someday...

Someday I might start blogging on a regular basis. Bur for now I too busy having fun in other ways.....like playing on my new iPad. Scott had to buy a car for work (they pay for it - it is kind of an awesome perk) and we got a free iPad with the purchase. It has been lots to fun.

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!