time for an update

I was just organizing my pictures and realized I haven't really posted anything lately (other than the awesome pic of Davie). So it is high-time for an update!

 As a reward for our month off of TV in February, we had a Family movie night with homemade pizza and rootbeer floats! We watched "Dolphin Tale" and the kids had a blast. It was such a fun night!

 Clearly Davie enjoyed the pizza. I was glad we had laid down table cloths.

 Holy Cow, this was good pizza! 

The kids looked so cute for church this one Sunday in March, so I decided to get some pictures of them. 

 Gracie even let me do this awesome hairdo that day. It was definitely note-worthy (Gracie doesn't like me to do her hair...it is a struggle everyday)

Cousin Isabel came to play and the girls had fun dressing up!

 Oh my Goodness! I LOVE these two kids....we have such fun during the day. 

 Davie is such a cool kid....

I love this picture. Scott has been getting his garden spot ready (it is HUGE). I loved watching him out with the kids digging around. The chickens were also out roaming. It made me feel like I was on a farm for a moment! 

Later that day, Scott took the three big kids on a hike while Davie napped. They had a great time.

Ok, so I probably deserve a major prize (hee hee), I threw Lily a surpise birthday party with her friends. Her birthday was the 31st and it couldn't have gone better. Anyone who knows me well knows how much I loathe throwing birthday parties - I had a bad experience once with one we did for Lily. I had kind of sworn I would only give them a party on significant birthdays like 8, 12, & 16. And even at that I would make it way low-key. Well, this year I decided Lily needed a party. Plus I love her little friends here in the neighborhood and I couldn't foresee any major problems. So I did it. I planned a surprise party and it was hard let me tell you. She moped and complained for the weeks leading up to her birthday about how she really wanted a party and no one cared about her birthday, blah blah blah. I wanted to tell her so bad...but I didn't! The day of her party went off without a hitch. It was perfect. Every single girl came. They were all ecstatic about the surprise part (it was hilarious), and they were sweet and polite the whole time. It was a lot of fun. I may even be open to doing parties more often!

So here are the girls eating pizza. There were nine of them including Lily. They were so cute and it was so fun to listen to them talk. Can you tell how excited Lily was...

 That night we had a little family party. This was the cake for that party. I thought it was super cute. 

Over Spring Break we watched my brother's two youngest children while they went backpacking. It was fun and they were easy kids to have around. To keep the kids busy one day we decided to decorate sugar cookies. It was fun! That's Clara next to Gracie. She is in between Adam and Lily's age. 

 This is how Gracie decorates cookies....frost, lick, frost, lick, lick.....

Easter Sunday we dyed eggs. I didn't boil enough eggs....Next year I won't make that mistake again!

Scott came home for lunch yesterday and it was so cute to watch Grace snuggle up to him. They kind of have a soft spot for each other...

 I have a soft spot for this boy! But he is getting too big and that makes me sad.

We decided to crimp Gracie's hair today! Don't be jealous...I found my crimper from when I was in junior high....that's right, junior high. Then she put on this awesome outfit and all I can say it man oh man, she is CUTE!!!! All the girls at the gym (she goes to the playroom while I work out) were totally digging her look!

what a hunk!

I just love this kid! We were visiting Aunt Renee's twins and he got his shirt all dirty while playing. He decided it needed to come off. Then he found cousin Isabel's cute pink Mickey Mouse ears. He just couldn't resist...we thought he looked pretty manly...especially when he flexed his muscles!

Just in case you are wondering...I have been posting more of my home blog than this one lately...You can go here to check it out...if you want!

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).