"everyone keeps taking the ball away from me!"

Lily had her last soccer game on Thursday. I kept meaning to write about it, but life has been busy. Anyway, she did not love soccer. In her words, "Everyone keeps trying to take the ball away from me!!!" or "I never get to make a goal..." Although I kept explaining to her that that is the point of the game, she wasn't going for it. Finally at the very last game she actually seemed like she was having fun. She came running up to me after the game and told me she wants to play again next year. We will see...

a lovely affair

My mom, Lily, and my Grandma Dearie, just before the ceremony started.
Ann and Renato - doesn't she make a stunning bride!
Me and Scott, excitedly waiting the food!
My parents and Grandma Dearie

Yesterday my cousin Ann got married up at Millcreek Inn. It was a beautiful setting and she made a lovely bride. My uncle married them and some of my cousins came in from out of town. It was a fun time to see everyone. Scott and I took Lily and left the other two with a sitter. Lily had such a good time and just couldn't get enough of the punch they were serving. All in all, it was a "lovely affair."

adventures in vinyl

Because my sister Michelle's business is thriving so much and she depends so greatly on customized vinyl my parents decided to invest in a vinyl machine for her and the rest of the family to use. Needless to say I have put it to work!

Just to clarify, I actually didn't make the "Welcome" one. I bought that about six months ago, and only a couple weeks ago I finally got around to putting that arrangement on the wall. None the less, it did inspire some of my other ideas!

the ever amusing world of adam!

Here is Adam with "Uncle" Sam, as he calls him. Sam isn't actually his uncle, but really his cousin (Michelle's little boy). Because Adam really does have an Uncle Sam I think he just assumes that uncle always goes with the name Sam. He has been calling him this since birth and we all think it is pretty hilarious...
As mentioned earlier, Adam is pretty rough with Mr. Peeps. So, the other day I had a little talk with him about this. I told him that Mr. Peeps is a baby kitty and so we need to be gentle with him, just like we would a baby. Ever since then he has been carrying him around like this. Apparently in his mind he thought that since he is a baby he must want to be cradled like a baby.
This morning when we were about to leave for the gym I gathered Adam and Gracie to help them get shoes on. When Adam arrived he looked like this - I was pretty confused since I knew I hadn't given him any chocolate and I was pretty sure there wasn't any chocolate in the house (I would have surely eaten it by now). I asked him how his face got dirty and he told me he had some chocolate milk. This, too, was confusing, since all we have is the powdered kind that you mix with milk. I asked him to show me and sure enough he walked me over to the pantry and showed me the canister of cholocate milk mix and a spoon. Yep he was eating the mix straight from the container without milk. What a kid - when he gets his mind on something then watch out!
Needless to say, life would be pretty boring without this tender-hearted little boy around. It would also be a lot less stinky (still not much interest in the potty - that's right, he's almost four).

fruitful endeavor

Yesterday (and last Wednesday) I went up to my mom's house to bottle peaches. She has two peach trees filled with peaches. All in all I ended up with about 35 quarts of peaches. I am so grateful for her generosity and the addition to my food storage. Next week I am headed up to do pears and applesauce. Mmmmmm.

meet mr. peeps

I found the charger! Yipeeee. So with that said, I would like to introduce you all to Mr. Peeps! He is our new cat. He is very sweet and VERY patient with the kids (Adam doesn't seem to understand that this is a living animal and not a toy).

ugggggg....

I am so mad - I would like to post, and I have a lot of great things to post about. But I can't find the charger for my rechargable batteries and for some reason my camera doesn't think it can use regular ones. I hate losing things - especially those kinds of things because I am usually so organized with those types of things. UGGGGG! Oh well, you will all just have to wait for until I can find it because I really much prefer a post with pictures....happy waiting.

back in business...

Our computer had a terrible virus so it has been at Geek Squad for the last two weeks (I would not recommend Geek Squad - I am pretty sure they are behind all these terrible viruses just to get more business - plus for a bunch a geeks it sure took them long enough to fix my computer!). That is why I haven't posted anything.

So these last couple weeks have been so fun and exciting for our family. The first exciting thing is that about a week before Lily started school we got a knock on our door - it was her principal coming to welcome her to kindergarten. He came with a cookie that said her name on it. He made a home visit to every single kindergartener - there are 60 of them. Isn't that impressive? She was so thrilled and it made her even more excited to start school!

Then the night before her teacher hosted a Popsicle party at a local park. It was so much fun for her to go and meet her teacher and the other kids in her class. Again, we thought this was really impressive.

Then last Thursday the big day arrived! Lily started kindergarten. Despite all my fears, I found it very easy to send her. Maybe all those pre-first day experiences (namely the principal's visit and Popsicle party) really helped me more than her. She looked so adorable and came home with all sorts of fun things to tell me. I love hearing everyday what she has done. I have loved her school and almost all of my anxieties have dissipated.

In other news, Lily started ballet. She also LOVES this (way more than she loves soccer). And one afternoon while I was napping (I was recovering from a really nasty stomach flu) she made a Barbie car all by herself. I was so impressed. So as you can see our weeks have been busy - mostly for Lily.

buddy system

My kids have found new buddies. The family that moved in next door has five children and the last three are the ages of my three. It is perfect. Above is Adam and Cannon, and Gracie and Campbell. I wasn't able to get a picture of Lily and Hayley (as they seem to always be on the run). My kids love to each have a friend of their own. The last picture is of Lily's other buddy; Grace. This was taken this morning before church. I just though the two girls looked so cute...

lately...

These are some pictures of a few of our more recent activities...

Gracie fell at the doctor's office and skinned the end of her nose. She has had nice little scab on it for about a week now. She is still pretty cute.

This is Lily and Adam goofing off before Lily's first soccer practice.

Lily's latest creation - a princess. She cut the body out and taped it to the head. I thought it was pretty clever.
Lily before her soccer practice on Tuesday, in her soccer cleats, shin guards, and awesome pink soccer socks. She looked so cute playing - even if she doesn't pay attention.
Yesterday I took the kids over to the Kearns water park. They had such a blast! Here is Gracie and Adam stopping for a little snack.
This is the coolest thing - they have this gigantic bucket that fills with 100 lbs of water and then dumped all the water out. Lily LOVED it. Adam was too scared to try it and Gracie cried every time she looked at it...

Adam was so worn out by the end of the afternoon - he is the little green and blue stripped one curled up next to me. (Please excuse the really white legs...)

you've got the look

I have had the same background on my blog for a long time. I decided it was time to simplify things and use a little creativity to create something new. So, it may be boring, but I think I am keeping it for a while.....plus Gracie is just too cute - she sort of represents our family pretty well.

new chapter

We are about to enter a new chapter of life here in the Hill Home. Yesterday Lily and I had a little date. First we went to a dance studio here in West Jordan and signed her up for ballet - this is a big deal!! Lily has been wanting to be in a dance class since she could talk well enough to express the desire. The above picture is of here doing one of her dances when she was about three. After the dance studio she and I went school shopping! This too was very fun and a very big deal.

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I have been really nervous about sending her to school. I don't put my kids in preschool, so outside of church and our Friday night dates they really haven't been away from me for too long. I worry about other kids being mean and teasing her, I worry about pedophiles and kidnappers, I worry about the teacher treating her poorly (I was a teacher and know how annoyed teachers can get with kids), I worry about her being bratty or grumpy (something she seems to be doing a lot lately). There are just a lot of things I worry about. Plus I have actually always liked having them home with me. When I was getting her signed up for school I would have little panic attacked about sending her and thought maybe I wouldn't send her until she was a little older. Then I signed her up at a school that was a little smaller and in a quiet neighborhood and some of my anxiety sort of diminished. Then we went to kindergarten orientation I was actually starting to get excited. The closer it is the more surprised I am at how I am feeling. I am really excited for her. I know there will be mean kids and I know she will be a little snotty once or twice. But I think I am finally coming to terms with the fact that this is life and eventually she will have to learn how to live it - after all, I made it through all those things and I still turned out to be pretty awesome! So that is why going school shopping was such a big deal (wow talk about an tangent).

Luckily due to the generosity of my older sisters who have really good taste and daughters older than Lily, I really didn't need to get much for her. It was funny though, she was so uninterested - that is, until we went to try things on. Then she just thought it was such fun to prance and twirl around in all the different outfits I had chosen. She was so cute and is so excited for school to start.

Really our new chapter starts tonight - I signed Lily up for soccer and that starts tonight. So between soccer, ballet, and school she will be a busy little bee and I am going to stand by and watch my life start to become more busy. Honestly I am pretty excited about it all. I think I might be living vicariously through my daughter - I hope that isn't a bad thing.

delong family beach party - reunion 2008 - seaview, WA

a sad day...

Yesterday the kids (mine and the neighbors) were out in the backyard playing. Adam was standing near the slide when all of the sudden I hear screaming. You are probably thinking to yourself, "Well that's normal..." But this time it wasn't - it was sad, loud, and a very pained screaming. I ran over to see what was wrong and sure enough he had been stung my a hornet. I looked under the slide and there was the biggest hornet's nest that I and my neighbor had ever seen. Poor Adam - he was really upset, luckily taking pictures seemed to distract him for a few minutes before the crying started again. Needless to say we bought some hornet and wasp killer that night and Scott took care of the little pests!

hum-drum to fun fun!!!

Life during the week = hum drum.....BUT life during the weekend = FUN FUN!!!

This last weekend we had such fun. Scott took Friday off and we went to Lagoon (it was our stake's Lagoon Day, which meant we got a discount). My sister Renee was so incredible kind and came with us with a free entrance pass. She was such a great sport and basically just watched Grace while we took Adam and Lily on the rides. Then at about three when they (Adam and Grace) got tired she took the kids home so that Scott and I could enjoy the rest of the day playing without kids. Poor Lily, she could have stayed all day, but she had to go home as well because there was no way she could all the rides that Scott and I were doing (even though she is tall enough for every single one of them - I was amazed). I assured her that we were going to come back next year. The day was such a blast!!!
This is on the Tidal Wave (the big boat that goes back and forth). Adam was terrified!!! I made him go on because I thought he would have such a blast. Once the ride got started and I remembered just how high it goes I felt really bad - his little body was shaking he was so scared. Luckily I don't think he is scarred for life. In fact he seemed to get over it by the time we were off the boat.

I love how Lily has her arms up in this picture - talk about teaching them young...
Then from Lagoon we met Renee and the kids at her house, packed up the cars and went to their cabin up near Evanston, WY. We spent the weekend there four-wheeling, digging in the dirt (the kids did that part), and swinging on the swings. It was a great place and was so nice of them to invite us. We got home Sunday morning in time for church. Thanks Nay for such a FUN weekend and a great respite from my sometimes hum-drum life!!!!

Scott taking Adam and Gracie on the four-wheeler. Gracie loved it - Adam, not so much!

Lily and I getting ready to embark on our long adventure (it really was an adventure - we got caught in a hale storm and neither of us has ever been so freezing)

Lily riding on the back of Uncle Ryan's four-wheeler - doesn't she look so cute and tiny with that big helmet on! We thought she looked pretty cute.

Scott and Lily at the lake that we went four-wheeling to - this is just before the hale hit us hard.