Friday, December 18, 2009

Kids say the darndest things

Kids say funny things. It's a fact. Sophie keeps a quote list of funny things that people around her say, mostly Morgan. Our kids have made it a few times. I don't know if we will keep a quote list, but there have been a couple of funny ones in the last little while.

***
McKinley had woken up in the night and Erica went in to lay by her until she fell back asleep. McKinley: "Mom, I hear a dinosaur!"
Erica: "What?"
McKinley: "A dinosaur! Oh, its just Daddy snoring."

***
Gavin had woken up in the night and came into our room and laid by me. He fell back asleep so I picked him up to take him back to his room and still (semi)asleep he says, "Daddy, I'm flying!" And that was the end of our conversation.

***
Erica had made breakfast this week of bacon, eggs, and hashbrowns with ketchup. Afterward, she was nursing Jamison on the couch and Gavin comes in to check out the situation.
Gavin: "Is he eating?"
Erica: "Yeah, he's eating."
Gavin: "He eating hims bacon?"
Erica: laughing, "Yes"
Gavin: "He eating hims ketchup?"

We love our kids. They have been particularly crazy the last couple of days. I think they are getting a little cabin fever. We'll venture out to library of all places. That sounds like a good place to quietly burn off some energy right? They both love to read. Some of Gavin's favorite books recently are "Skippyjon Jones" and "Roar of a Snore". McKinley likes to read about anything. She is pretty easy to please when it comes to getting books from the library.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

And his name shall be called...

Our new man-cub shall herefore be known as Jamison Henry Hill.

As far as babies go, he is a pretty dang cute one. I could go on and on about how adorable he is and how he makes grown women swoon, but I figure that pictures would be better. We have a few from the hospital, and guaranteed there will be more to follow.

Feel free to let out "Ohhhhhs" and "How cutes".





Friday, December 11, 2009

It's a boy!

The newest member of our family was born today at 12:32 pm. He was 7 lbs 12 oz and was 19 in long. We haven't decided on a name yet, that will be tonight's task. He was absolutely perfect and the cutest little thing that you've ever seen. We spent the afternoon together and all took a little snooze. We'll post some pictures in a day or two. Erica should be able to come tomorrow afternoon sometime. The hospital is not allowing visitors under the age of 18 so we are bummed that we can't take McKinley and Gavin up to see Erica and the baby.

I guess that is all for now. Spread the good news!

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Random pics

Okay-So I haven't blogged for a while and I should be doing the dishes-but who wants to do the dishes? I've had several stories that I've wanted to share, so i'll tell the story with each picture. This first one is McKinley and Hannah (one of our newest cousins). It was the day after Thanksgiving and they were playing dress up! Pretty awesome looking gypsy girls! I think Mcki is going to enjoy hanging out with Hannah. She loves older girls! Thanks Hannah!

This is the only pregnancy pic i've let Matthew take this pregnancy. I don't know why-but this pregnancy has been particularly hard for me to accept the weight gain thing. I think its cause I gained 10 lbs right before getting pregnant. I also had a coworker tell me my bottom was getting big! She said it all sweet and nice-like its a good thing! Needless to say-i've had a complex. This is about 37 weeks. As for the baby-my Doctor said that he will break my water on Friday-that's right-this Friday the 11th. Hopefully things will move along nicely and I won't have to wait too long for this baby to make it's appearance into the world. I will post a blog with pictures as soon as I get home. Maybe I'll have Matthew post a blog sooner than that! Its weird knowing when you will deliver. It was like this when Gavin was born, too! I do like making arrangements ahead of time for babysitting. Thanks Sophie!
Here we see Gavin watching a movie. I just thought this was a cute picture. McKinley had the other cushion on the floor. I don't remember why they took it off-but he was just chillin like this! Cute, silly kid!
This is my brand new mini van that i've yet to post pictures of! And yes-I did this! Trust me-I felt like a complete idiot! I broke the belt in my vacuum and a friend kindly let me borrow her dyson vacuum (which I totally loved and want one for myself!). Anyway, I went to pick it up and as I was pulling in to park next to her-I hit her parked car. Yup! Don't ask me what happened. I still don't know. We had to make a claim on the insurance as it did some damage to her car as well. Not near as bad though. Our van now looks brand new, but we are $500 poorer as that is our deductible. Luckily Matthew wasn't too upset at me. So, if you notice me parked next to you and i'm 10 feet away-this is why.
I hope all of you have a Merry Christmas! We are going to limit the amount of Christmas cards we send out this year. We are going to attempt the electronic version. Anyway, please don't feel bad if you don't get a mailed Christmas card this year. I hope all is well and pray that each of you will remember the real meaning of Christmas and take time to bless someone who might not be so fortunate this year! And may God bless you and your families with everything you need!

Friday, December 4, 2009

And the final tally is...

Four. Morgan and Sophie came over to babysit last night while Erica and I went to a birthing class (more about that in a moment). The tree tipped over two more times while they were here. Morgan confirmed my suspicions that our stand is a piece of junk. We bought a new one today. It is the "Cone of Power" type. Hopefully things go better now. I might even get ambitious and start to put ornaments on our tree.

So the refresher class was good for us. Erica does not want to get an epidural with this baby (she didn't with McKinley and Gavin either), so we have forgotten what we learned about relaxation techniques and breathing. Then we got to go on a tour of the hospital so I know where to go. So we are all set now. Any day the baby should be coming.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Oh, Christmas Tree....

Who invented christmas trees anyways? They obviously didn't have kids. We have had our tree up for a grand total of three days and it has been tipped over twice. McKinley has tried to stand on her little plastic chair and hang stuff on it which tips over and she hits the couch which bounces her into the tree and then she hits the floor. This has happened several times. I put the lights up but we haven't put the ornaments on it yet. I'm hoping the kids will get some of their enthusiasm out of their system. They love to turn the lights on and off and on and off and on and off and .... well you get the idea. It has blown a bulb two times so I've had to find the burnt out one. I don't know how much more I can take.

I think that I need a new tree stand maybe. I really think it would help. If anybody has had good luck with their tree stand let me know where they got it from. The whole christmas tree thing may be canceled next year.

P.S. Don't think that I am a scrooge, I'm just getting tired of messing with the stand and lights. Have a Merry Christmas season. Let's get this party started!

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Motivation

One of Gavin's favorite pastimes is "playing" legos with his dad at Grandma's house. They have one of those under the bed totes full of legos. Gavin's version of playing is having you build him something and then he plays with it. Lucky for him, Matthew loves to build with legos. My husband is awesome! You can see that he has the brains for building and that we are getting Gavin started in a career in engineering at a very young age!
By the way-Matthew wants Gavin to have legos for every Christmas and birthday for the rest of his life! I wonder why?
Above: this pic was taken by Janean while they were playing. Nice shot!
Below: I took this one after I saw what Matthew was building! Amazing! That is not following some pattern book-that is straight out of his head! (Matthew's, not Gavin)

Below: McKinley sneaked into this picture! She has such a silly grin cause she is saying "cheese". The real creator of this plane! You've got to admit-it's awesome!
Oh-note to people-McKinley is the stylist of Matthew's hair-another favorite pastime.
Below: here we see the plane ready for take off. I'm still amazed! You're a genius love!

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Here ducky, ducky, ducky....

This was one of the last nice days that we were out and about. We had been saving the heels from the loaves of bread for quite a while so we had a pretty good stash to feed to the ducks and geese. This is at the nature park. They had a lot of fun. Gavin got his finger nipped the last time we were there so he was telling me that ducks have teeth. Sharp ones! It made me laugh. He got nipped again but it didn't bother him too much. The kids like to be up on the bench so the ducks aren't in their faces.

Winter is getting closer, its snowing right now a little bit. I really enjoy winter but the inbetween days are not so fun when it is not fall anymore but there is no snow on the ground. Hope everybody is getting ready to have a Happy Thanksgiving. May your naps be long and restful!




Saturday, November 14, 2009

Lucky guy-not so lucky fish!

Matthew is very lucky they caught so many fish! I have a limited understanding of how going fishing for 4 days and only catching 1 fish is fun! Even if the company, scenery and boat rides are great! Anyway, I told Matthew that he'd better bring more than 1 fish home this time, or else.....As you can see, the fish obliged!
And can I give a shout out to any single moms who may read this! Or people who know single moms, pass along my admiration. 4 days with two children is daunting. And getting to church on time!! I was happy to get there only 10 minutes late! Big thanks to my sweet husband who helps me so much with the kids! He's a great dad and a great house keeper when he has to be! Love you, Matthew!

Steelhead Fishing

We had an excellent semiannual steelhead fishing trip last week. I used to go when I was in high school and never caught too many. Usually one or two per trip. Then I was in college and on my mission, and then in college again. So from 2001 to 2008 I didn't get to go. I've been three times since we've moved back to Rexburg. Every time, I've only caught one fish on the morning we were leaving. Sad huh?

This trip was different though. Between me, Dad, and Devin we brought home 18 steelhead. I tagged six and turned two wild ones lose. I had about six more on that got off before I landed them. It was a lot of fun to be catching so many fish. Erica always wonders why I go when we drive for six hours, stand outside in the cold and rain or snow, and only catch one or two fish all weekend. There are several reasons. The first is good company. I love spending time with my dad, especially fishing. Devin just got back off his mission this spring so it was fun to spend time with him. My grandpa and two of my uncles also go in their boat and we spend the evenings with them. I love the company and meeting new and old people out on the river. Secondly, the Salmon River is beautiful even when its 35 degrees and raining and the wind is blowing. Third, the boat ride is a blast going through the big rapids. With names like the Rock Garden, Killem, Gunbarrell, and the Inviscerator how can you not have fun? Okay I made that last one up. And last but not least, the actual steelhead. You can catch fish 40" long and 20 lbs. That would be a really big one. Most of the ones we caught were more like 24-28" long and less than 10 lbs. Grandpa hooked into one that took off downstream and he never got it stopped, it just kept running until it broke the line. We had fun catching and netting fish.

What would be a good fish story without a few pictures. Enjoy.

Here's Uncle Rodney fishing below the Horse Creek Rapids
Still water above Horse Creek Rapids
One of the fish I caught
A nice wild fish that Devin turned loose. The hatchery fish have their adipose fin clipped. (The adipose fin is the small fin on top by their tail)
It's important to show the steelhead love
Another wild one Dad and Devin turned loose
This is a big bull trout that I caught. You have to turn them loose
Devin fishing at the Trout Hole
Fishing at Bean Creek. I liked the yellow bushes and green trees.
Here's the rig. Dad's truck does horrible on gas with the camper and boat. We had to stop on the top of Gilmore Pass and dump the leftover gas from the boat into the truck to make it to Mud Lake so we could gas up again.

McKinley wouldn't touch the fish with her hands but she finally agreed to hold it up on a string.

Here is our catch. Except for the one we gave to Devin and Garrett's friend in Salmon. Sorry if this is disturbing to anyone. Just know-they will all get eaten!

Silly Little Girl

We have noticed that McKinley has funny dreams. Some mornings she will call us in and ask "Do you remember when...." and then proceeds to tell us about her crazy dream. Yesterday she was asking if I remembered going for a walk and seeing the tiger and cheetah and then going on the boat and seeing the two big fish that almost ate the paddle. I have no idea what she was talking about so it must be her dreaming. Funny huh?

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

My little snowmen! (And a very big one!)

Okay-so 4 days after the event we are finally posting our pictures from Halloween. I find it interesting that we rarely blog unless we have pictures to go along with it. Sorry-just a tidbit of information. Below you see our awesome pumpkins. Matthew did the three faces in the same time that I did my window pumpkin. The candle wasn't very good in mine, so it didn't photograph very well.

Here are the two little snowmen! The costumes were made by me and Matthew. I'm very much an amateur and Matthew pointed out several ways to improve them-but we ran out of time. I'm a professional procrastinator. Matthew hates it! He says we have to have our costumes done next year by labor day. Great! McKinley wants to be tigger! I'm sure she'll change her mind over the year.


Here's the whole family-and since no one here understood my costume-i'll explain. I'm the little kid who built the snowmen. Okay-so I know it's lame, but we ran out of time and resources to create a snowman costume for me. Matthew wasn't very happy that he had to dress up as a huge snowman, but McKinley loved it! She is such an easy kid to please! Stuff yourself full of pillows and blankets and she thinks your the coolest thing ever!

We knocked on our back door neighbor's house as we were trick or treating. This family has 3 kids under the age of 3. Cute kids! Anyway, we knocked on their door and the whole family was dressed like vampires! And i'm not talking minimal costumes! They were decked out! Even the youngest! And they all matched! It was awesome! I don't know if she bought or made the costumes, but regardless-they were the coolest looking vampires ever!
Hope you all had a great and safe Halloween! Happy upcoming Thanksgiving!

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Our sweet little girl!!!

We were sitting here watching the screen saver on our computer cycle through all of the old pictures that we have taken. There were a few of McKinley when she was little that are my favorites that I wanted to post. She was such a cute little toad. We love Gavin so much right now because he is still cute and snuggly, but McKinley was pretty dang cute when she was little. We are excited for our new baby, but worried about Gavin too. He is so awesome.


Taking her doll for a ride on her trike.

Playing in the Logan River. One of our favorite things.

Feeding the ducks, kind of, mostly eating bread while the ducks watch.

What can I say?

What a good big sister. Gavin was about 2 months old.

Monday, October 26, 2009

Morgan-you ruined him for life!

Okay-I'll explain the title in a moment. First I wanted to post this cute pic of my kids with Matthew! No-Mcki doesn't have some strange disease on her face! One of her favorite activities is going to a friend's house and coming back with all sorts of washable marker art on her face. Alas-it comes off-so we don't worry about it too much.
Anyway, The kids love playing computer games with Matthew. They are games they can't play as they are for older kids, but they love watching. This picture just turned out too good not to share. Its not often that we get both of them smiling at the same time-and good smiles-not the cheeser kind!

This is our carving pumpkin night. Sophie and Morgan joined us and Uncle Morgan successfully yucked Gavin right off the table! Yup! He wouldn't even stay at the table to finish carving the pumpkin. Morgan forced him to hold some pumpkin guts in his hand and that was the end! Mcki enjoyed sawing through the pumpkins and helped cut out the bigger designs! She loves all holidays! They are going to be snowmen this year.
I have about 7 of these pics of Gavin-all with a similar face of disgust! He does not like to be dirty unless its in mud outside. He does like to light the candles to put in the pumpkins. I'll post that picture later as I took out my SD card to post these pics and don't want to stop and put it back in. I'm lazy-I know. Happy Halloween to all!

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Enjoying the last few days of fall....

There is just something about a nice day in the fall that makes it impossible for me to stay inside. Luckily I didn't have to work. I guess that is lucky. I took the kids out to the cabin so we could enjoy the beautiful day. We thought that winter was just about here a couple weeks ago. We are happy to see some warm days again. We played in the sandbox with the Tonka trucks and then walked to the river and threw rocks in. That is one of their favorite things to do. We went for a little walk along the river and McKinley started looking for "special" rocks. Which means any rock that she picks up. Before long she has both pockets of her coat full and is asking me to carry the big ones. Funny kid. I love to look for "special" rocks. We have a bunch at my parents house that we have found. We may have to make a spot at the cabin for a rock garden. For those of you who have heard us talk about the cabin, I took my trusty camera with us and took a few pictures to share. I love being outside with my kids!






Monday, October 19, 2009

Touched by an angel

Just for the record, I think that the swine flu is a bunch of hogwash. Now, on to more important things. During our Paria Canyon trip, when things were the hardest, and I felt like I just couldn't go on any longer, it was then that I was touched by an angel. He lifted my heavy pack and kicked me in the butt and then made me laugh. It was the Mud Angel. He visited me in all of his glory. Luckily he didn't give me a hug.


We laughed about Devin jumping into the mud so I took a few rough liberties with Paint and combined two pictures of Devin. What a good time we had. There will be good memories for a long time of that trip. Devin usually always has a smile on his face which helped make our trip a lot of fun.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

I survived!

To all who may be wondering-I survived the swine flu vaccine. The only effect that hit me was an extreme exhaustion the day after. Otherwise i was fine. My arm wasn't even as sore as it was with the regular flu vaccine! One of my co-workers who has a weak immune system seemed to get ill from the nasal wash vaccine. But several other co-workers got the nasal version and did fine. So-If you have a weak immune system or are pregnant or nursing-demand the shot. Otherwise-the nasal swine flu vaccine will work for you and you save a poke!
Good luck finding out if this is for you or not-but know that I will get my husband and own children vaccinated. Its too prevalent in our community not too! There is a ton of the flu going around and it is almost all swine flu! I feel much safer at work as I treat patients with possible flu. I know that I've done all I can to keep myself from getting sick.
On happier notes-Gavin seems to have acquired a croup like cough from somewhere. He acts normal, just coughs a lot. It seemed to be better this afternoon. We'll see how he does through the night.
McKinley always tells us her tummy hurts in the morning-then she informs us its because she is hungry and needs to eat. The silly thing! She is recently terrified of the dark and won't go up or down the stairs by herself when it is remotely dark. You don't even have to teach them the fear-they just get it on their own. I'm also afraid of the dark-but only if i'm outside by myself or in a big building-like the church-when its all dark! Ugh! I shudder just thinking about it. Thank goodness my husband is invincible and isn't scared of any monsters lurking in dark hallways! He always provides the light and goes ahead! Thanks Matthew!
Oh-and an even happier note-Potatoes are done!!! Boy oh boy! I get my husband back and a more normal routine! However, I'm very grateful for Matthew's grandparents for allowing him to work the whole time. I know that they needed him to help-but i'm still grateful that they provided him an income for a couple of weeks! We've been blessed! I can't deny that.
Good night to all. (or good day depending on when you read this)

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

To vaccinate or not to vaccinate!

Tomorrow they are holding a long awaited H1N1 vaccine clinic for health care professionals at the Madison Memorial Hospital. I didn't want to get this vaccine. I've been debating as I don't really read the study results that the CDC has done. It makes me a little nervous being pregnant. However-after a little research and after talking to a fellow health care professional that works for the health department-I've decided to get the vaccine. They say that for some reason-pregnant women are really having a hard time with the H1N1 strain of flu. I still wasn't totally convinced until this lady said that women in their 3rd trimester get hit the worst! We've seen our share of flu in the office. I'm sure I've been exposed to it several times. I've been lucky thus far not to get sick. I suppose I shouldn't press that luck any further. I made my whole family get the normal flu vaccine. The public swine flu vaccine clinic isn't till the end of the month. Alas-I've caved and my family will follow suit. They really don't have a choice-especially the little ones.
Hope everyone is healthy wherever you are reading this. Don't get too nervous about the swine flu. Unless you have underlying health conditions, it really isn't any worse than the regular flu. In fact-almost 100% of the flu tests that have come back positive this season are the swine flu. It does spread easily-but they are finding that most people have some immunity to it, so don't be panicked if you have been exposed. Drink plenty of fluid, get plenty of rest, and stay away from pregnant ladies!!
Much love to all who read this!

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

I love my brother

This post is dedicated to Morgan. Also known as Uncle Morgie. We love him. He is a lot of fun to be around. We have been good friends ever since we were kids and I hope that we can always stay that way. We can make almost any situation tolerable as long as we're together. I love all of my brothers but Morgan and I have spent the most time together. We get a kick out of playing in our "band". He plays the guitar and I play the bass and we have whoever is around play the drums. Sophie was kind enough to donate a room in their new house to be the band room. Maybe it was part of the deal for Morgan to agree to buy the house.

Anyways, I just wanted to post some previously unreleased pictures of my awesome brother.


Here we have a strong runner for sexiest man alive from Paria Canyon.

Gavin is helping Uncle Morgie fill the grain truck.

Uncle Morgie being the support tanker for McKinley in Yellowstone.

By the river in Yellowstone.