The Big 3-0!

It's official, in January I started celebrating anniversaries of my 29th Birthday! Just Kidding, I actually think it's kind of cool to be 30. I remember when I used to watch Friends all the time (who am I kidding, I still watch Friends all the time), so I should say the first time I saw all the episodes of when each friend turned 30. I remember thinking, "Wow! They are 30, that's weird that I can relate to them because they are so much older than me!" And now here I am 30 and loving it! We had a lot of fun for our Bdays. Hubby and my Bdays are a day apart, so we usually celebrate them together. This year they were in the middle of the week, and we both had to work. Hubby took his B-day off so he was home in the evening to hang out with the fam. I think we watched American idol actually! Then I took my Bday off this year, which I usually don't do because sub plans are not fun! So, on my Bday I went to work with Hubby! It was so fun and my students thought it was a pretty cool excuse to miss school.

Then on Saturday Hubby asks me, "So, what do you want to do tonight? I have a babysitter for the kids."
Me: "You do? (a little surprised) I don't know I guess we could go out to dinner."
Hubby: "Okay, we'll figure it out."
So the rest of the day goes by and I get ready to go, we go take the kids to Aunt B's and Hubby realizes he has forgotten his wallet. He thinks he may have left it at the grocery store earlier, so we stop there, he runs in, runs back out, it's not there. So, we decide to go check at the house. He pulls into the garage and asks me to run inside to see if his wallet is on the counter. I walk in and see it. So I grab it and turn around and my friends jump out from behind the stairs and yell "What's for dinner?!" Apparently, the whole wallet missing thing was planned, which I was quite impressed with since Hubby has never been able to surprise me ever, before this day. By the end of the night, all my friends (that live nearby) came and we had a fun BBQ, good laughs and a great time!
Thanks Hubby for making my Big Day even Bigger!
Here is the hilarious cake my sis-in-law made for me. Hubby asked her to make one with "Big Knockers" just for laughs, but her son (who leaves on his mission in May) and his friends were home all day and she just didn't dare make it while they were there. So, she just flipped the cake around and turned the knockers into a great back side! Hilarious! It was pretty funny having all my friends fight over which part of me they could have.

Buddy's 6th!

In February, Buddy turned 6 and he was so excited. Unfortunately, all the boys in the house (including Dad) had Influenza A that week, but Buddy really wanted to go to Pirate Island Pizza, so we took 2 of his cousins and Bugs to Pirate Island the week after his birthday. On his Birthday, we celebrated with cupcakes and presents. Even though he wasn't feeling the best,
I still think he enjoyed the night.

With sick kids, we actually had to throw some of these cupcakes away, because no one felt like eating them.

He got a lot of cool new Spy Gear, a motorcycle toy and $40 that he spent at Cabela's on a new gun and some Walkie-Talkies.

Happy Birthday Buddy!

Big Sis' Baptism

On December 30, Big Sis was baptized. She had been anxiously awaiting this day and after one scheduling conflict and a lot of phone calls, it all came together and it was a fantastic night.

Thanks to everybody that helped, even Buddy who passed out programs...
and pretended to lead music.

Here is Sister after the baptism wearing her Aunt's baptism dress.
Congrats Little Lady! This all wouldn't have come together if you hadn't have continuously reminded Mom and Dad. We are so proud of you!

The Beast and Ren

It has been a long year turning our puppy into a dog, but I have to admit that Hubby did it again he has turned Mocha into (and I can say this here because Hubby doesn't read the blog) a great dog! He still does his random brain-fart puppy stuff but eventually I think that will all be gone and he will just be the lazy sweet dog that I have been waiting for.

The best part about him is that he has accepted our newest member of the family and they are great friends. They are often found snuggling with each other. But usually you will see Mocha trying to sleep and Renegade will be attacking his ear or snout. It is pretty funny what he will put up with. When he is done though, he just plops his big giant paw on top of her and she runs away (only to come back for more after a minute)! They are pretty funny and great entertainment!I honestly did not pose them like this! I walked into the living room and there they were.It kind of looks like Mocha is watching through the corner of his eye,
waiting for the sneak attack!

Christmas in Vegas

When I was in Vegas in August, I was sitting in the back yard with my dad and he said it might be nice to have everyone come to Vegas for Christmas. Well, if you know my dad, he doesn't ask for things very often, so when he does I try my hardest to make them happen. So the whole family, except for Big Brother in Georgia packed up Santa's Workshop and headed to Vegas for Christmas. We all got there at different times and stayed in various places, but spent as much time as we could together at Mom and Dad's and had a very unique (with no snow) and fantastic Christmas.

Christmas was on Saturday this year, and luckily I had the whole week prior off of work! So I got to get a lot done and felt ready for the holiday this year. We left for Vegas on Thursday. It took a lot of planning to get Santa's Workshop down there but luckily we were bringing a piano up from St. George, so we had to take a trailer down with us. My Big Sis hauled it down with their vehicle so we didn't have to drive our truck. We did however have to strap the tree to the top of our car because we forgot to put it in the trailer. I felt like that guy (is it Griswald?) on National Lapoon! We should have filmed it, who knows we could be on YouTube. All went well with the tree until Mesquite when Hubby adjusted the strap and then for some reason it wanted to make this really loud vibrating noise and the only way to solve it was to have Hubby hold onto the end of the strap. He finally got it tucked underneath him and secure and after 5 stops along the freeway and passing the same Semi 5 times, we were back on the road.
We made it into Vegas and went to Mom and Dad's for a few hours. My Big Bro got there about an hour before we did and My Big Sis arrived the night before. We had dinner, let the cousins play and swim, did we play Nerts that night? I can't remember, and after My Lil' Bro arrived we left to check in to the hotel. Once we got checked in, we (in our super secret CIA spy agent way) snuck the tree into the hotel and got it set up.Here is the tree Christmas morning. Isn't it just so beautiful and cute? We just chopped off the top part of the tree so it would fit on top of the car. Hubby said it was the easiest tree lights he has ever had to do! And I flubbed and forgot the ornaments but still, I think it is a fantastic tree!
Our friends also came down to Vegas for the holidays, so on Christmas Eve morning, the husbands went shooting and the wives got to hang out at her parent's house. The kids were excited to see each other in Vegas, even though they see each other every week at home. And it worked out really well, because their house was literally right around the corner from our hotel. I waited there for the husbands to get back, and then we left and Hubby dropped me off at Hallmark to meet my mom, sister and sister-in-law for some last minute shopping. We had fun shopping and I went into my first Hobby Lobby store. Can I just quote Julia Roberts from Pretty Woman "Big mistake, Huge!" I'm going to need a new envelope for my wallet.
Side note: When I got home I learned that they're building one right across the street from my favorite Ross store! What am I going to do?
The rest of the day we just hung out and had dinner, let the cousins play and swim, this night I am positive we played Nerts (poor Bouge did not inherit his mother's Nerts game, but that could be because he was CHEATING the whole time) and at the end of the evening the kids opened their Christmas jammies. Bugs was pretty upset it was not a toy, but after he put on his Batman jammies he calmed down. After we were all worn out, we went back to the hotel and settled in for a long winter's nap. The boys settled in pretty quickly, but Big Sis was determined to catch Santa in the act. So, Santa had to wait a looooooong time before he could come and he had to be super sneaky (maybe he has some CIA tricks of his own) to get the presents in without the kids waking up. Especially since the tree was only 3 feet away from their bed! But he did it and we woke up to a beautiful Christmas morning. The classic hallway line up picture, except this year it was a foot of the bed line up picture.Here are the kids looking through their stockings
I didn't get pictures of the kids with all their stuff this year, but I will try to remember everything.

Big Sis:high-heeled boots, rollerblades, a big black horse, fake nails, make-up, Lady Bug Pillow Pet, ZhuZhu pet and earrings.

Buddy:RC car, lots of Star Wars Legos, Frog Pillow Pet, and 2 KungZhu pets

Bugs:
A Thomas train set with Thomas, Percy and lots of "trailers", trucks, trailers, a Panda Pillow Pet, a Kung Zhu pet and an RC Truck.

Dad got Jumper cables and an XBox game and I got a Gift Card to Ross!
It was a fun morning, definitely different in a hotel room, but fun memories. Mom and Dad came to visit that morning and then we just played and hung out the rest of the day. The kids definitely got their pool time in and Mom made a super "delish" Turkey dinner that tasted even better because I didn't cook it. That afternoon My Oldest Brother arrived with his family and we were all there in Vegas safely.
That night back at the hotel the kids raced their RC cars and Big Sis rode her rollerblades up and down the halls.
I think this is a Christmas they will never forget!

Day after Christmas at the Red Rocks

Although we were all safely in Vegas, I don't think with all the comings and goings we were ever all together. The morning after Christmas my Big Brother and family headed back home and we all headed to the Red Rocks. The kids had a great time climbing and exploring.And the adults did too!Papa, Bouge and D up at the top of the first hill.
The next morning we packed up and headed home and with a stop in St. George for a haircut and piano we made it home safely.

Thanks Mom and Dad for spending all the time making your house feel like home (Mom - it was awesome to see all the decorations again!), and for letting us come, feeding us, the beautiful gifts and making it an amazing Christmas to remember!

Hill Christmas Party

This year the annual Hill Family party was at our house! You have no idea how much I love having parties and people at our house. It has been a long time coming. Okay, I guess in the big scheme of things 10 years isn't a long time. But it sure feels like it. Anyway, we were obviously thrilled to have everyone over and to have a place where everyone could fit. I think we figured out that there was a total of 54 people there, only missing 4 from the entire family!

These parties are always full of fun and food! I think it's the only party all year that we truly do a pot-luck, nothing is assigned, so you never know what you are going to get, but as usual all the food was fantastic and most of it got eaten.
The events for the evening were: kid's crafts, an adult gift exchange and Santa came and surprised all the kids with an early Christmas present. I never knew Santa was such a funny guy. When he arrived he pulled a bunch of the grandkids up and dressed them up as reindeer and had them sing "Rudolph".
Here are some of the kids, you can see how much they loved Santa.Of course he had to pick on the teenage grandkids and give them a hard time, because no matter what they did they couldn't ring the bells right!
After all the teasing and joking he called all the kids up to sit on his lap. My kids were so excited! Bugs kept yelling out to Santa "You're Funny!" and then going into fits of laughter. He was beyond excited to have Santa in his house! Here are the pics of the kids on his lap:
Big Sis, I'm surprised she didn't ask him if he had a factory in China.Buddy wasn't as shy as I thought he would be, Kindergarten is really helping him come out of his shell.
Isn't Bugs' smile fantastic? You can tell how ecstatic he was!

After Santa left, the kids went upstairs and played with all their toys and the Adults did their gift exchange. I don't know why we keep doing this, I guess my Husband's family are just conflict junkies or something. It is pretty amusing to watch though. They basically do a "White Elephant" exchange, but instead of White Elephant gifts, they do real gifts that have a $25 minimum. So we had things from gift cards to hotel stays to guns to Chinese wontons with money baked into them. So people are opening these great gifts and getting excited, then somebody comes and steals it and they have to pick a different gift. Families sit together and stategize how to lock in gifts and get what they want, then people get mad that others are working together. It is all quite hilarious and in the end everyone is happy and they all choose to do it again the next year!
At the end of the night it was all cleaned up and everyone had a great time. Hopefully we can have the party at our house for many years to come.

Christmas Tree Hunt

Every year with Dad's family we go on a Christmas Tree Hunt to chop down our Christmas Tree. It starts with a bunch of us going up to the Forest Service building on an early (and cold) Friday morning to buy permits. Luckily for me since I have young kids and a M-F job, it is usually the Husband that gets to go. You stand in line (outside) for 2 hours, then as soon as they start selling the permits at 8:00, the line moves pretty quickly and it only takes about 10 minutes to get through.
Then on the weekend after Thanksgiving, we all load up our outdoor kitchen gear and head up to the mountains to hunt down a tree. The weather for this fun event is always...unpredictable (you thought I was going to say "fabulous" didn't you?)! Some years it is sunny and warm, those are the good years, when you don't even need thermals. But other years, like this one, it is bitter cold and stormy.
A lot of the family tried to cancel, but my husband was hard core and persuaded most of them to "stick with the plan". So, we loaded all of our snow gear, camping chairs, 4-wheelers, chili and hot chocolate and headed up the canyon. It was an eventful and cold day, trucks got stuck, kids got whiny, chili was eaten and hot chocolate was drunk. And in the end, we all got a tree (even some people that weren't there) and had smiles on our faces.
Most years I get a picture of the family by the tree in the mountains, but it was too stormy so you'll have to take a look at my Christmas posts to see it.

New Addition to our Family

JUST KIDDING! It's amazing what you can find on the internet.

Really our new addition is this...

Her name is Renegade (we considered naming her Compromise, but we couldn't think of a cute nick name to go with that). She is tons of fun in a tiny package and Buddy's new best friend.

From the Eyes of a 5-yr Old

Buddy had the camera one day in the car and snapped a few shots. It is so fun to see life from their eyes!

Buganese

Another funny "Buganese" story:
Bugs: Dad, do you die a lot?
Dad: What?
Bugs: Do you die a lot?
Dad: Do you mean in my video game?
Bugs: No Dad (with great exasperation in his voice) not your game!
Dad: Well, what do you mean?
Bugs: Do you die a lot when you are catching the bad guys?
Dad: At work?
Bugs: Yeah Dad, at work!
Dad: No Bugs, I don't die a lot at work (stifling his laughter).

Ah, the innocence of a 3-yr old!

BLT's or whatever

Hubby and I decided to make BLT's for dinner the other night and although my children are really good eaters, they for some reason do not like sandwiches. It is really random! They just like to eat all of the components of the sandwich separately. But, Bugsy decided to take BLT's to a whole new level. He decided he was going to put anything he wanted on his bread. I think he ultimately ended up with avocado, Sun Chips, corn and lettuce.and it was YUM-O!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of The Year

You probably thought I was talking about the "Christmas" time of the year, but in order to stay true to my procrastinator personality, I am talking about HALLOWEEN! If you know me, you know I love Christmas, but there is just something about Halloween that gets me soooo excited!

I love all the decorations, the costumes, the food...all of it!
We had a great Halloween this year. It was on a Sunday, which made it seem like Halloween for 3 days! First we had celebrations at school on Friday. I was a dud and just wore a Halloween hat instead of a costume. I didn't realize how hard it would be to get two kids and myself ready for school that morning! That night we had our neighborhood Trunk-or-Treat. The weather was amazing and it was right across the street from our house. The kids had a good time running around to all of the cars with their friends.
Saturday afternoon the kids went to their cousins house for a Halloween party. They played some games and ate some yummy food. Then on Saturday night, the weather turned bad. Mother Nature decided she wanted to unleash all of her angry tears at 5:00 (which is the perfect Trick-or-Treating time). But, we were still hard core and took the kids out with the giant beach umbrella and went door-to-door. They made it about halfway around the block before their hands were frozen and had to call for a chauffeur. So, even though I swore I never would, I drove my kids around door-to-door to go Trick-or Treating.Bugs was Venom from Spider-Man. He has always hated dressing up and usually bawls every year. But when I pulled this costume out of the box, his whole attitude about Halloween changed instantly.Buddy was a ninja and had some pretty cool moves!

Sister was a "Pretty Vampire". She picked out this whole costume herself. I had no idea what a Pretty Vampire was supposed to look like, so I took her to Wal-Mart and she went to town! I think it turned out super cute.

This is part of the reason why I love Halloween, you get to act like a vampire or a ninja and nobody thinks your weird!

After Trick-or-Treating, we went up to Grandma's house for our traditional soup and scones night. It was as delicious as always. The miracle was that the rain stopped and the kids went out back and played for a couple hours. You don't usually get to do that on Halloween.
By the end of the night, all the playing was over and I think they had a pretty good time by the looks of it.
Then the most beautiful part about the whole weekend is that we had Sunday to recover from all the Halloween craziness. Although Sunday was the real true Halloween, all the parties were done and we got to just chill with the fam.

Recipe for an Army Wife

This time of year I always have this tiny little uneasy feeling in the back of all my thoughts. I never could really pin-point it until last year. I finally realized that it was the fear of another Day-After-Christmas Phone Call like the one we received 6 years ago. I know it could come at anytime during the year, but the holidays always make me nervous because that is when it happened before. I am always wondering if the "higher-ups" in his unit already know about a deployment and they are just not telling us (that's what happened last time because they didn't want to ruin Christmas). I know now that if another deployment did come we would be able to handle it and we would make it through, but I still have this little uneasy feeling in the back of my thoughts. Will it ever go away? Probably not, that's just part of being a military wife.
This just came out in a Guard magazine that we received in the mail.
I couldn't have said it more perfectly (but I tried with the parentheses):

Recipe for an Army Wife
1.5 cups patience (My pantry is always a little short on this, wish I could buy it in bulk!)
1 lb. adaptability
3/4 cup tolerance
1 tsp. courage
A dash of adventure

Combine above ingredients. Add 2 TBS elbow grease. Let sit alone for one year. Marinate frequently with salty tears. Pour off excess fat (this part is not so bad!) and sprinkle ever so lightly with money. Knead dough until payday (don't we all?). Bake for 20 years or longer, until done.
Serve with pride!

To all those families and soldiers separated for the holidays: Love and Thanks!

Life-Long Dream

Just a quick note to say "Congratulations" to my hubby. It has been a life-long dream of his to be a sniper, and he just got the sniper position on his SWAT team. Congrats babe!
We are super proud of you.