October & November

So what have we been up to for the last two months you ask....Well A LOT Actually....where do I start??

I'll start with the kids....Lissy went from all this adorable strawberry blond hair (that I could curl with a curling iron)

TO THIS......

Yes, that's right almost completely bald!!!

She pulls it out at night when she's going to sleep...anyone got any suggestions on how to make her stop????

She also sleeps in the car and bends herself in half....I can't image how she sleeps like that??!!!

But Mason use to do it, just not so extreme....does everyone else's kids do this?

Lissy has a shoe fedish...yes, girlie all the way. She loves just carrying shoes around with her all the time....and not just her's but brother's, mommie's, and daddy's. However, she always takes one shoe off that she's wearing to carry it around, which mommie doesn't like so much when we are running errands!

Elise has a best friend now, Kate, who is only six weeks younger. We hang out with Kate & her parents Ben & Emily at LEAST once a week if not five times. (this was us girls shopping at the outlets for four hours, notice the missing shoe's on Elise...she's holding one)

Mason & Elise adore each other. I love how good they are to each other, how Mas takes care of his sister and how she looks up to him completely. I'm so grateful and blessed to have such wonderful children...I couldn't ask for more.

Mason is riding the train at the Outlet Mall because he was Superman and was such a good boy for four hours while the girls shopped! (When he's wanting to be good he says he's Superman)

When Mas is not trying as hard to be good he is Capt. Jack Sparrow....(Yes Steph that is YOUR fault!!)

This is Mason's Christmas present from Steph and Travis.

In October:

We had a fun Conference Party with our friends the Ashtons (Ben, Emily & Kate) and the Stevensons where we played Conference Bingo-which was SO much fun. I love the Prophet and the Apostles! They give such great words of love, comfort, and peace. I know that life is hard right now for a lot of people and I expect them to get harder, but honestly I am excited for the growth, the changes, the unity! These are great times to be alive!!

John's parents gave us their timeshare's at the Wyndam here in Vegas for a weekend, so we invited the Ashtons to come with us. We had a great time splashing in the pool and playing spades til 1am-it was SO nice and relaxing. THANKS MOM & DAD HILL!!

We bought a forclosure House and fixed it up!! We closed on Oct 20th and moved in Oct 31st! How could we fix it up in 11 days you ask-we had AMAZING HELP!!! Our wonderful hometeacher, Riley Booth got his guys from work to paint our entire house in three days (including my accent walls, two tone throughout, etc) and he did it for their cost--lets just say we LOVE RILEY AND WOULD DO ANYTHING FOR HIM!!! Then the amazing sisters in the Ward: Robin, Amanda, Rosie and her husband Dave, all came to help clean; they cleaned the bathrooms, scrubbed my stove, changed our air filters, etc. They were WONDERFUL! Even our friend/morgage guy/counciler in the bishopric Jacob cleaned one of our bathrooms with a toothbrush! I spend every afternoon I could cleaning while the kids played in the back yard or Mason pushed Elise around and around in her stroller (the carpets were too gross to let her touch).(PICTURES TO COME....i PROMISE!)

So that brings us to Halloween. We had a good time at the Ward trunk o treat (our first one). and unfortuantly that's all we did. We moved half our stuff on Halloween (Thanks Peter!). Well, it sounded like a great idea it didn't work out so great that night. We tried to make a nice dinner....but we had to run back over to the other house five times! We had to get butter, potatos, salt & peper, etc, etc. Needless to say it took three hours to make dinner-by which time we were exhausted. The kids were tired and they didn't need any more candy, so I let John talk me into putting the kids to bed without trick o treating (Yes to all you mothers out there-I still feel guilty about that one and we won't do it again). Pictures to come....they are on John's camera.

We haven't hardly celebrated holidays since we moved here-I guess I'm use to letting my mom do it and the family are too far away now to do all the holiday stuff with. Does anyone have holiday suggestion so that I can make them important/fun????

We celebrated Thanksgiving in Utah...Park City at the timeshare with the Hills (all but John's brothers...which was 23 people...but it actually went very smoothly). The teenagers texted most the day...Our nephew Kyle says he textes 3k a month!! Crazy!

On Saturday we went to Vernal to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas with my family. (This is going to be the first Christmas that we don't all celebrate Christmas day together-sleeping at my parents house, getting up at 5am...etc). Again we had a great time with NO problems (expect for me being sick) My wonderful mom tried very hard to do a mock Christmas with the awesome dinner-with pinacolatas!!, decorating the Christmas Tree (THAT'S ELISE HANGING SOME DECORATIONS), a spiritual Family Home Evening, everyone spending the night, getting up early for presents and a good breakfast after.

THANKS TO MY WONDERFUL FAMILY FOR ALL THEY DO FOR US IT WAS A WONDERFUL WEEKEND!!

Elise and Mason LOVED hanging out with their cousins, Shaun and Gracie...and the pictures of them were adorable! Lissy actually put her arm around Gracie and smiled at the camera (you don't think we take too many pictures or anything-since both our kids know how and when to pose for the camera). It was the CUTIEST!

No we didn't fall off the face of the Earth, just cyerspace!

We'll we are alive...if you were wondering (though the last three days we wondered if we wanted to be). One or all of us have been sick for almost a month now. Mason & Elise each took a turn having the 24hr flu and a head cold the middle of Nov. Two weeks ago Sunday I got the flu but mine lasted two days...without getting better....it changed to a head cold for a couple of days....then it changed to a deep horrible cough (self diagnoses' would be bronchitis) for the entire Thanksgiving weekend in Utah....the cough gradually eased into a horrible burning sore throat and high fever....Saturday John and Elise started getting really sick too (Elise has a HIGH pain tolerance like me so when she starts getting fussing and clingy we KNOW she's really sick) and Mason got little fevers...by Sunday we were all SO miserable (self-diagnosed with Strep throat because of a ton of huge white sores all over my throat and tonsils) we finally decided we had to go to Urgent Care...four hours later John and the kids we diagnosed with laryngitis (infection of the throat) and I have tonsillitis (infection of the throat & tonsils)....Sunday and Monday both John and I found NO relief...we took turns watching and feeding the kids so the other could get some rest.....

Time to get REAL!

My friend Aubrey has encourage me through her own blog to be open and honest about my feelings on what is happening in our troubled world (Thanks Aubrey!)

I have thought a lot about our troubled world lately. To begin with I would like to share something I wrote in my journal a few months ago...

"The Great Generation Can Save Us NO MORE!
The Great generation and the baby boomers are trying to save their children and grandchildren by rescuing them from the natural consequences of their decisions, both good and bad.

In the process of 'rescuing' us the consequences are only prolonged and in the end it is only more difficult to bear. To forebear tribulation without the proper, daily gained strength built over long periods of time, tribulation almost becomes unbearable in the end. Generations X and Y (people born in the 80's and 90's) are not strong enough to overcome and support themselves through their trials because our parents and grandparents have not allowed us to take care of our problems and mistakes-they simply clean up the mess by sweeping it under the rug and refusing to acknowledge it. THAT IS NOT HELPING US! THAT IS HURTING US! Children do need love and support, but they DO NOT need their consequences removed.

Consequences are a natural part of life, nay, the most important aspect of Eternal progression. Consequences CAN NOT be removed, only delayed for a time. At long last each and every person will be forced by nature itself to withstand their trials alone. Far too many of generation X and Y are not prepared. Far too many will not have the developed strength to overcome on their own, nor will they know how to turn to their God for Grandpa, Grandma, Mom and/or Dad were their deliverance, their savior. Rather than turning to the true deliverer they have turned to the Great Generation and they can not longer save the child.

Parents and Grandparents PLEASE teach your children who our Savior is and how to turn to Him who can Always save. Don't teach them to run from consequences, but to embrace them as our best and greatest teachers. The only thing we can take with us after this life is our wisdom and knowledge. Don't run from experience. Don't fear failure, failure is only achieved when hope and faith are gone forever. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE stop trying to rescue us from our mistakes, let us learn from them and become better and stronger so that when the really big trials come we are capable of overcoming them. Support us by holding our hand, not by removing the obstacle.

I fear that the great trials are already upon us and far too many are not prepared. We are facing the obstacles, in far greater proportion, than even the Great Generation were forced to face. Will we succeed as they did?? I pray that we do. I pray that we have the needed strength of spirit, the strength of hope, the strength of faith, to overcome all that is bearing down upon us. But we can't look to Grandpa, we MUST LOOK HEAVENWARD!

Adorable Kids

Every year we try to take pictures of the kids for their birthdays-so we can see how much they change each year.

This year we got to take some pictures with Cousin's Shaun & Gracie.

These are some of the best pictures of my kids-we FINALLY got a good one of Elise smiling/laughing at Mommie.

I also promised better pictures of Mason playing soccer...

Elise adores her brother and looks up to him SO much...I hope it always stays that way.

and Lissy wants to play with him so much she squaks for Mommie to let her go.

This is how Elise plays soccer.

We took some adorable pictures of Gracie...which was fun to try. I know they're not perfect, but for my first try....

We had some fun in the pool, but Shaun took a nose dive and about drown...so he had to stay in this floater ever after (which he quickly got use to).

Always Playing Catch Up

Labor Day Weekend!

We had a great time hiking in Mount Charleston. The weather up there was perfect, 70-80 degrees. We went with Joseph and Kassie.



The boys taking a rest...we didn't make it to the top (Lissy was tired, Mason had fallen and scrapped his knee and Kassie has a sore toe)







Mason watching the trees grow.





Lissy loves riding on Daddy's shoulder because it gives her full access to all his hair! Needles to say-that didn't last too long.








Mason loved finding sticks along the way and pretending they were guns with which he would shoot the 'bad pirates'. He also liked the pine cones. By the time we were 10 mins into the hike Mason has tree sticks and two pine cones in his hands.




Lissy was happy to be outside and had the best seat in the house.

After the hike we got 'In & Out' Burgers!




Saturday we went to the water pad at Aliante Park. Mason had a blast splashing and playing in the water. He's finally gotten over the fear of putting his face in the water.





Lissy liked to kick and splashs with her feet but didn't like the big kids splashing water in her face.










Don't I just have the cutest kids?!!! The both got very red faced, but no sunburn luckily.









Lissy is growing up TOO fast! She is now sitting in a forward facing car seat-it's not as easy for her to sleep in but she manages to anyways =)

Elise has really become Daddy's Girl recently. She wants him to hold her when he first gets home from work-she gives him hugs and kisses. It's SO sweet.



We have finally gotten Mason his 'big boy bike'. He did a great job riding it. He gets a little stuck in pushing the petals once in awhile-it's still a little too big, but we would rather of gotten him one that he could grow into rather than not be able to ride it very long before we had to buy another.



This is Lissy trying to get away from the vacum.

Mason has started playing Soccer and he loves it! He has a lot of natural ability and controls the ball quite well. Lissy want to play too, but Mommie won't let her yet. I know, it's not the best picture I'll get a better one later. Elise has found that the cabinets hold lots of fun things to play with and is getting into all of them. She still don't make nearly as big of a mess as Mason use to-though Mason tries to help her in learning how to (which he later has to help clean up).
Mason has started making a lot of friends here, which is wonderful. He has also learned how to climb up slides which he prefers over sliding down them.
Mason has also gotten a newfound fedish with guns and killing 'bad guys' with them. Mommie doesn't know what to think about this-I didn't want him to have any play guns I worry it makes shooting and violence acceptable.

Anyone have an opinion or suggestion about play guns????
Lissy LOVES to play peek-a-boo, she thinks it SO funny when you find her.

Our favorite Park in the Aliante Park, with the Water pad, a sand pit, Ducks & Geese...as well as the usually stuff like slides and swings.


We had a fun play group yesturday, there were 11+ kids.








Both mason & Elise found new friends close to their age (Aiden & Kaitlyn).








We also celebrated my Dad's 52 Birthday the day before Elise's birthday. We hope you had a good time celebrating with us Dad. Thanks for coming we know the sacrifice it was. We were happy to have you here.