Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Our Holiday Night Out with the Girls


Here are some of my best friends from High School. I am so grateful for these girls then and now! Thanks for all of the good times, memories, advice, and laughs! I'll be counting down the day until we get together again! Thanks for the great party Kim! (Katie, sorry we missed you in the pic...it was so fun hearing about the beach, the boys, and the marathon. You're amazing!)

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Christmas photos

We all know how much fun it is to try and get the "perfect" picture for your Christmas card. I like to have our pic taken in the snow which adds even more fun to picture day. We've been lucky enough to have snow this year...so that helped! ( Some years I have to wait until a few days before Christmas...and we all know how busy the photo center is at Costco the week before Christmas!) This year I decided at 3:40 that we were going to take pictures. So I gave myself a time allotment of about 1 hour before the sun set. Lucky for us my brother lives 3 mins. away and was willing to brave the cold (Thanks Clint!) After throwing clothes on the kids, grabbing bows, shoes, and coats we headed out the door in search of a pine tree covered in snow (I'm convinced that is one of the prettiest things ever!" With about 10 minutes left of sunlight I found the perfect tree! Wonderful...if you have kids you know that all good pics happen in the first 5 mins so I even had five minutes to spare! Here's the result. (It was a lot better than last years attempt...in case you're in need of a good laugh let me remind you :)


(A lot has changed in a year!)





The Girls


My Christmas Angels!


My handsome boys


The sweetest boys in the world!


Thanks to my sweet kids for bringing the magic, love, laughter, and joy of Christmas into our home this year! There really is no better place than home for the Holidays and I'm so grateful that my home is filled with these four little blessings that came straight from Heaven! I know I'm just as excited as they are for Christmas! I love you Blake, Kyle, Ellie and Kaylee! Dave was able to get two weeks off for Christmas so we've really been loving having daddy home all day with us...maybe that's the reason there been more peace and fun in our home! I love you Dave!

Merry Christmas everyone!!!!

Love,
The Hills

Christmas with Trina

We were lucky enough to spend most of Dec. with Trina and her family. We were all so excited to have our cousins in town. The kids loved having sleepovers every night and playing with Ethan, Jason, and Derek. I'm pretty sure there wasn't a dull moment for 3 weeks at our house! We had one goal at the beginning of every day...Have fun fun fun, and I'm positive we accomplished this. Thanks for a great way to start off our Holidays!


The whole Knapp clan.


The "Big" cousins


Grandpa and Grandma's favorite people. Our kids biggest fans ;)


Christmas family pic


The Hills attempt to pass on our love of Star Wars to the Petersons!


Wow, look at all my ponies!


Our new Christmas countdown. Thanks Trina, I love them!


The unveiling of the gift, "We're so excited!" Kids are always willing to help with the "job" of unwrapping!


What could it be...everyone is anxiously waiting


A drum set, aka noise makers...awesome!


Little Drummer Boys


Watching the video Trina made of all our adventures together in 2009


The babies


The festival of trees





Making gingerbread houses


The result


"If we smile can we eat them?"


These kids know the rule..."If mom says 'no,' ask Grandma!"

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Polar Express

The day after Thanksgiving we boarded the Polar Express and headed for the North Pole to visit the "Real" Santa. We had a wonderful time drinking hot chocolate, eating cookies, singing Christmas songs, reading the "Polar Express" and visiting with Santa. The kids were able to get their Christmas wish list to Santa's Elves who wrote it down with a promise to make sure Santa would receive it. Blake asked for Lego Endor, Kyle wants the Lego Castle, Ellie wants Barbies, and Kaylee would love a Doll that laughs. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for a magical evening. There is nothing as priceless as the magic that Christmas can bring in the eyes of your kids! Oh how I hope they never grow up!



Ellie meets Santa


Santa giving the boys their bell from his sleigh


Kyle isn't quite so sure what to think


Getting read to break out the Christmas carols


We have arrived! Looking out the window to see Santa at the North Pole


Cousins Ethan and Jason


Reading the Polar Express


Enjoying the Hot Chocolate


Mrs. Clause's cookie recipe


Can't wait to get going


Baby Tyson and Kaylee with Clint and Clark


Trina's family


Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

The Witches


Another favorite Halloween spot...Gardner Village. I'm completely in love with the witches here. And my kids love them too! Their favorite was "Witchy Poo" Ellie loved her so much that for the last two weeks she has included her in our family prayers, "Please bless the witch going potty...she took her pants down and she was reading a magazine - that's so funny." I'm hoping the obsession stems from the fact that she's being potty trained at the moment. My kids had a blast running from witch to witch and playing with their friends.

.
Snow White with a plethora of apples to choose from.





Princess Kaylee


Spending the day with my favorite little friends!



Sweet Ky






Hooray we found another Star Wars friend to battle with!



Don't let that witch get you!



Witch's Brew...another Halloween favorite

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Happy Halloween!


Happy Halloween...From the Hills!



Grandpa Richard was the "Spider Guy" this year. The kids were nervous at first but it only took seconds before they were playing along with G.pa. Ky loved it when G.pa would pretend to grab a spider off of him and then eat it...he thought it was so funny.


Double take.


Finally warming up.


Impressive Clark! The kids stayed far away from him this year.
I think He and Clint looked pretty amazing.


Cling (the white guy in the back) had a fake finger and ear that he kept showing to the kids...it is a good thing the kids love their uncles or they might never go back after this :)

Side Note: Dave came back with me later to see their costumes, the kids opted to wait in the car. So Dave and I snuck in their house and scared them and their guests...when we told the kids they thought it was great. Ellie wanted to make sure that I didn't scare Baby T(k)yson and April though. She only wanted me to scare Clint and Clark.


Our little Snow White, Kaylee


Kaylee showing off her new costume.



Princess Ellie



Ellie with her Daddy


Ellie with the two witches, Mom and Grandma Grace


Grandma Grace and the grandkids (Ky was out on a bathroom run, and Kaylee was asleep in the crib/maybe we should have made her Sleeping Beauty :)


Mom with her boys, Luke, Obi Wan and Princess Snow White, Ellie


The Cousins trying to take a good picture.


Princess cousins Ellie and Presley




Sky and Ky


The kids before the Trunk or Treat church party





Our little Ladybug Kaylee (She wore this only last year, but since it still fit I thought I'd get a few pictures of her in it.)


Watch out Ky is using the Force here!




Luke and Obi Wan in a lightsaber duel



Kyle was very serious about his Obi Wan costume



Blake was even more serious about his Luke Skywalker, X-Wing Fighter costume. Notice the Black glove that Blake added himself after watching, "Empire Strikes Back."




The kids visiting Dad at work for office trick or treating. They loved going to see their daddy, until the Giant Gorilla showed up and scared them. I had to carry Ellie around the rest of the day. Kaylee really got into the Halloween spirit here. She figured out really fast that there was something really good in those pumpkin bowls and she did her best to get as much of it as she could before her mom took it away.




I got to help out with Blake's Halloween party. We made Spider cookies and had witches brew. I was excited to have an excuse to dress up for the day. Thanks April for the cute tights and the idea.

The kids had so much fun this Halloween season. They got really in to all of the spooky stuff. The highlights included: Cornbellies, Hee Haws (Ky's preschool), The Halloween Train (With G.pa and G.ma Sandy) Ellie continues to talk about the Lion that scratched her hair, the princess that was dirty, and that the train stopped and went backwards. The boys were more impressed by the Robbers that G.pa almost gave a dollar to, the Werewolf and the Man that was carrying his head. The kids loved the night we turned off all of the lights and told stories in the dark with our flashlights. Dad came out with his hand missing and a hook (fork) in its place (Ky was a little nervous about that) Dad also came of with his head gone and a pumpkin in its place and then he even came out as a ghost. I told a story of a bowl of candy that had a hand in the bottom that would grab you if you took more than one piece of candy. When we went Trick-or Treating Kyle wouldn't go anywhere near a bowl of candy that had a hand attached to it. G.pa and G.ma Grace threw a great Halloween party that included Mummy hot dogs and bread stick witch fingers. There you have it, a summary of the last few weeks...the goal now is to somehow get rid of all of the Halloween candy before I eat another piece!

Thursday, October 29, 2009

I love Fall

I guess this is as good as it gets when you are trying to pose 4 children who would much rather be jumping in the river behind them than looking at mom and saying, "cheese" one more time!

Yummy! "Mom must not know that I got a hold of an apple...I better eat it fast!"
The Boys

Here's proof that I'm the luckiest and happiest mom in the world!

The girls
My Kyle

Here is one of the reasons I love living in Utah! There is nothing prettier than going up the canyon when the leaves are all turning colors. I love the smell and the feel of the crisp clean fall air. I love a good excuse to come home to soup and hot chocolate. I love seeing all of the pumpkins and witches that are sitting on everyone's doorstep. Fall is a fabulous season!

A few weeks ago we took the kids up the canyon for FHE. They loved throwing the rocks into the river, using the sticks as lightsabers, and chasing each other in the leaves. I loved watching them laugh and smile!