Life At The Hilton

2011 year in review

2012-01-01T23:46:00.002-07:00

I haven't really been very good at keeping this blog up to date this year, but I thought it would be fun to do a year in review and get kinda caught up on all the stuff I didn't post.

January

We kicked off the year with a very awesome trip to Disneyland, Seaworld, and the San Diego Zoo. We had a blast with Guy, Kristin, and Adam.

Bryce enjoyed learning how to eat like a big boy. :)

February

We had fun making Valentines for classmates and friends.

And we had a very fun Valentine's Day.

March

Alan turned 5! He had a Mario Party and then we went to Boondocks.

Between Alan's party and Alan's other party, Emma had a choir performance.

Alan got a bike for his birthday.

On the 15th we went on a field trip to the Farmington Fire Station.

Then later that day we went over to Grandma and Grandpa's house to watch Uncle Kevin open his mission call. He was called to the Kiev, Ukraine mission.

We also had several outings to the park.

April
Spring Break was the beginning of April and just for fun we had a little stay-cation.

Monday we went to the Dinosaur Park.

Tuesday we went on a tour of the Sweets candy factory.

Wednesday we went to the Hogle Zoo and on Friday we went to see Smurfs in 3D at the new movie theater.

The next week Emma turned 7! She had a big Rapunzel party.

I went on a field trip with Emma.

And the next week Alan's baseball season started and Scott turned 30 on the 20th. (I swear I took pictures, but I can't find them)

We also had a very nice Easter.

May

Emma lost her first tooth.

We said goodbye to Uncle Kevin for 2 years.

Bryce being Bryce

Alan graduated from Preschool.

Bryce and Logan saved the world from evil.

June

I took the boys and Alan's friend Cade to the zoo the see the dinosaurs before school was out for the summer.

We had a Hilton family get-together in Great Grandpa and Grandma's back yard (the kids great grandparents, Scott's grandparents.)

The second week of June the kids started swimming lessons. They had a lot of fun and Bryce loved playing in the splash area.

On the 9th the baseball season ended for Alan. It was a lot of fun going to his games as a family.

The 18th was a big day for us... We got the rest of the grass for the back yard... Yay! We have a back yard.

Bryce being Bryce.

Bryce still being Bryce.

July

The 4th of July was a fun day. Emma was in the Kaysville parade with the Davis High Cheerleaders, then we had a BBQ at Grandma and Grandpa's. The boys LOVED fireworks.

On the 6th Emma was crowned Little Miss Farmington. The day before the pageant Emma got her ears pierced.

On the 9th Emma was in the Farmington Festival Days Parade.

Later that day (after we all had some fun at Festival Days) Emma volunteered at the Miss Farmington petting zoo.

While Dean and Andrea were in town Scott's mom Beth and Andrea and Lesli (my sisters-in-law) and I went out for a little girls lunch and some shopping at a local antique type store.

Since we hadn't had enough parade fun in July, our whole family was in the Days of 47 Children's Parade in Salt Lake. It was a hot day, but Logan found a cool place to wait for the parade to start.

Next came the Leavitt Family Reunion...

All the grand kids had a fun picnic dinner in the park with Grandpa, Grandma, and Eric, while all their moms and dads got to go out on a date.

I am not sure how we managed to fit so much into July, but we also had a day trip to go fishing at the lake with Scott's parents, Uncles, Dean and Andrea and Tanner and Landon. It was a really fun day. The kids go SO DIRTY.

Bryce bring Bryce.

The end of July we got the cutest sweetest baby kitten who had 26 toes. Sadly we only had him for a couple weeks because as it turns out Scott and I were allergic to him.

August
Before school started we tried to squeeze in as much fun as we could. We went to the zoo, the air and space museum, Kangaroo Zoo, and the planetarium.

The Friday before school started we had a couple of back to school parties. First we had a popsicle party with a bounce house and and lots of water balloons for a bunch of the kids in the neighborhood. Then later we had a Night Owl ice cream party for all the girls in Emma's class.

Back to School!!

Just after school started so did soccer season. Emma, Alan, and Logan where all playing this year so we had soccer games 3 nights a week for like 6 weeks.

September
September was mostly school and soccer games.

But my Mom, sister Aimee, and Baby Lyle came to visit. Despite the kids schedule we still found time to have a little extra fun.

October

As part of her Little Miss duties Emma volunteered at the Miss Farmington Charity Halloween Carnival.

Emma and her court dressed as princesses for the carnival.

Alan and Logan got a room redo and some new beds.

For Halloween the kids were Sleeping Beauty, Clark Kent, Batman, and Captain America. Since the kids didn't have school. We got all dolled up early, went into Salt Lake, had lunch with dad, Trick-or-treat at Tracy Aviary, quick trip to the zoo, dinner at Grandma's, the trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. Bryce was so dirty and gross by the end of the day. The black hair spray kinda got on everything and he was constantly eating candy and drooling candy.

November

November 5th was the first snow fall of the year. All the kids were very excited to get out in the snow.

Emma had her fall choir concert.

During the week of Thanksgiving we took a trip up to Washington to see some family. We spent the first night at Scott's Aunt and Uncle's house (Spence and Jannie) sadly I didn't take any pictures.

We spent Thanksgiving and that night at my grandparents house. As a nice surprise my dad and sister Katie flew down from Alaska to be there too.

We spent the next two days with Guy and Kristin (Scott's Uncle and Aunt).

December
December was a crazy month. Crazy Busy, Crazy Weather.. Crazy, but good. I will give it it's own post.

I am sure there are things I forgot, but this is a pretty good review of the year. I know that we went to the zoo at least 10 times this year, but often we are just out having fun so I forget to take pictures. Oh well.

Happy New Year.

First Day of School 2011

2011-08-27T01:51:00.001-06:00

The craziness that is getting the kids back in school has begun. Monday was the first day of School.

First I got Emma out the door for her first day of second grade. She was very excited. I was glad that I was able to leave the boys at home with Scott while I took her to school.

Then when I got home I got Alan boy ready for the kindergarten open house.

Of course the other boys had to get in on the pictures.

This year they had the kindergartners just come in for and open house on Monday. Then they came in one day during the week for evaluations. Alan's teacher used the words "very advanced" when she was telling me about how he did in math.

At the open house they did a really cute little scavenger hunt. Bryce LOVED every bit of it. I think he thought he was going to get to go to kindergarten too.

The last stop was checking out the kindergarten playground.

I spent the rest of the day watching the clock and hoping I didn't get a phone call from the school.

When we got there at the end of the day Emma was all smiles.

I can't believe the kids are getting so big. This year Emma will be in second grade, Alan will be in kindergarten, and Logan will be in preschool 3 days a week. Meaning I be home alone with Brycey 7 hours a week!!!! Crazy!!!

Getting Ready to go Back to School

2011-08-26T22:43:00.000-06:00

All summer Emma had been wanting to have a "late night" with her friends and the kids were wanting to have a pool party with their friends and all summer I planned on letting them. Then suddenly I realized that summer was just about over and I never let the kids have their parties. So on the Friday before school started I let them have their parties. It was crazy having two parties at the house in one day, but the kids had a lot of fun so it was totally worth it.

We passed out invites to friends in our neighborhood.

The kids ate like 40 something popsicles.

They danced in the bubbles

And the popped about 250 water balloons,

The a few hours later we have Emma's night owl party.

We invited all the girls in her class, as kinda a get to know you type thing. It was hard to get everyone invited (since we didn't know everyone), but we managed to do it.

When the girls arrived we still had the bounce house set up from the party earlier so I let the girls have fun bouncing while everyone arrived. The girls had a LOT of fun. I let them eat huge bowls of popcorn while we started the movie and then we took a brief intermission to make ice cream sundaes.

BTW, do you like that piece of furniture in the picture? That is not its permanent home but I thought it would work will for the sundae table. I got it at DI and I have plans to totally redo it.

I let the girls go totally wild with the ice cream. They got to put on as many toppings as they wanted. (they went through 3 cans of whip cream.)

From what I have heard all the girls had a really good time.

While Bryce entertained a bunch of little girls, Scott to Alan and Logan for a quick camping trip. From what I hear they also had a lot of fun. The boys loved hanging out by a fire and sleeping in a tent.

Saturday morning was the primary bike parade. The boys were still gone so just Emma was in it. They made their way through the neighborhood and got treat when they were done.

Once Scott and the boys got home we spent the rest of the day running all the errands in the world. That may have been a slight exaggeration, but since it was over 100 degrees out side it sure felt like all the errands in the world. Our last errand of the day was getting on new hermit crabs to make up for giving up our baby kitty.

On Sunday after church Emma and I had a little fun trying on new outfits to the first day of school.

What ever will we choose????

Our Awesome Vacation - Day 5

2011-05-31T08:01:00.001-06:00

Day 5 was our final day. That morning we once again got up, loaded up the van and headed out as early as possible. Then we headed off for the San Diego Zoo.

We were planning on heading home after the zoo, so to make our zoo visit go a little faster and more relaxing we took the bus tour. It was a double decker bus and we got to sit up on the top. (It was very exciting)

The tour was great and we got to see a ton of animals.

The Polar Bears were super fun. One of them was eating carrots (which the kids thought was very funny) and the other one was in the water playing with a ball. He kept throwing it at the glass over and over again.

After the tour we said goodbye to these wonderful people and decided to check out the zoo a little more before starting our very long drive home.

We decided to check out the reptile house and the Children's Discovery Zoo. You should have seen Logan. He was so excited he couldn't help but dance and skip around. We also let each of the kids have a turn with the camera. Emma chose to take pictures of the porcupine and Logan got a great shot of some mice. Kids are silly.

Scott took the kids into the petting zoo and I took pictures from a safe distance.

OH and I didn't get a picture of it, but while we were walking around looking at animals, some zoo keepers walked past with a leopard on a leash. It was pretty cool. They warned us that it was not safe to get to close to it, but it was very cool.

Then after stopping off at the gift shop and a grocery stop we started the drive home, which seemed to go on forever. I think it was because we had a couple of long breaks on the way and driving at night through the desert is crazy. You just drive on and on and nothing ever changes. It is just you and the darkness and the lines on the road mile after mile.

When we got home we were totally exhausted.

As soon as he was awake, Grandma and Grandpa brought Bryce home. We had all missed him so much and I was especially glad to see my sweet baby again. Bryce on the other hand seem glad to know we were back, but also seemed a little mad at all of us, especially me, for ditching him. In the following days I also realized the extent to which Bryce had been spoiled at Grandma's house. He now expected that if he was sitting in the family room playing, someone would be sitting there playing with him at all times, and if he was in his high chair eating, someone would be sitting next to him just watching him eat. I humored him for a few days, but then slowly he got used to the idea of me being able to do the dishes and stuff while he was eating or going in the play room to play with out me and he forgot all about our betrayal of not taking him with us to Disneyland. Next time we will let him come too.

And possibly I should have just sat by him while he ate.

Our Awesome Vacation - day 4

2011-05-29T16:35:00.000-06:00

Looking back through the pictures I realized that I didn't take any pictures at the hotel. To bad. I think the biggest reason why was because we didn't ever really spend much time at the hotel. We where just go go go everyday and our hotel room was just somewhere to crash and then shower before going again.

Day 4 we were in Sea World. What a fun place! It was a first for ALL of us. We started the day over at the Arctic Adventure area. Emma and I kinda got separated from the pack because Emma wanted to ride the Helicopter Adventure ride (or whatever it was called) and Logan was too short to ride and although Alan's mysterious fever had not come back we didn't want to push him with a ride warning against possible motion sickness.

We met back up with everyone at the Shamu show.

Guy, Kristin, and Adam where right up front.

We spent the rest of the afternoon catching a couple of shows and checking out aquariums in between.

I think our favorite where the Sharks. There is this tunnel that goes through the shark tank. So cool.

The boys and Logan especially really loved the Piranhas. They were so pretty and sparkly.

We all played together at the sesame street play area. The kids love the rides and Logan was like a monkey or something climbing through the nets.

There were tons of cool aquariums and open tanks. All the kids got to pet some stingrays and other fish and pick up star fish. They thought it was so neat.

The drive home from Sea World was also quite the adventure. We found ourselves in some serious need of gas, Scott cell phone was dead (due to the weird reception or lack there of we had in Sea World), mine was near dead, and we didn't pass any gas stations on the way back to the Hotel. Lucky we made it back (the gas gauge reading like 1 mile or something) and got directions to a gas station and a cell phone charger before heading back out to meet up with Guy and Kristin at Claim Jumpers for dinner.

Our Awesome Vacation - Day 3

2011-05-24T11:50:00.005-06:00

Day 3 was not as perfect as day 2. We planned on heading down to San Diego after we left Disneyland that day. So before heading off to the park for the day we loaded up the van and checked out of the hotel.

Our first stop when we got into the park was the Mad Hatter for some mouse ears. It was there that we realized Alan had a fever. That's right, here we are in Disneyland, we have checked out of our hotel and don't have another hotel until that night, and Alan has a fever. I had brought medicine on the trip, but it was back in the van at the hotel parking lot. Luckily, Disneyland has fabulous first aide. It is more like a mini hospital and it was free. So we were able to get Alan some Tylenol without even leaving the park.

Since Alan obviously wasn't feeling well, he sat in the stroller and went with Scott to go pick up some fast passes to use later while Emma, Logan and I rode a few rides and went through Sleeping Beauty's castle. I love disneyland, but one thing I don't like is that unless you have been there with little kids you never know when something is suddenly going to be scary. For the most part it is okay, but sometimes it can cause a little panic to a 3 year old. Sleeping Beauty's Castle was one of those places. Poor Logan, we were about half way through it (with a ton of people behind us) when Logan and I realized things were going to get a lot scarier before they got better.

After the castle we met back up with Alan and Scott and headed over to Toon Towne. First up.... Meet Minnie and Mickey. We let the kids pick with one they wanted to meet. No surprise that the boys wanted to meet Mickey and Emma wanted to meet Minnie.

There was a picture of Logan meeting Mickey, but I can't find it on my computer.

We spent quite a bit of time in Toon Towne. It was kinda the perfect low keys fun for our poor Alan Boy.

While the boys and I played around Emma and Daddy went on the roller coaster.

You can tell which ones are Scott and Emma. Scott has his arms up.

Toon Towne was also fun because the characters were out all over the place. After a very healthy lunch :) we played a little more and ...

Alan decied he was feeling up to a ride so we went on the Roger Rabbit ride. Logan spent the whole ride hiding his face. Warning: Even if you child can handle Space Mountain that doesn't mean he can handle Roger Rabbit or a walk through a castle.

Next we met up with Guy and Kristin and took turns going on Indiana Jones (Logan was too short and possibly it would have been the last scare he could take.)

Alan decided he was feeling up to riding and he got to drive the Jeep.

Logan Cried and Cried and Cried because he REALLY wanted to ride the Indiana Jones Ride. Poor kid. Sometimes it is so hard to be little.

Then we hung out a little and the kids had fun taking pictures.

We decided to head back over to Fantasyland, or what ever it is called, before calling it a day.

I think the long days were starting to wear on poor little Logan a little. While waiting in line to ride Dumbo he decided he just wanted to be alone. At this point we also had Adam with us. We kept getting weird looks. I could tell people were trying to decide if Emma, Adam, and Alan were triples or may be Adam and Alan were twins and we had 4 kids all relatively close in age.

I think this picture pretty clearly illustrates how we were felling by the time we rode the Casey Jr. Train. It was getting dark and it was time to head out.

On the way out we let the kids each pick a souvenir and with that we were on the shuttle and our time at the Happiest Place On Earth was over. As you can see Emma got an Eeyore pillow pet, Alan got a Mickey Mouse Light Saber and Logan got a set of Toy Story Figurines. I hope I never forget how cute Logan was talking about his Rexy and Widdle Woody and all his widdle guys.

Day 3 definitely had a lot more hiccups than the perfection of day 2, but it was still a great day. And the kids were still so good and sweet.

Our Awesome Vacation - Day 2

2011-05-22T21:06:00.000-06:00

January 4, 2011

Tuesday was our first full day in Disneyland. We got up, got ready, got breakfast at the hotel and got ourselves to Disneyland. For some reason the shuttle to Disneyland took FOREVER to come. We got there just as the park was opening so it wasn't too crowded and a lot of the characters were out and about.

Emma and I let the boys go have some fun and we went to meet some princesses.

Meeting the princesses was SO MUCH FUN! We were like third in line so the wait time was not bad at all and then they gave Emma plenty of one on one time with each princess.

I am sure they are nice to everyone, but I was really impressed with how nice then interested in Emma they all were. I know it made her feel really special.

All the princesses really liked Emma's princess skirt, but none of them liked it as much as Tinker Bell. There was actually a kinda long wait for Tinker Bell, but we needed to kill a little time while we waited for the princesses to switch over. Away Tinker Bell LOVED Emma. She talked to her for a really long time and totally loved her skirt and sparkly zebra print shoes (she said they must be animal talent fairy shoes).

Emma meeting Aurora was the cutest thing. When Emma first came over to her she was just in the middle of her little area and, but then she had Emma come sit over on the bench with her and they talked for a while. Aurora also told her that her mommy was better than having fairies (I always knew Aurora was my favorite) .

Sadly the only princess that we didn't meet was Cinderella and she was the one Emma wanted to meet the most. Emma was a little disappointed, but she has met her before so it was okay.

After the princesses we met up with the boys and Guy, Kristin, and Adam. And did just about all the rides in Tomorrow Land. Logan was brave and rode Space Mountain and I kicked everyone's butt at the Buzz Lightyear ride. I am still not sure how I did it, but I think it was because I kept shooting for all the kinda not obvious targets and those must be worth more.

After lunch we headed over to California Adventure to catch the Playhouse Disney show. I am a little sad to say I think Emma and Alan are getting old for Playhouse Disney. But they still had fun.

While Scott ran over and got fast passes for Soarin' Over California the kids and I met Lightning McQueen. This was possibly Logan's FAVORITE part of the day. He was ridiculously excited. It was almost impossible to get him to hold still long enough to get this picture. He just kept wiggling and touching the car. I wish I had had the camera on video. It was just that funny.

Next we hit some of the classic rides on the midway area. The kids also saw Woody and Jessie over there. We didn't wait around to get pictures, but the kids were happy enough just to be a few feet away from them.

After about 10 straight hours in the park we quickly rode a few rides in A Bug's Land before calling it a night.

After leaving the park we made out first trip ever to Balboa Island for frozen bananas. Going to Balboa Island is a tradition for Guy and Kristin, but this time we were lucky enough to be with them. I think Scott wants to move there just so we can eat frozen bananas everyday. I don't think the kids would mind.

It was another very late night. But the kids were SO good and nice and happy all day. It was pretty much as perfect as a day could get.

The Most Awesome Trip We Have Taken post 1

2011-03-13T20:04:00.008-06:00

About a week before Christmas we got a call from Scott's FAVORITE uncle :), Guy, asking if we wanted to go to Disneyland with them. We had yet to take the kids to Disneyland and were hoping to finally get to in 2011 so we were super excited to be able to go with them.

Monday January 3rd, after a very long and late night packing up the van, we got up at 4am-ish and loaded half asleep children in to the van. All except baby Brycey. Scott's parents were nice enough to have him spend the week with them. The poor baby was spoiled rotten and I missed him like crazy. That said it was SO NICE not to have him there and I think he would have been miserable having to spend long days in the stroller while everyone else had fun. Plus, he had a blast with Grandma and Grandpa.

In all, it took just over 12 hours to get from our home to the hotel in Anaheim. During that time, we stopped off at Sue and Justin's to pick up Guy, Kristin, and Adam. We experienced temperatures of -5 all the way up to over 50 degrees. We got a little In-N-Out Burger in Vegas and made several bathroom stops.

The original plan was to get to Anaheim and the go to Disneyland bright and early the next morning, BUT when we got there we realized it was the last night for all the Christmas stuff in Disneyland. SO we just bundled up the kids and went straight to Disneyland after 12 hours in the car. IT WAS AWESOME.

The kids excitedly riding the shuttle to Disneyland after a full day in the van.

I think there is something magical about Disneyland, especially the first time and lit up with Christmas.

We started out with Alice in Wonderland then the tea cups.

After a few "little kid" rides we tried out the Matterhorn. Last time I was at Disneyland (I was 17) the Matterhorn was the ride that freaked my sister Aimee (13 at the time) out so bad that she would not ride any of the big rides for the rest of the trip.

So I was a little nervous to take my 3 year old on it in the dark. The very nice Disney worker gave Logan her flashlight so he could light the way for us through the dark tunnels. Logan was freaked out a little, but we made it up to him with It's a Small World. It was really important to me that the kids at least try each ride once. I knew they would be fine and I didn't want them missing out on anything fun because they were scared.

Check out Alan's face.

Small World was the favorite for all the kids. It was still all Christmasy and it was so fun to see their little faces SO excited and happy. It was also really nice to be able to sit next to my little Logan and share that happy moment with him.

After that we made our way to Downtown Disney. The kids were so hungry and tired, but still so cute and excited. After some super yummy Cafe Rio-esque burritos and soft pretzels they were at least not hungry anymore.

And of course we had to stop off at the Lego store before heading back you our hotel.

By the time we got back it was LATE and the kids quickly PASSED OUT.

Baby Bryce's First Birthday

2011-01-26T21:28:00.006-07:00

Way back on December 29th our sweet baby Brycey turned into a big one year old. It is a little hard to believe he is already one, but at the same time he is such a one year old it is not hard to believe at all.

Here he is the very minute he turned one. For some reason my babies always seem to be sleeping the minute they turn one.

Just like the day he was born, there was a snow storm on his birthday. But we were still able to make it over to Grandma and Grandpa's for a party. Here he is all ready to party.

Here are the birthday boys. Thats right Bryce shares his birthday with his Grandpa.

Bryce was very excited for his birthday cupcake.

But first there were presents!

Bryce saying "cheese" for the camera.

By the time we got home the poor little baby was totally worn out.

The next day the celebration continued. He had a super fun game night birthday party.

Of course a game night themed party needed a game themed cake.

You could say he liked it.

Once again the "cheese" face.

OK and now for your viewing pleasure:

Brycey's Birthday Slide Show

Christmas 2010

2011-01-19T10:15:00.000-07:00

Merry Christmas!

We had SUCH a nice Christmas this year. A few days before Christmas we got the fun surprise of Scott's sister Andrea and her family coming in from Pennsylvania. It was fun to see the kids having fun with all their cousins and great to spend a little time with Dean and Andrea.

Every year we have a big Christmas Eve party with all the Hilton's (meaning Scott's Grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and so on) and this year we got to have it at our house. I LOVED spending Christmas Eve at home.

Everyone had a lot of fun, but Bryce really loved playing with everyone.

Once everyone had gone home and the kids were asleep it was time to get everything ready for Christmas morning. Scott and I were up till 4am wrapping presents and whatnot.

Christmas morning the kids were all up and ready for presents, but we decided to let Brycey sleep in. Look at how big those kids are getting! I can hardly believe a few short years ago this was our Christmas morning picture:

Christmas 2007

Oh look Alan got a ZuhZuh pet.

A present for Mommy.

Ummm this picture says a lot about what the boys got... Batman, Ironman, Buzz, Woody. What more could they want. The kids also all got Leapsters and I LOVE THEM. I got a crazy good deal in them. I had actually gone to Wal-mart at mid-night on Black Friday to try to get a few for $25 each, but then a week before Christmas the Leapster website had a HUGE sale and I got bundle packs that made them more like $20 each. I felt pretty awesome about getting a better deals than the crazy ladies at Walmart who snapped at me and gave me death stares for even looking in the general direction of the Leapsters at Walmart.

Bryce finally woke up and thought Christmas morning was AWESOME! It was fun that he was such a big boy for his first Christmas. In his little baby way he knew what was going on and found it all very exciting.

Right after Halloween we got the boys a few costumes on clearance and saved then for Christmas.

All the boys had a lot of fun playing dress up.

And I do mean all the boys.

I really liked having Christmas on a Saturday. It made the whole weekend feel like on big celebrations. We spent a lot of time with family and it was nice to have all the fun festive Christmas stuff in Saturday and then Church on Sunday to really bring the focus back to what it is all about.

We hope you all had a Very Merry Christmas!

The Lights at Temple Square

2011-01-18T11:07:00.000-07:00

I always get a little nostalgic when we take the kids to do things in down town Salt Lake. It is so strange to me that we used to live right there by Trolley Square. I used to walk Emma over to Liberty Park to play. Emma and I would sometimes ride the free line of tracks over to go window shopping, the Salt Lake Temple was our assigned temple and we had Stake Conference in the Tabernacle on Temple Square.

Anyway about two week before Christmas we bundled up and took the kids to Temple Square to see the lights. The weather was great. We started out bundled, but the kids decided gloves really weren't necessary. We parked over at the Galivan Center and took Trax up the street to Temple Square.

Waiting for the train

When we got to Temple Square it was CROWDED! but the weather was so great and the lights were so pretty we still had a great time.

We tried to get a picture of the whole family, but Logan decided he "didn't want to" be in the picture, so he is sitting just out of the picture.

Alan took this one.

The lights at the Galivan Center.

Logan's First Jazz Game

2011-01-17T10:03:00.000-07:00

Back on December 1st Scott took Logan to his first Jazz game. Logan was so excited to finally be big enough to stay up late and go to a game with Dad. Logan did fall asleep in the car on the way into Salt Lake and stayed asleep while Scott carried the several blocks to the game. Silly Kid. Once he was there and awake he had a blast. It has been so fun for each of the kids have a turn going to the games with Daddy.

Christmas Portraits 2010

2011-01-16T21:49:00.005-07:00

I may have mentioned that this was Bryce's first Christmas, so of course we had to get a picture of just him.

I don't know if I will ever get a picture of all four kids looking at the camera, but I have come to terms with that. I love the funny face Alan is making in this one.

SO close! Look at that all 4 are facing the camera, but Alan just couldn't help but look off to the side.

Gingerbread FHE

2010-12-23T11:22:00.000-07:00

The first Monday after Thanksgiving is always our gingerbread FHE. This year I was smart enough to do a lot of the assembling before hand so all we had to do with the kids was add the candy. They of course had a blast eating all the candy, I mean decorating it. Bryce was especially happy because it was one of the first times I let him have candy.

Thanksgiving

2010-12-22T10:57:00.000-07:00

We had such a nice, easy going Thanksgiving this year. We Spent it with the Hilton side at Scott's Aunt and Uncle's house. I made REALLY yummy yams. You can get the recipe here.

This was Brycey's first Thanksgiving. He had a lot of fun eating like a big boy and being the center of attention.

We all had fun hanging out with family.

The kids had a lot of fun playing with their cousins.

And of course there was pie!! Or should I say Chocpumple.

Christmas Decorating

2010-12-21T11:31:00.001-07:00

This Christmas is going to be Baby Brycey's first Christmas (he missed last years by 4 days). It is fun having him be so old for his first Christmas. To some little baby extent it is like he knows what is going on and seems just as excited for Christmas as the kids. He loves "singing along" when we sing Christmas songs, he loves Christmas lights, and he love the Christmas tree.

Just before Thanksgiving we got out all our Christmas decorations. We started Decorating while Bryce was down for a nap. When he woke up and I brought him down stairs he said yeah and started clapping when he saw the newly decorated family room.

Right away he wanted to "help."

As you can imagine he was very helpful. He has been pretty good about the tree. Several times I have found him under the tree with a strand of popcorn or a cookie in his mouth, but he is very soft with it and has yet to pull it over. After we first put the tree up I had to rescue him a few times because he would put his head down and crawl under it and then get stuck. But he learned his lesson after a while. I guess he thought there would be a really great view of the lights from under there.

Emma was a big help decorating this year. She took it upon herself to over see the placement of each ornament as we put them on the tree.

The Nutcracker

2010-12-20T22:42:00.003-07:00

For YEARS I have been wanting to take Emma to the Nutcracker. Getting dressed up and going to the Nutcracker is one of my favorite Christmas memories and I really wanted to make those memories with Emma. This year I decided she was finally old enough to really understand and enjoy it. SHE LOVED IT! She sat there totally entranced by it.

We got all dressed up to head out for our special date.

On the drive to the theater I told her the whole story so it would be fresh in her mind and know what was going on. Then during intermission I let her pick out a Nutcracker from the gift shop. She spent the whole second half holding her Nutcracker and enjoying every minute of it. I think we will be making going to the nutcracker a new Christmas Tradition.

November Photo Catch Up

2010-12-18T23:14:00.007-07:00

I don't understand how Logan manages to fall asleep in places like this. He doesn't take naps anymore, but sometimes it is like he just crashes.

In November Brycey turned 11 months old and has gotten very good at climbing on things and playing like one of the kids.

He is also our little explorer. He loves to climb in and out of the bottom cabinets while I am in the kitchen.

And he is SUPER helpful! He LOVES to help me unload the dishwasher.

Emma in her pilgrim hat. CUTE!

I was upstairs folding laundry and Logan came up to show me this. We have had several talks about not drawing on things like bodies, walls, furniture, or your baby brother. I guess it hasn't sunk in yet.

Bryce has become a super good supported walker and he LOVES to look out the window. I will often find him here banging on the window jabbering on about something.

This was a first for Bryce.

Halloween Fun

2010-11-08T21:13:00.008-07:00

\\We needed to make up for the lack of fun we had last Halloween. So this year we had days of fun. Our fun started on Friday with a trip to IHOP for their free scary face pancakes.

Scott was able to join us before he went into work.

After our fill of pancakes we headed over to Gardner Village to check out the witches.

Emma and Alan did a super cute and funny dance to the creepy music.

I let each kid pick out a piece of candy from the candy store before we headed home.

Then Saturday morning we got up, got in costume, and headed out to the Zoo for a little trick or treating. I don't even know if I should tell every one about how awesome trick or treating at the Zoo was because then it might so awesome next year. But it was awesome, the animals were out, there was plenty of candy, and it really was not very crowded.

We were so close to the tiger it almost didn't seem like the mesh net separating us was quite enough.
Poor Bryce, doesn't it look like he wishes he could get in on the trick or treating? Next year buddy.

Check out the cute little monkey.

My pretty Fairy Princess.

It seemed like every one we walked past commented on the cute monkeys. I don't think it was because their costumes anything special (after all I saw about a dozen kids in the same costume). I think it was the volume of monkeys that made them so cute.

Emma petting a Boa Constrictor

I LOVE this picture.

We walked right under the clump of bats. There was nothing separating us from all these bats. It was gross, creepy, and interesting all at once.

Logan didn't really want to be in this picture.

After the zoo we took the kids to the Monster Block Party at the Gallivan Center in Salt Lake.

The kids had a ton fun making these masks.

Next we headed over to Scott's parents for dinner before heading out from more trick or treating. Trick or treating was very rainy for the first half, but then it actually turned out to be a really nice night. Emma and Alan told me it was their best night ever.

Halloween was actually the Primary Sacrament Program. Emma and Alan both had parts and did really well.

After church we had a few neighbors over for a little Halloween Dinner Party. We had all kinds of Creepy foods. Scott and I had made root beer the night before and we also had a spooky salad bar, bone bread sticks, monster claw chicken, and other creepy food. It was a fun way to spend the night. I vote we always trick-or-treat the night before so we can just have fun on the actually night. The kids had fun with their friends and we had fun with ours.

Alan's Halloween Preschool Program

2010-11-07T21:06:00.005-07:00

I have been waiting to do all the Halloween posts because I wanted to do the post about Alan's Halloween Program first. The video has been giving us a little trouble and although I am sure most of you are not interested in seeing the full unedited almost 10 mins of his program I know that there are a few who would like to see it so to those of you who are excited to watch this awesomeness enjoy.... by the way Alan is the monkey (it is so fitting for him.)...

Alan's program was on the Thursday before Halloween and the same day as Emma's class party so it was a busy day for Mommy.

Alan did really well at his program. He didn't need any help with his part, was happy to be up there, and sang. I think that is really the most you can ask for. Plus as a bonus he was really cute. :) Grandma Hilton, Logan, Bryce, and I were able to make it to the event and we recorded the whole thing for Daddy to watch that night.

(Alan thought Bryce needed to wear his monkey costume too)

After Alan's program we came home and I decorated these cute little cupcakes for Emma's class party. I totally forgot to take pictures at the party, but it looked like the kids had a lot of fun.

First they decorated these really cute spider candy holders and then they divided into groups to play games. At my station we played bingo. I made this cute little bingo set because I couldn't find a Halloween Bingo that I liked. We used tootsie rolls as the markers and then as each kid got their first bingo they got a pixie stick.

Overall it was a fun day and I guess it was tiering for more than just Mommy.

(don't you hate it when you fall asleep with your sippy up your nose??)

Christmas Skirt Giveaway at Corner House

2010-11-06T14:06:00.000-06:00

I am doing my very first giveaway over at Corner House. The winner will get their choice of any skirt in my esty store!!! That includes all the ones seen here plus a few others. I will be getting them all in my store a little later today/night. I will have sizes baby to big girl.

The giveaway will end at Midnight tonight, MST.

You can go HERE to enter.

Tuesday Night at Chuck E Cheese

2010-11-02T19:59:00.003-06:00

Last Tuesday we took the kids to Chuck E Cheese. We had been planning on going there on Logan's birthday, but we had bought a $20 gift card for $10 on City Deals that didn't come in time for his birthday. Then we needed to use it before all our coupons expired. We actually had a coupon for like 35 tokens, a large pizza, and 4 drinks for 19.99. Then we had a coupon for 20 free tokens when use that other coupon, the we had a birthday coupon fir Logan to get 20 free tokens and Emma had a coupon for her half birthday so that was another 20 free tokens. In all that was about 95 tokens, a large pizza, and 4 drinks for $10. AWESOME.

(btw these are i phone pictures)

It was Brycey's first time having Chuck E Cheese pizza.

And they have this fun "blue screen" camera thing were the kids could be a part of the music videos they had on.

Emma and Alan on Yo Gabba Gabba

And of course they all had fun riding the rides.

It was a very fun night and everyone had a lot of fun despite Logan throwing a random fit the hamster style play structure. Scott had to climb up the slide to fish him out (he started crying for no reason we could figure out right at the top of the slide). Once we got him out of the play thing he then climbed under the bench announcing "I WANT TO BE ALONE." Personally I wouldn't want to lay on the floor under the table at Chuck E Cheese, but I guess 3 year olds don't mind it. Scott sat at the table with Logan and Bryce while the rest of us played and then when Logan was done being alone we all had fun until the tokens were all gone.

The Pumpkin Patch

2010-10-26T21:40:00.005-06:00

Alan's preschool recently went on a field trip to a local pumpkin and Logan, Bryce, and I thought it would be fun to tag along. Alan was having way to much fun to be in many pictures, but Bryce and Logan didn't have a choice.

First all the kids got to go over to the $2 pumpkin patch and pick any pumpkin they wanted. Alan ran way to the back and carried out the biggest $2 pumpkin he could find (and carry).

With a little help from yours truly Logan and Bryce picked out this little cutie (the first pumpkin Logan picked was already rotting on one side).

Next we headed over to the hay maze. I am pretty sure the kids couldn't have gotten lost in it if they wanted to. But they did have fun going through the maze over and over again.

After that we went over to story time. Alan is the one in the green shirt. By this time Logan was very sad. He kept asking to go home. It was super fun. (do you here a tone to that?)

Luckily after story time we had snack time and Logan perked right up.

Here is Alan with his class. They played a few games and read Spookley the Square Pumpkin before they were done.

We stayed and played a little longer.

Brycey LOVED checkin' out all the pumpkins (and gourds).

Happy Halloween from my cute boys!

Celebrating Logan's Birthday

2010-10-21T22:19:00.010-06:00

I would like to apologize in advance for the hundreds of pictures in this post. I seriously took over 250 pictures of Logan's birthday celebration so I really did pair down the pictures quite a bit.

This year for Logan's birthday we decided it would be fun to have his party at the zoo. We checked in advance so we could get there in time for the elephant show. It was great! Did you know they can feed an elephant a whole pineapple? And the little baby elephant Zuri was sooo cute.

Checking out the elephants

Speaking of cute babies... have you seen this kid?

Logan wanted a zoo train cake with an elephant, giraffe, and hippo. I aim to please.

I love the little monkey driving the train.

After the elephant show, we did cake and ice cream and presents over at the peacock pavilion.

Then we took a little stroll through the primate building on the way over to the new carousel.

Then we spent some time walking around checking out the animals. It was such a great day to see animals. They were all out and easy to see.

I know the kids look a little crazy in this picture, but they were pretending to be tigers. Well Bryce wasn't, I think he was actually a little worried.

After looking at all the animals we took a fun ride on the zoo train.

And finished up the day playing at the park.

Brycey actually fell asleep before we even got to the train. He missed his morning nap for the party, but he was a pretty good sport about it.

On Logan's actual birthday we had a picnic dinner and birthday cake at Logan's favorite park.

The kids had a ton of fun playing and then we went home and opened presents.

I think we all had a lot of fun celebrating Logan. Happy Birthday Buddy!!! We love you!!!

Logan is 3!!!

2010-10-20T21:05:00.008-06:00

Can you believe my Baby Bogan is 3!!???

He really isn't a baby anymore. Just ask him. He isn't even a little boy... He is a big boy. I guess that happens when they become a big brother.

He is seriously just an awesome kid and I love him like crazy. He is so sweet and gives the best hugs.

He makes the cutest, funniest faces. He is just a super funny kid. I don't think a night goes by that he doesn't make us all laugh at the dinner table.

He is also extremely charming. It is like there is a little twinkle in his eye and another in his smile that just kinda sucks you in.

He holds his own playing with the big kids. He loves trains, cars, dinosaurs, coloring, and books. I think the sight of Logan cruising down the side walk on his trike is possibly one of the cutest things I have ever seen.

Logan loves being a big brother, he loves playing with Alan and the other boys in the neighborhood. His favorite color is yellow and he loves animals.

The End of Soccer Season

2010-10-16T20:22:00.000-06:00

Soccer season ended back in September. Emma and Alan loved it.

Emma's team was really good. They don't officially keep score, but unofficially they beat every team they played. At their last game they beat the other team 11 to 1. Seriously those little girl were good.

I think a big part of it was the fact that they had a really good coach. He was so great with the girls. The sweetest thing was that he got them all trophies at the end of the season. Emma was SO excited to get a trophy.

This was both Emma and Alan's first season playing Soccer. Alan learned a lot really quickly and was quite a help to his team.

It was really fun going to their games as a family. I think we will definitely be doing Soccer again next season.

The Big Mr. Cute-e-cutes

2010-10-09T23:06:00.007-06:00

Ok so sometimes I call him The Cuteness and some times I call him Cute-e-cutes and I usually call him Bryce when he is getting into naughty things....So I call him Bryce a lot and he KNOWS his name.

Anyway this evening my baby officially started pulling himself up. I have a feeling that now that he knows how to do that he will be walking in no time and I will be saying "Brycey thats a no-no" a lot more. Right now it is kinda funny when I tell him that something is a no-no he laughs and if I tell him to stop he laughs and crawls faster. For now this is really cute, but it will be nice when he starts to understand. Oh speaking of understanding I forgot to mention that the Cuteness now says Ni Ni (night, night), Dada, Mama, and can wave and of course clap. There have been a few times when he actually said a pretty good hi or bye while waving, but I am not sure he really knew what he was saying. We will see, maybe he will be like he's brother Alan and be singing his ABCs by 15 mos.

So on to the cuteness...

This is a bit of an action shot. He looks so fat in this one it is awesome!

He got down to come after the camera. Check out those teeth. He has 3 now with more on the way.

Here he is standing up again. He thought it was funny that I didn't want him pulling up on the basket of clean laundry, then he kinda fell in head first and tipped the whole thing over. Hopefully that was a lesson learned, but probably not.

I am thinking he may need another hair cut. He has had 4 or 5 so far in his little life, and I thought that maybe if I let it grow more it would just lay down on its own.

But now I am thinking it may not.

Halloween Costume Party at Corner House

2010-10-08T22:00:00.003-06:00

Over on my Corner House blog I am having my first ever linky party. I am not totally sure I really have high enough readership to make it a success, but I thought it would be fun to give it a try.

Anyway, if you have a blog post about a Halloween Costume that you would like to share I would love it if you would stop by Corner House and link it up.

The Cuteness is 9 Months Old

2010-10-07T21:36:00.002-06:00

Brycey aka the Cuteness is 9 months old now. He had a well check on the first of this month.

So here are his stats:

Weight: 21 lbs 10 oz (I was surprised I thought he was closer to 24 lbs.)

Height: 29 3/4 inches (thats the 95+%)

He is now all over the place and if I turn my back for a moment I can turn around to find this. This picture was taken when he got a hold of a black crayon.

Emma is such a big help when it comes to taking care of Bryce.

He loves to eat big boy food. Some of his favorites are peaches, ritz crackers, graham crackers, and of course Cheerios.

Taking the Plunge

2010-10-05T22:42:00.004-06:00

So I have taken the plunge and I am starting my own cake business. I am very excited about my new venture. So if any of you dear people who read this know someone who needs a cake (preferably in the Davis County area), I would love you to recommend me.

please check out my new website cornerhousecakes.com

Alan's First Day of Preschool

2010-09-17T22:13:00.004-06:00

Alan boy started a new preschool last week. It is at a neighbors home and he was ridiculous excited. I was so proud of him. When I dropped him off he just went right in. Last year it took weeks of me taking him in and walking him through the whole backpack off, wash hands, write name routine before I could leave him. And even then he had to have a special rock in his pocket. He really is growing up. He is getting better at recognizing and read words and adding smaller numbers. I think he will be all ready for kindergarten next year.

I love this airborne running shot after his first day. He had a lot of fun and was excited to tell me all about it.

Soccer Season

2010-09-10T09:03:00.001-06:00

Well it has happened I am officially a mini vans driving soccer mom.

Both Emma and Alan are doing soccer for the first time this season. It has been a lot of fun and a little bit crazy trying to get 4 kids out the door and to the field twice a week at dinner time, but so worth it.

Alan has really improved a lot at every game and loves soccer so much that he insists on sleeping in his uniform on Tuesday nights after his games.

Emma is on a team with a few girls from our ward. She also really looks forward to game day and works hard on the field.

I love action shots of 4 year olds. I am not totally sure what is going on here, but it looks awesome.

Emma is one of 2 number 21s named Emma on her team. That said is is the 21 you can see in this picture.

Bryce also loves to watch the soccer action.

The Cuteness and Some Brotherly Love

2010-09-06T09:50:00.007-06:00

Well the cuteness is 8 months and 1 week old now. He sits up like a pro. (this picture is actually about 6 weeks old, but I had forgotten about it and it was just so cute that I had to include it)

He rolls and crawls well enough that we are now constantly trying to stop him before he does something naughty. And I am giving daily lectures to the kids about not leaving little things on the floor. Bryce really only likes things he should not have.

He loves to eat food. Emma is always willing to get him all the cheerios he can eat.

And he loves playing with his brothers. I came into the family room to find them building together. Bryce was just hanging out like he was one of the guys. It was so cute.

And just for fun here is a little more brotherly love.

A New School, A New School Year

2010-09-04T19:56:00.005-06:00

Oh man look at my big first grader. Here she is ready for her first day at a brand new school. She was SO excited. She picked her first day outfit herself.

Our Other Family Get-a-way

2010-09-03T22:37:00.006-06:00

was a little overnight trip to Wolf Creek in the Uintas for the Hilton Family Reunion.

First we went to do a little target practice/ gun safety lesson. No worries, that is just an airsoft gun the kids are practicing with. There were a couple 12 gauge shotguns that the bigger people shot clay pigeons with. Scott made me shoot one, but I only did it once because apparently I am a no fun mom now and it was loud and kinda hurt.

We spent the rest of the evening sitting around the campfire hanging out and broke into teams to play a few games. My team kicked everyone's trash. :) After games, the kids were so ready for bed, but first we had to roast some marshmallows. It got pretty cold that night (in the 40s) but I had the kids pretty well bundled, so they all slept pretty well.

That morning after a yummy breakfast.

Logan got back to playing with Tom.

Then on the way home we stopped by to see Heart Lake.

It was so pretty up there and I am sure it will be a great memory for the kids.

Oh Man I Can't Believe

2010-09-03T21:58:00.008-06:00

that the summer is already over.

Other than my trip up to Alaska we also had two little family get-a-ways. The first was to Bear Lake for the Leavitt Family Reunion. It was such a fun little trip. We stayed at a nice inn and had a ton of fun with the family. The kids all LOVED the beach. It was so nice there. The water is really shallow really far out so it is very relaxing for me. I could just let the kids run and dig and play. Sadly, my lameness with the combo of 4 kids and a camera also showed up at this reunion too. I brought the camera, but forgot the memory card so our pictures are very few. Luckily Andrea was nice enough to make sure we got some pictures of the kids.

No good can come of that many little boys with sharp objects.

Bryce's First Trip to Alaska

2010-08-23T22:46:00.005-06:00

Back in July Bryce and I were lucky enough to be able to get away to Alaska to visit my family. I was really looking forward to a little break from the day to day. Bryce was a very good boy for the very long plane ride up there.

While we were there Bryce got spoiled by my mom and sister. And we had a lot of fun just hanging out. Sadly we were so busy having fun that I forgot to take very many pictures.

Bryce enjoying one of many shopping outings

Bryce getting loves from his Aunt Kate

Bryce's first meal at the Eagle River Garcia's

Bryce getting loves from his Aunt Aimee

Bryce getting loves from his Grandpa Michaud

Bryce's first time at Moose's Tooth

The quilt I helped Aimee make

Bryce on his first date (he held her hand)

And last of all Bryce getting loves from his Alaska Grandma.

And really that is pretty much all the pictures I took.

Kevin's Senior Pictures

2010-08-05T22:10:00.004-06:00

I also posted these pictures on my other blog so sorry if you are seeing this twice.

Yesterday I did a little photo shoot with my brother-in-law Kevin. It was a lot of fun. These are my top 5 picks:

Baby Bryce is a big boy

2010-07-13T22:33:00.005-06:00

Maybe it is because he is my baby or maybe it is because I was really enjoying not having a high chair in my dining room, but I really dragged my feet about starting Bryce on real food. So finally today I went and got the high chair out of storage and let Bryce have his first real taste of "solid" food.

So his first meal with the family was homemade mashed potatoes and he loved them. I was actually a little surprised by how much he ate. He kinda insisted on feeding himself, so I would load up the spoon and hand it to him and then he would put it in his mouth. He did a really good job.

Here he is saying hi while he eats his potatoes. He did start out with a baby spoon, but he stole mine and then I was rotating them so he would always have one ready and waiting.

And here is another cute picture of the kids before bed (Alan decided to run away as soon as I grabbed the camera). Emma is getting so good at taking care of Bryce. To my surprise I will often turn around to find that she has picked him up and they are all playing together. At times like that I try to remind her of the no kids picking up the baby policy in our house, but she really is just trying to take care of "her baby." It is so fun to see the kids with Bryce. He has just been so interactive from day one and now he can play little games with his brothers and sister and he thinks it is just about the funniest thing ever when one of them throws a fit.

6 Babies

2010-06-28T20:04:00.003-06:00

Last week we were up in Bear Lake for the Leavitt family reunion...but more about that super fun trip later. While we were there Scott's aunt Tracy had a quick photo session to document the recent baby boom in our family. Check this out.

Bryce 5.5 mos, Jack and Sadie 2.5 mos, Landon 1.5 mos, Mavrick 1 mos, Brigham 4 mos

We Now Have Grass

2010-06-18T23:31:00.003-06:00

The day we got our sod was crazy. I woke up sick, it had rained all night, and the wind was intense. Lucky for us not too long after we got started laying the sod, a lot of people came to help us get the job down.

Before

after (can you tell it was a little bit stormy?)

Other than the fear that at any moment a large object would come hurling down the street at me we also got to enjoy the challenge of trying to lay sod on mud that was more like soup that ground. It was so awesome.

Now we just need to finish the back, build up the flower beds, get trees, bushes, and flower and get all the weeds out from the over side of the drive way.

Bryce vs the T-rex

2010-06-17T17:41:00.002-06:00

This is Bryce.

This is Bryce, Logan, and a t-rex.

This is Bryce unaware of the T-rex

Bryce has spotted the T-rex

This is Bryce showing the T-rex who the real king is.

Emma's last day of school!!!

2010-06-16T21:08:00.004-06:00

School is out for the summer (actually it has been out since the 4th) and Emma is so excited to be going on to first grade in the fall. For the last few weeks before school let out they kept getting the kids ready for first grade. It was so cute almost every day Emma would come home and tell me what first graders do.

There she is...Emma getting off the kindergarten bus for the last time. My baby baby is getting so big!! (tear)

Alan's Last T-ball Game

2010-06-16T08:29:00.000-06:00

Well t-ball season is over and it was actually sunny for his last game. Seriously, it seemed like it always got windy, rainy, or cold for every game.

Alan got pretty good over the course of the season and even hit the ball off the pitch and not the tee both times at bat.

After the game that gave all the boys a medal. Alan has been wearing his a lot.

Alan's Preschool Program

2010-06-15T21:00:00.003-06:00

Alan had his school program and last day of school on May 19th. His program was so cute and he did really well on all the songs.

After they sang and danced, they had a little graduation ceremony.

As each kid came up to get their certificate they read a few questions and answers about that child. Here are Alan's:

-What do you want to be when you grow up? A doctor.

-What was your favorite thing about preschool? Play with my friend, Eddie.

-What are you afraid of? I'm not afraid of anything.

-What makes you happy? Dragons.

-What is your favorite thing to do? Play games with my dad.

-What will you do this summer? I don't know

T-ball

2010-05-31T22:56:00.003-06:00

I can't believe Alan's last t-ball game will be on Wednesday. This season has gone by so quickly. It has been really fun and Alan has loved it. He even hit a ball off a pitch instead of the tee at his last game. I think the most fun thing about this season is that he was on a team with 11 other boys from our neighborhood. I am so glad we live somewhere where our kids will have plenty of friends to grow up with and play ball with.

Alan at bat

Alan is the one in the red helmet

It was a lot of fun going to his games as a family.

It was a lot of fun to watch. They were so cute out there. The best was when the other team would hit the ball and they would all dog pile on the ball.

Brycey Boy

2010-05-30T21:21:00.001-06:00

He is just SO stinkin' cute and happy!!!
he is also 5 whole months now.

He is such a funny kid and such an easy baby as long as you don't mess with his schedule. He loves to sleep in his crib. I can just put him in there, tell him good night and he happily puts himself to bed, but he has a hard time sleeping anywhere that isn't his bed. He also LOVES to play with things and his brothers and sister. Her loves to be in his excersauser or if he is just laying on the floor he will bend and roll in hopes of getting a toy or if that fails he loves his feet.
He is also a very picky eater. And by picky eater I mean he still only drinks breast milk and he doesn't want anything else. I am hoping to change that in the next month or so. But I guess we will see. I am a little worried he will have some kind of allergy, but I think I am just projecting after what we went through with Logan's soy allergy.
So a few 5 month old stats. He is almost sitting up on his own, but he does roll front to back and back to front. He is wearing a solid size 6-12 months and some 12-18 months, he wears size 3 diapers, and he has now had two hair cuts.
He also seems to have a very special bond with Logan. I hope that is always true.

Phone Photo Dump

2010-05-27T15:55:00.007-06:00

I finally got all the pictures that I have taken with my phone loaded onto my computer. Here are a few gems from the past 9 months. OK it is more than a few.

Brycey in the bath

Brycey on a walk

Logan all ready for bed

The wild Logan napping in his natural habitat

Logan on a walk

Bryce's first bath

Bryce in the hospital

Alan the monkey foot

Emma insisted this looked good and I didn't feel like fighting about it.

Alan writing his name

My men hanging out

My poor kids have nothing to play with

Logan hanging out in his favorite cupboard shortly after we moved in.

Bryce playing with his BFF Drew.

Emma's Kindergarden Program

2010-05-14T11:49:00.003-06:00

Today was Emma's Kindergarten program at school. They sang some of the songs they learned this year and some kids had a little speaking part. Emma was lucky enough to have have a part. She said "No, that's silly." She did a very good job. We took mostly video, but here are a few pictures of the fun.

Nicholls Park

2010-05-08T17:50:00.000-06:00

Since we had already had a "spiritual" FHE on Sunday, on Monday we granted Alan's wish and had an FHE pizza picnic at the castle park. It was a lot of fun, but maybe a little chilly when the wind picked up a little.

Bryce had a good time swinging for the first time. I just love all of these Bryce faces.

playing catch up

2010-05-05T21:58:00.007-06:00

That is how I feel lately, like I am always playing catch up. So now I am finally getting around to playing catch up on the blog.

Bryce rolls a lot more now. He can roll both front to back and back to front.

Cute brothers

Bryce is fully in his own crib and room now. He falls asleep on his own for naps and sleeps 10:30 pm to 8 am most nights.

This is the cake I made for Scott's 29th birthday.

We had a joint birthday party at our house for Scott and Jake on the 20th. We put his birthday present (a grill) to good use and grilled up some steaks.

Alan had his first t-ball game on the 21st. He had a lot of fun. He hit the ball twice and threw the ball to first base once.

Logan and Bryce are really good buddies. They love hanging out together. Logan is actually very considerate of "his baby" and loves to take care of him for me. Today while I was at a kick boxing aerobics class over at the church, Logan just sat and took care of Bryce in his car seat. He talked to him, picked up his toys if he dropped them and even rocked him to sleep. It was very sweet to watch.

Alan had his second game on the 28th. They are all seriously so cute out there and getting better everyweek. It was so cold for that game and actually started snowing the next morning.

On the 29th Bryce turned 4 months old. I took him in for his well check and other than charming everyone with his big blue eyes and giggles, he also showed off his hugeness.

Bryce is now 16 lbs and 26.5 inches tall. He is wearing a 12-18 months size outfit in the above picture.

On Sunday, May 2nd we met up with Scott's family in Salt Lake for Stake Conference at the Conference Center. They kids had so much fun getting the tickets and being in that amazing building. After the meeting we went over to Temple Square for a while and then headed home. Later after dinner we had a huge Hilton Family Home Evening. Bryce was very nice and let his Great Grandma Hilton hold him and love on him.This is the blanket set I made for Scott's sister Andrea's new little guy, Landon Clesse Hilton. He was born on May 4th, is very cute and we can't wait to meet him this summer.

Emma's Birthday Party

2010-04-24T17:04:00.001-06:00

Over spring break we had Emma's birthday party. A few girls ended up going out of town so I ended up 6 little girls to entertain and lucky for me Scott's mom was there to hold Bryce (who I had planned on sleeping through the party, but he woke up half way through).
We decided to have a fairy party which meant we could use my little sister's left over wedding decoration. It looked pretty magical, if I do say so myself.
We started the party with a coloring contest. As each girl arrived she got to pick a fairy picture to color and then when she was done we hung it up and she then came over to get a "fairy kiss" (flower) painted on her face.

Next we played pin the crown on the fairy. The winner got first pick of the fairy crowns I had made out of star garland and ribbon. Once the fairies all had their crowns on I divided them into two teams. Each team had to find the 5 envelopes marked with their team color that I had hidden around the room. Each envelope a piece to help them complete that teams fairy picture (wings, wand, crown, fairy dust bag). The first team to correctly complete their picture got first pick of the wands.
Next the girls went hunting for fairy treasure (gold buttons) that I had hidden around the party area and then they used the treasure to make magical bracelets using pipe cleaners and pony beads.

Now that the girls were fully outfitted in fairy garb we played fairy freeze dance. I think this was their favorite part. I just played some music and then the girls had to freeze we the music stopped. You could play this where if someone moves they are out, but we just played for fun. The girls were so cute twirling around.
Next was time for presents and cake. Emma's friends were very sweet and got her a lot of nice presents. When it was time to cut the cake the girls were very excited eats the flowers and mushrooms and surprised to see the rainbow inside.
After cake and ice cream we tested their flower fairy skills. The girls had to stand on a chair and then drop flowers one at a time into a pail. If they got 4 out of 6 they passed the test and got a treat bag. We let everyone try until they passed before handing out the treats. Then by popular request we played freeze dance for a few more minutes until their moms came to get them.

Writer's Block

2010-04-22T19:55:00.002-06:00

I don't know what the deal is, but I have had the worst writer's block the last few months. Every time I go to do a post, everything I type is just soooo blah and I don't know what to type. I have been wanting to post about Easter and conference and all the cute/funny thing the kids have been doing and saying but I just don't have the words. Hopefully I can over come my blog blahs soon. Until then sorry for the blah posts.

Emma is 6!!!

2010-04-11T10:09:00.002-06:00

It's official, my little baby girl is 6 years old.
And not a baby anymore. In the past year there have been so many changes for my little girl. Not only did she move into a new house, start school, and get a new baby brother, but she has become such a good helper. She loves to hold Bryce, put away her laundry, help set the table, and clean her room. She is such a sweet girl and she gives the perfect amount of girlish charm to our growing family of boys. It sure is nice to have another girl in the house to paint toe nails and play dolls with.
We sure love you Emma girl!!!
Happy Birthday!

Easter Eggs

2010-04-05T21:00:00.005-06:00

On Friday we dyed Easter eggs as a family. The kids had a lot of fun and only two eggs didn't survive the process.

Happy Baby

2010-04-02T21:02:00.004-06:00

If you have been lucky enough to meet Bryce then you have met the world's happiest baby. At about 2 weeks he started smiling at us and by a month he would even giggle and now he seems to spend most of his time laughing, happily squealing, and smiling. Ok while really he spends most of his time eating and sleeping, but he even seems to smile in his sleep and while eating so it is hard to know what he does the most.

Emma's first jazz game

2010-04-02T20:52:00.003-06:00

On Monday night Scott took Emma on a little Daddy Daughter Date to her first Jazz game. She had a lot of fun and brought home cotton candy.

I made these

2010-04-02T20:29:00.003-06:00

cute little onesies.

For these cute people. While for their soon-ish to arrive twins.

On Sunday Scott's Grandma hosted a baby shower for Guy and Kristin. It was so fun to get to see them again before their lives become completely crazy with their two little bundles of joy. While the adults had fun visiting and cooing over cute baby clothes the kids had fun playing in the backyard.
The boys made up a fun game where they attached a bungee cord to their belt loops a pulled.
Alan won.

Is he bigger than a bread box????

2010-04-01T10:41:00.003-06:00

I would say so. Can you believe that giant baby is 2.5 months old. Those jammies are size 6-12 months and he is laying in one of those big laundry baskets.

Leave it to Daddy

2010-04-01T10:22:00.002-06:00

to give a baby his first real food.

Bryce was 11 weeks old and loved sucking on the apple.

From the Mouths of Babes

2010-03-22T17:15:00.002-06:00

Alan seems to always have a lot to say and it is usually very entertaining. So I thought I would share two recent anecdotes.

Sunday night at dinner I was asking what everyone learned about in church. When I asked Alan he told us they talked about animals and everyone had to think an animal. Then he informed us "when it was my turn I thought of BattleCat (from Heman) and my boy teacher thought it was cool."
All I could say was "I am sure he did."

Then the other day I was feeding Bryce in the family room and the kids were playing in the front room when a very excited Alan came in and said, "We are killing a spider. So when is it going to be resurrected because it's gonna die."
I just said "when Jesus comes again"
I guess that was enough for him because he ran off to help Emma.

Alan's Batman Birthday

2010-03-18T20:45:00.002-06:00

This year I decided to let Alan have his first friend birthday party. After months of trying to decide what kind of birthday party he wanted he finally picked to have a Batman themed party.

I knew I wanted to keep it kinda small so we limited our guest list to close neighbors who are 4 and will also on Alan's T-ball team leaving us with 6 boys to invite. I love who his invites turned out.

We started off with pass the present. All the presents had 4 or 5 layers and everyone got a Batman cape. Once all the little Batmans were ready we went down into the Batcave.

I decorated the basement with black streamers, a picture of Batman, and about 80 balloons including 12 punch balloons. After running wild with balloons for a while the boys colored treat bags and attached the pinata.
Then it was present time. Alan made out like a bandit but was nice enough to let everyone play with his new toys. This is Alan with his BFF Cade.We ended the party with a little cake and ice cream. Although you can tell I made a two-face cake, chocolate on one side and fun fetti on the other.
That night Scott brought home a little McDonald's for dinner. It was Alan's first Happy Meal.

Just to Recap

2010-03-14T19:57:00.004-06:00

On Sunday 3/7 was Bryce's baby blessing
On Monday 3/8 was our 7 year wedding anniversary... how time does fly
On Tuesday 3/9 I made Alan's birthday cake and did a demonstration for Relief Society night

On Wednesday 3/10 Alan had his 4th Birthday and we had a very fun Batman party for him (I will post more about that later)
On Thursday 3/11 I took all 4 kids to Alan and Bryce's well checks. Both boys are in the 90-95% for weight and 95+% for height. We were there for 2 hours and learned that Bryce has RSV. Thursday night was not fun.

On Friday 3/12 it seemed like all of the kids were destine to become sick

On Saturday 3/13 by mid-afternoon I had a very high fever, everything hurt, and I had to call my doctor after hours to see if he would call in a prescription for me because there was no way I would make it until Monday. He did.

I would just like to add a really BIG THANK YOU to Scott's Mom. Without her help I might not have survived.

Happy Birthday Alan Boy!!!

2010-03-10T16:32:00.008-07:00

Alan,

I am so grateful to get to celebrate this birthday with you. While driving home after taking you to school today I was completely over come by the memory of driving home on an October afternoon, having just left you in the PICU at Primary Children's. It was the first time I had been away from you since your accident and the damage to your liver still had to be closely monitored. I can still vividly remember the pain and fear I felt not knowing if I was going to see you have another birthday or grow up to be a daddy and a doctor or whatever you decide to be.
You are such an amazing little man. During these past four years since you have entered my life you never cease to surprise me with all you have learned and how you always seem to remember everything. Thank You for being a wonderful son, brother, and friend.
I am looking forward to our next year together and many many more after that!

Happy Birthday!!!

I LOVE YOU!!

Bryce's Blessing

2010-03-08T12:17:00.004-07:00

Bryce's was the first in a long line of baby blessings in our ward on Sunday. First of five actually. There is no shortage of young children in our ward (about 230 in primary) and it looks like Bryce will have plenty of friends to grow up with.Bryce decided to wear his "I Rock" onesie made for him by his Aunt Andrea under his blessing outfit.

He was such a good sweet boy for his blessing (the only baby who didn't cry).

We spent the rest of the day hanging out with family.

We also took a few pictures of the kids. This one is pretty probably the best we got. And we got quite a few that look like this:

But what more could you expect? It is really hard to sit next to your sister, look at your mother, and be happy all at the same time when you are 2 or 3.

Alan's First Jazz Game

2010-03-07T21:03:00.003-07:00

I cant believe Alan will be turning 4 this next week!! Well yes I can. I would believe it if you told me he was turning 5. As part of the celebration Scott took him to his first Jazz game on Saturday. As you can see he was very excited. When they got home a little after 9pm Alan had many fun stories to tell about the seats, chasing the jazz bear, eating ice cream, seeing a race car, and he has now decided that he wants to be a doctor, Daddy, basketball player when he grows up. He wanted to tell Logan all about it right away and was disappointed that he had to wait until morning, because Logan was asleep.

My Happy Little Boy

2010-03-07T20:36:00.005-07:00

If you have met Bryce you know that when it comes to babies he is about as happy and relaxed as they get. He seems to get more and more smiley everyday.

I know this picture is out of focus, but seriously look at that bright happy little face
!Oh and those big blue eyes...

and sweet cherub cheeks.

He just seems to fit right into our family. :) I was cleaning in the kitchen when Scott called my attention to the family room. We had left Bryce there laying on his pillow, so his brothers decided to grab a blanket and cuddle up to watch a movie. These 3 are so much fun and Alan and Logan are awesome big brothers.

Celebrating the End of February

2010-02-27T20:32:00.009-07:00

February has been a bit of a blah month. It has had its good moments, like Valentine's Day and seeing friends, but all in all it was a pretty blah month. So to celebrate it coming to an end and cheer us up I made cake for dinner. Well I actually made chicken enchiladas for dinner, but as soon as the kids ate their little enchiladas and pears they got to start in on their cake.

I know what you are thinking...what Laura took the time to take pictures of this cute, yummy, fluffy looking little cake? But there is more to this little cutie than meets the eye. First of all it is cherry almond flavor...one of my favs and second when you cut into it you are greeted by this:

I think it would be impossible not to smile while eating something so cheery looking. I first came across the cake at The Idea Room and was bummed that I didn't have any reason to make it. So I just made it anyway.

I also finally got Bryce's name up on his wall.

And we took a family picture. We will still be wanting to get a nice one in a few months (and hopefully Emma will be a little less excited by then), but this will do for now. At least we are all in it and mostly looking at the camera.

Well here's look forward to March. It will be filled with Bryce's Blessing, Alan's Birthday, Our Anniversary, Jazz games, yard work, crafts and hopefully SPRING!

Look What I Did Today

2010-02-26T19:11:00.006-07:00

Lately I have been feeling like our home is a little barren. When we first moved in I really enjoyed the lack of stuff everywhere, especially after years of tiny, tight, crowded apartments, but now I am over it and I want our home to have a more cozy feel. I have decided it will take years to accumulate the furniture and accessories needed to properly fill this home. Anyway, today I made this to help fill the emptiness:It is a wreath made out of pages from a book. Originally I was going to hang it over the door to our pantry in the kitchen, but it turned out a little bigger than I thought it would. I love it (it looks even better in person) and Scott thinks it looks like I hung trash on our wall. So what do you think? No worries I won't cry if you think it is ugly or weird and it won't change my love for its awesomeness. I am still undecided on its location. I think that is one of the hardest things about our new home, I never know where to hang stuff.

Here are a few more shots to help you decide. The chair is not usually there, but Logan wanted to be on it since he helped me hang all the stuff up. I really wish I had some kind of black entry bench or table there, but it will all have to be one step at a time.

What a cute little helper

2010-02-26T13:29:00.007-07:00

Just now I was sitting in the family room feeding Bryce, when I looked over into the kitchen and there was Logan standing on his chair with it pushed up to the sink. So I ask "Buddy what are you doing?" Then Logan called back "I'm doing the dishes, " in his cute baby voice. Sadly I had to tell him to get down, after all when you are two doing the dishes by yourself just makes a big mess. I did make sure to thank him for trying to help. Logan really has embraced being a big boy. He is always insisting that he can doing things himself or "me do it" as he likes to say. He likes to brush his own teeth, get himself dressed, put on his own shoes, buckle his carseat and he has even insisted on trying to change his own diaper (that one proved more difficult than he thought and he finally agreed to let me do it.)

We have started potty training a little, but I am kinda busy so really I just introduced the idea and I am going to wait until he decides to do it himself. That approach work well with Alan and it seems a lot easier for me.

Logan also really likes to help. It is funny because Emma and Alan have never really showed much interest in helping me pick up messes, or do the laundry, or get me things, but Logan is alway right there willing to keep picking up until the mess is gone.

Not that Logan is a prefect angel child all the time. He is plenty crazy and wild, usually jumping off, over, or on things and he throws a really good fit when thing aren't going his way. But he is a fun blend of sweet and sour if you know what I mean.

He has his sword down the back of his shirt so he could be a Samurai.

In Case You Didn't Know

2010-02-24T20:28:00.004-07:00

having four kids is a lot of work!!! Man I feel like everyday from the moment I get up (at about 6:30) until the moment I go to bed (that time depends on Bryce) I am just constantly doing. Doing something... and yet I never get it all done. (not even close) And I am going to admit that not being able to just get things done (especially crafty things) is really hard for me. BUT I wouldn't change it for anything. I just wanted to admit to the world that four little kids is hard.

And now just for fun here are some pictures of Bryce since that seems to be the new theme of our blog. I can't help it he is just so cute.

6 weeks old

7 weeks old

Happily hanging with his big bro - 8 weeks old

In the past few weeks Bryce had few new firsts:
2/12 He used is bumbo for the first time.
2/20 He got his first hair cut
He now loves to "watch TV" and look at the ceiling fan (not moving)
He talks to us and makes big happy faces when we talk to him.
He has eliminated his 2 am feeding and usually sleeps from 10:30/11pm until about 6 am, although some nights he insists on sleeping in bed cuddled up next to me instead of his bassinet.

Bryce's First Day at Church

2010-02-07T20:37:00.005-07:00

Although I had been told to keep Bryce out of the public eye until March, this morning I decided that today Bryce and I were going to go to church. It was so nice to be back in church and Bryce was such a good boy. He almost made it the whole 3 hours, but with about 20 minutes left he woke up, pooped, and wanted to eat, so I decided it would probably be easier to just take him home. By the time we walked all the way home (we live across the street from the church) Bryce was all smiles so I just had to snap a few pictures. I didn't get any good pictures of his cute smile, but these are still cute. Can you believe he will be 6 weeks on Tuesday.

On a side note Bryce looks so much like Alan did. What do you think? Here is a picture of Alan on Easter morning 2006, almost 6 weeks old.

I love saving money

2010-02-07T19:44:00.001-07:00

You are looking at about $180 worth of groceries... but I paid about $70 for them. According to my receipt I saved 62%. It was my first time saving that much. Now I know there are plenty of you who have saved even more and save 60% all the time. But this was a first for me (it was very exciting) and I hope to do even better it the future.

4 Kids

2010-02-03T09:39:00.006-07:00

I feel like there really hasn't been much to post lately. We have settled into a nice routine here at home. There is nothing really new or exciting, but it is nice. On Sunday I decided to once again attempt to get a picture that had all 4 kids in it. This is much easier said than done. Logan was really not interested in sitting anywhere near the other kids. So this is the best shot we got.

Gotta Love a Newborn

2010-01-18T13:47:00.003-07:00

Almost Made Me Cry

2010-01-13T13:47:00.005-07:00

So today at about 7:40 I went up stairs to wake Emma up for School (not normal, she usually wakes me up at 7). She came down stairs and threw up. That is kinda a good description for how my day has been.

Anyway, as a Mother of 4 little ones it is hard to find time for myself. At about noon, I had barely gotten back from picking Alan up from school, had just finished completely changing Bryce again, had 4 hungry kids and really needed to go to the bathroom. So I sent the kids downstairs and put the crying baby in his bassinet so I could have a moment to myself. I was hurrying in the bathroom because I could hear my crying baby in the other room. Then I heard him stop crying.

When I came out of the bathroom I discovered that Logan had come back up stairs, gotten Bryce's toy monkey and binkie, and was helping Bryce suck on his binkie while "entertaining" him with his monkey. Seeing that little boy gently taking care of "his baby" was seriously one of the sweetest moments I have ever had as a mother. I have been so impressed with Logan's adjustment to there being a new baby in the house. He still has his two year old moments, but I have not seen one hint of jealousy and he is always so soft and gentle when it comes to his baby brother.

2 Weeks already

2010-01-12T14:26:00.008-07:00

Baby Bryce is 2 weeks old today. Can you believe it. It sounds like such a short time and yet he fits in so perfectly that it seems like he has always been with us.

Our sweet little man went in for his 2 week check up today and we are pleased find that is now weighs 9 lbs 7 oz (90%) and is 22.75 inches (95%+). What a big boy. He is already growing out of his newborn size clothes and I am guessing he only has about 2 more weeks until he grows out of his 0-3 months stuff. He is already too tall to properly swaddle in normal sized receiving blankets. His poor little feet always hang out the bottom.

Answers to name that baby

2010-01-07T12:50:00.002-07:00

Congrats to their Grandma Hilton and Great Aunt Becky for getting it right. I would also like to point out that their Daddy also easily got them all right. So here are the correct answers Baby A is Logan, Baby B is Emma (who was also the biggest and her poor little face is all swollen and bruised in that picture. I had kinda forgotten about that until looking back at the pictures), Baby C is Bryce, and Baby D is Alan (who is also the only one of my babies who didn't have a stork bite.)