Happy Birthday Scott!!!

It was Scott's birthday on Monday and we had a lot of fun. The celebrating started on Saturday with dinner, Vla (a super good dutch pudding like dessert), and presents at Scott's parent's house. Then for his birthday we had had a yummy breakfast. Later that day we went down to BYU. It was fun to go back down to BYU before we are all done. First we hit the bowling alley for the first and last time

during out married college years. The kids had a lot of fun, except Logan who had a lot of fun mixed with spurts of a lot of not fun. At first I thought having the bumper in our gutters would help us bowl our best games ever, but that was not the case.

It is really hard to get the last little pin on the side with the bumpers there. Emma actually did really well and gave Scott a run for his money until her last frame. After bowling we walked around BYU a little and then over to BYU Art Museum. There were a few really cool exhibits there right now, my favorite was

the Walter Wick exhibit (he is the author and photographer for the I Spy books).

His art is very magical, like a child's dream world. To finish the evening we had dinner at the Creamery on 9th. It was such a fun evening, we totally wore the kids out. Poor Alan fell asleep with his ice cream cone in hand.

Emma helped Grandpa prune the nectarine tree and Logan played with the sticks

Scott playing a little nectarine ball with the boys

Logan would not stop picking up the bowling balls, we are just lucky he never dropped one on any one's foot.

Emma the expert bowler

Daddy helping Alan do cool bowling tricks

Daddy and his babies hanging out at BYU


We are so glad we got to spend this fun day with Scott and we are thankful that we have been able to spend another year with our Daddy/husband. Most of all we look forward to many many many years to come. Just for fun I put together this little slide show of Scott the early years.

Growing Before My Very Eyes

Oh man I can't believe my sweet baby girl is 5 now. Emma and I went to Kindergarten orientation at her soon to be new school today. I didn't realize until she was walking away from me up to the front of the room with her fellow classmates how emotional this was all going to be for me. Emma had no fear. She was excited as she left the seat next to me joined her classmates. And then she didn't even look back as she walked out of the room to go explore her future world of desks and chalkboards. I on the other hand was left sitting there watching my baby leave me into the unknown. Over and over again I had to hold back the tears as I thought about my sweet princess. Between her birthday and orientation I have been reflecting a lot on my little girl.

Emma was born Easter morning at 8:02 am. She was a very healthy 9lbs 2oz.

My life changed so much that day. As Emma has grown I have grown. I have learned so much from her and I am sure she will continue to teach me. Emma is the most loving person I have ever met and it is her love that has helped me to be a better mother and person.

Over the past 5 years we have had many firsts together and I am sure we will have many more. I love you my Sweet Sweet Princess Emma Girl!

Emma's 5th Birthday

We had a lot of fun for Emma's birthday this year. The birthday fun started on Friday. I made these cute little ice cream cone cupcakes for her preschool class. Friday was also the Easter party at preschool, so it was a fun fun party day at school.
Right after school Alan and I picked Emma up and took her to the Hannah Montana Movie. Emma and Alan had both been talking about seeing it for months and they were very very excited and other than the 3 trips to the potty during the movie we enjoyed it.
This morning we went to Kangaroo Zoo. It was nice to have Scott there to help keep an eye on everyone. When we got home we put Logan down for a nap and then decorated Easter eggs. Emma really liked dipping the eggs in the dye and Alan just liked to tell Scott what to draw on the eggs. After eggs and once Logan was awake again we opened presents. Emma got a Sleeping Beauty dress, tiara, and shoes; along with sparkle chap stick, a snow glob, game, and Cinderella.
This evening we had dinner at Chuck E Cheese. Chuck E Cheese is a new favorite at our house, apparently. Emma wore her new princess shoes and tiara to dinner.
Then we ended the night with cake and ice cream. Emma wanted a Sleeping Beauty cake this year. I had a lot of fun creating her cake for her. She was so excited when she came down stairs and saw it this morning.

On her way to preschool

Emma's Sleeping Beauty Cake. It really is cake in there and everything is edible, except the doll and the tiara.

Me and my big 5 year old at Kangaroo Zoo

Emma was doing a really cute princess song and dance when this picture was taken. I got the most amazing deal in that dress. It is $88 at the Disney store, but on Memorial day weekend it was on special for $44 and then I got 30% off of that and then got a additional 40% off due to reward points and I bought it online with free shipping. That made it basically $19.

Can you see a theme here?

Sleeping Beauty

Alan the story teller

Lately Alan has started requesting poems at bed time. So I cuddle up next to him and he gives me the topic for that night's poem. His favorite topics are dragons, monsters, and mice. The last few nights he has wanted poems about "everything in the whole world." I have been surprised at the quality for poem I have been able to come up with on the spot. Although I can't ever seem to remember them by the time I am done reading to Emma. Anyway, tonight after my poem about a volcano on a world that is green with orange inside Alan informed me that he had a story for me. It was cute. I had to hurry and write it down before I forgot. So here is Alan bed time story for me. He told it very slowly for effect.

In a green green world that had dragons. Once there was a boy named Super Alan. He lived in a different world with a mouse. He was a mean mean mouse and there was a lot of dark dark dark. Super Alan went across a river and attacked the mouse. The End

I am pretty sure that is almost exactly what he said. Thanks for the nice story Alan Boy. As I was leaving the room I heard Alan say to Logan. I have a story you to Baby Logi. What I nice brother.

A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That

I am not sure if you have noticed from my lack of blogging, but I have been in a bit of a funk lately. No real reason, it may just be end of school blues. That is right Scott has this week and then one more week of classes, then finals and that is it. We are done with law school!!! And then he just has to study all the time for the bar exam in July. WILL IT EVER END! I say that more from what I think Scott must feel like, but I in my small part feel it too.

Anyway so I know everyone out there is wondering "What have the Hiltons been up to these past however many days?" And this brings me to the title of this post... a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

Friday we went into the design center and approved the elevation for the front of our house and chose the colors. I LOVE IT!

So for now they are getting the permits and all that stuff and if all goes well we will be breaking ground mid-April.

Also on Friday Emma and Alan had there well child checkups. Emma is 40 lbs (50%) and 42.5" tall (60%). She also got all her shots for kindergarten and we got the immunization record so we are good to go. Alan boy's height and weight is still off the charts at 39 lbs (95%+) and 40" tall (95%+).

Saturday morning we had a ward primary activity. The kids all hunted for Easter candy and the had hot dogs. Fun was had by all. Somehow by the end of the day Scott and I were both getting a little cabin fevery so we loaded up the kids and had a picnic dinner at the "Castle Park." I don't know its real name, but the kids call it the castle park and if you are familiar with Pleasant Grove you know what one I am talking about. Despite loosing track of Alan several times (it is kinds hard to see everything at the castle park and

Alan gets very excited and likes to run) a great time was had by all. My mom called while I was in the volcano with Alan and in the amount of time it took me to answer it I had to say "Hey Mom I need to call you back, Alan slid out of the Volcano and now I can't find him." That goes on the list of thing I never would have expected to say before becoming a mother. Logan was such a cute big boy. He loved to climb all over the castle part and then slide down and say "Weeee." There is a lot more story about Logan, but that is for another day.

When we got home the kids when right to bed and then I passed out at like 8:30 and was totally out until about 8 the next morning. I never sleep like that, but I was so tired I couldn't help it.

Monday Emma started the reading program at her preschool. She brought home a book called Mat, which she was able to sound out the letters and read the first 3 pages to me. I was so surprised and amazed because a few months ago she couldn't even tell me the sounds most the letters made. She is doing so well in school. In other news she has also started regularly praying that our new house will be a puppy house, meaning a puppy can live there. It is really cute, and may be starting to wear me down a little. But I know that if we have a dog I will be the one taking care of it and I still feel like my 3 little monkey are enough I don't really want to throw a dog into the mix. We had a super fun FHE at the Mickelsons. Spence, Jannie, and fam are in town this week and wanted to see everyone so a lot of us got together and made pizza and hung out. It was kinda a spur of the moment kind thing. It was so fun and Emma and Alan loved playing with their cousins.
Emma and I have also been having a lot of fun trying new hair styles. Here are a few we did this past week that we just had to take a picture of. Although I think they looked a lot cuter in real life than they do in the pictures.



That is our little bit of this and that.

So Pretty

We went in on Saturday to the design center. It was so FUN and surprisingly easy. They schedule 8 hour appointments and it took us like 3 and a half hours. Sadly we still have to go back on Friday because they didn't have the custom elevation rendering ready for us to sign off on. That really is our own fault since we gave them changes the day before our appointment. So here is what we picked.This is it, this is my house in a nut shell. The paint and carpet samples look a little pinkier in the picture than they did in real life, but you get the idea. We are doing the dark wood cabinet color in the white cabinet's style. My kitchen island will be the white color with an ebony glaze (like in the cabinets) with bead board sides. The light colored granite will be on the kitchen counters and we picked stainless appliances. We are doing the dark wood laminate(it has our knobs and drawer pulls in it in the picture) on the kitchen and the dining nook floors. The large light tan tile will run on a diagonal from the entry all the way to the garage door. And the tile looking vinyl on the right will be in the upstairs bathrooms. And the pretty tile in the left corner will be around the fireplace. All the wood will be maple with a toffee stain and ebony glaze like the cabinets and all the metal finishes will rubbed bronze. and the dark granite next the the white marble will be in the master bath. And I picked out the cutest doors that have raised bead board panels.

This is what the bathroom fixtures will look like.

And this is the light that will be hanging in the entry way (except it will be in the rubbed bronze color)

So there you have it. I can't wait for it to be built so we can move in and start decorating. After living in rentals for the past 6 years it will be so nice to finally have a place of our own. Althought we know that building house can be a long and lame process so we are just praying that everything will go smoothly and we can move in before Emma starts school in the fall.

GrowingUp.com

I think it is totally cute that lately Alan has added .com to his vocabulary. Today he came up to me with something he made out of Mega Blocks and told me "This is my water machine 3000, you can find it at NickNack.com." I am not sure if that is how you spell NickNack.com, but you get the idea. He is such a creative kid.

Our First House!!!!!

Today we were told that all the papers have been approved, so I am super excited to announce that we are building our first house and we will be moving to Farmington in Aug-Sep. We will go into the design center tomorrow to finalize all the design stuff.

So this is a basic rendering of what the out side will look like. I love the two story craftsman look.

This is the floor plan, not showing the unfinished basement. It is not exact. We are changing a few things like making the dining room a study, 2 extra feet on the back of the house, the laundry room upstairs, moving the door from the garage over so you walk into the mud room, putting the bay in the nook, and a few other things, but you get the idea.

These pictures were taken in the model home. This is looking into the family room from the dining nook.
This is from the family room looking into the dining nook and the kitchen.

The hall looking into the kitchen and where the study will be. I love all the arches.

This is from the stairs looking into the living room. We are not doing a fireplace in the living room, but we are putting one in the family room. And you can't totally tell, but the entry is double height or what ever you call it.

This is looking into the master bed room. our house will not have a ceiling fan. But I love the arch dividing the main room from sitting area.

This is once again the master bedroom the small arch goes into the bathroom.

This is the master bath.

And last but not least a shot of the upstairs hall way. I am so happy that we will have 5 bedrooms on one level so that we can have our 8 kids and keep them all close.