Turned 4, Can't Wait to be 5...

This cute guy is 4-years-old now! Unfortunately on his birthday, Grandma Hill told him, "Now that you are 4, next year you will be 5 and can go to Kindergarten!" Since she said that, he tells everyone he is almost 5. Maybe Christmas will distract him from this obsession...

We love our Nelson-boy! He has always been a joy to us! Although this year he has worried me more than other years, it's mostly because he is so much like his Mom. Oh the joys and sorrows of having a child that is just like you.

Nelson still LOVES his friends! This year for his birthday, he had a friend party. The theme, of course, was Cars 2. Nothing but Cars 2 would make him happy. So, we watched the movie, ate popcorn and pizza, and had a Cars 2 pinata. I'm glad Richard was around because two of us were needed for the seven (almost) 4-year-olds. He had a blast and that is the important thing!

18-Month-Old Cutie!

This little guy started nursery at church today! You know what that means? He is now officially 18-months-old! The last time I wrote about him was at his first birthday. Boy has this boy changed! Well, he's still adventurous and likes to get into trouble, but he's a lot better at it these days. Seriously, he thinks he's at least as old as his big brother!
Clive loves to talk and sing! He has a large vocabulary so large I can't even start to type out the words he says/has said. He loves "binky" and "blanky". He calls his brother "Nelsy" and loves to say "Grandpa" which, of course, makes my Dad feel so happy. He repeats words that you say often especially if it is said loudly. His favorite songs to sing are "ABC's", "Clean-Up song" and "Robot Parade". He was just singing the last song to me a few minutes ago. He hums and sings jibberish all the time, too.
We just love this little boy (who's not a baby anymore)! And, Richard and I love that he will be occupied for the majority of church now!

Halloween 2011 - Wild West

This year's Halloween theme was the Wild West. Boy, did we have fun! Richard always gets all of the details (including music and check out his bank) right. Here are the pictures:

Fuzzy picture, I know. We didn't have much time between Trick-or-treaters to take pics.

Inside the house. The kids would spin the wheel and the banker would give them their prize at the bank.

The bank robber holding the horse with Woody in front.

The banker with Woody and horse.

The best part! Woody & Horse!

Seven Years Ago

Seven years ago I was in Iasi, Romania working in an orphanage for children with disabilities. I had worked at the same orphanage four years earlier and then served a mission in Romania and Moldova. This time I went back as the facilitator for the group. There were eleven other girls that came over with me. These girls are some of the best of the best and will always be a huge part of my life. Think about it, anyone who wants to spend four months of their college years in an orphanage in a poor country has to be pretty special, right? Erin, Amy, Rhyll, Katie Rose, Kathleen, Emily, Eliza, Amanda, Christy, Sheena and Jenn will always have a huge place in my heart! Can I tell you again how amazing they are? We had such a great time! Yes, there were hard times and some sad times and some "girl" times and even some "is this reality?" times, but, overall, we made the most of our time over there. Besides working in the orphanage, we also worked with gypsy kids and some children in a hospital. In our free time, we toured all over Romania and even spent a week in Budapest, Hungary. We went to concerts, watched movies with subtitles, helped out with the Branch in the city and explored. One weekend we went to a small gypsy village and helped build a fence. We spent Thanksgiving there, so we did our best to throw a grand Thanksgiving feast! The day before Thanksgiving someone we worked with found out that we didn't have a turkey, so he had a friend from the village bring one for us. I met him at the train station an hour later. The man apologized that he hadn't been able to clean it because he barely made the last train into the city. The bag was still warm, that's how "fresh" it was. When I got back to our apartment, I realized how un-clean it was. I spent the next couple of hours de-feathering and de-organing it. In the end, the turkey didn't even taste that great, but at least we had a turkey! I have so many stories that I could tell. These girls and times really influenced my life...

One girl had a serious boyfriend at home, we knew they would get married. One girl had a missionary, we all figured they would get married (and they did)! One girl tried to set the girl with a missionary up with one of her good friends, in the end the original girl and her "good" friend got married. One girl was in love with a friend on a mission, but he didn't know how she felt about him. We joked around with her that she would marry that boy (even writing fake love notes from him to her). Eliza and Chuck did end up getting married! Now seven years married nine of us are married. Some have children, some live in Utah, some have a lot of education under the belt, some have traveled more, some have great careers, and I'm 100% sure that all of them are doing amazing things! Even though we are all at different places in our lives, I know these girls and the incredible hearts and souls that each of them have.

Around Halloween and Thanksgiving time, I always think back on this time in my life and am thankful for these experiences. I was prompted, though, to write this (after a huge blog break) after crying most of the day. My dear Eliza (who married her missionary friend) lost a sweet daughter last night. I remember her joking around about having twin girls, and then she did 15 months ago. Lucy and Hazel were born just two months after Clive. In the womb, they knew Lucy had a heart defect. Eliza was nervous to even give birth because she did not know what to expect. Lucy was a trooper and survived surgery after surgery. Eliza posted pictures on facebook of Lucy smiling in the hospital with all the tubes going through her. She looked so happy even though her little life had been hard. Yesterday morning she posted, "Day 11 on the vent. Day 3 with high fever. Recovering from rhinovirus and cellulitis and probably has a line infection. Boo." In the afternoon she posted that her fever was up to 106. Last night sometime she posted, "Our beautiful little girl passed away this evening. We love you Lulu." I love you, Eliza! I know seven years ago when we were planning your wedding to your missionary friend, we would have never guessed you would lose a child. My heart mourns with yours. And, I KNOW that when the other ten girls find out, they will mourn with you as well.

Because of this loss, I have a better determination to take pictures and document my boys' lives. Life is so precious.

One Cute 1-Year-Old!

My baby turned one-year-old today! How did that happen? The year seemed to fly by, but it really has been one great year! He started out in a hurry (coming a month early) but then chilled when he got here. He was so mellow and relaxed (like his Dad) as an infant. Once he learned how to crawl, he became, well, like me - running a million miles a minute. He is usually getting into things he shouldn't be getting into or making messes or tackling his brother to the ground. I have to monitor him around his little friends because he tries to tackle them or pull the flowers out of their hair! For the most part, though, he is such a happy baby! We all can't get enough of him and just love him to pieces! Happy Birthday, little guy!

May 5: coming home from the hospital

First day going to church!

Blessing day!

First train ride!

Four months old: Disneyland!

Giving big brother kisses!

Smiling for family pictures.

Looking studly with his church suit with his brother.

First Halloween!

M&M World in Vegas.

ShamROCK 2011 with little girlfriend, Millie.

Attacking his big brother!

Visiting G&G Hill in Oregon.

Our little "Bug" riding a bug the day before his 1st birthday!

Nor Cal

The last leg of our trip was to northern California (aka "the place where Richard and I met"). Although a lot of our good friends don't live there anymore, we were able to see a few (Amanda, Cory, Christine & Heather)! We were able to eat and shop at our favorite places and go to the Farmers' Market in downtown of our beloved Chico! But, most importantly we were able to see some of our favorite people in the whole world - my sister, Lora, and her family!

This is the only picture I got of the boys with "the girls". Even though Clive was sad at that moment, they loved playing with Macy and Elle!

We played a lot of Xbox Kinect! Look at our mad skills:

After a couple of days in Chico, we spent our last day in Sacramento. We met our friends, the Jenkins, at the train museum in Old Sacramento. The Jenkins' moved away from our neighborhood last October, so it was so great to see them. The kids loved the train museum as well!

After lunch, we stopped by one of Richard's school buddy's house and had a good visit with them. Then, off we went for an evening of fun with Richard's two my favorite roommates! Jared and Shane were Richard's groomsmen and will probably always be two of Richard's favorite friends. They just "get" each other and can talk for hours about everything nerdy you can imagine. I'm so glad Shane is married now, so I hang out with Emilee! We stayed up way too late (11:30) and got up way too early (3:30), but it was worth it!

We got home exhausted, dirty and numb from all the traveling; but we are and will be forever grateful for such an amazing trip to see such important people in our lives!

New Portland Pictures

Good thing I became a slacker and didn't finish the last post of our trip because my sister-in-law sent some picture to me of our time with them in Portland! She has an amazing talent and I always feel lucky when she takes pictures of us. Thank you, Kalista!

Portland

So, I seem to only have time to cover one city a day while Clive takes his afternoon nap. Eventually, I will document our trip!

Our whole trip was centered around visiting my parents on their mission in Portland. We left Seattle and drove the short drive to Portland Saturday morning. We got to my parents' place just before afternoon session of General Conference. We had a nice and relaxing Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday evening we drove to the small town of Vernonia where my parents do missionary work when they aren't in the mission office. It was a beautiful town and we got to meet the newest converts!

On Sunday, in between sessions, my brother James (who was also visiting my parents from Maryland with his family) blessed his baby girl, Torrah Marie.

The next day our little family went into Portland (my parents actually live in Hillsboro just outside of Portland) to go see the Portland tabernacle (it's referred to as a tabernacle by some and just a cool, old building by others). This was Richard's one request for the trip. For those of you who don't know, Richard loves tabernacles. He actually has written a lot about them on Wikipedia. So, my parents got us the keys so we could see the inside as well as the outside. Richard was in heaven! Look for yourself, it is a beautiful building:

The next day was Oregon Coast day. It was beautiful, but, unfortunately, it was freezing, so the first part of the day was spent like this:
Then, it got a little warmer, so we (ok, I, everyone else got out at the other stops) decided to face the cold and enjoy the beach.

My parents specifically wanted to stop at this little railroad station for Nelson. He loved it, of course. Clive and Addi (my niece) did, too!

Our last stop was the Tillamook cheese factory. The "tour" was a little disappointing, but the ice cream at the end wasn't. Here's Clive and Addi looking down at the huge blocks of cheese!
This stop also seemed too short, but I am so thankful that we got to go see my parents! They left on their mission when Clive was six weeks old, so it's been way too long since we've seen them. It was fabulous to spend time with them and my brother & his family!

Seattle!

At the end of March, we headed off on a twelve day vacation to the Pacific Northwest! After driving all day to get to Seattle (with a stop in Boise for lunch at a friend's house - thanks, Jess!), we were happy to arrive at Richard's sister's house. They were such good hosts and were great to us.

The first full day there, we had a "kids day". We hit up the children's museum by the Space Needle, rode the monorail (aka train), walked around Pike's Place, and I snuck in some time at H&M. Unfortunately, we didn't check our camera before we left that morning, so we don't have any pictures of that day.

The second day Anne and her family watched the kids, so Richard and I could have a date. Anne had made reservations for us to have lunch on top of the Space Needle. It was beautiful even though the view looked like this:

After the Space Needle, we just walked in the rain downtown Seattle and then visited his niece who has an apartment not far away from the Space Needle.

Our time in Seattle was way too short (three nights, two days), but we needed to get to our next destination on our PNW Tour!

Better Late Than Never...

ShamROCK 2011 came and passed quickly. That doesn't mean we didn't have lots of fun. Here's the proof:

Clive "getting" Nelson!

DJ Clive rocking out with his friend, Millie.

Nelson and his friends getting ready to "rock it"!

ShamROCK 2011

I saw this shirt at the Children's Place last June and knew that my boys had to have them! They will both be sporting these shirts to the party!

I really like that when I start to type in the title, I only get to "Sha" and blogger knows that I am typing "ShamROCK"! I hope all of you, my blog friends, knew that this post was coming, too! It is getting to be mid-March and time for our annual St. Patty's karaoke party.

So, here are the details for this year:

When: Friday, March 18th

Time: 6:00 - 8:00

Where: Our House (of course!)

Who: If you're my friend and reading this, come and part-ay with us as we ShamROCK the night away (well, evening hours before the kids need to go to bed - we are on a schedule here).

Dress: As always, costumes are recommended but not mandatory!

The V-Day Presents

So, Valentine's Day has come and gone (like over a week ago), and I finally got around to taking pictures of our homemade gifts.

Richard has been talking about trying out the Mediterranean diet for awhile, so I got him supplies to start that. I got him a book/cookbook specifically for the Mediterranean diet, some supplies, food and made him this:

My version of a crafty menu board!

Richard, well, he always does something on the computer. This year he put his nerdiness to good use, if I do say so myself. He made me a new karaoke dvd with some of my favorite songs past and present. I love it! Nelson loves it, too. We karaoke every night before breathing treatment, per Nelson's request! The last song on the dvd is Nelson's favorite song, so it is sung the most.

I had to take a picture of each screen of the dvd because I thought it was cute how Richard titled everything! Love it!