July: 4th of July, Hawkins Reunion, Staying at Kellie's House

We have been making the trip to Tooele for the 4th of July Parade for several years and it is so nice to be just a few minutes away from Great-Grandpa Liddell's house, which is right on the parade route. The cousins are starting to 

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My wonderful aunts (mom's sisters) put together the Ormas and June Hawkins Reunion in Salt Lake.

Carol, Colleen, Kathy, Pat and Val put together a wonderful carnival for the kids where they could earn tickets to buy prizes.  The kids loved it and came home with many treasures.

Visiting with cousins...

Kids just always seem to gravitate towards James.

For the adults, they had baby pictures of Grandma and Grandpa as well as all of my mom's siblings and we had to guess who was who. Then we played Family Reunion Bingo and learned many fun details about our grandparents, aunts and uncles.

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Kimber, Nathan and Hyrum spent 9 days with Hailey and Madelyn at the Boyd house in Lehi while Kellie and Shawn were child free in D.C. We decided to stay with them for a few days of cousin (and sister) time together.

The kids all played very well together, having lunch breaks together, movie time together, bedtime routine together and occasionally, arguments together. It was good to see the kids all play and live together, learning to compromise according to the varied personalities. I hope that they will always remember their cousin time and continue to be friends as they grow older.

The long dining table became the frame for their fort.

Movie Time

We spent one of the days at the Museum of Natural Curiosity at Thanksgiving Point. 

Max and Zane have been there before but really enjoyed spending the day with their cousins who were experiencing it for the first time.

~ Zane and Hailey ~
How cute are they?!?

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Summer water fun, Friday nights with Grandpa Keith and a visit from cousin Madeline.

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Climbing in the garbage truck at the Library

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Max bears his testimony nearly every month.

This time he decided to write it down before he stood up.

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Kellie wanted me to "teach" her how to yard sale. So I taught her how and where to find sales and then several times over the summer we spent mornings visiting yard sales around Lehi. We found many things to help Kellie out with her empty house and many fun decorative and useful items. We also discovered that Facebook has local area online yard sale groups and that opened up another way to purchase used things at a great price. 

One of my favorite finds of our yard sale summer was this island for the kitchen. We found it on the Lehi Yard Sale for only $50 and I was so excited to snatch it up. Kellie was great to lend me her big truck so I could get it home. It makes my huge kitchen feel so much more usable and cozy. 

June: Last Day of School, Boyds are Back and Princess Academy

Max's Last Day of 1st Grade!



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The Boyd's arrived home from Africa for summer vacation. Kate had a banner hung and picked them up from the airport. I stayed with all of the kids at Kellie's house to welcome them home.

The cousins had a great time playing together and we ended up staying for three 3 days
instead of overnight as we planned.

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After a long drive from Rexburg Kimber and Erika enjoyed the waterfall and the beautiful day with Max and Zane.

Several of the sisters, sister-in-laws, cousins and nieces gathered together for the BYU production of Princess Academy. We were able to get a group photo while waiting for the fire department to declare the building safe. Evidently, the fog machines got a bit out of hand which caused the fire alarm to go off which required an evacuation of the building.

Cami, Maya, Emma, Samantha, Lucia, Erika, Jessica, Kara, Kate, Kellie, Mom, Kimber
Becky, Kylie, Hailey, Andie

After enjoying a great production we headed back to Kellie's house, where we stayed up til 3am playing 7 Wonders. Something happens when we get together and we forget that we are not youngsters anymore.  Church at 9am reminded us rather quickly.

Meanwhile the boys had a great boys weekend with their Dad.

Hiking was one of the favorite activities of the weekend.

Funny Things Said at the Hill Home in 2015

Zane

Spiderman fell on his bum and penis on the ice and he hurt his bum and penis. And now he can’t pee or poop for a week!

BobbyJo is an imaginary friend around our house. Zane told me that "BobbyJo is a storyteller and he lives in my toes."

Zane has a very particular kiss routine which consists of kissing both eyes, nose, mouth and both ears. One night when I kissed him on the head and cheek he told me that I kissed him in the wrong place. After kissing him Zane always gives us the kisses back so we can keep them safe. Apparently kisses are stored in the nose.

One night talking about babies Zane said, " Mom has the babies because she has the right kind of penis."

"Boys and girls have more fun than God."

While watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Mickey asks if they want to come into the clubhouse. Zane said to Mickey, "No, I can't get inside the TV. I will break the glass."

While at their cousins' house Max and Zane were introduced to the game Life. Now they love to play it at home and Zane is always very anxious, wondering when he will finally get married. One day while playing he said he wanted to buy the biggest house so it would fit all the kids he was going to have.

James sat down on the coach with the Book of Mormon waiting for the boys to finish brushing their teeth. It was raining and I started singing "It's raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring. " Zane said, "No, the old man is reading scriptures."

I said to Zane, "should we have chocolate muffins for lunch? He gave me a huge hug and said, "Mom, you are a genius!"

Max

In the Sunday morning prayer before church Max prayed, "please bless the sacrament to be good."

"Can we have breakfast and start school? I am hungry and learny."

Max pointed to his chest and said, "I have a love tank. My food tank connects to my bum. My drink tank connects to my penis. My love stays!"

Max (8/2012)
While hiking around Silver Lake Max stopped and said, "Mosquitoes will get you so...NEVER DO ANYTHING!" So stinking cute. This has become a regular saying in our house; for anything bad that "might" happen we say, "NEVER DO ANYTHING."

Max started using a 1-2-3 system to rate how he felt about things. One day when we asked him how much fun he had, 1, 2 or 3. He said 5, then when asked how tired he was, he said 10!

While walking somewhere, holding my hand, Max said, "Stay with me and do what I say or you could get lost and then I wouldn't have a mommy and that would make me sad."

Max sweet talked me into tears when he said, "You are beautiful. You have a beautiful voice when you sing songs and tell stories and talk to me. It goes to my heart and makes me love you."

After a particularly tense day with Max, he came to me with his most loved stuffed puppy and said, "Scruffy is a most beautiful pup in the world. Sometimes he is naughty but you love him even when he is naughty. I'm going to bed now."

After waking up from a bad dream, Max told us that his puppy tried to kill him and then asked, "Where will sleep when we die and go to heaven?"

While putting Max to bed he said to me, "Help me be to sleep and not be cold." I asked, "Are you cold?" He said, "No, Lonely. You keep me warm."

"Mom, Jesus was bath-tized."

Mom, You have two giant nipples. It's like a sack of potatoes."

James

When Grandma Fullmer came home from her mission for a few days James jokingly told the boys that "Grandma is taking an intermission."


Maury
Uncle Maury came into town and stayed with us. At bedtime the boys begged him to read them a story, which to their excitement, he did, After finishing the story and sending them off to bed, I thanked him for humoring them. To which Maury replied, "Reading them a story was the most important thing I did all day."

May: 40!, Memorial Day, Max's Recital and More

I am 40!
Several days before my birthday James started the boys on "secret boy-only missions."
They had so much fun and were so good at keeping their secrets.

I was showering the morning of my birthday and could hear the boys whispering outside the door. When I opened the door they grinned and kind of sidled quickly out of the room. I asked them where they were going but they just grinned and ran downstairs. I heard them tell James, "Mom is out of the shower now." Then they come back to the stairs and Max asked, "Mom, when do you think you will be coming downstairs?" I said, "right now," and they both ran yelling to James that I was coming down. They were so sneaky and patient and cute!

They had each made a card for me and gave them to me first.

As always there was carrot cake. But usually it is just a slice and this time it was a whole cake!

Plus Cold Stone. Yummy!

Then the presents...

A month or so ago Max and I were laying on my floor and he was looking at at my bookshelf. He pointed out, "Wow, Mom, you have a lot of books by Nora Roberts. You must really like her." So when James took them shopping in the book section Max saw her newest book on the shelf and wanted to get it. I had had the book on hold at the library for several months and when it came available I picked it up to read. When James saw me reading it he told me about Max picked out the book for my gift.

Later that day Max was sitting on my lap while I was reading it and asked so sweetly and sneakily; "So Mom, how do you like the book you are reading?" I made a really big deal out of how much I was liking the book but that I wasn't going to be able to finish it before I had to return it to the library.
He got the biggest grin on his face and you could see him just about burst with the secret of it all. He finally said, "Don't worry Mom. It's okay if you don't finish it. Just wait until next week. Don't worry."

He was so excited when I finally opened the book!

I have been looking for interesting and unique frames to hand family pictures on the wall. Knowing this, James took Max and Zane to the frame section and let them each pick one out.

You can see their personalities shine through with Max's pick of the calm, solid frame and Zane's pick of the colorful, patterned frame.

They each also picked out a bracelet for me. Zane's pick was his current favorite color green and Max's (as he told me repeatedly) is to replace the brown one they broke almost a year ago.

 It was a wonderful birthday with my three boys!

Birthday gifts from Kimber...

~ Yummy cupcake (not pictured, I ate it too quickly)
~ A super soft blanket in my favorite color
~ Eucalyptus Mineral Bath Soak
~ A pretty silver necklace


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We spent Memorial Day with Grandpa Keith, Grandpa Liddell and the Andersons.

We took flowers to the family graves.

We enjoyed listening to Grandpa Liddell tell family stories.

Afterwards we went to the park and enjoyed time playing with the cousins.

Max and Zane has so much fun playing baseball with their cousins.



Before they headed home the Andersons came over to play for bit.

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Max's Recital

For his Let's Play Music third year recital Max composed his own piece of music. His teacher, Tiffany, took his written notes and put them into a computer program that printed out his musical composition, titled, "Puppies Are Fun." It wasn't required but he even wrote words to go with it.

He practiced and practiced for weeks until he had it memorized. He was the first one to perform and he was a bit too far away from the piano which made it difficult. But he played it beautifully.



James, Zane, Grandpa Keith and I attended.

Mrs. Tiffany (Parkin) has been a wonderful teacher and I have been amazed at all he has learned in his three years with her.



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On Tuesday mornings I take Zane to the community preschool.
During the stories and activities he always wants to sit on my lap rather than on the mat with the other kids.

His favorite part is the craft. He will spend an hour just working on his project; cutting, pasting, drawing, and creating. He is so imaginative and although he will start his project exactly like the teachers; he always takes off creating his own thing. It is fun quality time for Zane and I.

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This crafternoon Aunt Carol, Colleen and Kathy brought things for the kids to make for Mother's Day and Father's Day. Pots for pens and keychains for the dads and vases with flowers for the Moms.
They are so wonderful to plan and provide fun activities for the kids.

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We are getting to know more of our neighbors and having fun playing at their houses.

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At his well child checkup last week the pediatrician showed us that Zane is off the chart tall for his age. We have probably kept him in a toddler car seat longer than necessary. He was super excited for his big boy booster!

April: Fence and Aviary

Zane showing off his Ninja moves.

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Another fun visit to the Curiosity Museum.

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We have wanted to put in a fence ever since we moved into this home. And so we were very excited to arrive home from vacation in Oregan and have a new fence to keep our backyard private.

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We attended the ALPS field trip to the Tracy Aviary.

Max really wanted a picture with his ALPS teacher Mrs. Davies.

Max presented his project on rockets during ALPS class.
He researched; reading books about space and rockets, drew many pictures of planets, rockets, and space and included the information from his research.

Zane's 4th Birthday

Zane started the morning opening his two Paw Patrol toys from Max. A month ago he picked out two of the toys for Max's birthday and told me which ones he wanted for his birthday and has been waiting very patiently for them. After opening them the boys ran off to play with their toys together.

It was a superhero birthday that started with cupcakes topped with superheros and villains. When Zane saw them his face lit up and he couldn't wait to pull them off of the cupcakes and lick the icing off. It continued with gifts including Punching Spiderman, Superhero Wall Stickers, a gigantic Spiderman wall sticker and a collection of superhero and villain toys.

Grandpa Keith added to the party fun with a Paw Patrol Pad for Zane. It was a great gift and the fun quickly turned into ridiculous silliness when the boys discovered it also spoke French, which they found hilarious.

Grandpa Keith also brought party hats and he and the boys entertained themselves with them.