I've been tagged!

Well, it's my turn...Bekah Byron tagged me! Here we go, I hope too many dark secrets don't come out he, he!



TEN YEARS AGO: I was 21 and living in Kansas City . MO and totally unaware that in just a year and a half I would re-connect with someone I knew in high school, get married and move to Utah. I was working two jobs and going to school full time, and dating someone who was TOTALLY wrong for me. I am just happy and grateful that I figured that one out! I spent this time with some amazing friends and had a blast soing fun things around Kansas City with them. I am so thankful to still be in touch with everyone!



5 PLACES I HAVE LIVED: Clinton, Mo...Springfield, MO...Kansas City, MO....Orem, UT but an interesting fact is that I lived in Orlando the Summer of 1995 selling t-shirts for a company called Sportswon when the Magic won the NBA Championship.



FIVE THINGS ON MY TO-DO LIST: 1. Go to Culinary School 2. Learn to sew (better) 3. Run a Marathon (St. George Oct. 2008) 4. Backpack Europe with my hubby 5. Have my adult children say that I was the best mother they could have ever wanted



FIVE THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT ME: 1. I'm an open book :) so this one may be a little more difficult to complete 2. I refuse to watch horror movies or go to haunted houses which is a curse because those are some of Justin's favorite things to do. believe me, I have TRIED to get over this one! 3. My adult siblings call me "Mindy Duck" because I spent so much time "quacking" as a child 4. When I first moved to UT 9 years ago I wrecked my own car twice in a year. The first time I backed into the neighbor's car and the second I backed into our other car! 5. I flunked out of college my first semester due to severe depression over the loss of my step-father...but I was able to sweet talk my way into a second chance!



FIVE JOBS THAT I HAVE HAD: 1. Worked as a "bagel" girl at Einstein's Bagels 2. Respite provider for parents who have children with disabilities (I LOVED this job) 3. I worked in a video store and tanning salon during high school 4. Waitress at ON THE BORDER mexican Grill in KC 5. Catering Coordinator for The American Resturaunt (Five star resturaunt) in KC



2 BAD HABITS: 1. Yelling at my children (something I am trying to rid myself of!) 2. Nail biting 3. Hostess Chocolate doughnuts 4. SHOPPING SHOPPING SHOPPING...those of you who know me well, know that if you are looking for ANYTHING I can certainly find it 5. I am obsessive compulsive about laundry and having a clean home. I know this annoys my family at times. When I get on a roll, I can stay up till 4 a.m. cleaning!

I tag Rebecca Walters and Amy Oscarson! You're IT!

Old People Snowboarding!

Justin and I went on a recent date snowboarding. We are feeling very old now! It was a total blast but we were so sore. The last time we went was about 5 years ago just after Isaac was born! it was a great day to appreciate this beautiful place we live. We are most grateful for our friend Rick who went along with us and gave us some much needed pointers.

GLASSES!

Here are a few photos of our little cutie and her new shades. She is recovering from her surgery well and regaining sight in her left eye. We continue to count our blessings that with modern medecine, there were options for her sight to be re-stored. Remarkably, she quite likes her glasses and doesn't seem to mind having them on. We will start the patching process next week to strengthen her left eye. Wish us luck with that! :)

Binge Blogger

Hello all! I have come to the realization that I am a binge blogger......but I promise there is more to come I PROMISE!

More Winter Fun!

Winter Fun!

We've had so much snow this year and with Abby being old enough to enjoy the snow as well, we have had a ton of opportunties to get out into the white stuff! Last Saturday we joined some friends for sledding, hot chocolate, hot tubbing & SMORES. It was a great Saturday of lots of fun stuff to do. Justin and I look forward to some skiing at Sundance before the end of the season. It has been nearly 4 years since we last hit the slopes! That's unbelievable to me considering they are 10 minutes away! We've either been pregnant, nursing a baby or have had a newborn. We're looking forward to getting out there again!

Holiday Family Photo

Christmas Eve

Playing Santa was especially fun for Justin and I this year. The children were sooooo excited for the big guy to come down the chimney. The kids had fun writing their letters to Santa (although Abby wrote most of hers on her tummy :), putting out cookies for Santa and reading "The Night Before Christmas". They enjoyed a fun Christmas Eve bath with their new bath toys and then snuggled into their new pjs.

Dogpile on DAD!

Everyone knows what a great dad Justin is, but here's MORE proof!

Gardener Villiage

After nearly 8 1/2 years of marriage we finally made it to a desired desination that has been on our list for sometime. Just outside of Salt Lake there is this little place called Gardner Villiage. It is filled with tons of quaint little shops and places to eat. During Christmas there are mischevious little elves scattered throughout the villiage so our little elves blended right in!

Christmas Cookies!

Our kiddos had a lot of fun making and decorating cookies for Santa!

Abby's Christmas Sucker

BUBBLE!

BIG HILL NEWS FLASH! Isaac finally (after years of practice) blew his first bubble!

Santa Fun!

Once again, we attended the annual Santa Helicopter Adventure where the big guy actually lands on the golf course via heli in front of the children. The kids had a blast with their friends!

Surgery Photos

Here are some photos of Tweeter and her surgery/post surgery days! We are so glad to put this behind us and that thing went well!

Surgery, what surgery?

This seems to be the idea of our amazing baby. She continues to improve as though nothing ever happend on Wednesday, or yeah...except for those annoying and painful drops every two hours! We visited once again with the surgeon Dr. Larsen yesterday at Primary Children's. He was "giddy" and excitable during our visit as he witnessed signs of restored vision (red eye) returning to her left eye already. Next visit with him will be on next Tuesday afternoon and then in 3 weeks for glasses. The lens they put in her eye has to be an adult capacity so she will have to grow into the lens and the glasses will compensate for now. We are so grateful for all of you. BTW~does anyone have any idea who is doing the 12 days of Christmas for us? It is driving us crazy to have these wonderful phantom gifts show up on our doorstep each evening!

Surgery was SUCCESSFUL!

Everything went so well yesterday, in fact, the surgeon said better than he had expected! Abby is now recovering at home and a little groggy but otherwise doing very well. We feel a dark cloud has been lifted from us. Dr. Larsen said it seemed that this is something that has happened spontaneous in the development of her eye and there were no evident signs of trauma. This is the best news because it means she has such a great chance to have her sight fully restored in that eye. We will be back at Primary Children's today for a follow up an then see Dr. Larsen next Tuesday. She will be fitted for glasses in about 4 weeks but should have some restored sight in as early as one week when the bandadges are removed. For now, we are driving her crazy with drops and creams in that eye every two hours. That is hard for us and especially for her right now but we know it is part of the healing process. We greatly appreciate all of the love, support and prayers everyone has sent our way as of late. I'll upload some photos soon!

Surgery Tomorrow

We just returned from a visit to the Pediatrician who gave us the "green light" for Abby's eye surgery tomorrow. We were a bit concerned because she has had a cold with a nasty cough. he did some tests and said her lungs, o2 saturation and everything else was great so we are going forward. Justin I will be much happier when it is over. I feel like a dark cloud has been following me around these past few weeks, not only because of the surgery, but just knowing she can't see right now kills us both. They will operate at the Moran Eye Center at Primary Children's Hospital. ironically, they are ranked as one of the top in the nation for this sort of thing. We feel so thankful to have such good medical care so close to home. She is scheduled to go into the OR around 8 a.m. tomorrow and will be in for about 4 hours. Please say a little or BIG prayer for our little Tweeter!

Something FUNNY!

I have had a series of unfortunate events as of late...One day this week my SUV slid down the drive way and into the middle of the street. Justin came home for lunch just a little after me and walked in the door confused as to why my car would be in the middle of the road...we had a good laugh about this and NOTE TO SELF: use the emergency brake! Thank goodness we now live in a cul de sac. Then, later that afternoon I got hit in the face with a flying hammer! The truth is I moved a ladder that had a hammer on top of it and it fell off and hit me! I am grateful there are no bruises to show my stupidity, but man what a headache! I decided that I had better stay home that evening. Then, Ethan decided to lock he and Abby in the downstairs bathroom. We were unable to get the door open for about 10 minutes. I could hear Abby playing in the toliet. After Justin had gone to get a screw driver to take the door off the hinges, Ethan finally figured out what to do~talk about a CRAZY day!

Granparents Are GRRREEEAAAATTTT!

We had the chance to see Grandma and Grandpa Hill and Great Grandma Hill this past weekend along with some YUMMY treats!