MERRY CHRISTMAS! 2007

Kaelyn, Emma, & Kenton

Emma

Kaelyn

Kenton

We wish all of our family and friends a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

We have had a wonderful year. The children are continuing to grow like weeds. We also are blessed to have a new addition to our family coming in January - a little girl. Of course, the girls are excited for a new sister. Kenton doesn't think it will be fair, because there will be more girls than boys. His solution - mom just needs to have another baby right away, so we can have a boy! (mom and dad beg to differ). Kaelyn continues to thrive in school, loves dancing, playing the piano, and of course reading books. She is very excited to be turning eight in January and getting baptized. Kenton loves to play anything that has to do with spiderman, starwars, pirates, or teenage mutant ninja turtles. He has begun reading and enoys finding words he knows on advertisements and books that he sees. Emma is our "little"mommy. She loves playing with all nine of her baby dolls. Just the other day - I caught her putting diaper rash ointment (A&D to be exact) on her babydoll, because she had an owie bumb! Justin is at the tail end of completing his radiology residency. He is in the process of applying for a fellowship in Neuroradiology, which will be 2 years additional training. We are both thrilled that the end is getting closer. As far as Katie goes - well I keep busy being mom. Justin has been great to watch the kids tons lately, so I can get out with friends and keep up on my excercise. I figure I better get in as much as I can before the baby comes.

Justin and I can't express how grateful we are for all that we have been blessed with. We have wonderful parents and siblings, who are always helping and supporting us whenever they can. We have so many great friends that have blessed and continue to bless our family with their love, time, and talents. Thank you all!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Love,

Justin, Katie, Kaelyn, Kenton, & Emma

PS: Thanks to our dear friends, David and Courtney, we have these beautiful pictures of our children.

BDAY FOR KT

I had a wonderful Birthday. I got to go shopping, to the movies, out to lunch and dinner - It was wonderful! My dear friend, Laura, made me a delicious Birthday cake that totally hit the spot for me! I had lots of phone calls sending warm b-day wishes. Thank you everyone for making it such a marvelous day!

For those of you wondering what an 8 month pregnant Katie looks like - here I am!

UTAH

Justin was invited to BYU as a guest speaker for the neuro-science department. I was able to tag along and leave the kids behind with both Grandmas (They were amazing!). We had a fabulous time. We were there a week and still didn't have enough time to see everyone we wanted to. We love visiting all of our friends and family in UT.

Justin and I on the Nebo-Loop. Of course, he likes to rub the belly whenever he can. He says it brings good luck.

Justin and his sister, Sarah.

My best buddies - It is amazing that it has almost been 8 years since I taught with these amazing ladies. These are two of my closest friends, Jaclyn and Rebecca.

HALLOWEEN

Sorry for the sideways pics. I wanted to get them up and didn't want to take the time to fix them. Kenton was spider man. Kaelyn was Hermoine from HP and Emma was a ladybug. Emma could care less about the costume - she was all about the candy!

How I wish I could take this costume off at night - just for a little while, so I could get a good night's sleep.

UPDATE

I have been slacking in updating my blog once again. So I thought I would just pick a few pictures of the past few months to put up for you all to see.

Emma and Me enjoy playing in the creek. Emma enjoyed showing us everything she found in the creek - dirt, sand, bugs and so on!

Kenton enjoys dressing up. This particular day he was a pirate. An hour before he was Darth Vader.

Kaelyn painting at a children's museum in VA.


Emma riding the tractor at the museum

Kenton enjoyed making the pyramid and of course climbing on top of it!

HAPPY BDAY GRANDPA

We want to send out a great big

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

to Grandpa Bud. We wish you lots fun and happiness this birthday! We wish we could be there to celebrate this special day with you. Thanks for all you do for us and our family. We appreciate all of your love, generosity, and support. Kaelyn is the artist of our birthday card for you.

Love,

Justin, Katie, Kaelyn, Kenton, and Emma

KAELYN'S DANCE RECITAL

Kaelyn loves to dance. Thanks to her Grandpa Bud and Grandma Mary she has been able to take lessons from Ms. Kari for the past 2 years. She loves to perform at home for her family and was very excited to be on stage performing 2 dances, a ballet and a jazz dance, for an audience larger than the family. She said she was not nervous at all. She says now that she can't wait until next year when she gets to learn new dance techniques and routines. Here are just a few pics of Kaelyn posing for the camera. Anyone who knows Kaelyn, knows about her posing for the camera - that tilt of her head and that big, big smile!

(Kaelyn posing with her sister, Emma)

(bad pic - but shows her on stage)

SEA WORLD

Shamu looking for fish from her trainers. After seeing the killer whale show, Kaelyn thought it would be great to grow up and be a killer whale trainer!

The kids and I posing with one of the killer whale trainers.

Taking a lunch break at the Rainforest Cafe. We got to dine with the elephants and sit through three thunderstorms!

Emma and Grandma Lori at the Rainforest Cafe at Downtown Disney.

Kaelyn and Kenton get fish to feed to the seals and sea lions at Sea World. Believe it or not they actually picked up the dead fish themselves and threw them to the sea lions and seals.

Kenton is preparing to throw a fish to the barking sea lions. If they could jump out of the aquarium, they would. They were very excited to get some fish!

One of the hungry sea lions posing for a picture!

Emma was more interested in the bag of popcorn. She wanted to hold the bag and only she could hand out tiny handfuls of popcorn. No one was allowed to put their hand in her bag. So much for sharing a bag of popcorn with the family.

Emma and Pa-paw dining in the pizza restaurant at Sea World.

Justin had a conference in Orlando and so we invited his parents along. While he was at his conference, his parents, the kids and I hung out at Sea World with all the amazing creatures of the ocean. Justin and I also got to spend sometime with his best friend from college, Dave, and his family. Our families just happened to be vacationing in Florida at the same time. We had a blast hanging out with them! The kids loved seeing their grandparents and of course being spoiled!

A BIRTHDAY WISH FOR GRAMMARY

G

GRAND

Grandma always is thinking in "grand" ways! According to the elders she and Grandpa got the TAJ MAHAL of playgrounds for her grandkids. As a mom she always made every holiday grand - from the food to the decorations holidays were "grandacious" at the Hill House.

R

RADIANT Grandma is as radiant as the morning sun! She always is sending her "rays" out to her grandchildren. They sure do appreciate all that she does for them! There should be a new verse to the song, "I'm so Glad When Daddy Comes Home." It should be, "I'm so Glad When Grandma Comes to Town!"

A
AMAZING

Grandma is amazing! She always has surprises up her sleeves. She always is trying to find ways that will make her family smile! We love that about her. She is an amazing Mom and Grandma.


N

NICE

Grandma - you are so nice! You always bring me skittles says Kenton. You love us says Kaelyn. Emma has plenty of great things to say about Grandma. However, there has been no translation discovered for Emma language yet. Although, I am pretty sure she was saying Grandma is so nice, because she ALWAYS gives Emma treats!

D

DARING

Who knew Grandmas could be so daring. Kaelyn thinks she is the only one who has a Grandma that has parachuted out of an airplane. Way to go Grandma Mary!

M
MAGNIFICENT

We think you are MAGNIFICENT! We love you, Mom!

A

AWESOME

Mom - Grandma - We hope you have an awesome birthday, because you are such an awesome person! We wish we could be there with you to celebrate your special day. Know that we are there in spirit. You are wonderful and we want you to know that we truly love you. We are grateful for the love, sacrifice, and devotion that you have given us as a mother and grandmother. You are always in our hearts. We love you!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

TRIP TO OKLAHOMA

This past month we were able to visit Justin's family.

Here we are all pictured together. Justin, his parents, two sisters, and each of our families.

MORE DISNEY

Here are some more pictures of our Disney World Trip!

Our family posing with Minnie Mouse.

Kenton braves the waters and sets sail with the Pirates of the Carribbean!

Kaelyn gets her face painted like Ariel, her favorite sea princess!

Kenton and his autograph book.

Emma meets Belle.

Kenton gets his face painted like a pirate.

Kaelyn hangs on Mister Potato Head.

Ariel checks out Kaelyn's new necklace. Ariel loved it !

The three pirates!

While in Disney World we celebrated Kaelyn's birthday! She had key lime pie with sparkler candles and of course princess birthday plates.