Kylee plays...Let It Snow!

Thankful & Thanksgiving

There is nothing quite like being at my parents house on Thanksgiving.  The food is always wonderful and the company chaotic but perfect.  This year did not disappoint!  With a crowd of 50 (many of which were kids) it was just as I always remembered.  We ate and ate and then took a small break to play the traditional "Hill Family" games before returning to more eating!  Everything was just right.  My parents are wonderful hosts and always seem to find a way to make feeding large crowds seem easy.  We started a new tradition this year - the turkey bowl football game for the kids!  Nick collected all of the jersey's that we own so that every kid (and adult) could wear one in the big game.  It was a lot of fun and something that I think the kids will always look forward to.  I love that all these cousins are so close in age!  Isn't family the best?  Here are some pictures of the perfect day.  Plenty of food, fun, and lots of family love!     

Happy #5 Austin!

Happy #5 to my sweet Austin!  This happy boy brings us more joy then I ever imagined.  I delivered Austin just a few days before Thanksgiving five short years ago.  I remember snuggling with him in the hospital on Thanksgiving day and being grateful that he was mine.  He is funny, athletic, sensitive, feisty, goofy and sweet.  He loves his older brother and would play with the "older boys" every second of every day if he could.  He is a great friend and is loved by so many.  He could live on pancakes, Life cereal, spaghetti and IKEA meatballs if he had to!  He has a sparkle in his eye that is hard to explain.  We celebrated yesterday with pancakes for breakfast, McDonalds for lunch & Cafe Rio for dinner...all of his favorite things.  Today we headed to the bowling alley with 11 neighbor kids to celebrate Austin's special day.  The kids enjoyed bowling, pizza & cake. (and I enjoyed not having party mess at my house!)  It was the perfect way to celebrate such an awesome kid.   

Left to Right - Brady, Eason, Cache, Kamri, Riley, Gabe, Tyson, Nick, Austin, Spencer & Cy

First Snow...

The first snow of the season hit last night!  No Saturday morning chores for these kids...yet!  

Happy Saturday.

Presenting...

Tonight we gathered at my parent's house for our annual Sunday before Halloween dinner &pumpkin carving.  Mom made a wonderful spread of food (as usual) and Kelsey brought home 9 kids from her BYU ward to join in the fun.  It was pure chaos but so worth it for the end result.  Awesome pumpkins and pictures of their kids in costume a day before the actual Halloween holiday.  Though Halloween is one of my least favorite holiday's, soup & bread bowls while carving pumpkins is certainly one of my most favorite Hill family traditions!  With that said, I present the Holland children - Halloween 2011! 

 Austin - the football player.  He was all about the black lines under his eyes.

 Kylee - the pig & Summer - the cupcake

Nick - the Zombie.  Thanks to Uncle Ryan for tackling the face painting!

 The pumpkin carving kids - they were supposed to be making scary faces.  

Grandpa

I am pretty sure these are the cutest pictures ever.  They were taken as my dad joined us at the pumpkin patch earlier this week.  The boys were so excited to see Grandpa that they took of running to greet him.  Priceless.

Nick's Big Day...

On Saturday, October 8th, Nicholas was baptized!  He has been counting down the days for weeks now or maybe more like months.  He has been so diligent in asking questions and preparing himself.  It was incredibly fun and rewarding to watch as a parent.  No, he is not perfect, but he certainly has a big heart and makes great choices most of the time! We are lucky to have such supportive friends and family and many came share that special day with us.  It was especially neat for me to see both Grandpa's participate.  There is something special about seeing two men that I love (and Nick admires) stand as witnesses of the sacred ordinance of Baptism and then participate in the Confirmation.  It always makes me extremely emotional.  In just a few short years we will be helping Nick prepare to enter the temple and serve a mission.  Sometimes being a parent is hard and I worry that maybe I am not doing enough.  I hope that Nick feels our love for him.  We came back to the house for gourmet pizza (Costco) and Rootbeer floats...Nick's request of course and I was not about ready to argue with such a simple meal!  It was a cold and blustery day but warm and perfect in all the right ways!  Congrats Nick!

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