For Josh's 100th Day of School Party (a really big deal in kindergarten), he was assigned to wear a shirt with 100 things on it. We batted a few ideas back and forth, and I suggested that he could make 100 fingerprints with fabric paint, and then add arms and legs to make them into monsters. He took that idea and made it about a million times cooler. First, he insisted on doing the fingerprint painting entirely by himself, including opening the bottles and squeezing out the paint. I was a little worried that it would turn into one giant painty mess, but he was all over it. We counted out the colors of paint that we had and figured out how many of each he'd need to make 100, and he meticulously placed each one. After the paint dried, I turned him loose with a very fine tip sharpie. Instead of just adding arms and legs, he turned each one into a unique creature with all sorts of personality. It took him a few different sessions, because it was a very big job, but eventually he decorated about 75 of the 100 fingerprints. Not bad for doing it with zero grown-up guidance! The finished product was so unique and imaginative that I had to get close-up photos to share. You will probably need to click on them and see the large image to get the full effect.
They're just so perfectly Josh! He worked so hard and was so proud of the result. He's come a long way from the kid who tore up every art project because he never thought it was as good as Sam's. Hooray for Josh!
As you may know, I'm on the Stake Cultural Arts Committee for our stake. We do projects twice a year, and it's usually been a performance-based project like a play. For instance, last fall I directed My Turn on Earth. This time around, though, we wanted to try something totally different that would get a whole new group of people involved, so we decided to do an art show. It ended up being a huge success! We had a whole cultural hall full of wonderful things from stake members of every age, and lots and lots of people came to see it. There was such a beautiful spirit, too. I am hoping we can make it a regular thing, because it was just awesome.
I wanted to share the projects that Sam and Josh and I did for the art show (you can click on them to see them bigger):
Here is Sam's colored pencil drawing of Jesus, based on the "Christ in the Red Robe" painting:
This is Joshy's watercolor painting of Jesus. He was not happy with the final product because he didn't think it was as good as Sam's, but I think it's wonderful. Josh really loves to paint.
This is my mixed media canvas:
I am taking an online class called "The SheArt Workshop" where I learned these techniques, and I think I'm hooked. I really loved creating this and adding so many layers of color and meaning. Here's what I wrote on my card:
"I love this quote from our prophet. The future’s uncertainty can seem scary sometimes, but our faith in Jesus Christ and His love makes it possible for us to move forward with our families in joy and gratitude and hope!"
One amazing thing that happened -- a man who works as a consultant for an art publishing company came to the art show with his daughter (who lives in our stake) and loved it so much that he wants to show it to a buyer at Deseret Book to possibly sell prints of it! Holy cow. I can't imagine it would actually happen, but it was awfully flattering!
The biggest news in the Hill household is that school is OUT FOR SUMMER! Sam and Josh have had all sorts of plans brewing for what they were going to do during summer vacation (thank you, Phineus and Ferb...), so they were counting down the days to the end of school.
Josh finished up first and got to have a super fun luau with his little preschool class. He really loved his teacher, Miss Emily, and we were amazed at how much he learned this year! He is a great counter and is even doing some simple addition and such, and he now knows the sounds of nearly all the letters and is starting to sound things out. He learned lots of fun songs (his favorite is "A Tisket, a Tasket, a Green and Yellow Basket") and got to do lots of art projects. I know he had lots of stubborn days -- this is Josh we're talking about, after all -- but he really loved it and we're so thankful to Emily for making it so fun for him!
The next day was Sam's kindergarten graduation -- I can't believe he's no longer a kindergartner! Nana joined us at the school for their cute little graduation program. The kids sang a bunch of songs and everyone got to say what their favorite thing about kindergarten was (Sam's was the Polar Express party). Then each kid got to walk in from the hallway and get their diploma and a fun little treat from Miss Palmer. Here's a 2-minute version of the highlights!
Sammy did a great job singing all the songs and we could tell he really enjoyed his kindergarten experience and all his friends there. He brought home a report card with straight 4's for the whole year, which I understand is the top mark but no one ever really explained it, so who knows? :) He also brought home his writing journal, which totally cracks us up. He has a very creative and slightly devious little mind -- tomorrow I'll scan in some of those journal entries so you can see what I mean!.
When Josh and I were driving home from bowling today, he told me he had a dream that he was getting married (to Maggie Morris, of course). Here's a little snippet:
Josh: And YOU were there, too, Mom!
Mommy: Oh, I would hope so! I definitely want to come to your wedding.
Josh: Or else you'd miss out on all the fun!... When you get married, the husband carries the wife home. I saw that on Up. But when I get married, I'll just drive in the car. Actually, my wife will drive the car. I will just tell her jokes to make her laugh.
Me: "Hmm...maybe we really don't need to go to the craft store today..." Joshy: "Please oh please! I want to go the craft store!" Me: "YOU? Why? What would you get there?" Joshy: "Um...Supplies..." Me: "What kind of supplies?" Joshy: "Ya know, designs. Cool designs. Stuff you could glue to the wall!"
Don't worry, hon -- he didn't REALLY want to go to the craft store. He was just afraid I was going to make him eat lunch at home instead of packing his chicken nuggets in a bag to eat on the road. These kids think home-made kids meals are the coolest thing ever.
Life is fun, you know? These three kids keep us so entertained as their little personalities and talents develop. We've been having fun times over the past few weeks. We've taken a couple of trips to the childrens' museum, which is SO fun. The boys love all the different outlets for creativity there. They've done some really cool classes, like exercise, learning about eyes, and "action painting." (Thanks again for the membership, Grandma and Grandpa! Best present ever!) Eliza loves to watch all the big running around and occasionally gets to get out and play, too. Last time we went with Aunt Carrie and Taya and Noah, which was a blast.
I snapped this one a few Sundays ago -- my daddy is such a great Bapa! The kids love piling on for story time.
The weather around here has not been very spring-like -- the other day we woke up to 2" of snow, and even when it's been sunny it's been chilly and windy. We made the most of it the other day, though, and got out the kites Grandma Hill sent for the boys. They were SO excited. It took some doing, but we got both kites up! We couldn't get Joshy's to stay up for very long, but he had a great time watch it swoop around and crash and go up again close to the ground. We were trying to do it in the front yard, and I think the air currents were too swirly in the cul-de-sac.
Oh, I have to share a funny, sweet story. Last Monday, when we were getting ready for "You're My Favorite" Day, Sammy wanted to make cards for my mom and dad. This is the card he made for my mom:
I thought it was very sweet. On our way to my parents' house that morning, Sam was holding the card in his lap and Josh said, "Jesus's hair looks funny!" Sam fixed him with a stern eye and said, "Josh, how do you think Jesus would feel if He heard you say that about him?" Glad to know the lessons are getting in there somewhere...
Josh is feeling very conflicted about whether he wants to be a baby or a big boy. He sees Eliza and Sam and kind of wants the best of both worlds. He is hilarious, too – always looking for ways to make people laugh. He’s gotten very friendly, too. He’ll walk right up to people and start a conversation, almost always starting with “Do you know my name?!” I’m trying to teach him that it’s only okay to talk to strangers if Mommy is with you. He’s pretty independent and likes to do things his own way.
Eliza is getting SO big! She’s almost 8 months old. Her big thing right now is pulling herself up to standing, which she’ll do using anything she can get her hands on. She hasn’t figured out how to move her feet yet, though, so we’re in no immediate danger of walking. She’s also trying very, very hard to crawl. She gets up on her hands and knees and rocks and rocks and then pushes up on to her toes and fingertips, but (just like with walking) she can’t figure out how to move her feet, so she mostly pushes herself backwards if she goes anywhere at all. It’s very frustrating for her to be trying to get a toy but only getting further and further away! Between rolling and just generally squirming around, she can cover a lot of ground, and I think she’s pretty proud of herself. Here's a cute video of her trying to make her move:
Eliza has her boys wrapped around her little finger -- this is just a small sample of the lengths to which they'll go to entertain her. It may not always be successful on her, but I sure found it entertaining...
Hey, family and friends -- sorry I've been remiss in updating our blog! We haven't had any major events lately, just lots of everyday fun stuff. Here's a very cute pic of the kids we took to send out as Valentines for the grandparents. Sammy helped me make the sign, and he was very proud of it. I was very proud of the fact that I took it myself -- the kids are sitting on the bed in our guest room!
Here are some other fun recent pics:
"My, what big eyes you have!"
Sammy and Dan building the cool ferris wheel and swing rides Grandma sent for Christmas:
The rest of these are from the last couple of days when Leanne and Amelia were here -- we got to spend some fun time hanging out at our house, and then the last day we went shopping with Nana and the boys had SO much fun on the merry-go-round with Nana.
Another very exciting happening in the family was the arrival of baby Cody! We went over to Chad and Esther's house to meet him, and he is just the cutest little guy. Here are a few pictures from our visit:
Joshy has recently become a VERY big boy by getting all potty trained (even at night!), and he frequently celebrates by showing off his dance moves. Check out just a few of his stylings here:
The first one, he says, is his "winner" dance. At the end you don't get to see his "I stayed dry all night" dance because he says it's broken. :)
We have had the most wonderful and exhausting couple of days! I love, love, love Christmas, and all our family traditions are what make it so special. On Christmas Eve we went out for Chinese food, of course. Sammy was very brave and tried some shrimp, but Joshy mostly ate those little fried sugar roll things (thanks, Aunt Amy!). His favorite part was spearing them with chopsticks. Afterward we went back to my parents' house for a new tradition -- everyone brought Christmas cookies and a Christmas story to share, and we sang Christmas songs to go with each one. (Apparently our old tradition of acting out the nativity scene had become a little too farcical for my mom's taste. There was admittedly a lot of snickering involved...) Sammy and I had made dee-licious gingerbread boys, and Sammy read "Beyond Bethlehem" (a book about what was happening at the time of Christ's birth in the Book of Mormon) to the family. He did a great job!
That night Dan and I continued our own tradtion, enjoying each others' company while watching "A Christmas Story" and "helping" Santa get ready for Christmas morning.
Sammy was bursting at the seams to get downstairs and see what Santa brought, but we literally had to drag Joshy out of bed. For some reason that kid just does not like opening presents, or really have any attention focused on him. But we got him downstairs, and Sammy was overjoyed to see that Santa had gotten him the coolest bike EXACTLY like the one he'd seen in Walmart! We told Joshy Santa had left us a note saying his present was downstairs, but he refused to go down and look at it. Dan picked him up and carried him, but all reluctance vanished when he saw his present: his very own trampoline!
It's very gratifying when your cranky, non-present-excited child is bouncing up and down saying "This -- trampoline -- is -- the -- best -- present -- EVER!" And follows that up with a "You -- are -- so -- jealous!" to his big brother. Well, that part was more funny than gratifying, and in Josh's defense, he's very generous in sharing his cool toy with Sam. After we were finished opening the mountain of presents from very generous grandparents, aunts, and uncles, we got dressed and headed over to my parents' house again for more Christmas fun.
I admit I got a little carried away with Eliza's Christmas outfit. I couldn't find anything that really appealed to me at the store, so I decided to make her a tu-tu that would match her cute polka dot sweater my mom brought from England. The leg warmers from Aunt Sarah were PERFECT with it, and I couldn't resist adding curly ribbon to her pigtails as the finishing touch. What a cute little sugar plum fairy!
We had a wonderful day with our family. We had invited a few of our new Bhutanese friends to our Christmas dinner, but because of the weather -- total whiteout blizzard conditions -- we had to call and cancel. An hour or two later, however, the weather cleared enough for Amy and Dan P. to brave the roads and they were able to come after all! I think that was really a miracle. Mom and my sisters and I spent most of the day in the kitchen getting all ready for dinner, and we had such a fun time together. Because the Dulals (the families that joined our Christmas dinner) are Hindu and therefore vegetarian, we had to get a little creative with our dinner planning. I made minestrone, which turned out delicious, Emily made yummy stuffed peppers, and we had lots of fruits and veggies. It was probably the healthiest Christmas dinner we ever had, which was a good thing because we had all spent most of the day eating fistfuls of chocolate...
After dinner my dad dressed up in the Santa suit and we taught them about a few of our Christmas traditions. Everyone got to open presents, and it was really fun. Sammy and Joshy had used all of their birthday money to buy presents for Tila and Hari, the boys who are just their ages. Sammy was SO excited for Tila and Hari to open their presents. It was a great experience for them.
You can see lots and lots of pictures in the Facebook album I just created by clicking here.
This Christmas was not without its challenges. The weather was a big one -- we got stuck in the snow trying to leave my parents' house Christmas Eve, and then in the same place Christmas morning. The roads were just awful and we hadn't noticed how bare my tires are. We made it to the end of my parents' street and got totally stuck, but luckily my dad and sister drove by just then on the way to pick up my other sister. They got us unstuck momentarily, but then we slid deeper in. Luckily (again!) my brother's best friend happened by in an SUV with a tow rope and towed us into my parents' driveway. Yay for small towns where everyone who drives by is someone you know! :) We had chains in the back of the van, so we made it home safely in the evening. I have to say, though, it never entered my mind for a moment to stay home -- I love Christmas with my family WAY too much!
Poor Dan is also so sick -- he has nasty bronchitis that has just been getting worse and worse, but he was a real trooper. Eliza's also really congested and fussy (for her, anyway, but really not too much), but she had lots of people to love her and take care of her yesterday.
But despite these challenges, this Christmas made me so grateful for my family, and for all our blessings. We always have enough and to spare, even when we're struggling -- warm homes and clothes, food to eat, and so much more. We are blessed to live in a land of peace and security. We have the gospel, and the promise of being together forever. I really missed Carissa this Christmas -- she loved everything about the season -- but I know we will be with her again. What greater blessing could you ask for?
Well, I'm a few days late with this entry, but life has -- as always -- been a little crazy. On Monday our sweet baby Eliza was two months old! I can hardly believe that she's so big, but I can also hardly believe there was a time we didn't have her! She is such a sweet little thing. She has the cutest little smile that we see more and more. She's sleeping through the night and is usually just as happy as can be. She's been cranky the past few days, but I'm sure she'll get over that pretty quick. Her big brothers both just adore her. Sammy especially hates to see her unhappy ever. Today he asked "But Mommy, why is baby Eliza fussing?" "Honey, all babies cry sometimes -- she's just fine." "I wish she was born the same age as me; then she'd never cry!" He said this with such sincere concern. It was very sweet.
Here's our little sweetie on her two-month birthday!
I went down to Cedar City on Monday with Joshy and Eliza, my parents, Ange, and Grandpa and Grandma Tarbet for our dear friend Barbara Adams' funeral. She is my aunt Glynis' mother and such a wonderful lady. I was really glad we could go down and support all their family. And it was fun to hang out with everyone who went down -- being cooped up together in the car all day leads to lots of fun conversations. Joshy and Eliza were amazingly good. Eliza slept pretty much all the time we were in the car, and Joshy was pretty happy watching movies on our portable dvd player. How did anyone haul kids on long trips without those things?! :) Joshy felt pretty special getting to be with Nana and Bapa and Grandpa and Grandma and Ange all day. Bapa had him laughing so hard while we were at lunch -- Joshy kept lifting up his shirt to be tickled again and again!
Sammy's first day of preschool with his new teacher was Monday, and he didn't want to miss it, so he got to have his first-ever friend sleepover! His good little buddy Boyd is in his class, and his mom -- my wonderful friend Katie -- graciously invited Sammy to sleep over and spend the day at their house. Sammy was SO excited. He talked all weekend about all the fun things he was going to do with Boyd, and Sunday evening he couldn't wait to leave Nana and Bapa's house to get to Boyd's. As soon as we turned onto Boyd's street, however, he started to freak out: "I'll miss you guys too much, I'm too scared, I don't think it will be like home..." and so on. I pulled into Boyd's driveway and got out to talk to Sammy. I told him I understood he was scared, but I thought if he just went inside he'd remember how excited he was and how much fun he'd have. But Sammy was not interested, and the more I tried to persuade him the more he resisted. So I said, "It's okay, honey -- I know it's a little scary. We can try a sleepover another time -- I'll just run up to the door and tell Boyd's mom you're not coming." But that made him even more upset, because he didn't want to hurt Boyd's feelings! He's such a tender little heart. So we went back and forth like this for several minutes, and a couple times he even got out of the car, but as soon as I started to close his door he jumped back in and clung to his carseat like a life preserver. I'm not gonna lie to ya -- I was getting a little frustrated. Finally I just grabbed Eliza (Joshy was at home with Dan) and walked up to the front door without him. He hid by the garage. As soon as I knocked on the door, Boyd came bursting out, so excited to see Sammy. Katie and I finally talked Sammy into coming inside, just to see Boyd's room. The turning point was when I told him Eliza reeeeally wanted to see Boyd's room, and could we please go in just for a second? Sammy cautiously crept into the house, looking like he was sure a monster was going to jump out from every corner. Within about two minutes he announced: "I decided I'm going to stay, Mom, you can go now," and he never had another moment's trouble. Katie said he was cracking them up at dinner the next night, when he told them he'd been a little "skittish" about coming to their house...
Oh, and just another funny little note: Last night as we were going to bed and Sammy was dawdling downstairs, I called down "Sammy, get your buns up here!" To which Joshy, in a voice of great patience, replied, "Mommy, Sammy only has one bum..."
Anyhoo, I'd better get a move on -- I've got Halloween costumes to work on, treats to make, and decorations for Glynis' baby shower to finish up, not to mention a sink full of dishes. Never a dull moment!
