A View of the Hills: 2015

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

February 2015

old baseboard

My baby is due in 3 weeks so that's the perfect time to start a home improvement project, right? Anyone who's ever been pregnant can sense the sarcasm in that statement. However, Zach has been doing a great job on replacing all our baseboards in the house. With a 5th child coming, we're beginning to feel the pressure of needing more space relatively soon. We've got a whole list of projects to do to get our home ready to sell. We've already stained the bathroom cabinets and placed a frame around the mirror-- that took 2 weekends. Now we're in the middle of the baseboards, but this project has just enearthed more projects needing to be done before we can really be done with the baseboards like painting the walls and fixing our bathroom shower. It seems like every time I'm within a month of having a baby, life moves into warp-speed and I find myself scrambling to get things done before the baby comes. Nesting is such a strong urge!

New baseboard

Lincoln tends the fire that burns all our old baseboard--he's in heaven!

This month also holds fun things like the 100th day party. Gwen really gets into school and wanted to dress up like a 100-year-old. Lincoln abstained, of course. She also just passed off her second level of Accelerated Reader. She is doing so well!

The weather has been unseasonably warm so we've been spending a lot of time outside. Ned and Nyle are playing with water- since we learned about the letter W this week.

Ned Turns 4!

Ned's birthday always falls around our annual Redstone outing. And in keeping with the previous years, the weather was gorgeous! The kids are never bored there as they can climb the rocks so easily! We were joined by my side of the family. Almost all of us were there, we were just missing Tammi and Kevin. After picnicking, hiking, and climbing, Zach rode his bike home and was able to just barely beat us (after we gave him a big headstart).

Ned's birthday fell on a busy day. It happened to be the birthday of another boy in the ward and since I wanted to make his day special I asked him if he wanted to go. He did, so he got birthday cake several times that day as well as that cool Train Engineer hat.

For the last several weeks, when we'd ask what kind of cake we should make for Nyle, Ned would always say strawberry. He'd say the same when we asked him what he wanted for his cake. That's just what he got.

Some fun characteristics/interests/ accomplishments of Ned at age 4 are:

He's just as OCD as ever. He continues to be very particular about having his hands washed every time he eats, even something small and clean. He loves order and structure --craves it! He often will inform me and Gwen of his opinion on how we look for the day. He likes it when I do Gwen's hair nice or when I dress up.
He loves to play with puzzles, or something he can put together with tools.
He's so sweet! We say that all the time about him. He tries so hard to be a good boy in Sunbeams/Primary and does an excellent job at it.
He knows many of the Articles of Faith and sings them out so the primary chorister can hear every Sunday (so I'm told).
He doesn't like change. Case in point: With the new year, came his move up to Sunbeams. Fortunately his amazing nursery teacher was moving up with the Sunbeams to help them transition. I figured Ned would be just fine with this, he still struggled a little just because he would be going someplace different. However, it took about 3 weeks for him to get used to the idea of going to primary and now he goes with no problem. He kept telling me that he would go on his own when he turned 4. He kept his word.
I've been working with him on his letters this year and he is doing incredibly well. I don't have a lot of time to work with him, but he retains it all so well. He impressed the nurses at the dr. office with his letter recognition when he took his eye exam. He also knows what the basic sounds of many of them are.
He loves fruit roll-ups, peanut butter cookies, hot dogs,creamed eggs and ham, cuties and fresh baked bread.
He's so precious and we adore our sweet Ned!

Friday, February 06, 2015

Nyle Turns 2!

Nyle's Birthday is just two days after Gwen's. Just so each child has their own special day- we decided to spread out the January birthdays so each child gets their own weekend.

Nyle's birthday began with waffles, whipped cream and strawberries. He liked the whipped cream best, of course.

Unfortunately, Nyle was a bit sick on his birthday- he had just come down with the flu two days prior and was still suffering. His celebration was a lot more low-key. Just pizza and banana splits with his gift.

Some of Nyle's 2-year-old characteristics:

We call him a parrot because he pretty much repeats everything anyone says-- I figure it's his way of learning English.
He's still a mega-momma's boy and has recently decided he won't go to nursery without me.
He's much more outgoing than his siblings, which isn't saying much, but it is different for me. He'll talk and smile to strangers a little more than the other kids. They usually give anyone they don't know the silent treatment.
He loves to jump and can actually catch some air.
He is an incredible climber. At the park he can climb pretty much any of the ladders- even those higher than me, though I do discourage it. He's been doing that for a while and I can't even count the number of times I caught him falling mid-air while he was learning. He doesn't fall as much anymore, thankfully.
He has a cute way of telling me no, saying "no, no, no, no, no" really quickly and quietly.
He's so much more assertive and adventurous at his age than his siblings were.
He's not big on sleeping. He's usually the first one awake in the household and it's often with a smile.
He has the most adorable cheeks!
He has an incredible pout.

We just adore our sweet, vivacious 2-year-old Nyle!

Gwen Turns 6!

We celebrated Gwen's birthday by taking her to see Annie and having a family dinner and party. We were lucky enough to have grandma and grandpa Hills join us. They decided last minute to come down for another reason, but it just made Gwen's party all the more festive! While we don't do extravagant, there are a few things we do to make the time special. We always have a special breakfast that has to include some type of berry and whipped cream. Gwen requested Crepes, raspberries and whipped cream. Then we have a family outing of some sort. We finish the day off with the birthday child's favorite meal. Gwen's was grilled cheese and tomato soup. Her dessert was lemon-raspberry cheesecake (inspired by The Cheesecake Factory). We had ordered a slice last May for a mommy-daughter date while Zach had the boys at the Fathers-and-Sons outing. She remembered how much she liked it all those months ago and requested it. Since there was no way I was going to pay for an entire cheesecake from there, I found a copycat recipe online. Unfortunately, I didn't have a spring-form pan to make it in, so I used a casserole dish. It still worked and the results were actually pretty good!

Gwen is very much a girlie-girl and is starting to get more into arts and crafts so this year, her birthday presents almost all came from Hobby Lobby. She received a bracelet making kit and a jewelry box that she could paint-decorate. She also loves blankets so I made her a large fleece one. These gifts have kept her busy for a while.

Some details about 6-year-old Gwen:

She still loves Barbies, stuffed animals and reading.
She loves to write and is incredibly good at it. She spells most words correctly because she takes the time to figure out how to spell and just remembers on other words. She also has very neat handwriting--something I never did.
She is an incredible reader. She is easily the top of her class in both Reading and Writing. Her school uses a program called Accelerated Reader. This includes reading a book- pretty much any book out there, and taking a comprehension test on it. Kindergartners usually begin the program in January (once they can read a beginning book) and don't typically finish a level that year. She started in October (once her teacher got around to testing her) and has already passed off two levels. Her teacher informed me she has never had a student pass off the third level, and doesn't even have all the books Gwen might need so I supplement with books from the library. Gwen is already well on her way to passing off the third level. She recently read a mid-4th grade level chapter book, took the AR comprehension test and earned a 100% score.
She is becoming interested in Art. My bedroom is covered with pictures and notes she has made for myself and Zach. It's very sweet! Just last night, while looking at all our sweet notes, Zach said "What would our family be like without a sweet daughter?" I don't even know. Particularly as I prepare for our 4th boy and realize we probably will be completing our family with this child, I think about how grateful I am that I got my one girl.
She's still headstrong in many ways. She's kind-of passive aggressive about it, though. If I ask her to do something she doesn't want to do, she just pretends like she didn't hear me. She has her own way of doing things and sometimes I have to remind myself that perhaps that battle isn't worth fighting because her way of doing things is still good and gets the job done.
She loves school and is such a good girl. I love volunteering in her class because I get to see how sweet she is in that environment. If I were her teacher, I'm certain I would be in love with her-- she's just the perfect student. School definitely suits her. I hope it always will, and that she will always have her love of learning.
We are so lucky to have our beautiful, smart, sweet Gwen!

Hills Family Christmas Party

The following weekend found us in Mesquite for the Hills family Christmas/New Year's party. As is customary with any Hills family get-together, the weekend was packed with great things to do. Friday night, all the adults went to a session in the St. George temple to witness Erin receive her endowments. That night, we spent the night in a vacant office building belonging to Zach's dad. The kids had so much fun running around the empty building.

Saturday morning, we went over to the Virgin River Casino to bowl in one giant group. Lincoln was very into it from the beginning, but Gwen, Ned and Nyle had to get into a groove to be able to enjoy themselves. After a while, they warmed up and really found they loved it!

Nyle snuggles with Grandpa

Ned watches Grandma to learn

Erin with boyfriend Joe

Later that night, we gathered at Mom and Dad's house for a giant talent show. I love how these talent shows are basically anything-goes talent shows. Nyle showed everyone what a good jumper he is, Ned was too nervous to show his counting skills, Gwen showed off some of her coloring and excellent reading skills, Lincoln and I each played a piece on the piano, and Zach showed off some of his engineering designs. We also enjoyed watching Heston show off his drone-flying skills, heard some more great music, witnessed the Hydroponics development of Mom and Dad Hills garden, and enjoyed the fruits of some canning skills. It was a lot of fun. As is common, the kids played so much, they fell asleep within minutes of leaving that night and slept the entire way home.

Winter Fun in the Desert

The day after Christmas, Zach took us on a little hike down by Lake Mead.

Then the day after that, we joined the Shamo crew in a desert outing in the Eldorado Valley. While everyone else had 4-wheel drive and Pedro is only equipped with 2-wheel drive, we went almost everywhere they went, but at one point had to call it quits. We stopped and had a picnic, then enjoyed a warm fire by a burning Christmas tree. When you live in the desert, you just learn that the time to enjoy it is Winter and it can truly be enjoyed!

Christmas

Cute kids Gwen and Nyle posing at the Ward Christmas Breakfast.

We love our traditions! Christmas Eve was at my Mom and Dad Shamo's. Aunt Lynnette and Uncle Scott brought the grab bags again, we had an appetizer dinner, the kids watched a Christmas movie, and the adults played their customary White Elephant gift game. It was so fun to get together!

After eating our breakfast casserole, the kids lined up to go see their stockings.