Hilton Head Island

Art, Snow, Cake, and More!

8 is Great!

Audrey's 8th birthday celebration started with a Cupcake Wars party with her cute friends. They decorated cupcakes in three different rounds for Jake, who played the part of the discerning judge. They had lots of messy fun.

 Then we had a small family party on her actual birthday.

 Our friend Allie took these angelic photos of Audrey in her baptism dress.

Her baptism day was a special one. Gramma and Poppa were here, and they each gave beautiful talks. We had good friends there, and a little party at home afterward, too. Audrey was just glowing and happy. And we were so proud of her. What a sweet girl. We love her to pieces!

This and That

A few pics of things that kept all of us busy in January: Audrey learned how to use the sewing machine, and she made a really cool winter house out of cardboard, the kids played themselves silly in the snow, Isaac learned the art of pulling wipes out, and Jeremy worked many many hours to install this beautiful white subway tile in our kitchen.

January 2014: Isaac Turns One!

December 2013

 2nd grade Christmas program, Isaac meets Santa, Aloha twins at the ward party

Girls' Afternoon Out at the Nutcracker in Charlotte

 Our pretty little tree, Christmas story with Dad, opening pajamas

 Christmas Eve: the goods, goodies for Santa, and the Nativity play

Christmas Day: loving the new red wagon, the cruise invitations (!), the sleeping bags, and other treasures.

November 2013

 Piano playing, super awesome friends after Savannah race, touring a beautiful Savannah church

 Can't. Stop. Taking. Pictures.

Thanksgiving feast-ers, cool cupcake from Primary teacher Sis. Bolin, and walking in the leaves

October 2013

 Visiting our friends, the Slaughters, who moved to St. Simons Island, Georgia

 Hot Air Balloon Festival, BYU Boys, Audrey's 1st lost tooth, cool leaf bug, first pumpkin, awards

Hermione and Captain Literally, ready for the trick or treating to begin. And an unsuspecting elephant.

Enjoying the spoils, Jake and buddies looking good (?)

September 2013

First Days of School: Audrey, 2nd and Jacob, 6th; BYU Football game in Virginia; and a few happy Isaacs thrown in there

Washington D.C.: We saw just a portion, and it was a scorcher of a day, but the kids got a good taste of some amazing sights. Their favorites were the Air and Space Museum and the Botanical Gardens, and my favorite was hearing the National Symphony on the lawn of the Capitol. We had been wanting to take a D.C. trip ever since moving to North Carolina, so 7 years later, we finally made it happen!

My two favorite Scouters, enjoying the beautiful mountains. They came home with lots of stories to tell. And one in particular: they set up their tents in the dark, not quite knowing how close they were to the edge of a cliff, until Jeremy nearly fell off!

Celebrating Mom and Dad's 60th Anniversary

In the middle of August, Jeremy and I took Isaac on a very quick, but wonderful weekend trip to Idaho to celebrate Mom and Dad Hillam's 60th wedding anniversary. Isaac had a blast meeting his aunts and uncles and cousins for the first time!

California Adventures 2013

Lake Arrowhead was our first big destination while in California. We met up with lots and lots of Dalton family cousins for a big reunion there. It was a beautiful place, and so good to reconnect with family we don't to see often enough. There were five other babies close to Isaac's age!

Legoland! On our way to Legoland Audrey declared that her New Year's "Revelation" would be not to chicken out on rides. She mostly succeeded. The kids had an absolutely great day here!

Safari Park: For some reason, I don't have good pictures of animals there. But I loved these three shots. Favorite part of our visit was the Africa tram safari, because that meant we could sit a while. :)

And finally, our family beach picnic: roasting hotdogs and marshmallows, boogie boarding, making footprints in the sand, and just enjoying precious time together.

Fourth of July 2013

The kids saved up some of their own cash to spend on fireworks at this store, so they felt pretty pleased with themselves after they had chosen their stash. We had sent out a blanket invite to our ward to come over for a little fireworks show at our house.

We spent the morning at Birkdale Village decorating bikes and the stroller for the parade. Through the course of the morning and afternoon, we heard from several families, saying that they were planning to join our party.

Things got exciting when our guests arrived. More and more came, which was super fun! In the end, counting babies, we had about 80 people in our driveway! Everyone brought yummy treats to share, and the fireworks were pretty impressive...until...it started to pour. Everyone flooded into the garage and house, and things got a little crazy and wet. Little by little our party crowd thinned out and we were left with a huge load of left over fireworks and some very disappointed kids.

So we had party #2 the next night where we were able to use more fireworks. As luck would have it, we got a little more rain that night, but not enough to stop us.

Such fun memories!

Random Spring Pics

Clockwise from top left:

1. Jacob joined the Scouts in real repelling! He was the first to volunteer to go down. So brave!
2. Cool mushrooms in the tree--picture taken by Jake and later found on my phone :)
3. After the piano recital. Jake received a very special award.
4. Isaac being measured in the closet doorway. He had grown an inch since his first measurement there.

Hands and More

The Eleven Year Old in Our House

Jake's 11th birthday was so much fun! He spent the afternoon whitewater rafting with Jeremy, and then came home to party with a few friends. They slept in the tent--but not very soundly after Jeremy scared them with creepy animal sounds (hee hee); and Jake's cake of choice this year was mushroom-looking cupcakes. More than anything he wanted a book about mushrooms. Funny boy. He was obsessed with them for a few months. We were pounded with loads of rain over the summer, so every morning he would explore the yard to see what new mushrooms had grown over night.

I feel like he's growing at the same speed. He has suddenly sprouted up into this tall, handsome kid who is on the brink of teenage-hood. Hoping to stretch out this year of childhood as long as we can...

1st Grade Goodbyes

Audrey's end of the year party was darling. It was sea-themed, so the boys wore pirate patches and the girls wore mermaid tails. They played water games, ate pizza, did some crafts, and signed big beach balls for each other. Two of Audrey's best friends in 1st grade were Sammy and Sophie. And the bottom left picture shows Audrey's illustration that was chosen for the book their class published. It was a great year for her-- mostly thanks to a good, good teacher, Ms. Alcorn!

Beach Pics

I'm normally a chronological-order type, even though blogging regularly has gone by the wayside now with instagram and facebook, etc.  Still, I love having the "permanence" of the blog, and I think someday I'll be glad to have this stuff recorded here. These out-of-order posts are thanks to a fresh batch of uploaded pictures from my iphone.

Some beach-trip favorites (clockwise from the top left):

-Driving along the beach to find wild horses. We didn't find any, but had quite an adventure just driving through the deep sand for several miles. The paved road ends at this point on the Outer Banks, and if you take a four-wheel-drive vehicle 13 miles up the beach, you get to the Virginia border.
-Isaac loved having lots of attention from these little friends. They were so sweet with him.
-7 hours in the car to get there. Worth it.
-Surfer Girl Audrey: one of my favorite pictures from the week.
-Deep-fried oreos. This discovery will no doubt become a must-do tradition. Yummmmy.
-The Sunday we were there happened to fall on an abnormally busy LDS tourist weekend. So rather than the church building, we met at a local school gymnasium. The expression on Isaac's face here makes me laugh because we all felt this way as we watched groups, and mobs of singles coming in, completely filling in the gym.

In May

 Drawing and making crafty things comes naturally to Audrey. She surprised me with this banner on Mother's Day morning.

And I enjoyed my front-porch seat to this baseball game. Love these three!

3 month-er

Making Faces (at 2.5 months)

Exit Interview: 1st Grade

6/7/13

last day of school

What was one thing you learned in 1st grade?

How to write letters.

What is one thing you improved at?

Writing and reading.

Was there a favorite book you read?

Stuart Little and Charlotte's Web.

What are you going to miss about 1st grade?

My friends and teacher. I think that's all.

What were some best moments?

The class party and the field trip and the Daddy-Daughter dance.

What are you looking forward to this summer?

I am looking forward to the pool and playing with my friends.

Exit Interview: 5th Grade

 6/7/13

holding his hard-won medal from Battle of the Books

What is one thing you learned in 5th grade?

I learned about the Civil War and the Revolutionary War.

What is one of the best books you read?

Darwen Arkwright and the Peregrine Pact

What did you like about being in Middle School?

I liked being able to sit wherever you want in lunch, and I liked having electives and not having to go to the same Specials all the time.

What was one funny thing that happened?

One guy was sleeping on his desk while they were watching a Revolutionary War movie, so Mrs. Head comes over with a dictionary and drops it on his desk and he jerks back up.

What is something you improved at?

Playing the trumpet.

Tell me about winning the Battle of the Books competition on your last day of school.

There was four other teams and we won every set that we entered by a lot of points and finally they announced us as the winner. I was really, really happy. I knew that we had a good chance of winning, but we were the last team anybody would think would win.

What are you looking forward to doing this summer?

I'm looking forward to playing with friends.

Hello Beach!