Happy New Year!

I had hoped to send out a Christmas card this year, but it just didn't happen (are you really surprised?) so I thought perhaps I would send out a New Year's letter instead, but that fell through as well. So this is what you get--a glimpse at our year via blog. At first I felt a little bad, but decided this is more fun anyway because this way you get a lot more pictures which is what we all want to see with a Christmas card anyway, right?!

Let's see here...

We had the Hill family vacation in Southern California back in February. Looking at these pictures I can't believe how much Hallie has grown in the last year!

In June, we bought a house--kind of an impulse buy--but are happy with the decision. Below are the pics the previous owners advertised with, so of course it looks a lot different now. The previous owner used the basement apartment as a preschool, but we are actually renting it out...so far, so good!

We ran the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay for the second year in a row the weekend following closing on our house.











I transferred up at the hospital from the float pool to the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU) sometime in July and am very happy with the switch.

We took another little vacation in August with the Pincock family. We were a little nervous going into it (because who decides it would be fun to take a two year old camping for nine days), but had a great time! Thanks Anna Karina and Ryan for planning everything and Jeremy for your camp trailor. :)

We celebrated Hallie's second birthday on September 28th. SERIOUSLY can't believe she is two...and SO smart! (I can believe the smart part, after all, I am her mom.)



Went to Denver in November to spend a week with family and see the Broncos get dominated by the Steelers.

And finally there was December. It was busy, but good. We welcomed Jana home from Argentina on the 16th, celebrated Jordan's birthday on the 18th, and enjoyed Christmas and the New Year with family and friends. And somewhere in the middle of all of it found a little time to build a snowman!





Well, there you have it, our year in a nutshell (speaking of which we also discovered Hallie has a severe allergy to walnuts--bad joke, I know). So that just took WAY longer than I would have spent on a crazy letter, oh well, live and learn!

We love you guys! Thank you for a great year!

Thank you Shari!

So, over Mother's Day weekend Shari was in town and was kind enough to take some pictures of Hallie. I had been meaning to get Hallie's picture taken at 18 months, but being the slacker mom that am it just hadn't happened. And now I don't have to worry about it because I have a very talented sister (Hallie made for a very difficult target that day--and every day), thank you Shari! I actually stole these pictures from Shari's blog, so sorry if you have already seen all of these.

All aboard!

So just a funny, random little story about Hallie. She is very keen to the sound of passing trains, and of course we hear them all of the time at our house because there are tracks very near by. Every time she hears a train she raises her hand to the side above her head and with a "tooting" motion says, "Choo, choo" in the cutest, highest pitched little voice you have ever heard. Well, when she was just learning her sounds and begining to understand words, I was outside with her one day and pointed out a tree. Well, for her, the word train and tree must have sounded too much alike, because as soon as I said tree she held her hand out to the side above her head and said, "Choo, choo." My best guess is she understood that all of the noise of the trains she hears while in the house are coming from those objects (trees) I pointed out to her outside. So anyway, yesterday, Jordan and I took her downtown to see a real train in motion. She saw the train (didn't get to hear it blow its whistle however), acknowledged with her little "Choo, choo" that she understood the large moving object was a train, and still continues to see trees and say, "Choo, choo!" What can we say? She totally makes us laugh. Funny girl!

Oh to be a kid again...!

Hallie, like any young child I imagine, does NOT like her teeth brushed, and the drama in performing the task is often times exhausting. I can't wait for the day when I can just REASON with her (Jordan already tries--I think he does it in an attempt to make himself feel better). I know, it might be when she is 20, but someday. So the other day I had this ingenious idea that I should have her brush her baby's "teeth" while I brushed hers. And she went for it...for that ONE time anyway. She brushed that poor baby's face for about 10 minutes, while I gave her teeth the best brush job they have ever had...and she didn't mind a bit. She was so funny, check out the pure concentration on her face.



The next picture I probably shouldn't post because looking at it, one might think no one loves this poor girl and the house is a disaster, but I feel it captures the essence of childhood...not a care in the world!



Yes, we let her play with chemicals, but only under direct supervision.

One of Hallie's most recent favorite activities is singing "Once There Was A Snowman." I sing, she does the actions. And we do it over, and over, and over. And it never gets old. I love that she loves it. She lets me know she would like to sing by putting her hands up over her head like so...



Hallie continues to keep us busy and make us laugh every day! We are so lucky to have her!

Update!

Okay, so let me try to remember all that has happened since I last posted. First of all, there was Thanksgiving. This year was spent for the most part with the Hill family. All of Jordan's siblings were able to be here which meant lots of cousins around for Hallie to play with (and fight with). She enjoyed about 90% of her time with them, or rather any time that she was able to have things her way--what can we say, she is an only child.

At the beginning of December, Jordan officially graduated with his degree in Business Finance! Yeah! Now all he has to do is find a job...no big deal. If anyone would like to hire him for about $75,000 a year that would be perfect. :) Just give him a call. With two graduates of Idaho State University as parents we saw it fit that Hallie sport some ISU apparel.



Then, on December 18th we celebrated Jordan's birthday. He has become a little self-conscious about his age so I won't announce to the world that he has been around for nearly three decades.

And then there was Christmas. I LOVE Christmas and it passed much too quickly for my liking. I think I could have enjoyed another entire month of Christmas music, lights, family...etc. Hallie was SO fun to watch this year as she found so much delight in all the festivities.



All of my family was able to be here over the Christmas holiday except for Jana of course who is serving a mission in Argentina. We were all able to talk to her on Chirstmas morning which was nice. It was good to hear her voice. Having Nyah around made me appreciate a comparatively mild little girl. I only thought Hallie was busy until I tried keeping up with Nyah for a couple of weeks. I haven't decided if the difference is purely due to their little personalities or if it is just the age gap..only time will tell. This was about the only time I was able to catch them both holding still long enough to take a picture.



So, I think that is about it. Since welcoming in the new year it seems life as we know it continues to fly by. Jordan and I still call Hallie our little Hallie Baby though she is sixteen months old as of yesterday.



These last couple of pictures I just think are funny and so I thought I would share. Hallie is pretty good with on demand kisses these days. While playing at the little kids play center at our mall I suggested to her that she should kiss this frog...and she did. :) As far as I can tell she did not contract any serious diseases.



Or did she...





As you can see, Hallie can now pucker her lips so well she is able to plug her nose. She thinks she is pretty hilarious when she does this as do Jordan and I.

Happy Birthday and Happy Halloween!

So, sorry this has taken me forever (I know nobody is surprised however), but here are a few pictures of Hallie on her 1st birthday and then on Halloween.