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.

Fall Time!

In an attempt carry on the quarterly posting, I have decdided to put up a few pictures and even a short video. These pictures have been sitting on our computer for a while, about 3 months, so I thought I could kill two birds with one stone. So here is the background: Around the Hill home, Hallie usually keeps us running around picking up after her and making sure she doesn't pull our unstable plant stand down causing severe damage to herself from the sheer weight of the pot. But on occasion, Lisa and I get to do what we want. While I would like to tell people that the activities we choose are reading, playing Trivial Pursuit, and coming up with new strategies for our amply sized portfolio, it just wouldn't reflect what actually goes on in our home. I think that the following pictures, however, will give you all a glimpse into our lives as they clearly show what we like to do in our spare time.

New Tricks

So, we realize this post is a little premature for our quarterly update, however, Hallie is now doing a lot of new fun things so we thought we would share. Besides clapping, giving kisses, and waving hi and bye-bye, Hallie is now becoming quite mobile. She is crawling all over the place (her new favorite is to crawl up the stairs--we are still working on coming down the stairs however) and will stand up every chance she gets. This mobility thing is something we are all having to get used to rather quickly, hopefully before she winds up seriously injured. If you look closely at Hallie in the picture with the Dum-Dum sucker you will notice she has a fat upper lip and a bruise on her forehead--poor babe. The fat lip came in an attempt to pull herself up using a T.V. tray. The bruise happened when she fell into the bath tub while I was cleaning, oops. I am trying to tell myself these are the normal bumps and bruises that come with childhood and not just bad parenting.

Hallie also has a new obsession with the telephone. I can't help but wonder if this is a sign of things to come. :) She loves putting the phone up to her ear regardless of whether or not anyone is on the other end. When she first started doing this she would put the phone to her ear and say "Eh", now she will go on talking for hours on end (okay minutes) if we will let her. She started getting mad when we wouldn't let her have our cell phones, so Jordan found an old cell phone we had around the house which she has now claimed as her own.

The summer has been fun, but passed way too fast. I can't believe it is nearly September and Hallie will soon be 1! Jordan started back to school as of Monday (his last semester--yipee) and work continues for me same as always. I have included a couple of videos below. The first one is of Hallie walking behind her little shopping cart. The second is of her talking on the telephone.