Jessica's 11th birthday!!

So Jessica had her 11th birthday recently.. she is pretty special because she shares a birthday with her Great Grandpa Hill plus it is also Groundhogs Day, and because she has the coolest birth date 2/2/02. How cool is that.. Well for her birthday she wanted me to make her some cake pops... I have never made cake pops before but I have a really cute recipe book filled with fun and decorative ideas for cake pops.. so I decided to give it a try and this was how they turned out.. I thought they turned out pretty good... The cake may have had a little to much frosting because instead of it being more cakey it was more like cookie dough consistency but none the less they turned out good and tasted good..

Of course we had to have a chocolate cake with the horses on top as well..  she was hoping that we could have put the ice cream cone cake pops in and surrounding the cakes but it wasnt possible due to the size and weight of them.

She wanted to have a little party with a few friends she has made here in Idaho.. So we had a few girls over and they watched a movie in our theater and played and had lots of fun..

we had my parents come up for Jessies birthday and Allie, Jessie and I were all sitting on the couch and my dad was sitting down from us and couldn't believe the resemblance between us so we had to get a picture..  I guess you can tell they are my girls.

Then you look at Logan and wonder where she came from??  Nah not really she looks just like my side of the family the Hill Side.. All blonde hair and blue eyes..  I actually was blonde when I was little and growing up but as the years went on I got darker so I decided to go all dark and have been dark ever since..  Logan is the only child who got my blonde hair and blue eyes. However she is starting to turn darker just like the other kids did.. Jessie was the only one who was born with darker hair..

Austin was a spitting image of my dad when he was born but now everyone says he is a spitting image of Steve.. Some still say he looks alot like the Hill side.. I guess he is a good mix..   Love my kids....

Just before we moved to Idaho for the final time Austin was able to finish up his Eagle Project and get his board of review in like 2 days before we were to fly out.. Talk about Luck.. They knew we were leaving so they really tried to expedite the process for us so we were so greatful to have it done before we moved..  Now he just has to have his Court Of Honor to present his Eagle award to him.. Since we are new to the ward here in Idaho and dont really know anyone out here nor does anyone know him we decided it would be cool to go to Utah and have his court of honor with his cousin Dallen who is also receiving his Eagle. This way all our family's can come and share the day with them. 
We are sad that we could not have his court of honor in MI with the ward that helped out with his project and with his leaders who has helped him through his scouting years and we will miss them not being there, But it will be great to be here with all our family's able to attend..  we are so proud of him for getting his eagle done so quickly.. He finished and had his board of review just 1 day before his 14th birthday.. It was a nice achievement and birthday gift..

My boys got to go on a over night camp out for the teachers quorum in our ward this last weekend.. they went up to a cabin about an hour or two north of where we live and they got to hike in to where the cabin sits in the forrest. They also got to sit in some natural Hot Springs that was near.  This was how they returned home.. I told them they looked very redneck.. See what Idaho has done to us... Hiking boots, swimsuits and jackets... Yeehaw!!

Steve has been traveling alot lately and will continue for a while so I was really greatful that he could spend some time with Austin having some good ol father and son bonding time even though he is not a part of the YM's group they needed another adult to go so he volunteered like he always does..  I have such a great hubby!!   There just isnt enough of him to go around..  When they came home we had made plans to go out with some friends for dinner.. It had been quite some time since Steve and I have been able to go out on a date so I was very excited.. But poor Logan was like great first Austin Steals him away and now you steal him away..  Poor kid.. We will have to make sure she gets some one on one with daddy...

Well we have alot going on this week.. Thursday is Valentines day and Jessie is having a ski trip with her school class up to Bogus Basin and Steve volunteered to be a chaperone so he could go with her.. So that is what they will be doing for valentines day and then Fri we will all head to Brigham to have Austin's court of honor and visit with family and then Steve will head off again on a trip..

Allie's 16th birthday is coming up the following week so I need to get busy and start figuring out what to do for that...  Busy Busy!!

New Granite

So this week has been not to bad.. Sunday night we were invited to go have dessert at one of the family's in our ward home. The Turner family and it was alot of fun.. They are big game players so we played games and had ice cream we felt very comfortable with their family. I hope we can develop a good friendship with them..  They have a son who is Allie's age, a daughter who is Austin's age and another daughter who is Jessie's age so that is kind of nice.. We seem to have similar likes between our families so it was cool..

We had Monday off due to Martin Luther King Day.. We didn't really do much around here except the normal chores and stuff.. Steve had to work..   Then Steve left on Weds for Dallas which was kind of a bummer. He has been traveling alot lately so that is never fun.. Then Weds night it started to rain/snow but the temps were so cold that we had more of a freezing rain snow mix which made all the roads very icy so they cancelled school, so the kids enjoyed that.. I just wish they would have notified us earlier before we were all dressed up ready to go and heading to the bus stop before we finally found out. Owell I guess I had to be up anyways because the granite company was coming out today to install my new granite..  We were kind of confined to the house, so we didn't get to do much except just wait until the granite people to finish up and leave. We were all starving because we couldn't really go in and make lunch with a bunch of people in our kitchen working.. So we were living on chips and crackers I had managed to sneak out of the pantry while they were working.

We had a little set back because when they ripped off the existing granite they found a bunch of mold on the plywood that the granite had been sitting on near the sink because the people who originally put the granite in did not do a good job on sealing it up and water got back in around the sink.. It looked really bad that's why we wanted to replace the granite in the first place..  One of the workers is allergic to mold and he got this huge rash all over his face and down his neck because of the mold..  So this put everything on hold and we were told to stay out of the kitchen for a while and they all got masks on and was calling a professional to see what they should do.. They told me they were originally going to cut all the wood out that was molded which would have made me feel much better but the professional told them to just spray it with pure bleach and that would take care of it so they did..  My house was toxic smelling for a while they had to leave the doors open to help ventilate it so my house was freezing and the heater was constantly running and we were all confined to our office room because its the warmest room in the house.. Fun times..  I cant wait to see what my utility bills are going to be this month with the heat always running because of our freezing temps this week and our frozen pipes and having to run additional heaters to unfreeze them I am sure it's going to be outrageous.. 

 I would have much rather enjoyed a nice lazy day of watching movies and staying warm with the kids snuggled up in blankets.. Owell we have some very nice granite now.. It makes the kitchen look much better..

Before

 After

 

Now we are just waiting to get our cabinets done..  We have been working through a guy who does his own work so he is extremely busy so we are having to work with his schedule.. Because the cabinets were built in and then the brick built in around them we just cant take the cabinets out without destroying all the brick work around it, so our options are to try and change the existing color that is on them..  Right now its kind of a yellowish color with some black speckled look to it.. I am not very fond of it so I am hoping to make them a little darker, however we are having a hard time trying to find a glaze that can go over it to give it the look that I want..  I did talk to the painter today though and we are going to try putting a black glaze on them to see if that might possibly darken the cabinets to where I want them..  I am also thinking of painting the island cabinets black...  Now with this new granite on I think it would look pretty cool to have a black island which would bring out the black colors in the granite and bring a little more color to the kitchen...

We had a black island in our MI home and I really liked it so I am hoping it will look good in this one..

So we are just playing the waiting game to finally get some samples from the painter to look at and decide on something.. He took a couple of our cabinet doors to experiment on so we can see if its what we want, so just have to wait for him to get them done.. He is thinking it might be spring before we can actually do it which really sucks but he is giving us a deal so guess we will wait..  I will post when we finally get it all done..

So now its Friday and my hubby will be getting home somewhere around midnight and then he will be going skiing Sat afternoon with the ym of our ward for an activity.. So that will be fun for him and Austin tomorrow.. I guess us girls will have a movie day..  Sunday we will be going to our first Stake conference here.. they will be calling a new bishopric so that should be interesting.. I really liked the bishop we currently have.. I have not really gotten to know him in the few short weeks we have been here, but he is always so happy and smiling and has been really nice to talk to..  He called us in last week to meet us and see what callings we have been in before, and all that stuff they do with new families when they move in, so that's all the contact we have really had with him.. I am sure we will get a great new bishopric though...

That's been our week...

 

2012 Year End

Ok so I forgot a little bit more of the end of our 2012 year end.. I found some more pictures on my camera and due to that most of it was during the process of our moving I had forgotten they were even on there, so here is a little more catching up from the end of our 2012 year..

Our Halloween Dinner.. I didnt get real creative this year. There was just too much going on with getting ready to fly out west in 15 days.. I managed to get the brain jello, the blood for drinking, Somebody's ribs for the main course. The kids still enjoyed it..

 Our ward had a Halloween party and I was assigned a room to decorate and give out candy..

Then came the infamous birthday month.. Steve, Austin and my birthday are all in Nov. Starting with Austin.. The big 14.. Wow where has the time gone.. He has grown like a weed lately and he is so excited to finally be taller then me.. It has been a game between us for the past year and I always could say ya but I am still taller but not any more.... I cant seem to keep him in shoes or pants.. We have had to buy new shoes and pants within 3 months of each other..

Well for Steve's birthday the kids and I flew out to Utah to make our Journey to our new home.. So we didnt really get to celebrate his.. And then unfortunatly we were still stuck in a hotel waiting to get closed on our home here in idaho so thankfully Steve had one of his reps let us borrow her parents condo so we could have a Thanksgiving Dinner.. Didn't think to get pictures.. And then my Birthday is on Thanksgiving every 4 years so we kind of celebrated it on Thanksgiving this year since steve was going to be gone on a business trip for it.. We didnt do anything really. He and my parents had the kids make me cards.. So not to fun a year for our birthdays this year..

We went to Brigham, Utah for Christmas this year.. We hadnt even gotten all our boxes unpacked let alone any christmas decor or tree up..  This is Steves brothers and sister and their kids.. We usually jave the kids draw names for a gift exchange..

Austin is all about eating right now so they got him a box of honeycoombs with a gift card attached to it..

Aunt Kim

Aunt Chandra

Uncle Nate

Me and my Baby!!

Looks like I'v been sipping a little too much eggnog.. :)

Uncle Mike.. Actually cousin Mike but we call him Uncle..

Christmas morning at my parents house..

I must have been very naughty this year to get this big of a lump of coal.. It's usually a tradition between me and my dad to get each other a lump of coal and stick of wood for each other.

So the first week of Jan Allie finished her driving portion of her class so she now officially has a drivers permit.. so she has to drive a total of 50 hours with her parents in the car over a 6 month period before she can get her official license..  All she did was drive 3 times with the instructor.  So the majority of teaching her rests upon us which bugs me.. The first couple times driving with her was scarry...

It's been so cold here we woke up to this yesterday and today.. Everything is frozen.. We have been having temps down in the 5 and 10 below zero with the wind chill... UGGH  to cold.. Seems my furnace runs non stop...

OK So here are the pictures of our new home..  This is a storage area.. It used to be their laundry room but they decided to add on to the house so they put in cabinets on both sides so that makes it really nice..except my laundry is now down 3 flights of stairs..

This is the best part of the house.. It is our theater room and it is so cool. It was made to look like your in the street of an Italian pavillion.. With a few italian shops around and under the stars it is so cool. The pictures dont do it justice..

My Laundry room

My kitchen.. However its going to change a little in a couple weeks.. We are putting in new granite and glazing the cabinets a bit darker.. You cant tell in the picture but they are yellow.. In fact this whole house is yellow.. They really must have liked the color yellow..  Not to big of a fan of yellow cabinets..

Dining room off of kitchen

Entry way.

Great room/Living Room

Office... See yellow..

Master

Spare bathroom.. They had a painter come paint the sink and toilet.. Its actually pretty cool.

Allie's room

Food Storage room.. Alot smaller then my last one so it was a little hard to fit everything in there.. Thank heavens we have a big pantry in the kitchen.. And yep its yellow...

Basement family room

Austin's Room

Logan's room

Jessie's Room

Front of House

Back Deck

One thing I love about the West is their awesome sunsets..

OK now I think I got the rest of the year in..