Our Trip to AZ

At the beginning of June the boys and I were able to go to Arizona to meet up with family that we haven't seen in a LONG time.  Most of the family we saw had never seen either one of the boys, so it was fun for everyone to see them.  The main reason for everyone meeting up was that Grammie (my dad's mom) was getting married!  It was a fun trip with a lot of firsts, but we missed our Daddy.  Kenney stayed in Texas to go to school and take tests, poor guy.  The boys had a great time and never lacked for attention or entertainment with so many people around.

WARNING:  This is a long post with lots of pictures.  Just beware!

The boys did surprisingly well on the plane both going and coming home.  It got a little rough when our 1 hour layover turned into a 3 hour layover, but other than that they did great.  Kyler loved all of the new things and looking out the window.  Damon loved the window too.  They were pushing each others' heads out of the way to see!  Damon was making all kinds of new friends in the airport by walking around to anyone that was far away from me! 

I didn't get a picture of the boys on the plane, but Kyler had just woken up from a short little nap in the stroller.  They were both so exhausted by the time we got there.  Kyler loved being on a plane and that they gave him juice on the plane.

Damon and my sister Haley at the reception

Kyler and Uncle T, my 6'11" brother who keeps hoping he will reach 7'2"

This poor little guy was so off schedule the entire time we were there, but he was amazingly happy too.  I was really impressed.  He took most of his naps in the car seat!

Kyler had to have goggles like the big boys!  The place we stayed had a pool so we got a lot of swimming in while we were there.  Kyler was extremely nervous about the pool at first which surprised me, but after a few days he warmed up fast.  He was jumping from the side of the pool going completely under water by the time we left.  That says a lot considering he would barely put his feet in the water the first day.

Damon loved the water from the beginning.  He never complained once and had a great time splashing.

I don't know if you can see the smile on Kyler's face, but he eventually learned to love the water too.

Uncle Brenn (my youngest brother).  I can't believe he just turned 10, crazy!!

Auntie Shandi and Damon.  She wasn't able to be there for the entire time, but she had plenty of time to spoil her nephews and get Kyler his Sluprees!  She loves these boys more than they will ever know.

Aren't these feet gross?  We couldn't believe how wrinkly his feet got in the water!

Poor Kyler was so worn out from the pool one day that when we got back to the room he was eating some grapes, and dropped one on the floor.  He bent down to pick it up and never made it back up!!  He just fell asleep on the floor.  It was so cute!

Logan (one of my other brothers).  He was FANTASTIC with the boys.  Kyler loved Uncle Logan.  He even rode in the van with the boys everywhere we went, even though there was a good chance one or both of them would be screaming.  He always tried to help them out.  It was nice having so much help.

Grandma and Grandpa took all of us to Wet-n-Wild one day.  Kyler had a really good time in the wave pool until the waves came.  They terrified him.  This crazy place was quite intimidating to Kyler at first, but eventually he  warmed up to parts of it.  There were a lot of bigger kids running around.

We even got him to go down a slide, but that tongue had to be sticking out!

Kyler getting Aunt Haley to take him somewhere.  He loved being able to grab anyone and drag them where ever he wanted to go. 

Wet-n-Wild was an exhausting place for little guys!  Grandpa had no trouble putting this little guy to sleep.

Damon's hair is getting lighter and lighter by the day.  I can't believe how much it has lightened up.  Don't those eyelashes make you sick?  I wish they came from me!

There's that tongue again!

This is Damon with my Aunt Heidi. She is the angel of the family, and we always say that she is the only thing in the world that doesn't change!

Damon and Grammie.  Not the best, but at least they are together for the first time.  Grammie talked about Damon's cute smile and this is the ugly one he gave for the camera.  Go figure!   I am also sad that I didn't get any pictures of the newlyweds, but our family loves Al, and we are so happy for them.

Damon was so happy when he was playing at the pool!

Damon and Uncle Colin.  It was such a big help to have so many extra people willing and wanting to play with the boys.  They have really struggled since we have been home because all the get during the day now is me!

So cute!

Yes I was there too!  Haley got the camera so I guess I had to get my picture taken too!

Grandma and Kyler.  We are blessed to have so many people that love us and our boys!

How fitting for a Hill family gathering!  The tongue is a weird Hill thing.  All questions can be directed to my Dad or Grandpa because he started the whole thing.

Last but not least, this is my favorite picture.  Shandi got this in the Visitor's Center at the temple in Mesa.  I absolutely love it!

Adjusting to Changes

We are no longer in Childress.  We have some bittersweet feelings about leaving, but we are very excited about this new chapter in life!  School is in full swing for Kenney, and he is busy, busy. busy!!  He is enjoying school, but it is going to take a LOT of time!  The boys and I will be busy during the month of June visiting with family, so I think that will be good for all of us. 

The best part about our new living conditions is that we couldn't bring a lot of stuff with us.  We were also unpacked in about 3 days!!  3 long days, but just 3 days.  When you move into a place  a 1/3 of the size of your last place, there is only room for the basics.  I think poor Kyler misses his running room more than anything.  Damon misses familarity; I miss my gas stove and the playroom; Kenney misses free-time.  BUT overall, we are very excited for what these new changes have in store!

Kyler and Damon don't have much space to avoid each other, so they have been playing with one another much more often.  They are also beginning to wrestle with one another.  It is pretty funny to watch.  Kyler has to take advantage now because I don't think he will be bigger than Damon for much longer!



Kyler got some new pj's from Oma in a package and wanted to put ALL of them on at once.  So we put all of the on.  When he went to bed, he still had one pair on, so this picture is missing one pair that he was wearing.  He wore all of them for about 2hrs before going to bed.

Here he is with all of them on and the new church shoes!

One day before we moved, I was of course busy doing something, and Kyler found some lotion.  So he decided to 'do' his hair.  This was the result.  What do you think?  Future hairstylist? 

This about sums up how hard this trasinition has been on Damon.  The poor kid is having a really rough time. 

It is FINISHED!!

Our house in finally DONE.  Completely DONE.  Of course there are always going to be things we could improve, but we are DONE!!  It has taken a lot of work and time, but hopefully when we sell the house it will be worth it.  Kenney has really done so much work; I am amazed.  I never knew he could do half the things he did.  We have decided YouTube actually has a useful purpose.  We saved thousands of dollars doing things ourselves rather than hiring it out.  I can honestly say that I am proud of our house.  I had many MANY doubts in the beginning, but I think it looks pretty awesome!

This is one of the back bedrooms.  All of the windows and doors were painted red and white.  We aren't quite sure if they were just really excited to try out new colors or what, but the paint was new and the room was a complete mess.  We decided to paint after the ceiling was in place!  Half of this wall was super thin and half was solid wood.  We had to reinforce the wall on the other side.

Sorry about the boxes.  This is the other side of that same room.

The unfinished ceiling and lovely blue stripe they had going in the room with red doors and windows.

Another corner of the same room.  We framed over all of this mess and painted to make it look much nicer.

 AFTER

This is one of my favorite paint colors in all of the house.  Those red windows just had to go!

We discovered in this room how much we hated doors.  It was awful installing doors!

BEFORE

 

This used to be a kitchen when the houses were separated.  We had to remove the rest of the kitchen and sheet-rock the entire room.

The doorway here went into the previous bedroom, and this wall was super thin.  Kenney framed the wall and closed the doorway.

This beautiful fabric wallpaper was in random sections throughout this room.  The horrible ugly window was supposed to be replaced, but there is a long story behind that so we just had to take it out completely.

We tried to save the beadboard and paint over it, but we couldn't.  Kenney had to tear it all down and reinforce the rafters in the roof.  Needless to say, he officially hates insulation!

This shows how thin some of the wall were.  We are still amazed they were still standing.  The house is much more solid now!

 AFTER

The kitchen is no longer!  This room is completely new.  The walls, carpet, ceiling, fan, windows, etc. 

That door was a pain too.  Kenney actually built the door frame himself!  He chiseled the wood to make the hinges fit and everything.  I was amazed.  The door opens perfectly and hangs level.  What more could you ask for?

This room is huge!  I still have nightmares of painting it.  Kyler loves to run in this room because there is so much space.

 BEFORE

We were told by one of our friends that this was the scary room.  It was pretty horrible.  The floor was pretty much nonexistent. 

Basically everything in this room was falling apart.

The wood around the windows was rotten, and we have no idea how all of the glass panes were still in place.  The wood underneath the windows was beautiful, but we were not able to keep it visible.

These are the pipes from the kitchen that used to be on the other side of the wall.  They were just exposed and hanging out everywhere.

There was pretty much not a ceiling to speak of, and wires were dangling everywhere.

 AFTER

Look there is a floor and a ceiling and walls!!  What a difference those things make!

We really didn't put a whole lot of effort into this room; we just wanted to make sure it was sealed and useable.  I painted everything white because I was so tired to two different colors!

I don't know if you can really tell, but in the middle where it sticks out a little is where the pipes are.  We didn't want to take them out in case someone wanted to put a kitchen in again or make a bigger laundry room, but at least it is much cleaner now.