Jackson's baptism

Jackson was baptized this last weekend. What a great experience that was. He looked super sharp in his new clothes. We are so happy for him and the good decision he made to get baptized. It was a great day!

Darren baptized and confirmed him and did an amazing job. The spirit was really strong during the confirmation. I'm so thankful I have such and awesome husband who honors his priesthood and is an incredible Dad to his kids!

Jackson is 8 !

I can't believe Jackson is eight years old already! He had barely turned 4 when we moved in to our house here in Springville. Time has flown by! Since 8 is a big milestone, I decided I should be a good mom and give him a birthday party. We decided to do a "mad scientist" party which turned out to be a total blast! A little crazy with all those little boys, but they had lots of fun.

Here's all the experiment ingredients set up and ready to go.

The "before" shot. I literally spent all day setting up for this party. It was a lot of work, but worth it in the end. Each scientist had his own lab coat, safety goggles, and gloves.

When our scientists arrived they had their hair turned into "mad scientist hair" with lots of spiker and some hair spray paint!

The first task was to see who could build the tallest tower with toothpicks and marshmallows, they had lots of fun with this and played with it for quite a while.

We did a couple of different experiments with vinegar and baking soda, they really liked this one that made the balloons blow up on their own.

The"Jackson's" Judd and Rapier

We made slime, and microwaved ivory soap, (if you've never done that, you need to see what happens!) all of which was awesome, but the grand finale was the Diet Coke and Mentos. Jackson told me later that was his favorite part. The camera was too slow to catch the geyser that erupted instantaneously after putting the mentos into bottle, but it was pretty cool!

Opening presents

After this we had pizza and ice cream cone cupcakes that I tricked them with (it was April fools day after all!)

So since Jackson's birthday was during spring break we had his party a couple days early and then did our family thing on his actual birthday. He requested an orange puffle cake, so here's what I came up with.

Happy Birthday Jackson!

Easter

Since we woke up to 6 inches of snow on Easter morning, and since it was General Conference, I don't have cute pictures of my kids all ready to go in their new Easter attire. The Easter Bunny hid eggs in the house, so we still had somewhat of an egg hunt. Too bad something was askew with the camera, most of the pictures turned out all blurry. Oh well, better luck next year. Paisley and Krew were so cute finding the eggs, Krew totally loved it and Paisley caught on in no time. She would see an egg, and drag Abby with her to walk to it then pick it up and put it in the basket. (what a smartie!)

The Irish Giant

This awesome suit was inherited from my Grandpa last August, and we've been anxiously waiting for March 17 to arrive ever since. Darren's office is totally uptight and ultra professional at all times, but every now and then someone will do something super awesome to break up the stressful times of tax season. I was surprised he was brave enough to actually go through with it. I'm sure there were some good laughs today at his work. This get-up is even better than the year he wore everything, and I mean EVERYTHING green in his closet to work at Learn-key. Won't it be awesome when St Patricks Day falls on a Sunday? Leave it to Darren, he's quite the comedian sometimes!

Two little piggies!!

I know this is such a Mom, girl thing...I was so excited today to FINALLY be able to do something with Paisleys tiny bit of hair! Two teeny little pigtails. Maybe she won't be bald her whole life after all! Now if we could just get the little bit of hair right in the front to grow...

I have to admit, I am a little sad at how this makes her look so much older. Since she's not walking she still seems about 10 months old to me.

Curls! we have curls! This is what her hair looks like after the tub. YAY!! (we wouldn't want her to feel left out)

Happy Monday!!

I was so excited today I could hardly stand it! Paisley got her cast off. She was pretty dramatic about the whole deal. She was in a super good mood this morning, I think she could tell something wonderful was going to happen. She didn't exactly love the saw they cut the cast with, or the last set of x-rays, but it was totally worth the end result!! A really dry leg and really long toe nails! Just kidding, NO CAST!! Yippee!

A happy baby = a happy mama :)

I bet it felt awesome to have pink sawdust in her diaper! ewww!

She screamed the whole time and kept trying to push the casting tech away, so I had to hold her down

I figured the best way to celebrate was with a bubble bath!! Hooray for clean babies!

It was harder than you would think to get her to stop splashing for two seconds and look at the camera! She had the time of her life in the tub! Stinkin' cute!

Christmas Fun!

Wow, I can't believe the holidays have come and gone so soon. It really flew by this year. Darren is already hard at work during his busy tax season, so we especially cherish the relaxed work load of December. Grandma and Grandpa Hill were able to come up for a few days over Christmas. We always love having them stay, the kids were sad that they left so soon! We haven't had any major events since Paisley's broken leg(thank goodness!), so I'll just put some random pics on here for sake of time.

Abby at her first orchestra concert. She did awesome!

So many presents! This is Krew waiting his turn patiently

Paisley modeling her very cute hat that Aunt Lauren made

Jackson, taking after his dad (the whole gun thing)

Abby's big surprise!!

Abby and Jackson sledding at Jolley's Ranch