Elder West "poddy trianing"

I am loving, LOVING, getting my brothers emails each week. I remember how fun it was to get emails from my other siblings and I am so glad to get to have a missionary sibling again.
I have to be honest, my baby brother Joe is funny, but in his letters he is a hoot! Seriously he has a great writing voice. He told a story this week about how everyone was talking about a party, but instead of saying fiesta they tried to say party...but they pronounced it poddy! All i can do is laugh and be glad that Joe is also teaching some English classes while he is there! Hahaha, sigh, he said to tell our potty training kids that in El Salvador people celebrate going to the "poddy".
Keep up the excellence little brother (who by the way is several inches taller then me! :) ;) )

To Kayden

To my K baby,

Mommy loves you so much! I cannot believe that you are four. A four year old sounds so big, and to me you are still such a little guy. I feel a little sad sometimes, like I missed out on your 3rd year (because I was so sick) but I can look back and see the good times we had when you were 3 too. I want you to know how much I love you. What a sweet boy you are. Did you know that you were my tiniest baby? I snuggled you all the time. Things were really busy for our family after you were born but I was so glad we had you! You are such a cheerful little boy we wouldn't be complete as a family without you! You are like sunshine. Sometimes you feel sad too though, and that's okay. Just come talk to us (mommy and daddy) and we can help you. Never be scared to talk to us about anything because a big part of being your parents is helping you!We will ALWAYS love you no matter what!

Stay my happy angel baby. I am always here if you need me, just ask.

- mommy

PS. I am excited to spend lots of mommy & Kayden time together while Eli is at school and Lawrence is sleeping! We will do lots of fun things!

Happy Birthday Eli

I have not done our official Birthday photo shoot yet, I will get to it soon,  because so often those picture are my favorites!

Eli,
Mommy and daddy are proud of you. We love you, and we will always love you. You have many good family members who love you also, we are blessed at this time in our lives to be so close to so many of them. They love you also. We all want you to succeed in life, and we know you will! You will succeed because you don't give up! You tell me all the time " I wont give up mom!", you also remind me that you " can do hard things!". I am so glad you are willing to work and keep trying , because that is so very important in this life!
You start Kindergarten this year! I cant believe how big you have grown. You are my oldest, which also means that you are the baby who made me a mother. Thank you for coming down first. I know that being the oldest can be hard sometimes. Life gets hard a lot! If you ever feel frustrated, you can come talk to me, I am always here to support and help you.  As you go to school and do more things outside the home, you will have questions about things. Come and talk to me and your dad, we want to help you and teach you, we have been 5 before so we can help!
We have tried to teach you things to help keep you safe , because we love you, mommy and daddy can't always protect you from everything but we wish we could. Always talk to us about anything, you will never be in trouble for coming to us with anything that ever concerns or confuses you.

You are a son of God Eli! I hope you realize how wonderful that is. Not only do you have a loving family here on earth but you have a perfectly kind and loving Eternal Father who loves you, he will never forsake you!

Eli I want to say again how proud of you I am. I see how hard you try, and I see how sweet your temperament is. You have strong opinions but that is a good thing and one of the many things I love about you! Stay yourself! Never feel like you are anythings less than wonderful! Life is full of trials and sad things, but we do not have to be sad or ashamed. We can be happy!

I hope you had a very happy birthday and that you have nothing but wonderful experiences all year! I am so glad I get to be right here to be your mom and watch your life unfold!
I love you son,
 Mommy

Valentines day

For valentines day this year we spread it over a weekend. Mitch and i went on a date on Friday and that is when we gave everyone their gifts, the YW had done a fundraiser so it made the most sense.
Then we really just relaxed all weekend.
These cute boys get me every time.

Family,
I LOVE YOU
Happy Valentines day. Happy everyday.
love,
mommy

Mascot

The boys have decided that the baby in my tummy is named Mascot.
The timing of this decision was shortly after they attended a basketball game with daddy.
In the months since this deceleration it still has not changed

So little Hill, you already have quite the nickname!
We are excited to find out 'girl or  boy' on Monday.
Either way I suspect your nickname will remain the same.

Until then. Love and snuggles little Hill.

PS its a fun last name to have, my tummy is like a little Hill and inside is a little baby Hill. (I am so punny/funny).

(I posted this to Facebook and Instagram yesterday, obviously it will remain up until after we find out the gender but so far out of about 35 comments only 7 or so of them guess boy, with several smart people Like my Cousin Aaron just hoping for me that it is one or the other not one of both, lol, gotta love that! most guess are for girl. I would be very happy either way, i just want a healthy baby. but if it is a boy the nickname might work out better.... ;)  

Merry Christmas from The Hill's

Merry Christmas Darlings, Happy new year too!
I really was on the ball about Christmas cards this year, up until they shipped late and I didn't get them until late last week... and then I just felt like WHY! I have sent some Christmas cards out and a few of you got a really nice tri fold card from us earlier this month, but the rest of you will probably either get the card in person or just have to see this post and feel special. Its just so late in to the season to send cards to people who I will see anyways.
I did write a Christmas letter but our printer is running low ( I keep forgetting when I am at the store!) so I will post the letter here too.
An for all the friends who sent cards to us THANK YOU!! I am a girl who loves getting mail and all the cards we have received this year have been a source of joy to me- silly as that may be- so thank you! If you sent me one I have probably sent one your direction as well!
Without further chit chatting , on to the letter!

Friends and family,

This year was another good year for our family. Life has ups and downs and we certainly had trials as well as fun times, but overall we can so that the Lord has blessed us abundantly!

We enjoyed several trips early on in the year, we went to Utah and saw loved ones and later we went to Washington for a family trip (thank you to the tanners for the invitation to your property!).

In the beginning of the year, our sweet little white ford focus finally gave up on us and we had to sell it. We were sad to see it go because of all the memories attached to it. A tender mercy was that a month or so after that my grandpa Durrant generously sold us his Mercury Sable. We are so grateful to have it now, it is a wonderful, reliable car that will last us a good long time. We really feel the blessing of that and have so much gratitude for those that helped us- you all know who you are.

In May My sister Jessica got married to a wonderful old friend of hers named Todd, I spent many fun hours helping my mom and sister plan and prepare for her wedding. My boys really love having another fun uncle!

Sadly in the beginning of June Grandpa Durrant passed away from this life to the next, we are sad because we miss him, but we know that we will see him again! This was the same week that we had our first miscarriage, it was an emotional month, but again we are so grateful for kind family and friends and their love and support.

In the late summer Mitchell was able to get accepted very quickly into a Masters program for Educational Leadership and Administration. We are so proud! It is a year round, 2 year program, he has night classes and Saturday classes, it has kept us all busy but we are so grateful for this opportunity! Also this year Mitchell in addition to his teaching is the attendance dean for freshmen at the high school, and he has been able to be a coordinator for the afterschool program he has been involved in the last several years. We are so grateful for these opportunities! Just recently he was hired to be an online professor for BYUI, he will be teaching one class for now and started the second week on December. We are so grateful for this blessing as it will not only be great experience but will help pay for the big expense we have coming in May.

In January Eli moved up from nursery to sunbeams at church, it felt like a big step! But he loves it and does well! In June Eli finished his first year of preschool, we loved it, he learn so much and most importantly (in my way of thinking) he has been able to make friends, improve his speech and learn social skills. We liked it so much last year that we put both boys in this year! They started in September and they are both loving it. Both boys are potty trained and I love the lack of diaper changing!

I have been busy at home. I trained for another race this summer and we continued to make small updates around our home, one of the biggest ones was getting a new furnace and air conditioner! This summer was much more comfortable then that last few! Also for a gift early in the year my husband bought me a Camera! I have spent many wonderful times this year out shooting pictures and preserving memories of our sweet little family of four. In August the opportunity came for me to watch a little baby in our home during the work days. We love having “baby T” over each day, the boys get along with him so well. It’s all boys around here these days and it is so much fun. Baby T’s mom works at the district office for Nampa so it is convenient because most vacation days are the same as Mitchells. Big Blessing!

We were excited to find out we were expecting again and we will be due in mid may! That is probably the biggest news from my corner. I am once again very sick but we have a great doctor and a good combination of meds so that overall I am doing really well. We just feel so blessed, in the end it’s all more than worth it we have looked forward to expanding our little family with a lot of anticipation!

We are so glad that we have so many loving friend and family members and extend thanks to all of you for your kindness, love and support over that past year. We look forward to next year and the times we will spend with so many of you! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Love, the Hill family

Letter to K on his Birthday

Dear one,
You will not remember this but 3 years ago you came to our family. We loved you before we even meet you and we loved you even more when we saw your face. Daddy helped deliver you witch was very special. You where so tiny because you came 3 1/2 weeks early, we all loved you. We still love you!
You have such a spirit of joy about you,, never lose that! It is a precious quality in our world today. The world tells us to be negative and complain, Its simply not true!
"Men are that they might have joy" God wants us to be happy! He loves you! I love you! I am thankful everyday for the joy to have and the positive perspective you bring to our family!
What a very special spirit you are. Our family would not be complete without you. You always strive to uplift others if someone is sad you go out of your way to cheer them up. What a tremendous gift that kind of compassion is! Thank you! At the same time remember that you are not responsible to keep everyone else happy, so make sure that you don't let your desire to cheer up other people drag you down to sadness. Everyone must regulate their own emotions.
We love you we are so proud of the kind heart you have. You are a good boy! We always love you no matter what happens! We will never stop loving you, our little angel boy!
Love,
Mommy
 (and daddy)
PS: I would really be grateful if this potty training thing got figured out ... very, very soon. ;)

Bikes

My boys are learning to ride their bikes. K still need constant help- to be expected he can hardly touch the pedals. E is getting so good! He went all the way to the elementary school down the street yesterday. He and I practiced for an hour before dinner and dad has put in a lot of time too. I tell him he can do hard things!
He wanted everyone in the family to ride bikes. We are looking into buying the mr. one again but that is his choice.
It was so exciting. I was watching him ride and I was like- "wow this is a big milestone!" and I remember learning to ride a bike-

 Later the Mr and I stayed up way to late talking about raising boys to become great worthy men.I want my boys to grow up to be strong well rounded compassionate men. I think the secular world  that we live in tells boys and men that violence is acceptable that being rude insensitive bullying and other things are manly and that being sensitive compassionate and soft spoken are not. These things are not true.  real men are caring especially as leaders, they make sure everyone is taken care of, real men, cook and clean and do laundry. A real man gets up in the night with a sick child and helps someone when they fall. Boys I know you are both wonderful and good. Make sure that you do not listen to any of the false cries of the world.

Just a thought on trials and blessings

As I was writing about Mr.'s masters program I feared it might seem as if our lives are perfect. Please do not mistake a positive attitude and feeling grateful for a perfect life. I had several disappointments last week about finances, job things, me still not having another baby, messing up stuff with Eli's speech needs and a ton of other silly things (including my phone braking again). I gratefully acknowledge that I have many many blessings.
I was talking to my uncle Evan several months ago, he has had some very grave and painful health problems over the past several years, he commented on how he would not trade trials. I was surprised but I perhaps should not have been, the Lord loves those he tries. We can always overcome anything with the Lord. One of our trials is financial, it is very hard on me, some days I want to explode, but
I really know that others have it far far worse. In the grand scheme of things my trials are really small, to me they are large, but that is good too, that means they can help me grow and change. I am grateful the many blessings we have, because we have many, even if I in my frustration fail to see many of them. When I live with an Attitude of gratitude* I feel better about all the circumstances in my life.
 I want my kids to know, when they read this someday, that life is never perfect what is important is were we put our faith. Is it in having things work out the way we want? hopefully not, hopefully you kids will grow up realizing that having faith and the peace in your hearts that comes from living as Heavenly Father would have you live, is where joy comes from.


*May 2000 First Presidency message- Thomas S Monson "An Attitude of Gratitude"

Father and Grandfathers

I am grateful for good fathers. I have immeasurably blessed in my upbringing, I have an amazing father and amazing grandfathers. They are perfect examples of sacrifice and service, They do not complain, they do not rest. They work hard to provide for their families, they work hard outside, they are the kind of people who don't leave until all the chairs are put away and floors swept. They will help others with whatever they need. They do not brag about the things they do. They seek to do the things their Heavenly father wants them to do. When the day is done they pray with Gratitude.
What examples. I am honored to be a part of the legacy of these great men.
To my Father and Grandfathers, I say thank you.
Love
Melinda
PS Thank you also to the many wonderful Uncles I have, all 11 of them! And to my Great grandfathers you are no longer here on Earth with us but I remember you and am grateful for the good influence you had on our families.