holy picture quacamole

Unfortunately, these pictures are loaded from new to old... so. You'll all get the story backwards, if you make it that far anyway! Enjoy our summer.

A week and a half ago we moved into our new house! (I'll get pictures of it later). We're SO excited and happy to have so much more room to spread out. We're eternally grateful for all of the help we received for the move!

This picture is celebrating cousin Olivia's birthday at sugarhouse park. William stepped on the cake first, and then dug in. That's my kid, right there, folks.

Newlyweds: My sister Tabitha and her sweet Brandon.

My siblings had a 3-day camping trip. Our family made it a day-trip. It was so much fun! The kids were well-behaved and it was so relaxing to just hang out with each other. Nathaniel and Trevor had a push-up contest. Nathaniel and Cameron won. I forgot to post the pictures of N and T fishing.. oh well. Now ya know that they did. Such a fun trip.

Look out! Us Hill girl can get feisty even over a (freakishly hard) puzzle.

Vicky and Tabitha. My understanding of this one was a little charcoal war.

The boys discovered redvines. :)

Tamar, Cameron, and Timber (Tabitha's dog). My boys both LOVED Timber. During the first half of our trip William called Timber 'pen-is'. Took us a DAY to figure out what the heck he was referring to when he was saying that! SO funny. He finally got those 'p' and 't' sound right eventually... silly boy.

Spending time with the Hancock Family. William had so much fun with all of his cousins!

Oh, I just wanted to eat her, she was so sweet.

Family BBQ @ sugarhouse park. The whole crew got in the water to work on a Trevor-designed dam. It felt like we were all kids again! William didn't really get the construction project though and kept throwing rocks at poor Trevor.

Cameron is a water baby! I can't keep him away from it!

Visiting California. I love this picture. Handsome boys!

My sweet niece Olivia. She actually was happy when I took this picture. This is just how she kept posing. Such a silly girl.

Hmm, no guilt here.

One of my favorite pictures from the summer. My mom with Cameron.

Sharing a kabob with Aunt Vicky, who is very silly too. She was great at making William laugh. This summer many of my sisters gave William nicknames. Vicky and her sweetheart called him "Bam-Bam" (ala 'The Flinstones'), and Tamar called him "Brutus" because... well. The kid can be kind of a monster. A cute one though.

Watching the most amazing Utah storm...

...and playing in the water when it had passed.

My baby sister all grown up and married!

W in his tux. What a stud.

Meet Preston.

Sweet Olivia

Poor C had a tough day. I don't think the kid napped once.

Finally, a family photo. We love it, even if the poor boys look miserable in it. haha.

Rehearsal dinner night. Just a little muscle contest. I don't know honey... Tamar's got some darn nice tone! ;)

Cousin Sophia.

Tender! Vicky and her Freddy.

Believe it or not, I have a ton more pictures. I actually spared you! Just one last little picture to reward those who made it through:

Coming March 12. BTW- that big ol' stump is the umbilical cord, not our child's gender.

at long last

Well, friends. We're back in good ol' hot and humid Maryland. We moved into our new house a week ago today! We're LOVING all of the extra space and already Cameron has improved his sleeping habits to just waking up once a night. I was so proud of myself.. actually sitting down to upload pictures, only to realize that.... I must have left my camera reader in Utah. Dang it all.
You'll just have to wait for the picture highlights of our trip and new casa.
As a family we're pretty good! Cameron's improved sleeping has been a huge hurdle crossed for us, and now the big thing to deal with is our gorgeous monster, William. Literally, we call him 'monster'. He hits, and every day this week has bitten. I'm the mom that people are going to stay away from because of her monster kid. He definitely has his adorable, fun and wonderful times. It just makes me so sad that the naughty behaviors overshadow all of his lovableness.
I'll keep looking for the camera adapter and post again soon!

There's cute, and then there's cute squared

I'll let you decide whether this kid crosses the "cute squared" threshold.

(Unbiased hint: The answer begins with a "Y"...) :)

I miss my Feliss

(She is out West while I am kickin' it on the East side.) I love you, baby!

I *heart* summer trips and family

Thanks for coming to stay with us, Abby! I obviously enjoyed your visit or I wouldn't have posed like a giddy schoolgirl...

Rain

Yesterday William and I decided to make the most of this rainy weather and go out and play in it.

First Steps

Our sweet Cameron has had a big week! Yesterday was his 9 month birthday. He cut his first tooth yesterday too! I can't believe that in 3 short months he'll be 1-year-old. Time goes so fast.
Last week Nathaniel and I were chatting when my sister said "oh! look at Cameron!" We turned around to see big boy on his THIRD step! Can you please tell me when he got so big?! This kid is all over the place. He'll tackle any obstacle-- mom's legs, big brother (who constantly flattens him), toys, the arm of the sofa-- he'll take it all on to get to whatever he's eyeing. Such a determined boy!

So proud of himself!

He's a hard working baby.

We went and visited a friend last week while new carpet was going in my house. To try to contain Cameron, we stuck him in an empty baby pool. It was a mere speed bump for this stunt-man. He kept getting out!

My baby stunt-man's mentor. Not a great picture, but I love his expression! Such a silly boy. Also, you can see Cinderella on TV. It is now one of William's favorite movies! This momma is happy. I'd much rather watch Cinderella over and over again instead of more Thomas movies.

Cameron after dinner. Laughter and tears in about 30 seconds!

Want to buy our house? ;)

http://hingstondowns.blogspot.com/

In the summertime, when the weather is hot...

We have been LOVING the warm weather! And now we're having monsoon weather, but we like that too (to help our new grass grow).
Things have been good around here! Cameron started on some medicine for reflux, which seems to have helped his sleeping....a little bit. He's crawling like a pro and even though he just started he seems to be ready for the next hurdle and keeps trying to walk, though his motor skills for that are quite a ways away. He just wants to be able to keep up with the big boys! William is so fun, but such a handful too. I think that people at church (judging by a few of their looks) must think that I do nothing but manhandle that kid (to them I say 'you think I WANT to be doing this?' 1pm church is hard on this family- naptime is a cherished time). I maintain that William must be a clone of his father at that age, just a ball of energy that never stops until that bottle hits his mouth for nap/bedtime. I'm just not ready to part with that sacred bottle!
Nathaniel and I have been flirting with the idea of selling our house. It's all been very exciting and yesterday was spent packing up closets to make the house look spic n' span only to find out today about what the numbers for everything would be...... *sigh* This stupid market! Terrific for buying a house and junk for selling. What to do, oh, what to do? I think I'll just enjoy a tidy house for a little bit in any case!

Here are some pictures of our warm weather fun!

Our dear neighbor Jenni brought over colossal donuts one morning. So tasty!

One of William's favorite things to do when it's warm (and sometimes when it's not) is to play with the hose in the backyard. Cameron and I were out supervising William's yard work when Cameron decided to go for a little swim. William brought him every single ball in the yard to keep him company. What a nice brother!


I think he's trying to move that ball with his mind. I swear, this kid is psychic. He wakes up almost every time I'm eating something that his tummy won't like (or maybe he wakes up because I already ate something he didn't like....).

Angel baby!

Uh-oh!

Our sweet little Cameron has really taken off with his mobility ambitions. Often when I'm holding him, he'll start scaling up my belly to try to climb to something on the other side of my shoulder! This evening, Daddy was holding him, when something caught dear Cameron's eye. He anxiously wiggled over to check it out:

So...the fascination starts at birth, huh?

Like father, like son.

weekend fun

Last weekend we met up with some friends at Lake Elkhorn. Here are some pictures of our outing!

We just bought Cameron this irresistible frog shirt... I LOVE it!

"Driving" continues to be one of William's favorite things to do at the playground.

Nathaniel was anxious to get behind the camera this trip. This is his favorite shot that he took of me. He keeps saying "You look so Roxy!"... Whatever that means... ;)

This might be the first picture of me and Cameron since his birth!

My beautiful bossy boy.

Today, to my great dismay, William developed a new 'cry'.

~~AND, last, but never least, the video that my mom has been requesting for days:

*I kept laughing because as I was laying down to shoot this, William decided to hop up and down on my back. Add that to the roles of a mother: spring horse.*

Old Friends

On Saturday afternoon we had the chance to get together with a couple of the original "young married couples" from our first ward here in Maryland. It's amazing how we went from being 6 adults total to having 6 children total! The kids all got along okay, after poor Charlotte got over her fear of being mauled by my William Monster (we're struggling with a serious bullying phase... that's a whole post on it's own...). It was so fun to spend an afternoon with good old friends and to meet new babies!

William, Cameron, Toby, Charlotte, Josh, & Sophia!

A rare moment of cooperative play.

The 3 babies! They were all born within about 7 weeks of each other.

I LOVE Charlotte's happy face in this picture. I think kids seem to be happiest when they're screaming as loud as they can with their friends.