End of School Extravaganza

This week Mikkena threw the 1st annual end of school bash. She decided to go to Classic Skating and eat pizza. She brought 4 of her best 5th grade buddies so they can celebrate thier new freedom and plan how to dominate next year.
First they needed to dominate the rink.

The party was crazy, especially because 11 year-olds will be 11 year-olds.

I swear the party was booze free.

I think that 11 is a little young to be self conscious, but that shows how much I know about being a girl.





Classic Skating had a safety sign where they recommended that individuals over 25 not skate (true story). At first I was offended, then I realized they were right when I busted the funky hitch hiker and it aggravated my osteoporosis.

I can't tell whether that girl behind me is scared or impressed. Who am I kidding? I knew the answer to that before I asked it. Definitely impressed.

If any of you haven't seen Amber skate, you are missing out. She is amazing. I fell in love a second time. I'm sure Mikkena can't wait to have Amber and me back for next year. Every 11 year old would love to have us crash their party.

There's no family bond like crazy, frozen family bond

This year Mikkena asked if she could join my polar plunge team to earn money for the Special Olympics of Utah. I knew she didn't really know what she was asking, so I hurried and got her to commit before she found out. I have always been a compassionate and responsible father. "It's not too bad is it dad?" "Nope, not too bad".

This year we decided to try the plunge at Deer Creek reservoir so that we could jump in a freezing lake that is not radioactive like Utah lake, although, we were unprepared for the difference in temperature. We left sunny Utah county to arrive in this garden paradise.

Just like any other decision I make in life, the trick is to run like a drunken caveman and jump before reality sets in.


Mikkena handled it like a pro! When I paused out of sheer terror, she yelled, "come on dad, we just need to do this! Don't think about it!" So we did it, and I didn't think about it, and then my brain froze and I couldn't think about it. That's why this picture shows me shoving Mikkena's face into the ladder. Mikkena's brain froze too, and that's why she is not using the ladder.

Thanks, wet suit guys, for all the help. I'm proud of my little girl! She followed through when five other members of my team chickened out. All in all, we raised close to $400 for the Special Olympics. Special thanks to our fearless camera chick, Amber "I have no interest in doing that" Hill. It's just like they say, the family that jumps into a frozen lake together stays together.

New Friends

It's a good thing we have a built in baby sitter, because we have some new friends that will be staying with us for a while.

When she complains about changing diapers, I remind Mikkena of the disappearing ipod epidemic that occasionally puzzles this area of Eagle Mountain.

I would like to introduce you to our new friends. Here is Maricruz (Mari).

Mari is 5 years-old and turning 6 in February (as I am reminded several times a day). Mari is in kindergarten and likes to play with friends, particularly boys. Mari likes to ride her bike and is very kind. She also likes to eat a large variety of foods. We took her to Olive Garden and she didn't like her pasta so she asked if she could just eat the rest of the Calamari. Sure, all the 5 year-olds are doing it.

Next....it's Andrea!

Andrea is 3-years-old and is a bundle of energy. She likes to dress up and she hates to take naps. Andrea is very adept at stalling or coming up with plans to get out of nap time. The other day Andrea came up the stairs and announced that although she really wanted to, she couldn't take a nap because "someone" had locked her out of her room. That's sneaky smart and it almost worked.

Andrea has been working on her pronunciation and has recently learned how to say the "k" sound. Now she always asks for Cake. "I get it if I can say it" that logic works for me too.

Annaly (Annie)

Annie is 19 months, and her favorite activity is eating. I haven't yet found a food item (or non-food item) that she doesn't like to eat. She also tries all means at her disposal to stop from falling asleep. Right when she starts to close her eyes she jolts awake and starts yelling. She also enjoys shoes and being clean.



This is the sign Annie makes whenever I want to take a picture of her. I think it means "feed me long and prosper".



Because she is too interested in what everyone else is doing to sleep, she is tired alot. Other than rubbing her eyes she also picks her nose when she is tired. When we first got her she would cry for 45 min to 2 hours to avoid taking a nap. Now she yells, "mama" for 5 minutes and then she's out. Thank goodness for that. Amber is a nap training genius.

Even though everyone told us how different our life was going to be with three little kids, I didn't realize how different our life was going to be with three little kids. I have a new found respect for all the parents of large families. We are more tired, cranky, happy, fulfilled and spiritual than we've ever been.

3 mini snow noobs

While Amber and Mikkena were off having Mama-Daughter time. I decided to take the little girls on thier first wilderness adventure....sledding!

We were very excited.

Even the Belgian Garden Gnome was excited, and she rarely gets excited for anything other than treats and clean diapers.


As you can see from the snow pants and cowboy boots and the XXXLarge baby gloves we embarked without getting fashion approval from the boss lady.

We had a lot of fun, but what I didn't anticipate is that people that just learned to walk don't walk well on deep unstable frozen surfaces. Or maybe Annie learned how to walk from a marshmallow robot, at least that's what she looked like.

She did a lot of this. Step one: take picture. Step two: help baby.
Fun?

Horror in Your Brother-in-law's Basement

Move over Nightmare on 13th. We don't even want to hear about the Haunted Forest. We're here to bring you.............

The Basement of Despair!!!!!

Starring:

Mikkena as the Undead Disco Witch looking for her R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Alexis as the Maid and Paisley as the Ghost Baby

Tagan as the Mini Protector

And Deacon as the Spooky Butler





Come Visit.....If you dare!

How to BOOM without the Buck

One look at the $350 "bargain" priced firework package at Walmart and I knew I was in trouble. What's a poor college family with a hankerin for blowing stuff up going to do? Was Independence day over before it even began? Not if you're hanging with the Hills. We don't let being financially challenged stop us from making things go BOOM! Especially if we have some duct tape.


My Nephew Xander and I settled on a rock solid design for a rocket and tested it for launch.

It worked pretty good. See for your self. WARNING: Only the first 20 seconds of the video is relevant to rocket launching. The last part of the film is my artsy film director's (Mikkena) riveting documentary on child seating order during rocket launches. As you will soon see, Paisley will let Cody sit by her next time.

Apparently our "rock solid" design wasn't as rock solid as we thought. That's why I'm in school for counseling and not engineering. Look at Tagen's face, I think he's judging me.

After we got tired of shooting things in the air we decided to throw stuff at each other. The game started out boys versus girls, that is until my first water balloon smashed Elyse in the face. We then rearranged the teams so that it was everyone against me. I lost.






Elyse rushing me from behind posed a challenge, luckily I blocked it with my third hand conveniently protruding from my left hip.

Let's just say the coolest part of our day was not the fireworks.

She's BAAAAAAAACK!

Don't let her "Where's the beef?" look or her snaggle-tooth-canine grin fool you. This is not a dog, it's a baby. First, she's 5 pounds, she's carried every where she goes, she shakes when she's cold or scared and.....

She goes on walks being pushed in a stroller.

This is just getting sad. If Amber doesn't get pregnant soon we are going to have a zoo.

For those of you who don't remember Roxy's story check out my July 8th, 2008 post. Roxy was not in very good shape when we found her, and she is very fortunate that the Birchalls took such great care of her over the past year. Her breath has been officially downgraded from suffocating to poo-poo and she has gained 2 pounds (that's nearly half of her body weight). Well, she fits in our condo, and we love her. Mikkena really, really loves her.

PLUS!

I lifted this photo of my nephew Marcus off of my sister's (Adrienne) blog. I'm just surprised how much they are pushing the limits of infant fashion down in Kentucky. I thought cleavage showing peep-holes were reserved for the red carpet. I've tried a similar look, but mine was met with less enthusiasm.

Crack is wack!