Sunday, April 22, 2012

Goodbyes

Goodbyes can be hard... and this was no exception.  Tim and Mary Johnson moved into the Centennial ward here in Peoria when we did and they were some of the first people we got to know really well.  Instead of coming down here and attending Midwestern (which is what most younger couples in the area are here for), Tim was accepted into Thunderbird International Business School just around the corner from our house.  The only problem for us was that their program at the business school was half as long as any of the medical programs, which meant that they would be leaving us a lot sooner than we were ready for.

We decided to have a garden party as a goodbye dinner before they pulled out of the apartment for good soon after.  It was so fun for us four couples to be together one last time.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Easter Weekend

We were really lucky this Easter to have so many visitors stay with us!  From Thursday to Saturday we were able to snatch Rebekah away from the Mesa area and bring her clear out to Peoria for some relaxed fun.  The few days were spent shopping, eating, relaxing, and playing with this cute boy.  

He LOVES Aunt Bekah... and I'm pretty sure that's an understatement.  He would run to her instead of his own mother on many occasions. :)


Dying easter eggs Friday night - topped with toasted marshmallow milkshakes - DIVINE!

We love our phones around here :)

Playing the piano with Dad - one of his favorite pastimes.
On Saturday we drove back to Mesa to drop Rebekah off at Emily's house for the rest of her stay, but before we let her go, we took her to the Easter Pageant.  It's always such an amazing performance and I'm glad we all got to go this year.  Thank you Emily for letting us put Colby down at your house so we could enjoy the pageant even more.  It was super sad to see Rebekah go, but we'll see her again at Christmas time and get to spend more time with her then.  An added bonus was meeting up with Spencer's parents who were down in AZ for a sibling family reunion with the Peterson's.

After dropping Rebekah off, we drove back home and welcomed Spencer's parents for another few days of fun.


My boys dressed in their Easter Sunday best.


Church was wonderful, full of beautiful music and words.

Grandma and Grandpa Hill even brought Easter treats for Colby all the way from Utah.  Lucky boy!!

Colby loves any screen time he can get - especially with Grandpa.


 We had a nice Easter dinner, then ventured out to the Phoenix temple site to see the progress of our local temple.  Monday we spent shopping and shopping some more, then it was time for them to drive back to Mesa Monday night.  We loved having then here and are excited to see them again in a few weeks!


Friday, April 13, 2012

SURPRISE!!

Oh no big deal -- I'm only ten months and I'm walking like crazy. WHA????!!

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Sickies

The month of March was not too kind to our family. It all started when Colby and I had colds - the little man's was a lot worse though and completely lost his appetite and had diarrhea for about a week. Fortunately, we were lucky enough that they cleared up two days before my birthday on the 9th (which was fabulous by the way, thanks to Spencer and my sistas!) so that Spence and I could get a sitter and go out that night. But beginning on the 10th the entire month started to go down to the pits. Saturday morning started out fine and then around noon Spencer started feeling super sick. Next thing I know he is laying in the middle of the hallway near the bathroom looking super pale and saying that he feels horrible. After he threw up about four times in an hour and started hacking up this crazy cough we decided to go to an urgent care to get some questions answered. They were super helpful and he left with some great medical advice and a few prescriptions to help with the cough, a viral infection and some other things that were going on. It was so, so sad. He threw up probably every 40 minutes until 11 pm that night and then finally could sleep from 11 pm to 5 pm the next day.

In the mean time Colby had been a little extra clingy and fussy, but he was still smiling so much and seemed mostly happy so I didn't think much of it. I put him down for bed and thought, "Whew! I can finally relax for a little bit." But I was wrong... he woke up two hours later with a fever of 103.6! At this point I was nervous that he had caught whatever Spencer had. I put him in a bath to try and get his fever down, then the two of us were off to CVS to get some ibuprofen so that I could alternate it with tylenol in hopes to keep his fever down. By Sunday morning his fever was down to 100 and eventually 99. Monday morning we went into the doctor and sure enough... double ear infection.

Sunday night, just as Spencer was starting to feel better, he popped his ear and immediately started feeling a lot of pain. What?? What else could happen?! So naturally, he didn't sleep a wink. He had to go to his doctor for something else on Monday and had them check his ear as well - sure enough it was an ear infection too. So here are both of my boys with their antibiotics for their ears.



A lot of time was spent chillin in pajamas for all of us.




These were taken on Monday (before Colby's medicine even kicked in). See what I mean?? How am I supposed to know something is wrong if he is soo smiley and happy?!



The first round of antibiotics didn't work, so he had another round that eventually cleared both ears up. After a few other sore throats and such, we are feeling much better around these parts.

Conference Weekend

We were lucky enough to have some special visitors with us this weekend while we enjoyed conference. Ben took his two oldest boys to Utah to see conference live so Emily came with her four youngest kiddos and brought Mom along with her! Woohoo! It was so nice to have them here - we love when anyone is willing to venture their way to Peoria. Friday night we grabbed a bite to eat at Souper Salad across the street (thanks Mom!), then came home to put the kiddos to bed and chat the rest of the night up! After a late night of catching up, we hit the sack. Riley and Austin had a mile run at the Cardinal Stadium early Saturday morning so Mom kept the girls home and spent a little bit of time at a nearby park while Spence and I took advantage of the Home Depot sale that was going on so we could replenish our yard with plants that were, well, alive.

We all got home just in time for conference to start. In between sessions our house looked a lot like this: :)



Love when these two get to play! (they're only two weeks apart)

And of course we had to get a photo shoot with Grandma and the babes.




The party left just before the second session started on Saturday. The rest of the weekend was filled with pajamas, cuddly time, sweet kisses, and of course amazing words and messages from many great church leaders.




We love general conference!