The Hills R Us

Summer and Stuff!!!

2010-09-07T18:59:00.007-06:00

I know again it has been a long time but I consider myself as someone who doesn't have the talent to write what is on my mind in a way that can be interesting to other people. I figured that now that summer is over I can post pictures.

I have also been thinking a lot lately, well since the missionaries came and shared a message with us a few weeks ago, about what I am thankful for. There are the standard answers that we immediately think about like, family, job, friends, gospel, food etc. The missionaries challenged us to take a step back and think about what we are really thankful for besides the basic answers and to write them down. I have to admit that I didn't write my answers down but I think I have thought about it every day since they were here. One thing I am really thankful for is Challenges. I think that they make you stronger, and granted it sucks while you are going thru them but I have to keep thinking that maybe in the future, (hopefully the near future and not like 10 years from now) that we will learn from them and that it was necessary to have that challenge in order to be able to deal with another one that we will face. It gives me a new way to think about dealing with them now, I try to see the light at the end of the tunnel no matter how small it is and to keep pressing forward because it will be worth it.

K to get back to life!!! This summer was so much fun!! The kids and I went to Christina Lake right after school was done for the year and while we were down there we went to Silver wood down in Idaho and that was fun to although it was pouring rain, so we got return tickets and went back a few days later when the weather was way nicer!! While I was down there my sister Jenel and her kids came out too and they brought their pregnant dog Bella, whom Joryn absolutely loved and I was lucky enough to help Jenel deliver Bella's puppies!!! It was so neat. I stayed there for 2 weeks then we came back because Jayden had some Drs appointments in Calgary. While we were back we went to Waterton and met up with Justin's brother and his family and had fun spending the day. Later that week Justin surprised me with a trip to Radium, just me and him!! It was AWESOME!!!! (not to mention much needed). The next week was Joryn's 2nd birthday and we had some family over for cake and stuff and it was fun. The next day I packed up the kids and the van and went back to Christina Lake!! I was there for a week then I went to Pentiction and spent a day or two with Jenel and her family and make a quick trip to Kelowna to pick Justin up from the airport so he could spent the next week with us!

It was a busy but fun summer and I am glad that school is back in and we can have some kind of routine and normalcy back!!

Ok Ok I forgot to mention that I turned the big 30 this summer too!!

For pictures go here.

Bahamas!!!!

2010-03-02T18:28:00.004-07:00

Ok so its a little late but better late than never right?!!! I always have these good intentions but either I get way too busy or way too lazy!!!

Justin and I went the Bahamas with the local dive shop here in Lethbridge. It was actually a cruise of sorts. We lived on a sail boat for a week and did about 3-4 dives a day, it was a lot of fun. I probably would have enjoyed myself even better if the weather would have cooperated!! It was very windy and because it was so windy you never could get fully dry, because of the splash from the waves, and because you could never get fully dry you could never get warm (at least I didn't). Despite the weather let downs we had a good time and GREAT food!! The cook on the boat was awesome!! What's better than coming onto the boat after a great dive and having a hot bowl of homemade soup? Justin and I had a great time together, and we thank our families for taking care of our kids!!

If you are interested in seeing some picture Justin posts a bunch on his facebook.

Christmas

2010-01-28T09:00:00.008-07:00

Well better late than never I suppose!! I have a hard time getting anything done in January, my tanks are on empty, my motivation gone, I guess I just need a Holiday from everything!!! So that is what Justin and I are doing!! We are leaving next week to go to the Bahamas, charter and sail boat for a week and all we are going to do is island hop, beach bum and dive 4-5 times a day!!!! The only hesitation I have is that I get sea sick sometimes so I am taking a whole regimen of things that I have heard work for that and if anyone knows something that works let me know because I want to take lots in case something doesn't work!! I want to have a back up for everything!!!

Any ways...Christmas was fun and stressful but we got through it and the kids had so much fun!! I am horrible to picture taking I always say that I will get a copy from everyone and the seldom happens. We were in Edmonton for Christmas and had fun visiting family while we were there!! Here are a few pictures that I did manage to get!!

This is Jaala and her keyboard she got for Christmas!! She loves it and is now taking Piano lessons!

Jayden with his race track!! (we had to take that one back but it was the only decent picture of him and a gift he got for Christmas!!)
This is Joryn with a gift bigger than her!!!
Joryn with her baby that was in the gift!!(it almost weighs as much as she does)!!

Snowed In

2009-12-08T18:37:00.006-07:00

Well we were just that...Snowed In. This past weekend was crazy. On Friday it started to snow and blow and it didn't stop till Sunday!!! We were dumped on and the wind was no help!!! So all we did this weekend was stay inside and try to keep warm. Later on Saturday Justin went out to see if we could find the sidewalk and our drive way, he was out there for a few hours and still hadn't finished everything. On Sunday we found out that their was only and hour of Church so we thought that it wasn't worth the effort of digging us out of our little cul-de-sac to fight with our kids for an hour so we stayed home and continued to dig us, and our neighbors out!!! It took a long time but now we are able to get out and not get stuck!!! Here are some pictures of the snow that we got!!

This is the snow blown on the side of our house.

This is the pile of snow started while shoveling our driveway.

This is our backyard area...there is a BBQ and bikes back there!!

This is how high the snow was at our back door!!

This is what Jaala did while we were snowed-in

He Train of Littlest Pet shop toys!!

New Post!!! (for a lack of creativity)

2009-11-30T17:44:00.004-07:00

Things in the Hill house are pretty good!! Jaala's surgery went very well and is now back to her old self which is nice!! School is trudging a long and I think the kids are still liking it for the most part. Justin is busy with teaching SCUBA lessons and doing SCUBA experiences as well, and loving every minute of it!!! We are looking forward to Christmas when we can see family and friends. We are going up to Edmonton to spend some of the holidays there. I am going to try and make more of an effort to post more often but I find it challenging to write about my mundane day to day experiences but I am sure if I think hard enough I could come up with at least one thing to talk about!!! I mean we are the Hills aren't we?!!!!

This weekend was fun for our family!!! Grandma and Grandpa Hill came down for a visit and the girls got to go to the Craft show here in Lethbridge!! It is something that we do every year. It is so neat to see all the crafty people selling their stuff and it makes me think that I should be doing something more creative myself. I was able to go with Justin to one of his SCUBA experiences to get under the water again and it was really fun!! Later that weekend I went to see New Moon with the girls and that was fun. I don't know what the hype is about the Twilight series...don't get me wrong they are decent books but you won't see me drooling over Edward or Jacob!!! The kids had fun spending time with their grandparents, they love it when they come to visit!!!

Here is a picture of the hat I bought for Joryn at the craft show!!!(sorry about the runny nose!)

We weren't going to put up a Christmas tree this year as we were going to Edmonton but the kids insisted and when it comes right down to it what is Christmas with out the tree?? So we put it up on Sunday and it is now Joryn's goal to take every ordainment off of the tree just to pester Jayden...should be an interesting month!!!

Update

2009-09-18T11:01:00.004-06:00

Well school has been off to a good start and so has everything else that we signed up to do!! Jaala and Jayden are in swimming lessons and loving it, I taking a running course to get her somewhat back in shape and doing something for myself and I am enjoying that, I am also taking my SCUBA certification class which Justin is teaching and I am enjoying that. I never realized how bad of shape I was really in until I got into the pool and had to swim all those lenghts!!

Well after fighting with Jaala for years on her bad sleeping habits or lack there of we finally have a solution. I took her to see the ENT yesterday because I was worried that her Adnoids were too big and guess what...they are!! So sometime within the next two months she will be getting her tonsils and adnoids out and hopfully that will be the solution to her sleeping issue. I also found out that the medication that we were giving her was making her sleeping worse. I will be glad when that trial is over and we all get some sleep!!!

Summer 2009

2009-09-05T10:22:00.016-06:00

Well it was a busy and fun summer!! First the kids and I went to Edmonton to spend some time with Grandma and Grandpa Hill while Justin was in Montreal for work. We came home for a little while and then when Justin got home we went back to Edmonton to see Javan and Sarah's baby Hailey to do some more visiting. After we got home from Edmonton again we left two days later to go to Christina Lake BC, there we hung out with family at the family reunion and celebrated Joryn's 1st birthday. After the reunion Justin and I took the kids on to Vancouver to go to the Aquarium, Capilano Suspension Bridge, and to see the Ocean. We took the Ferry to Victoria and went the the Wax Museum and the Glass bottom boat and stayed the night and went back to Christina Lake for a few more days. While at the lake it is hard to keep my kids out of the water, they love to go boating and swimming. My sister asked me if I wanted to go back to her place in Penticton and stay for a little while. So Justin headed home to get some work done and the kids and I went to Penticton for almost two weeks and it is beautiful there and the kids had a lot of fun playing with their cousins! Justin was supposed to head out there for work and then pick us up along the way but that didn't work out so the kids and I were lucky enough to find a seat sale and fly home from Kelowna to Calgary, and let me tell you, I would do the 50 minute flight over the 9 hour drive any day!!! All and all I think the kids had a great summer and now they are back in school and loving that too!!

Here is a bunch of pictures from the summer, I will try to explain them all but if I don't I am sorry!!

Jaala at Christina Lake Jayden at Christina Lake Joryn in her own personal pool!! She loved it she would stay in there all day, climb in and climb out!! Whatever kept her happy and cool!!!Joryn's birthday cupcake!!At Kitz beach standing in the ocean!!Capilano Suspension Bridge!Justin and Joryn enjoying the suspension bridge.We stopped at a place called Porteau Cove to look at the ocean the this big anchor was there. And it turned out that this wasn't exactly the place we were looking for but it was really cool.Joryn sitting in the ocean at the real Porteau Cove. That water was freezing but she insisted on sitting in it than by it!!!Justin and Jaala being brave and walking into the freezing water. Justin actually went all the way under.On the Ferry to Victoria.

Summer

2009-07-07T18:06:00.004-06:00

Well who would have thought that I would do two posts in one day. CRAZY!!!

Anyways just an update on Hill happenings. Jaala successfully completed grade one and will be going into grade two, (what happened to my baby?), Jayden will be going into Kindergarten which I think I have mixed feelings about but I know that it will be fine so I should stop being a mother and quit worrying so much. Joryn will be turning one at the end of the month. HOLY COW, that was a fast year. Jaala gets to go to the lake with Grandma and Grandpa all by herself and a couple of her cousins for a week and she is so excited to go and hang at the beach and do all kinds of fun things. Jayden, Joryn and I will head to Edmonton and hang out with some family and hope that Sarah will have her baby while we are up there!! Justin is in Quebec for two weeks for work and he is really busy but loving it. It is really nice that he was able to go back to where he served his mission and visit with people who he worked with and became friends with. At the end of July we will be going to the lake for a McQuay family reunion and then stay for a bit and just enjoy the beautiful weather there, and perhaps go down to the States for some shopping!!! Other than that we will try to fit in some camping trips here and there and just enjoy being together as a family.

Sorry that this post was just mushed together but at least I got one up!!

Happy Summer!!

Long Legs

2009-07-07T18:01:00.004-06:00

I just had to put this in here. We had some family come visit this weekend for the dragon boat festival and afterwords they came here for supper and Jon and Grandma played a game with the kids and we over heard this conversation.

Jon: "Jaala you are only two"
Jaala: "No I am six"
Jon: "No you are two"
Jaala: "Then why are my legs so long?"

I think that sometimes kids say the darnedest things.

Kids!!

2009-05-07T18:01:00.010-06:00

I thought I would post some pictures of the kids from the last couple of weeks. We have been trying to spend as much time outside in this nice weather while we have it and the kids are having a blast being outside.

Catch Up!!

2009-04-26T17:57:00.015-06:00

Ok Ok, I know it has been way too long since I have made a post and I think I am notorious for that but hey what can you do!! I love checking my regular bloggs and am dissapointed when I find out that they are the posts that I have already read, then I think well "what if someone else is doing the same thing and is always dissapointed when they come to my blogg, but then again who comes to my blogg?" I think I know of one person!! Thanks Lan!!

At the end of Feburary Justin and I were able to go to Las Vegas with my parents and attend my cousins wedding and just have some fun away from home and just to get away and we had a blast!! We were able to go on a chartered flight over the Grand Canyon and that was awesome!!! We brought Joryn with us as she is still young and needs her momma!!! We were able to leave Jaala and Jayden with my wonderful in-laws and they had a blast, both grandma, grandpa and the kids!!! It was nice to know that they were having a good time and they were able to spend some time with their cousins aswel!!

This is a picture of the Grand Canyon from the window of the plane.

Joryn loved the plane ride!!!

March was an interesting month we all got really sick with the nasty flu and therefore didn't leave the house much except to take the kids to school on the days that they were feeling good enough to go or to take Justin to work. We did however manage to go to Joelle's wedding midway though the month, and it was beautiful!! I have made a few trips to Calgary in the last month or so and I am happy that I don't have to go for a few more weeks!!

I can't belive that it is almost May, you wouldn't guess that based on the weather we are having!! What is with that? 26 degrees one day and -2 and 20 cm of snow the next? All I can say is welcome to southern Alberta!!! The kids have been busy with school and are enjoying it for the most part!!! Jaala is doing really well in grade one and is an excellent reader (when she wants to be!!). She is growing up so fast it is hard to belive that she is almost 7 and in grade two!

Jayden is our little man!! He always has something to say and it is hard for him to stop talking!!! He will be going into kindergarten next year and he loves preschool!!! Joryn is growing up fast aswel, she is inch-worming her way around and she has two teeth and she is very curious!!

Jayden with his Light Saber!!!

Joryn in her Easter Dress!!

We had a good Eatser, Jusitn's parents, sister and brother were able to come down and spend some time with us. They even took the opportunity to go see Monty Python while they were here. It was the first time in a long time that his whole family was able to go out to a movie together and they had a blast!!

Last week Jaala had crazy hair day at school and she was so excited!! She won craziest hair for all of grade one!!

Jaala's cray hair!!

Bowling Fun

2009-02-10T18:52:00.005-07:00

A while back, our family along with two of my sisters and our good friends the Holladay's, went bowling for a family home evening activity. I recently went through all the raw footage that we took on the camcorder and made a short video...Enjoy!

Update, the upload size allowable on Blogger is small so this video has been reduced in size. To see the HD version just look on either mine or Jada's facebook page.

Warm fuzzies, cold pricklies and of course wrinked hearts!

2009-02-04T11:29:00.009-07:00

The other day we took the kids bowling with the Holladays and they had a blast but of course a family outing is never complete without a meltdown of some sort. We were going to get some food after bowling and Jaala said that she wanted a toy from McDonald's and we told her that she didn't need another toy. Well that did her in. We were all bucked in the car and Justin calmly talked to her and told her that she didn't need something every time we went somewhere and that she should be thankful for the things she did get, (like to go bowling with her family and friends). It was quiet in the car for a few minutes and then Justin asked Jaala if she was happy yet and she said: "I just have a wrinkly heart because you hurt my feelings." Well I have to be honest I had a hard time not laughing. Then she said "Dad when we get home can you tell me a warm fuzzy and not a cold prickly?" I then looked at Justin a little confused by what she meant and then I remembered that a while ago she came home from school and was telling us about warm fuzzies and cold pricklies. A warm fuzzy is when someone says something nice to you, (it makes you feel warm in fuzzy inside) and a cold prickly is when someone says something not nice to you, (it makes you feel bad inside) so all the way home we were telling each other warm fussies and cold pricklies for fun, but I have to admit that a wrinkly heart is a new one!! What will she come up with next?

Same or not?

2009-01-24T20:58:00.017-07:00

OK so i'm not so great at keeping up with my blogg but I can't make my life seem interesting enough for people to read it let alone make it enjoyable to read.

So christmas has come and gone and we had a great time up in Edmonton with family. We love going up to Edmonton to vist most of our family. The kids love to see their grandmas and grandpas!! It is always nice to see you kids face light up when the hear that we are going to Edmonton or when they see grandma or grandpa!! It is funny how your intention to take a whole lot of pictures everywhere you go and it just doesn't happen. (mind you we do take pictures but never enough and not ones that are worth putting up!) This year Justin and I decided to get a digital camcorder so we ended up taking more video than we did pictures but I thought this one of Jayden was awsome!! That is so totally him.

On another note, as we have just purchased a new computer we have finally organized

our pictures and as we have done this, (or I should say Justin did all of it and for that I am very grateful!!) we have found some pictures of
our kids and it is always neat to see how much the look alike or don't look alike and in this case and in my opinion only, I think that they look pretty similar. I tried to get pictures of them at around the same ages.

A Trip to the Doctors

2008-11-17T18:54:00.004-07:00

Well Jaala has been sick for a few days and I had to take her to the dr to get her checked out and it was pretty funny! The conversation that she had with the dr as he checked her went like this:

Dr: So are you in grade one or kindergarten?

Jaala: Grade one.

Dr: Do you like it?

Jaala: Yup.

Dr: Do you have a boyfriend?

Jaala: Looking at me with her shy face said "yes"

Then you should have seen the look on my face, now I new that she had a friend that she liked a lot who was a boy but I didn't know that it escalated to boyfriend!!

Then the Dr said: First you are in grade one, then grade two, and then in grade three, you don't like boys anymore.

She didn't say anything after that but then as the Dr was leaving the room he said "now stay away from those boys!"

A few minutes later Jaala asked me if she had to stay away from boys and I told her she didn't have to if they were her friends!!

I thought that was an interesting trip to the Dr. Jaala is feeling better, well at least she is acting more like herself now so hopefully it is back to school tomorrow!!

Pulling up my Blogging Socks!!!

2008-11-10T09:18:00.012-07:00

Ok so I haven't been as diligent as I should be but I guess I don't think our life it really exciting. Anyways since the last blog we have had Halloween and Jaala turned 6 (holy cow that makes me feel old). Jaala and Jayden had a blast this Halloween!! If I would have let them they would have gone trick-or-treating by themselves. I think that they are at the age where it all starts to make sense. That makes it fun for everyone when the kids actually enjoy it!!

Jaala was a Queen Bee and Jayden was part of Lightning McQueen pit crew. He loved that costume!! When anyone asked him who he was he would say "Pit crew guy" and he would say it in a growly voice it was hilarious!! He would also talk into his "ear piece" and say "hello, Jayden speaking", man that guys is funny.

So Jaala turned 6 on November 3, we had her birthday party the day after Halloween and she had a blast, it was so nice out that she was able to play outside with her friends, which was nice for me too!! I don't remember having Jaala's birthday and their not being snow let alone being 17 degrees. She had a lot of fun and thanks to her Aunt she got an awesome cake!!

Joryn has been so fun!! She is starting to giggle and she tries to grab things. Her aunt bought her this outfit and I think it is the cutest thing!! Isn't it fun to dress up your kids knowing that they can't do anything about it!! She is almost able to roll over and she is slowly getting bigger!! She is a joy to have around. Go Oilers Go!!!

Family Photos

2008-10-04T12:54:00.007-06:00

Well it was that time of year to get some family pictures taken. I had the appointment all booked then I went to the school to pick up the kids and when I went to get Jaala she had a scrape right under her eye, she had fallen walking around Nicholas Sheran Lake, so I went home and rebooked the appointment. I didn't want to spend all that money to have her look like I hit her. LOL!!

So when the day came I made sure we were all ready to go. We got there and I thought we should do Joryn first before she got angry, that didn't make any difference cuz she was mad the whole time. Anyways we got good ones of Jaala and Jayden and managed to get a good shot of the family and one of all the kids. I was a little disappointed that we didn't get any of just Joryn, as it was her first photo shoot, so I booked another appoinment and I am glad that we did we got some great shots. Here are some of the pictures we got. I had Joryn wear the same outfit the next time we went so that it looked like it was done on the same day. Good idea Justin.

Wow way too long.

2008-09-26T10:35:00.006-06:00

Wow it has been a while since we made a post so I kinda feel obligated to keep it up. A lot has happened in this last year.

Justin has started his own contracting business and is doing well with that. He travels a bit but to nowhere exciting, the last place he went to was Indian head in Saskatchewan...wow jealous!! Anyways he enjoys his work and is very good at it. He is also lucky that his wife is letting him go on a SCUBA trip to Mexico with his uncle in November where We are sure he is going to have way too much fun.

Jada has lost some weight thanks to Joryn. LOL!! She had our third child on July 31, (5 days early), she got her July baby!! It was a very fast delivery and almost painless!!! Yeah right. Anyways she is keeping busy taking kids to and from school, and keeping busy with a newborn.

Jaala is in grade one! I can't believe it, they grow way too fast. She stays for lunch and she loves making new friends, which anyone who knows her knows that Jaala never has difficulty making new friends. She is doing a lot of growing up and it is kinda hard to see your child not needing you for everything but at the same time it is a big sigh of relief.

Jayden is growing a lot as well. He finished his year in preschool and is doing another one and loves it. Unfortunately his favorite teacher that he was very attached to is in a different class this year, he was sad about that but is still enjoying school very much. He had a birthday in August and is now four, and he loves his sisters. He asked me the other day when I was going to have another baby and I just laughed.

Last but not least there is Joryn, she was born on July 31 weighing 6lbs 12 oz and 19 1/4 inches long. She is a good baby and is loved by her family. She is now 2 months old and loves to listen to everything. She loves to smile and talk to whoever will listen. She is a joy to have.

Shrink and Expand

2008-02-18T16:35:00.003-07:00

Yes it is another blog post. I bet you thought that this would no longer happen. Well it still does (on rare occasions).

Just thought you all would like to see that this time honored family tradition is safe for generations to come.

Update

2007-09-05T14:24:00.000-06:00

Well I was sitting at the computer contemplating going onto facebook when I suddenly realized that I haven't checked blogs in a long time so that is what I did, then I realized that I hadn't bloged in a really long time so I guess I am due.

Well school started today for Jaala and orientaion for Jayden. Jaala was so excited to go to Kindergarden she could hardly stand it. It is hard to belive that my baby is in kindergarden. I went to drop off her school supplies when I asked if the envelope I got her was the right one and the teacher told me that she needed an envelope that could snap shut or stay closed somehow for her reader....her reader....she is going to learn to read HOLY COW!!!! Ok I think I can handle that and maybe even learn a thing or too!!

Jayden will have no problem going to playschool he is such a social butterfly. He will have a teacher to help him in the class with speach aswel as a speach therapist to take him out of the class and work one on one with him. Hopefully we will be able to potty train by Christmas? with the help of the teachers there and they are great teachers.

Justin is going back to university for his last 3 classes so his schedule is pretty easy. He will be done in December and I don't know who is more excited me or him. At any rate we will be glad to move onto the next chapter of our lives. INCOME!!!!!!

Well the only thing I could say about myself is if you didn't already know I got a promotion at work, I am now a Customer Service Manager (CSM) and I enjoy it and I am getting a lot more shifts and Justin is taking on the role as bedtime master which I greatly appreciate because in our house it is not one of the easy things to do so thank you Justin. Also I was called to be Achievement days assistant then the Leader so I am the Achievement days leader in our ward and I am excited and hesitant at the same time. I am excited to get to know the younger girls in my ward and I have a great assistant to assist me.

Well I hope everyone is doing well and will continue to do so and a big thank you to all the family that helped us out over the summer it was GREATLY appreciated.

New Email Address

2007-08-23T15:31:00.001-06:00

Just to let everyone know, we have a new email address. We switched to telus so the new address is jjhill1@telus.net

A change.

2007-07-29T06:33:00.000-06:00

It is way easier to post numerous pictures in the form of an album on Facebook then in the blog, so I have already made a Day 1 folder on my facebook page and will in the future add more albums there as it is much more convenient to upload albums there rather then here.

Here is a link.

California - Day 1

2007-07-28T19:43:00.000-06:00

Vacation is finally here, today was a great but long day. We were up at 4 am and have been going all day. The flight here to LA was smooth as can be and after landing and getting out car rental going we drove down to Long Beach where we went on a whale watching tour for about 3.5 hours. We saw lots of dolphins, seals, and two blue whales with surprisingly are even larger then Janna reaching up to 100 feet in length!

Here are some pictures from day 1

Our plane before boarding, Jaala asked specifically for this picture.

View from the plane.

On the way to Long Beach.

Me on the boat.

Jada on the boat.

The Queen Mary.

A cool sail boat we passed in the harbor.

The big blue.

Dolphins right under the boat.

There were hundreds all over the place.

Lots of Dolphins!

A blue whale blowing water. They were difficult to photograph since they were always diving deep to feed and you never knew exactly where they would surface. so cool seeing these massive whales though!

Well thats enough for now. Thats only a sample of the 109 pictures we took today so you'll get to see the rest when we get back.

More to come tomorrow!

California, here we come.

2007-07-27T10:17:00.000-06:00

The vacation we have been planning and waiting for is finally here. Today we will be departing for Calgary to spend the night at Jada's sister's house, then early tomorrow morning we are off to California.

Be sure to stay tuned here as each night when we get back to the hotel will be posting pictures and video of the days events as kind of a trip journal.

Many thanks to Jen and Bryan for looking after our kids making this vacation possible.

See you all in just over a week!

Tires

2007-07-05T11:43:00.000-06:00

Well I wasn't going to post a blog about this but then I read Bryan's blog and knew that something fishy was going on. Ok Bryan, there is something going on here because yesterday at the lake we were all having a good time tubing and boating, until I went to the van to get the kid's sand toys and noticed that we had a flat tire. Ok so it wasn't a blow out like yours but wait it gets better. So I go back and tell Justin the bad news and then he goes and does his thing, puts the doughnut on the van and makes a few calls. Ok so we are good, but is a doughnut good to use when you are pulling a boat? Probably not, but we had to get the boat out of the water so that takes us WAY too long and then in the process I notice that the back tire is flat too, we just great two flat tires and one doughnut, screwed.... again Justin does his thing and it is a good thing that Janna and Joc were there with Janna's car because by that time it is 8:30 pm and the kids need to go to bed so Joc and I take the kids home and Justin and Janna stay behind to wait for dad to come to the rescue. We had to leave the boat at the lake, get the tires fixed the next day and then go back to the lake put them on and then drive home. While Justin was getting the tires fixed they told him that there was a screw in one tire and a hole in the other tire matching the screw so we were really screwed.

Well they say bad luck comes in three and Bryan and Jen was one and we were lucky and got the last two, thanks guys.

I hope no more flats come around and we can maybe enjoy a relaxing evening at the beach.

I am My Father's Son

2007-06-21T18:00:00.000-06:00

As my wife would say, "I am just like my Dad". Its true, I admit it. I am my father's son. Now, like most things in life this has both advantages and drawbacks. An advantage is that I have inherited an unique ability to be able to find a way to put an expansive amount of items into little oh so tiny areas. Yes, the ability to pack tightly has benefited on many a camping trip or holiday. The drawback is I have also inherited an obsessive need to break out the tape measure and level, every time I have to hang a picture on a wall. For some reason it is deathly important to me that every picture is hanging PERFECTLY square and level.

Today, I learned I have succumbed to yet another of my Fathers idiosyncrasies. I remember laughing at my Father's "geekiness" a while back, when he was planning his New York vacation. He had a compulsive need to organize everything so neatly, that he made a vacation binder with every activity, location, hotel and pee break carefully and logically planned out.

I'm not laughing anymore.

Today, I made a vacation binder for our trip to Los Angeles. Initially I rationalized it was just a place to keep our airline ticket confirmation and hotel info. As hard as I tried not too, I found myself adding to my binder...Universal Studios tickets, don't want to lose those, into the binder. Tickets to Six Flags Magic Mountain? Into the binder! Guess where the car rental info is? You got it! Maps? You better believe it. Maps from map quest for every possible driving scenario. Hotel to Long Beach, Ca? Got it. Santa Monica Pier to Rodeo Drive? Yep. Rodeo Drive to Grauman's Chinese Theater? Oh yeah.

The madness didn't stop there either. What about getting back? I mean I don't want to chance trying to reverse the all these directions mentally on the fly...no, I better print out the reverse routes too. The madness has taken over. I am no longer in control. This is no longer just a place to keep track of receipts and ticket stubs. It has even surpassed the title of a mere "Vacation Binder", no this has become the "Vacation Bible".

It wasn't even enough just to put all of these items into the binder. No, by this time I was in too deep. Every page had to be in one of those clear plastic "pocket protectors". The maps? Every single one organized back to front so both pages are clearly visible and of course, listed in chronological order.

Even now, as I type, I am fighting off the urge to open photo shop and start working on a really cool title page for the bible. This is a fight I almost certainly will lose. I have to do it, the binder will not seem near as absolute or as perfect with out a neat title page, complete with names and dates of the trip.

What can I say? I am my Father's son.

I blame you Dad!

Some more stuff

2007-06-08T16:52:00.000-06:00

Not to take away from my wife's most excellent post today (below) but I thought that due to extreme boredom, I too would post a few things today. Mostly just some pictures we've been meaning to put up for a while. So without further adieu, here are some more pictures of the kids, some are from the park, and some are from our trip to the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller.

And to celebrate Jaala's Hawaiian day at school, a video.

Silly Head

2007-06-08T09:01:00.000-06:00

OK here's the story, we were in Sterling last night for my niece Cayli's 4th birthday party and while we were there Jaala whacked her head on the porch and got a good goose egg, no big deal right, well this morning she was watching TV and I hear her start to cry and say "I bonked my head again". So I go over and she says to me while crying

"My head does what it wants to do",

I chuckle a little then she says

" My head doesn't know what to do",

I rub her head and tell her it is fine then she says

"Silly head"

now I am laughing and tell her that she should move from where she is sitting, which is obviously too close to the T.V, but she says that she wants to sit there so, whatever.

The Kids

2007-05-20T19:40:00.000-06:00

This is a bit of an experiment, I took a video of the kids playing together, (yes thats right, together, It was a shock to me too) with our camera and I wanted to see if I could upload it to the blog. The only challenge was compressing it enough to fit on video hosting sites like You Tube. There may have been an easier way, but I think this way worked. Check it out. The only problem with the compressing is I lost alot of video quality. Janna or Dad if you know of easier ways to do this and keep the quality let me know.

Random Thoughts

2007-05-05T17:19:00.000-06:00

Today, the whole family went down to Waterton so I could participate in the Marina Clean-up dive. Basically a bunch of us divers dive under the docks and pick up all the garbage that has collected there and bring it to the surface. It was a mild but windy day, with the water temperature a balmy 41 F or about 5 C. So even with my 7mm wetsuit the water was pretty frigid. We stayed under for 33 minutes which was long enough to get a decent dive in but short enough to not totally freeze to death. Its amazing how much the water temperature in that lake changes from spring runoff temperatures at 39-41 F (4-5 C) to 59 F (15 C) in August as in my last dive. My dive buddy even managed to find a 5 doller bill at a depth of about 30 feet. Other then that it was mainly a lot of bottles and assorted wrappers and garbage. Its really amazing how much gets down there. But after we were done it did look much better.

It was a little weird to be in Waterton again. It almost felt as if I were still living there. It made me kind of wish I had taken the job offered to me down there to run a project reintroducing the Northern Leopord Frog wich has been extirpated from the area. I really missed that job after reading an interview done in the Lethbridge Herald with Cyndi Smith about how the reintroduction was going and the plan of attack for the frogs. Had I accepted the job it would have been me they were interviewing. Oh well. Staying in Lethbridge has it advantages as well and it will be nice for a change to spend a summer close to the family.

I have also gotten another summer job once again with the government of Canada. I will be working at Agriculture Canada Research Station here in Lethbridge doing remote senseing and GPS mapping of the government land in the area. Its a big job and I am a crew of one to get it all done, so between that and my job delivering papers for the herald it will be a busy summer. Already I notice myself being a little more tired the usual which the other day mde me fall asleep on the couch in the middle of the day to take a nap. Much to my horror I woke up to this picture.

Apparently Jada thought it would be funny to dress Jayden up while I was asleep and unable to prevent such a travesty from occuring. The worst part? Jayden actually liked it. Anyway on the tired sleeping theme, these next two pictures show that I'm not the only one who tries to sneak a nap in the middle of the day...

Six Flags Magic Mountain

2007-04-22T18:31:00.000-06:00

Six Flags Magic Mountain is one of the stops Jada and I are planning on our California vacation this summer. It is home to 17 of the most intense roller coasters, including one called X that is not only a thrilling multi-loop roller coaster but also has rotating cars like the Zipper ride at Whoop-up. Here are some videos of some of the coasters I found on Youtube. Can't wait to get there and ride them myself.

This next one is called Superman the Escape and is short but is the first roller coaster to break the 100 mph speed mark. You go from 0 to 100 mph in 7 seconds. The tower you drop down is 41 stories high.

This one is called Deja Vu

This one is Tatsu (Japanese for Dragon) and is a roller coaster that is over 3 minutes long and you ride it flat on your stomach like you are flying.

Colossus, one of the tamer roller coasters.

Batman, a roller coaster where your feet are left dangling, the seat is similar to a Swing of the Century ride but instead attached to a roller coaster.

Last one I'll post here is Goliath, another really fast intense roller coaster. Remember this is only a portion of the 17 roller coasters in this one theme park near L.A.

A bit of this and a bit of that

2007-04-19T11:05:00.000-06:00

So it has been a while since we posted anything so I thought that I would put some pictures of the kids and our trip to Saskatchewan in here, and Janna there is a picture in here for you, I think you know which one it is!!

Attention

2007-04-02T15:01:00.000-06:00

Ok this really needs to stop. I want to turn your attention to the date of the last blog that my husband so willingly posted. Now think really hard......need another minute? Ok April fools. I am NOT prego. I just wanted to make that clear. I am the same not pregnant Jada that I have been for the last 2 1/2 years. Ok now that that is all cleared up maybe I will stop getting emails, phone calls and msn messages congratulating me. Trust me when it is true I will let you know.

The Hills Keep Coming

2007-04-01T14:20:00.000-06:00

Well, I guess the truth is out. We hadn't officially announced it now but as one of the more astute members of the family guessed Jada and I decideded its time to let the cat out of the bag, or rather the baby out of the Mom.

Yes, thats right Jada is once again prego. We will be expecting a new baby Hill at the end of the year Novemberish. We are very excited and I'm sure the rest of you will echo those sentiments.

Jayden the Gentleman

2007-03-30T16:55:00.000-06:00

OK so I know I already posted once today and I'm not normally geeky enough to post twice in the same day but this is interesting.

We took Jayden and Jaala swimming today and there is a kiddie slide in the kiddie pool that Jayden loves and is pretty much all he does is slide down then go back to the steps and slide down again. Over and over and over...you get the idea. Anyway today while at the pool whenever Jayden was either waiting in line, on the steps or even at the slid sitting down ready to go and a little girl would line up behind him, Jayden would immediately climb down off the slide or move out of the way and let the little girl slide first. Every time without prompting or instruction from us he just moved aside and let every little girl slide ahead of him. Funny thing is it was only for girls he would do this. If a little boy moved in behind him, Jayden would just continue waiting and take his turn like normal. It was quite amusing to watch. This isn't the first time he's done this either, just the first time I thought I should blog about it.

New Job

2007-03-30T07:50:00.000-06:00

So after three years of being a security guard part time on the weekends, I have changed jobs. Working night shifts was getting hard, especially with Jada working too. Our typical weekend used to be I would start work Friday night/ Saturday morning at midnight and work until 8 am. I would get home and go to bed by about 8:30. I would then sleep until 2 pm when Jada would wake me up just as she was leaving for work. Jada gets home from work at either 10:30 or 11:30 depending on when Walmart closed, just in time for me to go back to work. I would get home on Sunday at 8 am, sleep for a couple hours then try to get up for church. As soon as church was over Jada would have to go to work, so I would be up with the kids until their bedtime, at which point I would go to bed too. Doing this and switching between my day and night scheduale turned out to be really hard, but it worked so we did it for years (except summers when I was in Waterton).

Enter my new job. I recently got a job working for the Lethbridge Herald. Basically I'm one of the guys who drops off the bundles of papers for the newspaper carriers. Basically I show up at the Herald early at 3:30 am pick up the papers, drive to 17 houses (thats all I have on my route) and go home and back to bed. The whole process takes about an hour. The really cool part is it pays almost double what the security agency paid. For an hour of work a day I get anywhere between 40 and 60 dollers depending on some circumstances. That works out to between 1200 and 1500 per month for 1 hour of work per day. The only inconvience is waking up every morning early to run out for an hour. But all my classes start late and I can go back to bed before getting up for school or church or whatever. This is exciting for us becasue we will be able to do things as a family on Saturday mornngs again, which we havn't done for a long time. Sundays are also way better as I won't be falling asleep during the meetings.

So yea for new jobs. I've always liked math and this seems to be a winning formula to be. Less work + more money = good deal!

New Website

2007-03-28T18:02:00.000-06:00

I created a website for my New Media class at the University. Most of it was created in Photoshop then cut up and moved as .jpegs to Dreamweaver. To check it out click here.

Update

2007-03-24T11:45:00.000-06:00

So I have decided that it sucks having headaches that last days or weeks with no real excuse as to why. So I got painkillers and they did nothing so I went back and got some other stuff so I am hoping that they work. It may because of my lack of sleep due to the fact that Jaala doesn't sleep very well. Jayden, once my stubborn sleeper now is the best sleeper ever, 12 hours every night and not waking up. I should sign Jaala up in his course of "how to sleep 1200" do you think it will work? who knows.

Anyways to our somewhat normal (LOL) life, things are still busy with Justin in school and Jaala in school to. Jaala loves going to school although sometimes she tries to tell me that she is shy and doesn't want to go but when she gets there all is forgotten. We are still working on the bowel situation and were referred to the GI clinic in Calgary but who knows how long that will take. Justin just refused a job in Waterton, I know can you belive it? It was a really hard thing for him to do but it puts too much stress on the family and we would like to have a summer together so we are hoping that he gets a job in town which I am not overly worried about because he is very qualified to do many things. Jayden is well, Jayden. He is 2 1/2 and has an attention span of about that 2 1/2 mins. Computer, movie, tv, eat, computer, movie, tv, eat. He doest that all day, he doesn't usually nap anymore so he is ready for bed by the time bedtime comes which is really nice and some days he even asks to go to bed, I wish I could say the same about Jaala, someday soon I hope! Well I am keeping busy trying to keep eveyone in check and working part time. I enjoy my job most of the time, but who doesn't hate their job some of the time? I am really looking forward to nice weather, without the wind, so that we can go outside and do things and not be couped up in the house any longer.

Logo T-Shirt Contest

2007-03-09T15:52:00.000-07:00

As per mom's t-shirt logo contest I whipped something up on Photoshop today. What does everyone think? This is a rough draft and can be cleaned up if chosen.

Running

2007-03-07T16:01:00.000-07:00

Jada and I decided that it was high time for us to begin to live a more active lifestyle again so we started running. Back when I was an EMT and going through the EMT-A program, running and physical fitness was a requirement so I ran every day and got myself into really good shape. However, over the last number of years I've let that slide. I've also noticed that I am no longer able to eat the way I used to. I was the type that could eat as much as I wanted, whatever I wanted, and whenever I wanted. This has changed and I have started putting on weight for the first time in my life. Getting older sucks. So in order to combat age we run.

The first couple days were a mix of feeling good and awful. My mind seemed to remember how much I used to enjoy running and wanted to run like I used to, but my body had other ideas. That's OK though, its been a few days of pushing myself on some fairly hard runs and I am starting to feel better.

Jada has been running too. She is also over that initial hump and is feeling better. We've started running together taking the kids in the jogging stroller we have. The kids love it and its a good family activity. The running, coupled with the better diet we have been eating since we learned of Jaala's encopresis has really made a difference. I think we are both feeling great.

We were going to enter into the Moonlight run and run either 6 or 10 km but we missed the entry deadline, so look for us in the next race. Until then we'll be breaking in our newly bought running shoes and heading for the hills.

Quiz results...From Janna's blog

2007-03-07T15:58:00.000-07:00

These are my (Justin) results from the quiz on Janna's blog Take it for what its worth but seems pretty accurate.

Your Christmas is Most Like: National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

Christmas is a big, boisterous event at your place.
And no matter what, something hilarious usually happens.

What Movie Is Your Christmas Most Like?

You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 10/10 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Math?

Your Personality is Somewhat Rare (ISTP)

Your personality type is reserved, methodical, spirited, and intense.

Only about 6% of all people have your personality, including 3% of all women and 8% of all men
You are Introverted, Sensing, Thinking, and Perceiving.

How Rare Is Your Personality?

In a Past Life...

You Were: A Charming Assassin.

Where You Lived: Russia.

How You Died: Decapitation.

Who Were You In a Past Life?

You Will Be a Cool Parent

You seem to naturally know a lot about parenting, and you know what kids need.
You can tell when it's time to let kids off the hook, and when it's time to lay down the law.
While your parenting is modern and hip, it's not over the top.
You know that there's nothing cool about a parent who acts like a teenager... or a drill sergeant!

Would You Be a Cool Parent?

You Are Batman

Billionaire playboy by day. Saving the world by night.
And you're not even a true superhero. Just someone with a lot of expensive toys!

What Superhero Are You?

More Pics (as promised)

2007-01-27T15:54:00.000-07:00

Well here is the other set of photos we got taken the other day to complete the set started with the kids a week back.

Head in the Clouds

2007-01-19T10:19:00.000-07:00

With some of my new found skills in photoshop, I have been playing around with some different elements of combining pictures as well as some digital modification. Here is some of the out put of that process. There is also one more that I have done that is posted on my New Media blog for those interested it can be found here.

The Kids

2007-01-17T11:51:00.002-07:00

The following pictures are this years edition of the Family photos we do every year. So far we just got the kids back, more with the whole family will be coming soon!

Jaala

2007-01-17T11:51:00.001-07:00

Jayden

2007-01-17T11:51:00.000-07:00

Trial and Error

2007-01-11T13:01:00.000-07:00

Well after Christmas we decided to get the kids bunk beds and move all the toys downstairs to clean out our living room. To do that that ment that we had to take Jayden's crib apart and put him into a bed. We bought him a Thomas the train bed set and he really likes that but it has been a challenge to get him to sleep in his bed by himself. We put a movie on for Jaala at night and she falls asleep no problem, usually, and Jayden watches it to and he falls asleep to but we also have had to on a number of occasions lay with him till he falls asleep which is really annoying but we do it for our sanity. The other day Justin was putting the kids to bed while I was at work and he decided to see what would happen if we didn't lay with Jayden so he put them to bed and then came upstairs. About half an hour later he decided to see if they were sleeping and Jaala was but Jayden was nowhere to be found in his room, Justin then went to the play room and found Jayden in there watching treehouse, Jayden looked up at his dad and just laughed, the stinker. So alas Justin had to lay with him till he fell asleep which didn't take too long. So we are still having the battle with Jayden and getting him to sleep on his own but as for Jaala she loves her new bed and toy room that we tried to make as fun as we could so that they would like to play in there so we will continue our battle with Jayden and we will win eventually.

Back to the Routine

2007-01-10T07:53:00.000-07:00

Well all good things must come to an end and that includes Christmas Holidays. The day after Christmas the family all went up to Edmonton to see the McQuay side of the family. We all had a lot of fun.

Sadly however, we are back in Lethbridge and a new semester is starting at the University. One of the classes I am taking is a New Media class, which coincidently one of the requirements of the class is to make and keep a blog journal through out the semester. It will be a mainly school related blog but for any one interested you can find it here.

Hopefully soon when I have some time I will upload some pictures of the kids at Christmas for you all to check out, we got some good ones. But for now I'll just say, here's to 2007!

Rare Moments

2006-12-11T11:49:00.001-07:00

Jaala and Jayden actually posing for the same picture at

the same time!

Merry Christmas

2006-12-11T11:49:00.000-07:00

This That and the other Thing

2006-12-08T11:04:00.000-07:00

In addition to Jada's rant in regard to the subsidy agreement from the government (for Jaala's school program) I find it extremely stupid how they have a definite cut off point. The way it works is if you are a working mother like Jada and work 20 hours or less a week, then you get 100% subsidy. This is what we were on originally before Jada got her job. When Jada started working we thought, we better be honest and let them know we have a little bit more income now then when we first filled out the subsidy forms, so we did thinking that a small amount of extra money more wouldn't affect things too much. So the cut off goes like this work 20 hours, get 100% subsidy. Work 21 hours get 0%. Nada, nothing, bumpkis. Apparently in the eyes of the government that 1 extra hour of work is enough to now be able to cover the monthly school fees. Wouldn't a system where 20 hours a week is 100% covered, and 20-30 hours a week could be say 80% covered, be more logical? Of course the easy answer is just work less and get the subsidy, which would work, however before we do that we are currently looking at other subsidy options that would allow us to still keep the same hours (as Christmas coming and keeping hours under 20 may not be so easy) and still get funds of some sort. After all we are still operating on a student budget.

On a much prouder note, Jaala really impressed last week. At church on Sunday, Jaala's class made pretend scriptures as seen in the picture. She loves them. She has often come up to me this week and asked "Dad, can I read you some of my scriptures?" There is obviously only one answer to this question. To make a proud moment even better, Jaala asked to be able to bring her Scriptures to school for her show and tell, which she did. She is quite the little missionary and could easily put me to shame in that regard.

Lastly, classes for this semester are officially over leaving me with only a few finals to write before Christmas break. Only one of the three will be extremely challenging, and that is my Eco-system and Community Ecology class, which although incredibly fascinating, is also quite difficult. I am thinking of blogging in the future about some science related facts that others may find interesting and might also dispel some myths and rumours of of traditional schooling and education. For example do bears really hibernate? or do Seagulls really exist? Most people who know me know the answer to these questions, but for those who don't, stay tuned for some scientific "myth busting" as I dispel some of the most heinous and grievous errors in our current educational system (insert maniacal laugh here).

Venting my Frustration

2006-12-07T16:47:00.000-07:00

Well the last couple of days have been pretty stressful due to the fact that the subsidy that I use to pay for Jaala's school has decided to close the file and make me pay not only for the future but for the past few months only because I work 22 hours and not 20 hours a week. I have been calling everybody and their dog to find out how I can solve this problem and what hoops I have to jump through to get the money back. Now it is just a waiting to hear from the people that I need to hear from but the most important person I need to hear from is in England till the 22nd of this month so once again it is a waiting game. But on a better note I have finished my Christmas shopping for my children which is a good thing because I was stressing about when I would get that done but man kids sure are expensive and I am never having any, but I guess it is too late for that :) No I really enjoy my kids even if they do scream when I won't let them have a cookie before dinner or if they have spent all day on the computer and I tell them to go and do something else. I must be a horrible mother LOL!! Well I suppose I must get back to my daily battle with my children and get them to eat their dinner.

No Pressure

2006-12-04T08:55:00.000-07:00

Well I got a phone call the other morning from Justin and he said check this out so I clicked on the link he had sent me and there was my family in a blog. Cool! I think it is a good idea for those who I tend to lose touch with or just have bits and pieces of my family. Well the only thing that I am nervous about is that I will post something new and it will be so boring that no one will read it but I am sure that with our busy lives that whatever I write about will be humorous in itself, so hopefully it won't be too bad.

Meet the Hills

2006-12-03T04:50:00.001-07:00

For my first real post, and because I am still trying to kill some time at work, I'm going to make a post introducing you to the Hill family. Likely many people who will read this will be family so these details may be well known, however for friends that perhaps just know Jada or myself hopefully this will provide some insight into the other member of the family.

Justin - This is me, I am a student in my fourth year at the University of Lethbridge where I am close to completing a Bachelor of Science degree, majoring in Environmental Science. Primarily my interests are biology and ecology of terrestrial mammals and wildlife management. I have spent my last 2 summers working in Waterton Lakes National Park on studies involving hair snag bear DNA, amphibians, ecology and survivorship of limber pine (Pinus flexilis) plus several others. I also work weekends from midnight to eight a.m. as a night time security guard for Group 4 Secuicor. I am a middle child number 3 of 5 in a family which hosts siblings all with names starting with the letter J. Coincidentally my wife Jada is also a number 3 of 5 with all her sibling also starting with J, hence the decision to keep the tradition and name our kids with J. This often leads to confusion, but as I have never met a sane Hill, confusion is our way of life.

Jada - Jada is definitely the glue that holds the family together. If anyone is deserving the title of "Super Mom" it is her. Jada is tough in every sense of the word. She is extremely strong willed and dedicated and when she sets her mind to something you can guarantee she will make it happen. Jada currently also works part time as a cashier at Walmart, which especially now as Christmas approaches is no easy feat. Our life is a juggling act between my school schedule, and both of our work schedules. Yet we still somehow manage to find time to be together as a family. Jada is the type of person who always does the right thing, not because it is expected of her, but because that is just how it is. Despite our crazy schedule she never misses her visiting teaching, or any opportunity to learn new parenting skills. With some of the challenges our family has faced Jada also finds time to go to doctors appointments, child behavioral classes, stay up to date with speech, and behavioral specialists that come to our home every couple weeks and anything else that might make life easier for our children. She is the most humble, hard working mother you will ever meet, and I am immensely grateful she is on my side.

Jaala - Jaala is our first born daughter. She recently turned 4 years old and in my extremely biased opinion is the cutest little girl to walk this planet. Jaala is extremely helpful and loves to help wash dishes and will always get involved in any repair job that needs to be under taken in our home. She recently started pre-school and is loving it. The school has been great for her to help her interact with other kids and develop social skills. Jaala loves animals, especially horses and unicorns and will hardly ever leave the house without one of her precious animals firmly in her grasp. Jaala is also extreamly smart, and is a very quick learner. She is already very adept at the computer and loves to play games on the treehouse and kids CBC websites.

Jayden - Jayden is the youngest of our two kids and turned 2 in August. Apparently Jayden didn't get the memo that the 2's are suppose to be "terrible". He is one of the happiest kids you will ever meet and has a hugely infectious laugh. While Jayden was still in the womb prior to being born he suffered what doctors believe to be a stroke, and as such was born with two holes in his brain and one in his heart. He spent his first two months of his life both in the hospital in Lethbridge and in Calgary where it was determined he has an Atrial Septal Defect of a moderate size. The holes in his brain are located in the basal ganglia region of the brain and has resulted in Jayden being slightly behind the norm of what is expected for kids of his age. His first two years were rough where Jayden had failure to thrive, E. Coli, any many other health related issues. The bright side is the kid couldn't be happier. Recently he has made remarkable gains and is rapidly catching up to where a normal 2 year old should be. The hole in his heart appears to be getting smaller as his heart grows but may still need to be corrected via open heart surgery. Hopefully we'll know more on that in a couple months when we see his cardiologist. Jayden is extremely polite and is very obedient. He says "thank you" when you put him to bed and is already an avid hockey fan. He plays with his hockey stick almost every waking moment of the day, and the first night after we bought it for him, he actually had to sleep with it beside him. Who is his favorite team? Just ask him and he'll reply "Oilers!"

As this blog grows in size, you will encounter more details about each of us. As like most Hills we are a delightfully quirky bunch whos insanity is about as wide as Janna's waist after a thanksgiving meal. (Sorry Janna).

Humble Beginnings

2006-12-03T04:50:00.000-07:00

In trying to stay awake at work and browsing some old family blogs to kill time, I decided why not create my own where I can provide some fun and insight into what life in the Hill house is all about. Hopefully this can be a place where friends and family can come regularly to find out what is new and exciting in our world.