Las Vegas Trip

So I had to go to Las Vegas for a week for a training for work and Madelyn had to come with me so that I could feed the cute munchkin, which means that someone else had to come too, so Jake came with me:) My mom and dad were nice enough to come stay in Rock Springs for the week with Dalyn and Braelyn so that I could go to my training and so that Jake and Madelyn could come with me. My training was really good and Jake and I had a nice time in Vegas. We stayed in a great hotel (the Signature at MGM Grand). It is a non-smoking, non-casino hotel which was really nice and the rooms were awesome. We went on lots of walks, ate great food, shopped and relaxed a little. Dalyn & Braelyn also had a great week playing with Grandma & Grandpa. I think they hardly even missed us :)

This was the view from our room. We were on the 33rd floor so we had a cool view of the city and the strip.

We brought the kids home some little animal hats with attached hand warmers as souvenirs. Living here you can never have too many things to keep you warm.While we were gone they hit -20 or so here and we were enjoying a balmy 60 degrees.

Happy 5th Birthday Braelyn!!!

Happy 5th Birthday our sweet little Braelyn Rachel! For Braelyn's birthday party we had pizza and pink cake and it was special that Grandma and Grandpa Hilton were able to be there and our friends Camron and Miranda.

Braelyn brings so much joy to our lives. She is so silly and fun and can be such a sweet and thoughtful girl. She is always making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for Dal and singing to Madelyn. She also loves to help daddy cook dinner and make banana bread with mommy. She loves princesses and dolls and all things girly. She also loves to play soccer and football and wrestle daddy. She is very fast and athletic and we look forward to seeing what her future in sports will be like. This fall she took swimming lessons and ice skating lessons and she really enjoyed both of those.

We sure do love you Braelyn!

Halloween and Such

Sweet Little Madelyn who is already 3 months old!

Princess Braelyn

We had a fun Halloween! We went to a Chamber of Commerce picnic and got hotdogs, hot chocolate, glow sticks and candy. Then we went to the hospital (where I work) and the kids got some candy and got to go through a little spook alley, then we hit the ward Trunk-or-Treat and down one street of a neighborhood. After all that the kids had plenty of candy and were sufficiently frozen (it was a windy cold night).

Ninja Dalyn

A ninja pose. He was moving so fast it made the picture blurry (or it could be that our camera is kind of lame :)

A princess pose

A really cute baby

I just can never get enough of her cute smile!

Dalyn and Braelyn have been taking ice skating and swimming lessons lately. At the rec center you just pay $20 for your kid for the month and then you can sign them up for whatever classes you want and they don't cost any extra. (Braelyn is free for classes because she is younger than 6.) It's a great deal so we are going to try to take advantage of having them try out a lot of fun stuff.

The girls chillin together. So I started working about a month ago so Jake has been being super dad with the kids and I have been enjoying my job and we have been enjoying getting pay checks. After years of being in school it sure is a nice change :). My work schedule is awesome and I have about a 5 minute commute so I get to come home at lunch and feed Madelyn and then come home mid-afternoon and feed her. I don't have to leave super early in the morning (I take Dal to school on my way) and then I am home at a good time every day. We aren't treating patients yet so things are pretty chill right now. I have had a lot of good time to study for my boards at work which has been nice because trying to study at home is not super effective. :) We just feel really blessed to be here and feel like this job is a gift that is perfect for us and our situation.

2nd Grade, First Smiles, WY

An awesome from the car shot of Dal's school :) He started 2nd grade just a couple days after we moved here. It was a little crazy getting him into a school. The school he is supposed to go to is full as are a couple of the other close ones. We luckily got him into a different close one that was able to squeeze him in. I guess the schools here are busting at the seams, especially with 2nd graders. They are going to be breaking ground on a couple new schools soon to try to keep up with the growth here and all the young families with children that keep moving to town. Our ward has a lot of young families which is kind of cool. And they just redid the boundaries and our ward building now has 4 wards in it! Crazy! They are hoping that a new meetinghouse will be in the plans here in the near future.

Our little 2nd grader. (Note: This isn't what he wore his first day of school. I actually did take the camera to take a nice picture of him in front of his school on the first day of school but we were running a little late because I had to feed Madelyn and we all wanted to go, so we didn't get a photo. So here one is. Better late than never :)

Dal has been known to bust out some poses for the camera. He called this his "action" shot.

This was his "silly" shot. Believe it or not Dal can be a pretty timid kid. His first week of school was really hard because he didn't know anybody and was really missing his friends back in Utah, especially his best friend Jett. I think he was feeling kind of lonely. He is such a good kid at school and he really likes his teacher so I think things will work out. He has started to get to know some kids which is good but being new and making new friends takes time. Not that I know from experience (well, not as a kid. As an adult I have plenty of experience at moving and being "new"). Jake has a lot of experience with moving as a kid though. He knows a little too well what its like. I, on the other hand, lived in the same house all of my growing up years and went to school with all of the same kids. By middle school I was ready to move so that I could meet some new people but it wasn't in the plans. I think that's why going to college was such a breath of fresh air.

And I'm not sure what this pose was but I thought I would include it for posterity's sake.

 

 

Our little cutie pie.

I love tiny little baby feet.

Madelyn has started smiling which is so fun

Love this sweet baby

A little peak outside our door. Almost every afternoon lately we have been having some cool thunder and lightning storms. We have had fun exploring some of the parks around here and getting to know our new town. At one park they have a cool rock and sagebrush frisbee golf course and we discovered that our kids love frisbee golf. Another park has some of tallest tunnel slides that I have ever seen on a park playground. The kids thought those were pretty cool. I also discovered a really cool running path very close to where we live. (It feels good to be able to run again!) I saw two rabbits and four deer while I was running on it. When I run, I run by the middle school football field, which is the nicest middle school football field that I have ever seen. It's made of really nice artificial turf and the track that goes around it is super nice too. I'll have to start taking my camera more places so I can capture the moments of our exploring. That's one of my favorite things about moving to a new place-exploring and getting to know all of the best things that our new place has to offer.

Madelyn 1 Month Old & Rock Springs

I can't believe she is already a month old. Time is going by fast. We are all enjoying our little Madelyn so much. I can't believe I only have one month left at home with her before I start work. That is going to be so hard for me to leave her every day. But hopefully my schedule will be flexible enough that I will still be able to see her a lot. And having a 5 minute commute is going to make a huge difference.

We are all moved to Rock Springs and getting settled in. It has been a crazy couple of weeks. Moving is always such a pain. We like our apartment a lot and we like the town so far. It definitely has that friendly small town vibe. Anytime we have gone to the store or anywhere there is always a stranger that talks to us, usually about Madelyn. This is a great sized town and we love that it only takes a few minutes to get anywhere we need to go.  We have gone on some walks and as we walk through the neighborhoods I can't believe how many trucks and camper trailers there are. It's like to truly be a Wyominger you have to own those two things :) We feel really good about being here and starting a new adventure here.

Madelyn's Blessing Day

We wanted to bless Madelyn before we moved so more family could be there, so she was only weeks old when we blessed her. We decided to do it after church in the Relief Society room and then have a luncheon afterwards at the covered pavilion outside the church. We couldn't believe how much family came to support us and little Madelyn. The Relief Society room was full! We felt very blessed and loved and were happy to have so many people share her special day with us.

Beautiful sisters. Madelyn was so quiet during her blessing and her blessing was really special. I felt the Spirit strong and Jake did too. The main thing that really stood out to us is that Jake felt very impressed to say that she came in this dispensation so that she could help build the kingdom of God and be a missionary. We feel like she is a very special daughter of God and we feel very blessed to have her in our family.

I love her little dainty pinky sticking out in this picture :)

I love her dress. My mother-in-law made it for Braelyn and we were excited to have Madelyn wear it too.

Grandma & Grandpa Hilton

Some daddy time

It was so great to have some of my favorite cousins there. Jeff & Camron Hill and their families came as well as my cousin Jenny and her family.

Both my mom's sisters came and it was fun to have them there

Collin & Tiffany and their fam were there too

I loved it that my Aunt Fern could come and my parents too of course

Landon and Braelyn. So cute!

Jake's cousin Kadee and her family came and it was fun to see them.

It was also special to have Jake's mom there "Grandma Harris" and her sister Aunty Angie.

Loved having a couple of my brothers there. They are so good at making great faces too :)

Jake's cousin Erika and her family were there and it was so great to see them