Our New House!!!

So we closed on our house today so we are official homeowners!!! We are excited to get moved in and organized and settled. We are so excited to be moving into a house, have more space, a garage, and a yard eventually :)

Here is the tour...

Entry Way

Our kitchen has granite counter tops and a travertine tile floor

Dining Area

Living Room

Our lovely fireplace (that is the same granite that our kitchen counters are made out of, between the fireplace and the wood, and the same travertine tile so that it all matches).

One of the walk-in closets (There is one in the Master bedroom and in one of the basement bedrooms)

Master Bathroom with large framed mirror & white granite

Master Bathroom with cool looking tile

Stairs to downstairs

One of the basement bedrooms

Basement bathroom - we went with black granite downstairs and a slightly different tile but same mirror/wood color as the other bathrooms

Part of the basement (we will probably make this a game area or something) and there is the utility room and cold storage room off to the right (through the door frame you can barely see :).

Its a new construction so we are excited to have new carpet, new everything, so fresh and so clean :)

Stairs going up and the playhouse under the stairs

Basement family room

Braelyn is really, really excited for "her" playhouse

I love this little outside light on the playhouse (there is an inside one too)

Laundry area

Well there you have it! Our first house and we LOVE it!!!

Dalyn's Baptism

The invitations that we gave out that my wonderful sister-in-law Catherine made.

This was the front cover of the program that we made. Some of the program highlights included Grandma Hilton giving the talk on baptism, Grandpa Hilton giving the talk on the Holy Ghost and of course Jake baptizing and confirming Dalyn. It was a very special day. One thing that was kind of cool was I invited a few people that I work with to come (who aren't members of the church) and three of them with their families came. It was really sweet of them to come and they brought presents for Dal too:) 

Daddy & Dalyn practicing their technique

He is getting so grown up. I can't believe that we already have an 8 year old! He also started cub scouts which is crazy to think that we have a kid in Scouts now!

My parents were very supportive, as always, and happy to be there to be a part of Dal's special day.

We forgot to get some "after" photos at the church so we did it in our entry way at home. Not the best lighting but oh well :)  When I was talking to Dal after his baptism he told me that even though the water was really cold  when he got out he had a warm feeling come over him and that it was really cool. I thought that was really neat that he recongized that special feeling. After the baptism we had some yummy brownie and ice cream sundaes and mingled with our friends that came.



I just had to throw in a pic that we got of these two cute sisters. We all love you Dalyn and are so proud of your decision to be baptized!

Happy 8th Birthday Dalyn!!!

Dal's birthday was really special because we got to have a party with some fun family and friends. Chase came up a couple days after Christmas to see us so it was really fun to have him there and then it worked out for Catherine and Christen and their family to be there because they were passing through on their way to a funeral. Also our good friends Cam and Miranda came so we had quite the party. We had pizza and ice cream cake per Dal's request.

Earlier that day we went ice skating at our cool ice rink here and we had a lot of fun!

The next morning for church Catherine & Emily had Braelyn all prettied up and ready for church before I even had a chance to make sure she was awake.

We made the kids sit for a couple pics after church. Serious faces.

Smiley faces

Some sweet sister cuddle time

And I just had to throw this picture in of Madelyn because she is just too cute! It is SO FUN to have a baby around! I just can't get enough of her cute face :)

Christmas 2013

Of course we had to do a little photo shoot in front of the Christmas tree :)

Madelyn's 1st Christmas! I can't believe this sweet baby is already 5 months old. Time has gone by so fast. We have LOVED having a baby around the house again. She is just too cute and too fun for words :)

This was our little make-shift Christmas card that we sent out via email this year. To get our family together included cutting and pasting from 3 different pictures, without having a good photo editing software :)

We had a nice and relaxing Christmas this year. We just stayed at home and it was just our little family. On Christmas Eve we watched the Nativity Bible videos, played a new board game that we opened, watched Mickey's Christmas Carol, sang some Christmas hymns and the kids opened their new pajamas. On Christmas morning we played with Santa presents, ate a yummy waffle with fruit and whip cream breakfast, watched Joy to the World (about the birth of Christ) and then opened presents. Dal was very excited about the new legos and angry birds star wars game set that he got.

Braelyn was very excited about her new doll house and doll family and Lambie from Doc McStuffins. I love the excitement that kids have for Christmas, it makes it so much fun! 2013 was a very eventful and crazy year for us and we were blessed very much. We look forward to 2014 and all of the new adventures that it brings. I am going to copy and paste the email that I sent out giving our family and friends a recap of 2013 so that I have it here too.

 

Dear Family & Friends,

We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and that this new year brings many wonderful blessings your way.

2013 was a very eventful year for our family....

• I spent most of the year doing clinical hours at the Huntsman Cancer Hospital while completing my Masters degree in Medical Dosimetry. I had an awesome experience there and I loved it!
• One week after I finished school our sweet baby girl Madelyn Lily was born (August 2nd). She is such a fun and happy baby. Dalyn and Braelyn adore their baby sister and love trying to make her smile and laugh.
• We bought a new car to better fit our growing family (a 2013 red Nissan Rogue) and we love it!
• We moved to Rock Springs, WY because I got a job as a Medical Dosimetrist at a new cancer center that is being built there. (In case you are wondering what in the world a medical dosimetrist does: I work with cancer patients who are going to have radiation therapy. I work with a CT scan of the patient and draw in the healthy organs near the tumor so that we can track radiation dose to them and then I design a treatment plan on the computer determining where the radiation will enter the patient at and from how many angles in order to hit the tumor with the right amount of radiation and spare the healthy organs nearby. It is very interesting and challenging and I love it!)
• We have loved living in a smaller town, the friendly people, my five minute commute to work and we have met some great friends here.
• They also have a nice college here and Jake is getting things arranged to teach a class or two next Fall. 
• Dalyn (almost 8) finished up first grade in a Chinese/English dual immersion program in Utah (he loved it!) and then he started 2nd grade in Wyoming (unfortunately they don't have dual language immersion programs here) and he really likes his teacher and has met some nice friends. He has developed a love for reading and continues to love creating with legos and "imaginating" as he likes to call it :) He is excited to get baptized in a couple of weeks.
  
• Braelyn (just turned 5) went to preschool in Utah and loved socializing with all of the kids. Here in Wyoming she has been a very good helper to Daddy taking care of Madelyn during the day. She loves to hold Madelyn and likes to sing to her if she is sad :) She is also already very excited to start kindergarten next fall. 
• Madelyn (almost 5 months old) has brought so much joy to our family. We had forgotten how fun it is to have a baby around. She loves watching her big brother and sister be silly and making her laugh. She has the cutest smile and she has been sleeping through the night since she was two months old, which makes us happy!
  

We feel very grateful for all of the wonderful blessings we have received this year. We love this time of year to celebrate the birth and life of our Savior Jesus Christ. We love Him and are so grateful for Him.
We wish you all the best and are grateful for the part that you have played in our lives.
Merry Christmas!
Love,
Tasha, Jake, Dalyn, Braelyn & Madelyn

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!