Family Fun Times

Life is busy and crazy here in Texas. I am more than half-way through my semester and I am loving school so far. I have been learning so much about cancer, the physics of radiation, the production of x-rays, etc. in my clinical rotations I have been able to meet a lot of neat patients and my life has been touched. I have learned a lot there too.

Jake is surviving with the kids. Some days are harder than others. We try to do some fun things as a family regularly so that we all have something to look forward to. Every Friday night we have a family movie party night. We pop popcorn and watch a fun kid/family movie that we checked out from the library.

We also live close to a really cool park that we go to often. It has a big lake to walk around with a lot of ducks. It also has a really fun playground.

Funny story: the other day dal and I went jogging around the lake and he was pretending that we were racing to win the Piston Cup. A couple of times he stopped on the sidewalk, knelt down, and prayed that heavenly Father would help him run super duper fast so that he could run faster than me and win the Piston Cup. It was funny and so cute to see his sweet faith, and that he would think to stop, kneel down and pray. It was one fo those sweet moments as a parent.

Right next to the park is a children’s museum that the kids love. Here are some pics of the kids having fun there…

Unfortunately we also have to find some time to clean. At least Braelyn enjoys helping me vacuum J

I can’t believe how big my kids are getting. Braelyn especially has changed so much in the past year. She looks more like a little girl now than a baby. It’s crazy how fast time goes.

They are just the sweetest siblings. They love each other so much. In the morning when they first see each other they give each other a big hug, kiss and nuzzle (rubbing noses :)

B-Rae showing some crazy hair action

I just love those kids and my sweet husband. We feel so blessed to have each other and to be going through this crazy adventure together.

Hey y'all!

Since living here in Texas we have heard the term "y'all" many many times :) One girl I talked to said it about every 3 words. It was pretty funny. Another thing they like to say here is that they are "fixin' to do something" or that they "made an A on their test". One thing that caught me off guard was that at school in addition to saying the regular pledge of allegience they say a pledge of allegience to the Texas flag as well. Who knew.

We have met a lot of really nice people here and we are happy to be in Texas. We are also enjoying the nice warm weather.

Our kids make pretty cute Texans too :)

B-Raes hair is getting longer which makes for some fun bathtime hair dos

I also started clinicals. So here I am my first day of clinicals with my navy blue scrubs. (That's what the students wear) Clinicals is going well. It's been fun to get in there and work with the patients and learn by doing. It's also a little overwhelming to see how much I will have to learn, but I will have plenty of clinical hours to do so.

We also got callings. Jake is the first counselor in the Sunday School Presidency and I am a Sunday School teacher. I teach the juniors and seniors in high school. They are a great bunch and I am really enjoying it. Our ward is super nice too!

First Day of School Photo Shoot

So Dal and I have both have our first two weeks of school under our belts. Dal likes going to school and he made a new friend that he just can't wait to see every day. It's really funny because he had a best little friend at his preschool in Utah and his name was Cash. He was very sad to leave Cash and asked me if I thought Cash would move to Texas too so that he could be in his class :) So guess what his new best friends name is here in Texas...yep, it's Cash. I couldn't believe there was a really nice little boy in his class (who kind of reminds me of his other friend Cash) named Cash. Pretty funny.

School for me is going well. I can see that I am going to be learning a TON of information over these next two years but a lot of it will be interesting, so that's nice. I start clinicals in a week so I'm excited and nervous about that. There is so much to learn about how to do the radiation treatments on the cancer patients (and prepare them for treatment), and how to run those HUGE machines and how to position the patients in the EXACT positions. But it will be great to get to start working with the patients. For clinicals we will also get to do rotations in other areas that work with cancer patients as well, such as: Radiation Oncology, Oncology Nursing, x-ray, CT, etc. I think that will be really interesting because it will give us a better idea of the team who works with our patients and what they all do.

On the first day of school we had a little first day of school photo shoot...Dal is quite the poser so he had some fun with it.....:)

This one was unexpected...but hilarious!

We also got a pic of me for my first day of school. I couldn't pose near as cool as Dal so we just stuck with this one.

Welcome to Texas

Well we made it to Texas and are starting to feel settled in now.

Moving here was our most stressful moving experience yet! The place we were planning on moving to fell through a week before we were supposed to move out so we had to frantically try to find a new place to live. It was such a process and as we were leaving Logan with our moving truck we still weren't sure when we would be able to move into our new apt. By some miracle things fell into place right at the last second and we were able to move in when we got here.

My parents came to Logan to help us move out and then my dad drove our moving truck and trailer here and my parents helped us get moved in. They were so nice and soooo helpful! We could not have done it without them! Some people from the ward here came to help us move our stuff up to our 3rd floor apt, which was very nice of them :)

We like our new apt. It's good sized & has 3 bedrooms (Dal is so excited to have his own bedroom. He has a major toy domain set up in there with all of his block creations :) We have a swimming pool here which the kids have loved (especially since it's pretty toasty warm here) and I am soooo close (like 2 mins) to my school and the cancer center where I will be doing clinicals. That will be nice!

Dal starts Pre-Kindergarten next week and I start Radiation Therapy school. He's pretty excited. I'm excited and nervous. I'm nervous because it's supposed to be a pretty intense program (for 20 months) and with 2 kids and a sick husband will make for a pretty crazy adventure. (Jake's a little nervous too-knowing I will be gone a lot and he will have the kids for long hours at a time, but we are hoping and praying that it will all work out!) I am excited though too because I love learning and I am excited to get out there and work with cancer patients and help them fight their cancer.

I have a couple pics of us here in Texas. When my parents were here we went a little amusement park. The kids loved it.

On this ride we asked Dal if he would make sure Braelyn didn't stand up, so his big brother protective instincts kicked in and he put his little arm around her and kept it there the whole ride. They were so cute! He is such a good big brother.

Grandpa & Dal

The other day we went to the little local zoo. (It's free on Mondays!)
It was fun! The kids enjoyed see all of the animals.

Family Reunion Part 3

We had a Hilton fam get together at my parents cabin in Montana. We had a great time boating, playing tennis, games and enjoying good times with the family.

Dal & Ky are quite the little buddies

Mom Update: My mom is doing well. She finished up with her chemo and just started radiation therapy. Hopefully that won't be too bad for her.

B-Rae sharing some crackers with Reese

My Bros (We missed u Clint!)
We visited a nearby town and checked out the shops and such

Cousin Time

Little B enjoying playing in the rain

and the wagon

Dal showing his jedi moves with his light saber/bubble blower

Chase and I did the tube together and laughed pretty much the whole time :)

Tiffany, Landon & Dal

Good Times!

It was so fun to get to play with everyone before we moved!

Quite the Road Trip

We recently got back from quite the road trip. We first spent a few days in Provo with most of my family there and had a lot of fun. We played a lot of games, tennis and wii....good times!

Then we went on to Colorado for a couple days, and then on to Texas to check out the school, the city and have my interview. (The school and cancer center were really nice. Parts of the city were nice and parts were ghetto. We didn't get to see much because it was a really quick trip but we do know that we are for sure moving there at the end of this month for me to go to Radiation Therapy school, so we'll get to know the place better then. So Texas here we come!)

We then went back to Colorado and spent a fun-filled week playing with all of the fun family we have there. We went to parks, played yard games, had water fights, made smores, ate amazingly yummy food and just had a lot of fun. The kids loved playing with so many cousins, Aunts and Uncles, and Grandma and Grandpa Harris.