Easter-ific

Grandma Smith didn't have her annual Easter party this year (they are to busy building a new house!) So we had to color eggs on our own! The kids had fun but said the 2 dozen eggs I cooked were not enough!!

Valley of Fire was a lot of fun as always, Dillon got to climb a little higher this year with Josh! Degan was the only one who fell and scratched his leg up! but with a bag full of candy it was all good! Dustin was bummed when the hunt was over and wanted to do it again! Dax wasn't feeling good and after he found one egg he was done!

We headed to the Overton Park for a BBQ after the hunt and had fun playing games and running around! It's always a good time with the Hillstead Clan! Can't wait for next year!

Easter Morning!

Spring Break

I've decided that Spring Break is just a tease and made us all that more ready for summer break to get here! We had a super cute visitor! (Mattie) We camped out in the backyard and in the living room! We stayed up late and slept in! We played a lot of Minecraft & games on the computer! All in all it was a great Spring Break!

Life Changer

   Josh Frederick crashed at the Lake Havasu WORCS race. He broke his back, underwent long and complicated surgery, and as of this posting has yet to recover feeling in his legs. The accident only happening a few days ago, they have obviously not exhausted all options for Josh’s recovery. The ATV world is holding its collective breath for Josh and his family. They are thinking, hoping, and praying for Josh to have a full recovery. “The Animal” of ATV racing is more than a badass on a four wheeler. He’s the stuff legends are made of, but honestly Josh is just an incredibly skilled and talented rider who came from a humble ATV start and worked day and night to achieve his dreams and goals, and it showed on the track. To top it off, he’s a nice family guy and a role model.
  So it’s incredibly poor timing and just downright unfair for a man of his caliber to be in the hospital now with an uncertain future in the sport we all love!
  We are pleased to be posting this instead of the alternative however, so it’s not all bad. I don’t think Josh is the type of guy to give up. Even if a full recovery is currently out of reach – and changes in modern medicine and science may change that – Josh is going to continue to be all the things he currently is – a nice guy, a devout father, a loving husband, and man who works hard to achieve his dreams and goals, and hopefully there’s a place in the industry for him after he recovers.

Shots/Discovery/Science Fair

Our 15th anniversary was full of fun & not so fun things for the kids. We started the day off taking Dustin & Dax to see Dr. Tenby. Dax is now older than 1 and has never been back to the Dr. since he was a few months old (my bad) I figured it was time for him to go make sure everything was on the up & up and to SLOWLY start getting him caught up on his shots. I told the Dr. my concerns and that I wanted to do just one shot but somehow Darin agreed to 3 combo shots so I think the poor kid had a total of 8 vaccinations floating around in his system, I wasn't to happy about it and should've stopped the nurse but didn't want to make a seen in the office. Poor baby cried until he got a sucker and than wouldn't let us pull it out of his mouth!! After the Dr. visit Dustin & I headed for the Discovery Museum to meet up with his preschool, I had a hard time finding the place and was ready to go home when I called Darin and he got me the right address (apparently google maps hasn't updated) and than we drove right to it! I'm so glad we didn't go home It was a really cool place and Dusty had a blast, We'll for sure be bringing all the boys here this summer! To end the special day we went to the school for the science fair and I hate to brag (not really) but Dillon's board was one of the best looking boards there! We even found Degan's report he did on turtles, than out on the playground they had telescopes set up so we could look at the sun & the moon! It was a lot of fun and the funny thing is while walking around instead of me stopping to talk Darin kept running into people from his work!
FYI: Our anniversary wasn't a complete bust we went and got massages the next day!

You've got a friend in me!

Sometimes I think we traumatized Degan's friends more than him by moving. In the last week I've heard from some of the mom's telling me how much their boys miss Degan!

Shelby: Best line of the day- I'm teaching sharing time and the lesson is on the resurrection. I ask the primary if anyone has ever lost someone they loved. Breckan raises his hand and somberly says "Yes, I lost Degan"

Rachel: So were driving up to a garage sell by your old house and poor Tucker started bawling. I couldn't figure it out then I realized he was thinking about Degan.

Scarlet: I've caught Jesse in his room holding the picture of all the boys at the park just staring it with sad puppy dog eyes. I know he misses Degan.

Degan is very lucky to have such good friends and I have made it my personal mission to make sure they stay good friends!

SLEEPOVER

Both Dillon & Degan had their first "Friend" sleepover! They played minecraft, (of course) legos, and watched "The Rise of the Guardians" before hitting the sac. The next day we took them to the skate park, the boys had basketball tryouts, than out for some laser tag!! It was a lot of fun having Thayne come stay with us we miss seeing his cute face at our house everyday!!

We are from Grant M. Bowler

We went out to the valley yesterday to attend Mike Overson's funeral and Degan has been wanting to go surprise his old classmates so I sent Kristy & Amy a message and asked if the boys could pop in for a quick surprise visit while we were in town! The boys in Degan's class we so excited to see him they all started screaming and ran over and tackled him, than they watched a movie :) Dillon's class was out at break so when some of the kids saw him they chased him down! It was really cool to surprise their classes but I think it made them miss Logandale even more.

We'll be Loyal Scouts

3-9-13 Today was Scout Day Camp for Dillon at the elementary school and I had the pleasure of going with him this year! It was windy and cold and we liked the indoor classes better but it was fun and we survived! While we were at Day Camp, Dad went to the YMCA to sign the boys up for basketball, the boys fighting distracted him and he backed into a Maxima causing a little damage to the bumper. Degan wanted him to leave but the good father that he is he used it as a teaching moment and taught him that you don't run away from your mistakes you have to own it and admit when you do something wrong! We were worried we'd have to shell out some cash to fix it but the insurance covered it at no expense to us!!

Preschool At the Y

Preschool at the Y

3-5-13 Who has two thumbs and LOVED his first day of preschool?? Dustin Jones that's who! Preschool at the Y is a little pricey but I just felt like Dusty needed to get out of the house and hopefully learn a few things too while he's there!!

Hives

3-3-13 My poor little guy has had a nasty cold that found it's way into his eyes and he'd wake up in the mornings and from naps with them all boogered up and than to top it all off he broke out in hives all over his body. I did a little research & WebMD said not to panic, so I busted out the oils and rubbed him down. For a day and a half the hives would go away and come back a little less each time.

The Karate Kid

First day of Karate

3-6-13 got his uniform today!

3-2-13 Dustin has been obsessed with the ninja turtles since he's been hanging out with Ethan & Evan and has been wanting to take some karate lessons! So when we saw that the Y offered karate we figured why not give it a try and so far he's really liking it! and I might be a little biased but isn't he the cutest karate kid??

Skate Park

2-27-13 Besides spending a lot of time at the Y we try and take Degan to the skate park at least once a week! This place was one of the things he was excited about moving closer to and he thinks he's going to be a pro scooter rider! I swear he could stay here all day going up and down the ramps and over the bumps! but we all know nothing good happens at the skate park when the sun starts going down so that's why we go right after school and tell the boys, that they might hear quit a few bad words but that they are NOT allowed to repeat them! I see lots of visits to the skate park before it gets to hot to be outside!!

Naughty Baby

LOOK at me I'm so cute!

I'm thirsty!

2-25-13 I forgot how fearless babies are when they want something bad enough, He clearly doesn't see all that can go wrong in either of these pictures and thankfully he hasn't gotten seriously injured yet! He sure is a cute naughty baby!

Sister Pollock

Ehrin & Degan having a dance off

2-17-13 When they announced in conference that they were changing the mission ages for both boys & girls I should have known that Ehrin and Holly would be willing to serve, in fact they were so excited they turned their papers in that next week (not really but it seemed like it) Ehrin got called to Columbus Ohio and I know she'll do really well as long as she doesn't meet any cute boys! Good Luck see you in 18 months!

Vegas Fun

Cool Park with a big A snake

Butterfly Park

So glad we brought the swingset, Dax loves it

Morning Opening on Dr. Suess's B-day

Morning Opening -Caring Style

Crashed on our way to the mall

Cool Car at the Mall

Just Chillin at U-Swirl

Dillon's class presentation for Black History Month -Follow the drinking Gourd

Hip Hop at the Y

Bricks 4 Kidz!!

A flyer came home from school for this fun after school class that involved building things with legos and I knew the boys would LOVE it so we signed them up and we were right they had fun! After one of the classes Darin was asking them who they buddied up with to build their projects and they said they worked together but Degan said next time he was going to buddy up with this cute girl who goes! I don't think he ever worked up the nerve to ask her to partner up but I'm not looking forward to his teenage years!