Train up a child...

Naomi: "I will sit on the stairs for my quiet time today."
"I just love my old ratty Bible...it's falling apart, but I can find everything in it!"
Tate: "Naomi, you're supposed to pray first."
Tate: "Oh, forget it! I'll pray...but you'd better not snake my cars!"

Our Basement

The recreation area of our basement
The kids' play area of our basement!

Kids' Rooms

Tate's Bedroom-He wanted a "Ball Room."
Naomi's Room will be complete if Dallas ever gets off his rear and puts up the chair railing!

She can climb!

Naomi moved this stool next to the barstool in order to climb onto the chair. What she lacks for in height, she makes up for with ingenuity!
Tate and Naomi sit at the bar in our kitchen.

Tate's swim lessons

Tate does the choo-choo down the wall with Miss Kerry.
Tate practices his kicking!
Watch for Tate in the 2016 Olympics! He's so fast the shot was blurry! This really has nothing to do with my photography skills!

Tate fearlessly jumps off the side!

Uncle Josh comes to town!

Uncle Josh came to stay for a day! We had a lot of fun! Thanks for coming Uncle Josh! We love you! Come play again soon!

Z Ride

Gramps took Tate for a ride around the block in the Z!
Looks like Tate needs some practice driving with no roof!

The Fish Rodeo

Tate's first "Fish Rodeo!"
Daddy, aka "City Boy" did not want to touch the "smelly stuff" and obviously is no fisherman! After fishing for hours in a stocked pond, they caught one trout and Dallas did not want to gut or eat it! Poor fish sacrificed his life all for not. Dallas fried up a couple small pieces and almost lost his lunch when he tried it. Tate wouldn't even try it.
Naomi and I had fun fishing too! We'll probably fish catch and release next year at our church's fish rodeo!

Rice Krispy Treats!

Tate the chef.
Eats while he cooks.
Cookin' with mom!

A bad day in the Hills household

Why? Why can't we even make it through dinner without things (ie. clothes) going astray? Why?


This is to give you a very small idea of the mess that was waiting for me when I went upstairs. Four loads of clean, folded laundry...gone. Five dresser drawers full of clean, folded laundry...gone. My patience...gone. I think you get the point. But, just to make sure I drive the point home, I must explain what happened two days prior to this...

...I ran upstairs to put some makeup on. FIVE MINUTES I was gone. I came downstairs to enough water on the floor that I thought the toilet had overflowed and a naked son from the waist down who was holding a toy saucepan. I turn the corner and looked into our half bath to see about 1/2 an inch of water left in the bottom of the toilet. The rest had been flung, and I mean FLUNG all about the bathroom. Covering the blinds, the pictures, the floor, sink, Tate, you name it. Toilet water everywhere! What can a girl do but sit the kid somewhere where toilet water will not dirty up the house. The front porch was the only solution I could come up with, so I put my half naked, toilet water logged son on the front porch and began the cleanup. Dallas came home shortly afterward and asked Tate what happened. Tate's reply was, "Mommy gave me three spankings." OH! THAT is what happened! I must have spanked his clothes off and all the water out of the toilet when I spanked him with the saucepan! Now that explains it! Not my best "mommy moment." And, not Tate's best "son moment" either I must say.

Naomi and Isaiah

Our friends, the Trumans, drove up from Winchester, Virginia for the day...
Naomi and Isaiah had a lot of fun!

Egg decorating

Look at Tate's beautiful eggs!
...and Naomi made one too!

Easter Pics

Happy Easter!
Grammy had our Easter baskets made for us!

More beach pics

A day at the beach

Tate and Naomi head to the beach...
Sand in the toes...sun on the nose...

Daddy and Naomi

Naomi's first experience with waves.

Jonah

We thought that while we were in Corpus Christi, TX, we would teach Tate a lesson in obedience. Just as Jonah was put into the belly of a big fish because of his disobedience to God, we put Tate into the largest fish we could find. This one happened to be a great white. We left him there for three days and then the fish spit him out. He's been an angel ever since.

Beware of Propellors

Enough said.

Uncle Josh graduates from Pilot Training!

My "little" brother, Josh, graduated from Pilot Training in March. We all flew down to Corpus Christi, Texas, where he completed his training at a Naval Station. He will be flying a C-130 based out of Abilene, Tx, but he won't be there until later this year. He's still busy working out and surfing in the meantime while he awaits his follow on training in Little Rock, Arkansas. Pictured above from left to right is: Adrienne Janek, my college roommate from Texas A&M at Galveston, Dallas, Tate, Kelly, Kim (my mom), Josh, his girlfriend, Abby, Pete (my dad) and Naomi.

Uncle Josh with the kids.

We couldn't help but revert back to the old days. Although we did not drive 50mph on the beach in a Geo Storm this time, we did have a lot of fun...as you can "planely" see. Sorry, I couldn't help myself. Don't we just look the exact replica of Bond girls?