Olathe, Kansas!

Garrett and I left Virginia and headed to his parents house in Kansas. He is now working around here for the time being. We have been living here since Easter. I have been doing a couple projects since I got here to keep myself busy while Garrett is at work. The first project was a BIG one. We decided we wanted to make a huge quilt. We succeeded, it is 10ftx10ft. We have been enjoying our quilt. We love that we don't have to fight for covers!

Finished product!!! I think I started and finished it in about a week and a half!

The next little project I did was make a shirt. I just copied the pattern of a shirt that I like that I already own. Finished product...

It's been fun doing these sewing projects and being here while Seth is here before he goes on his mission. Yesterday Garrett got a promotion to be lead tech in Houston, so we will be leaving Kansas and heading to Texas on Monday. Our next stop on our adventure!

 

Wedding #4 - Dalton & Kelcie!!

The time had finally come for it to be Dalton and Kelcie's turn to have their special day. We all gathered in Colorado this time, which I'm sure made my parents very happy about cause they didn't have to do any traveling for this wedding.

Their wedding was country themed. Everything was decorated in burlap. We started decorating the day before, and as things started coming together so we could see what the finished look would be, it looked really nice. It all just tied in so well!

The wedding ceremony started at 4 so the morning of, we all got to the church and finished up any decorations that needed finished or touched up and got all the reception food prepped and ready. Some of us brought our clothes to the church so that we could just get ready there, and some went back to the house to get ready. I had everything of mine at the church except for my boots so I had to remind my sister-in-law to grab them and bring them when the come back.

Kelcie wanted to have pictures taken with all the girls in their outfits helping her with her dress. So since I still didn't have my boots yet I just told Garrett to make sure my feet weren't in the pictures....Yeah that didn't happen he just thought I looked too funny so he made sure my feet were in the pictures.

Now it was time for the ceremony to start and for everyone to be in their seats. They had their Bishop be the one to marry them. It was a very nice ceremony. Now it was time for pictures and to start the party! I will let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

 

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Having difficulties with the pictures...I will try to get them posted soon.

The start of our adventure! Virginia here we come....

Early this morning we each packed a suitcase for our trip to Virginia for a couple of weeks, or so we thought. We were planning on being in Virginia doing security jobs for about 2 or 3 weeks and then coming back to Provo.

We started off in Virginia Beach. We were there for 3 weeks. I really enjoyed it there cause our hotel was right on the beach, so I would spend my days while Garrett was at work sitting out on the balcony listening to the waves crash. I also would watch the surfers and the dolphins, also there were always big ships coming in so I enjoyed just relaxing and watching everything.

Next we moved to Fairfax, and ended up being there for 2 weeks. This view from the hotel wasn't nice like in Virginia Beach so i found other projects to keep me busy. I decided I wanted to go blonde since I had never tried that so I got everything I needed and started bleaching my hair. I had to bleach my hair several times since I started with dark brown hair. Lets just say once I got it kind of blonde my hair was completely damaged.

Next we moved to Richmond and were there for 3 weeks. At this point we realized that we were still going to be out here doing security installs for who knows how long, so we called up our friends and family in Utah to have them pack up our apartment and move all our stuff into a storage unit. We figured there was no point to keep paying rent every month when we aren't even living there. A storage unit is a lot cheaper. One group went in and packed everything into boxes one day, then another group packed up the boxes and took them to the storage unit the next weekend and then a couple friends went in and cleaned it for us. We appreciate all those that took time out of their schedules to help us out since we weren't able to do it ourselves.

After the 3 weeks in Richmond we moved back to Fairfax / DC area. We were there until there wasn't much work left for Garrett to do, so he made arrangements to move to Kansas and work there until we are needed somewhere else. We have been living in hotels here and there for a couple weeks at a time just following where the work is. It has definitely been an adventure!

 

Dalton and Ciara's Wedding / Wedding #3

Today was the big day! We had most everything decorated and set up last night so that when we got to the church this morning all we would have to do was just the final touches to make everything perfect. They ran through how everything would go so that everyone involved knew what they were supposed to do. After the rehearsal we had the luncheon.

Now it was time to start doing hair and getting everyone ready. First I curled Chloee's hair, then it was Ciara's updo and then I finished with curling Mariah's. After I got done doing everyone's hair we got everyone their flowers and then it was time to find our seats. Dalton's brother Lee was the best man and Eliza was the maid of honor. It was a nice ceremony, Ciara looked beautiful and now it was time to party!!!!!

 

 

Vegas!!!

Garrett was asked if he could help do some security system installs for a week in Vegas, so we packed our bags and drove down to Vegas. Garrett would work for a few hours each day and then we had the rest of the day to do whatever we wanted. While Garrett was at work I would just relax in our room and get caught up on my tv shows. Then when he got home we would grab some dinner and walk around the strip and see all the sites. It was a nice week together!

Travis returns from Afghanistan

Today Travis came home from Afghanistan after being away from his family for a year! First off I need to explain why Mariah is not in any of the pictures....Mariah and Travis had a 3 day conference for IT WORKS in Florida starting the day after Travis got home, so they had their plane tickets bought and ready to fly out that night. Well Travis ended up flying in a day later than they were expecting so Mariah flew to Florida the night before which meant she didn't get to be there when he arrived. She had to wait one more day to finally see her man. This was really hard for her knowing that the rest of us were there spending time with him while she was away.

Everyone was excited to see him again! We made up some signs for the kids to hold. I was talking with Mariah getting all the details of what time he would fly in etc. So there were two planes of soldiers and Mariah said he was going to be on the second one which landed at 10:30ish but to be there about an hour early. So as we all gathered into the airport hanger we saw a large group of people up at the front by the door and decided just to hang out in the back since we still had an hour until the second plane would arrive. As they opened the hanger door the band started to play and the first plane pulled up. Everyone started cheering. It was so exciting to see all the soldiers as they came off the plane and met their families.

We all were talking and getting excited for the next plane to arrive when all the sudden we hear "what are you guys doing hiding in the back". We all turned around and Travis was standing there. We all were shocked and sad that we missed the welcoming back part. Oh well, it was still great to have him back and see the kid's reactions when they saw him. Apparently he was on the second plane but the first plane was having some issues or something so the second one actually took off first so that's why he was in the first batch of soldiers to come home. Good thing we got there early!!! We went and found his bags and then headed over to his Grandma's house for a little get together.

 

 

Our crazy Christmas adventure!

This year we all went to Mariah's house for Christmas. We all spent the night on Christmas Eve. We all found a place either on the couches or on the floor to sleep. Our family always woke up at 6 on Christmas morning to open presents. CC was determined that we still wake up at 6 this year so we did. It was actually Jerome, Ciara, Garrett and I who went and woke CC and everyone else up at 6 cause Jerome and Ciara were so uncomfortable on the floor that they couldn't sleep any longer. As everyone gathered upstairs in the living room, Mariah got Travis on Skype so he could be there too. It was fun to watch the 4 little kids find what Santa brought them. Another tradition our family has is the youngest gets to open the first present, then we rotate through to the oldest and keep going in that order until all the presents are opened.

Now there was probably one present for each of us left under the tree. When it was Ciara's turn, Eliza handed her a big box. She opened it and sees that it is filled with news paper. It was heavy so she knew something was under the paper. The first thing she found was a large bottle of hand sanitizer. Then she pulls out a large bottle of margarita mix. At this time the box felt empty and she was really confused. She searched through all the paper and found one last thing, a little box. As she opened it, Jerome got down on one knee and asked her to marry him. He surprised us all. He didn't tell anybody that he was going to propose. We all were so excited for them.

They had been talking about marriage for a little while but Jerome always made it into a joke. They also had talked about doing a Vegas wedding when ever they actually did get married. They started talking about dates that would work for us all to be able to go with them to Vegas and we all decided that we should just do it while we were already together. So we were discussing the next day or the day after that, but that's when people were starting to head back to their houses. So the next thing we know, Ciara is on the phone scheduling a wedding chapel for late Christmas night. There were 16 of us so we all loaded into 2 vehicles and headed to Vegas.

We arrived at the chapel around 10:30pm and we were scheduled for 11 o'clock. There wasn't a wedding going on so they took Jerome and Ciara to go get their marriage license while the rest of us hung out in the little chapel. When they got back they decided Eliza would be the maid of honor and Dalton C. Would be the best man. Then it started. My dad and Ciara took their long walk of 4 steps down the isle. Then Ciara joined Jerome up at the front. The preacher said a couple words and then it was over. It was the weirdest most funny wedding I have ever been to. It was fun to witness a Vegas wedding. It was definitely an experience to remember. We took some photos and then dropped the newly weds off at their hotel and then went and found ours. Before we actually went to check in we tried to go and see the fountain show at the Bellagio but realized we had just missed the last show for the night. We headed back to the hotel and got our rooms and went to bed. We all were so tired. It had been a long day.

 

Family Christmas party!!!

The weekend before Christmas we all drove to Rexburg, Idaho for the Hill family Christmas party. As we were driving we get a phone call from my mom who was in the leading car, saying that my nephew Parker was having a seizure. This had never happened before so everyone was freaking out. A few minutes after we got to them the ambulance arrived. They took Parker to check him out but he would not cooperate so they decided to have us follow them to the hospital. We all arrived at the hospital and they said they were going to do some tests to see what was going on.

There were 11 of us who were sitting in the waiting room while my mom and Mariah were back with Parker. We decided that we all didn't need to sit there wondering what was going on, so we left my dad and Karsen at the hospital, and the rest of us headed to Idaho to get to the party. About 1 1/2 to 2 hours later the rest of them left the hospital and headed to Idaho. My mom had called her sister to let them know what was going on when we got there everyone was asking us how Parker was doing. Jerome had been in North Dakota working and was on his way home so he met us at the party. It was so fun once the rest of our family got there to have everyone together. The only one we were missing was Travis who still had a couple weeks left in Afghanistan.

After the party we all went to my grandparents house cause that's where we all were sleeping. We all changed into our comfy clothes and just hung out. We went and got some pizzas for dinner and just sat around and talked all night. When we all were ready for bed we sent the boys to one room and the girls stayed in the living room.

The next morning we got up and got ready. Garrett was taking Dalton and Kelcie's engagement pictures, so I went with to help out. It was really fun other than it was freezing. I had to be the mean one to keep taking kelcie's coat away from her during the pictures. We ended up getting some really fun poses.

After we were done with pictures we went back to the house and got all packed up to go home. It was a fun weekend together in Idaho.