Red River Hot Springs

We had a fantastic weekend near Red River Hot Springs. This is the cute little cabin we stayed in.
The Hot Springs were technically closed and under construction, but we heard no one would mind (or know), so we went anyway. :)

There was a fun innertube that the boys enjoyed playing in, especially Andrew.

Notice our happy smiles... RIGHT before Andrew said.....

"Look at that! A snake!" (I guess it pays when you don't pay!)

Our sweet 80 year old hostess of the cabins let Andrew and James take a little spin on her 4 wheeler.

Peter's a good little sitter these days.

We love Idaho!

We met a man that was training for the Iditarod. He hooks his dogs up to his 4-wheeler since there isn't snow yet, and runs them into the ground every day. He trains his Alaskan Huskies for a living! We LOVED listening to his dogs all night, especially knowing they were tied up, AND that we were in a cabin, not a tent...

September Family Doings

Andrew and Peter have lots of fun playing in the "box," or "kitchen," as Andrew calls it. He cooks mommy many a fancy food.

The next four pictures are at the Grangeville Farmers Market on a beautiful Saturday morning. Abby and her fiddling group played for an hour or so. James and the boys spent the hour doing a photo shoot of sorts. Shot #1: all together.

#2: Andrew pulling Peter...Peter fell asleep.

#3: Peter...asleep.

#4: Peter waking up... Andrew lookin' for some love.

Abby and I (James) played in a softball tourney on one Saturday with a team made up of hospital employees and spouses. We had a super good time. Abby's batting average would be all star in the MLB. We won third place. (yes, there were more than three teams...)

Am I (James) doing this enough? Like my pretty aprin with "sister-friends..." on it?

This is our wood stove, our only source of heating our place. Here, Andrew puts his (my) gloves on and starts building. He loves "building fires."

"Five Little Monkey's Jumpin' on the Bed- Andrew Style"

Sock Taste Testing

Heaven's Gate and Seven Devils

This is atop Heaven's Gate Lookout, overlooking Hell's Canyon and Seven Devil's Mtn's. It was a beautiful little hike and view. From this location we could see four states: Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Montana. Neat huh?
Seven Devils layout. (He devil, She devil, The Goblin, The Ogre, and three others I can't remember)

Seven Devils lookout.

Sevel Devils Lake. No, we didn't go swimming in this one...

Smoke Jumpers

Smoke Jumpers are pretty popular heros out here. We took a tour of their base here in Grangeville. It was pretty cool. This is what they wear when they go fight fires. For those of you reading this that have no idea what they are...they are the first line of defense for forest fires out here. They parachute in and then dig, cut, etc to prevent fires from spreading.
Here is the plane they jump out of. Andrew really liked it.

Then, a week later, Abby and the boys watched them jump and parachute as an exibition for the elementary school. Fun stuff.

Push-ups

Abby's brother is challenging the family to do 100,000 push-ups by the end of the year. This is James and Andrew puting in their pushups for the day.

It's a bit easier in the river, according to James. I think if I tried to do more than 3, I'd probably suffer from hypothermia! This is the Southfork of the Clear Water River.

Boones in Idaho

Hi There! This is where I live! Well, over the hill, down about 20 miles, off of the Grangeville Salmon Road.
This is my new wrestling gear with my daddy. We have a hard time getting to bed as early as mom would like, because daddy doesn't get back from the PT Clinic until 7. Oh man, it's late.

Since we live on 100 acres, and don't have neighbors, we go on lots of adventures, like the Idaho County Fair!

The Sheep think they're pretty cool. We have sheep by where we live with some SCARY sheep dogs that scare the cougars away. (I'm not allowed to play outside by myself because of the cougars. I guess I should get an "Andrew" dog, instead of a sheep dog.)

Daddy doesn't have to work on Fridays since he works 4 10 hour days, so on the weekends we like to go camping. This is a picture of the Gospel Hump Wilderness Area and the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Area.

Peter and I got to ride in packs into a sub-alpine like. It was BEE utiful.

I even picked huckleberries! Daddy was on the lookout for bears. A few people thought we were crazy to not take a gun.

This is Moores Lake in the background.

We also found some blackberries. Mommy got carried away.

Here I am on a walk on a beach of the Salmon River.

Since the nearest Wal-mart is 70 miles away, we've started ordering diapers by the 400's online. I like Luvs more than Wal-mart's anyway.

But Peter misses the Wal-mart brand.

While mommy was practicing bluegrass music with some new music friends, I rode on a BIG grain truck with Daddy and watched the wheat being harvested. This is a bankout wagon, but the combines were cool too. My neighbor was driving one of them.

I got my first sleeping bag last week!

I actually slept quite well this night.

This is a picture of mom sitting by the Selway River right before I hit her with an apple from a wild apple tree.

The tall grass in this picture is called Snake Grass. It reminds me of the rattle snake I saw just a few hours before this picture was taken. It rattled for me, and was a little scary, since I was only a few feet away.

Someone talked about teaching children to work in Sacrament Meeting. We've been working on working with Andrew, and it has been VERY fun!

We have also been working on time-outs. Andrew just gets so crancky sometimes. When he does, he goes to time out on the stairs, and then he gets to come back whenever he decides to be happy. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. It always works for James, but never for Abby...

Ode to April

One of our favorite places to be is in bed with our kids. Andrew loves 'nugle' time (prounounced snugle without the s...)
We were treated with a visit from James' parents, Joseph and Alisyn Boone

We celebrated Andrew's second birthday while they were here. They took him to the zoo and to the Trail Center. We also had fun going out to eat together, celebrating Easter with each other, and going to the Temple. Abby didn't to the dishes once, thanks to James' Father.

It was so special to see Father and Mother interact with the children in such a sweet way.

Two weeks after that, Abby drove to Utah with the boys for Emily's wedding. It was a tough drive, especially since Andrew threw-up 3 times, and there wasn't any extra help. But we did it, and it sure put into perspective what the pioneers did without cars from Omaha to Utah!!!

Amanda and Andrew having a smiling war.

It was such a joy to spend time with family in celebrating Emily's marriage to Ben Wright. He is such a fantastic guy.

A highlight was the wedding luncheon at Los Hermanos. This is Joshua Hill, and Peter, taking in the aromas at the restaurant.

Aaron and James found the t-shirts in the nick of time... We LOVE specialty drinks from Los Hermanos! Recently a friend, Brian Glazier taught James how to make 3, our favorite being the diablo verde. (I hired James to make them for a relief society book club. YUM!)

Jordon and Ryan doing what they do best!

Uncle Seth with Spencer Hill and Andrew

Before Sarah had to catch her flight home, Abby and her siblings and dad hiked up to the Y to a 'special spot.'

Don't lose hope

We ARE still alive! Mom gave this lacrosse stick to Andrew, but while he was sleeping, Peter stole it and got some shooting practice in.

March Gladness

Andrew and Uncle Cam two years ago
Andrew and Peter, two days ago

Andrew has a few 'musts' for night time. His 'choo choo' blanket, his 'a-moh' (animal) blanket that his Aunt Amanda made, his choo choo piwo that his Grapa (really Grandma) Boone made him, and his lion that Aunt Sarah gave him. How 'bout that hair?...let's cut it.

Andrew and Peter are becoming friends! Andrew hits Peter rarely now (we went through a little stage...) and just loves him to pieces. Every time Andrew hear's Peter making a sad sound he exclaims, "Oh! A kiss a kiss." He runs over to him and plants a kiss SQUARELY on his forhead.... One time when Andrew did this, Peter gave him a smile! It happened to be his 2nd authentic smile, and Andrew was excited! Peter smiled again. Of course as the mother, I was VERY jealous because I spend hours a day trying to get him to smile. But at the same time, it was so sweet. :) Andrew loves to 'cuddle' with Peter, which is another hard thing

James has been incredible. A few weeks ago, I played in a Pit for 7 brides for 7 brothers at Pappilion High School. He watched the boys every night for a week, and then he got SICK.. and then he had finals. Poor guy. Here he is asleep. He didn't even wake up when Andrew sat on his lap. But, now he's healthy and happy (because his finals are over. Yeah!)

Sarah, James' sister came to visit for 2 days. We had a wonderful time with her, especially since we got to celebrate her birthday with her.

Andrew's special reading spot. We didn't know this was the case 'til we found him here. Who knows how many times he's done it...

Anatomy 101

One week old...

Andrew chose this outfit and the hat this morning.

When Andrew was first born, we thought, how will it ever be possible to have another child and love him as much as we love Andrew? Well, somehow it is possible! It feels so right and complete to have a family of four now. We are so grateful to have two boys! Andrew loves Peter, and gets a big grin on his face everytime he hears Peter. He'll say one of five things: "Happy! Sad... Wake! Beby... Peto!"

Adventures with Grandma Boone

James' mother came into town for a week to take care of our family. Boy did she! She became a special friend of Andrews, though poor Grandma had to endure being called 'granpa' all week. Mother washed our clothes, fixed our meals, did the laundry, cleaned our house, and best of all loved Andrew to pieces! Here are some things she taught Andrew this week:

What dimples are.

How to make bread

That milk comes from cows, but not these ones, because for some reason, they don't have utters (this is at the Children's Museum)

How to tap out simple rhythms (weekly music class)

If he rides happily in a shopping cart for 2 1/2 hours at Wal-mart, Grandma will make him PJ's out of Choo choo fabric!

How to read!

Thank you SO much mother for everything you did for us! We love you!

Thanks for the pictures Grandma Boone.

To see Peter's first week from Grandpa Hill's point of view, click on link to right "The Hill Family." There are lots of fun pictures.

Welcome to Earth

8lbs 3 oz

6:59am

Feb 25

Apgar Scores 9/9

21 inches

Peter Jeffrey

Andrew was hesitant to hold Peter for several minutes, until James said, "Andrew, catch!" He quickly put both hands out, and "caught" the baby.

Grandpa Hill arrived the day before Peter was born. The timing was a tender mercy. Andrew fell in love with Grandpa. The morning after Grandpa Hill left, Andrew brought me two fruit cups. He handed me one and said, "Andrew" and handed me the other and said, "Granpa!"

Pointing to his 'mandible'

Andrew went on a special date with Daddy and chose this outfit for his little brother. (Mommy had to bite her tongue when she saw the non-winter friendly outfit, but we had plenty of blankets...)

Homeward bound!

We were SOOOO excited to go home!

Abby and her wonderful, wonderful 'birthing companion'

Regulation states the carseat handle must be lowered completely down. This required the drivers seat to be pushed all the way forward, making for a tight fit!

Grandpa Hill offering Peter his first stool softner (in the form of a prune). He didn't take it, nor did he need it!

Thank you Grandpa Hill!!!

A little discovery...

Congratulations to Emily who is engaged to be married to wonderful Ben Wright on April 23rd in the Timpanogas Temple.
Andrew got some choo choo trains he was pretty excited about! He sees choo choos where ever he goes. It is cute, but sometimes as parents we feel bad and don't know when we should let him know that certain things aren't really choo choos. SHould we teach him, or let him live in a blissful world of choo choos everywhere?

When we got back home from Utah, we got to spend some time with Abby's brother, Aaron and his family. Spencery and Andrew had a great time playing choo choo's and watching the coo coo clock. Their little Joshua was just 3 months old, and such a doll!

It was great spending time with James' parents! We are excited to see them in a few months after our baby is born. They have loved serving in the MTC, but are happy now to be visiting all 9 of their children.

Andrew loved playing Joseph in the nativity (for the second time)

Christmas was delightful! It was especially fun to spend time with Sarah, Abby's sister, and her family. Andrew loved playing with Nathan and Eva.

December w/ Nathan and Julia

Nathan and Julia and family were SO sweet to take us under their wings for a few weeks while James did a clinical rotation in Cedar City, UT. Andrew LOVED playing with Brooklyn and Courtney.

We were able to celebrate our 3 year Anniversary (without Andrew!) in magestic Zion National Park. It has just snowed about 10 inches, and was breathtaking. We went on a few little hikes, and stayed at a Bed and Breakfast. We were SO grateful to Nathan and Julia for watching Andrew so we could enjoy some couple time. :) Above is Court of the Patriarchs.

This is Weeping Rock

Angel's Landing

It was special to reinacte the nativity with little Andrew. He loved baby Jesus. Luckily, we had two, so both Andrew and Courtney could be Mary. :)

The children loved visiting the St. George temple. An hour we got back, they were building with blocks. Andrew suddenly got a look of epiphany on his face, and said, "Temple! Temple!" So, now whenever he builds a tower with his blocks, he calls it a temple.

Sister Hannah Hill

Hannah, my dear sister, is leaving tomorrow, Feb. 2nd, to the Czech Republic mission! She is such a good example to all of us, and I love her so much. We are excited for her to preach the gospel.

Andrew has been trying to learn to count from his cousin Spencer, and is doing pretty good!