Happy Easter

We had a great Easter with friends and family. We are grateful to have celebrated the resurrection of our Savior.

We had some of our best friends over for Easter dinner. Please notice the AWESOME centerpiece designed by dad (we did have to escort out one or two bugs).

Claire and Mom made some awesome place cards!

Dad made a bang-up lasagna - "Nate's famous lasagne" if you will...

Funny story - Back when Hill and I were engaged, Hill's friends had a cooking club. Much to my dismay, I was not invited. At every meeting, I made Hill name the recipe, "Nate's Famous ..." A few months ago, our good friend Kerstin brought over some chicken and rice soup. It was very tasty, so we got the recipe. Well, the next week, I made the soup and altered the recipe a fair bit. I wrote down the recipe on a piece of paper and named it, "Nate's famous chicken and wild rice soup." I jokingly showed it to Hill. She subsequently lets Kerstin know that I had stolen her recipe and taken credit for it. I have never lived it down. I am working on the Nate's famous recipe book!

Emme could not have been any more excited, or focused, about the easter egg hunt.

Of course she sensed that there was something sweet inside those eggs. Once she got started, she was like a machine.

Emme is so sweet!

Claire of course was the veteran of the group - spotting plastic eggs in the most difficult spots.

Claire was not disappointed when her egg was opened.

Emme was very suspicious of anyone who came close to her precious eggs.

Claire and Emme absolutely love to play with Joelle. It has been such a blessing for them to have her as a good friend.

Of course mom had the girls looking all ready for the special day.

Emme is growing up so fast.
And Claire never disappoints.

Til' next time - hopefully not 4 months

Merry Christmas Again!

We had a great Christmas season this year. I took some pictures (and our photographer neighbor John also took some pictures. We held them out because they were a Christmas surprise for family. I am happy to share some of them now.

Where's Emme Jane????

There she is!!!!

One last story to finish things off. Yesterday on Christmas morning, the girls were making a grand entrance to see the kitchen that Dad had spent three hours putting together. This conversation took place in the hallway.

Hill: Claire, you are going to be so excited. You are going to die.

Claire: Why am I going to die? I don't want to die.

Hill: Alright everyone into the family room.

Emme: (Crying)

Claire: But I don't want to die. I don't want to die ever.

Took the steam right out of the new kitchen. The steam has come back and they love it.

Merry Christmas

Hey guys! Long time no talk. We hope everyone is doing well. We just wanted to wish you all a very merry Christmas! I PROMISE good things to come on the blog in the very near future.

We have already been questioned as to why we have Mater the Tow truck and why he is not still at Disneyland.

These three girls are the best!

I am thinking of trying out for MegaMind 2 and Claire wants to be an Ogre on the next Shrek (if somehow they break their promise to stop at 4).

It's been a great summer

We have had a great summer here in Virginia. But I do have to say that it has been too hot - much hotter than past summers. Just a few pictures to wrap it up.

We had a great time (although maybe not evidenced by this picture) at the pool this year.

Em always enjoyed a nice relaxing day in the sun.

She also loves Pesto - and mom makes a MEAN pesto.

This scene actually depicts the princess (mom) coming to the young girls cucumber shop to buy cucumbers. I am sad I didn't get to see this whole thing play out. That's a good looking princess.

We mentioned Claire's shiner earlier.... Well here it is. She took a mean hit by a little guy coming through the waterfall.

We had some great visitors this year. We had my parents and brother, Hill's parents, Hill's sisters, and the Burtons. It was very nice to see everyone and it worked out great as most of these visits took place during the time when dad was studying. Here the kids are showing off their hotdog hats.

We had a great time at the fireworks.

Dad graduated from residency!!! Congrats to dad.

We went with Uncle Kevin to Kings Dominion. What you can't see in this picture is the pain that I am in inside. I no longer have the stomach for the big roller coasters. And these were some big roller coasters. The 100 degree weather did not help. Thanks to grandma and grandpa for some serious babysitting that day.

Amelia absolutely loved the Zoo. She was enthralled by the animals. Unfortunately Claire didn't feel well that day. But we do love the zoo.

We roasted marshmallows.

What is Amelia thinking in this picture? She probably wants to know if you are all going to become "Nate and Hill's Adventures" blog readers again. We all hope you have enjoyed this week of getting caught up (if this is your first time back to the blog in a bit, there has been a post a day for the last week). Dad will not be able to keep this up, but he hopes to be able to get back to 1-2 per month. Hope you all have a great day.

Go Utes!

Always good to get a win!





Claire and I have been practicing the Fight Song! She would be happy to sing it for anyone who would like to call her.

Emme is now making her animal noises. Our favorite is her pig. She wrinkles up her little nose and snorts. She also does the horse, the dog, the cat, the chicken.

Family Night at the Football Game

Consistency. But I am going to need alot of sticktoitiveness to keep going for 2 more days. Tonight was family night at the high school so we loaded up and went. Unfortunately the game was a blowout (38-0 at half - although in favor of the team we were cheering for). No problem, we had fun the same.


Claire was ready to cheer.

Emme was ready to get down and do some exploring.

The girls loved the halftime show.

What you can't see is Em's full dance routine. She starts dancing whenever she hears music. Cutest thing ever.

Big smiles.

Big smiles again. She's coming to get me.