Sisters playing together...



becoming lifelong friends.




This makes me smile.

Back in July...

While Kurtis was gone to Annual Training(AT), the girls and I went with my parents and sister Donna to a cabin in Garden Valley for Donna's 30th birthday. On Donna's birthday we had spaghetti for dinner, which is her absolute favorite, and then Mom and Dad took Donna and Emmy to Starlight Mountain Theatre to see Annie Get Your Gun. I stayed at the cabin with Lydia and we enjoyed a quiet evening to ourselves, which was great.

We took the scenic route back home through Stanley Basin and stopped at Redfish Lake for a picnic. Donna wasn't too thrilled with how hot and windy it was so she refused to stay at the table with us and ended up eating her lunch in the van.





It was a fun weekend and we really wished Kurtis could have been there to share the memories with us. He was busy having a productive AT, though. Most of the guys in his section were newbies and he got to train them and lead his section to get Top POC for AT 2009. So proud of you, Kurtis!

Summer coming to a close

So much has happened since I wrote last that I'm not even going to try to write about all of it. Lydia is now 6.5 months old and can sit up, Army crawl, has her two bottom teeth, and says "dada" and, just recently, "mama". She's growing crazy fast.


Kurtis had Annual Training for three weeks this year. The girls and I got to go over to Rexburg and stay with Kurtis his last night there and then go to the family picnic. It was good to meet some of the guys from Kurtis' new unit. We accidently left our stroller at the picnic, but thankfully someone recognized it as ours and called us so we could go back and get it. :)

The big news is that while Kurtis was at AT, he decided that he wants to do the Guard full-time. It's something he's been thinking of for a while, and he's decided it's time to go for it. So he has spent the last week getting his packet together to apply for an AGR job opening in Pocatello that he heard about while at AT. He's mailing it in tomorrow. It's going to be hard to move away from all of my family, really, really hard, but I'm actually pretty excited about this change and think it's going to be a great thing for our family. I'm hoping and praying that he get's this job in Pocatello so we'll be close to Kelsey, Chris and Xander for a while. If not, we could end up anywhere in the state depending on what opens up next. It kinda freaks me out not knowing where we may end up right now. I hope we hear back on this job really soon. I'll let you know what we find out!

My SGT Hill with sweet Emmy.

EMMY: I miss Daddy.

ME: I know, sweetheart.

EMMY: You miss Kurtis, Mama.

ME: (smiling) Yes, yes I do, Emmy.


Emmy has realized that Daddy has more names than just "daddy". She knows that I call him Kurtis, and that he is sometimes SGT Hill or Brother Hill. But I'm still always Mama. Sometimes I'm Mama Jane Hill...but never Rhonda. :)

Long trip

Thursday morning I got up early (okay 7:30 isn't really that early but it seems like it when you go to bed at 3:30) got the kiddos dressed and in the car and left Wendell at 8:15am. Finally, almost fourteen (yes, you read that right, 14) hours later, we arrived in Post Falls. There was several times during the drive that I thought I was crazy for doing this with a two year-old and a four month-old all by myself (Kurtis is still gone at training), but we're here now and it's so totally worth it.

Emmy is thrilled to finally be at Grandma Jan's house. It's Post Falls' Day so we went to the parade this morning and Emmy thought it was great that she got to see fire trucks, police cars, and horses and get candy on top of it. Post Falls is beautiful and there is a lot to do so we're going to keep busy the next few days. I'm missing Kurtis a lot, and it makes it even harder now that Emmy is asking for him to come home every day. I tell her that he's off being a soldier and then she says we need to go find him. I'm so glad he's only gone for one more week. This week he's going to be out in the field, though, so we won't get to talk to him at all on the phone. He has been calling for about three minutes each night to say goodnight to me and the girls and it's been great to hear his voice so a whole week with no contact at all is going to be rough.

4 months

Lydia Joy Hill is now four months old. It's so fun watching her personality come out more and more as she figures out the world around her. She has been such a blessing in our lives and makes me laugh a lot. She absolutely adores her big sister, Emmy. I had no idea that babies could interact and play with another child at such a young age. They're a lot of fun to watch. Lydia has been rolling over for quite a while now and started grabbing and playing with her toes about a month ago. She is rolling both directions now, not just to the right, and she loves spending time on her tummy. It seems like whenever I lay her down on her back she immediately flips over to her tummy, especially during diaper changes. :)









I wish she would stay like this for a while, but I know that it'll be no time at all before she's crawling, then walking, then life...

We love you, Baby Girl!

I have a highly active (almost)4 month old on my lap who fights for rights to the keyboard so this is all I can do for an update right now.