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.

Three months old and a new view...

Lydia turned three months old on Sunday. It's so crazy to me that we've only had her here for three months. It feels like she's always been a part of our family. She's growing so fast. She can roll over now and she loves grabbing whatever we put in front of her, especially if it happens to be Emmy's hair. I can ask her for kisses and she'll smile then open her mouth wide and completely slobber up my cheek. Emmy is her favorite person in the world and they entertain each other a lot during the day.



Usually when I'm at home and look out my front window I can see our green lawn, the trees, clouds floating by, and our trusty CR-V that we bought four months after we got married sitting in the driveway. Well not anymore. As of two days ago, it will now be spending most of it's time sitting down at the office, on the CSI campus, or somewhere in between. Kurtis will now be driving it as we traded in the Yaris for a much more family-friendly van which, of course, will be the girls' and my new vehicle. We're really excited about it and long car trips seem much less daunting now that I'll be able to sit in the back and entertain Lydia so she won't cry the entire way. :) I never thought a mini-van would bring me so much joy! So, if you happen to see an '08 graphite colored Toyota Sienna driving down the road with 222 license plates, that would be us enjoying our new ride.

Just because

Lydia smiling at her daddy


Emmy asleep on Daddy after a long day of Easter fun!


Lydia giving Daddy kisses


What my hubby and girls are doing while I stay up until the wee hours of the morning blogging.



I love you, Kurtis! I'm so proud of you! Congratulations on being promoted to Sergeant!

So much to catch up on...(warning, long post!)

The biggest news of the past few weeks is that Emmy and Lydia have a new cousin! Kelsey and Chris are now the proud parents of Alexander Wade. He arrived on April 8 at 3:55 p.m. and was just over 7 lbs and was 20.5 inches long. Kelsey had a really long labor but she handled it great and everything went well. Xander is jaundiced now and has been on bili lights yesterday and today. Hopefully his levels dropped even more today so they won't have to admit him to the hospital tomorrow. Here's some pics!

Alexander Wade-3 days old


Kelsey and Chris with Xander


Emmy holding her new cousin-2 hours old


Xander and Lydia spending some quality time together


Two proud papas!


Happy 50th Anniversary Grandma and Grandpa Lasley!!!


The other big news is that Kristina and her girls got to fly out from D.C. for the birth. It's the first time we've seen them in over a year and Emmy really loves spending time with Anya and Kyrie.





We had a great Easter and Emmy really got the hang of finding eggs and putting them in her basket.