YO GABBA GABBA!

Ok, so of course this post would come from me (Brad). My sweet Cailyn has been enjoying a new show that Grandma Bonnie has on her AppleTV called “Yo Gabba Gabba!” my little brother was the one that showed it to me, and I loved it. Of course it is kind of my style and one of the episodes has the Aquabats on it (a ska band I always listened to in high school). Any way if you’ve never seen it, here are the reasons you should:

There’s a Party in My Tummy

Yo Gabba Gabba Aquabats

Ok, ok, ok, so this show is kind of like the TV show “The Office” in the sense that you have to have an open mind, you have to give it some time and watch it past the first couple episodes, it’ll grow on you. Unless of course it doesn’t then it will probably be one of the most annoying things on the planet to you, and if that’s the case then that’s the case…

And finally, here is a little back stage pass…

Ok, one more story for you. A couple of weeks ago, Cailyn and I were at “Toys R Us” and we found the isle with all the Yo Gabba Gabba toys in it and Cailyn ran over to the display and was telling me all of the characters names:

Cailyn: “Oh daddy look, this is Toodee”
Daddy: “Cool Cailyn!”
Daddy: “Who is this?”
Cailyn: “That’s Brobee… and Foofa… and Muno… and Plex!”
Daddy (amazed): “Holy Cow Cailyn, you are SO smart!”
Cailyn: “Daddy?
Daddy: “What Sweet Heart?”
Cailyn: “Where’s D.J. Lance Rock?”

Apparently they don’t have a D.J. Lance plush toy… But I just thought that was the funniest thing that day.

So give D.J. Lance Rock, and his friends a chance and you may or may not like it, but chances are if you have kids, they’ll LOVE IT!

For more Info, check out:
YoGabbaGabba.com

Sideways Underpants

We’ve been working on potty training Cailyn for I don’t know how long now.  The last time I bought a box of pull-ups I vowed it was the last box. (I have actually made that vow the past three times I have bought pull-ups.)  I can now proudly say that we have half a box left and she hasn’t used a pull-up for almost 2 weeks now!  It is the greatest thing in the world.

When I got home today from picking the kids up from Grandma Bonnie’s house, Cailyn was asleep, but I wasn’t sure how long it had been since she went to the bathroom, so I took her and sat her on the toilet.  She woke up and went potty.  When she got off the toilet to pull her panties up one of her legs was through the waist hole.  Brad said that had happened once before, but it was so funny to actually see it in action.  Cailyn and I both sat there and laughed about it.  Hey, I’m just happy she’s going by herself now.  I’m sure learning how to put on her panties the right way will come later.

Wedding Tag

Visiting Teaching

     A couple weeks ago our stake relief society presidency was in relief society giving the lesson.  Lori Ehat, the relief society president, who happens to be Kendall’s mom (Kendall and Brad go way back…and we all went to High School together), was talking about visiting teaching and she asked everyone in the room who liked visiting teaching.  Almost all the hands in the room were raised, mine of course was not.  Then she asked if there was anyone in the room that didn’t like it.  I raised my hand…and of coarse I was the only one.  I don’t know if it was because it was the relief society president that was asking so people didn’t want her to think badly of them…I don’t know.  Lori just laughed.  

     I have a great ward full of great people, but it’s really hard for me to connect with people there.  I think it is mostly to do with the fact that all my life I haven’t had many girlfriends, so it’s kind of hard for me to connect with other women.  And I know I’m not the only one that feels this way, there are plenty more out there that are just not as vocal about it.  

     The reason I brought up the whole visiting teaching thing is because I went visiting teaching this last Sunday.  My companion Valerie and I went to visit one of our girls who is super busy and has a crazy work schedule because she is a zoo keeper at the Hogle Zoo.  I know…what an awesome job!!  We haven’t been able to visit her yet because it’s almost next to impossible to get our schedules to match up.  The visit was short and sweet.  After we left her house, Valerie said something to the affect of how she was glad that was over because she hates visiting teaching and that she never knows what to say especially to sisters that she doesn’t have really close contact with very often.  

     Anyway, it just made me smile.  I think visiting teaching is an awesome calling, even though I hate it.  There is a really important purpose for it and I have a testimony of it’s importance.  I guess I just need to remember to think positive thoughts.

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

     Yesterday me and the kids went with my mom to the University Mall to do some shopping.  While we were walking through the mall we started talking about how it would be fun to have the kids get their picture taken with Santa.  We didn’t think he would be there until December seeing how Thanksgiving hasn’t even happened yet.  We continued to walk through the mall and we ran into Santa.  The most incredible part about it was there was NO LINE.  That never happens.  I think it had been the 2nd day since he had been there and the lady at the front said she didn’t think very many people knew about it yet.  Anyway so we got their picture taken.  

     It was really funny because when we first walked past the gate to get into where Santa was, Cailyn said with a voice that sounded like she could start to cry, “Santa’s not scary.”  That is was she says to anything that is really scaring her.  It’s kind of her way of trying to get over her fears even though most of the time it doesn’t really work.  I told her that Santa is nice and that she should go sit on his lap and that I was going to get Gavin out of the stroller so he could be in the picture too.  She came and “helped” me get Gavin out of the stroller. (She was clinging to my leg the whole time.)  I put Gavin on his lap and then picked Cailyn up and all she kept saying is “I want you, I want you, I want you.”  I reassured her that everything would be okay.  So she sat there and told Santa that she wanted “Barbie and the Diamond Castle” with a look on her face like she had seen the ghost of Christmas past.  

     Anyway…it all turned out fine.  I was actually surprised that Gavin did as well as he did.  Usually he starts bawling when people he doesn’t know or thinks looks scary look at him.  We didn’t get any smiles from them, but I guess it’s all about the experience.

I ripped my pants!!

Brad came home from work the other day and said that he was carrying a battery and it leaked acid all over his pants.  The next day the same thing happens.  The day after that I was doing laundry and this is what I found.  

Since he started working for W. W. Clyde we’ve had issues with him wearing his pants out super fast.  I guess we are going to start having to get him those ugly dickies work pants that never wear out.  (I have issues with those pants…that is why up until now he has been wearing “normal” pants.  I just have to remind myself that I don’t have to look at him in those pants while he’s at work.  I know that is stupid, but whatever.)

Misunderstanding!

Brad:  ”Cailyn, come eat your piece of bacon.”

Cailyn:  ”It’s NOT pizza bacon!”

I’m an Aunt…round three!

Cameron Irvin Jackson was born on Tuesday October 4, 2008.  He is 7lbs 9oz and 21 inches long.  Both the mommy and the baby are doing really good.  We went up to LDS hospital where he was born to visit them that night.  Even after having Gavin a year ago, you forget how small little babies are.  He is so cute.  Here are the picture we took while we were there.

Playing in the Leaves!

Today we went over to Bonnie and Terrell’s house.  While we were there, they decided that they wanted to blow all the leaves off their roof.  So Brad and Kimball got on the roof with the leaf blower and got the job done.  After they were done we raked the leaves up and took pictures in them.  It was fun, because last year Cailyn wanted nothing to do with the leaves.  After they got the leaves off the roof, Brad went with the blower and blew all the crap out of the rain gutters.  The decaying leaves were spraying everywhere.  It was pretty gross. 

Gavin woke up from his nap and decided to join us!

Here is a video from last year of Cailyn getting really mad because there were leaves on her chair!! This is so funny!

Happy Halloween!!

Halloween was really fun this year.  Cailyn was Raggedy Ann and Gavin was a pea pod.  Cailyn got her costume from my Raggedy Ann doll from when I was little.  When I was little I dressed up as Raggedy Ann too with the same costume.  I’ll have to find a picture and post it.  Anyway, Cailyn was super excited to dress up and go trick or treating.  Gavin on the other hand wasn’t a fan.  Besides the fact that he hated the face paint, he had (still has) major diaper rash.  Brad was still at work so I got the kids ready so we could leave as soon as he got home.  We went to Grandma Julie’s house first then I went and dropped Brad and the kids off at his parents house and I went home and made dinner for a girl in our ward that just had a baby.  While I was gone, everyone went over to Bonnie and Terrell’s church for a trunk or treat.  Cailyn came home with the mother load.  She was in heaven.  Anyway, here are the pictures from our fine Halloween.

Chocolate Doughnuts!

Every once in awhile we like to get doughnuts for breakfast. I know…it’s not the most nutritious breakfast in the world, it’s actually not nutritious at all, but Cailyn happens to think it is the greatest thing in the world.  Can you tell?

Playing at the Park

On Thursday night when Cailyn and I were laying in my bed waiting for Brad to get home from school.  I asked her if she would like to go to the park the next day.  Of course she did.  I told her that she needed to go lay in her bed and go to sleep so we could wake up in the morning and go to the park.  She was all for it.  I went and put her in her bed and she was fine.  I had fallen asleep and about an hour later Brad got home from school (it was about 10:30pm) and I woke up when he shut the door.  I was still laying in bed and Brad went and looked in the kids room to see if they were asleep.  He saw Cailyn peeking over the rail on her bed and she popped up and said all exited, “I’m going to the park tomorrow!!”  It was really cute.  Anyway, these are the pictures from our day at the park.

Thumb Wars

It all started about a month and a half ago, about a week before we took a little trip down to St. George for my mom’s B-Day. My right thumb started to get a little red and sore down around the cuticle. I pretty much thought nothing of it, threw some neosporin and a bandaid on it and life went on as it normaly does. 

after a couple more days, it started to puff a little, and it was secreting this yellow stuff that would dry out right there in the cuticle, so I just kept a bandaid on it and the neosporin just kept on drawing out the infection, but it seemed to be never ending.

Now as a side note, I have no clue what i ever did to it, it just started to get red and soon got infected, and pretty soon it was becoming more of a nusance than anything.  It was hurting like no other any time I would bump it, or use it. 

Things didn’t look good for my poor little thumb and I started to worry even more about my thumb nail.  I could kind of pull down on the skin and it would expose this little arched piece of skin that was kind of protruding out from my nail bed.  I couldn’t tell if it was skin that was growing over top of my nail, or if it had come through the base of my nail and was growing up from underneath…  only time would tell. 

So about a week and a half after St. George, I was at work and looking at my infected appendage, and I realized that it wasn’t getting any better.

It was a tuesday night, I got home and told Anisha that I thought that I Should go to the doctor so that night we packed up the kids and took off to the Orem/Lindon Instacare where we waited and waited. “Brad Hill” was finally the name called out as I arose and helped anisha pry the crying kids off of the toys, and we headed into the Dr.’s office. 

She looked at my thumb moved it around a bit and had some big name for it, she said that the skin protruding out was some type of skin that is growing in reaction to the infection and that it was normal. She said it looked ok, and that her only concern was that the infection was growing under the skin and that she would check it out. 

She also informend me that the only procedure there was for this kind of thing was to take a needle and poke it in there, move it around, and make sure that it was all separated, and to pop any puss pockets cause they wouldn’t drain on their own. So we went into the little procedure room, and Anisha sat there with the kids for a while and it just wasnt working so she took them out and got the stroller and took them for a little walk.

The nurse suddenly pulled out this needle that looked like one of those needles you inject seasoning into turkeys with. (it wasn’t really that big har har…) and she said, “OK we can try this with or without numbing it”  I was down for an adventure so I said let’s try without first.  She had me squeeze my thumb to try to get some puss out for a culture, and as I did that the pain was so excruciating I could hardly handle it.  She asked and I told her it was like a 8 or 9.5 on the pain scale, pretty unbearable, but we got the culture.

Then she started to stick the needle in, and as I layed down I sat right back up, because it was sending pain through my whole body!  I said, “uh… let’s numb it!”  She told me that this numbing shot would probably hurt really bad, and that she would have to put one into both sides of my thumb, I said ok and she started sticking me, and I could barely feel the sticks compared to the pain already felt in my thumb!

After the anisthetic set in she started pressing on my thumb and it was still killing, so she put two more shots in the sides of my thumb, this time a little closer to the problem. After pushing on my thumb a second time and finding out that it still didn’t quite make it to where it was hurting, she stuck the needle straight into the infection and that did the trick!

She proceeded to poke and separate and pop, and within 1 minute was done. She then wrapped my thumb up so that it looked like the balloon that it felt like with all the numbing she did to it, gave me some anti-biotics, and sent me on my way.

It’s been about 3 weeks since it all, and this is what my thumb looks like:

So my nail will evenutally fall off, but here are some good signs:

You can see the new baby nail growing in! I’m not too excited to loose my nail, and all but there will probably be some cool pictures!

That is my story of Thumb Wars, I’ll keep you posted!

Happy Birthday Gavin!!

I can’t believe my little guy is already a year old.  It’s insane how fast time fly’s.

October 20, 2007

3:24 am

6 pounds 14 ounces

One Month

Two Months

Three Months

Four Months

Five Months

Six Months

Seven Months

Eight Months

Nine Months

Ten Months

Eleven Months

One Year

We had a party for him on Sunday at Grandma Bonnie and Grandpa Terrell’s house.  

Here are the pictures from it:

Cailyn’s Summer Highlights - With Gavin Along For The Ride

I have had every intention to post each of these things as they occurred.  That obviously didn’t happen.  Anyway, these are some fun things we did this summer that Cailyn never stops talking about.  It’s fun…she’ll say, “Remember, remember when we went to …..!”  

 ”The Aquarium” and Chuck E. Cheese in Sandy with Grandma Julie, Ang, Hallie and Bryant

Our trip to the zoo with Grandma Bonnie, Grandpa Terrell, and Kimball

The Utah State Fair with Grandma Bonnie, Grandpa Terrell and Kimball (The first three pictures are from our favorite Vietnamese restaurant ”Mi La Cai Noodle House” in SLC!)

Chuck E. Cheese with Daddy, Grandpa Terrell and Kimball

Out With The Old In With The New

So it was a sad but good day at the Hill home a few weeks ago.  My dear old Civic’s transmission was on it’s last leg for the 2nd time(we found out when it went out the first time that it was a bad year for the transmission…lucky us!), so we decided to put the old girl to sleep.  I had really had my heart set on getting a Camry next…hence the choice of our purchase.  It’s a 2007 Camry.  It’s technically a CE (which is the lowest model, so it’s supposed to have crank windows and not have power locks) but it came with power windows and locks…which is  a major plus!  It has a manual transmission.  Anyway…I love the car.  It is super roomy for our little family and is really fun to drive.  P.s. If you are in the market for a new car, you should go to “The Car Place” in Orem on State Street.  Not only do I get a $50 bonus if you mention that I referred you (wink, wink), but they have great cars and will treat you good!!

Gavin’s First Haircut

Today we experienced one of Gavin’s fine firsts.  I decided that he needed a haircut.  When his hair wasn’t in a mohawk, he looked like an old man with a comb over and I couldn’t have my kid looking like that.  He enjoyed it….not!!  The kind of funny thing is, we have never given Cailyn a haircut and she is almost 2 1/2.  I asked her if she wanted one and she said yes and that she wasn’t going to cry like Gavin, but she says yes to everything.  I didn’t really want to cut her hair.  I want at least one of us to have long hair. 

A Great Day!

Well yesterday was just an all around wonderful day! let me tell you about it…

It started out with us waking up from a not so good night of sleep but we couldn’t complain cause at least we slept! Saturdays are always great days around here cause, well, it’s Saturday!  We were open for our office hours from 8-10 am, meanwhile I washed the dishes, Nisha did the laundry, and we did our best to make Saturday a special day, the day you get ready for Sunday… We did get a little pooped after a few hours of cleaning and such so it wasn’t totally the most productive day as far as cleaning goes, but you know we got some done.

I posted my old GPS on eBay to try and make a few bucks back to put towards an iPhone (most likely) and was excited to see that almost instantly there were people watching the item and some even bidding. within a few hours the bid went from $0.99 to about 2 and a half bucks, not bad for just a couple hours, eh?

Then, out of nowhere, came an event that triggered a series of events that gave the day the start to being a Great Day, actually it wasn’t out of nowhere, it was out of the mail box. 

To give a little background to some of these events, first off I’m an Apple Computers fan, I have had my eyes on an apple iPhone for quite some time now, and recently Anisha gave me the OK, that if I saved up, I could get one. I’ll prolly wait for the 2nd Gen one to come out (rumor is it’s coming begining of 2nd quarter).  So I’ve made some sales on eBay, and posted my GPS, (which at about this time was still at a buck and a half)

Second, I’ve interviewed with a company called W.W. Clyde for an internship position last Monday and heard back from them last Friday and went in for a 2nd interview, so I’ve been waiting all this week to hear back from them, and been pretty anxious about it all cause I really want to work for them…

(That’s probably enough background now –> back to the story). House cleaning; feeling pooped; posting GPS on eBay; I ran to the hardware store for some supplies.  DUN DUN DUN… the plot thickens.

While browsing the miter saws in the wonderful “TOOL WORLD” at Lowe’s, I received a call from Anisha saying that she had got the mail and that “IT” was there!!!  Now by “IT” I knew that it was the letter hearing back from W.W. Clyde about the internship, she read it to me where I was then informed that I had GOT THE INTERNSHIP!!! Sweet!!!  I was STOAKED to hear that news!  Then she said, “That’s not all, we’re not in our contract with T-Mobile anymore, the 2 years is up!” I thought that would never end, but there it was, the letter from them saying that they would give us a free month if we signed on for another year. YEAH RIGHT! So that’s good to know, even better cause then I wouldn’t “HAVE TO” unlock my iPhone when I got it, I could go with ATT instead (weather I will or not, now that’s a different story! hehe).  ”And that’s still not all!” she said, “You have a check from the school for $2000.00, you got the Smart Grant!!”  SWEET AGAIN!!!

So that was the exciting phone call from her that sparked the good day!  Upon arriving home, I read through the letter from W.W. Clyde about 38 times, looked over the letter from T-Mobile, and looked at the check, pretty cool stuff!  We had been thinking of buying a new computer soon, and so we decided that we wanted to go to the Apple store that night to pick one up. I called my parents and they said they were game for a trip to SLC, and we decided too that we were going to go get some grub.

Arriving at the Apple Store, they were waiting for us there with open arms, o’l YURI was the one tha helped us out, and got us all hooked up, it was great cause we got an extra 10% off of the RAM upgrade cause he rang us up for 2 10% offs then realized that he was only supposed to do one of those, and so he just gave us both of them, so that was a bonus in-and-of-itself!

We walked away from the glowing apple with a new little iMac.  We went with the 20-inch, 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo, 2G Ram and 350G hard drive and we’re going to get a 1TB external cause it would be cheaper than upgrading the internal one.

My mom decided on the food establishment, which was a fine little place called, “Buca Di Beppo’s” right there in down town Salt Lake. we couldn’t find parking anywhere so we decided to fork over the $4 for the valet parking service, and we were a little uneasy about leaving our new investment in the car so we brought it along with us into the restaurant and it happily dinned with us.

That was a fun, Family-Style eating establishment that I would recommend to every one and anyone, so long as they take the time while they’re there to go and look at all the pictures that they have hanging all over, and to just get into the atmosphere. My mom told me a little about it, it’s an Italian restaurant, and she said that in Italy some people have small houses so when they have company over for dinner and such they will use their downstairs cause it’s a little more spacious, also that they will have people bring their own silverware to eat with cause money is an issue and not everyone has lots of silverware.

So, when you go to Buca Di Beppo’s, tell them that you have never been there before and they will take you through their kitchen where all the food is made, and then they will seat you.  There is a booth set up right there in the kitchen which I think would be pretty festive, you just sit there while everything is happening around you.  pretty fun.  We got sat up stairs, and sure enough, all the chairs at the tables are just mix’n'match chairs, and all the silverware doesn’t match, there are pictures EVERYWHERE, and the funniest ones are in the bathrooms. GREAT Food, and Good Fun! So with bellies full off we were to go home.

Arriving home, now the GPS is up to $78.00 and that much closer to an iPhone!  We cleared out the old computer and busted out the new “Mother Ship” iMac and got it all set up, and Anisha is jazzin’!  She’s happy to have a computer that she can call her own, and that won’t crash every time she tries to use it like the old refurb Dual G4 that we had. (it was a good computer that got us this far so we’re thankful for it but it is nice to have a new one).

So that’s that for the Great Day that we had, lots of exciting things happened, and now what’s on my mind is writing my acceptance letter for the internship, and we’re good to go!

down & out, i’m sick of typing!

Wii’ve Found A Wii!!!

Well it’s been a long and monotonous search, but this morning the search ended! I had been calling all the stores on my list about every day and night to get the latest haps on Wii shipments, and always had the same results… (sorry we’re out of stock and we don’t know when the next shipment will be).

My personal favorite was saturday morning (Jan 12th) I called Best Buy in American Fork/Lehi area and the lady said “Thank you for calling Best Buy in American Fork where we are currently out of Wiis can I help you?” I laughed and told her that she had just answered my question. I asked her if she was expecting a shipment in soon, and she said “I sure hope so, ’cause it will make my greeting a heck of a lot shorter!” I laughed with her again and continued on my search, that day turned up nothing.

Sunday (1/13) we went and ate at my parents house and Curtis & Emilie (my little sister and brother-in-law) came over for dinner too. Curtis asked how the search was going, and I told him not so good. He told me that where ever they go, they do a check for Wiis for us, which I appreciated hearing. He asked if I had checked Game Crazy, I told him that I hadn’t. Curtis said that he got his Wii at the Game Crazy in Spanish Fork. So that sparked a little fire within me, I felt a little shadow of hope for the next day.

Monday the 14th arrived and I woke up at like 8:00 I called Game Crazy in S.F. at about 8:30 (they didn’t open till 10:00) and the dude answered! I asked if they were getting any Wiis in that day and he said that he was getting a shipment of 5 of them that morning, but he also said that there were already people outside waiting. Ok, so that one was pretty much out of the question, 5 Wiis and people already there waiting.

I called the Game Crazy in Orem and no one answered. I told Anisha the story and that I was going out to see if I could find a Wii. I thought I’d drive to the Game Crazy in Orem and see if there were less people waiting there if any at all. I pulled up at about 9:00 and there was no one there. I parked and saw the guys in there working so I tried to call, but still no answer so I thought that i’d risk it and wait it out just incase they did get a shipment, cause I’d be first in line!

9:30 came around and still now answer whenever I tried to call. I called S.F. back and asked the same questions, got the same answers, I asked how many cars were there and the dude said he couldn’t tell cause he couldn’t see them all. 9:50 I got an answer at Orem and they said that for sure they were not getting a shipment in that morning. POO!!!

So my next decision was to high-tail it to Spanish Fork, I only had 10 minutes until they opened and thought it would take me about 15 to get there from North Orem, so i hopped on the freeway and booked it to S.F. I pulled in at 10:05 and ran in to the store. There were dudes standing in there waiting for something and I counted 5, but I just thought i’d stick around to see what was going on. When the guy that works there got off the phone he asked me if there was anything he could do for me and I said “I’m just looking for a Nintendo Wii.”

He confirmed that they were getting 5 in that morning and said, “These other guys are here for the same thing I think” He then asked the guys in there with me if they were looking for Wiis too, they all said yes and that they just wanted one, just then one of the guys walked out… The guy in the store said, “Wait, what about him?” and one of the guys standing there said, “Oh, he’s my son. He’s with me and we only want one.”  

I WAS THE 5TH PERSON THERE!!!! 5 Wiis and I was getting the 5th one!  Now we just needed to wait until the FedEx truck got there.  

We waited ’til about 11:30 and the truck showed up, I purchased the console and a game I found that was used (Transformers) and was on my merry way home.  We are now proud owners of a Nintendo Wii, and we recommend it to every family out there!  It’s most fun and enjoyable, and that’s that.  Here’s some pictures to get your eyes going.

The Search for Wii Continues!

This week we have called every Walmart, Best Buy, Circuit City, CostCo, Toys ‘R’ Us, F.Y.E., (just to name a few) within quick driving distance, just about every morning and/or night but to no avail. No Wiis anywhere! last monday I called Walmart and they said that they had 3 of them that they let out on Sunday morning @ 12:01 a.m. so that was a definite no go!  it seems that Nintendo is just lagging for some reason!  Infact, I believe that I have found the very reason that Nintendo is so behind on the supplying side of the supply and demand equation, and here it is:

So there ya have it! That’s probably not the real reason but it’s kind of funny to think about!