We Wish You a Merry Christmas

A few months ago I had good intentions on doing all homemade gifts for family, taking a family photo, and designing, printing and mailing out Christmas cards. I was going to start early and get it all done and not stress about any of it.
Ha! It’s the thought that counts… right? So, I didn’t get as motivated and productive as I had hoped. Maybe next year, right?
Anyway, welcome to our 2011 Christmas card. 
In January Kyle began his last semester at BYU. Hooray! He took only two classes but was plenty busy making and creating. He also worked part-time for one of his professors. Kyle graduated from BYU with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Industrial Design in April.
At the end of April we moved home to Kennewick, Washington to live with our parents and save some money while Kyle looked for work. We had a lot of fun spending time with family and friends, eating at our favorite food spot Bruchi’s, and eating more Bruchi’s. We were also able to go on a few trips, like to San Francisco to watch Kyle’s sister, Chelsie, play in the women’s rugby national final four. Hailey and I traveled with my parents to Portland and enjoyed spending time in the hotel eating ice cream and swimming, and later visiting the zoo. We most definitely took advantage of Kyle’s parent’s pool and Hailey even enjoyed some slip ‘n sliding with Aunt Corinne.
In August we moved to Bountiful, Utah when Kyle was hired at a small design and prototyping company.
I spend much of my time playing with Hailey and occasionally trying to get her to do crafts with me. In my free time I’ve embraced a love of sewing and creating. Enough to even dedicate one entire week to sewing Hailey’s dragon Halloween costume.
Hailey turned 2 years old in November. Hailey loves to read books, play outside- especially at the park, color and put stickers everywhere. Hailey has grown and changed so much over this year. It is amazing to look back at pictures from just one year earlier, and see what a difference that amount of time can make in a child. While browsing through past posts, I watched this video of Hailey falling asleep while eating, that I totally forgot about. She has grown so much!
This Christmas season has been fun, teaching Hailey about Santa, and presents, and Christmas trees, and most importantly about the birth of Christ and the Christmas story. I’ve loved watching her soak it all in. Teaching Hailey has also been a great reminder to me of what Christmas is really about. That we are celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and remembering what a significant event that was.

We wish you a merry Christmas!
Love,
The Hills
P.S. Hailey really does love Santa. She doesn’t totally understand the idea behind Santa, but she does love him, despite her face in the picture above.