Torah and Andrew

Today Andrew discovered how much fun it is to pull Torah's hair. These two cute kids have so much fun together. Torah adores her baby brother and loves to make him laugh. 

 

Pink Violin

Addy has wanted to learn to play the violin for the past two years. We kept telling her she could learn once she started 1st grade and could take group violin lessons offered at school. Although the school class is beginner violin, the kids are up to fourth grade in age and many have already taken private lessons. The pace of the class moves quickly, so we found an awesome teacher for private lessons at home once a week as well. We found a pink and lavender violin with flowers on it, and I can't even describe how excited she was! She adores her violin and is always so careful with it. So far she loves learning to play and it makes us happy to see her stick with it even when its hard. 

Addy's first lesson with her awesome teacher Eric

Learning different notes

Rest position

Learning proper chin placement during 1st lesson

Torah watching Addy's group lesson from the window

She couldn't resist joining the class for a few minutes

Addy with her school instructor

Around Manila

It looks like she is sitting in piles of garbage, but those are actually huge bags of buttons and she's helping me pick some out for doing crafts.

The Palms Country Club

             A couple weeks ago we spent the afternoon swimming at my friend's beautiful country club. This place is so gorgeous. It is located about 30 minutes outside of Manila where the air is cleaner and the skies are bluer. Andrew swam in a pool for the first time and loved it. It was such a fun and refreshing day. 

Panaca

I have to admit that James' little hometown of Panaca, Nevada, has grown on me a whole lot since my first visit. We spent our first Christmas as a married couple in Panaca. I was already pregnant and sick by that time, and it was too cold to go outside and do any exploring... so I mostly focused on the town being super small and isolated. I have since discovered there is a great deal of beauty in the Lincoln County desert. Panaca is peaceful and charming and we had a wonderful time there this summer.

We were in Panaca in July this year, during the town's much anticipated Sesquicentennial celebration. James' siblings were there as well and our girls loved being surrounded by so many cousins.

 James' beautiful mother was the state of Nevada Centennial Queen in her twenties. She looked as lovely as ever riding on a float in the parade. Addy and Torah thought the parade was the best thing ever.

Looking happy because their bags are already getting full of candy.

 We won a cool bike in a ping pong drop raffle.  Addy was SO excited, even though she doesn't know how to ride without training wheels yet.

I had to take a picture when I saw Addy and Nelson both wearing turquoise, they look so much alike. You can definitely tell they are cousins. These two are so sweet together too, I love their sweet cousin bond and friendship.                                      

Grandma and Grandpa Hill loved spending time holding Andrew. 

Grandma really loved spending time holding TWO babies! Our cute nephew Ashton was born just a couple weeks after Andrew.

Addy is not a fan swimming in cold water, so she thought that swimming in Panaca's warm water spring was so nice! Torah loved it too. :)

Just chill'in on Panaca's main street.

All of the cousins were so excited for the fire hose money grab.

I thought that Addy would probably be too scared of the intense force of the water to participate in the money grab...but I was wrong. She hurried into in the middle of the circle, directly under the spray of water, where she collected an impressive $5.00 in coins. She was pretty proud of her money.

Torah looking a little tired from playing so hard all day.

Andrew with his uncle Stephen whom he was named after. 

Andrew and Ashton were both blessed at church Sunday, the day be before we flew back to Manila.

Don't these sweet babies look cute in their little white suits?