Grandpa Dallas

Caleb's grandpa passed away last week. We knew it was coming...he was in sort of rough shape, it's still so hard to see him go. Caleb has looked up to his grandpa forever, and has always seen him as a father figure. His grandpa took him fishing and 4-wheeling and camping. There were always fun adventures to be had with Grandpa Dallas. He will sure be missed. I had fun getting to know him since I have been in the family. I adored his stories and his loving heart. Here is the obituary that was published in the Rexburg Standard Journal. We are headed to Idaho this weekend for the funeral services.



Our Dad, Grandpa, Brother and Sweetheart passed away on Pearl Harbor Day at the age of 86. We honor his tremendous example and the legacy he left of giving love and service for all he knew.

Dad was born in Marysville, and grew up primarily in Felt and Ashton where he ran trap lines as a young man and farmed as an adult.

Dad went to the Naval Recruiting office on the first day after the attack on Pearl Harbor. He served throughout the war aboard the U.S.S. Tangier.

After the war, he married Merna Cordingley from Marysville. They moved to Riverside, where they raised their family while Dad worked at the Nuclear Site in Arco.
They enjoyed camping together and getting away to their cabin in Island Park. After Merna passed away, Dad married Lucille Hansen and together they resided in Blackfoot in the summer and Parker, Ariz., when the snow began to fly. Their time together was filled with square-dancing and family.

Dad was alone for a time when Grandma Lucille died after a sudden illness. But he found a life-long friend and sweetheart in Laura Rhodes. They have spent 18 years together filling their time with riding 4-wheelers and fishing.

Dad served as a scout leader for over 20 years; long enough to be the leader for the children of some of his earliest Scouts. He was active as a home teacher where he made sure that his families always had food to eat and wood for the fireplace.
He was always the first to volunteer for service and the last to go home from a hard day's work. He spent innumerable hours helping neighbors clean and repair their homes after the Teton Dam flood waters damaged them.

Dad enjoyed hunting, fishing, motorcycles, snowmobiles and 4-wheelers. He loved a good story and was a wonderful story teller himself.

But his greatest love was always his family and friends. He served people all his life and made everyone he met a better person. He had a special gift of being able to get people out of their shells and finding ways to enjoy life.

Dad is survived by his beloved sisters Norma Schuldies and Connie Cordingley, by his children Terry, Corine and Ben, by Lucille's children Pat, Vicki and Rick, by his sweetheart Laura Rhodes and by a large dynasty of grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his sisters Wanda Cordingley and Phyllis Crosby.

Services will be held at 1 p.m. on Saturday, December 18th in the Ashton Stake Center.

an iPad??? yes, please

So the other day I saw on facebook that a local radio station was doing a giveaway for ipads. They were giving away 10...1 a day until christmas. I had a couple minutes and I was taking a little break from work, so I decided to sign up. They just had me sign up with my info. I didn't have to do any other offers or anything (if that was the case...I probably wouldn't have completed signing up...because I NEVER win stuff). At the bottom it does tell you how you can enter again and keep entering until they are all given away. Well, since I never win anything, I didn't worry about those other things.

BUT.....yesterday I got a phone call from the radio station. They said...you have won a prize! I thought oh that's cool. I probably won discount coupons to McDonald's or something...something that they give to each person who enters. The guy continues to say...Hillary, you won a big prize. My eyes got wide. He asks, what do you think you won? I said...an iPad??? still not wanting to get my hopes up and he said yes! What? I never win anything....especially nothing of value. How cool! I couldn't be more excited.



Caleb and I had decided this year we weren't giving each other gifts for christmas at all. We have all of this baby stuff we need to get before April and we need to pay for the hospital and delivery. So it seemed silly for us to get gifts. We need to save our money. So the iPad couldn't be more perfect. This is our fun gift for the year and then we still have money that we can buy baby stuff and pay for the hospital bills! Hooray! Merry Christmas.

ps...so far the ipad is really cool. Any cool apps anyone wants to recommend? We are completely new to this new technology scene.

for sale

So...we have decided to put our house up for sale. We sure love this house, but just wish it were closer to the store in Salt Lake. 30 minutes isn't that terrible of a commute, but it would be nice to be closer if one of us is at the store and the other needs to leave or forgot something. Easier to help each other out. So we decided it doesn't hurt to put our house on the market. It's sort of a terrible time to sell....winter, holidays, etc. But we will see how it goes. It's a great time to buy a house with interest rates as low as they are and house prices in SLC are very low right now. So...we have listed our house. We are excited for our new adventure and I love looking at houses. But not excited about the moving part. We'll see if we even sell our house...then we can worry about the rest.

watching Bear

Our friends Sara & Spencer watched Bear while we were out with my parents. They have a little boy, Saylor, and he and Bear got along great. When we were picking up Bear we decided to stay for a bit and play some games. Saylor sat on the couch and was watching a movie. Bear got right up by him and snuggled up for the movie.

They said Bear was protective of Saylor. That morning Sara was in the shower & Spencer was watching TV. Saylor shut himself in his room and Sara heard Bear scratching on Saylor's door. Bear knew he was in there and wanted to make sure he wasn't stuck in there. So cute! I am glad to know that Bear gets along well with kids. I think he and our little baby girl will be best of friends :)

Temple Square lights

My parents were down for the weekend to do some christmas shopping. We were able to meet up with them and my sisters to see the lights at temple square and dinner. It was pretty warm out this year....so we actually were able to enjoy the lights a little more than past years.
on trax...headed to the lights


the lights

Baby Henry sleeping

Last Saturday I went with my sister to the Beehive Bazaar. Before the event, Melanie had a haircut so Ashley was watching Henry at Blonde Grizzly while she was getting her hair cut in Salt Lake. I had to take off for a little bit so Caleb and Ashley were left to watch Henry. He needed his diaper changed and neither of them had changed a diaper before. So Caleb changed his first diaper that day. He put it on backwards at first, but quickly corrected it. Then they made him a little bed on the floor with a mattress and blankets and got him to sleep. He is so cute!


We went to the Beehive Bazaar when Mel's haircut was done and there was so much cute stuff to see. I bought a couple things for our little baby.

these adorable shoes

and this adorable onesie

Play Nice art show at Blonde Grizzly

Kalvin Lazarte of Play Nice did our December show at Blonde Grizzly. He painted these fun monsters on the walls.



Mindy, Cali & her sister Tee came to the show.

Amber & I

19 weeks

So...here is a picture of me at 19 weeks. Almost half way there...I can't believe it. We are so so excited to meet this little one.

Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving we loaded up and went to San Diego with the Landon Family. It was so nice to get out of the freezing cold and relax a bit. We had such a great time.

Saturday - We were flying all day. Mel, Ben, Oli, Henry, Ashley, Caleb & Myself all were flying out of Salt Lake. My mom & Dad & Jaxon's family were all flying out of Idaho Falls. They connected with out flight in Salt Lake. Well, their flight got delayed and they didn't make it on the flight to San Diego. They ended up staying in the Salt Lake airport for 5 hours. We got to San Diego and got settled into our room and then Caleb & I went to pick the rest of them up later that night. It was a long day for them.

Sunday -
we went to the Sea Life Aquarium & Legoland.

Hillary & Caleb

Kinsley & Oliver


Jaxon, Holden, Keagan, Kinsley & Oliver

Grandpa, Henry & Ashley

Kinsley & Oliver

I don't have any idea what is going on in this lego illustration. The first 2 make sense, but what happened in the third one??


Grandma & Henry


Monday -
We went to the Wild Animal Park the next day. So many cool things to see at this park.








Tuesday -
SeaWorld was a lot of fun. We saw Shamu(though the Shamu show isn't nearly as interesting as it used to be. One of the trainers was killer by a killer whale earlier this year, so they don't interact with the whales as much as they used to), dolphins, penguins, manatees and more.
Me, Oliver & Kinsley fed the dolphins



Wednesday -
We went to the San Diego Zoo. It's so big and so much to see. It was a lot of fun. I would like to go back and explore the zoo a little more. We were all a little tired by this day and didn't explore as much as we could.


Thursday -
We had Thanksgiving dinner at Hunters steakhouse, took family pictures and relaxed a little bit.
the grandkids in their matching orange shirts

all of us

We went down to the beach for the sunset.



Friday -
We decided to hit up the outlet malls this day. They had some good deals going on. Our main reason for going though was...they sold these...
Reebok Classics. These are the only shoes Caleb likes and they had a Reebok store there. So he stocked up and bought 2 pairs.
Then we went on a little bike ride. in these fun bikes.

Then we roasted smores on the beach.


Saturday -
We went to Old Town San Diego for some lunch & shopping. Old Town San Diego was a lot of fun. They had Caleb's dream store there.


look behind Caleb...haha

Then, we headed back home. It was so much fun spending more time with all of my family. It's always fun when we are all able to get together. Thanks so much mom & dad for such a fun trip. It was so nice to get away, enjoy family and not think about work (at least not think about it too much :))