Sarah and Christian. Everyone should have a big brother

Christian is the best big brother to Sarah and I was thinking to myself that everyone should have a big brother like CJ and then it dawned on me that we all really do have a big brother like our CJ. I thought how lucky that Sarah has CJ because through her relationship with CJ she will be able to learn of her relationship with her older brother Jesus Christ. She will know of His love for her because she will know how her earthly older brother loves her and takes care of her and carries her when she is tired and helps her when she cant do it by herself anymore and how he picks her up and dusts her off when she falls and cheers with her when she is happy and holds her close when she is sad. She will see the unconditional love and know of a brotherly love through CJ. How AWESOME!

In Loving Memory of Todd Allen Hill Oct 5, 1967~Dec 26, 2008

On Dec 26 at about 4am Jason's cousin Todd Allen Hill (41) Veteran was murdered while sleeping on a park bench at Riverside FL. His murderer was found and confessed to the killing saying that he "didn't like how he looked at me". I think that people sometimes forget that homeless people most times have families who love them and worry about them and pray for them and offer help all of the time. Todd suffered from post traumatic stress and had a hard time dealing with things sometimes which we believed lead to his situation. We as his family loved him and never stopped loving him. He will be sorely missed!





Jason loved Todd and felt a special bond with him because of their shared experience of service in the Military. They are the only 2 Hill cousins to have served and Todd and Jason's mother were the only ones who attended Jason's graduation from Boot Camp.

This is Matt Hill and his new son Evan, Todds Brother, Jason's Cousin and my friend. We went to High School together.

Jason made this tile with our vinyl.

This is a copy of the obituary from the Deseret News

Todd Allen Hill 10/5/1967 ~ 12/26/2008 Semper Fidelis Todd was born October 5, 1967 in Medford, Oregon to his parents Thomas and Linda. Todd served valiantly in the United States Marine Corps from 1986 to 1991 during the first Gulf War. He had a passion for the ocean, sports and the outdoors. He will be remembered as a kind and loving person. He is survived by his mother Linda, father and stepmother Thomas and Deborah, brothers Matthew, Steven and Keith, sisters Terri, Karen, Elizabeth, Sherri and Corin; and many other family members. He is preceded in death by his son, brother and grandparents. Services will be held on January 7, 2009 at 11:00 a.m. at the Veteran's Memorial Park Cemetery, Riverton, Utah. In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to the homeless shelter of your choice.

This is an article from CBS4 in Florida on the subject.

No Bond For Suspect In Homeless Beating Death
Police Say Murder Weapon Was A Tire Iron
Police: Suspect Beat Homeless Man Over 'The Wrong Way' He Looked At Him
According to police, Todd Hill, another homeless man, was sleeping on a park bench behind the River Park Hotel when he was attacked.
A Miami man, charged with beating a homeless man to death, was denied bond Saturday on first-degree murder charges, one day after the fatal beating. Sedrek A. Singleton, 29, was charged on Friday with the first-degree murder of Todd Hill after police stopped him in the area with blood stains on his shirt. Singleton allegedly confessed to beating Hill to death because he didn't like the way he 'looked' at him. According to Miami police, Hill, 41, was sleeping on a park bench behind the River Park Hotel in downtown Miami at SE 88th Avenue and 4th Street Friday morning when he was attacked around 4:00 a.m. Police said that Singleton confessed to the beating, admitting he was angered over "the wrong way" that Todd Hill looked at him. The police report said the weapon used was an iron bar. Hill, whom friends said was a war veteran, was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital's Ryder Trauma Center where died a short time later. At the crime scene, homeless people were visibly shaken after witnessing the incident. "Most of these guys, they come out here; they drink a little bit, you know, try to knock out. They don't really have a place to go," said Brian Person, a homeless man who has often found refuge along the River walk. "There was no reason for him to get hit with a brick when he's sleeping. They say he had no enemies like that. He was just minding his business." Hill's best friend, Melvin Woodard, says he left for 15 minutes to buy a pack of cigarettes and came back to find him covered in blood. Woodard choked back tears talking about it. "I'm hurt," said Woodard. "Catch that dude man. Catch him. If you know who he is, you're dead wrong; you're just a coward." Woodard says Hill was a veteran who had been living on the streets for at least three years.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

New Years Eve 2008

This year for New Years Eve we went to a ward party thrown by the youth (it happened to be on ward night) and we had a total blast!! We have a great ward that we have really clicked with. There were puzzles and games and food everywhere. This is CJ and Jason working on a puzzle.

This is CJ Jason Sarah Patrick (CJ's best friend) Gabby and Miranda (Gabby's best friend)
This is Callie Maddie and Gabby

Sarah almost didnt make it til midnight but got a second wind and saw the new year after all!

Games Games Games!

Wanna Shoot some Hoops Daddy?

This Is Miranda and Lindsay texting

Sarah

CJ Serves up volleyball

Cellulitis and Jason Squemish people need not look.

My poor hubby got cellulitis during the Christmas break and it was not fun for him at all. He had to endure hep locks for IV antibiotics 2 times a day for the first few days and 5200 mg of oral antibiotics plus shots in his hip of more antibiotics every time he visited the clinic that were very painful also. Their advise for the shot in the hiney was to walk it in but he had to also keep his foot elevated. Huh? He tried to walk with his foot elevated the best he could but with no success. LOL! They decided to cut the wound and squeeze the nastiness and nacrotized flesh out without anything for pain and then stuffed a string (10.5 inches the first time) down into the wound to wick the infection out then they would have him come in everyday to get the string changed (and to make sure it was not spreading to much and to get more shots) which appeared to be some serious pain as well. (Jason would have made a great Lamaze student with that kind of major heavy breathing to cope with the pain) I was so proud of his bravery. We finally asked our good friend Bro Egbert and Bro Buchanan to give Jason a Priesthood blessing and that seemed to be a major turning point for him. Jason has managed to heal in record time and we are thankful everyday that we have Heavenly Fathers watchful eye over us. We were blessed to have a wonderfully understanding friend who happens to be Jason's boss make it possible that we could have Jason continue to work and not have a short paycheck and still get the time Jason needed to make sure all of the procedures could take place. Also that the clinic was open until 10 pm most nights to allow for appts to mostly happen after work. We are blessed and grateful!

Notice how big Jason's calf is! This after the wound was cut and drained.

This is Jan 28Th after Jason finally decided he needed to be seen by a doc and they put an IV in and had him come back twice a day for IV antibiotics. The first day.

Christmas Morning 2008

These are a few of our Christmas morning pics but they are a little out of order and because I am still trying to figure out how to work the pictures around the page I hope you will bear with me. The above picture is Lindsay and there ended up not being as many pictures of her because I got so sick that morning that less than half way through the opening I had to hand the camera to her and lay there like a lump trying not to loose it. I am not sure what it is about the Christmas season but more times than not I am sick. Not fair at all!
This is Christian and his erector set he got from Lexi.

Sarah and Lexi
Lexi (our dog lover) with a Dalmatian figurine from Mom and Dad.

CJ and a family copy of Black Knight.

Gabby and her cupcake maker from Mom and Dad. This little device was nice because we can cook the cakes in the microwave instead of the bulb of the easy bake oven that both older sisters asked for and got in previous years. (yes we have had 2 easy bake ovens but that's not as bad as the 3 shrinky dink machines that holds the record for multiples)

I love this picture! These two are quite the pair! The doll in the picture is so goofy but Sarah laughs and laughs and we love to hear that, so Gabby had to get it for her SO Sarah is entertained and we are entertained by Sarah being entertained. LOL!

Christmas is different for the little ones isn't it?

AAH! Lexi got a knitting kit in her stocking!

This is the last look of my clear carpet for the day. Bye Bye clean house!

Our traditional holiday line up.

Looks like Santa chose to indulge.

Wow. Santa came after all!

Just seconds before Santa arrived.

Christmas Eve 2008

For Christmas Eve we have many many traditions and we do our best to do them all. Jason had to work this year so it did put a pinch on some of them but we managed pretty well still. During the day we made our cookies for Santa which are usually rice crispy treats but due to the fact that when we went shopping for our food there were no rice crispies to be found we made smores in a pan instead and they were good. I am SURE that Santa liked them!
We always go to dinner and a movie and this year all the restaurants were closing early (in Jordan Landing) so we saw our movie (Desperaux) and then picked up Sampan take out (the only restaurant still open when the movie was over) and ate it at home. It was so nice to be home earlier than usual. We always open 1 present and it is, of course, jammies but because a few years back we were having trouble with kids counting presents and shaking presents etc I wrapped all of each family members presents in their own unique wrapping paper and do not put a tags on the kid gifts. On Christmas eve they all pick the jammie package they think is going to be theirs and open it. Sometimes they get it right and sometimes we have to trade around but luckily it put a stop to the troubles we were having and now it is loved by all and must be done every year. Don't you know that if you do something twice it is a tradition? LOL! Does that make sense? Basically each child will have an individual wrapping paper and all of that child's presents are wrapped in only that paper. 5 kids=5 diff papers.

Oops CJ got pink jammies! Looks like that wasn't his wrapping.

Get ready get set GO!

Picking out the wrapping.