Christmas 2008

Christmas morning was delightful. The children stayed up very late but slept in until 7:00 am. That was amazing! This Christmas we had Sarah, Joel, Eva, and Nathan; Abby, James, and Andrew; Jordan, Emily, Amanda, Ryan, Seth, Cam, and Maddy; and Tammy and Jeff. Jeff is the one taking this picture.

We not only dreamed of but experienced a White Christmas. Here Sarah, Eva, and Nathan are enjoying the fresh snow. They built a wonderful snowman that leaned and eventually fell.

All Maddy wants for Christmas is her two front teeth! She sang that song so sweetly for our annual Family Talent Show on Christmas Eve. We thoroughly enjoyed eveyone's talents, especially Jordan and Ryan's antics as "Sea World" seal trainers. They had their seal (Nathan Allred) do numerous exciting tricks.

Joseph (Andrew Boone) and Mary (Maddy Mulford) took special care of baby Jesus during our annual Nativity program on Christmas Eve.

Hannah at the MTC

This was a wonderful week for us and our daughter Hannah, who entered to Missionary Training Center to learn the Czech language. She will be serving for 18 months as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We are soooooo happy for her! Though we are missing her terribly!

The day before she entered the Mission Training Center in Provo Jeff hiked with her past the "Y" to his special spot where they talked, wrote, and shared a nice prayer.

Hannah was set apart by her stake president on Tuesday, December 2, at about 9:00 pm. He gave a beautiful blessing and promised her the gift of tongues to be able to quickly learn the Czech language. We are grateful for that! On Wednesday, Jeff also gave her a blessing which brought tears to our eyes. We are going to miss her, but the overwhelming feeling is that she is doing exactly the right thing at exactly the right time.

Here are family members who came to the MTC to see Hannah off. If you can't tell, Hannah is very happy and is very stunning with her new hair cut!

Hannah posed with her sisters, who are all photogenic.

Both Hannah and Tammy were very happy for this joyous day. Hannah was blessed to have Tammy to help her with all the shopping. She got lots of beautiful outfits and will look the part of a dedicated (but stylish) sister missionary.

Here is Hannah with two of our future missionaries, Cam and Seth.

Lastly, here is Hannah with Jeff. He doesn't know what he'll do without his SPSS girl. We love Hannah so much. Please write her:

Sister Hannah Ray Hill

Czech Prague Mission

Provo Missionary Training Center

2005 N 900 E

Provo, UT 84604

Her blog is:

http://czechcougar.blogspot.com/

Thanksgiving 2008

We had a great Thanksgiving feast with my Mom and Dad, Scott and Ted and their families, as well as the Hills and Mullfords.

Andrew has decided to eat healthy this holiday season.

Hannah and Seth are making all kinds of Christmas goodies.

Perhaps the highlight of the season was when we went to do baptisms in the Provo temple.

My Mom and Dad are looking good for being in their eighties!

Jordan finally coralled Cameran. Fun!

Tammy and her sisters revealed a wonderful birthday present for her Mom ... some really classy clothes and a ticket to Wicked.

Andrew is happy!

The Week Before Thanksgiving

Dad took Maddy to McDonalds for a belated birthday feast. We talked about the year coming up in quiet surroundings. Maddy's dining choice was the Happy Meal with McNuggets, Fries, and Sprite. Of course what she liked the most, other than the conversation, was the penguin which came with the meal. She is a sweetheart!

Dad went with Hannah to the Salt Lake Temple on her birthday, Friday, November 21, along with Jenise Zundel. It was the first time she had experienced a live session, and she loved it. She is getting so excited about leaving for her mission.

Mom fixed Hannah a delicious brithday breakfast, including muffin, eggs, bacon, and juice. We all thoroughly loved the meal!

Jordon is selling his Sonata for $2000. Low blue book is $3000 so he figures the difference will enable someone to fix the hood and the radiator. Do you know of anyone interested?

First Snow (2008)

We had our first snow in Orem this year in mid-October. Seth made an impressive fort and Amanda and Maddy sculpted a snowman. Life is a wonderland! Love, Jeff (the wiser)

Fall Family Outing (September 28, 2008)

We took a gorgeous Fall family outing on Sunday, September 28, 2008 up to South Fork in Provo Canyon. The foilage was absolutely gorgeous. We had a carefree afternoon exploring, napping, frisbee playing, baachi ball playing, and flag footballing.

The foilage was breathtaking.

The whole family (plus Ben) was there. Ben took this picture (Front: Maddy, Cam, Seth; Back: Emily, Amanda, Jeff, Tammy, Jordan, and Cam). He took several pictures and this was the only one without a major practical joke going on.

This is Emily and her Ben. They have been dating for a couple of months and are really good friends. He is fun to have around.

We celebrated Maddy's birthday on this outing, even though her birthday is really October 3. She enjoyed her presents and exploring everywhere.

Tammy is so beautiful ... and she even matches the foilage. We love bridges too! ...

...because we always kiss on them.

Crazy Horse Half-Marathon (October 4, 2008)

October 3-5, 2008, the Mulford-Hill clan traveled to Hill City, S.D., to run in the Crazy Horse Half Marathon. Jeff, Tammy, Jordan, Hannah, Emily, Amanda and Ryan journeyed from Orem, UT. We met Abby and James Boone (and Andrew) who came from Omaha, NE and Sarah Allred who came from Philadelphia, PA. Altogether we had two parents, seven children, one son-in-law, and one grandchild who made the 13.1 race.

This photo was taken 20 minutes before race time (6:40 am) in the Crazy Horse visitors center. Everyone was really excited!

Here are the girls: Abby, Amanda, Emily, Tammy, Sarah, and Hannah.

Here are the guys: Ryan, James, Jordan, and Jeff.

Emily and Sarah with Crazy Horse in the background.

Abby, James, and Andrew nearing the finish line. James was amazing pushing the stroller through gravel for at least 10 miles!

Jordan was the first to finish although he was not the fastest. Ryan was in first place until 100 yards from the finish he took a left with the marathoners and didn't notice for about 1.5 miles. He ended up running 16 miles. Jordan finished in about 1:50, a great time.

This was Hannah's first race. She trained diligently and improved from being able to run about .5 miles to the half marathon in just a little more than three months. Here she is finishing with Sarah giving moral support.

Here we are on the bus after the half-marathon, sporting our new medals. We devoured three family-sized pizzas afterwards.

Jordan strikes a contemplative pose during our visit to Mt. Rushmore.

Hannah Mission Call (Czech Republic) Goes to Temple (Mt. Timpanogos)

Hannah received her mission call to the Czech Republic on September 4, 2008. She will be entering the MTC on December 3. She was exultant!

She went through the Mt. TimpanogosTemple on September 13, 2008. Tammy was her escort and Jenny came all the way from Michigan to share this special day with us.

Family Campout to Mt. Timapnogos

In late August Dad, Mom, Emily, Amanda, Ryan, Seth, Cam, and Maddy took an adventurous camping trip to the base of Mt. Timpanogos. We camped in a wonderful site by a stream in our folding trailer. We hiked several miles toward Mt. Timpanogos. It was a wonderful trip. We want to do more camping in the future.

Trip to Boston

We visited Boston August 10-16 while Jeff presented at APA. We walked the Freedom Trail, visited Plimouth Plantation and the Mayflower, rode bikes along the shore at Cape Cod, jogged on the Charles River past MIT and Harvard, and visited Fenway park. It was pure joy!

Taipei to Taichung Bullet Train

We took the bullet train from Taipei to Taichung R.O.C. a total of 120 miles in 49 minutes. Top speed is 300 kilometers per hour. Wow!

The Hill-Mulford Family Are Now Bloggers!

We have realized the blogging is the way of the future, and so as not to be stuck in the past we will begin blogging. Here are the 14 basic Hill-Mulfords. We have eleven others including two wonderful son-in-laws, two wonderful daughter-in-laws, and seven amazing grandchildren.