Heavenly Father protects his children

No matter how old we get we are all children of our Heavenly Father. Thursday was a perfect example. I wanted my family to come to our house this year for Thanksgiving. You picture how you think a day will go or how things will turn out and it is always the exact opposite. My family does not make plans. Pretty much the only guaranteed place they will get to on time is church. Other than that, don't ask b/c they won't know until the day of. As it turns out, my sister Melanie didn't come up from Austin, my sister Jessica went to Oklahoma to be with her fiance, and my brother had plans with his girlfriend. So it was just my parents that ended up coming. I was frustrated b/c Thanksgiving is about being with family and friends together. Matt and I wanted our family to spend time with Levi since they haven't seen him that much. But yet again, things happen for a reason.

Before my sister Jessica left for Oklahoma on Tuesday, she changed out the car seats for her son Joel. Usually he sits in a booster seat but this time he was in a full car seat. He is almost 5. Jessica ended up taking my dad's truck to Oklahoma b/c she was having issues with her car. It is about 5 hours to Oklahoma from Texarkana. So taking a truck is not cheap. On her way home she noticed that there was a diesel that was tailgating her. Before she knew it there was a deer in the road and she hit the deer. The diesel that was tailgating her slammed into the back of the truck doing about 50.

The impact was so hard that Jessica's glasses were found in the bed of the truck. She had them on her face before she was hit! The diesel pinned them against the guardrail. Someone had to pry open the driver's side door to get Jessica out and they had to break a window to get Joel out. Jessica's cell phone was not found. Joel had a plastic cup that he was using and it was shattered. Joel was more concerned about the deer and if it was ok. The deer didn't make it. If Jessica was driving her car, which is a Mustang, my sister and nephew would not be here. They walked away from this whole thing with no injuries.

For some reason, her car would not work. For some reason, Jessica switched car seats. If we follow the promptings that we are given, we will be protected. I have no doubt that Jessica and Joel were watched over by our Heavenly Father. Heavenly Father will lead and guide us where we need to go. I am so grateful that my sister and nephew are alive today.

My nephew looking at what he survived.

Skid marks from the truck. They were dragged about 90 yards by the diesel.

Poor deer!

Grateful for my husband

I have to say that I am so grateful for my wonderful husband. He is such an amazing father. Sunday night Levi had a temperature of 101. He did not sleep well at all. Levi woke up about 2:00 am and would not go back to sleep. I held him and he just felt like he was on fire. We took off his clothes to try to cool him down. When I would put a cold cloth on his head it would instantly turn hot. Then we had the bright idea to give Levi a cold bath. WRONG!! That made Levi cry even more. Matt got dressed and said that we were going to the hospital. I didn't want to go to the hospital b/c they would just poke Levi with needles. I asked Matt to give Levi a blessing. Matt gave him the most beautiful blessing. We gave Levi tylenol to help as well. Finally at 4:30 am Levi fell asleep as I rocked him. By the way, during this whole thing I called my mom at 3:30 crying b/c I was scared and didn't know what to do. Today Levi is much better. You can tell he still doesn't feel well but he doesn't have the high fever. I am so lucky to have a husband that has the power of the priesthood. I really don't know what we would do without it. The priesthood is such an amazing and spiritual blessing to have.

What a day

Is today over yet? Levi woke up this morning with a temperature of 100. He is getting 3 teeth all at once so life is miserable for him. I feel so bad and want to make it all stop. We decided to keep him home from church today since he felt so bad. I still needed to go to church b/c I teach a primary class. So I get ready to go and just before I leave Matt and I hear a loud bang in our garage. My immediate thought is we are going to be robbed and someone is stealing Matt's "man tools". Matt goes out to the garage and comes back a few minutes later with the report. Matt tells me that there is a big rat in our garage and it is stuck on a sticky glue board under my car! So I go out to check and the big rat turns out to be a bird! I park on the left side of the garage and the sticky glue board was on the upper far right to catch mice. This stupid bird had been flopping around and moved all the way to my side. Our wonderful neighbor, who is a big animal lover, proceeds to unstick this little bird. I leave for church and when I get home Matt tells me that the bird is now in our neighbor's garage. She is going to nurse it back to health. If our neighbor wasn't home that bird would be in the dumpster. Matt is all about quick and painless death for rodents or birds. Come to find out all we needed was a little bit of Crisco and the bird would have been free. Wow what a day!

On another note, Levi is all about playing with Macey's toys. She has this ball that lights up that he just loves. They play with each other so well. Here are some pictures of them playing. They will be best buddies.





You can see what Macey wants in this picture. She wants the ball!


Macey loves to chase birds. The other day our back yard was filled with birds. This is what happened.

Just Because

I just wanted to put pictures up of Levi from this last month. He has really developed such a personality. Levi is so much fun and I can't wait to be at home with him all the time starting in January. Everyday he learns something new and to him it is the coolest thing. Levi now likes to hide behind our curtains in the living room. We have 2 new games that we play with Levi and he loves them. He really likes the new fun game called Woogy Woogy Woo! Basically I sit on the floor in front of his crib and hide. Then I pop up in front of him and wave my arms and say Woogy Woogy Woo! Levi laughs so hard he can't stand! Then the next game is Push Mommy Along. Levi will get in front of me and push me around the house. I have to sing the next big hit song called Push Mommy Along. Cheesy I know!! But it is those moments that I love. The 2nd game is a mommy only game. We tried to get him to play with Matt but he kept coming to me. Enjoy the pictures!

Worry Wart!

I'm such a worry wart. Matt loves to climb and he has been climbing in Oklahoma the last 2 weekends. Where he goes climbing there isn't any cell phone reception. So I don't get to talk to Matt all day. Yesterday afternoon around 4 I started to get really worried. Then my mind started playing tricks on me. I started thinking all the worst possible things could happen. There were only 2 people climbing and it seemed to be taking really long for just 2 people to climb. I frantically call and send text messages to Matt and no return call or message. By this point I'm crying my eyes out. Levi is just sitting on the floor laughing at me crying. It was so hard to cry with Levi being so cute. Finally I get a call from Matt. He is alive and they are on their way home. Turns out there was a third person that went climbing with him so it took longer. But I didn't know about the third person. Needless to say, I'm a worry wart. It scares me to see Matt climb but it is what he loves. I could never do it but he is the adventurous one. That's why I love him!

In Memory of Paul

Three years ago today one of my best friends took his own life. The one thing that I regret is that I never told Paul how much I loved him. I miss him so much. If you knew Paul you knew that he would do anything for anyone. I remember that he told me after I got married he would not hug me anymore. Well, he said that he would give me a side hug or shake my hand. He thought it would be weird to hug me given our past and now I was married. Paul was the best hugger ever! Paul picked Matt and I up from the airport after we got home from Utah for our wedding. I ran up to him and gave him the biggest hug. He was worried that Matt was going to beat him b/c he gave his wife a hug. Of course from then on I always got the full Paul hug! I know that I will see him again and he will be with his family for eternity. He had a heart that never stopped giving or loving. I miss you Paul and can't wait to see you again.

About me and welcome!

Welcome to House on a Hill!

I'm Melissa~

Mandie McMurdie Photography

I hope you enjoy my blog and all of my ramblings. I am a stay at home mom of 2 beautiful boys. I can't tell you how much joy they bring to my life. My husband is the best husband you could ever ask for. He sacrifices so much for our family so that I am able to be at home with our children. This life isn't for everyone but I truely feel blessed by the Lord for all that I have.

This blog has evolved for me over the last few years. It started out as just a place for me to put all of our family happenings. I wanted to keep our family and friends up to date with our kids and what we were up to since we are all so spread out. This blog was started shortly after I left my full time job to stay at home with our children. I am horrible at keeping a journal but for some reason I find this is a better way for me. So this is like my journal but everyone has access to it. It's not private at all!

I changed the name of our blog to House on a Hill because of something that my mom has always said. She always refers to their house being on a hill whenever they want to get away. "Well, I guess we are going to get off this hill today!" That's usually how it goes. So even though we aren't on a hill really...well maybe kind of...that's where the name came from.

I hope you can find inspiration here and feel welcomed. I talk about everything from everyday life with kids, coupons, saving money, decorating on a budget, etc...

So grab some hot chocolate and stay a while! Enjoy!