The Hintons: Video

My mom...

...is wonderful.

...is constantly putting others needs before her own.

...has always been there for me.

...taught me everything I know.

Mom,

I will never be able to repay you for all that you have done for me. You give so much of yourself to every person you meet, but especially to your family. You have sacrificed sleep so that you could work during the night and be home with us during the day. You have worn the same clothes for years, so I could dress in the latest trends. You never asked me to quit playing soccer, even though it would have eased your financial burden greatly. You have often sacrificed your own happiness for those around you.

You have taught me so much. You taught me skills such as sewing and cooking. You have taught me so much about how to be a mother. Whenever I have a question about anything, you are the first person I think to ask. I'm not sure what I would do without you.

I love you so much.

I wish I could share this in person, but I guess this will have to do. I heard this song for the first time two days ago and decided I wanted to sing it for you. With only 2 days of practice, it is far from perfect, but I hope you will enjoy it.

Love, Bobbi

She Put The Music in Me - Music and lyrics by Calee Reed

It started with rock-a-bye, comforting when I'd cryAll in her own styleThen popcorn before my eyes, turning frowns upside down

Into smiles

With songs of the birds up high, looking at the blue blue sky

The wind as it rushes by

Then leading me, guiding me, walking beside me she helped me

To walk in the light.

(Chorus)

She built my house on a rock

And she lives all that she taught

And she is all that a woman should be

She put the music in me

I knew He was really there, He heard my child's prayer

Answering from up above

She gave like a little stream, I was her sunbeam

And I felt my Savior's love

I saw her kneel and pray with our family every day

Listening to each whispered word

Gentle in deed and thought, all the things Jesus taught

Following promptings she heard

(Chorus)

She lives to search, ponder, pray

And she gives everyday

So her thanks will always be thanks indeed

She put the music in me

He made the tiny wings of each little bird that sings

In the leafy treetops up high

And all creatures great and small, I know God made them all

Because of her sweet lullaby

(Chorus)

She's like a star shining bright and helps me to choose the right

And she gives me the hope of a life yet to be

She put the music in me

She is so good to me, Heavenly Father sent her to me

She taught me to lift up my voice and sing

She put the music in me.

She put the music in me.

To all of the women in my life, thank you. There are many women that I look up to and helped me to become the person that I am. Thank you for your love, support, and example.

**If you are unable to view the video, watch it here.**

Will has really taken off in the past 6 months. He has learned so much. When I look back at his two year post, it seems like so much more than 6 months ago. He has grown and his ~~little~~ personality just blows me away. He has so many goofy little quirks, I really hope I am able to remember as many as I can.

Instead of only saying one or two words at a time, Will now speaks in full sentences. Like, "Daddy, come put this in the sink." or "Mommy, want to go for ride for Grandma's?" or "Should we go to Grandma's tomorrow?"

If you ask Will where he lives, he will say "Syracuse". If you ask him his name, he will say "Will". If you ask him how old is he, he will say, "Two". If you ask him his sister's name, he will say, "Blake". But if you ask him how he is doing, he will say "Two." Not sure what happened with that one.

He can't say monster truck without getting really exciting and growling/screaming it.

He used to hate whenever I made a fish face, but then he started trying it himself.

He LOVES people. Whenever we hang out with other people, he tends to talk about them forever, wanting to stay at their house, or go visit them the next day. He has had many sleepovers at Cindy's house, so now whenever Cindy comes to visit, he gets excited because he think he gets to go home with her. He cries when she can't take him.

Will is annoyingly good with technology. If I hand him my phone, completely turned off even, he would still be able to turn it on, find Netflix, and select the movie that he wanted to watch.

One of the best ways to get Will ready for bed is to tell him he can brush his teeth. He loves it and it is a great motivator for him.

He never really liked watching tv or movies that much, but boy has that changed. (And I haven't been a big help to prevent that.) Now, if I would let him, he would insist that a movie was on all day long. I'll admit, the tv is on in our house WAY more than it should be, but I feel very slightly better because Will usually doesn't just sit and stare at the tv. He is usually playing with other toys, then occasionally glances up.

Like every other young boy is or was at one point, he is OBSESSED with Cars. He wants to wear his Car pajamas, cars underwear, watch Cars ALL THE TIME, watch Mater's Tall Talles ALL THE TIME. He has toy cars for several of the characters and he can't go anywhere without them. He is officially hooked.

He has a little 10" tv on his dresser in his room that he likes to watch movies on. He will either move a table/chair over or just open the bottom two drawers of the dresser so he has something to stand on so he can change the movie. He will decide what movie he wants, open the dvd player, change the movies, and push play. I hate him touching the dvds, though I am unable to get him to stop. Though surprisingly, all of his dvds still work fine and they haven't been scratched...yet.

One day I went into his room to find him watching his movies like this.

Though he quickly lost balance and ended up more like this.

Will LOVES riding his bike. If we go on walks, he insists on riding his bike in front of Blake in the stroller. I don't remember the last time he sat in the stroller, because he prefers to ride his bike.

On this particular outing, he insisted on taking his little monkey for a ride. As he was riding along, he would point things out. "Look monkey, tree. Rock. Car..." etc.

Will has a great sense of direction. If he goes somewhere once, he can probably remember how to get back there. We decided to take a different route on a walk one day and stumbled onto a new park. The next time we went on a walk, Will took us right back to that park. Because Will is in front while we are on our walks, I often let him decide where we are going to go. If however, I tell him which way we are going, and it is NOT heading towards one of the parks, he starts crying and says "No, mommy, that way! That way mommy!"

We have been in the process of potty training him. Instead of just taking a few days to really pound it in, I just went at a slower pace that worked for me. I usually put him in underwear in the morning, but by early afternoon we were both so sick of it that I would just put him in a diaper for the rest of the day. And it actually kind of worked. He now wears underwear all day, though he still has accidents every once in a while. And we still haven't figure out how to get him to poop in the toilet. So still working on it and hopefully getting him through the night without needing a diaper eventually.

He even likes watching football with us and throwing the ball around.

Child locks are no longer effective. He knows how to disable the child locks that go on the door by simply ripping them off. And any gate or barrier that we try to use, he simply finds a way to climb over. He will move furniture so that he has something to stand on.

Will loves to color and draw. He loves asking Lance or I to draw cars, trucks, tractors, etc. He can draw something that resembles a car.

When I turn on Netflix and it is loading, Will always points out the letters, starting with X and go right to left. He shows me the X, then I, then L, then F, then T, then he thinks the E is an F, then N. He's very good with letters and can identify most of them now. We are still working on the rest of them, however.

When Will does something he is supposed to, I often tell him good job and start to clap or something. Lately, whenever Will seems me do certain things (especially things that I typically ask him to do), he will start clapping and say "Good job, mommy!" While we were potty training him, his reward if he used the restroom was m&ms. When he did good, we would jump up and down, clap, and tell him he could have some m&ms. After a few times of this, when Will saw me use the restroom, he would get really excited and tell me I did such a good job. Then he would let me know that I could have some m&ms.

He can be such a ~~little~~ big bully/punk. It's a miracle that we haven't had to take Blake to the ER with as much as this boy tortures her. If she is sitting him, he will walk over to her, put his foot against her chest, and push her down. He will grab her legs and drag her around the room. He will fill his box full of toys and dump it on her head. He puts blankets over her head until I'm wondering how she's even breathing. He will be playing with his own toys and minding his own business until I walk out of the room. Blake is usually screaming within 15-20 seconds of me leaving the room. I can't get a drink, use the bathroom, or do anything without coming back and finding he has done something to her.

There is a park in Layton that has one of the old merry go rounds. Will loves getting on and simply going along for a ride while all of the older kids push it.

Will is incapable of sharing. He gets hulk mad when Blake wants to play with one of his cars or one of his favorite toys. If I insist that he share and get her a toy, he will go find the worst toy or the most lame toy and let her play with that one. But she can't play with any of the "cool" ones. He also has trouble sharing with other kids come over and want to play with his toys. I think if we had people come over more, then he would learn better.

He is becoming much more aware of his own emotions and the emotions of others. Whenever I do something he doesn't like, he says "Mommy, don't make Will sad. You make Will cry." Or if I make a sad face and pretend to cry, will doesn't like it and tells me to be happy.

He is very unpredictable when it comes to prayer time before meals. Sometimes he will just start right in and say a prayer. Sometimes he will insist someone else say it. And sometimes he will say, "No prayer, just eat!" When he does say the prayer, his most common prayer is, "Heavenly Father, thanks for grandma, name of Jesus Christ, amen."

His favorite thing to eat is still vegetables. He will often eat only his vegetables and ask for more. The only way I can get him to eat some of his other dinner, is to tell him he can't have more vegetables until after he has other bites.

Will no longer takes any naps, though there are some days where he will fall asleep while watching a movie or something.

When you hold Will above your head to be "Super Will" he will usually brace his hands against your arms and arch his legs up.

After I workout, I typically make me a green protein smoothie. The second Will hears the blender going, he runs to the kitchen, gets himself a bowl and spoon and asks for some of "mom's shake".

Will has begun a little "routine" whenever we go somewhere. I'll ask him to go get in the car and buckle himself up. He will go get in his car seat, buckle his chest strap, then lock the door so we can't get in. He thinks it is hilarous when we try to open the door to finish buckling him up and we can't. Then we unlock the door and buckle him up. But if we try to push the chest strap up where it belongs, he throws a tantrum and tells us to leave it down. He will tug and pull until that chest strap is where he wants it.

While he speaks really well overall, there are a few things that make me shake my head. One time he was going through a peanut butter and jelly kick where he would have that for lunch or dinner almost every day. But for some reason, he refused to eat pb & js at the counter where he eats everything else, and he couldn't just say peanut butter and jelly. Whenever I asked what he wanted for lunch, he would say "Peanut butter jelly watch a movie." He would only eat it if I would put it on a plate let him eat it while he could watch a movie."

One of his favorite chores to help with is laundry. He will load the washer, help pour soap in, and he even knows which buttons to push in order to start it.

Or often when I ask him to do something that he doesn't want, his response is "No can't do that, first day of school." Don't ask me what that means.

Like most young kids, I'm sure, Will is incapable of keeping his room clean for more than 30 seconds. It doesn't matter if he only wants to play with trains, he can't play with them until every lego, every book, every single toy in his room is dumped onto the floor. Even just watching movies requires making a huge mess.

Will loves nursery rhymes, reading books, and singing songs. One if is favorites is "Three Little Kittens".

I wasn't sure it was possible, but Will has become even more of a climber. When we go to the playground, he will hang upside down, he will climb any and every contraption or slide, you name it. He loves to be lifted to the bars and left hanging from his arms.

He doesn't like to play unless I am in the same room. If I am simply sitting in his bedroom, he will play for hours. But when I try to leave, he wont keep playing. Or often he will just bring all of his toys to wherever I am.

If ever I try to close my eyes or sleep while Will is playing he will do one of two things:

1-Come right in my face and roar/scream as loud as possible.

2-Come right in my face and blow bubbles/spit all over me.

Neither of these are pleasant when you are desperately needing a little nap.

Lance often makes himself pancakes before he goes to work. Most of the time Will is awake by then and they let me sleep until Lance leaves. It has become "their" thing. One time I asked Will if he wanted me to make him pancakes, and he said, "No! Daddy's pancakes!" So he has cereal when I feed him breakfast and pancakes when daddy is home. I think it's cute that they have their own little thing.

He could use a little bit of work on his counting (as well as his kicking).

Will loves going swimming, going down the big water slides, playing in the splash pad, anything that has to do with water.

While we were at the pool, he enjoyed pushing Lance underwater. And while he was under, he would try splashing him. I thought it was pretty funny.

Will loves bath time but has always had a hard time washing the shampoo out of his hair. He doesn't like putting his head down in the water and laying down, and he hates when you pour water over top. While I've always known he simply doesn't like it in his eyes, I have recently discovered that he also really dislikes water in his ears. I have learned that the best way to wash his hair out is to have him look up, pour the water on his hair while protecting his ears and eyes. And if water does get in his eyes, he asks for a towel immediately to wipe them.

Along with the water theme, he loves giving his cars baths in the sink. He will fill the bathroom sink up, then put several of his toy cars in and give them a bath. He is constantly telling me that they are dirty and that he needs to wash them. I didn't have a problem with it initially. But then he would fill the sink up so full that there would be water all over the counters and floors. It got bad enough that our bathroom downstairs is starting to have water damage on the ceiling. The only way I can keep him from playing it it is so lock the bathroom door but then he can't get to the bathroom and he has accidents.

He is so independent and loves to do most things. If it's something he can't do completely, he at least wants to help.

Will loves being outside and would stay outside all day if I would allow. Whether it's riding his bike, going on walks, throwing the ball, or helping in the yard, he simply loves being outdoors.

He is very creative and often comes up with things that surprise me. My mom bought him this blow up bounce house thing, but he discovered that if you turned it upside down, it made a cool tent, bed to lay on, and even a slide if you leaned it up against his bed.

He had a little cavity or two that they put him under in order to take care of it.

He was so out of it and couldn't even sit up.

Will also had a really bad ingrown toe nail that we had to get antibiotics for and soak in Epsom salt.

There has been a time or two when Will was sick or we had to leave after Sacrament meeting and Will cried when he couldn't go to nursery.

He loves to take pictures, whether its using my phone or my camera.

Though he likes taking pictures, most of the time he doesn't like getting his picture taken. I have to take tons of pictures just to get one decent one.

When our ward had their primary program, the first song was "I Am a Child of God". Will sang with them.

Will thrives when he is around other kids. I am always amazed at how much he learns just by watching other kids. He is such an observant kid. He is constantly watching people and copying what they are doing.

While we were at the splash pad, some kids were laying down trying to dry off for a little bit. So Will went and laid right by them. I thought it was funny how close he got. And the boy didn't say anything or move an inch.

The older kids are constantly climbing all over the park and Will does his best to keep up with them and to figure out how they get to the places they do.