Saturday, December 18, 2010

Stocking stuffer idea

I just made Hadley these super cute lace-up dolls. I used contact paper from the dollar store instead of laminating, so in total, they cost me $1...and a few cents for cardstock and ink....pretty cheap and cute Christmas present!

 



I love finding stuff like this while looking through blogs. I've been spending a lot more time sitting on the couch lately (nursing and holding little Sam), so I've found some great blogs and sites with some fun stuff.

Christmas card and letter


Merry Christmas Family and Friends,

This year brought a few changes, (of course). We moved from a bigger house on the West side of Lethbridge with a small yard, to a tiny house in Raymond with a huge yard. Being in our 13th house since we got married 6 years ago, the move itself hardly constitutes a change. The big adjustment has been living in such tight quarters, but it will help us move more quickly towards owning or building our own home, and finally staying put.

John started as an apprentice to become an Appliance Repair Technician. It is a three year trade; 10 months of work, and 2 months of school each year. Schooling is only offered in Calgary at SAIT so John decided to challenge the first year exam, and with his physics background, thankfully passed. He'll challenge the second year too. He work's for Ron's Appliance in Lethbridge. He loves his job and says he's never had a better boss. He will be classified as a 2nd year apprentice next month. So things are looking up in the employment department.

Megan keeps busy with the kids and keeping the family organized. Busy, or crazy or whatever best describes the typical mother's day to day activities, she wouldn't change it for anything. She enjoyed a Cruise to Mexico in February with her Mom and 2 sisters as a reward for training for/running a 5K on Catalina Island. Winning for your age group while pregnant deserves a little vacation. She enjoys reading books on parenting and child development, digital scrapbooking, and is attempting to get into family history. 

Hadley is 5 and started Kindergarten this fall. She loves it and is doing well. She has always loved to sing and dance, so we put her in a musical theatre class this year. Her Christmas performance was great and she definitely enjoys being on stage. Even with the most tongue-twisting solo in “Mr Grinch”, she didn't miss a beat. Hadley is a very helpful older sister and enjoys keeping her 3 younger brothers in line.

Brian is 3. He loves Diego and Ironman (as he called him, “fireman”) and spends most of his time pretending he is one of them. He loves hockey and was very excited about earning skates for getting potty-trained. He is kind and always shares. You can't ever give him just one treat, he always needs three so that Elijah and Hadley can have one too. He gets this from Dad.

Elijah is 3 and LOVES cars! Don't underestimate the Capital Letters and exclamation mark! Apart from knowing all his Hotwheels cars, he's good at identifying new ones from commercials, he can sometimes tell before we can. He knows what cars people drive and what cars are missing from driveways when we go for walks. Should it be embarrassing to be corrected by someone who can't even say, “Cadillac?” (Cady-Yak).

Sam was born at the beginning of November and is a super cute little boy. The kids all love him and think he's the best. It's amazing that just by being here he can bring us so much joy. Hard to have imagined how entertaining just sitting and watching a little baby could be, but apparently we're hooked.

We've had a great year and hope that you have too!

Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

Love,
The Hillyers
John, Megan, Hadley, Brian, Elijah, and Sam

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Little Performer

Hadley is in a Musical Theatre class. She loves it. Here is her class number in the Christmas show. Her line is at the beginning (after the first girl). The song doesn't start until about 1:50, so you can skip to that if you want. It's kind of long.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

November in pictures

November seemed to fly by!

The kids like to give Sam toys to make him happy....


Elijah thinks Sam is "a cute baby" and always wants to be right close to him - which may be why Sam now has the cold that everyone else had.....

Brian and Elijah turned 3 on the 12th! Here they are opening presents before John left for work...

Brian dresses up like Diego almost daily, and when he is in his Diego duds, he must be referred to as "Diego"

John decorated their cake. Brian wanted a spiderman cake, and Elijah wanted a yellow corvette.

Elijah likes to share his cars with Sam

The hair!


Our Anniversary was on the 27th. John made us an appetizer feast. My parents were gone to Mike's football game so we raided their house

The kids joined us too.....so romantic

Hadley took our pic.....yikes.