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!

 

These are the winter dolls

And the summer dolls

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 13^th 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 2^nd 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

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.

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.

Samuel David Hillyer

Don't mind my lack of grammatical correctness and coherence....I'm a little tired and don't feel like editing.

I was due to have a baby on Oct. 29th (at least that was the last due date I was given). I was early with Hadley and the boys obviously, so I just expected that it would happen. It didn't Nothing happened....at all, until Saturday, the 6th.

I started having minor contractions in the late afternoon. They didn't hurt much and were around 15min apart. John went to play hockey that night and we decided to come watch because we wanted the kids to see John play sometime this season and figured this would be the easiest without having a little baby too. By the time the first hour of hockey was over, I had had a couple contractions that were 3 minutes apart, so John left hockey early and we went home. The contractions slowed to about 15-20 min apart and were nothing major. We watched a lame movie and then went to bed. At about 3:30am I had a couple contractions that woke me up, but were still 15 min apart. Then at 5am, I had 2 that hurt more and were 3 min. apart.

We didn't want to wait too long to go to the hospital because I had decided that I wanted to try an epidural. I had wanted one with Hadley and the twins, but was too late both times. Well, actually, I wanted to try without for both labours, but once I was in labour, i wanted one. With Hadley, I had morphine because I was panicky and in pain obviously. With the twins, I had laughing gas while I was pushing. So, with both deliveries, I was very out of it when they were born. I didn't like feeling like that and wanted to remember Sam's birth better and feel like I was actually present. That is why I decided that I wanted to have an epidural. I didn't want to get desperate and try morphine or laughing gas again.

So, we called my mom at 5am and asked her to come over so that we could go to the hospital. By the time we got there the contractions slowed to 10 min apart and I was only 1-2cm dilated. So we went and had breakfast and then walked around Walmart for an hour to see if things would speed up. They didn't, so we decided to go home so I could get in the shower. We have hot-water on demand, so once we were home, I laid in the shower for about an hour. The contractions were getting harder, but were still irregular and far apart. This is how labour was with the twins, but once my water broke, I had them an hour and 20minutes later. We went to my mom's once they were done church and had lunch and I walked around their house trying to get things moving. The contractions hurt a lot more. Enough that I couldn't talk during them, so we decided to get checked at the Raymond Hospital before going to Lethbridge again. I was checked and I was still 1-2cm dilated. Argh! Yvonne Baines was the nurse there and after seeing me go through a contraction (mind you, it was while lying on my back) told me that I needed to relax my whole body to let the cervix open up. We went home and I got in the shower again. This was at about 3:30...I think. The contractions got a lot harder and were soon around 5-6 minutes apart. John said that we should go to the hospital. I didn't want to get out of the shower because I was scared that the contractions would slow again, but they hurt a lot, so I agreed that we should go. It was 6pm when we left. They continued to be from 4-6 min apart. When we got to the hospital I was 6 cm dilated. Yeah! I told them I wanted an epidural. The contractions were coming quickly now. I was doing really well through them. I would just breath slowly and calmly and relax my whole body and let the cervix do its thing. I went to the delivery room and laid on the bed to get monitored for a bit. I laid on my side because on my back was way too uncomfortable. Contractions continued to progress. I feared that the epidural wasn't going to happen because things were just going too fast. I stayed relaxed though and continued to be calm through the contractions. I knew that if I lost my focus during the contractions, that it would be awful....so I didn't. Dr. Gibb was on his way and I was at 9cm. I felt that I would soon need to push. Dr. Gibb got there and I was very close to 10cm. He said I could push if I wanted to. It was so weird feeling coherent and present at this time. It almost annoyed me. Between contractions, I felt almost weird laying there with everyone watching me, waiting for another contraction to come. Dr. Gibb broke my water with the next contraction and then I started pushing. Pushing was stupid. I kept saying "this is dumb", "I can do this", "I'm mad". I wanted to be in a different position. I was on my back John and the nurse would pull my legs in to my chest while pushing. I asked if I could go in a different position and they said no. I wasn't really sure what position I would have tried, but I just wanted off of the bed! I stayed and just kept pushing. I wanted that baby out as soon as possible! John kept giving me motivation, saying things like "I can see him", and telling me when to push and keep pushing. It helped a lot to keep up my motivation. Finally by 8:19pm, he was born! Yeah! I pushed for 25 minutes. He was born posterior and had a huge conehead. It was nice being aware of things at this point. I loved watching them assess him and then being able to nurse and hold him.

I broke like all the blood vessels in my face and chest. It looks awesome. I tore some, so while I got stitched up, they cleaned up Sam and weighed him, etc. He weighed 7lbs 15oz. and is 20.5 inches long. I was bleeding lots, so I had to get medication in my iv and then some other meds. The same thing happened with the twins. I nursed Sam soon hoping that that would help stop some bleeding. He took to it quickly and has a very strong latch.

The bleeding slowed and I went to the maternity ward. My Dad and Mom visited for a bit. I was very tired and a little faint-ish. I tried to sleep, but it didn't happen much. John stayed overnight, which was very nice. I had a hard time moving, so he helped me a lot. The kids and my mom came in the morning to visit. They were so excited. After they left, I showered and slept a bit. John and I were so bored! So we asked the nurse if we could try to go home. She called Dr. Gibb and he said ok. John's parents came just before we left. The kids were so happy when we got home. John put them to bed and then I fed Sam and went to sleep. John took Sam when I was done and got him to sleep. It felt so nice to sleep in a comfortable bed without the sound of two LOUD ticking clocks!

Welcome to our family Sam!

Here's some pics:

Cool Cars

Elijah loves cars. We've been giving the boys hot wheel cars when they fill up a potty chart page. Elijah loved getting cars, but there were a lot of tears when he couldn't get one right away. Brian is pretty much trained now though, and Elijah is very close. Anyway, we got them "real" hot wheels cars. Some are models of real cars and we love teaching the boys the names of cars because we think it's fun hearing them identify them as Ferrari's or Corvette's and the like. John was quizzing Elijah today and I took a video. We video-ed Hadley and Brian too, and I was surprised at how much better Elijah knew the names. I don't get it. What is it about boys and cars?? Here's the video of Elijah:



In other news.....I'm overdue. I hope this guy comes soon.

Oh, and Halloween was fun. I put pictures on facebook. Hadley was a "ladybug fairy or ladybug fairy godmother", Brian was Diego (I found a Diego vest at the Salvation Army for 50 cents and he fell in love), and Elijah was a skeleton.

I think that's all for now....hopefully we'll have a new addition in the next day or so!

Starting again

I'm back! Not much of an excuse for my absence....just no internet for 2 months and then moving. We live in Raymond now. We are renting a little house in hopes to save some money so we can eventually buy or build a house. It's in a great location and it is working for us so far. The house is for sale though, so moving is inevitable at some point.

Anyway. After reading this post on a blog I read somewhat regularly, I decided that I can start scrapbooking again. The term scrapbooking is used very loosely. I started scrapbooking after Hadley was born, but only did like 5 pages. It was very time consuming and costly. After the boys were born, I decided to switch to digital scrapbooking and was going to do a page/month for each child. I found some 8.5 x 11 landscape oriented scrapbooks, so that I could use our laser printer to print off the pages. I did about 2 months for each kid....and then quit.

Well, I started up again, and am doing it much like Sarah from Cloverlane. I've done 9 pages this week. I'm getting faster though. I don't have to try every single font now before I make a decision....awesome.

Here are a few that I've done. I'm starting with Hadley, so she's the only one that has any done so far. I will print them off on our printer (once our black toner comes in the mail)

corn braids

I started corn braiding Hadley's hair last night. I'm not a great hair-stylist, but it turned out better than I was expecting. I only french-braided about 5 braids on the top of her head. The first one was pretty bad, but considering I have only french-braided hair like 5 times (and I just found out yesterday while looking at how to do corn braids, that my self-taught method of french-braiding was wrong!).....so I was happy with the outcome. Hadley did great sitting still for me......despite being sick (she came down with a fever last night. Weird.).......Anyway, here are some more pics.

Scentsy

As some of you may know, I used to run this little website Cute Like Me, with my friend Hailey. Last year, I quit, cause I wasn't loving it so much anymore. Hailey has continued doing a fabulous job keeping up with it all, including running a giveaways and reviews blog Cute Like Me Giveaways and Reviews.

Anyway, she is doing a fabulous giveaway right now for a Scentsy warmer and fragrance bars. I would love to win. I've been wanting to try out Scentsy for a while. Check it out here

fun morning

Today was the ultrasound, so John came home about 15 min. before the appointment to go there. Just as we were getting ready to leave, Brian fell off a chair in the kitchen and hit his ear on another chair on the way down. It was bleeding like crazy and John thought it may need stitches. Awesome. John cleaned him up and I put a steri strip on his ear hoping that it would keep the wound together enough to not need stitches. When we got to the radiology clinic, I asked if they had a nurse there who could look at Brian's ear to see if it needed stitches. They said, no, but that the radiologist could look at it and to just ask the ultrasound technician when I went in. I went in for the ultrasound (about ready to pee my pants because of the full bladder), only to discover that I was only 16.5 weeks along. Weird. I guess I missed a period or something, which is not too surprising. So, I'm due Oct. 31 now. It was too early to check everything that he needed to check, so he brought John and the kids in so that they could see the baby and I will need to get another ultrasound on June 11. I asked if the radiologist could look at Brian's ear, so he went to get him. The radiologist said that since we taped it up well enough, we could just clean it up and tape it again and keep the tape on until it falls off.

So, I was kind of bummed that I'm only 16 weeks along, but whatev. It's really only 10 days later than I had thought, but my Dr. had said I was 19 weeks along. Oh well. I'm just glad the baby looks healthy and that Brian didn't need stitches. Crazy morning.

writing-on-stone campout

On Friday John called from work and suggested going camping at Writing-on-Stone, so I packed stuff up and we were off about an hour later. We got there around 8pm and I quickly set up the tent while John made a fire (with some super wet wood). The kids loved it. They slept pretty well......John and I-not so much. We were crammed in our 2 man tent. Luckily we brought our memory foam mattress, but I guess I'm a wuss now or something. In the morning we walked around the campsite and snacked on food waiting for Brian to wake up. He slept until 9:30! Weird. The rest of the day we played around on the hoodoos and at the park. On the way out we went to the new visitor centre and looked at indian artifacts and such. Pretty cool!

On the way home, we stopped by the dinosaur in Milk River. The visitor centre was closed, but the dinosaur was enough excitement for us. Brian and Elijah were pretty scared at first, but by the end they were friends with Mr. T. Rex.

Digging for worms

I hate worms. And bugs. I'm trying not to pass that fear onto my children. Worms actually don't bother me too much, but I don't think you'd ever catch me holding one. I discovered the kids digging for worms a couple weeks ago after the snow/rain. They had fun and it kept them busy for a long time. So fun!

Yes

I've been trying to wait until I was 12 weeks along before I share the news with everyone.......I'm basically there, so..........I'm PREGNANT!

It's taken me a while to feel ready to have another baby, but we are super excited for our family to grow some more. I'm due Oct. 21.

I feel like I'm ginormous, and I have to eat at least every 2 hours in order to not feel nauseous, but other than that, all is good. I think I'm nearing the end of the nausea stage though. It's definitely not as bad as it was with the 2 previous pregnancies.

Anyway.......there, now you all know.

Today

 What's on my mind today

1. I'm making donuts. Just waiting for them to rise........I hope they're good! I'm using this recipe from The Pioneer Woman

2. John's boss bought him 22 pounds of chocolates. He knows someone who owns a bulk food store or something and got it for $15 because they were overstocked. I'm just glad the kids haven't found them.

3. Brian cut his hair today....again. I guess he can open the craft closet now......and the door to outside......yikes

4. I've been wanting to do a post about the fabulous vacation that I went on with my sisters and mom, but I've been kind of lazy lately......so, I'm going to steal from my sister. Go visit her blog if you're interested. She's blogged 3 days of our 10 day trip so far. Catalina Gold, and LA

5. John is in the Raymond Play "Cinderella". He volunteered to fill in because 5 guys quit. He is having fun with it, and I'm glad he is in it, but I will be happy when it is over so that he can be home for more than 1 waking hour each day!........ Hadley thinks it's funny that he has to wear makeup. Me too.

6. I'm sick of feeling nauseous.........

Knock-off Wood

I found this blog Knock-off Wood a couple months ago, and one day will make some stuff from it.....once we have a garage or a space to make it. She designs plans for furniture and gets her inspiration from Pottery Barn and other name brand stuff. And she shares her plans for FREE! So nice. Anyway....

She is doing a giveaway for a $50 gift certificate to Home Depot or Lowe's. If you write in your comment to enter that I referred you (including my email address: johannesmegan@gmail.com), we could both win if you get picked.....so come on.....show me some love.

Enter here

I think this is what I would make first.....maybe.....

or this

or this

 

with this

 

and I might as well make this too

 

or maybe just this

Oh to dream.....

30 meal plan

I'm a little obsessed about this today. I haven't really done much else other than feed kids and work on the computer.....needless to say, the house is a bit of a disaster and my kids are still in their jammies. Oh well.

Anyway. I saw this idea on nannygoat and am really excited about doing it for our family. I don't mind cooking, but hate thinking of something to make. I usually make a weekly menu and grocery list, but I think this will help me a lot to streamline it a bit. I really like the idea of having a master list of all the recipes with all the ingredients I need for all of them. That way, when I go shopping, if something is on sale, I can plan my meals accordingly.

So, this morning I started writing out all the meals that we normally have. We eat pretty basic meals, so they aren't really "recipes", but whatev. I came up with 16 and then added 2 that my sister sent me. I'll add to it as I think of more or get recipes from people that I think will work for us.

On nannygoat, they used these free downloadable recipe cards, but I wasn't in love with them and I couldn't really get them to work right, so I decided to make my own. First I found these free scrapbooking packets. I used the happy go lucky packet. Then with Picasa, I made them.

Here are the two that I've made so far. The recipes are definitely not fancy.....I don't really even need recipes for these meals, but they just looked so cute, I couldn't help myself.....they are cute.....right??......

 

Can you find the typo?

And here's a blank one in case you feel like using it.

 

I just printed them out as 4x6 on cardstock. Then I printed the red paper from the same scrapbook packet on the back just cause I wanted to....and it looks cute.....

Now I just need to find some more recipes...anyone have some gooders? I don't need anything fancy....as you might have noticed.....

The gift of an ordinary day

I saw this posted on Cloverlane, and thought I would share.



After it was over, Hadley asked me what it was about.

Me: It was about how kids grow up. They grow up and move away and then get married.
Hadley: It was a girl and boy?
Me: No, it was about two boys, they'll find other girls to marry.
Hadley: Oh. Ok.
Me (seeing that Hadley wasn't quite understanding): You're 4 years old now, right?
Hadley: Yup
Me: When you are 18 years old, you will move away and not live with Mom and Dad anymore.
Hadley (getting super sad and crying): But I don't want to live without you. I will be sad!
Me (feeling very bad that I brought this tender subject up): It's ok, you can live with us then still....it's up to you. It's not going to be for a really long time.
Hadley: I know. I just want to live with you.
Me: Ok. You can live with us for as long as you want.

Sad.

stuff megan likes

In my bookmarks, I have a folder named "stuff megan likes". I was browsing through there today and thought I'd share some of the things I like. These are mostly things I want to make and I keep the folder so I can find them....I still haven't made anything off the list though....

from Blog n Tell 

 

from Mod Podge Rocks  

 

 love the cork board wainscoting inserts - featured on Tutus and Turtles

 

diy shimmer candles from Remodeling this life  

 

from all things thrifty  

 

from MADE 

Now I just need to get started on some of these projects.......soon......