I vant tu suck yer bloooood:)

I felt like I was 16 again.

These crazy people are the member of the famous HillStimpAnder Book Club, and no we did not read New Moon. But our book club happened to fall on the weekend that New Moon came out. The menfolk donned the "I Killed Edward" shirts (which after watching the movie was fine with us). Meanwhile, us ladies, put on "Why can't he be more like Edward?" (Again, after watching the movie, should've substituted Jacob in that sentence) The greatest part of the evening was sending the men to save a place for us while all three of the women had to feed babies and put them to bed. Thank you HUSBANDS. And yes they all stood proudly with their shirts and became popular conversation topics by all who saw them.

The movie: My only comment...well, it was better than the first one, but since I laughed all through that one, that's not saying much

Random Pics

Jared went to work in costume that included blue hair and Noah demanded that if dad got to have his hair colored then by golley, so did he. Then night time rolled around and we headed over to the Petzingers for some good family fun and Preston and I felt left out. This was a sad 5 minute attempt at a mohawk (something I've secretly wanted forever) and Preston wanted white hair which just made him look kinda like an old man:) Sadly, I do not have pictures of the kids in their costumes and I've still got to get pictures from our party hostess for Jared and I's.

This was hilarious. We all went for a walk the other day. The kids were in PJ's and wearing flipflops in 35 degree weather but it was when Preston asked if he could take along his pumpkin that things got interesting. He couldn't figure out how to carry it, so Jared jimmy-rigged this car to hold the pumpkin and then got a peice of string to tie the car to Preston's bike. EXCEPT you couldn't see the string and it looked like some possessed toy chasing after Preston all around the block. I'm so glad Preston insisted he bring his pumpkin.

I figured its time to show off our cute baby. Although, right now he's in trouble for waking up 4 times last night. Cordell couldn't be cuter and during the day, we love him so much:) The night time is a different story. If you came at night, you might be able to pick up a free kid.

Wo daddy

This is the man I picked to marry.

AND pictures do say a thousand words like:

Wo, daddy

And ...(ok, no words, just laughing) I love this man. By the way the pond he's about to jump into with full snorkel gear and flippers (I missed that pic) AND the innertube is 4 ft deep.
What a great sense of humor he has ...and also thin hips because there is no way that tube was fitting up around mine:) Love ya babe

Cordell Washington Hill

Wow, kid number 3 has been here for 4 months already and I have come to understand why my mother has no pictures of me (her 6th child) as a baby. This was the only current photo I could find and I DIDN'T EVEN TAKE IT. Preston did. He loves to play with my phone taking any and all pics, in fact, the one after this one was of his big toe. But I thought Cordell was cuter, so I picked this one.

Cordell is an angel. As my sister-in-law will tell you, I have been blessed with mild children (until they hit 3) and he is the mildest so far. (Which means he could be the craziest at 3 but that is a long way a way). As shown, he loves to eat his hands, his shirt, other people's arms if they wander too close, etc. He's a hefty little thing. He came in at 8lb 14oz and then jumped to 15 lbs by 8 weeks and now at 20 weeks, we're sporting a 20 pounder and he's not even close to stopping the growth. He may even pass Preston up...he topped the charts at 23 lbs at 6 months. People thought he was a four year old:) Cordell loves people, he's got the shy look down pat, he will smile at anybody (which is very different than Preston...he glared, I mean the meanest scowl you can imagine at everybody, even the grammy's). Cordell reminds me more of Noah in that regard. We love him so much. And can't believe he's only been in the family for this short time. Preston and Noah adore him, and if he can survive the mauling for the next few months, they are all going to be great friends.

What was I thinking?

I'm an idiot or maybe psychotic..a mixture of both, I don't know, but I somehow let my retarded friends (Betsy, Russell and Jelina) convince me that I need to do a triathlon. So here goes nothing. Jared complains that he can't sleep very well the night before he does one, well, I have 3 weeks before mine and I've already started waking up in the middle of the night paralyzed with fear. And they tell me it will be fun, that my adrenaline will kick in and save me from the BUTT KICKING I'm going to recieve. I'm having a hard time believing that at this particular time. BUT I'm doing it and blogging about it so I can't go back on my word. So all 6 people who read my blog can now hold me to my word.

My kids are cuter than your kids:)

So each year thousands, okay millions of parents go through what I know Jared and I go through: What sports do we put our kids in if any? We tried soccor and he ran around at the back of the herd of other kids chasing the ball with his hands in his pockets. (Its really kind of funny, ask your own kids to run around while their hands are in their pockets...you'll see), so then he asked the coach if he could be a goalie (they had 3). We wondered why you'd need three, there weren't that many kids on the team until we saw the ball approach. None of the kids moved, they just stood in their spot hoping that they had picked the mostly likely position that would stop the ball. Well, Preston picked the best spot, he reached up and grabbed the top bar, making it so the ball could now go under his feet. Its very effectively ball blocking as you can tell. So we've moved on.

The last sport has been T-ball. We taught him (the night before) which direction to run and what the names of the bases were and then sent him on his merry way thinking we were delinquent parents for not teaching our son more sporty skills. But we got a good laugh when we realized that just knowing the little bit we'd shoved at him the night before actually made him ahead of most of the team. So here is Preston...with his hands in his pockets, he does that when he gets nervous, but looks very GQ I think.

Jared showed up for the first game, saw our 6 month pregnant friend coaching Preston's team (really, she coached... and I thought being 6 months pregnant, heck even 3 months pregnant got you out of things like...moving your body) and offered to be assistant coach. I had to take this great shot. Here's Preston he's just hit a wammer, runs to first base, where he wraps his arms around his daddy. So cute. But what made me laugh was when the next kid got up to bat, hit his ball, ran to first and he also hugged Jared. Preston started a great trend.

This is what happens when you tell Noah to say cheese and smile. We're working on it:) His little friend Cameron I think also wonders what the heck the crazy face is for as well.

Okay, this one is just pure bragging. My son..on skis...he's only 6. What a great day.

OUCH!

So this is the "post-op" picture of what happened.  I really wish I could have taken a picture of what it looked like when it happened, but grabbing my camera as I ran to the ER was not on the top of my list of things to do.  As many of you already know, Preston, aka Evil Kinevil, crashed while racing around on a four-wheeler yesterday.  I was at work when I got the call and immediately (after finishing with a patient) drove to the ER to meet him there.  When I got there he was totally calm but looked terrible.  His top lip was split all the way up to the bottom of his nose and was splitting apart every time he would breath.  He looked like something off of Alien.  He wasn't crying he just pointed to it and said, "Dad, it hurts right here."  

 

After talking with the ER doctor we opted to wait for our local plastic surgeon to come and stitch him up, especially since the cut was right at the vermillion border.  So we waited and watched cartoons for about 2 hours until he arrived.  When he did, he was excellent.  He was so good with Preston and did such a great job of suturing.  In total he probably placed around 30 stitches most being on the inside and a few on the outside.

So of course the next day (today) was Preston's big graduation day, and he was not about to miss it for anything.  He did great and loved it.  He was a little nervous though and said something that tugged on my heart strings.  He said, "Dad, I hope nobody makes fun of me."  Upon arrival to the classroom he was relieved when not only did they not make fun of him, but they were very worried about him and all wanted to make sure he was OK.  It was a relief for both of us.  

 

After graduation today is when I put the splint on his teeth that you can see in the first picture.  He did so great.  He fell asleep as we were doing it.  Yes, he may lose those teeth in the future but they are all baby teeth, thankfully.  I am so proud of him for being so great about the whole thing.  Let's hope he doesn't follow in his dad's footsteps or this is the first of many trips to the ER!

He's here!!!!

On a cold snowy afternoon in Ketchum Id, Cordell Washington Hill was born.  He weighs 8 lbs, 14 oz and is 21 in. long.  Both mom and baby are doing well.

I would just like to take a minute to say thank you to everyone for all of your care.  We are extremely blessed with a fantastic family and fabulous friends.  I will post more details later.

3 Days and Counting

Noah, when he was a wee little babe and we crazily took him with us when we went to Italy at 10 weeks of age.  The other little baby Jared is looking at, is the Anderson's, they were just as delusional as we were and took their baby too!  :)

And this is Preston when he was about 4-5 months old with his Idaho Grammy.  Those cheeks just kept getting bigger and bigger until WE thought about hiding storage in them. 

No, I will not be posting my hugeness on the world wide web but I did want everyone to know how excited we are to be having our 3rd little terror/boy in 3 days.  Life has stopped/been put on hold and we only do things that prepare us, the boys or the baby for what is to come.  Like tell Noah 377 times not to get in the bouncy chair.  And thanks to my efficient mother and my time giving mother-in-law, my house is now clean (weird) and organized (even weirder), food is in the freezer (I am in love with my upright freezer even if the only thing in it are the freezer meals),  the baby will have clothes to wear, well, at least for the first week until I have to do laundry and when I forget to do laundry, he will have 100 blankets to cover his naked body.  I just put together the bouncy chair, successfully only breaking one piece of it and that little adventure has made me decide to wait until Jared gets home to put together the final item...the swing.  

I can't believe it is all happening so fast.  April was SO far away and now its almost over.  I'm not completely delusional to the fact that I'll be tired, tired, tired BUT we're excited.  

Happy Valentines Day!

Maren and I have been together now for over 7 years.  Ever since I met Maren I knew she was special, and each day as I get to know her better...I realize that I need her more and more in my life.  I can't begin to tell you what she means to this family.  So I thought and thought about what I could get her for Valentines Day that would show my appreciation and love for her.  Since chocolate is not high on her languages of love I decided to give her some words of affirmation (something I am not very good at).  This is a quick 4 minute review of the last 7 unforgettable years.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TULbKm8kVdg

Sweet children

So even though saying "I'm pregnant" should cover all range of ridiculous things I do and say and think and well, everything....I still feel silly even sharing this latest.  But my sons were so unbelievably cute, here it goes.  

It all started sometime in the morning, as I thought about each individual room in my house and could only think of 2 that qualified as clean.  Then I looked in the office (not one of the clean rooms I might add) and saw the monumental pile of work that I have let accumulate.  To the point that it will now take me around 8 hours of staring at the computer to get caught up:) Remind me to thank Jared later for making me his bookkeeper.  Then Noah showed up with a dirty diaper that you'd have to smell in order to appreciate why I looked like death had just landed on my doorstep.  The kind that scream from a distance "Yep, I'm gonna need a bath after this."  

So this is all in the morning and I'm thinking to myself, what have I let happen to my little life I'm responsible for?  The day goes on, Noah goes to bed for one of his blissful 3 hour naps  (I know, I am extremely lucky and should shout praises everyday) and then the wam bam of all hideousness occurred:  I stepped on the scale.  I've been avoiding it for some time now, I mean, what kind of self-respecting 7 month pregnant woman torments herself by getting on the scale everyday?  Well, apparently I do...because that's exactly what I did and I felt myself slipping into one of those emotions that only occurs when you are pregnant and completely insane.  So I did the only natural thing that the time required, I broke down into tears:)  (Please this is not a pity post you don't need to say anything about my weight)  At this point, Noah woke up and I couldn't stop crying so I went in and got him with the ugly crying face and all.  

And this is where, the blog should really begin. After Noah's naps (like all of them, every day) he is very mad, completely irrational and needs to be held for about 15-20 minutes.  Today he stopped his normally selfish behavior and looked at his psychotic mother.  And for the next half hour ran his little fingers down my face saying, "Don't cry mommy, I'm sorry, feel better, I'm sorry, don't cry...."over and over.  Kissing my face, making sure that he was always touching me on the arm, shoulder, giving me a hug.   It was the most tender display of love that it made me cry even more which brought Preston out of his TV coma and upstairs to where we were. Preston saw what was going on and immediately disappeared, which I could only assume meant that he was trying to find medication for his pregnant, crazy mom.  But about 2 minutes later he brought me a picture of himself and me holding hands and said, "I made this help you feel better."  I have amazing children.  And they have a completely mental mother.  I feel so blessed to have these little people in my life.  Sometimes motherhood is not rewarding (like gaining weight when your pregnant, really... after all that we go through would it be too much to ask to lose weight when we're pregnant as some kind of heavenly reward) but sometimes motherhood can be the most rewarding job on earth.  I love my kids.