So I don't forget:)

This post is for me. Its huge and if you don't read it, you'll have 15 minutes of extra time today. I write it because every time I tell my mother a story of one of my kids, she will undoubtedly ask me if I've written it down. And I never do. So here I sit, only 31 with a 7 yr old as my oldest and I'm having trouble remembering which stories go with which kids already. Clearly from the below list, you can tell my memory is shot and since Cordell is the one who's being extra "funny" right now, he's got the longest list.

So here it goes:

Preston:

He was 4, hated washing his hands after he went to the bathroom (took too much time) and hated even more having to go back in the bathroom once I figured out he hadn't. This time, he thought himself to be a genius so when I asked directly after he came out one time, "Preston, did you wash your hands?" he lied and said he did. I calmly told him to let me feel his hands since I knew they'd still be wet if he had. Apparently so did he. Cause turned his head from me licked his hands and held them out to me...

From the age of 9 months to 3 yrs, glared at anyone he didn't know. And if he really liked you then you got a head butt:)

I had a zit on my chin and Preston asked what it was. I, being in a foul mood already, replied in my meanest "end of conversation voice" .."its a zit." He not picking up on my unmotherly tone asked "what's a zit?" I, trying to calm down from my bad mood, replied that it was ouch that you sometimes got on your face. He wouldn't drop it and kept asking "why is it so big? what makes it red? you should put a bandaid on it!" At this point Noah became curious and started staring at me as well. He chimed in with "it looks like a mosquito bite" at which Preston under his breath said "That must have been one big mosquito!" (I laugh now, in fact I'm laughing as I write this but at the time I said something like "That was so rude Preston, you don't talk to your mother that way, blah blah blah...." Then Noah, my little brown noser, said "Mom I think it was a little mosquito!" I told them both to drop it.

Likes to wear all orange. I told him he looks like a giant pumpkin in orange sweats and an orange shirt. He tells me he doesn't care and walks out the door. He's not my most fashion conscious kid.

Just cut his own bangs and asked if they looked cool. They did in fact NOT look cool.

He is extremely smart. The kind of smart where Jared and I will look at each other and mouth "how did he know that?" He is a mom pleaser. None of the other kids are sadly. And we love him so much.

Noah:

Once asked a man why he was fat...awkward

Told everyone I was pregnant with twins...again awkward

I asked him once if he'd ever kissed a girl. His face got all demure and shy-like while he nodded yes. I got my big surprised-eyes on and asked him who and he said in the cutest little voice "I kissed Maddi....(long pause while looking mischievous).....on da wips (he can't say his "TH's" or his "L's"). Maddi is his 15 yr old cousin. We are in so much trouble when he's a teenager.

I like to sing, I've been told I have an adequate singing voice. In fact if I had to pick my favorite talent it would be singing!! But EVERY TIME and I kid you not, that I sang to Noah when he was little, about age 1 to 2, if I started singing he'd look at me, get this annoyed little face and then stick his fingers in his ears. By the way, he never once did it when Jared put him to sleep and sang to him. Again now laughing after the fact.

He's our sensitive one, who picks up on mood shifts and gives luvs easily and readily. And before I forget, our only child who spends inordinate amounts of time to make his hair into a faux hawk and look cool.

Cordell: Where to start and remember he's not even two yet. :):)

He's put a cube of softened butter 3 separate times into the toaster.

Took a Costco sized Garlic powder container and dumped it...where?...into the toaster

He's eaten poo 5 different times

He loves to be naked, I'll leave it at that, oh and that he's not potty trained.

He climbed our shelving unit in our garage that has 3 shelves each spaced 2 feet high (not even sure how he could manage that height with his 8 inch legs but clearly its possible) to get to the top where Jared keeps all his fishing gear (that he never uses) and got a fish hook stuck in him.

If you leave any door unlocked he's GONE. And for the majority of his life its been winter here, so that makes me look really bad.....naked, 1 yr old running down the snow covered street.

We keep all three bathroom doors, the office door, all 3 house exit doors, and the pantry door locked at all times. Reasons why we lock them....1: so I don't look bad 2: he really likes the toilet, hand soap, my makeup, eating deodorant, putting whole rolls of toilet paper in the toilet, turning on the tub and playing in it (which looked very dangerous but he seemed to be having a blast),and did I mention he likes the toilet and reason # 3: whole bags of flour and oddly cornstarch (which clings if you didn't know) are really difficult to clean up, like twice in one day)

He's poured both the caramel and chocolate topping bottles all over himself and the floor.

We find frozen hamburger pkgs on the garage floor all the time and some thawed, since I can't monitor the outdoor freezer at all times.

He's carried dead mice and live ones into the laundry room from the garage. Yes, he's that fast, to catch a live mouse. (By the way, the lock on the garage door no longer stops him if you didn't guess)

He escapes from any crib and has to have a tent over his to keep him well, "caged." Prior to the tent and when trying to teach him to stay in his crib at 13 months old, I once put him back in it for an hour and a half over 80 times, I lost count after that, called Jared and told him to order the tent cover.

He must have a "baba" with him at all times. Its his bottle and my one source of bribery.

Cannot seem to grasp the concept of a cup. And he's somewhat of a scavenger, so if you leave a cup out, it will inevitably be taken by him, drunk a little, and most poured down his shirt and on the floor. Moral of story, we don't leave our cups out.

I'll stop here, although each day I have at least 3 stories. But in spite of all that, we are suckered into loving him... he's very cute, like adorable, he has a huge smile, loves his daddy more than any toy or toaster, and loves when I sing to him.

By the way, did I mention I'm pregnant:):) We're insane.

These are the moments that make up our life right now and oddly, when I write them they seem much funnier and wow, I love my kids!

To the stalwart people that keep checking this blog

You can clearly tell when I'm backed up on laundry, house cleaning, and paying office bills...cause thats when I blog:)

This is a little over due BUT Jared and I are expecting our 4th little bundle of craziness!!! Everything is going great! So great that I started feeling like this was totally different pregnancy than any of the others (hint, hint). Thats right people...we're having a girl!!:):) I can't believe it, in fact I'm so amazed I haven't even bought any girl clothes yet. But we made the technician look an additional 10 times just to be sure and she's a keeper. Right now, I'm sitting at 24 weeks and due on May 11. We are thrilled, excited, and praying she's a sedate child (yeah, I'm not holding my breath on that one)

closer, Closer, CLOSER

This is what happens when you point a camera in Cordell's direction:) Its very difficult to take family pictures.

Its been 6 months:)

The only reason I can think of that I'm blogging right now...because the house is dirty and my list of priorities suddenly has blogging right at the top. So we went to Lake Powell with our friends the Petzingers. We did bring a camera and nope we never used it. This is my Iphone and one of 4 pictures we took the whole week. But it was gorgeous, fun, and exhausting. We will definitely do it again. We will never take Cordell again...but we may review that rule when he turns 18. Preston and Noah had an absolute blast. Preston claimed that it changed his life! He wishes now to own and live on a house boat year round but then he rethought that and said he'd need a car to go get groceries. This is Antelope Canyon, just gorgeous.

Local (well as local as Twin falls is) carnival. With rides, 4H pets, and lots of learning to be had about agriculture. Hence the reason that Preston is happily an eggplant and Noah just the cutest farmer you've ever seen. We'll call it Local Appreciation Day in honor of our friends the Andersons.

Why do we need a dog?

My sister came to visit a while back and brought their adorable dog. And since we have half a ton of mouse poison hidden in our garage we thought it best to keep the dog crated while he slept out there at night. Well, the dog left and family went home but the cage never made it into their car, so my kids made excellent use out of it:)

I went out to what I wish I could call my daily run on the treadmill and when I was about half way done...I turned around to see this.

(This is bound to turn up on the internet somewhere with titles of what horrible parents do to their children)

Hello handsome

Just an update on this bundle of cuteness:) Noah is amazing. He asks every time if something has what he calls "gluten six" in it (not sure how the six got attached). He's already gaining weight. The color has come back into those cute cheeks and hold on to your seats...HE'S POTTY TRAINED. I'm feeling giddy just saying it:) This could have been a nightmare, I envisioned lots of crying over the favorite foods but he doesn't even ask for them. I feel so blessed, he is just such a little trooper. Anyway, thats it. We are doing awesome.

Noah's new disease

For those of you who have never had the pleasure of babysitting Noah, you may not know that he has power poop. The kind that drives away people, animals and small bugs that may be in a 50 foot area. My brother claimed that it stunk up their like (put in huge number here) sq foot home...you get the idea. So immediately potty training was commenced but after a year, I'm still changing diapers. Not only that, but they became diarrhea about every 10 time and he poops about 4-6 times a day. Now you might be wondering why I choose to enlighten all with this particularly gross info. Well, also over the last year he's lost weight and there wasn't much to lose, grown only 1 inch in 2 years, has stomach pains on a regular basis, and tells me he is hungry about every 15 minutes.

We finally saw a specialist and after some sticking and prodding and oh yeah, tubes going down his throat, he was diagnosed with celiacs. What is celiacs? Well, if it happened to me, it would be life over as I know it. But since I have this love affair with food that might be tad more that the average person, its probably not quite that dramatic. Noah is allergic to gluten aka the protein found in wheat, barley, rye and most oats. It means that his body sees gluten and sends out the troops to destroy it. But in doing so, it destroyed his stomach and intestinal wall so that food, not just gluten, couldn't be absorbed hence the tiny boy I love to see every day.

So he's been started on a gluten free diet. Which means no more grandma sycamore bread, gold fish, birthday cake, donuts, crackers, kikkoman soy sauce and cream of anything soup (those seem important for some reason) and about 60 percent of the food out there. I will no longer be shopping with my children since I have to read every label to see if it contains gluten,modified food starch, natural flavors, and any number of things that can be places for gluten to hide. And believe it or not, I liked shopping with my kids, because my husband is always there and it feels like a family outing. I know, I'm crazy. I'm a tad sad that I'll be shopping alone, most of the time. So there you have it. The Lord knew that I was unorganized and somewhat not caring about it and so blessed me with a child that will force me to be the most prepared (every time we leave the house, outing, vacation, etc must be thought through and planned for), the most organized women I can possibly be.

By the way, when I told Noah that he was not going to have diarrhea anymore he said, "Oh thank you mommy!" Adorable!

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.

Its been a while

So much has happened...I am completely overwhelmed and unless there is going to be 28 hours in a day ...this blog is just never going to get caught up.  So I will start with what has happened today and move one! 

    Today I had the great pleasure of drinking 2 quarts of water and then told not to pee for 4 hours.  Those of you that have experienced this know what a joy it is.  So clearly I was not doing this for fun.  About 16 weeks ago, I found out I was pregnant and today was my 20 week apt. to check out our newest addition.  I clearly should have blogged sooner but again with the lack of time..just didn't happen so...I AM PREGNANT AND ITS A BOY!!!!  I feel incredibly outnumbered.

Noah's snake

Noah has gotten to the wonderful habit of using just one word to where most of us would use an entire sentence.  Like "Pete" and "Repeat," Jared and I copy his one word and translate it into the appropriate sentence.  Its a gift really...others look at us and wonder how we are so adept at this highly skilled translation process but I digress, there is a story with this.....

About a month ago my mom visited us and when the kids wrestled through her suitcase, they were delighted that she had come baring gifts.  10 frogs for Noah and 10 snakes for Preston.  So for the last 4 weeks I have been stepping on them, finding them in the toilet, in their beds, in MY bed and so on.  

Well, about a week ago Noah was toting around one of Preston's snakes.  We'd just gotten out of the car, when Noah calmly said "Snake."  This is where my highly trained skills in translation plummeted.  I thought he meant he had dropped his snake, so like any good mother I bent down to pick it up.  To say I was surprised, would be lying,  I full-on screamed like a third grader when it struck out and tried to bite me.   In case you are confused, Noah was still holding his little rubber snake and I was trying to hold the real one.  So here is our newest addition of wildlife we find in our yard.  Mountian lions, wolves, foxes, deer, raccoons, and now snakes.  Welcome to Sun Valley

If you're worried that I'm a tad too close, our camera zoomed to 12x for this baby.
Isn't he cute as he tries to climb up our garage?